March 30, 2011
The financially embattled Detroit school system has announced a controversial plan to turn nearly a third of the district’s 141 schools over to charter operators or education-management organizations by next school year. Officials say their only other option is to close dozens of low-performing schools. If the plan to hand 41 schools over to outside […]
March 30, 2011
FRANKFORT, Ky.–A week and a half into a special legislative session, lawmakers remained divided Wednesday on how to shore up financing within the Kentucky’s Medicaid program. Senate Appropriations and Revenue Committee Chairman Bob Leeper said questions linger on whether Gov. Steve Beshear’s administration can find ways to save $425 million in the Medicaid program next […]
March 30, 2011
JACKSON – Mississippi Senate and House budget writers are still in a deadlock after the House’s last minute budget proposal didn’t receive Senate support Saturday night. "They didn’t come off of anything new," said Senate Appropriations Chair Doug Davis, R-Hernando. "They reduced $8 or $9 million in IHL support and outside of that, there weren’t […]
March 30, 2011
Responding to criticism that tenure gives even poor teachers a job for life, Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, announced a plan Thursday to overhaul how teachers are evaluated and dismissed. It would give tenured teachers who are rated unsatisfactory by their principals a maximum of one school year to improve. […]
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 […]