Education Week - September 11, 2019 - 3

BRIEFLY STATED

States' Top Lawyers Go
After Vaping Company
For Marketing Ploys

School Building Aid Falls to the Wayside
Anyone who has visited lots of schools knows many of
them aren't pretty. Maybe the floors are cracked. Perhaps
the toilets and sinks don't work right. Roofs leak. The
interior hasn't seen a paint job in decades. Multipurpose
rooms are used for purposes no one initially thought of.
Computers haven't been updated in a decade. In the
winter, cold seeps through spaces around windows and
doors. And in summer, heat penetrates the structures.
In recent days, the Baltimore Teachers Union trekked
to schools in temperatures nearing 100 degrees to deliver
fans to classrooms without air conditioning.
A new analysis shows what students, teachers,

Being big isn't always best.
E-cigarette giant Juul Labs, which has captured nearly
three-quarters of the market since it launched four
years ago, faces a mounting number of state and federal
investigations into its marketing and sales practices.
Attorneys general in Illinois and the District of Columbia are examining how Juul's blockbuster vaping
device became so popular with underage teenagers.
Parents, politicians, and public-health advocates
have accused Juul of fueling the vaping craze among
high schoolers. Attorneys general in Colorado, Connecticut, and Massachusetts also have announced investigations of Juul related to concerns over underage
use of its products. And North Carolina's attorney general filed a lawsuit against Juul in May, asking a court to
limit the company's sales and marketing in the state.
The Trump administration has gotten into the act as
well. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar
said the administration "will continue using every
regulatory and enforcement power we have to stop the
epidemic of youth e-cigarette use."
All this is occurring while public-health officials look
into mysterious respiratory ailments that have struck
more than 200 people nationwide after they vaped.
Juul's top executives have disputed allegations that
they've marketed their products to teenagers, declaring that they've taken unprecedented steps to combat
underage use of e-cigarettes. The company has shut
down its Facebook and Instagram pages and pulled
several of its flavored products out of retail stores.
Other states, meanwhile, are taking a different tack to
prevent youths from using e-cigarettes, focusing on
educating young people to the dangers. Indiana, for
one, has set aside $2.1 million for such a campaign.
It's a struggle, state officials acknowledge. A Kansas
survey of 2,000 high school students in 2017 found
that 32.2 percent had tried vaping.
Vaping is attractive to teenagers because the small devices aren't easily detectable. Said Mark Thompson, a
consultant at the Kansas education department: "They
could actually vape in the classroom because you're
not going to pick up on the odor, and if you can control
where the vape goes, then it's almost unnoticeable."

administrators, and other staff already know all too well:
States aren't spending to build, upgrade, and equip school
buildings. In fact, the analysis by the Center on Budget and
Policy Priorities shows spending has fallen-sharply-over
the past decade.
Thirty-eight states cut school capital spending as a share
of their overall economy between 2008 and 2017, according
to the latest data available from the U.S. Census Bureau.
"State capital funding for schools was down 31 percent in
that time period," Michael Leachman, the senior director
of state fiscal research at the progressive think tank, wrote
in a blog post. "That's the equivalent of a $20 billion cut."

Total capital spending on public schools as a share of the country's gross
domestic product hasn't recovered since the Great Recession.

.5%
.4
.3
.2

Percent

.1
0
2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

SOURCE: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

BRIEFLY STATED CONTRIBUTORS: Associated Press, Evie Blad, Arianna Prothero, and Tribune News Service. Edited by Karen Diegmueller.

Vol. 39 * Issue 4 * September 11, 2019
1 Alaska's Rural Schools Struggle to

Keep Teachers

1 Special Ed. Field Pushes for Teachers

Of Color

1 Schools Say No to Cellphones:

Should They?

1 Bite-Sized Lessons Aim to Make SEL

Easier for Schools to Teach

5 How ESSA Could Complicate Rural

Turnarounds

6 Secessions Exacerbate Segregation,

OPINION
14 Rules of Engagement

In the New Reading War

15 Moving Beyond Culturally Relevant

Teacher Prep

20 'We Hold This Place Together':

What makes a school work
for teachers?

DEPARTMENTS
3 Briefly Stated
6 What the Research Says
18 EdWeek Top School Jobs

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NoVo Foundation, The Wallace
Foundation, the Walton Family
Foundation, and the William E. Simon
Foundation. Education Week retains
sole editorial control over the content
underwritten by foundations.

Study Finds

7 National Principals' Union Chases

More Members

EDUCATION WEEK | September 11, 2019 | www.edweek.org | 3

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Education Week - September 11, 2019

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