By Brian Lyman, Montgomery Advertiser

Students would be able to give teachers individual gifts worth up to $100 and gifts totaling $250 a year under legislation that has been prefiled by Sen. Tom Whatley, R-Auburn, and that is supported by Gov. Robert Bentley.

By Staff, East Valley Tribune

Arizona’s future is tied to its education system. If our kids are college educated they are more likely to have better jobs with better pay.

By Hayley Ringle, The Arizona Republic (Phoenix)

A joint legislative committee ended its work Monday by recommending that every county school superintendent in Arizona study the feasibility of school-district unification and consolidation in their jurisdiction.

By Ivan Moreno, The Associated Press, The Boulder Daily Camera

Colorado schools and colleges got an early Christmas gift Tuesday as state economists revealed that proposed budget cuts can be eliminated because revenues are higher than originally thought.

By Scot Kersgaard, Colorado Independent

If Gov. John Hickenlooper has anything to say about it–and he will–most of a potential increase in state tax collections this year and in 2012 will go to restore some of the money cut from K-12 budgets in the past few years.

By John Ingold, The Denver Post

Colorado lawmakers this morning heard revised budget forecasts that Gov. John Hickenlooper thinks will allow $89 million to be restored to the state’s beleaguered education funding.

By Jessica Fender, The Denver Post

Turns out Colorado isn’t quite as broke as forecasters expected. Gov. John Hickenlooper’s budget office plans to announce today that a $231 million uptick in tax revenues will allow the state to restore the cuts planned for this and next fiscal year’s K-12 budget.

By Brian Lockhart, Connecticut Post

Days after federal officials for a third time rejected the state’s bid for Race to the Top grants, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy tried to use the failure as a rallying call for education reforms in the 2012 legislative session.

By Robert A. Frahm, The Connecticut Mirror

The state’s newly merged higher education system expects to meet a target of $4.3 million in administrative savings over the next two years — money that could be used to hire more full-time faculty, the system’s top official said Tuesday.

By Mark Pazniokas, The Connecticut Mirror

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy today outlined six broad principles that he says will guide the debate on education reform next year, including “intensive interventions” by the state in troubled school systems and a lighter bureaucratic touch at successful ones.

By Kim Wilmath, St. Petersburg Times

University of South Florida president Judy Genshaft removed the head of the system’s Lakeland campus on Tuesday, saying she had lost confidence in his ability to lead.

By The Associated Press, St. Petersburg Times

Florida Gov. Rick Scott has made a big push to increase funding for schools in the coming year. But Scott — who has warned about balancing the state budget by relying on more gambling — is counting on a jump in ticket sales of the Florida Lottery to help accomplish his goals.

By Staff, St. Petersburg Times

It turns out that Judy Genshaft is still president of the University of South Florida. She finally moved decisively and appropriately Tuesday to remove the chancellor of USF Polytechnic who had been conspiring with a powerful state senator to make the Lakeland campus an independent university.

By Lizette Alvarez, The New York Times

MIAMI — Rebuffing the governor, Florida A&M’s board of trustees on Monday decided not to suspend the university’s president and asserted that it would “stand firm against outside influences, no matter how well intended.”

By Katie Sanders, The Miami Herald

Florida A&M University trustees needed just two minutes Monday to dismiss Gov. Rick Scott’s call to suspend President James Ammons as authorities investigate a student’s hazing death and allegations of financial fraud.

By Laura Isensee, The Miami Herald

With a unanimous vote Monday, the State Board of Education approved a tougher scoring system for the FCAT, the state’s standardized reading and math exam.

By Nancy Badertscher and Jaime Sarrio, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A fear of failure, consequences from low test scores and mismanagement led educators in 11 of Dougherty County’s 26 schools to cheat on state exams in 2009, according to an investigative report released Tuesday by Gov. Nathan Deal.

By StTaff, The Des Moines Register

Various proposals in Gov. Terry Branstad’s education reform blueprint are being run up the flagpole. Many Iowans appear to be saluting at least one: an effort to ensure that third-graders can read. The measure would require students to demonstrate proficiency in literacy before they can be promoted to fourth grade.

By The Associated Press, The Idaho Statesman (Boise)

TWIN FALLS, Idaho — Enrollment data at the College of Southern Idaho shows that about half of the students are getting subsidies to help pay tuition and fees from counties stretched across the southern half of the state.

By Ben Botkin, The Times-News (Twin Falls)

With big dreams and sometimes on a whim, Idahoans buy lottery tickets. For some, playing is part of a routine. Others, like Twin Falls resident Renee Whitmore, only buy tickets on occasion.

By John Pletz, Crain’s Chicago Business

Illinois colleges and universities grab more research dollars than other Midwestern states, but budget pressures in Washington loom as a threat to their biggest source of funding.

By Keith Benman, Northwest Indiana Times (Munster)

The Indiana Toll Road remains one of the the region’s great unexploited resources and is ripe for development if barriers to development can be removed, according to the first stage of a Ball State University study.

By The Associated Press, Northwest Indiana Times (Munster)

An Indianapolis judge plans to decide within 30 days whether Indiana’s sweeping new school voucher law violates church-state separation clauses in the Indiana Constitution.

By Andy Hyland, The Lawrence Journal-World

After last week’s directive from the Kansas Board of Regents to raise admissions standards, Kansas University officials are trying to balance that effort with another goal of increasing its enrollment.

By Staff, The Courier-Journal (Louisville)

The board of the Metropolitan Louisville Women’s Political Caucus has voted to oppose the controversial planned merger of three Kentucky hospital systems and is urging residents to contact Gov. Steve Beshear to ask him not to approve it.

By Will Sentell, The Advocate (Baton Rouge)

Gov. Bobby Jindal said Monday it is too early to tell whether state aid to public schools will be frozen for the fourth consecutive year. “Everybody knows that the state is facing tight budgets,” Jindal said. “Every agency is being required to do more with less.”

By The Associated Press, mlive.com

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said Tuesday that his next budget proposal likely won’t include further cuts to public schools and universities.

By Kathy Barks Hoffman, The Associated Press, Detroit Free Press

Gov. Rick Snyder plans to sign bills raising the limit on how many charter schools can be opened in Michigan.

By Dawson Bell, Detroit Free Press

Gov. Rick Snyder signed legislation today removing the cap on the number of charter schools allowed to operate in Michigan, ending a debate that began soon after the independent, public schools were first authorized in 1994.

By The Associated Press, Brainerd Daily Dispatch

State Department of Education records show Duluth’s school superintendent has been working in Minnesota without a license required for his job.

By The Associated Press, The Republic (Columbus)

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Higher education boosters in Missouri hope to make it easier for students enrolled at one school to transfer to another institution.

By Staff, Kansas City Star

With Missouri staring at another tough budget, Gov. Jay Nixon is floating some out-of-the-box ideas. One that should sink immediately — if it hasn’t already — is the suggestion that five of the state’s public universities loan the state a total of $107 million out of their reserve funds.

By Staff, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Like a sixth-year college student bailing on finals week, Missouri’s elected officials have given up on higher education.

By Staff, Hattiesburg American

Officials are warning about 1,500 participants in health studies that a laptop containing some personal information was stolen.

By Emily Wagster Pettus, The Associated Press, Hattiesburg American

Republican Gov. Haley Barbour calls for reducing the number of school districts and merging some universities, reviving many of his past recommendations in his final Mississippi budget proposal.

By The Associated Press, Missoulian

State educators met in Bozeman last week to develop a framework for naming many of Montana’s two-year colleges, as they all begin to offer two-year degrees with credits that will transfer to four-year schools.

By The Associated Press, The Winston-Salem Journal

Duke University is defending its investigation of a cancer researcher who resigned after questions were raised about his work.

By Ryan Johnson, Grand Forks Herald

A recently passed bill could help the Grand Forks region secure the “holy grail” for the future of unmanned aircraft, UND’s UAS Center of Excellence Director Al Palmer said Tuesday.

By Dale Wetzel, The Associated Press, The Bismarck Tribune

State lawmakers are questioning North Dakota State University’s decision to spend more than $1.05 million to lease and operate a private plane over a two-year period that is flown for fewer than 70 hours annually.

By Adele Sammarco, newjerseynewsroom.com

Bullying can happen anywhere, anyplace or anytime. Whether bullies choose to taunt face-to-face, by text message or over the internet, it is not limited by age, gender, or education.

By Robert Nott, Santa Fe New Mexican

Laura Carthy said she was the only one in the movie theater laughing — a sad laugh, actually — when the reality TV show Punch Teacher, in which kids beat up their instructors, flashed on the screen about midway through the new movie The Muppets.

By Robert Nott, Santa Fe New Mexican

The Board of Education wants your input on how it is doing, how you would like to see it prioritize resources, and what you think of its five goals for its 2012 strategic plan.

By Brian Nearing, Times Union (Albany)

More than a hundred public school buildings in the natural gas-rich Marcellus Shale region rely on well water, raising safety questions if gas hydraulic fracturing happens nearby, according to a report issued Tuesday by a children’s health advocacy group.

By Winnie Hu, The New York Times

New York State math and language arts tests for elementary and middle school students will each be lengthened to about three hours beginning this April.

By Staff, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

Now that several foundations have raised more than $2 million to support the program and a helpful law from the Ohio General Assembly has swept away legal barriers that kept Teach for America out of Ohio’s classrooms, the highly respected organization finally will get to work in Northeast Ohio next year.

By Joe Vardon, The Columbus Dispatch

Monday was no doubt tough for many people within Westerville public schools, when a proposal to cut 221 jobs – including about 100 teachers – was presented to the school board to help close a projected $23 million deficit next year.

By Joe Vardon, The Columbus Dispatch

Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor’s reimbursement checks for her state plane trips were written on the instruction of her boss, Gov. John Kasich said yesterday.

By Sara Ganim, The Patriot-News (Harrisburg)

It was fairly clear to those listening to testimony on Friday in Dauphin County court that many people knew about child sex abuse allegations against Jerry Sandusky in 2002.

By Anna Simon, The Greenville News

Undergraduates at Clemson University pay a mandatory $131 per semester health fee and get free care from doctors, nurses and counselors at the campus health center.

By The Associated Press, The State (Columbia)

The Black Legislative Caucus is joining with education and civil rights leaders to protest decisions by Superintendent Mick Zais to refuse to take federal grant money.

By Josh Verges, Argus Leader (Sioux Falls)

Last fall, for the first time since the state began keeping track, white students made up less than 80 percent of public school enrollment in South Dakota.

By Staff, Argus Leader (Sioux Falls)

South Dakota State University Extension has announced three new 4-H youth program advisers who will serve seven South Dakota counties.

By Perla Trevizo, Chattanooga Times Free Press

The Tennessee Higher Education Commission passed the 2012-2013 capital projects recommendations today, a list that requires close to $290 million in state funds. The commission also approved 60 already-funded capital projects in the Tennessee Board of Regents and the University of Tennessee systems at a cost of $254 million.

By Staff, The Austin American-Statesman

On Tuesday, a majority of Austin school trustees wrote off East Austin by rubber stamping Superintendent Meria Carstarphen’s deeply flawed proposal to turn over two of the community’s schools to a charter operator some 300 miles away.

By Reeve Hamilton, The Texas Tribune

Asked at a campaign stop today about Texas’ practice of allowing undocumented college students to pay in-state tuition, Rick Perry hedged on a key detail: He failed to acknowledge that such students also have access to state aid.

By Robert Gehrke, The Salt Lake Tribune

Republican House members plan to make funding education a priority in the coming year while holding the line against any proposed tax increase, including any bid to bring back the sales tax on food.

By Lisa Schencker, The Salt Lake Tribune

Utah’s high school graduation rate is significantly lower under a new federal formula that changes who counts as a graduate.

By Kirsten Stewart, The Salt Lake Tribune

Unveiling his budget for next year, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert last week bemoaned the growing share flowing to Medicaid. The health insurance program for low-income people consumes 17.6 percent of Utah’s budget, hurting the state’s ability to fund other priorities such as public schools, said Herbert, sounding a theme popular among conservatives.

By Tony Semerad, The Salt Lake Tribune

As rising health care costs continue to squeeze government budgets, a Republican legislator has proposed making Utah school districts seek new bids every three years for medical coverage.

By Olympia Meola, Richmond Times-Dispatch

Gov. Bob McDonnell this morning unveiled his first two-year budget, an $84.9 billion spending plan for 2013-14 that infuses public schools with $438 million, provides a larger cushion for potential federal cuts and fattens the rainy day fund.

By Anita Kumar and Laura Vozzella, The Washington Post

RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell proposed Monday shuffling millions of dollars from public schools and health care to his top priorities of pension reform, higher education and transportation.

By Staff, La Crosse Tribune

Running, yelling and teasing may be strictly prohibited in the halls of Baraboo’s West Kindergarten Center. But something far more serious is permitted because of a gap in state law: Firearms.