Earlier this week, the financial news site, 24/7 Wall St., published its rankings of states with the best and worst early education programs. Specifically focusing on 3- to 4-year-olds, the website ranked states using an index based on five different measures of early education quality: (1) annual per-child Pre-K spending; (2) percentage of fourth graders …
Category «School Funding»
The Argument for Early Childhood Education
Access to affordable, quality early childhood education is a critical piece missing from the education system in this country. Children from poor families who live in impoverished areas benefit significantly from quality early childhood education. Yet, it’s those same families who struggle the most with the availability and affordability of quality care. An article published in …
Philadelphia School District Sued Following Student’s Death
A Philadelphia sixth-grader died last September after suffering from an asthma attack at school and failing to receive the medical attention she needed. According to an article published last week in Philadelphia Magazine, which contains a copy of the lawsuit filed on September 2, a sixth grade student began having an asthma attack at school, …
Kansas Supreme Court Finds Education Funding Unconstitutional
Last year, I wrote here about the ongoing education funding woes for Kansas public schools. Last year, a three-judge district court panel ruled that public school funding in Kansas was inadequate and inequitable. Earlier this week, the Kansas Supreme Court issued an opinion in Gannon v. State of Kansas affirming the lower court’s ruling that wealth-based disparities in …
Supreme Court Leaves Open School Funding Claims
With so much attention focused on last week’s teacher insurance special session, an important case handed down last Thursday from the Arkansas Supreme Court was all but overlooked. In Deer-Mt. Judea School Dist. v. Kimbrell, the Arkansas Supreme Court reversed the circuit court’s ruling to dismiss some of the Deer-Mt. Judea School District’s claims against …
The 2013 Special Session
Governor Beebe has called a special session of the Arkansas General Assembly to begin today at 3:00 p.m. for legislators to address the health insurance premium increase that public school teachers and employees would otherwise face starting January 1, 2014, which I’ve discussed here and here. Governor Beebe had stated that he would not call a …
Justice Department Asks Court to Block Louisiana Voucher Program in Some Schools
If you’ve read much of this blog, then you may have realized that I like discussing the topics of school choice and school vouchers, as you can see from my posts here, here, and here, just to point out a few. I like discussing these topics because everyone has a strong opinion about them, and regardless …
Kansas Legislature Seeks Control Of School Funding
Just last month, the Shawnee County District Court in Kansas ruled that the state was failing to meet its constitutional duty to adequately finance a suitable public education for every child. This ruling follows earlier decisions from the Kansas Supreme Court in 2005 and 2006 that specified that the Kansas Legislature was constitutionally mandated to …
Texas Court Rules School Funding Unconstitutional
A Texas district court in Austin ruled Monday that the state school funding system is inadequate, inequitable, and unconstitutional. The litigation began when more than 600 school districts, including the Fort Worth Independent School District and several other major North Texas school districts, filed a total of six lawsuits after the Texas Legislature cut $5.5 …
Tennessee Governor Endorses Vouchers
Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam elaborated on his education initiatives in his State of the State speech Monday night to the Tennessee General Assembly. In doing so, Haslam defended a bill filed by Tennessee State Senator Mark Norris, a Republican from Collierville, TN, that establishes the Tennessee Choice and Opportunity Scholarship Program. Under this program, 5,000 …