U.S. Briefs: Tennessee pays $4.6 million for virtual teachers

Factbox Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, World Atlas, TN.gov

With more than 300 teaching positions unfilled, Memphis schools are turning to virtual instructors to take up the slack. The Memphis-Shelby County Board of Education on Dec. 3 approved a $4.6 million contract extension with Proximity Learning, an Austin, Texas–based staffing organization that connects certified teachers with schools via livestream. While virtual classrooms were commonplace during the COVID-19 pandemic, in Memphis they’ve become a stopgap measure for the seventh straight school year, with the district spending more than $12 million for online instructors since 2022. Superintendent Marie Feagins says the district made agreements with some retired teachers to help fill the void, but it’s not enough. Neither was the promise of a $5,000 relocation bonus offered to applicants during two hiring blitzes last summer. The new agreement will bring in 100 virtual teachers for middle and high school core classes. Each classroom will also have a second adult physically present to monitor student behavior. National Center for Education Statistics data shows that 74 percent of U.S. public K–12 schools had difficulty hiring fully certified teachers heading into the current academic year. —Kim Henderson

Texas

Federal prosecutors charged three U.S. Army soldiers with conspiring to smuggle illegal immigrants into the United States. Two of the junior enlisted soldiers allegedly drove nearly 500 miles from their post at Fort Cavazos to Presidio, Texas, near the border with Mexico, to pick up three non-U.S. citizens. Pfc. Emilio Mendoza Lopez was apprehended Nov. 27 when police stopped the vehicle he was in after it sped away from a U.S. Border Patrol agent. Spc. Angel Palma allegedly ran from the scene but was found the next day, according to the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas on Dec. 4. Pfc. Enrique Jauregui allegedly recruited the other soldiers and facilitated the smuggling of the Mexican and Guatemalan immigrants. Palma and Jauregui were also charged with assaulting a border patrolman. —Todd Vician

California

The Bureau of Prisons is closing or temporarily deactivating seven facilities amid crippling staffing shortages, allegations of abuse, and mounting costs to repair deteriorating infrastructure. After a temporary closure, the agency told employees Dec. 5 it is permanently retiring its Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, Calif., a women’s prison that became infamous after an Associated Press investigation revealed rampant staff-on-inmate sexual abuse within its walls. The bureau is also pausing operations at three minimum-security prison camps in Florida, Minnesota, and West Virginia and three satellite camps near federal prisons. The agency regularly relies on prison cooks, teachers, nurses, and other prisoners to guard prisoners since it is short thousands of officers. —Addie Offereins

Raúl Labrador Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times/Redux

Idaho

A federal appeals court allowed the state’s first-in-the-nation abortion-­trafficking law to take effect while it is challenged in court. The law passed in 2023 prohibits an adult from recruiting, harboring, or transporting a minor to get an abortion without parental consent, even to a state where abortion is legal. Abortion advocates successfully argued for a preliminary injunction in November 2023, claiming the statute violated the First Amendment and was vague. But a panel with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed on Dec. 2, saying the prohibitions against harboring and transporting are likely constitutional. The three-judge panel did agree with the challengers that a portion of the law forbidding recruitment for abortions could infringe on the right to free speech. After the decision, both sides in the dispute claimed victory: Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador called the decision a win for the rule of law and protection of life. The plaintiffs, though, praised the judges’ decision to partially block the law and allow them to continue to sue the attorney ­general instead of individual county prosecutors. The case has returned to a lower court in Idaho to modify the preliminary injunction. —Todd Vician

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Factbox Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, World Atlas, Washington DC Economic Partnership

District of Columbia

The attorney general of the District of Columbia accused Amazon of violating consumer protection laws by providing slower Prime deliveries to residents of low-income neighborhoods. In a lawsuit filed Dec. 4, Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb said Amazon tricks about 48,000 customers in two D.C. zip codes into paying for Prime membership benefits they are not receiving. “We’re suing to stop this deceptive conduct and make sure District residents get what they’re paying for,” Schwalb said in a statement. In 2022, Amazon began using third-party delivery services in two zip codes in D.C. rather than its own delivery drivers. This resulted in longer delivery times for those customers, who are still charged the same rate for Prime membership. Amazon claims the shift was motivated by concerns for the safety of its drivers who had suffered targeted attacks in those areas. The company also says it has been transparent about delivery times with customers. —Emma Freire

Ohio

After being suspended for having books with LGBTQ characters in her classroom, an Ohio elementary school teacher sued her district on Dec. 2. Karen Cahall teaches third grade at Monroe Elementary School in New Richmond, Ohio. In October, the mother of one of her students complained about four books in Cahall’s classroom library. The books included LGBTQ characters but did not describe sexual activity. The following month, school Superintendent Tracey Miller summoned Cahall to a disciplinary meeting and suspended her for three days without pay for violating New Richmond Board Policy No. 2240. The guidelines allow teachers to address “controversial issues” that are relevant to the curriculum, but teachers may not introduce controversial materials without the principal’s approval. Cahall claims that she had not prominently displayed the four books or used them as part of the curriculum. She’s suing for infringement of her 14th Amendment rights, claiming an “unconstitutional arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement” of school policy. —Bekah McCallum