New Jersey students from families that earn less than $65,000 a year could be eligible for up to four years of free college tuition under a state budget deal struck between Gov. Phil Murphy and his fellow Democrats who lead the state Legislature. The budget plan, unveiled by state leaders earlier this week, includes money to expand the state’s free community college program, which already funds two years of tuition and fees at community colleges for low-income students, according to state treasury department officials. view article

TheHill.com Superintendent overseeing Parkland schools offers resignation after perjury charge BY JORDAN WILLIAMS - 04/28/21 12:34 PM EDT 58 7 Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Just In... Biden White House touts diversity of appointees after 100 days ADMINISTRATION — 11M AGO Autistic teen model scores campaigns for Gap, Levi's and Under Armour CHANGING AMERICA — 11M 34S AGO Cheney preparing for 'challenging' primary battle CAMPAIGN — 13M 56S AGO The evolution of 'defund the police' OPINION — 17M 8S AGO VIEW ALL Superintendent overseeing Parkland schools offers resignation after perjury charge © Getty Images The superintendent of the school district overseeing Parkland schools has offered to resign amid a perjury charge. Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie offered to resign during a school board meeting Tuesday evening amid scrutiny over his handling of the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that killed 17 students. “If the environment is not as such that I can do my very best, I'm willing to discuss a path to a mutual agreement of separation,” he said during the meeting. view article

Aiming to upend policies that have disproportionately punished Black students, the Dallas Independent School District is moving to rewrite its school disciplinary code, ending suspensions for low-level infractions like disrupting class or using profanity.  Instead of kicking students out of school, the district plans to use digital tools that have become part of school life during the pandemic to create in-school “Reset Centers” where students can Zoom into classes and access mental health professionals and teletherapy.  If approved by the Dallas school board as expected, the new policies in Texas’ second largest school district would be unprecedented in the state and one of the most progressive discipline reforms in the country, education experts said. view article

States that are facing delays in allocating billions of dollars in coronavirus-relief funds meant for schools have until Friday to provide an explanation to the Education Department.  States that are having a difficult time disbursing to school districts hundreds of billions of dollars in federal aid from the most recent coronavirus relief package are running up against a Friday deadline to explain to the Education Department why that's the case.    (27) 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