Categories Archives: Federal Policy

California could get $350 million for preschool under federal proposal - by Lillian Mongeau

By Lillian Mongeau California could nearly double its spending on public preschool with an influx of federal funding if the president’s proposal to significantly increase the money available for early childhood programs passes Congress, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Education on Tuesday. Since President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address [...]

Advocacy groups urge rejection of NCLB waiver for California districts - by John Fensterwald

By John Fensterwald Seven advocacy and civil rights organizations, led by Washington-based The Education Trust, have called on Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to deny nine California districts a waiver from the No Child Left Behind law, saying any deviation from a statewide wavier “would be the wrong path forward.” “Instead, we urge California’s district [...]

School Safety Since Newtown: Analysis Tallies State Legislation

By thenotebook A version of this article first appeared at Education Week. by Nirvi Shah & Andrew Ujifusa for Education Week After the devastating school shootings in Newtown, Conn., in December, state lawmakers around the country vowed to act. The mission: Devise ways to prevent a similar tragedy. They came up with hundreds of possible [...]

No Teachers With Guns, No Police In Schools

On December 30, 2012, President Obama said he doubted arming school police with guns will prevent future school shootings, but then January 11, 2013′s EdWeek hints that he may yield to local law enforcement officers and communities if it has “bipartisan” support. While President Barack Obama said recently that he would be skeptical that more [...]

Miss the #KidsNotCuts Twitter Party? Here’s the Recap

In case you missed the #kidsnotcuts Twitter party with our expert Lily Eskelsen (@NEAToday) as the featured guest, I’ve collected some of the tweet highlights. Good morning, all! Let’s get #kidsnotcuts Twitter Party started! Thanks for joining us Lily. Use @neatoday 2 any Qs u have re fed school $ — K-12 News Network (@K12NN) [...]

Fiscal Showdown & Reduced Federal Spending on Education? We Say Kids, Not Cuts

My home state is California, and we just successfully survived our own state version of the “fiscal cliff” when it comes to education. Here, they were called the “trigger cuts.” If Proposition 30 — essentially part of the June 30, 2012 budget passed by the legislature that needed the people’s thumbs up at the ballot [...]

Chicago Teachers Union Strike: A Proxy for Deep Teacher-Parent Dissatisfaction With Current Education Policy

This is a must-read from The Nation on why the Chicago teacher’s strike is much more than a local issue. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel share roots in the city that was Obama’s training ground as a politician, and so they’re deserved targets as well as proxies for all that [...]

Public School Supporters Meet With Governor Dean and Randi Weingarten at the DNC

While at the DNC, I was lucky enough to be invited to a small gathering of public education supporters with Governor Dean and Randi Weingarten, who heads the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). I’m a tremendous fan of Governor Dean — in fact, I was a Deaniac before there was a netroots. I still think [...]

What Backers of the “Parent Trigger”/Parent Tricker Law Don’t Want You to Know: Real Democratic Involvement in Public Schools Works

Around the country, REAL parent heroes are putting the lie to the version of the story told in the movie Won’t Back Down. The “parent trigger”, or “parent tricker” law is in the news again, this time with a glossy film starring popular actors Viola Davis and Maggie Gyllenhaal. The heart-string-tugging movie is called Won’t [...]