In early 2024, six out of 10 teachers nationwide said they were experiencing burnout, and one in five said they intended to leave their job at the end of the academic year, according to a study by Rand Corporation.

The most common reason for teacher stress? Student behavior. Low pay and the abundance of paperwork, evaluations, and other administrative tasks followed in second and third place.

Our colleague, Aaron Gifford, spoke to teachers who left the profession because students are out of control. Rhyen Staley left teaching in 2021 after 12 years on the job. A typical class involved about 10 minutes of instruction, he said, “and the rest of the time putting out behavioral fires.” On two occasions, students threw scissors at Staley’s head. One male student pushed a classmate through a glass window, stabbed a teacher with a pencil, and made death threats against a sixth-grade girl. Read the full story here›

Mexican cartels now have the capacity to mass produce multi-ton quantities of fentanyl, meaning ever-more of the precursor chemicals needed to make the drug are coming into Mexico from China.

“The most frequent question I ever get asked is, ‘Why do drug dealers want to kill their clients?’ But they’re not intentionally setting out to kill their clients,” says Michael Brown, a former veteran DEA special agent.

At the end of 2022, the cartels noticed that almost 100,000 people died, but, based on precursor sales, fentanyl sales were still, amazingly, increasing.

“We’ve passed the point of no return in terms of reducing addiction…until we can reduce the supply chain, we’re not going to be able to reduce the addiction rate.” Watch Michael Brown explain in detail›

Lawmakers are returning to Capitol Hill on Sept. 9 after a month-long recess to work through an ambitious to-do list on a tight deadline. Congress faces a Sept. 30 deadline to fund the government by passing new spending bills or agreeing to an extension.

Lawmakers will also have other agenda items to address, including China, defense, and agriculture. Hanging over all of this is the election, which will be 57 days away once lawmakers return and is likely to affect their actions and rhetoric. Congress’s top priority is to pass a bill by Sept. 30 that funds the government for fiscal year 2025, or it will shut down.

Our colleagues Terri Wu, Joseph Lord, Arjun Singh, Ryan Morgan, Jackson Richman, and Stacy Robinson put together the big items to watch for as Congress heads into an eventful session which will unfold alongside a heated election. Read the full story here›

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