Access News from November 16- November 20,
2009
Daily news stories about education funding
litigation, education funding policy, cost studies,
advocacy and No Child Left Behind.
(Some links go to pages that require free subscriptions)
November
20, 2009
Education Finance – General
DE---Secretary of Education Lillian Lowery asked state
budget makers Thursday for $3.68 million less than she
received in this year's budget to run the state's public
education system in the next fiscal year.
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more…
Federal Stimulus Issues
Members of the Obama administration told a congressional
panel today that they are working to better track how
many jobs have been created or saved so far under the
$787 billion federal stimulus program, in the wake of
media reports questioning jobs data released last month.
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more…
FL---Florida Education Commissioner Eric Smith on Wednesday
said it looks like the state could end up asking the
federal government for $1 billion in grant money earmarked
for education. ``We are excited by what this means to
the state, what it means to our children and what it
means to our educators,'' Smith said in a call with
reporters.
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more…
IN---Indiana hopes to win $250 million or more in competitive
federal stimulus grants for schools — money the
state superintendent says it deserves because of recent
changes lawmakers made to education policies.
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more…
November 19, 2009
Education Finance – General
ID---Gov. Butch Otter said he will try to spare education
as much as possible as he and the Legislature fashion
a budget bound to include some of the most drastic cuts
seen in Idaho in years.
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more…
Federal Stimulus Issues
MA---The state Senate last night passed a sweeping education
bill, the most significant in more than 15 years, giving
Massachusetts an edge in a scramble to compete for $250
million in federal education grants.
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more…
ME---State lawmakers grappling with increasing budget
shortfalls learned Tuesday that federal law will greatly
limit what cuts they can make to Maine’s two largest
agencies — Health and Human Services and Education.
Combined, the two agencies make up about 80 percent
of the state’s general fund budget.
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more…
MO---The fight is on for billions of federal dollars
to back school reform, and Missouri is answering the
bell after all.
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more…
November
18, 2009
School Funding/Litigation
FL---Florida is violating the state Constitution by
not pouring enough money into schools and relentlessly
focusing on high-stakes testing policies that aren't
getting good results, says a lawsuit expected to be
filed today in Leon County circuit court.
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more…
KS---Kansas' governor said Tuesday that the threat of
a lawsuit over education funding won't influence the
spending cuts he'll make to keep the current state budget
in balance.
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more…
TX---It's been just a few years since Texas lawmakers,
facing a court order, undertook a massive overhaul of
the school funding system. But booming enrollment, higher
costs on such necessities as utility bills and a public
reluctance to pay higher taxes have left many districts
in a fix. "It looks like the state may be walking
itself right into another lawsuit," said David
Hinojosa, an attorney for the Mexican-American Legal
Defense and Educational Fund, which was part of the
most recent school finance lawsuit against the state
that resulted in the 2006 changes.
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more…
WA---The state Supreme Court unanimously decided Nov.
12 that inequities resulting from state funding formulas
don’t violate the state’s constitution.
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more…
Federal Stimulus Issues
NY---New York state needs to improve the way it monitors
how districts and others spend their American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act dollars, the U.S. Department of
Education’s office of the inspector general reported
last week.
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more…
November
17, 2009
School Funding/Litigation
KS---Schools are gearing up for a legal battle against
state legislators — a battle that lawmakers say
Kansans can't afford. A coalition of 57 districts met
last week to discuss suing the state because of cuts
to education funding that they said could leave schools
short on money for years to come.
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more…
Education Finance – General
MS---Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour on Monday unveiled
a budget that includes sweeping reorganization of state
government, including proposals to merge eight universities
into five and reduce the number of school districts
by a third.
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more…
Federal Stimulus Issues
U.S. Department of Education officials plan to require
districts receiving economic-stimulus aid to report
school-level salaries—a sign, observers say, that
the Obama administration might seek key changes to district
accounting procedures for federal Title I funds.
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more…
IN---Indiana hopes to win $250 million or more in competitive
federal stimulus grants for schools -- money the state
superintendent says it deserves because of recent changes
lawmakers made to education policies.
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more…
MD---Gov. Martin O'Malley defended on Monday Maryland's
efforts to qualify for Race to the Top federal education
funds, saying the state is competitively positioned
despite being characterized by some as visibly lagging
behind other states.
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more…
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