This year’s hottest back-to-school trend is one most students won’t like: cellphone bans.

A growing number of districts across the country have enacted, or plan to enact, prohibitions on students using their mobile phones during school hours starting this academic year. That includes some of the biggest districts, including Los Angeles Unified and New York City, which intend to ban phones in early 2025.

Several states, including Florida, South Carolina and Louisiana, have passed laws requiring school cellphone bans. And several more, including Indiana, Minnesota and Ohio, have ordered districts to develop rules that limit kids’ cellphone use at school. Gov. Gavin Newsom sent a letter to California districts last week urging them to limit student smartphone use.

The 2024-25 school year may be the tipping point when adults act to curb kids’ phone addiction and regain their attention. It’s about time.

It should be obvious by now that having a pocket-size entertainment center that constantly buzzes with alerts and enticements is not great for kids’ ability to focus and learn. (It’s not great for adults either.)

Simply having a phone nearby with notifications coming through can cause students to lose focus on the task at hand, according to one study. Once distracted, it can take as long as 20 minutes to refocus. Other studies have found that keeping a phone close by during a lecture impairs attention and reduces memory retention.

Nearly three-fourths of high school teachers surveyed last fall said that students being distracted by their cellphones in the classroom was a major problem, according to the Pew Research Center. And more than half of those teachers said school policies restricting cellphone use in the classroom were difficult to enforce. (Middle school and elementary teachers had it a little easier, with their students less distracted and more compliant with restrictions.)

In addition, excessive social media heightens the risk of anxiety, depression and cyberbullying, and students use their phones during the day to coordinate drug purchases and fights. It’s clear that the presence of cellphones on campus is more harmful than helpful. Kids need an intervention, and schools are right to rein in this technology now before another generation suffers.

“It’s our responsibility in loco parentis to act as the responsible adult who protects them” during the school day, Los Angeles schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said.

Los Angeles Unified is now consulting with administrators, parents, students and experts about the details of the proposed cellphone ban. The district is still studying the options — other districts have required students to keep phones in their lockers, sealed in lockable pouches or checked into phone cubbies — and the method may differ from campus to campus.

The goal, Carvalho said, is to have a policy that is implemented consistently across schools.

Yes, it will be difficult to change the behavior of both students, who are loath to part with their phones, and their parents, who are accustomed to being able to reach their kids at any time of the day. Yes, some students will try to evade the rules. The first weeks and months of a cellphone ban will be challenging for teachers, administrators, students and parents. This will be a major culture change, but a worthy one.

And it’s quite possible that by the end of the school year, students and educators will look back and think, “Why didn’t we do this earlier?”

— The Los Angeles Times

Related Articles

Ana Zamora: Voters don’t want to hear Trump and Harris fight over crime. They want to hear actual solutions

Sally Pipes: Free tuition won’t fix America’s shortage of doctors

David French: Colleges can’t say they weren’t warned

Lisa Jarvis: Bizarre raw milk trend puts kids at risk

F.D. Flam: The oldest Olympians might hold the key to slowing aging

Cucumbers sometimes get overlooked as fodder for a main dish or appetizer because they’re so ubiquitous and, let’s be honest, utilitarian.

Available year-round, the bright-green creeping vine plant just isn’t as exciting as veggies you can only get for such a short time in summer — say, a homegrown tomato or bi-colored ear of butter-and-sugar sweet corn.

That said, it’s a low-cal, nutritious fruit rich in antioxidants and various minerals and vitamins. Packed with water (a cucumber is 95% water) they’re also an excellent source of hydration for adults who are supposed to take in around 10 cups of water every day.

This recipe is a creamy, peanut buttery take on a Chinese smashed cucumber salad. It brings together crisp wedges of mini-cucumbers with citrusy cilantro, toasted sesame seeds and the crunch of chopped, roasted peanuts. Adding zing is a peanut butter-based dressing whisked with soy sauce, honey, lime juice and God’s gift to cooks: a heaping teaspoon of garlicky, umami-filled chili crisp.

It’s the perfect dish for a hot summer evening, or any night you want to get something bright and crunchy on the table in less than 15 minutes.

If you detest cilantro — some people swear it tastes like soap — leave it out or substitute parsley or Thai basil, which is spicier than Italian sweet basil. I added a pinch of red pepper flakes to add a gentle heat, but you also could drizzle the finished dish with chili oil.

The salad can be served as an appetizer or side dish, and it also makes a great vegetarian lunch.

Peanut and Chili Crisp Cucumber Salad

INGREDIENTS

For salad:

10 mini cucumbers, cut into thick wedges
Handful of fresh cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup roasted unsalted peanuts, chopped
1 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted

For dressing:

3 tablespoons peanut butter
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 lime, juiced and zested
1 teaspoon honey
1 heaping teaspoon chili crisp, or more to taste
Red pepper flakes, for garnish, optional
1 tablespoon chili oil, for drizzling, optional

DIRECTIONS

Place cucumber wedges, cilantro and chopped peanuts into a large bowl. Sprinkle over sesame seeds and toss well to combine.
In a separate bowl, make dressing by stirring together peanut butter, soy sauce, lime zest and juice, honey and chili crisp. If it seems too thick, add a little water, a spoonful at a time, to thin to desired consistency.
Pour the dressing over the salad, and toss well to combine. (I used my hands, but two spoons also works.) Allow to sit on the counter for at least 10-15 minutes for the flavors to mingle. Pausing before serving will also allow the cucumbers to soften ever so slightly.
Taste, and adjust seasoning as desired — you may want to add more soy or lime juice to temper the peanut butter flavor, or spice it up with more chili crunch.
Spoon salad onto a serving platter or into individual bowls, and pour any dressing that remains in the bowl over top. Sprinkle a little (or a lot) red pepper flakes on top, or drizzle with chili oil. If you like, you can also garnish with more sesame seeds and/or chopped peanuts.
Serves 4 as a hearty appetizer or vegetarian side dish.

— Gretchen McKay, Post-Gazette

Related Articles

Here’s your guide to free fun every single day at the 2024 Minnesota State Fair

Quick Fix: Beef Burritos

Gretchen’s table: Peanut and chili crisp cucumber salad is a bright and crunchy summer dish

Lavender and cherry harvest a delicious time in Wisconsin’s Door County

Gretchen’s table: Blueberry crumble coffee cake is the perfect food to stow for vacation

Another medical school has gone tuition-free. Johns Hopkins University announced last month that it will waive tuition for all students from families earning less than $300,000 starting this fall, thanks to a $1 billion gift from former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Bloomberg hopes free tuition will enable more applicants from diverse backgrounds to pursue their dreams of becoming doctors — and help address America’s physician shortage in the process.

It’s a worthy goal. But our dearth of doctors is not a function of the cost of medical school. We’re short on physicians because there aren’t enough residency slots where they can complete their training. Philanthropists looking to address the physician shortage — and improve patient access to care — ought to consider funding additional residencies.

More than 74 million Americans live in federally designated primary-care shortage areas.

Consider that 20% of the U.S. population lives in rural areas, but only about 11% of doctors practice there. That could help explain why rural Americans suffer greater rates of chronic diseases than their urban counterparts.

The Association of American Medical Colleges predicts that we’ll need up to 86,000 more physicians by 2036 to meet the demands of our growing and aging population.

The problem stems, in part, from legislation that’s more than a quarter-century old. The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 capped federal funding for residencies. So the number of residency slots available to aspiring doctors was essentially stuck at 1996 levels for nearly three decades.

Congress increased funding to expand the number of residency slots in 2020 and 2022. But it hasn’t been enough to catch up to the growth in medical school enrollment. While there were just under 71,000 students pursuing M.D.s in 2004, there were nearly 98,000 in 2023 — a roughly 40% increase.

The resulting mismatch can make it difficult for medical students to secure a residency after they graduate. This year, there were more than 44,800 doctors applying for just over 41,500 residency positions across the country.

In other words, there’s plenty of demand for a medical school education. And yet, philanthropists are subsidizing that demand further with their gifts to medical schools. Bloomberg’s is only the latest.

Earlier this year, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine received a $1 billion gift from Ruth Gottesman, a former professor. The donation will ensure that all four-year students receive a tuition-free education come fall.

In 2018, Kenneth and Elaine Langone started a $100 million endowment fund to ensure all current and future medical school students at New York University Grossman School of Medicine receive free tuition. And just last year, they donated another $200 million to the NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine to provide free tuition for medical school students there, too.

Those donations will no doubt change the lives of many aspiring doctors. But imagine if some of those millions had gone toward creating more residency positions.

Consider the example of the University of Texas at Tyler School of Medicine, which recently received a gift of $900,000 from Texas Mutual Insurance Company to expand the school’s occupational and environmental medicine residency program. While the program currently accepts just four residents annually, it will expand to five annually for at least the next six years, thanks to the donation.

The University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine received a$500,000 donation from the E.L. Wiegand Foundation in late 2023. The money helped to establish a new pediatrics residency program, which will eventually train up to 12 providers. The school expects the program will increase the number of pediatricians in the surrounding area by at least 17%.

Philanthropists with an interest in supporting the next generation of physicians should not limit their ambitions to making medical school more affordable. Our nation’s residency infrastructure could benefit from their largesse, too.

Sally C. Pipes (X: @sallypipesis) is president and CEO at the Pacific Research Institute. Her latest book is “False Premise, False Promise: The Disastrous Reality of Medicare for All” (Encounter 2020). She wrote this column for the Baltimore Sun.

Related Articles

David French: Colleges can’t say they weren’t warned

Lisa Jarvis: Bizarre raw milk trend puts kids at risk

F.D. Flam: The oldest Olympians might hold the key to slowing aging

Jim Warren: Deepfakes target Democrats and Republicans alike

David Brooks: We’re only as smart as our emotions

Today is Wednesday, Aug. 21, the 234th day of 2024. There are 132 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Aug. 21, 1831, Nat Turner launched a violent slave rebellion in Virginia, resulting in the deaths of at least 55 white people; scores of Black people were killed in retribution in the aftermath of the rebellion, and Turner was later executed.

Also on this date:

In 1858, the first of seven debates took place between Illinois senatorial contenders Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas.

Related Articles

Today in History: August 20, Soviets invade Czechoslovakia

Today in History: August 19, last U.S. combat troops leave Iraq

Today in History: August 18, 19th Amendment gives women the vote

Today in History: August 17, Clinton admits to Lewinsky affair

Today in History: August 16, American music loses two legends

In 1911, Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” was stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris. (It was recovered two years later in Italy.)

In 1944, the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and China opened talks at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington that helped pave the way for establishment of the United Nations.

In 1959, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed an executive order making Hawaii the 50th state.

In 1983, Filipino politician Benigno Aquino Jr. was assassinated as he exited an aircraft at Manila International Airport. (His widow, Corazon Aquino, would become president of the Philippines three years later.)

In 1991, a hardline coup against Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev collapsed in the face of a popular uprising led by Russian Federation President Boris N. Yeltsin.

In 1992, an 11-day siege began at the cabin of white separatist Randy Weaver in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, as government agents tried to arrest Weaver for failing to appear in court on charges of selling two illegal sawed-off shotguns; on the first day of the siege, Weaver’s teenage son, Samuel, and Deputy U.S. Marshal William Degan were killed.

In 1993, in a serious setback for NASA, engineers lost contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft as it was about to reach the red planet on a $980 million mission.

In 2000, rescue efforts to reach the sunken Russian nuclear submarine Kursk ended with divers announcing none of the 118 sailors had survived.

In 2010, Iranian and Russian engineers began loading fuel into Iran’s first nuclear power plant, which Moscow promised to safeguard to prevent material at the site from being used in any potential weapons production.

In 2015, a trio of Americans, U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Spencer Stone, National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos and college student Anthony Sadler, and a British businessman, Chris Norman, tackled and disarmed a Moroccan gunman on a high-speed train between Amsterdam and Paris.

In 2017, Americans witnessed their first full-blown coast-to-coast solar eclipse since World War I, with eclipse-watchers gathering along a path of totality extending 2,600 miles across the continent

In 2018, Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, pleaded guilty to campaign-finance violations and other charges; Cohen said Trump directed him to arrange the payment of hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal to fend off damage to his White House bid. (Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to the payments in May 2024.)

In 2020, a former police officer who became known as the Golden State Killer, Joseph James DeAngelo, told victims and family members in a Sacramento courtroom that he was “truly sorry” before he was sentenced to multiple life prison sentences for a decade-long string of rapes and murders.

Today’s Birthdays:

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer James Burton is 85.
Singer Jackie DeShannon is 83.
Film director Peter Weir is 80.
Football Hall of Famer Willie Lanier is 79.
Actor Loretta Devine is 75.
Two-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin is 70.
Actor Kim Cattrall is 68.
Former NFL quarterback Jim McMahon is 65.
Rock musician Serj Tankian (System of a Down) is 57.
Actor Carrie-Anne Moss is 57.
Google co-founder Sergei Brin is 51.
Singer Kelis (kuh-LEES’) is 45.
TV personality Brody Jenner is 41.
Olympic gold medal sprinter Usain (yoo-SAYN’) Bolt is 38.
Country singer Kacey Musgraves is 36.
Soccer player Robert Lewandowski is 36.
Actor Hayden Panettiere (pan’-uh-tee-EHR’) is 35.
Comedian-singer-filmmaker Bo Burnham is 34.