June 28, 2010
Nearly 700 students enrolled in specialized programs will be uprooted Wednesday if Los Angeles County education officials proceed with plans to close nearly two dozen alternative schools because of budget cuts. Students, teachers and some county leaders are mounting a last-ditch effort to keep the schools open, at least temporarily. "I don’t think I have […]
June 28, 2010
Claiming that Chicago Public Schools routinely fails to properly evaluate young children for special education services, an advocacy group has filed a complaint with the Illinois State Board of Education. Equip for Equality, the state’s federally mandated watchdog for people with disabilities, said in its complaint that "hundreds of children between the ages of 3 […]
June 28, 2010
So last week, four Kansas City District residents sued state officials over distributing money from the school foundation formula, after lawmakers reduced the total state-aid appropriation because of lower-than-expected state revenues. The suit asks the Cole County Circuit Court to order state officials to give the Kansas City, Mo. School District (KCMSD) the additional $2.933 […]
June 28, 2010
For months, Abington Heights School District Superintendent Michael Mahon, Ph.D., has been occupied with a calculator and pages of financial projections. School board members resisted a tax hike for 2010-11, but balancing the budget any other way proved nearly impossible. Eventually, school district officials presented a budget of $44.1 million that includes a 2-mill tax […]
June 28, 2010
New York lawmakers, unwilling to approve a budget plan proposed by Governor David Paterson, prepared an alternative that cuts less aid to schools and universities and authorizes spending to avoid a government shutdown. The plan drew criticism from the governor’s office. A statement by Paterson’s spokesman, Morgan Hook, said it lacked revenue proposals to close […]
June 25, 2010
Special education programs will remain the same at the public school board despite a "drastic" and "unexpected" $1-million reduction in funding. The Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board approved its $368,920,545 balanced budget for 2010-11 Thursday night. The budget includes no job losses. "We’ve been able to adjust other areas of the budget to offer […]
June 25, 2010
Negotiators at the State Capitol have tentatively agreed to restore nearly one-third of the $1.4 billion in cuts to public schools sought by Gov. David A. Paterson. But officials are still divided over whether the additional funds steered to districts should go entirely to property tax relief or for spending to restore program cuts or […]
June 25, 2010
<!–Saxotech Paragraph Count: 14–><!–Saxotech Paragraph Count: 14–>State Superintendent Tony Evers outlined his strategy to reform school funding Thursday, but some local officials said the plan won’t do enough to fix the problem Evers’ proposal, "Fair Funding for Our Future," which he discussed during a conference call with media Thursday, would allocate about $900 million in […]
June 25, 2010
House Speaker Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, suggested Thursday that Indiana schools are in for another round of cuts in 2011, based on a May memo from the Indiana Department of Education. “That is pretty dark information,” he said. “They shouldn’t put fear and trepidation into schools.” But Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett clarified that […]
June 25, 2010
The following information was released by Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Democratic Caucus: State Rep. Mike Sturla’s bill that would institute an equitable formula to allocate special education funding for Pennsylvania schools cleared a major hurdle today when it passed the House by a bipartisan vote of 173-25. "Pennsylvania benefits when all students are educated and […]