public schools

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Occupy School Districts, Not Wall Street

They contribute just as much to inequality: Andrew Rotherham

(Newser) - Wall Street is an easy target, but if protesters really want to improve social mobility in America, they should be occupying the school districts. “There is perhaps no better example of how the system is rigged against millions of Americans than the education our children receive,” writes Andrew...

Virginia School Board Sued Over Ten Commandments

Civil liberties groups want plaque removed from hallway

(Newser) - Dispatches from the church-and-state front:
  • Ten Commandments: Civil liberties groups have sued the school board in Giles County, Virginia, demanding that a Ten Commandments plaque be removed from a high school hallway. The board says it's simply part of a display of historical documents, including the Declaration of Independence,
...

School Handcuffed First Graders for Talking: Lawsuit

Mother seeking $100K from Chicago schools

(Newser) - A Chicago mom is suing the city’s public school system, alleging that a school security guard handcuffed her son and several other 6- and 7-year-olds for talking in class. When asked by school officials to discipline the kids in March 2010, the guard allegedly took them to an empty...

Church Slams New NYC Sex Ed Mandate

Lessons may be barred from premises when schools rent from archdiocese

(Newser) - Mandatory sex education is returning to public middle and high schools in New York City after nearly 20 years, and the Catholic church isn't happy about it. A spokesman for the archdiocese says the mandate "allows the public school system to substitute its beliefs and values for those...

LA Schools: Homework Can't Exceed 10% of Grade

New rule aims to help kids facing after-school pressures

(Newser) - The nation's second-biggest school district is entering the debate over homework: A new policy dictates that it can't be worth more than 10% of a student's grade, reports the LA Times . The Los Angeles Unified School District wants to ease the after-school burden on its largely low-income,...

High Schooler to Michele Bachmann: Let's Debate Constitution and US History
High Schooler to Bachmann:
Let's Debate History
in case you missed it
May 15, 2011 7:49 AM CDT

High Schooler to Bachmann: Let's Debate History

Teen calls her grasp of civics 'grossly distorted'

(Newser) - Concerned that Michele Bachmann’s take on US civics is “factually incorrect, inaccurately applied or grossly distorted,” a New Jersey teen has challenged the Minnesota representative to a debate on US history and the Constitution, the Minnesota Independent reports. “The frequent inability you have shown to accurately...

Ex-NYC Schools Chief: Was it Sexism?

Cathie Black wonders if public drubbing would've been easier on a man

(Newser) - Cathie Black is out as chancellor of New York City's school system, and in her first post-firing/quitting interview, she wonders if sexism was part of the reason why: "If I were a guy, would I have had the pounding that I did?" the former Hearst honcho asks Fortune....

Virginia Gov. Vetoes School PE Bill

'Unfunded mandate' would have required 150 minutes of PE a week

(Newser) - Virginia’s governor has vetoed a bill that would have required 150 minutes of physical activity per week at elementary and middle schools, handing a victory to school officials who complained that the measure would cost millions to staff, lengthen the school day, and take away from arts education. “...

Dave Eggers: Enough With the Teacher Layoffs

System leaves already-struggling public educators in lurch

(Newser) - Public school teachers grapple with 80-hour work weeks on tight salaries, with little creative freedom, while the media attacks their unions—and on top of all that, they face mass layoffs on a regular basis. In San Francisco, for example, 2,800 teachers were warned last week that their jobs...

It's Time to Give Teachers a Fat Raise
 It's Time to Give 
 Teachers a Fat Raise 




NICHOLAS KRISTOF
Mar 13, 2011 6:44 AM CDT

It's Time to Give Teachers a Fat Raise

Teachers should be praised, not vilified

(Newser) - Right-wing propaganda aside, America's teachers are underpaid and need to make more if the United States is to compete internationally, writes Nicholas Kristof at the New York Times . "We should be elevating teachers, not throwing darts at them," he says. In 1970, a starting public school teacher earned...

Donor Sues School for $40K After Son Is Rejected

Surgeon claims he was told money would ensure acceptance

(Newser) - A Texas father is suing the Jesuit prep school he attended after it rejected his son—despite an alleged promise of acceptance in exchange for a hefty donation. Michael Bardwil, a vascular surgeon, said he approached Strake Jesuit administrators about ways to ensure acceptance for his son about 5 years...

Arizona Law Banning Ethnic Studies Takes Effect Tonight

It's designed to stop a Mexican-American history course

(Newser) - An Arizona law banning Mexican-American studies takes effect at midnight, opening a new front in the state's immigration wars. Among other things, the law bans courses designed for students of any particular ethnic group—even if they are open to all students. The state schools chief wrote it in response...

Let's Face It: School Reform Will Always Be Political
Let's Face It: School Reform
Will Always Be Political
michelle rhee
Dec 6, 2010 1:59 PM CST

Let's Face It: School Reform Will Always Be Political

Conflict can't prevent reform, says ex-DC schools chief Michelle Rhee

(Newser) - Michelle Rhee intends to keep fighting for school reform—but she doesn't expect to make friends doing it. Education is an inherently political issue, the ex-DC schools chancellor argues in an op-ed for Newsweek , announcing her plans to launch a "new national movement to transform public education." Rhee,...

Tea Partier: Get Rid of Public Schools

David Harmer says public schools are "socialism in education."

(Newser) - The Tea Party-backed frontrunner in a California congressional race has some unorthodox views on education: he wants to abolish public schools entirely, Mother Jones reports. In past articles, Republican David Harmer—currently leading in California's 11th Congressional District—writes that "government should exit the business of running and funding...

Mark Zuckerberg Giving $100M to Newark Schools

Facebook founder setting up foundation to improve education

(Newser) - Newark's cash-strapped public school system is getting some help from a wealthy friend. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is planning a $100 million donation to improve the system, officials tell the New York Times . Zuckerberg, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and Newark Mayor Cory Booker will announce the donation on the...

White House Dangles Obama Commencement Speech

Public school voted tops will land president

(Newser) - If your high school commencement speech was some guy from the Chamber of Commerce, the White House has a less nap-inducing alternative: The public school voted most dedicated to prepping its kids for college and career will get a graduation address from one Barack Obama. Six finalist schools are on...

Del., Tenn. Only States to Qualify for Education Stimulus Prize

Union support helps 'Race to Top' winners

(Newser) - With $4 billion in stimulus funds up for grabs in an initiative to improve US schools, only two states of the 41 that applied scored high enough to get a piece. Delaware and Tennessee will each get $600 million, from the “Race to the Top” program, the Department of...

Kansas City Closing Half Its Schools

'We took a meat ax to the district'

(Newser) - Kansas City's school board narrowly voted to close 29 of the city's 61 public schools after an emotional, standing-room-only meeting last night. The measure, a desperate attempt to prevent a projected $50 million budget shortfall, passed 5-4 despite pleas from parents and community leaders to keep the schools open, the...

Katrina Benefited New Orleans Schools: Ed Secretary

'Education system was a disaster' before hurricane, Arne Duncan says

(Newser) - By forcing the city to start rebuilding its schools from scratch, Hurricane Katrina was "the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans," the secretary of education says in a TV interview set to air next week. "That education system was a disaster, and...

Chicago Schools Lag Gains Claimed by Duncan

Test scores in ed secretary's former district trail other cities

(Newser) - In the latest test results, Chicago schools failed to show evidence of the gains claimed by their former superintendent, Arne Duncan, whose success in turning around the struggling system was widely touted when he was nominated for education secretary. Students in Miami, Houston, and New York outscored Chicago in math;...

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