posted on
Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
Sen. Lamar Alexander walked into Sen. Patty Murray’s office and closed the door. Alexander, a Republican from Tennessee, had just taken control of the education committee in the new GOP-led Senate and was determined to rewrite No Child Left Behind, the main K-12 federal education law. It was early February, and he had released a draft of his ideal bill, inviting lawmakers to amend it with their own ideas in committee before bringing it to the full Senate. (The Washington Post)
Many high schoolers hoping to attend George Washington University in Washington, D.C., one of the top private universities in the country, breathed a sigh of relief this week. GWU announced it will no longer require applicants to take the SAT or ACT. (NPR)
In representing STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and liberal arts education as antithetical, “Gap Widening as Top Workers Reap the Raises” (front page, July 25) reproduces a widespread and dangerous misunderstanding. A liberal arts education is one that embraces — indeed requires — broad learning across the fields of natural and social sciences and humanities. (The New York Times)
The 2016 presidential primary contest has fostered discord within some of America’s biggest labor unions, weakening frontrunner Hillary Clinton’s lock on the support of a key Democratic constituency. Although a majority of union leadership and rank-and-file members appear to still support Clinton, a growing activist bloc within the labor movement has thrown its support behind Sen. Bernie Sanders. (Aljazeera America)
In recent years, students at Malcolm X Academy in the city’s Bayview section have been coming up with design ideas for a paved pathway that will eventually link their public elementary school to a housing complex that’s under construction nearby. The complex is slated to replace a once-crumbling public housing development that was torn down in 2010. (The Atlantic)
What message is a governor sending to the public with an appointment like this?
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley has tapped someone to your state’s Board of Education who never attended public schools, publicly declared that his children never will either, and actively supported a successful effort to defeat a vote on a school tax in a divisive campaign in his home county? (The Washington Post)
Maryland
State education officials say new standardized tests last year saved the state more than $2.5 million, compared to previous state assessments. (The Baltimore Sun)
New York
Former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has been out of office for a year and a half, but his influence over New York schools is practically as strong as ever. (The New York Times)