Aug 29, 2018, Natalie Wexler Frustrated with a lack of progress—especially for poor and minority students—some education activists are resorting to lawsuits. But courts aren’t equipped to address obstacles that are deeply rooted in the American approach to teaching. A lawsuit filed in 2016 charged that conditions in Detroit schools—including a lack of teachers, books, pencils, and…
Category: Students and Parents Protest
Invest in Education income-tax measure knocked off November ballot by courts
An Arizona Supreme Court ruling Wednesday knocked the Invest in Education income-tax measure off the November ballot. According to the ruling, the measure’s description “did not accurately represent the increased tax burden on the affected classes of taxpayers.” The measure, recently titled Proposition 207, was expected to bring in $690 million in additional funding for…
Arizona Supreme Court boots educational funding proposal off Nov. ballot
AUGUST 29, 2018 David Schwartz PHOENIX (Reuters) – The Arizona Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday to remove a proposal from the November ballot that, if passed, would have pumped $690 million into Arizona’s public education system by raising taxes on the state’s highest earners. The court found the proposition’s description of the change in tax…
While support for a four-day school week won, the opposition is nearly even in some areas
August 23, 2018 By: Austin Howard FARGO—According to a recent InForum poll with the question. “Would you like to see local districts adopt a 4-day school week?” Minnesotans and North Dakotans are mostly split in their decision. Out of the 26 Minnesota votes, it was a 50/50 split with 13 in favor and 13 against the…
DeVos makes surprise visits to D.C. public schools that made gains on standardized test
By Perry Stein August 22 at 9:12 PM Education Secretary Betsy DeVos made a surprise visit Wednesday to three D.C. public schools to mark the start of the year and celebrate their notable gains on a national standardized test. The elementary schools — Hendley, Simon and Amidon-Bowen — are part of the traditional public school system…
Charter School Amendment Removed From Florida Ballot
AUGUST 21, 2018 By Tom McLaughlin Circuit Court Judge John Cooper clearly didn’t agree with the wording of the last of the constitutional amendments to be put before voters this November. Cooper on Monday ordered Amendment 8 stricken from the ballot, calling both the amendment language and the title it would have been introduced under…
California’s missing information about public education
Dan Walters Aug. 16, 2018 Knowledge, it’s been said, is power. It’s especially true in politics, whose insiders joust constantly among themselves and with outsiders, including the media and the voting public, over access to information. One of California’s more important arenas of info-war is public education. We Californians spend at least $100 billion in taxpayer…
Low scores for Arkansas on commitment to public schools
Max Brantley Mon, Aug 6, 2018 The Network for Public Education has published a national survey gradingstates on public education as measured by their support for privatization efforts, to the detriment of conventional public schools. Arkansas scores poorly. The group is fighting the “choice” movement promoted by, among others, the hugely wealthy Walton Family Foundation. It explains: While most will not…
As public education stumbles, democracy falls
By Wendy Lecker Sunday, August 5, 2018 There is a disturbing trend in American policy where a powerful few use government to benefit themselves at the expense of the many. The most recent example is Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s proposal to implement a $100 billion tax cut that would primarily benefit the 0.1 percent of…
Report slams Texas’ underfunding of public schools
By John Austin Jul 29, 2018 AUSTIN — Texas’ school-age population is the nation’s fastest-growing, with about 850,000 new pupils in the past decade, but over the same period, the state cut public-education spending by $2.5 billion. The cuts are second only to Florida’s, according to a new report from the American Federation of Teachers,…
Standing Strong for Public Education! 