By Staff, Arkansas News Bureau

Arkansas has been awarded a $14.7 million federal grant to help restructure the state’s 22 two-year colleges with the goal of improving graduation rates and job placement, the Arkansas Department of Higher Education announced today.

By Joanne Ingram, Cronkite News Service

The Arizona School Boards Association and Arizona Education Association have sued to block a new law that provides publicly funded scholarships that allow children with disabilities to attend private schools.

By Editorial Board, The Sun-Sentinel (South Florida)

Gov. Rick Scott and state legislators are pondering big changes in higher education, including limits on tenure for professors at public universities. But there’s another issue that’s begging for attention: the rising rate of student loan defaults at universities and colleges in Florida.

By John Lantigua, The Palm Beach Post

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has created a hornet’s nest of controversy in conservative circles by defending his Texas policy of offering in-state tuition to undocumented students.

By The Associated Press, The Republic (Columbus)

The Hawaii Labor Relations Board can’t be compelled to rule on a request by the union representing Hawaii public school teachers for immediate relief from terms of a state-imposed contract, the state Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

By The Associated Press, Honolulu Star-Bulletin

University of Hawaii’s community colleges will receive nearly $25 million for job training and workforce development.

By Staff, Honolulu Star-Bulletin

The state Supreme Court has rejected a request by the Hawaii State Teachers Association to compel the Hawaii Labor Relations Board to provide teachers with immediate relief from a new contract imposed by the state.

By The Associated Press, The Idaho Statesman (Boise)

A new report ranks Idaho in the bottom 10 states for the percentage of high school graduates who go to college.

By The Associated Press, Quad-City Times

Seventeen Illinois community colleges have been awarded $19.3 million as part of the first round of federal grants for job training and workforce development.

By Staff, Evansville Courier and Press

The state of Indiana plans to move quickly to see if it can achieve a waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind Act accountability rules. Good. We hope the state’s bid to rely entirely on state accountability guidelines is successful.

By Chris Kenning, The Courier-Journal (Louisville)

More than 60 percent of Kentucky high school graduates left school this spring unprepared for college or the workforce, according to new Kentucky Department of Education data.

By Editorial Board, The Advocate (Baton Rouge)

The formation of yet another commission on the future of higher education marks another stage in the seemingly endless disputes over state colleges.

By Michael Rezendes, The Boston Globe

The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approved a series of recommendations yesterday aimed at tightening control over the state’s 30 educational collaboratives, the scandal-rocked network of local public agencies that provide educational services to more than 8,000 disabled children.

By James Vaznis, The Boston Globe

Massachusetts is joining a growing number of states in seeking a waiver from an unpopular provision of the federal No Child Left Behind Act that has cast hundreds of schools in a harsh light, a top state education official announced yesterday.

By The Associated Press, The Republic (Columbus)

Missouri lawmakers soon will be taking a look at school accreditation issues.

By Don Norfleet, Jefferson City News Tribune

Missouri Commissioner of Education Chris L. Nicastro has not decided if she will seek a state waiver of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2002.

By Staff, Missoulian

Total headcount enrollment at the University of Montana has set another record by about 30 this fall. According to the UM Registrar’s Office, autumn semester enrollment stands at 15,669, which is 27 more than the previous record set a year ago.

By The Associated Press, The News & Record (Greensboro)

North Carolina officials are launching an effort to help school employees get more for their money.

By The Associated Press, Foster’s Daily Democrat (Dover)

New Hampshire’s House is again trying to write a constitutional amendment to shift control over school funding from the courts to the Legislature.

By Lisa Fleisher, The Wall Street Journal

Sixteen rural school districts have sued New Jersey, saying Gov. Chris Christie illegally cut their state funding.

By Jeanette Rundquist, The Star-Ledger (Newark)

Some New Jersey parochial schools facing closure because of declining enrollment may be allowed to convert into a public charter school, under a bill that passed the Senate yesterday.

By Tom Hester Sr., newjerseynewsroom.com

“Sexting” for most children under age 18 will no longer be a crime in seven months but an issue that will be addressed through education, under a law signed by Acting Gov. Kim Guadagno.

By Staff, newjerseynewsroom.com

Legislation designed to help save taxpayer money by giving parents the right to waive school transportation services has been signed into law by Acting Gov. Kim Guadagno.

By The Associated Press, The Republic (Columbus)

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A new study shows that around 70 percent of New Mexico residents polled support more state funding for pre-kindergarten education.

By Catherine Candisky, The Columbus Dispatch

Public schools are stepping up efforts to derail previously obscure legislation that could divert millions of dollars from taxpayer-funded schools to private and parochial ones.

By Gina Macris, The Providence Journal

After facing a contentious public for 3½ hours, the Board of Governors for Higher Education unanimously adopted a policy that allows undocumented students to pay resident tuition rates at public colleges.

By Steve Young, Argus Leader (Sioux Falls)

Higher education officials reported a slight decline in the number of students at South Dakota’s six public universities this year, a reality blamed in part on budget cuts but also one they say isn’t particularly disconcerting.

By Kate Alexander, The Austin American-Statesman

Pflugerville could become the latest Central Texas school district to lend its name to a lawsuit that will challenge the state’s school finance system.

By Patrick Michels, Colorado Independent

Public school districts in Texas as in Colorado this year have filed suit to stop the cash-strapped state from raiding the education budget. Coloradans will be interested in the latest developments in the Lone Star state. A proposed series of tax credits for the oil industry would drain even more funds from the schools there.

By Sam Dillon, The New York Times

When Julian Bond, the former Georgia lawmaker and civil rights activist, turned to teaching two decades ago, he often quizzed his college students to gauge their awareness of the civil rights movement. He did not want to underestimate their grasp of the topic or talk down to them, he said.

By Brian Maffly, The Salt Lake Tribune

Gov. Gary Herbert has asked the Utah Board of Regents to holster pay raises to the state’s college and university presidents.

By The Associated Press, La Crosse Tribune

A legislative committee has decided to hold off on ordering state election officials to develop rules on how to handle photo identification for student voters.