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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
Earlier this year, the Obama administration proposed a new, $120 million grant program, “Stronger Together,” aimed at helping increase socioeconomic diversity in schools. And Tuesday, a Senate panel dealing with K-12 spending, opted not to fund it, to the surprise of pretty much no one, given the tight fiscal constraints this year. (Education Week)
If you’ve been following our coverage of Secretary of Education John B. King Jr., you’ve read his remarks that the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 was “a civil rights law.” And so is that law’s latest version, the Every Student Succeeds Act, King says. He’s used that civil-rights language often to support how the U.S. Department of Education has approached spending and accountability issues, among other things. (Education Week)
The policy blueprint laid out by GOP Speaker of the House Paul Ryan includes proposals dealing with early learning and career and technical education, and also praises the Every Student Succeeds Act for providing additional support to charter schools. (Education Week)
I’m hanging out with my 4-year-old daughter in the early evening, trying to keep her entertained and pull dinner together, when my phone buzzes. Normally I’d feel guilty for checking it immediately, and distracted even if I didn’t. But this time it’s not a Twitter mention or an email from my editor. It’s a timely suggestion from an app called Muse. (NPR)
Lawmakers in some states have a daunting homework assignment over their summer break: to find hundreds of millions of dollars to make sure the next school year can start on time. (The Wall Street Journal)
Did Los Angeles’ largest chain of charter schools attempt to bust its teachers’ efforts to unionize? Yes and no, a judge has ruled. On one hand, Administrative Law Judge Kent Morizawa found administrators at Alliance College-Ready Public Schools acted unlawfully when they blocked teachers union organizers from two campuses and redirected the union’s emails to teachers’ spam folders for a time. (KPCC)