Education
Extra Extra Monday: Nebraska releases prisoners early; Koch brothers hold secret summit; Missile defense system proves unreliable
$40-billion missile defense system proves unreliable | Los Angeles Times The Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, or GMD, was supposed to protect Americans against a chilling new threat from “rogue states” such as North Korea and Iran. But a decade after it was declared operational, and after $40 billion in spending, the missile shield cannot be relied…
Read MoreKids with no vaccinations clustered in some schools
“Some Ohio schools might as well have a target painted on the side of the building as far as public-health experts are concerned. In some schools in the state, as many as 1 in 3 incoming kindergartners and newly enrolled older students have parents who oppose vaccines, according to a Dispatch analysis of schools’ immunization…
Read More60 years after Brown v. Board of Ed, pockets of segregation remain in Md. Schools
Sixty years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in 21 states was unconstitutional, diversity is not guaranteed in Maryland’s schools. Ten percent of the schools in Maryland have a high percentage of black students, nearly all of them in Baltimore City and Prince George’s County, according to a Baltimore Sun analysis. And…
Read MoreWatchdog: City schools pay $3M in unused vacation
There is no limit to how many hours Rochester School District supervisory staffers can exchange, save for what they carry over and accrue in a given year. And they have cashed out in greater number, for more hours and more pay on average than other district employees, records show. Over the past three years, they…
Read MoreCollege sports revenue goes up despite recession
Despite the economic downturn, which saw a 1.3 percent decrease in the median salary of American households, sports revenue at public colleges and universities increased by 32 percent between 2008 and 2013. Spending on coaches salaries increased by 45 percent. ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” took a look at the numbers and broke them down in a…
Read MoreWhites getting more spots at top Chicago public high schools
More white students are walking the halls at Chicago’s top four public high schools. At Walter Payton College Prep on the Near North Side, more than 41 percent of freshmen admitted the past four years have been white, compared to 29 percent in 2009, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis of Chicago Public Schools data has found.…
Read MoreSavannah companies owned by women, minorities not contacted for school construction despite contractor’s pledge
When the Savannah-Chatham School Board agreed to pay JE Dunn/Rives E. Worrell construction company $21 million to build a new Hesse Elementary campus, they believed the 50 percent JE Dunn/Rives E. Worrell promised to women- and minority-owned subcontractors would make a huge impact on the local economy. Now, that’s open to question.
Read MoreWashington state loses waiver for No Child Left Behind
Washington has become the first state in the country to lose its waiver for No Child Left Behind. This after the state voted down the use of student test scores as part of teacher evaluations. Schools will lose control of about $40 million. However, private tutoring companies could be positioned to reap the benefits. With…
Read MoreA star player accused, and a flawed rape investigation
Yet another university community has been accused of denying justice to a female sexual assault victim in order to protect a star male athlete. The New York Times today chronicled the shortcomings of an investigation by Tallahassee police into a reported sexual assault in which Florida State University quarterback Jameis Winston was the alleged assailant. Police failed…
Read MorePortsmouth schools stash away year-end surplus dollars
In a highly unusual move a little more than a year ago, a special grand jury declared that Portsmouth school officials had violated state law by holding on to tens of millions in year-end surplus dollars that should have been returned to the city. Yet six times since the financial maneuvers were first challenged by…
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