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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the ranking Democrat on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and other Senate Democrats are asking the Department of Education to retract the findings from a review that its inspector general called “unsupported and inaccurate.” (The Washington Post)
Acting U.S. Secretary John B. King, Jr.’s confirmation hearing was collegial, substantive, and seemed to foreshadow a swift Senate sign-off for the former New York state chief, who is seeking the job officially. (Education Week)
If you’ve been holding your breath for seven months waiting for an education question in a GOP debate, you can let it out. Ohio Gov. John Kasich was asked in Thursday’s debate whether the federal government should bail out Detroit’s nearly bankrupt schools, like it did for the automobile industry. (Education Week)
One winter morning, Spark Matsunaga Elementary School teacher Greta Fitch asks her fourth-graders to consider the world outside their door — specifically, the businesses that line their suburban streets. What sorts of stores and services and restaurants are there? Is anything missing? (The Washington Post)
When rumored vice-presidential contender Julian Castro was still mayor of San Antonio in 2011, he asked its 1.4 million residents to think about what they wanted to see in their city in 2020. The question was both imaginative and practical, but the effort to get it answered was monumental. In two rounds of city-wide open forums—some with attendance numbering in the hundreds—residents came together at community centers, schools, and other venues to discuss issues like education, parks and recreation, transportation, workforce development, and other matters inherent to the needs of a growing city. (The Atlantic)