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 […]
March 30, 2011
Despite its flaws, an increased focus on achievement among students with disabilities was one positive outcome of No Child Left Behind, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told members of Congress Wednesday. In testimony before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, Duncan said that for all of its shortcomings, No Child Left Behind did […]
March 30, 2011
ALBANY – State Senate Republicans are pushing a revised plan backed by Mayor Bloomberg to change the last in, first out law dictating teacher layoffs. The new version was included in a Senate GOP budget proposal introduced over the weekend. It is billed as a hybrid between the bill the Senate recently passed and an […]
March 30, 2011
As momentum for customized, online instruction grows, its supporters say the biggest obstacle to implementing more adaptive curricula and personalized approaches isn’t popular will, but state and local policies. Often those policies date from a time when phrases like "distance learning" and "blended approach" conjured images of a telegraph wire and a home economics course, […]
March 30, 2011
Three years of state budget cuts have widened the gap between schools in poor and wealthy communities while diminishing the quality of education in California overall, according to a report released Monday by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles. "In 2011, California public schools struggle to provide all students with a quality education […]
March 30, 2011
Maryland’s school board will consider passing a regulation that would limit the time a school district can keep a student out of school waiting for a decision on the appeal of a suspension or expulsion. After a Fairfax County, Va., student committed suicide following a long suspension from school, the Maryland board asked state administrators […]
March 30, 2011
Jefferson City — The Senate debated a bill Monday night that would mean more money for Springfield-area schools, but two St. Louis County senators delayed it because their districts would get less. The bill by Sen. David Pearce, R-Warrensburg, would make changes to a complex formula that determines how much money each K-12 district receives […]
March 11, 2011
The uncertainty in state funding is prompting some school districts to search for ways to find more reliable sources of money from local sources. Some believe property taxes would be better than a sales tax. The state didn’t make as much money as projected so education funding was reduced. Madison City Schools lost more than […]