BY JIM SAUNDERS JANUARY 04, 2019 TALLAHASSEE A fiercely divided Florida Supreme Court on Friday rejected a nearly decade-long lawsuit that challenged whether the state has properly carried out a 1998 constitutional amendment that called for ensuring a “high quality” system of public schools. The decision upheld lower-court rulings and focused heavily on…
Category: Department of Education
Harsh critic turned public education advocate to speak at CenturyLink Center
Jan 7, 2019 BOSSIER PARISH, LA) – What do blueberries have to do with public education? Everything, as respected businessman and attorney Jamie Vollmer learned after being taken to task by a teacher after he vocally condemned public schools. Once a harsh critic, Vollmer is now an award-winning champion of public education and author of…
Rural Republican proposes tax increase for public education
By: Ben Giles January 7, 2019 Republican Sen. Sylvia Allen wants voters to approve a sales tax hike to boost funding for K-12 schools and higher education. Voters already approved the 0.6-cent sales tax for education in 2000, a levy that generated more than $700 million in the previous fiscal year. Allen, a Snowflake Republican, wants…
Education year in review: Alabama 2018 edition
By Trisha Powell Crain January 1, 2019 From the hiring of a new superintendent to school safety dominating the national conversation to a charter school leading the way, 2018 was a busy year in education in Alabama. Here’s a look back at 2018. Data, data, and more data As is happening nationally, educators and policymakers…
Proposed bill would give teachers pay incentive to improve school grades
By: KRQE Media Dec 19, 2018 SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – A bill filed ahead of next year’s legislative session offers public school teachers a bonus to help raise a school’s failing grade by at least one letter each year. According to House Bill 42 introduced by Democrat Miguel Garcia, schools rated ‘D’ or ‘F’…
Brevard teachers union halts raise negotiations, calling district’s offers ‘laughable’
Following months of negotiations, the Brevard County school district and the teachers union are at a standstill over teacher raises after the union called impasse this week. District negotiators and union leaders have made little progress since starting bargaining talks nearly six months ago, and despite millions of dollars in budget savings are struggling to find money for salaries….
MORE THAN 2,000 PEOPLE FAIL NORTH CAROLINA MATH EXAM TO BECOME LICENSED TEACHERS
Neetu Chandak December 19, 2019 An education standards commission in North Carolina unanimously voted to phase out a portion of a teaching licensing test as about 2,400 teachers failed the math exam. The commission voted to replace for-profit Pearson publishing company’s math test with a math exam from Praxis, created by nonprofit test provider Educational Testing Service (ETS). The…
Los Angeles Teachers Prepare to Strike
Esther Wang December 20, 2018 This year saw a wave of teacher strikes, from West Virginia to Oklahomaand Arizona. Now, educators in Los Angeles, who work in the second-largest school district in the country, have announced that unless the district meets their demands for, among other things, a salary increase and additional hires, they will go on strike on January 10. As Jacobin noted, “The…
Trump school safety group backs off his call to arm trained teachers
Trump created the school safety commission and asked Betsy DeVos to chair it following the February shooting of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. | Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images By KIMBERLY HEFLING December 19, 2018 A Trump administration school safety panel hardly touched on the role of guns in deadly school shootings…
SC ‘children lose’ in the classroom, teachers say. Here’s what they would change
COLUMBIA, SC On a Tuesday in November, Jared arrived in Jeff Maxey’s elementary school class, accompanied by a state caseworker. The night before, the child’s mother was arrested. Hours later, he was balled up in a fetal position under his teacher’s desk, “scared and alone,” Maxey told S.C. House members Monday. “The social and emotional…
Standing Strong for Public Education! 