Beth’s Briefings (5-19-16)

Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:

 

Fewer students would receive free and reduced-price meals at school under legislation that Republicans pushed through a House committee Wednesday. (Associated Press)

 

Two years into a demanding new era for the American education system, its defining 21st century challenge is coming into sharper focus. That new era began in September 2014, when for the first time, kids of color constituted a majority of America’s K-12 public school students nationwide. (The Atlantic)

 

The Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, an online charter school based here, graduated 2,371 students last spring. At the commencement ceremony, a student speaker triumphantly told her classmates that the group was “the single-largest graduating high school class in the nation.” (The New York Times)

 

In spite of a gradual economic recovery and improving revenues, most states are spending dramatically less on public higher education, a new report says. (Hechinger Report)

 

For the past five years in North Carolina, conservatives have dictated education (and every other policy) at the state level — and for students and teachers, the result has been a mess. A December 2015 report by a division of the progressive North Carolina Justice Center, N.C. Policy Watch, called  “Altered State: How 5 years of conservative rule have redefined North Carolina” explains in detail how life has changed in the state as a result of conservative policies. With regard to education, it says spending per student has fallen 14.5 percent since fiscal year 2008. (The Washington Post)