Texas House committee approves $1.6 billion school finance measure

After weeks of debating how to prevent school districts from becoming financial losers, the House Public Education Committee voted to adopt its leading school finance bill, which would inject an extra $1.6 billion into the state public education system.The bill is now eligible to be considered by the full House. Read more>>

A proposal to study the effect on student performance of moving up the start date of the school year in 20 North Carolina counties is moving forward in the House. School calendars have been an annual battlefield in the General Assembly for more than a decade, when a grassroots group successfully lobbied to etch the start and end dates to school years into state law. Read more>>

The Breakthrough charter schools in Cleveland joined a group of 20 charter school operators in opposing President Donald Trump's education budget. Though charter schools would receive $168 million more money through Trump's plan, the school leaders oppose cuts in federal support to traditional school districts. Read more>>

Meria Joel Carstarphen and Matthew Randazzo

The road hasn’t always been easy, but Atlanta Public Schools has a proud history of bringing communities together to address academic and social challenges. Read more>>

Under a veto threat from Gov. Larry Hogan, the Maryland Senate passed a bill to limit how the state defines and takes over struggling schools. Among the most hotly contested issues were whether the General Assembly should forbid the state school board from putting all failing schools into a single "reform" district. Read more>>

Lawmakers are considering changes to charter school enrollment preferences and the school choice process. When charters have more applicants than seats, state law allows them to give preference to certain students. Charter school supporters say that allows them to fulfill their specialized missions, but traditional school advocates say that has allowed charters to screen out at-risk kids. Read more>>

As funding grew following years of budget cuts, California school districts increased spending for administrator pay faster than they raised spending for teacher pay, a financial review found. General fund spending by districts on teacher salaries rose by 15 percent, or $3 billion, from the 2010-11 school year to 2015-16. During the same period, administrator pay grew by 27 percent, or $700 million. Read more>>

The Legislature has made positive and bipartisan efforts to address the heroin and opioid addiction epidemic in Wisconsin. But these efforts will be greatly undermined by cuts to the child care block grant and after-school program funds in the proposed federal budget. After-school programs are the most effective deterrent to both gang recruitment and drug problems. Read more>>

Do kids learn best when they're sitting in rows at their desks? Or moving around, exploring on their own? Back in the 1960s and '70s, that debate led to a new school design with wide-open spaces. And while the movement itself may have crashed, many of the concepts and ideas behind Open Education remain, including collaboration, independence, student-centered learning and exploration. Read more>>

It seems like a no brainer—high school students earning up to a year of college credit, which means big savings for students, families and the state. However, state leaders are encountering lots of obstacles in the push to expand a practice called dual enrollment. Students certainly have the time but the issue comes down to funding. Read more>>

In 2015, SkillsUSA launched its free member resource, Jump into STEM!, a curriculum developed for high-school students to use to mentor elementary-school students on future career path options. The company has now released 22 new Jump into STEM! lessons. Read more>>

BloomBoard has partnered with a select group of accredited higher education institutions to offer teachers the opportunity to earn graduate-level credit for completed micro-credentials on the BloomBoard platform. Graduate credit is available with Brandman University, Fresno Pacific University, Portland State University and University of the Pacific. Read more>>

​Washington School Information Processing Cooperative (WSIPC), has added the itslearning teaching and learning platform to its approved list of learning management systems. WSIPC members include 280 public school districts and other educational entities in Washington, Oregon, Montana, Alaska and Idaho. Read more>>