Top Three
Inflation: BLS reported that CPI rose 1.3% in June, bringing the last 12 month price increases to 9.1% — the fastest annual pace since November 1981.
Axios: "Energy prices were responsible for more than half of the monthly gains in headline inflation, with gasoline prices rising over 11% last month."
NYT: "Overall, inflation is likely to moderate in July because gas prices have fallen this month — a gallon of regular gas hit an average of about $5 in June, and the cost is now hovering around $4.63. But fuel prices are volatile, making it impossible to know if today’s lower gas prices will last and the report suggested that underlying inflation pressures remained intense."
WSJ: "The report likely keeps the Fed on track to raise its benchmark interest rate by 0.75 percentage point at its meeting later this month."
CNBC: "Adjusted for inflation, workers’ hourly wages fell 1% during the month and are down 3.6% from a year ago."
Jason Furman: "The decline in real average hourly earnings at this point is terrible, the fastest pace of decline in 40 years."
Groceries: up 12% in past year - Biggest annual increase since 1979
Chicken: Up 19% in past year - Biggest increase ever
Gas up 60% - Biggest since 1981
Electricity: Up 14% - Biggest since 2006
Rent: Up 5.8% - Biggest since 1986
Despite Urgency, New National Tutoring Effort Could Take 6 Months to Ramp Up: Via The 74.
"Working with colleges, large employers like Starbucks and Target, and established nonprofit organizations serving youth, Balfanz said, should develop the Partnership into the national tutoring corps that experts have been recommending for several years. AmeriCorps will also spend $20 million to help organizations recruit and train tutors."
“There is a general misunderstanding that you can just find a body, put them in a classroom and anybody can tutor,” Schwinn said. That’s one reason why she said it’s not “super realistic” to have a “meaningful” national program in place for fall."
"Since 2020, the administration has urged districts to use relief funds to help students make up for lost learning over the summer. A new report from Education Reform Now highlights how states have fared. It shows that 15 states require districts to join with outside groups to serve students over the summer. But just 10 states have requirements on how long such programs should be and how many hours they should devote to academic instruction."
From Reopen to Reinvent: Michael Horn's new book is out today. He writes about it here:
"Its purpose is to push us past being pleased (or relieved) that schools have reopened to rethinking what school does for each and every child and for parents—and to help map a path forward to getting there for school leaders."
"Using time-tested leadership and innovation frameworks like Jobs to Be Done, “Begin with the End,” tools of cooperation, threat-rigidity, and discovery-driven planning, From Reopen to Reinvent offers a prescriptive and holistic approach to the purpose of schooling, the importance of focusing on mastery for each student, and the ideal use of technology."
Federal
White House: Announces over $40 Billion in American Rescue Plan Investments in Our Workforce.
White House COVID Response Team: Nahid Bhadelia announces that she's joining the White House. Congrats!
NTIA: Announced that all states and territories have confirmed their participation in the Internet for All initiative.
Covid-19 Research
Half of Parents Likely to Follow Pediatrician’s Advice on COVID-19 Vaccination: According to results published in Academic Pediatrics.
"More than 30% in all groups agreed with the statement that COVID-19 vaccines might cause lasting health problems for their children, and a “sizable proportion of parents who were not intending to vaccinate their child” agreed with the statement that they “did not believe in vaccinating children [with the COVID-19 vaccine].”
Kids Have Stronger COVID-19 Antibody Response Than Adults: New study. More via CIDRAP.
BA2.75: Andy Slavitt's take on the new variant.
State
Colorado: Report finds "the rate at which Colorado students are going to college right out of high school has dipped, and those who do go are less prepared. And participation in programs offering college experience in high school has remained stagnant."
Hawaii: Indoor masks will be optional at Hawaii public schools.
International
China: In Shanghai, a surge in cases raises fears of another lockdown.
"Barely six weeks after Shanghai fully lifted a prolonged and harshly enforced lockdown, China’s biggest city is again grappling with a surge of coronavirus cases. Residents wary of being suddenly confined in their homes have been alarmed by mixed messages from official sources circulating on social media, including advice that they stock up on food and medicine."
UK: School absences hit six-month high in Covid ‘wake-up call’
"The figures, which have been adjusted to exclude year 11 and 13 students who are sitting exams, represent the lowest level of attendance since 28 January, when 85.3% of pupils were in school."
"An estimated 42,000 teachers and school leaders were absent last Thursday, up from 33,000 on 23 June. The data also shows that 49,000 support staff (6.8%) were absent, up from 5.5% (39,000) on 23 June."
Economic Recovery
The Labor Crisis and the Future of the Heartland: Via Heartland Forward.
Resources
Most Students Who Left College During COVID Want to Return — But Many Can’t: Courtney Brown via The 74.
Study: Is Online Credit Recovery an Effective Way to Learn?: Via Government Technology.
GreatSchools to Omit Pandemic School Testing Data From Its Ratings: Via The 74.
The Labor Shortage: Has forced companies to turn to dogs to fill critical jobs...