Education
UCLA officials bend travel rules with first-class flights, luxury hotels
A Center for Investigative Reporting article states that in the past several years, six of 17 academic deans at the Westwood campus routinely have submitted doctors’ notes stating they have a medical need to fly in a class other than economy, costing the university $234,000 more than it would have for coach-class flights, expense records…
Read MoreCritics question billion-dollar tutoring program
“A decade after schools were required to offer tutoring sessions by third-party vendors, an increasing number of school districts and researchers say the multibillion-dollar system is broken,” according to The Sacramento Bee.
Read MoreESU Foundation: Where did the $250G contribution go?
The Pocono Record posted nearly 14,000 public documents (won in a protracted public records court battle) in a search for clues about what happened to money pledged to project at a public college. The effort paid off as a reader flagged a needle in the haystack.
Read MoreMentally troubled students overwhelm schools
The Star Tribune reports that one boy’s struggle with “Mr. Angry” highlights a growing dilemma: Thousands of kids with mental problems rely on schools for care. Gianni is one of thousands of students afflicted with serious mental health problems who are flooding into Minnesota schools because they have nowhere else to go. Their complex needs…
Read MoreHow Pennsylvania Schools Made a Cheating Scandal Disappear
“Given the scope of the issue and the lack of action since, it appears Pennsylvania is covering up one of the country’s largest cheating scandals — and doing so in plain sight,” according to a report in Philadelphia CityPaper.
Read MoreWith no ride to school, African-American and poor children disproportionately hit in traffic in urban districts
In Ohio, African-American children and those from lower-income families are far more likely to be hit by cars than white children in the suburbs, according to an Akron Beacon Journal analysis, and the reason is simple: The state has created inequality in transportation to school.
Read MoreExtra Extra Monday: terrorism fears and chemical plants, mental health gaps, factory farm pollution
Terrorism fears have led government to cloak the danger of hazardous chemical plants | The Houston Chronicle“Around the country, hundreds of buildings like the one in West store some type of ammonium nitrate. They sit in quiet fields and by riverside docks, in business districts and around the corner from schools, hospitals and day care…
Read MoreIn California, incarcerated students fall through gaps in special education laws
The Center for Investigative Reporting looks into who is responsible for educating students with disabilities in jail. “California and federal laws allow students with disabilities to receive special education until age 22. But the laws are vague enough that deciding who should provide that education is unclear.”
Read MoreDisabled students face dangerous discipline in Minnesota
“It happens thousands of times a year in Minnesota’s classrooms: Disabled students get punished for disruptive outbursts with severe forms of discipline — from forceful physical restraint to extended solitary confinement — that are either banned or more restricted in other states. State reports examined by the Star Tribune show that such discipline occurred nearly 22,000…
Read MoreState still shelling out millions to workers on paid administrative leave
“The Tribune reported in October that the state regularly pays employees not to work, even as it faces wide budget gaps and service cutbacks. The paper’s analysis found that, since 2007, more than 2,000 employees received their usual pay to stay home, amassing $23 million in state wages. More than five months after that report,…
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