The looming battle in K-12 education isn't just about erasing learning loss and repairing children's damaged mental health. It's also about steering clear of a return to the status quo.

As school reopening decisions hang in the air, complicated by rising COVID-19 cases and budget uncertainty, some families aren’t waiting for a state or local answer. They’re moving ahead with plans to enroll their children in a learning environment that hearkens back to the frontier days.

The State Public Charter School Authority Board voted 4-1 Friday evening to deny a charter contract renewal for Nevada Connections Academy, an online school that for years has been under scrutiny for lackluster student performance.

Forward-thinking education leaders have for years been heralding disruptive innovations that hold promise to lead us beyond the same “factory school” classroom models that have been prevalent and largely unchanged across America for over a century.

A poll commissioned by a group supportive of Education Savings Accounts found that nearly three-quarters of Nevadans favor the program, which would route some public education money toward private school tuition or other qualifying educational expenses, but has stalled amid Democratic concerns that it diverts scarce funding from public schools.