June 16, 2010
While many high school students in Great Falls enrolled in summer school courses online this year, a new state program is ramping up efforts to get students enrolled in online high school courses this fall — for free. Montana’s Digital Academy based at the University of Montana in Missoula is planning to offer 45 online […]
June 16, 2010
At least three states have asked for permission to cut back on the money they provide districts for special education, under a built-in escape clause in the federal special education law that is aimed at financially struggling states. Iowa and Kansas have both been granted a waiver, which under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act […]
June 15, 2010
School officials say midyear state aid cuts may cause the district to have a $1-million deficit this fiscal year despite getting concessions from all its employees and making massive cuts to many planned expenses. Yet district officials failed to track the tuition costs of 19 special-education students who were taught out of district last year. […]
June 15, 2010
Strong, consistent learning standards will ensure that students get the education they deserve, an official with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation told those attending the National PTA’s annual meeting. Vicki Phillips, director of education for the foundation, said standards can seem "nebulous," but they’re necessary. She spoke Sunday at the final general meeting of […]
June 15, 2010
Property owners in more than two-thirds of the school districts surveyed in the Cambria-Somerset region will be seeing their real estate taxes increase this year to cover 2010-2011 budgets. Of the 16 districts interviewed by The Tribune-Democrat 10 have already passed or are looking at tax increases ranging from a low of just more than […]
June 15, 2010
Four months after Governor Christie cut $5.2 million from an after-school enrichment program for low-income children, most of the non-profits running sites at 16 North Jersey schools have managed to keep them open for the remainder of the school year. But more than 500 of the approximately 1,200 kids attending New Jersey After 3 programs […]
June 15, 2010
State governments generally try to spare schools from budget cuts. But the recession hit tax revenue so hard that K-12 education is seeing sharp cutbacks in state funding. All major sources of state and local-government revenue—sales taxes, income taxes and prope rty taxes—have fallen. Property taxes are the primary source of school funding, and home […]
June 15, 2010
The Kansas City, Kan., school board agreed on Monday to join a coalition of school districts frustrated with the state’s funding practices. The high-poverty district agreed to recommit to Schools for Fair Funding. Although the organization’s attorneys could not be reached for comment on Monday, they have publicly said that they expected to file a […]
June 15, 2010
The president-elect of the Chicago Teachers Union planned an "emergency picket” today protesting a special Chicago School Board vote to raise class sizes and lay off up to 2,700 teachers. "It’s an emergency board meeting, so we’re having an emergency picket,” explained King College Prep teacher Karen Lewis, who takes over as head of the […]
June 15, 2010
Gov. Christie acted within his authority when he froze $475 million in state aid to schools to close a $2.2 billion budget deficit, a state appellate court ruled Monday.& lt;br /> The Perth Amboy Board of Education lost more than $15 million as a result of Christie’s order to withhold state funding for the remainder […]