Beth’s Briefings (3-10-16)

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

 

The Senate education committee voted 16 to 6 in favor of confirming John King Jr. as U.S. Education Secretary on Wednesday, cementing education as a rare area of bipartisan compromise in an otherwise deeply divided Congress. (The Washington Post)

 

When city government leaders in San Antonio decided to fund a prekindergarten program using sales tax revenues, they made a case that doing so was an economic imperative as a growing city, that investing in the future workforce was about the city’s future prosperity, and that remaining attractive to companies and workers meant having a more educated population. Other compelling factors were the city’s increasing Hispanic population, its high poverty index, urban sprawl, and an underfunded early-education system. (The Atlantic)

 

Some students with disabilities in Los Angeles County are getting shortchanged by the bureaucracy that is supposed to ensure they receive a good education, according to a consultant’s report discussed on Tuesday. (Los Angeles Times)

 

Chicago Public School principals were being instructed on Wednesday to stop spending money because the broke school district that has already imposed budget cuts, layoffs and unpaid furlough days is running out of cash to make a giant pension payment on June 30. (Chicago Sun-Times)

 

She tried to do too much, too fast. That is Merryl H. Tisch’s appraisal of her tenure as chancellor of the Board of Regents, the top education post in New York State, as she prepares to step down at the end of the month.Her critics say the same thing. (The New York Times)