More than a half million Arkansas kids are back at school for the fall, and districts across the state face different challenges.

For some in rural Arkansas, it means ballooning class sizes and a hunt for more teachers and classroom space.

Jon Laffoon, superintendent of the Farmington School District, said some districts are losing students, but in rural Northwest Arkansas, they have seen an uptick of well over 130 students this year as more families choose to move into his district. Farmington's five public schools now serve more than 2,500 children.

"Our biggest challenge is going up 300 or 400 kids in my three years here," Laffoon explained. "Our biggest challenge is making sure that we have adequate classroom space, and making sure that we are able to plan for the future and plan for that growth."

Laffoon added school districts across the state are seeing the effects of the teacher shortage. They are having difficulty recruiting teachers in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math, which means more students are missing out on those opportunities.

The LEARNS Act passed by the Arkansas Legislature went into effect this month. It includes a variety of provisions, from increased security measures to improving teacher pay, and introducing controversial school vouchers.

Laffoon noted some Arkansans believe it was rushed through, leaving students and educators to face the consequences. But he thinks the bill's focus on literacy and making pre-Kindergarten a priority is a plus.

"I've talked to the commissioner and told them this, they still need to find a way to fund pre-K for our districts, because that's the barrier that's keeping more districts from having pre-K early education," Laffoon emphasized. "When you have pre-K, data shows that you're going to increase school readiness, language and literacy. And so, if we want to really improve literacy, to me, that's the hump we've got to get over, is access to pre-K."

Dennis Copeland, assistant director of the Arkansas Rural Education Association, said his group supports and advocates for public education, with 213 school districts and 15 of the educational service co-ops as members. The group provides $24,000 in scholarships each year to member school districts, including some funding for teacher education.

"We have two vocational scholarships that are $1,000 each for two years, and then, we have two paraprofessional scholarships, $1,000 each for two years," Copeland outlined. "We try to encourage those folks that are there at school that are paraprofessionals to go back and finish up, hopefully get hired there by that school district that they're working for currently."

He added smaller, rural districts are working to "grow their own" teaching staffs, and recruiting more college students to pursue education majors. He noted the minimum starting salary for a teacher in Arkansas is $50,000.


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An elementary school educator from Pennsylvania has been named this year's Education Support Professional of the Year, one of the highest honors in the field.

Becky Marszalek, a paraprofessional at Avonworth Elementary School in Pittsburgh, received the Pennsylvania State Education Association's Dolores McCracken Education Support Award. For 18 years, Marszalek said she has dedicated herself to assisting teachers and students in the classroom, providing the support needed for everyone to succeed.

"I've worked with kids that have been in a wheelchair. I have kids that have had autism," Marszalek pointed out. "It's a matter of if they need help with their work, whether they need help maneuvering through the school sometimes, sometimes just a comfort person to go to and be, like, 'I need a break. I'm having a tough time.'"

Marszalek recently attended the association's annual meeting in Philadelphia, where she addressed more than 500 members and was presented with the state award. The achievement now qualifies her to compete at the national level. In March, she will join other state winners in Louisville, Kentucky, vying for the National Education Support Professional of the Year award.

Chris Lilienthal, assistant director of communications for the association, said it has given the award for more than 20 years and it was recently renamed in honor of McCracken, the first association member who was an education support professional.

"She was herself a paraprofessional in Bucks County and she rose in the ranks to become the first president of PSEA," Lilienthal explained. "When she passed away, unfortunately, in 2018 we renamed the award in her honor, to recognize and remember her amazing work."

With the teacher shortage in Pennsylvania and across the country, Marszalek emphasized being an education support professional is an important field and encourages others to consider a career in education. As she said, "It's all about the kids."

"It's a tough job," Marszalek acknowledged. "But my thing is, you want to be there for the kids and to help the kids and just see them thrive, see them learn, and be willing to help them and have that in your heart to be able to do that."

Marszalek recalled many rewarding experiences, but two stood out. One was a nonverbal kindergartner who began speaking after years of working with the child and melted her heart by calling her "Miss M." Another was a second-grader with behavioral challenges whom she mentored, building a strong rapport, which led to significant improvement and a request to continue mentoring him in fourth grade.

Members of the teacher's union, the Texas branch of the American Federation of Teachers, are celebrating the signing of the Social Security Fairness Act.

President Joe Biden recently signed the legislation into law. It boosts retirement benefits for some school district employees and other public servants nationwide.

Zeph Capo, president of Texas AFT, said Texas is one of 15 states that denied public servants Social Security benefits, because of money paid into pension plans.

"We had people actually leave education and go back into other industries when they found out this was the case," said Capo, "so that they made sure that they didn't incur these penalties. So, we were actually losing good, qualified people."

He added that teaching is a second career for about 40% of teachers in the state, and they shouldn't be penalized for changing careers.

Capo said he believes the legislation will help school districts recruit more teachers and assist in easing the teacher shortage.

"They're bringing their experience from the workforce," said Capo, "they're bringing their experience from other places - whether they were scientists in different industries or worked in the healthcare system, and are now coming in to teach math and science and workforce classes in our public schools."

He said educators aren't the only ones benefiting from the change.

"They may have made $20,000 or $30,000 their entire career," said Capo. "Cooking lunches, cleaning our classrooms, driving our buses, and they're going to get on average about a $360-a-month increase -- which, for many of them, is the difference between buying groceries and buying medication."

Connecticut educators and other public sector workers are celebrating passage of the Social Security Fairness Act.

The new federal law repealed two provisions which had reduced Social Security benefits for some public sector workers who also receive a pension and who will now be eligible for benefits they would have earned in 2024.

Kate Dias, president of the Connecticut Education Association, said passing this law rights a 40-year-old wrong.

"The government chose, erroneously, to penalize public service employees to try and balance Social Security, and it was never a just cause," Dias asserted. "It's great to see this overturned; money returned to people who have rightfully earned it."

Supporters of the change said the biggest challenge to passing the law was many people were unaware of these limits for public employees. Some critics charged it could speed up the timelinefor Social Security's insolvency.

Dias feels there's more work to do, including higher teacher salaries to reflect the education required to do the work. Reports show most Connecticut salaries do not keep up with the cost of living.

Feedback on the law has been overwhelmingly positive. Dias noted the money being reimbursed to public sector workers will enable some to retire who otherwise could not, without losing certain benefits.

"We have teachers that are in their 70s that haven't been able to retire," Dias observed. "This is going to enable them to do that. We've gotten the stories from people who called us and said, 'I've been living moment to moment, paycheck to paycheck, and been collecting food stamps, and now I'm not going to have to do that. I'm not going to be a burden to my family.'"

The new law may also help Connecticut recruit second-career teachers, people with previous careers as accountants, engineers and in other in-demand fields. Since the state is in the third year of a teacher shortage, Dias added it could help close widening gaps.

"In terms of retention, those second-career educators we have brought into the profession often have to leave before they are vested in the pension so they don't get penalized," Dias pointed out. "That's a problem as well, because they're only with our profession for a short period of time, as opposed to being able to have a long career."