March 30, 2011
TALLAHASSEE — Florida’s budget gap now stands at roughly $3.75 billion after state economists on Friday forecast a slow recovery over the next year that will limit how much money legislators will have to balance spending with revenues. While it will likely be weeks before lawmakers reach a final deal, legislators so far are standing […]
March 30, 2011
Teacher observations under District of Columbia’s IMPACT teacher-evaluation system have been performed with relative consistency, but they only correlate modestly to value-added measures, according to a report released this morning by the Aspen Institute, a Washington-based policy group. In addition, with about 82 percent of the teaching force in the bottom two categories of effectiveness […]
March 30, 2011
Texas budget horror stories continue to filter across the state, and those stories aren’t going to come to an end after the Texas House Appropriations Committee adopted a 2012-13 spending plan to present this week to the full House. The proposed budget calls for the under-funding of public schools by almost $8 billion and Medicaid […]
March 30, 2011
A month after Chicago Public Schools approved two new charters and several new campuses for charter schools, the charter community was back before the school board Wednesday asking for space. Charter advocates said CPS owns more than 100 school buildings that are underused and house low-performing schools. New and expanding charter schools should have access […]
March 30, 2011
The Senate Education Committee is expected to vote today on a hot button issue: publicly funded vouchers to send low-income children to nonpublic schools. Before voting on the bill, the committee will consider about a dozen amendments aimed at adding accountability, shifting financial responsibility from school districts to the state, clarifying language and other items. […]
March 30, 2011
Cash-strapped states are taking aim at Medicaid, the health-care program for low-income people, as stubbornly high employment is pushing an increase in enrollment and costs. Trying to cut such a large expense sends a good signal to municipal bond holders, analysts said, since health care is second only to education in state spending, according to […]
March 30, 2011
To help states address unprecedented budget pressures, the U.S. Department of Education today released promising practices to state leaders about how to spend education dollars productively and highlighting flexibility available for spending federal funds. During a national press call, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said, "There is a right way and a wrong way to cut […]
March 30, 2011
Major charter-school organizations won the right Tuesday to operate at seven of 13 schools under a policy that allows bidders inside and outside the Los Angeles Unified School District to take control of new and academically struggling campuses. Charter schools got most of what they wanted by the end of a 51/2-hour meeting in which […]
March 30, 2011
Columbus — Highlights of Gov. John Kasich’s executive budget include the end of billions of dollars in federal stimulus dollars and other one-time monies, a resulting reduction in state funding for local governments and policy changes aimed at helping school districts, county commissioners and other public offices cope with cuts. The governor has outlined general […]
March 30, 2011
The Teachers’ Retirement System, the largest and costliest of Illinois’ pension programs, is now almost $40 billion short of what’s needed to cover future benefits — the deepest financial hole in 20 years of state records. And with lawmakers looking to rein in the massive costs of public retirement programs, teachers worry that the nest […]