Budget driving school

Sadiq Khan will provide millions of meals to less well off children during the school holidays. The London mayor has announced a £3.5million emergency funding package to ease the cost of living crisis. Charities will be handed the cash to help supply 10million meals to low income families across the capital. It follows Mr Khan’s decision to fund free school meals for all primary school pupils for a year from September. Community partners will target the school holiday meals at the areas of London most in need. Mr Khan said: “The spiralling cost of living is hitting low-income Londoners particularly hard and it’s shocking so many people are struggling to put food on their table. Sadiq Khan has announced a £3.5million emergency funding package to help families ( Image: PA) “I have repeatedly called on the Government to do more to help those in need and support families during the school holidays, but they have not provided the assistance that is urgently needed. … [Read more...] about Hundreds of thousands of children to get free meals during the school holidays

A mum is seething at her daughter's school policy as they refuse to allow her to bring her own snacks in, leaving the mum struggling for money and her child 'going hungry'. Many parents will try to pack snacks for their kids to eat throughout the day to make their lives easier, as they don't need to stress about whether their child has got enough canteen money for food throughout the day. But one woman was left fuming at the school her daughter attends as they "do not allow kids to bring in their own snacks from home", forcing them to buy them from the canteen. The mum noted that her child goes to a private school, but it is unclear whether she is on a scholarship. The children are not allowed to take in their own snacks ( Image: Getty Images) She took to Mumsnet to write: "My daughter attends a secondary school where they do not allow kids to bring in their own snack from home. Instead, they may purchase snacks from the school café. "I've battled with the … [Read more...] about Furious mum slates school for letting daughter ‘go hungry’ as they ban snacks from home

So maybe I was wrong. I used to consider health care our greatest national shame, considering that we spend twice as much on medical care as many European nations, yet American children are twice as likely to die before the age of 5 as Czech children — and American women are 11 times as likely to die in childbirth as Irish women. Yet I’m coming to think that our No. 1 priority actually must be education. That makes the new fiscal stimulus package a landmark, for it takes a few wobbly steps toward reform and allocates more than $100 billion toward education. That’s a hefty sum — by comparison, the Education Department’s entire discretionary budget for the year was $59 billion — and it will save America’s schools from the catastrophe that they were facing. A University of Washington study had calculated that the recession would lead to cuts of 574,000 school jobs without a stimulus. “We dodged a bullet the size of a freight train,” notes Amy Wilkins of the Education Trust, … [Read more...] about Our Greatest National Shame

Jeong Jae-hong The author is an international, diplomatic and security news editor for the JoongAng Ilbo. In a recent meeting, I met a man who had sent his teenage son to the United States alone to study. He sighed over the burden of sending more than $46,000 a year to support him but nevertheless was proud he was doing well at an American school. He wished his son would graduate from a U.S. university, find a job, and settle there. Another man whose son was still in elementary school also hoped his son could work in America, as he projected job situation in Korea will get worse after a decade. “Korea has no future,” he cynically said. Their pessimism about the country’s future is well-grounded. Korea’s fertility rate last year was 0.78, the lowest in the world. The trend will likely get worse as more and more do not see the need to get married and have kids. Aging is also the fastest. The share of people aged 65 or older that took up 17.5 percent of the South Korean population … [Read more...] about [Column] A fatal exodus for Korea

Dramatic bodycam footage released by police shows the moment hero officers confront evil Nashville mass killer Audrey Hale . Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) officers Rex Englebert, 27, and Michael Collazo arrived at Covenant School on Monday and heroically raced through the corridors before locating and shooting dead the former student, who used two assault rifles and a pistol to kill six victims. During the hellish six-minute clip, a member of distressed staff comes out and tells officers that "we're on lockdown" before instructing them inside. The new video from Officer Engelbert's bodycam shows a woman greeting police outside as they arrive at The Covenant School on Monday. "The kids are all locked down, but we have two kids that we don't know where they are," she tells police. "OK, yes, ma'am," Engelbert replies. The woman then directs officers to Fellowship Hall and says people inside had just heard gunshots. "Upstairs are a bunch of kids," she says. Cops … [Read more...] about Nashville shooting: Dramatic bodycam footage shows moment cops shoot Audrey Hale dead

I. A Broken Economy As Barack Obama prepares to accept the Democratic nomination this week, it is clear that the economic policies of the next president are going to be hugely important. Ever since Wall Street bankers were called back from their vacations last summer to deal with the convulsions in the mortgage market, the economy has been lurching from one crisis to the next. The International Monetary Fund has described the situation as “the largest financial shock since the Great Depression.” The details are too technical for most of us to understand. (They’re too technical for many bankers to understand, which is part of the problem.) But the root cause is simple enough. In some fundamental ways, the American economy has stopped working. The fact that the economy grows — that it produces more goods and services one year than it did in the previous one — no longer ensures that most families will benefit from its growth. For the first time on record, an economic expansion seems … [Read more...] about Obamanomics

Public outrage is swift following mass shootings, such as the killing of six people at a Christian elementary school in Nashville. Sorrow and sympathy are widespread. But what comes next from policymakers is likely to depend on which political party is in charge of a state. Don’t expect new gun controls in Republican-led states, such as Tennessee or Texas. But when similar tragedies occur in Democratic-led states, more gun limits are likely — even if they already have restrictive laws. Mass shootings generally don’t seem to change a state’s basic political makeup. “Democratic-led states tend to focus more on firearm restrictions whereas Republican-led states do not and often emphasize lessening regulations on guns,” said Jaclyn Schildkraut, executive director of the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium at the Rockefeller Institute of Government. The fact that responses seem predicated by Republican and Democratic labels is perhaps an indication of the nation’s … [Read more...] about Mass shootings seldom shift partisan policies despite outcry

Along the riverbanks of Eastern Kentucky, the redbud trees are just starting to bloom, their branches still lumbering under the weight of last summer’s catastrophic flood: Lawn chairs, trampolines, twisted gutters and school backpacks remain high in the treetops, each item a persistent and disorienting sign of how life here was turned upside down last July when shallow streams surged more than 18 feet in 10 hours in parts of the state, killing more than 40 people and leaving hundreds homeless . Yet while residents reach for the possibility of renewal, the largest regional investment being offered is a federal prison proposed for Letcher County, the heart of the flood zone. The possible federal correctional institution adds insult to an already injured region. In 2019 activists defeated the proposal, demanding that the funds be used for more forward-thinking purposes, including safe and affordable housing — all the more needed since the flood. The Trump and Biden … [Read more...] about Eastern Kentucky Needs Flood Relief, Not Another Federal Prison

The coronavirus pandemic has been defined by so much loss. Of lives, jobs, relationships. Of normalcy. But amid that upheaval, there have been occasional moments of hope, small positive changes borne from the chaos of the past three years. Hundreds of you wrote to us about the ways that pandemic disruptions surprisingly reshaped your lives for the better. Some of you found time to start a new business venture or fall in love. Lockdowns allowed you to spend more time with your children or parents, or prioritize your own happiness through daily morning walks, new recipes or oil painting. In June 2020, I adopted a sickly kitten, a responsibility I wouldn’t have been able to take on had I not been newly working from home. Now she’s almost 3 years old and a lovable companion for whom I feel immensely grateful. Reading your pandemic silver linings genuinely improved my week. I hope you enjoy them, too. Here’s some of what you shared, lightly edited for clarity. “In the spring … [Read more...] about Californians Share Their Pandemic Silver Linings

For many people across the UK, buying a house in the current market feels like an impossible task, and the properties within budget may not be our ideal homes. We all have areas we're prepared to compromise on, though. A £15,000 house may seem like the dream price point for many first-time buyers, but a Scottish house-hunter has dubbed his find of a rundown bungalow as the "worst house in the UK", despite the purse-friendly budget. Adam Bruce filmed his reaction to the property in a hilarious video where he detailed the many issues within the cut-price property. The video start with Adam's head overlaid on a green screen of the Rightmove listing of the property, which is located in Bradford, Yorkshire. In the video, Adam's head could be seen in each room ( Image: Deadline News) The clip opens with Adam's declaration: "Stop scrolling, stop what you're doing, ladies and gentlemen we have found the worst available house in the UK and it sits in Bradford." Whilst … [Read more...] about ‘Worst house in UK’ for sale with sprawled graffiti, heaped litter and warning signs