🛝 What Money Can't Fix in Education

Welcome to Playground Post, a bi-weekly newsletter that keeps education innovators ahead of what's next.

This week's reality check: A Federal Reserve study found that remote work, not AI, explains 64% of the rise in youth unemployment. Texas invested $8.5 billion in schools, but one district has less than $500 in its bank account. And Detroit paid 84% of its high schoolers to show up. 60.9% are still chronically absent.

Data Gem

The share of teacher preparation programs earning an A for evidence-based reading instruction more than doubled, from 26% in 2023 to 53% in 2026. But nearly 1 in 4 programs still earned an F, relying heavily on outdated methods and providing little practice with scientifically grounded reading instruction.

Youth Unemployment Rose 20%. The Cause Isn't AI

Everyone assumes AI is killing entry-level jobs. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York says the data points somewhere else.

A new analysis found that remote work, which grew fourfold during the pandemic, explains up to 64% of the rise in unemployment among recent college graduates.

AI exposure explained little.

The unemployment rate for college grads aged 22 to 27 reached 5.8% in 2025, the highest outside the pandemic since 2012, up from 3.6% in March 2019.

Researchers compared younger and experienced workers in "remotable" jobs versus jobs that can't be done remotely. 

Younger workers' unemployment rose one percentage point in remotable jobs. Older workers' unemployment in those same jobs slightly declined.

In non-remotable jobs, the gap barely existed.

When offices closed, companies hired experienced workers who didn't need training. When they reopened, they started hiring younger workers again.

The researchers studied one Fortune 500 firm in detail. Co-located workers received 23.9% more feedback on their code than those on distributed teams.

Here's the twist. Even after the company reopened its offices, its distributed teams continued hiring experienced workers over inexperienced ones.

"The firm's hiring patterns suggest that it is willing to teach junior workers when proximity is feasible but shies away from employing inexperienced workers if distance creates barriers to training and development," the researchers wrote.

The irony: Gen Z is the generation least likely to want remote-first roles. 

They want to be in the office. The office isn't always hiring them.

For education innovators, this finding reframes the career-readiness market. The gap is onboarding and mentorship infrastructure for distributed teams. Structured apprenticeship platforms, remote mentorship tools, and employer-facing early-career development programs that replicate the feedback loops of in-person work address the problem the data actually identifies. Colleges selling "AI readiness" may be solving the wrong problem.

Texas Invested $8.5 Billion in Schools

Last year, Texas passed House Bill 2, the largest one-time public education investment in the state's history.

Nearly $8.5 billion.

On Monday, district officials told lawmakers it wasn't enough.

The basic allotment, the foundation of school funding, rose just $55 per student.

Crystal City, in South Texas, recently told families it has less than $500 in its bank account.

El Paso faces a $53 million shortfall and may declare a financial emergency. Austin ISD faces a $181 million deficit and is closing 10 campuses and eliminating hundreds of jobs.

The costs that are breaking districts are specific and compounding.

"Our utilities have increased close to 60% since 2019. Teacher retirement payments have gone up 62% since 2021," said Paul Neuhoff, chief financial officer at Navarro ISD. "The average cost per mile operating our buses was $3.90 a mile, and that's before the now-spike that we have in diesel prices."

There's also a new unfunded cost. 

Under HB 2, public schools must now conduct and pay for special education evaluations for families entering the state's voucher program. 

Districts completed about 178,000 evaluations last year at $1,000 to $5,000 each. The state reimburses $1,000 per evaluation.

The gap between what evaluations cost and what the state pays comes out of general operating funds.

On her second-to-last day of school, French teacher Rachel Preston was told Austin ISD could only afford to keep her part-time.

"This funding deficit is the final straw for me, and it will be for countless other educators across the state," Preston said.

For education innovators, Texas is a case study in what happens when headline investment doesn't match operating reality. Districts need financial forecasting tools that model enrollment decline, inflation, healthcare, and energy simultaneously. Special education evaluation workflow platforms that reduce the per-evaluation cost gap. And budget scenario planners that show superintendents exactly where the $55 per student actually goes.

Detroit Paid 84% of High Schoolers to Show Up

Detroit Public Schools Community District paid nearly 84% of its high schoolers this year through an attendance incentive program. Roughly 12,800 students out of 15,247 enrolled received at least one $100 Visa gift card for showing up to every class during five-day cycles.

Students could earn up to $1,000 total.

The result: chronic absenteeism dropped from 64% to 54%. A 10-point improvement.

But 60.9% of the district's students are still chronically absent.

That's 30 percentage points above the state average, in a district where 84% of students are low-income.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti acknowledged the limits. The program largely reached students who already had decent attendance or were at risk of slipping.

"It's still not at scale getting at those students that are dramatically absent," Vitti said, defining that as students missing 45 or more days.

The district shifted from two-week to one-week perfect-attendance cycles this year, making more students eligible. 

That boosted reach, especially at neighborhood schools. At Pershing High School, incentive participation jumped from 16% to 62%.

But the underlying data tracks with what national research shows: cash incentives don't address the systemic barriers that keep students home.

Unsafe routes to school. Unstable housing. Health problems. Caregiving responsibilities.

The district recommended expanding the program to middle school next year.

For education innovators, the Detroit data is a product design lesson. The cheapest students to recover are the ones who are almost there. The most absent students need something cash can't buy: transportation solutions, health access, family support coordination, and housing stability referrals. Attendance platforms that identify root causes by student and connect to specific barrier-removal services address what a gift card cannot.

⚡️More Quick Hits

This week in education:

• Tennessee math proficiency rose from 28% to 42%, ranking second nationally in recovery — The Education Recovery Scorecard tracked 10,000 districts and found Tennessee's $130M+ in reforms produced real gains, but 51% of white students were proficient versus 24% of Black students, 32% Hispanic, and 24% economically disadvantaged

• 12.6 million children whose parents wanted summer programs went without in 2024 — An Afterschool Alliance survey of 30,000 households found 38% of parents cited cost as the barrier, while high-income children participated at more than triple the rate of low-income peers

• Oklahoma removes chronic absenteeism from school accountability grades despite a 19% rate — The state earned a D on its own attendance metric, with Union High School at 43% chronic absenteeism, and lawmakers responded by removing the measure from school grading entirely

• School board conflict hits 1 in 10 districts but affects 3 in 10 students nationwide — Brookings research found nearly half of districts with more than 15,000 students experienced at least one media-documented governance conflict between 2018 and 2024

To stay up-to-date on all things education innovation, visit us at playgroundpost.com.