Latest News and Comment from Education

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Joy Resmovits: School Safety Addressed At House Education Committee Hearing; Arne Duncan's Sequestration Hype -- Ed Today

Joy Resmovits: School Safety Addressed At House Education Committee Hearing; Arne Duncan's Sequestration Hype -- Ed Today:


School Safety Addressed At House Education Committee Hearing; Arne Duncan's Sequestration Hype -- Ed Today

House Education Panel On School Safety On Wednesday, members of the House Education & Workforce Committee mulled over ways to keep schools safe in light of the horrific Newtown, Conn. elementary school shooting, reports Politics K-12. Witnesses told the committee that "school resource officers, additional guidance counselors, and professional development for educators can help schools head off tragedies," the blog reports. But there was next to no conversation about gun control. Hmmm.

Arne Duncan, Fact-Checked The Washington Post's fact checker gives U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan four Pinocchios for his remarks on teachers in a West Virginia county getting pink slipped -- already -- in light of sequestration. The Post found no news reports about these pink slips before learning that these were just "transfer notices," sent to Title I teachers unrelated to the upcoming across-the-board cuts. And the Head Start layoffs Duncan's staff referred to in that county? They're getting canned because under the Education


Sequester Could Leave Special Education Kids Without Important Services

Teresa Armstrong is steamed.

The Virginia mother of four has spent the last few weeks watching, reading and listening to politicians argue about the country's finances but fail to reach a deal to prevent impending across-the-board cuts to federal spending. She doesn't understand how they can bicker endlessly while the consequences for her daughter, Angela, hang in the balance.

The squabbling politicians, Armstrong said, aren't setting a good example for children. "It's like they just don't understand that their lack of agreement has real-time effects on people's lives," she said. "People here are