By Perry Stein November 6 at 11:04 PM D.C. voters had a philosophical question about public education to answer at the polls Tuesday: Did they want candidates who would more likely be fervent advocates of the traditional public school system, or those who would bolster public charter schools? The usually sleepy races for the D.C. State…
Category: Retirees
Public schools’ struggle correlates directly to state voucher support
November 6, 2018 Tony Lux Tony Lux, a board member for the Indiana Coalition for Public Education, is the retired superintendent of Merrillville schools. The recent promulgation of eight indicators of financial health for school systems glaringly ignores the state’s role in the worsening financial condition of many public school districts. Since the 2008 recession,…
Make public education great again [Opinion]
By Noel Candelaria November 5, 2018 It’s unrealistic to continue repeating the same action and expect a different result. However, Texas educators and parents will be deluding themselves if they once again sit out today’s election or vote against the best interests of their professions, their students and their children. There are more than 700,000…
State’s new school report cards at odds with CPS’ own ratings
By Lauren FitzPatrick The state’s new report cards for public schools around Illinois, released Tuesday, pose a conundrum for parents of kids at Chicago Public Schools, which unveiled its own ratings last week: Which metric should they believe? CPS, for example, gave its highest rating — Level 1+ — to 185 schools — but 30 of…
Virginia Beach looking again at changing school start times
VIRGINIA BEACH The School Board is taking another look at changing school start times. Board members discussed potential changes during a workshop Tuesday, when they received a packet filled with more than 100 pages of information on the topic. They’ll likely debate again at a meeting in mid-November, before taking a formal vote toward the…
Pasco schools seek class size solutions
Jeffrey Solochek October 2, 2018 Nearly two months into the academic year, several Pasco County schools continue to struggle meeting state class size requirements. A recently created report indicates hundreds of classrooms across the district that exceeded the constitutional caps by at least one student. School Board members said they had received calls of classes with…
It’s been a tough few years for Florida teachers. Will a new union leader shake things up?
BY COLLEEN WRIGHT AND EMILY L. MAHONEY October 12, 2018 08:07 AM Top education leaders have spent years pleading, lobbying and rallying at the state capitol, but Tallahassee lawmakers keep making life harder and harder for Florida’s public school teachers. The Florida Education Association advocates for the state’s nearly 200,000 educators, but it…
Education Is on the Ballot this November
By Jessica Yin October 12, 2018, Getty/Portland Press Herald/Derek DavisA child peers up into a voting booth as his mother fills out ballots in Scarborough, Maine. With one month left before the midterm elections, voters have a lot of big decisions to make as they prepare to choose between candidates running for local, state, and national…
Understanding Amendment 73: Funding Public Education
Sarah Ferguson Oct 11, 2018 COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Election day is less than a month away now and we want to start breaking down some of the amendments you’ll be voting on this November. Amendment 73 aims to increase funding for K-12 Public Education by establishing tax brackets, or raising taxes for certain…
Seattle teachers and staff vote to authorize a strike — unless a deal is reached by Sept. 5
By Dahlia Bazzaz It’s official: Teachers and school staff in Seattle voted to authorize a strike Tuesday evening. The strike could take effect if negotiations with Seattle Public Schools don’t result in a tentative contract by the first day of school, Sept. 5. The vote followed perhaps the state’s first official strikes that disrupted the first day…