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Brandishing Budget Power, State Lawmakers Pressure Public Universities
A student from the University of South Carolina Upstate signs a banner protesting the state legislature’s proposed funding cut to the university over a gay-themed book assigned to students. Some state lawmakers around the country are brandishing their budget pens to weigh in on what public colleges and universities teach. (AP) Follow Adrienne Lu on […]
States Crack Down on For-Profit Colleges, Student Loan Industry
Students in a surgical technology class in a mock operating room at for-profit Indiana Business College in Fort Wayne, Ind. A growing number of states are taking actions to regulate for-profit colleges and the student loan industry. (AP) When Murray Hastie returned to New York in January 2006 after two tours of duty in Iraq, […]
Teacher Tenure and Dismissal on Trial
Attorneys Theodore Boutrous, far right, and Marcellus McRae, second from right, represent nine California public school students who are suing the state to abolish its laws on teacher tenure, seniority and other protections. California is the latest battle in a growing challenge to union-backed protections for teachers. (AP) On trial: California’s rules on teacher tenure […]
Results-Based Financing for Preschool Catching On
Preschool student Nicole Fisher plays a life-size game of Chutes & Ladders at the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City. Utah is the first state to approve “results-based financing” for preschool. (AP) Six hundred 3- and 4-year-olds are attending preschool in Salt Lake County and Park City, Utah, this year thanks to an innovative […]
States Explore Free Community College
Students and teachers in a radiation protection class at Chattanooga State Community College in Chattanooga, Tenn. Tennessee and several other states are considering offering free tuition at community colleges. (AP) Several states are considering offering free tuition at community colleges, as the cost of a college education continues to climb and as high school diplomas […]
State Supreme Court Rules Kansas Education Funding Unconstitutional
The Kansas Supreme Court ruled Friday that the state “failed to meet its duty to provide equity in public education” required by the state constitution because of funding disparities among schools that hurt poorer districts. The court sent the larger question of whether the state has provided adequate funding to all public schools back to […]
Elected Officials Embrace Preschool, But Funding Is the Catch
Preschool students play at Seattle’s Refugee and Immigrant Family Center. Seattle is among a number of cities and states across the country working on expanding publicly funded preschool. (AP) From Seattle to New York, elected officials are calling for more children to attend publicly funded preschool. President Barack Obama, lawmakers and local officials from both […]
Is Harsher Corporal Punishment for Children Coming to Kansas?
Wiley Elementary School third grade teacher Angelia Higgins asks a question of her students during math class in Greensboro, N.C. North Carolina is one of 19 states that allow corporal punishment in schools, although most school districts in the state have abolished it. (AP) Editor’s note: This update was posted Feb. 20 at 12:15 p.m.: […]
States Sued Over Education Funding
Zaw Ree Saw, 4, pretends to be a veterinarian at West Hertel Academy in Buffalo, N.Y. Education advocates argue that stiffer school standards must be accompanied by more money for expanded preschool and other changes to help students reach higher goals. School funding lawsuits are pending in New York and 10 other states. (AP) Any […]
Fourth Grade Reading Skills Improve, Still Low
Former NBA basketball player, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, talks to students from Irwin Intermediate School during Reading Is Fundamental’s literacy celebration last fall in Ft. Bragg, N.C. A number of states have focused on improving reading by the third grade. (AP) Slightly more fourth graders nationwide are reading proficiently compared to a decade ago, but only […]
States Reconsider Common Core Tests
A third-grader works on her classroom’s Smart Board during a grammar lesson at Freeman Elementary in Freeman, S.D. Common Core is being used in South Dakota classrooms, but critics in that state and others have raised questions about the tests associated with the new standards. (AP) Beginning in March, more than four million students will […]
Pushing Full-Day Kindergarten
Two kindergarten students play a letter bingo game at Campbell Hill Elementary in Renton, Wash. Twice as many children are eligible for state funding for full-day kindergarten in Washington state this school year as compared to last year. (AP) In the not too distant past, kindergarten was a place where children learned to color, share […]