Gov. Robert Bentley left an Alabama A&M University Board of Trustees meeting this morning after 10 minutes.   Read More

The Black Faculty and Staff Association at The University of Alabama this morning called for the university to take “swift and exact” disciplinary action against a white student accused of using racial slurs against a black student on Friday night.   Read More

School officials remained mum today about the status of the University of Alabama student accused of hurling a racial slur at another student Monday, except to say he faces disciplinary action.   Read More

Education officials are con­cerned they may see an addi­tional round of budget cuts this fiscal year, University of Ala­bama System Chancellor Mal­colm Portera said Friday.   Read More

A student at the University of Alabama is facing disciplinary action after a Friday incident that involved use of a racial slur in referring to another student.   Read More

A black University of Alabama student who said he was the target of a racial slur on campus said this evening he hopes the incident will not be swept “under the rug” — and that the school can seriously address underlying racial problems.   Read More

Mary Quinn broke out of a serious expression to throw her voice into falsetto tones, eliciting laughter from her classroom of sophomore English students at Pine Bluff High School.   Read More

Arizona schools chief John Huppenthal has extended a 60-day “cure period” to allow for a more thorough investigation into TUSD’s Mexican American Studies program.   Read More

The Arizona Board of Regents committee on academc affairs met for three hours on Monday and made some important decisions that you should know about.   Read More

Arizona’s newly installed superintendent of public instruction plans to take his cues from Florida as he tries to improve the state’s K-12 education system.   Read More

When pressed about whether cuts to higher education would lead to higher tuition, the Governor’s Office hedged, but the heads of Arizona’s community colleges said the reduction is so steep they will have little choice but to propose that students pay more.   Read More

Underscoring the deepening impact of the state’s budget crisis, nearly 60 percent of California school districts have reduced the length of the school year, and 30 percent have shrunk it to 175 days, the minimum permitted under state law.   Read More

Four years ago, state officials tried selling California’s student-loan guaranty program to help fix their troubled budget.   Read More

The website was clear: Inderkum High School students had to pay $75 to participate in sports.   Read More

The leaders of California’s three higher education systems Monday said they are preparing to make budget cuts proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown, but warned that fewer degree programs and enrollment slots would likely result.   Read More

The leaders of two of California’s three college systems urged passage of Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to extend taxes, saying they are needed to avoid even more devastating pain than they already envision from $1.4 billion in higher education cuts Brown is proposing.   Read More

University of California President Mark Yudof has set a target for the Berkeley campus to cut $80,800,000 from its budget for the coming year, as the 10-campus university system struggles to come to terms with a $500 million reduction in funds proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown.   Read More

Colorado lawmakers are starting work on what could be one of the nation’s most expansive requirements for physical activity in schools.   Read More

The absence of the Connecticut State University System’s two top leaders during the legislative session should help rather than hurt the 36,000-student system as lawmakers take up crucial issues of its governance and funding.   Read More

Marketing students statewide wrapped up a campaign last week to provide sleeping bags for homeless Delaware children — an effort that helped them learn something in their field of study at the same time. “My kids pulled out the stops in promoting,” Milford High School marketing teacher Judy Emory said. “We did mass mailing in the community. We contacted radio stations. We contacted a TV station. They got on some radio stations.”   Read More

The University of Georgia will pay $11.4 million to renovate four buildings at the Navy Supply Corps base for a new Health Sciences Campus, according to documents administrators filed with the University System Board of Regents.   Read More

The General Assembly reached a key early-session milestone Monday when the House of Representatives passed the first two bills of the year.   Read More

The state Senate kept faith with voters by giving fast and unanimous approval to a bill allowing the governor a free hand in making appointments to the Board of Education, subject only to Senate confirmation.   Read More

One of three University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics workers being fired for allegedly breaching the medical records of injured football players is a 26-year employee who says she did nothing wrong, a union president said Monday.   Read More

Two superintendents testified at the statehouse Monday afternoon, urging legislators to provide an increase in general state aid to public K-12 schools.   Read More

University of Iowa officials are reviewing the role of the Presidential Committee on Athletics along with 19 other presidential committees.   Read More

Iowa students have racked up some of the nation’s highest levels of debt, but they also hold the keys to turning around the trend, according to state officials who will launch a statewide financial literacy effort on Wednesday.   Read More

The fact that Gov. Terry Branstad’s granddaughter attends state-supported preschool — a program he has proposed to end — should not be a point of discussion, he told reporters today.   Read More

Iowa students have racked up some of the nation’s highest levels of debt, but they also hold the keys to turning around the trend, according to Gov. Terry Branstad and other officials who will launch a new statewide financial literacy effort on Wednesday.   Read More

It’s better for the school districts to get less state aid to teach preschool, and to figure out how to absorb that extra expense, than for any 4-year-old child to not get a free education, three school superintendents told state lawmakers today.   Read More

A Senate panel on Monday approved a 2 percent “allowable growth” increase in per-pupil state aid funding for fiscal 2012.   Read More

A double-digit tuition hike would be necessary to replace the funding community colleges have lost and stand to lose in the current state budget scenario, a spokesman for Kirkwood Community College said Monday.   Read More

The battleground will shift from marriage to money in the Iowa Legislature this week as both the House and Senate take up school funding measures.   Read More

Gov. Terry Branstad’s granddaughter goes to preschool at no charge through a state-supported program that Branstad says should not be open to parents who can afford the classes, records show.   Read More

State lawmakers agreed to consider a bill that would require people elected to Idaho’s local school boards to complete training in public education law and financial management within one year of being sworn into office.   Read More

Public schools chief Tom Luna lashed out Monday at critics of a Republican-backed plan to rewrite the state’s education system and blamed the state teachers union for spreading “misinformation” about the overhaul, a charge the Idaho Education Association rejected.   Read More

Two veteran state lawmakers say they no longer will participate in the controversial General Assembly scholarship program, and two new state representatives say they won’t either.   Read More

Parents of home-schooled children would have to register their kids with the state under a proposal that could be debated in the Illinois Senate in coming weeks.   Read More

CARBONDALE, Ill. — Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s latest enrollment numbers came out last week, and the university once again saw a dip in its number of students.   Read More

Indiana’s 21st Century Scholars program started two decades ago with a straightforward proposition to low-income middle schoolers: Don’t use drugs, stay out of criminal trouble and get acceptable grades in return for a full scholarship to college.   Read More

Remember the days when college kids felt comfortable taking a semester off — a sabbatical, if you will, from the books? Maybe get a job, save some money or just chill?   Read More

Kansas has postponed a contribution to educators’ pensions and again delayed half of its general state aid payments to public schools because of a cash crunch, state officials confirmed Friday.   Read More

Kentucky’s Department of Education will get some help from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as officials introduce tough new common core content standards for math and English in public schools.   Read More

Top Bay State law enforcement officials said yesterday they back banning cell phones in schools to block bullies from texting taunts, as one school already does. Attorney General Martha Coakley and Berkshire District Attorney David Capeless said they like the idea, but more must be done to end the bullying culture.   Read More

Anti-bullying crusaders are urging educators to adopt get-tough measures practiced by one Bay State school to battle teen tormentors, including taking away their cell phones and putting classrooms under video surveillance.   Read More

As the students filed through the front door of Excel Academy Charter School, the principal greeted each one by name. She shook hands and inspected their uniforms — dark blue polo shirts and khakis — before allowing the next student inside.   Read More

BRUNSWICK, Maine — Citing dismal statistics regarding Maine high school graduates’ readiness for college, Gov. Paul LePage called Monday for tougher education standards. LePage focused on education during a speech at an event praising efforts to redevelop the Brunswick Naval Air Station. He also repeated his campaign call for greater emphasis on vocational education and technical training.   Read More

LEWISTON, Maine — When numbers came out showing former Andover College students had among the highest student-loan default rates in Maine, it got the attention of college officials. According to the Finance Authority of Maine, 22 percent of former students defaulted on their government student loans in 2007. In 2008, the latest year for which data are available, the rate was 18.1 percent.   Read More

Michigan students’ test scores are artificially low and misleading and give students and parents false security that the state’s students are prepared for college or the work force when they complete high school.   Read More

Gov. Rick Snyder’s “Citizen’s Guide Michigan’s Financial Health” is being followed up this week by another guide which could be called a “Citizens Guide to Michigan Children’s Health.”   Read More

Three school districts and one educational association filed a lawsuit against the Michigan Department of Education on Monday, claiming the new standards to accredit public schools are “legally unsound” by basing accreditation on students’ performance on standardized tests.   Read More

The State Board of Education will consider a plan today to raise the passing scores on state standardized tests, a move that could mean thousands more students and hundreds more schools won’t meet proficiency levels.   Read More

Michigan Education Association Director Luigi Battaglieri got a 9.3 percent pay increase for fiscal year 2009-10, taking his pay from $215,326 to $235,383.   Read More

Under pressure to hire more child welfare caseworkers, the Michigan Department of Human Services is turning to the state’s colleges and universities for new talent.   Read More

Just days before the current school year began, President Barack Obama signed a law providing $10 billion to help pay the salaries of staff at the nation’s financially strapped public schools.   Read More

A $700,000 federal grant is helping N.C. State University scientists evaluate how inedible crops planted in the winter can help organic farms make soil healthier and more productive.   Read More

It’s always useful to remember the bad old days. Especially when lawmakers in Bismarck propose going back to them.   Read More

GRAND FORKS, N.D. — Grant Shaft stood before a committee of the North Dakota House of Representatives in Bismarck, in one of the Capitol’s largest meeting rooms. The room was packed.   Read More

A man shouted, “Our children are dying” and, after accusing the public schools of “killing” children by contributing to the crime rate in his city, he demanded the state enact a school voucher law. Angel Cordero of Camden said poor minorities had waited long enough.   Read More

Per-pupil spending in New Jersey increased by an average 6.5 percent in 2009-10 from the previous year, but dropped in Newark and other urban districts, according to the state’s annual School Report Card data being released today.   Read More

New Jersey faces a widening shortage of physicians within the next nine years without reforms that improve the business environment to practice medicine in the state and funding to help medical school more affordable, health-care industry experts are warning.   Read More

The perennial problems of Newark’s school district — too many administrators, too little authority for principals and abysmal graduation rates — have bogged the city down for too long, the mayor said today.   Read More

Last August, when he excoriated the university system’s Board of Regents for refusing to cut spending by 10 percent, as then-Gov. Jim Gibbons had asked, Regent Ron Knecht was blunt.   Read More

The 2011 Legislature begins Monday. This, in a word, is how it likely ends 120 days later: ugly. In the face of a $2.2 billion budget deficit, Gov. Brian Sandoval has promised not to raise taxes and produced a budget that accomplishes that with cuts and sleight of hand.   Read More

Nevada, like many states and countries, has always suffered from a flight of human capital, or “brain drain,” as it’s often called.   Read More

New York State education officials released a new set of graduation statistics on Monday that show less than half of students in the state are leaving high school prepared for college and well-paying careers.   Read More

Raquel Balsam enjoyed four memorable years at Binghamton University, majoring in English, playing club tennis, hosting her own television show and volunteering for a local youth program. As an out-of-state student at Binghamton, which is part of the State University of New York, she paid $36,000 in tuition, almost twice as much as in-state students.   Read More

Carole G. Hankin, the schools superintendent in Syosset on Long Island, made an unexpected cameo appearance in Albany last week: Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo cast her salary as a prime example of wasteful spending by school districts.   Read More

Most of the debate around Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s higher education proposals has centered on his cuts in state aid: more than $1 billion.   Read More

The adviser to an Ohio State University student group is accused of charging about $4,000 on the organization’s credit card.   Read More

Ohio State University might soon give its individual colleges and departments the ability to act a lot more like corporate business.   Read More

In a seeming attempt to take greater control of education policy in Ohio, Gov. John Kasich created a cabinet-level schools position yesterday that answers directly to him.   Read More

Political activists groups today asked Gov. John Kasich to pardon Kelley Williams-Bolar, the Akron mother who spent 10 days in jail for fraudulently enrolling her daughters in a school district where they were not residents.   Read More

When John Kasich got a new job, his family was faced with a typical choice: where to send the kids to school. Ohio’s new governor opted to stay in his Genoa Township home so his twin daughters could continue attending the private school of their choice.   Read More

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Police have arrested two Youngstown men who they believe opened fire at an off-campus fraternity house at Youngstown State University, killing one man and injuring 11 others early Sunday.   Read More

State leaders who are scouring the budget for cost savings soon might have a new message for school employees: Everybody into the pool.   Read More

Voters across the state Tuesday will elect members to their local school boards, consider bond issues for projects and elect a few municipal and county officials.   Read More

Gov. John Kitzhaber has produced a budget only a toddler or a state trooper could love.   Read More

School district superintendents from across the state plan to testify Tuesday at the Capitol on a bill that would allow them to get cash in lieu of services from education service districts.   Read More

HILLSBORO, Ore. — About 6,000 miles away at 2 a.m., a teacher in China will turn on her computer and teach Mandarin to students in Oregon.   Read More

The first pushback to Gov. John Kitzhaber’s proposed budget for schools surfaced today when House Democratic leaders declared it too small.   Read More

Supporters call school vouchers a matter of choice, a lifeline for children stuck in broken schools. Opponents deride them as unconstitutional and unworkable and warn that they will erode conditions in some of Pennsylvania’s most troubled schools.   Read More

Gov. Tom Corbett has made a move to replace $337.8 million in state education dollars with federal education funds.   Read More

“I know how to kill a vampire,” state Sen. John Wozniak said on the Senate floor last spring. “I know how to kill a werewolf, but I have no clue how to kill the school mascot.”   Read More

The Chafee administration’s realignment of the state Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education last week was a bit of a bumpy process.   Read More

South Carolina school chief Mick Zais says teachers’ salaries should be based on their effectiveness in the classroom, not their seniority or postgraduate credentials.   Read More

The days of taking a drag on a cigarette on South Dakota’s many college campuses appear to be winding to an end.   Read More

The Sioux Falls School District and its five largest neighbors will see state aid fall by $16 million next school year — enough to pay the salaries of about 400 teachers — if Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s proposed budget cuts are approved.   Read More

It took the state Senate just 49 minutes Monday to delay potential consolidation of Memphis and Shelby County schools for 2-1/2 years if Memphis voters approve the merger in a March 8 referendum.   Read More

School districts would have more leeway to cut salaries and terminate teachers to save money under legislation filed Tuesday by the chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee.   Read More

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The aggressive $4 billion program begun by the Obama administration in 2009 to radically transform the country’s worst schools included, as its centerpiece, a plan to install new principals to overhaul most of the failing schools.   Read More

Community colleges have traditionally been the most public of public higher education, receiving a much higher proportion of their revenue from state and local taxes than four-year institutions do, and typically serving a wider range of students — in terms of age, income, and ethnicity— at lower prices.   Read More

A Senate committee unanimously advanced a bill Monday that details how the money should be spent in $30 million kindergarten-third grade reading program that has come under the scrutiny of some lawmakers.   Read More

The State Board of Education pondered a worst-case budget scenario Friday and prioritized accordingly. On the speculative chopping block were adult education programs and the Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind.   Read More

The merits of local control versus Legislative mandate was up for discussion Thursday among members of the Public Education Appropriations Subcommittee.   Read More

RICHMOND, Va. — Budget writers in the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate unveiled competing plans Sunday to amend the state’s budget, setting up a likely clash in the divided legislature in coming weeks over retirement funding for state employees and whether to begin restoring some cuts made to education and health care amid the economic downturn.   Read More

The state Senate’s budget-writing committee on Sunday balked at Gov. Bob McDonnell’s proposals for public school and transportation funding and requiring more workers to contribute to the state employee pension system.   Read More

The South Burlington school board is weighing a resolution that would impose terms of employment on the district’s 242 full-time teachers after months of unproductive contract talks.   Read More

A few lawmakers are proposing new or changed state symbols. Who needs it in the middle of a tough recession? Schoolchildren or young constituents often recommend these things and did so this year. But timing, lawmakers, timing.   Read More

A Seattle state senator wants students as young as 14 to be able to vote in school board elections.   Read More

In recent years, tuition at Washington’s public universities and colleges has gone up and up and up.   Read More

Washington parents began receiving a two-page letter from schools this week outlining the rules and schedule for statewide testing this spring. Many set it aside in confusion.   Read More

State lawmakers are considering a plan that would expand a nonprofit online university in Washington as a way to increase access to higher education.   Read More

As families begin to enroll their students Monday in virtual schools or neighboring districts through the state’s open enrollment process, the Legislature is debating changes to the program.   Read More

After a hiatus from leadership in Madison, Republican legislators are gearing up to make their mark on the state’s educational system by taking on teacher quality.   Read More

Mark Manchin, executive director of the state School Building Authority, said next year will be a lean year for school construction.   Read More

The Wyoming Senate sent mixed signals Monday as members moved three education bills another step forward.   Read More