News & Comment
Blogs and Opinion
Doing the Troops Wrong by Bob Herbert, The New York Times | May 7, 2008
Who wouldn't support an effort to pay for college for G.I.'s who have willingly suited up and put their lives on the line, who in many cases have served multiple tours in combat zones and in some cases have been wounded? Well, you might be surprised at who is opposing this effort. Or you might not. read more »Liberating the Schoolhouse by Wellford Wilms, truthdig.com | May 2, 2008
The dominant belief is that top-down control is the only way to hold principals and teachers accountable for measurable results. The less prevalent belief is that bottom-up collaboration between teachers and administrators is a source of innovation that builds commitment to and support for successful reforms. The conflict has become especially important in the face of the federal No Child Left Behind initiative, which requires administrators to produce high test scores or risk their jobs. read more »A Diploma in Debt by Shonu Gandhi, tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com | April 17, 2008
Significant policy changes — the systematic inclusion and a substantive financial literacy curriculum in every state's public high school education requirements — are needed in order to give young people a real chance at building solid financial futures. read more »Education: Losing Ground in Global Competitiveness by Alex Carter, OurFuture.org | March 28, 2008
Newly released data by the Department of Education illuminates the educational landscape of America. read more »The Degeneration of American Education by Gerald Bracey, Huffington Post | March 28, 2008
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities," said Voltaire. In a world that contains Clear Skies, Clean Waters, Healthy Forests, an Axis of Evil, Iraqi Freedom, Family Values, Patriot Act, and No Child Left Behind, it is a good reminder for our time. read more »Decoupling Education & Upward Mobility by Terrance Heath, OurFuture.org | March 26, 2008
If "making the grade" is no longer a path to "moving on up," then it looks like the decoupling of education from employment, upward mobility, and the American Dream is at least underway. Or maybe it's already happened. read more »Do Wall Street Dealers Ever Create Jobs? by Sam Pizzigati, cipa-apex.org | January 31, 2008
A landmark new study, released at the annual Davos high-finance summit, scrutinizes the high-flying private equity industry—and complicates life for our global greedy. read more »The Soldier and the Student by Aaron Glantz, <i>The Nation</i>, The Nation | November 28, 2007
Today's military education benefit is not your grandfather's GI Bill. read more »The GOP's School Daze by Robert L. Borosage, home.ourfuture.org | November 16, 2007
Ideas have consequences. Perhaps the most important advice for students as they enter college this fall is to take ideas seriously. For proof, they need only to look at their own pocketbooks as their families struggle to pay for their college costs. Ideas-specifically, conservative ideas-put into practice are pricing college out of the reach of more and more working families. read more »Unintelligent Design by Greg Anrig Jr., <i>TPM Cafe</i>, feeds.feedburner.com | November 15, 2007
The marketing of "intelligent design" reveals much about the conservative movement. read more »
The Latest
"No Child Left Behind" to be "Rebranded", iht.com | February 23, 2009
Two years ago, an effort to fix No Child Left Behind, the main U.S. law on public schools, provoked a grueling slugfest in Congress, leading Representative George Miller, Democrat of California, to say the law had become "the most negative brand in America." Education Secretary Arne Duncan agrees. "Let's rebrand it," he said in an interview. read more »
Schools Get $106 Billion in Stimulus, Los Angeles Times | February 13, 2009
The massive federal economic stimulus package hammered out by Congress this week contains about $106 billion earmarked for education, an unprecedented expansion of federal spending into the nation's schools. The money would pay for, among other things, special education, school repair and retaining teachers who might otherwise be laid off. read more »
Stimulus Could Aid Colleges, Students, Associated Press | February 9, 2009
The stimulus plan emerging in Washington could offer an unprecedented, multibillion-dollar boost in financial help for college students trying to pursue a degree while they ride out the recession. It could also hand out billions to the states to kick-start idled campus construction projects and help prevent tuition increases at a time when families can least afford them. read more »
School Funds Double in Stimulus, Christian Science Monitor | February 5, 2009
The economic stimulus bills before Congress contain a $140 billion boost for education — and most of it would be used to more than double federal spending on America's public schools over the next two years. read more »
Democrats Seek Stimulus for Schools, Associated Press | January 25, 2009
Democrats want to use the big spending package designed to jump-start the staggering economy to send billions to long-term programs to help poor and disabled school children. President Barack Obama's recovery plan amounts to the biggest increase ever in federal money for schools. Many Republicans say it is not a short-term boost but an immense expansion that will be impossible to roll back. read more »
Schools Get Small Slice of Stimulus, money.cnn.com | January 15, 2009
President-elect Barack Obama has proposed an ambitious plan to rebuild the nation's crumbling schools as a part of his economic stimulus package, aiming to help budget-constrained school districts make much needed repairs. read more »
Obama Pledges School Upgrades, USA Today | January 1, 2009
Barack Obama probably cannot fix every leaky roof and busted boiler in the nation's schools. But educators say his sweeping school modernization program — if he spends enough — could jump-start student achievement. More kids than ever are crammed into aging, run-down schools that need an estimated $255 billion in repairs, renovations or construction. read more »
More Math, Science Teachers Needed, | December 29, 2008
It's no easy task to recruit people with proclivities for science into schools — and to keep them long enough to nurture a talent for teaching. But over the next decade, schools will need 200,000 or more new teachers in science and math, according to estimates by such groups as the Business-Higher Education Forum in Washington. read more »
More Students Need Subsidized Lunches, CNN | December 12, 2008
The sagging economy is taking a bite out of federal school-meal subsidies as more students take advantage of free or low-price breakfasts and lunches, nutritionists say in a report. read more »
Schools Health Experts Warn of Hunger , mcclatchydc.com | December 9, 2008
School nurse Carolyn Duff told a Senate committee that she sees signs of the financial downturn every day in the kids she treats. "More and more of the working poor are entering the ranks of unemployed, impoverished and homeless families," Duff testified before the Senate Agriculture Committee. read more »
