Hello from Erica and Lily on Chalkbeat’s national desk. Please send good vibes today for a certain high school sophomore’s chemistry final and we’ll send good vibes back for the end of your school year.

Our big story this week is a the-past-isn’t-even-past type of story. The Supreme Court’s recent decision upending the Voting Rights Act could have big implications for school boards. Our spotlight looks at the careful line AFT President Randi Weingarten is walking between the promise and perils of AI. Keep reading for that, plus more education news from around our network.

Have you ever lain awake at night and wondered: Is President Donald Trump really returning education to the states? Ideas Editor Matt Barnum will discuss this very question with Rhode Island Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green and Indiana Education Secretary Katie Jenner at our next Ideas event June 11. RSVP here. 

The large majority of school board members in the United States are elected at-large. That’s a legacy of Progressive-era reforms that sought to shield education governance from crass political concerns. But at-large elections have also been used to limit the political voice of racial and ethnic minorities in communities where a white majority votes as a bloc.

The Voting Rights Act provided a powerful tool to challenge this system. A database compiled by law professor Chris Seaman found 322 challenges involving school boards between 1982 and 2024. That’s more than a fifth of all cases under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Most often, these challenges were resolved by moving from at-large elections to single-member districts that allowed communities of color to elect representatives who would be more responsive to their concerns.

These cases changed who ran for office, who won elections, and resource allocation in school districts across the country. These challenges continue into the present day, and not just in the South. 

But the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Louisiana v. Callais has significantly raised the bar for such challenges going forward. That will likely lead to “a decrease in minority representation, and school boards will not be exempt,” Seaman said.

Already, conservative legal groups are preparing to challenge state voting rights acts that also played a big role in shaping school board governance. Some see an opening to undo past settlements. Even school districts that voluntarily switched to single-member districts could face scrutiny if that decision was motivated by providing more opportunity to candidates of color.

But that’s not the whole story. Callais dealt with partisan gerrymandering — drawing maps to give an advantage to Republicans or Democrats. Even in communities with hard-fought, racially polarized school board elections, those divisions may not fall neatly along party lines. That means advocates can still make arguments about vote dilution and other unfair practices.

“To the extent that the Voting Rights Act has any vitality left after Callais, I think it’s likely to be in these local races like school boards,” said Justin Levitt, an election law expert and professor at Loyola Marymount University.

Read the full story.

Two new studies highlight just how little sleep most teens are getting. Screens may be one of the reasons, but whether teens are on their phones at night is not something schools can control. What they can control is when students have to get up in the morning. One high school principal told Chalkbeat that moving to a later start time has paid academic dividends, with students noticeably more engaged in their classes.

A leading researcher on student learning loss acknowledges we don’t have all the answers. Harvard University’s Tom Kane notes that declines in student achievement coincide with the rise of smartphones and social media and with important changes in school accountability. But the evidence is circumstantial. The data is also mixed on what works to improve student achievement, but reducing absenteeism and adopting science of reading policies probably help.

On Tuesday, Newark Public Schools touted a visit by American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten to one of its elementary schools. There, she observed how students and teachers were using an AI-powered chatbot.

On Wednesday, Weingarten in an almost hour long speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., called for a ban on student-facing AI in elementary schools.

Weingarten is walking a pretty narrow tightrope — like a lot of people in education these days — not just around AI in education, but around technology in education, too, as a largely parent-led backlash to ed tech brews. 

She’s promoted AI use by teachers through a training program with OpenAI and Microsoft. But in her latest speech she also said tech could be the reason many young people nationwide are “drowning.”

That’s similar to other mixed messaging about education and technology. Even as parents are calling for bans on screens, especially for younger children (something Weingarten also supported on Wednesday), schools are being urged to adapt to emerging technology, like AI.

In New York City, one expert says that AI means schools need to lean even harder into their computer science programs and embed “computational thinking” throughout the curriculum. At the same time, one mom convinced 38 elementary and middle schools in the city to cut screens and increase recess time as much as possible.

(P.S. Lily here: I broke down parts of Weingarten’s speech over on my Instagram and TikTok accounts, where you can find me regularly talking about national education issues.)

That’s how much funding Congress approved for the Rural Education Achievement Program, or REAP, this year. REAP helps rural school districts by providing extra funding for everything from technology to expanded STEM and art programs. 

But the Trump administration is interested in phasing out this rural funding in favor of a $2 billion block grant for states. Education Secretary Linda McMahon argues state officials could decide how the money is spent instead. Supporters of the program argue that money could be “swallowed up” by bigger schools if the Trump administration’s plan goes through.

That was Erin Wright, a rural education advocate in Oklahoma, speaking to the Hechinger Report about efforts to make education normal again after the departure of former state schools chief Ryan Walters. An appointed state superintendent Lindel Fields is running for office with a focus on academics amid a crowded field that includes candidates more in line with Walters’ culture warrior approach.