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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
The Obama administration handed out more than $3 billion to the states and the District of Columbia to help them turn around their worst-performing schools as part of the federal stimulus spending that took place after the 2008 recession. (Washington Post)
The IRS issued $5.6 billion in potentially bogus education tax credits in a single year — more than a quarter of all education credits claimed by taxpayers, a government watchdog said Tuesday. (ABC News)
The term “soccer mom”—political shorthand for the upscale suburban women President Clinton courted so successfully in the 1990s—may have fallen out of use with the Beltway set in more recent years, but this swing voting bloc is still around. Just ask Arne Duncan. (The Wall Street Journal)
A dozen civil rights groups issued a statement Tuesday criticizing the growing movement of parents who refuse to allow their children to take standardized tests, saying the anti-test push “would sabotage important data and rob us of the right to know how our students are faring.” (Washington Post)
Seattle’s teachers voted Monday to hold a one-day strike, joining colleagues in about two dozen other school districts that have staged or are planning similar walkouts to pressure state lawmakers to budget more money for lower class sizes and higher teachers’ wages. (The Seattle Times)
Mike Huckabee, the former Baptist preacher, governor of Arkansas and Fox News host, announced his campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday in his hometown of Hope, Arkansas. He has a long track record of promoting homeschooling, school choice and local control of education. And Huckabee, who grew up saying twice-daily prayers in his public school, doesn’t shy away from calling for the end to the Common Core curriculum standards and the federal Department of Education. (Forbes)