GarysWorld USA

Alaska children would have to attend school from age 6 to 18 under a measure approved by the Senate Education Committee.

Faced with low voter turnout and a student population perceived as constitutionally uneducated, two Alaska representatives believe civics is the solution.

An Arizona House committee wants to require community colleges and universities to inform mental-health specialists when students, faculty or others are suspended or expelled because of threats of violence.

An Arizona legislator is proposing that the state board that oversees the entire public university system be eliminated and replaced with separate boards of trustees for each state university.

Two former presidents — one Republican, the other a Democrat — will chair a new national institute to promote civility in political discourse in the city where U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was severely wounded in a shooting rampage that left six dead, officials announced Monday.

The 15-week fall and spring semesters are a long-standing tradition on university campuses.

Arizona’s three state universities are being given the go-ahead to accept more out-of-state students as a way to bring in more money.

TUCSON, Ariz. — At a time when one-in-eight students in Arizona qualify for English language services, the state has made controversial and — according to the federal government — possibly unlawful changes to its language education program.

As California school districts anticipate possibly the worst budget crisis in a generation, many will try to lighten their burden by enticing older teachers into retirement.

Area school district officials are worrying about where they’re going to cut expenses to absorb a major reduction in state funding, but a Colorado State University-Pueblo economist says they aren’t the only ones who’ll be tightening their belts.

Possible school cuts in Colorado have prompted some of the first signs of division between Democrats in the legislature and the Democratic governor.

A state lawmaker has teamed up with a Salida middle school to raise money for education while reducing litter from bottles.

WASHINGTON — The Obama Administration has re-jiggered its controversial Race to the Top program, hoping to unleash a new wave of education reform at the local level by dangling federal grants in front of individual school districts.

Along with college classes, Victoria Kelsey juggles three jobs.

Gov. Nathan Deal is proposing a sweeping overhaul of Georgia’s lottery-funded HOPE Scholarship and prekindergarten programs to keep the groundbreaking initiatives from going broke.

Hawaii’s schoolchildren are among the nation’s leanest, but obesity is a growing concern that needs strict application of rules scheduled to take effect at the end of the current school year. Most public schools need to muster the willpower to more actively halt the presence of sugary drinks and high-fat foods while significantly increasing physical education.

More than 80 percent of Iowans believe every child should have access to a quality preschool, but they don’t want to carve money from a tight state budget to cover the costs for all 4-year-olds, a new Iowa Poll shows.

Public workers generally have it pretty good, from pay to health insurance to job security. That has led to envy and resentment among private-sector workers. Some elected officials are now tapping into those feelings.

Governor Terry Branstad says he does not favor the same kind of sweeping changes in Iowa’s labor laws that Wisconsin’s governor is seeking, but Branstad is asking legislators to pass a law that creates a new sort of “veto power” over state worker pay and benefit agreements, giving the governor and legislators authority to reject negotiated union contracts which legislators or the governor find unacceptable.

A group of Iowa-based unions plans to hold a rally at the statehouse in Des Moines this afternoon as a “show of solidarity” with protests in Wisconsin.

The idea to force the University of Iowa to sell its $150 million Jackson Pollock painting has officially died in the Legislature.

A controversial school reform plan that calls for larger classes, fewer teachers and more technology may be pulled back for changes at the urging of a Coeur d’Alene senator, after it narrowly cleared the Senate Education Committee last week.

Illinois taxpayers shouldn’t overlook two weeks of subtle tremors from Springfield: The seismic charts suggest that Speaker Madigan, Senate President John Cullerton and Gov. Pat Quinn at long last realize that Illinoisans cannot afford all the public employee benefits our politicians have promised.

CHICAGO — When two University of Illinois campuses in Chicago merged to create the UI Chicago in 1982, the new entity was granted a special status within a Big Ten academic group.

Some senators left Wisconsin with little more than the clothes on their backs. Others came to Illinois equipped with an Urban Essentials pack: clothes, toiletries, cell phones, smart phones — Facebook and Twitter ready.

Not long ago, some educators say, teen suicide was enveloped in silence, a subject too perilous to discuss. But candor has begun to gain strength in area high schools, where a new state law is promoting prevention training for teachers and staff.

A proposal to allow assets seized from criminals to directly benefit school districts was rejected in the Senate on Monday.

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — A statewide builders group is siding with local contractors suing Evansville’s public school system over the lack of competitive bidding on a multimillion-dollar project.

House Republicans are pushing a budget that differs from the one proposed by Gov. Mitch Daniels in some key areas, particularly higher education.

A bill that would repeal in-state tuition for the children of undocumented immigrants cleared a major legislative hurdle Monday.

The House budget-writing committee balked Monday on the proposed higher education budget after several conservatives posed questions about a number of building projects at Kansas State University.

LAFAYETTE, La. — Surrounded by university students, Gov. Bobby Jindal announced proposed legislation Monday that he said could buoy higher education and health-care funding during downturns in state revenue.

Gov. Rick Snyder hasn’t proposed ending collective-bargaining rights for Michigan’s public employee unions like his Wisconsin counterpart, but municipalities are concerned the state’s Republican-led congress could give emergency financial managers the right to do so.

Hundreds of union members, tea party supporters and citizens are expected to converge on the Capitol today to lobby the Legislature and show their feelings for Gov. Rick Snyder’s budget plan.

Local government and school leaders this weekend find themselves in similar circumstances to the guy who just got a tough pep talk from the new boss.

The financial walls are closing in on the Detroit Public Schools, and unless Robert Bobb is given expanded powers to make radical changes to the operating model, the district will go broke.

I’ve been watching pretty closely as Wisconsin tries to end collective bargaining for most public employees — not just because of the obvious parallels to states like Michigan, but also because I’m floored by this “conservative” attempt to impose a government solution on a market problem.

Diane Ravitch thinks so. The author and former education reformer wrote on CNN.com that the protesting in Wisconsin goes beyond Gov. Scott Walker’s efforts to strip the teachers union of its bargaining ability.

Thousands have stormed Wisconsin’s capitol in Madison over the past week to protest Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal for more public employee wage concessions and, more ominously for unions, to dramatically scale back collective bargaining rights.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — State Rep. Brand Dillon, D-Grand Rapids, says its ‘dangerous’ to not have some business taxes earmarked for the school aid fund.

Robert Bobb has been given the go-ahead to implement a plan that even he says will essentially destroy the Detroit Public School system.

School administrators say Gov. Rick Snyder’s budget proposal would cut per-pupil funding by more than $700 per student in part by diverting nearly $900 million in restricted state school aid funding to community colleges and universities.

State Superintendent Mike Flanagan is telling educators and parents they should look at Gov. Rick Snyder’s budget plans as an opportunity to make improvements.

State education officials have ordered Robert Bobb to immediately implement a financial restructuring plan that balances the district’s books by closing half of its schools, swelling high school class sizes to 60 students and consolidating operations.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder isn’t proposing the elimination of collective-bargaining rights for the state’s public employee unions, like Wisconsin counterpart Scott Walker is.

At more than half of Michigan’s high schools, fewer than 10% of students graduating this spring are college ready, according to data released today that for the first time measures the extent of college readiness at every high school in the state.

The University of Minnesota’s governing board shifted to the right on Monday as the GOP-led Legislature made over the Board of Regents by electing two former lawmakers, both Republicans, and dropping a union official.

More than 300 University of Minnesota students from throughout the state are scheduled to rally in the capitol to drum up support for higher education funding.

A Bill that would prevent abortion providers from offering materials to students and force school districts to provide parents with an opt-in option for sex education courses passed the House.

The North Dakota House debated a Fighting Sioux bill for about 30 minutes on Monday before showing strong support to keep UND’s controversial nickname.

State legislative leaders have been kept in the dark on the specifics of Gov. Chris Christie’s budget address Tuesday, a situation some members said was unusual and a potential sign of dramatic policies in the works.

New Jersey’s school wars have erupted on a number of fronts. School finance. Charters. Vouchers. Tenure. What Gov. Chris Christie calls reform — but critics call destroying the public school system — has exploded into a strident and emotional conflict.

During her sophomore year of college, Jennifer Lynch realized she had little chance of scoring her dream job. The credit crisis of 2008 and resulting layoffs around the nation limited her chances of working in sports marketing.

New Jersey’s state employee unions are organizing a Friday rally at the Statehouse to express support for workers rallying in Wisconsin.

Gov. Chris Christie will unveil a state budget today, after months of saying he plans to cut business taxes, revamp school aid, reform pension and health benefits for public workers and bring back some property tax relief.

Gov. Chris Christie will unveil his proposed 2011-12 state budget before a joint session of the Legislature at 2 p.m. Tuesday and, to paraphrase Betty Davis’ memorable line in the classic movie, “All About Eve,” fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy four months.”

Republican Gov. Susana Martinez’s nominee for public education secretary, Hanna Skandera, faces questions in the Legislature over whether she meets constitutional requirements for the job.

Republican Gov. Susana Martinez’s nominee for public education secretary, Hanna Skandera, faces questions in the Legislature over whether she meets constitutional requirements for the job.

The word on the street is that UNLV and the rest of the state’s colleges and universities could go bankrupt because of budget cuts.

For the third week in a row, Assembly Democrats rolled out bills that are part of their overall plan to put Nevadans back to work, speaking Monday about two bills that will gives tax abatements and credits to those who make investments in Nevada’s small businesses and universities.

Protesters projected to number anywhere from 4,000 to 20,000 are expected to swarm Capitol Square to rally against a bill that would eliminate collective bargaining for state employees and weaken the ability of local workers to bargain for their pay, benefits and working conditions.

Wisconsin’s Senate Democrats delayed a vote this week on a controversial collective bargaining bill by fleeing the state, leaving the chamber with too few members to proceed. Could the same tactic work here? No.

Watching thousands of public union protestors show up day after day to the Statehouse to oppose Senate Bill 5, the collective bargaining bill, has at least one Senate Republican wishing things had been done differently.

Public workers from across the state again are expected to flood the Ohio Statehouse on Tuesday in opposition to a Republican effort to weaken unions’ collective bargaining rights.

Public employees, not taxpayers, will foot the bill for fixing the state’s retirement systems under a plan now before the state legislature.

With all the furor over collective bargaining, proposals to revamp Ohio public employees’ pension plans almost have gotten lost.

Ohio University hopes to entice about 195 professors and staff members to take a proposed buyout or early retirement package so it can save about $8.7 million a year.

The Republican effort to strip power from the current state Board of Education continued Monday with Senate approval of a bill to replace the board’s members with statewide officials.

Josh McGriff and Ashley Anderson marked the birth of their daughter, McKinnley, by opening a college savings account at KeyBank when she was 2 weeks old.

Oregon students, teachers and parents gathered on the state Capitol steps Monday and told lawmakers they want better funding for public education.

Nearly three of every four Pennsylvania school districts spend more than they take in, a problem likely to worsen next year when $1.4 billion in federal stimulus money ends, according to state data.

On the surface, Joshua Young and Thomas “Doc” Sweitzer have little in common. Young, 28, of Chester County works in his family’s auto repair shop; Sweitzer, 57, is a partner in the influential Philadelphia-based Campaign Group, an advertising and political consulting firm.

Around this time every year, Rhode Island school districts confronting budget cuts or declining enrollments send out pink slips warning teachers who might be laid off in June. But in Central Falls, another factor is contributing to a high number of pink slips. Eleven teachers –– most of whom work at the city’s only high school –– could lose their jobs because of poor performance.

Teachers would have to wait at least two more years for tenure, and the statewide cap on the number of charter schools would be removed, under a proposal introduced Thursday by Gov. Bill Haslam.

Texas budget troubles include no money for new textbooks.

It took seven years for Houston-based Harmony Public Schools, the state’s largest charter network and one of its best academically, to secure a bank bond in 2007 to buy and remodel buildings on its 33 campuses.

Texas is preparing to give college students and professors the right to carry guns on campus, adding momentum to a national campaign to open this part of society to firearms.

It took seven years for Houston-based Harmony Public Schools, the state’s largest charter network and one of its best academically, to secure a bank bond in 2007 to buy and remodel buildings on its 33 campuses. Since then, it has obtained two additional bonds — the most recent for $90 million issued last year — to continue its expansion.

A new Utah charter school and a Kaysville gym are partnering to offer scholarships over the next couple of years based on body mass index (BMI), an indicator of body fat based on height and weight.

Restoring the sales tax on food is being quietly pushed as an option to ensure there’s enough money to fund growth in public education this legislative session.

Two education bills were the subject of lively discussion on the state Senate floor Monday, with one regarding parental disciplinary notification defeated and another related to pre-Labor Day school openings back today.

Washington lawmakers must seriously consider recommendations from the governor’s higher-education task force. The task force recommends an innovative way to ensure the health of the state’s higher-education system.

Starting with his family’s tractor, State Rep. Vincent Buys says he’s been driving since he was 10 years old. Now, the Republican from Lynden, Whatcom County, wants to provide more options for teenagers to learn how to drive.

The Washington Constitution makes education the highest priority of state government, but that doesn’t stop lawmakers from cutting the money they spend on schools.

With higher education tuition rising rapidly in the state, some lawmakers want to change the state’s Guaranteed Education Tuition college-savings program to head off a financial shortfall in the future.

Senate Democrats are still in hiding and protesters are still packing the state Capitol, but Gov. Scott Walker and Republican lawmakers said Monday they plan to push ahead with efforts to pass a controversial bill to curb collective bargaining rights for public workers and make sweeping changes to Medicaid.

In a move meant to lure boycotting opposition senators back to Wisconsin, the Republican leader of the state Senate threatened Monday to force a vote soon on a bill that is abhorred by Democrats: requiring people to show an ID at the polls.

The Assembly teetered on the brink of chaos Friday evening but then adjourned peacefully after Republicans rescinded a vote on Gov. Scott Walker’s budget-repair bill that the GOP lawmakers took without Democrats present.

Wisconsin’s fiscal crisis is real — not something ginned up by Gov. Scott Walker as a way to punish political opponents. The numbers don’t lie. Like many other states, Wisconsin is in a fiscal quagmire, and not one of Walker’s making.

Democrats in the state Senate should return to their jobs and stop pretending their escape to Illinois was about democracy. It wasn’t. In fact, quite the opposite. Democracy has creaked to a halt in their absence.

The protesters in Madison were loud and insistent — and sometimes colorful. They chanted. They sang. They beat drums. They were peaceful.

When I heard state Senate Democrats boarded a bus last week to escape Madison, it brought to mind the 1994 film “Speed” with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock.

They made their point. Now it’s time to get back to work — in Madison, not Rockford, Ill., or Chicago.

School shutdowns, thousands of public workers packed shoulder to shoulder at the Capitol, legislators on the lam — this should give Wisconsin pause.

Is the new Wisconsin brand destined to become “We’re open for business” or “We’re at war with ourselves”?

A little more than a week ago, I asked the leaders of the three major public employee unions if they’d be willing to accept Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed concessions on pensions and health care — seeing as how Walker didn’t have the courtesy to ask them himself.

Last week, as the legislative confrontation in Wisconsin was unfolding, I suggested a three-step solution to the impasse.

The 14 Senate Democrats who fled to Illinois have not only temporarily blocked their Republican colleagues from pushing through Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill. They’ve also hit the campaign jackpot.

Democrats plan to offer more than 100 amendments in the state Assembly to Gov. Scott Walker’s plan taking away nearly all collective bargaining rights for Wisconsin’s public workers.

Local officials know their piece of the pie is shrinking again. For the better part of a decade, they’ve dealt with reductions in shared revenue and school aid.

The Legislative Hotline for the Wisconsin State Legislature has been temporarily disconnected due to a flood of telephone calls.

It took Scott Walker only a few weeks to push the Capitol into political chaos.

The state constitution prohibits lawmakers from being arrested while the Legislature is in session, unless they’re accused of serious crimes.

In the heated debate surrounding Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to eliminate nearly all parts of collective bargaining for teachers and other public employees, there hasn’t been much discussion about what impact these changes could have on students.

All was quiet on Feb. 1, the deadline for employees at the Hartford Union High School District in Washington County to submit their requests for retirement, with not a single expected retiree.

From violinists serenading protesters as they entered the halls of state government to the makeshift information desk that has sprung up to offer everything from media talking points to directions to the nearest electrical outlets, the Capitol and surrounding grounds have become Wisconsin’s three-ring circus of protest.

There is at least one group of people happy with Gov. Scott Walker and the pro-union protesters: Madison business owners.

With no political compromise in sight on Gov. Scott Walker’s budget-repair bill, tens of thousands of demonstrators with strong opinions of their own converged Saturday inside and outside the state Capitol to chant, sing, wave signs, beat drums and march for their causes.

As protests at the state Capitol entered their second week, Republicans and Democrats on Sunday were holding possible bargaining chips in their efforts to end the political standoff that has held up action on Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett on Monday accused Gov. Scott Walker of setting off an “ideological war” by demanding an end to most public-worker collective bargaining rights.

Katrina Ladopoulos says she hesitated before picking up the phone last Tuesday night and calling in sick to work Wednesday.

Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to curtail bargaining rights for public-sector unions has triggered mass protests and national headlines but hardly constitutes the biggest part of his budget repair bill.

Protesters in Madison who obtained medical excuse slips to cover their absences from work, and the doctors who issued them, are likely to be subjected to more intensive examinations.

Virginia is often cited as the example to examine a state’s top universities seeking more autonomy from lawmakers, but a move in 2005 that gave those schools more freedom gets different grades from those who have studied it.

Life on the lam isn’t easy for the “Democratic 14.” They shuttle from place to place in Illinois, contact constituents, read e-mails and try to keep up to date on the political chaos that has engulfed Madison since they fled the state Thursday.

The explosive budget fight in Madison, like the explosive budget fight in Washington, is setting the table for the 2012 election.

Gov. Scott Walker has exempted police officers, firefighters and state troopers from cuts in his budget-repair bill, saying those in public safety should be treated differently.

Many of Wisconsin’s business leaders are lending their support to Gov. Scott Walker’s proposals to reduce state worker benefits, even if it means weakening bargaining rights for public trade unions in the process.

In opposing rallies that were both peaceful and spirited, an estimated 60,000 demonstrators surrounded the Wisconsin State Capitol on Saturday, the largest crowd yet in a weeklong clash that has become the center of a broader ideological battle over union rights and taxes.

Wyoming cut out early from the competitive $4.35 billion federal education grant program.