Mississippi's governor said Thursday that public schools will be closed until at least April 17 to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, but he and state education leaders urged parents to make sure children continue to learn.  “This is not a time to take a vacation,” Gov. Tate Reeves said in a Facebook live presentation from the Governor's Mansion. view article

Mississippi's governor said Thursday that public schools will be closed until at least April 17 to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, but he and state education leaders urged parents to make sure children continue to learn.  “This is not a time to take a vacation,” Gov. Tate Reeves said in a Facebook live presentation from the Governor's Mansion. view article

TULSA, Okla. (KTUL) — Oklahoma State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister announced Thursday that the State Department of Education plans to pursue a federal waiver to suspend statewide student testing for the 2019-20 school year. view article

SAVANNAH, Ga (WSAV) – Monday State School Superintendent Richard Woods announced he has decided to suspend state testing and accountability requirements to ensure the safety of students and staff during the COVID-19 pandemic.  The following have been suspended until further notice: view article

The Education Department’s fiscal 2021 budget request highlighted a dramatic new program: a block grant that would allow states to determine how they spend a major chunk of their federal education dollars.  But some advocates for charter schools worry it could hurt  them, an irony given Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ support for the tuition-free, privately run, but publicly funded schools that are popular in many cities. The schools, notably, aren’t as popular with teachers’ unions because they are not normally unionized, or with progressives, who see them as a threat to traditional public schools. view article

WASHINGTON — A bookkeeping change at the Education Department will kick hundreds of rural school districts out of a federal program that for nearly two decades has funneled funding to some of the most geographically isolated and cash-strapped schools in the United States.  More than 800 schools stand to lose thousands of dollars from the Rural and Low-Income School Program because the department has abruptly changed how districts are to report how many of their students live in poverty. The change, quietly announced in letters to state education leaders, comes after the Education Department said a review of the program revealed that districts had “erroneously” received funding because they had not met eligibility requirements outlined in the federal education law since 2002.   (03/03) view article

Nice Presentation - js  Architectural rendering flyover of what is proposed for Abilene ISD's Dyess Elementary replacement, which would open in August 2021 if approved view article

HARLINGEN, Texas (CBS 4) — Congressman Vicente Gonzalez announced over $99 million for schools in the 15th District of Texas.   According to a release, Title I Grants to local school districts are intended to ensure the most financially and socially disadvantaged children have an equal opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach proficiency on state academic assessments. view article

Every single charter school in the United States of America is either a disaster or a disaster waiting to happen - Stop kidding yourself. Charter schools are a bad deal.  It doesn’t matter if they’re for-profit or nonprofit.  It doesn’t matter if they’re cyber or brick-and-mortar institutions.  It doesn’t matter if they have a history of scandal or success.  Every single charter school in the United States of America is either a disaster or a disaster waiting to happen.  The details get complicated, but the idea is really quite simple.  It goes like this. view article

The cost of college continues to increase, but too often, financial aid officials say, students fail to tap into existing resources, resulting in “money left on the table.”  A state law passed last year could help. Included in House Bill 3, which focused on school finance reform, is a requirement that all high school students fill out and submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, prior to graduating. Current high school sophomores who graduate in 2022 will be the first to fall under the new law. view article

From the standpoint of national politics, this week might be the year's busiest — at least until November. The winner of the Iowa caucuses, held on Monday, still isn't known; the final vote on President Trump's impeachment will come today. And last night, President Trump gave a lengthy State of the Union address highlighting policy achievements and making political points. As is often the case in election years, the president devoted a significant passage in the speech to education policy.  view article

There is a growing and disturbing trend of anti-intellectual elitism in American culture. It's the dismissal of science, the arts, and humanities and their replacement by entertainment, self-righteousness, ignorance, and deliberate gullibility. Susan Jacoby, author of The Age of American Unreason, says in an article in the Washington Post, "Dumbness, to paraphrase the late senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, has been steadily defined downward for several decades, by a combination of heretofore irresistible forces. These include the triumph of video culture over print culture; a disjunction between Americans' rising level of formal education and their shaky grasp of basic geography, science and history; and the fusion of anti-rationalism with anti-intellectualism."  view article

A Mississippi school district has been ordered to desegregate its schools after what the Justice Department called a five-decade-long legal battle. The Cleveland School District, about two hours northwest of Jackson, was told that it must consolidate its schools in order to provide real desegregation for students in the city of about 12,000. view article