March 30, 2011
Gov. Mark Dayton’s administration has reached agreement with legislative leaders on an alternative licensing plan for teachers, his office announced Monday. The bill is designed to give Minnesota schools an infusion of new, mostly young teachers who didn’t attend traditional teaching colleges. Backers say it will raise educational standards and help close one of the […]
March 30, 2011
When a speech therapist suggested last fall that it was time for 4th grader Sloan Brickey to use a device to help convey her sometimes-garbled words, the first option was a 2-foot-long board that offered a choice of six words at a time. Sloan, 11, has Down syndrome and already sticks out enough at her […]
March 30, 2011
Two of the state’s largest charter school organizations are in talks to merge, raising questions about the future of their 33 campuses and the local charter movement. Such a partnership could cr eate the largest charter school operation in California, and one of the nation’s biggest with 12,000 students. Negotiations are underway between financially struggling […]
March 30, 2011
Four days after taking office, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo established committees to tackle what he called two of the biggest problems facing New York: rising Medicaid costs and state spending requirements that drive up local property taxes. Last month, Mr. Cuomo’s Medicaid committee produced 79 proposals that it said would save the state billions. In […]
March 30, 2011
< ;aside id=”rdb-article-meta” style=”display: block; margin-top: 15px; “> Teachers hired after the start of the school year are twice as likely to leave their schools—or the profession altogether—within a year, leading to higher staffing costs for districts that delay their hiring, according to a statewide study of teachers in Michigan. In what is believed to […]
March 30, 2011
The drop-off in stimulus spending by the federal government is likely to put a dent in special education programs at some New Orleans schools, with the Orleans Parish School Board planning deep cuts in its special-ed workforce ahead of the next school year. School districts across the country are bracing for the end of $100 […]
March 30, 2011
HARRISBURG — Gov. Tom Corbett says the Medicaid expansion under the year-old federal health care law will be unaffordable for Pennsylvania, and he’s urging the courts to help states settle the matter. He and other governors are asking for speedy consideration of lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of that law. In the meantime, Mr. Corbett is […]
March 30, 2011
The Christie administration has retained Peter Verniero, a former state Supreme Court associate justice and state attorney general, to help defend the state in the school-funding case now returning to the high court. Verniero is not being paid for his time, but the firm at which he’s a partner, Sills Cummis & Gross, may be […]
March 30, 2011
Some of the nation’s largest and best-known charter-management organizations have not jumped at the opportunity to “restart” schools with federal economic-stimulus money, but a wide range of smaller charter operators, private for-profit companies, and nonprofit groups have filled the gap. Only about 5 percent of schools receiving “school improvement grants” as part of the federal […]
March 30, 2011
DALLAS—As Texas scho ols scrounge for cash to buy supplies and threaten to lay off teachers, $830 million in education funding earmarked for the state is sitting at the federal Department of Education.The money, part of the stimulus package passed last year by Congress to help U.S. schools, is trapped by an increasingly hostile battle […]