National school boards association

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

A Wisconsin school district has banned a first grade class from singing Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton’s duet “Rainbowland” because it was deemed “controversial” and conflicting with school policy. Melissa Tempel, a teacher at Heyer Elementary in Waukesha, tweeted on March 21 that her first graders were “so excited” to sing "Rainbowland" for a spring concert, but it was vetoed by the administration. The 2017 song talks about working together and living in harmony with lyrics including “Cause I know if we try, we could really make a difference in this world” and “Living in a Rainbowland … Where we’re free to be exactly who we are / Let’s all dig down deep inside / Brush the judgment and fear aside.” Venting her frustration over being barred from using the song, Tempel tweeted, “When will it end?” Waukesha School District said in a statement on March 24 that there's an approval process for instances like these. In this case a teacher suggested “Rainbowland” to the music … [Read more...] about Wisc. school district bans first graders from singing Cyrus-Parton duet ‘Rainbowland’ at concert

JAMIE Oliver’s new TV show was under fire last night after it emerged teenage boys were told to perform a sex act before one ­episode. The lads in Jamie’s Dream School – which has celebrity ­experts trying to inspire drop-out kids – were asked to produce a sample of their semen for a ­science lesson. But last night family ­campaigners and watchdogs branded the stunt “distasteful” and “weird”. And they claimed the ­controversial “homework” was exploiting the boys aged 16-18 to get good viewing figures for the Channel 4 show. The bizarre lesson was devised by telly doc Robert Winston, the UK’s leading fertility expert and man behind hit shows The Super Life of Twins and How Science Changed Our World. He claims the homework ­assignment was a good way to get them interested in science. Lord Winston said: “I got some boys to bring in a sample of ­seminal fluid for the class to look at under the microscope. “Instantly the kids of both sexes were very excited. It’s as close to … [Read more...] about Jamie Oliver’s Dream School blasted over sex act task

close Video GOP Presidential candidate Nikki Haley on how to combat gun violence Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley says treating the mental health is the priority in combating gun violence. Haley was interviewed by Fox News Digital after holding a town hall in Salem, New Hampshire on March 28, 2023. SALEM, N.H. – EXCLUSIVE – Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley says in the wake of this week’s deadly school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, the focus needs to be on combating the mental health crisis rather than on new legislation banning assault weapons. "My heart fell like everybody else’s when we heard about Nashville," the former ambassador to the United Nations and former South Carolina governor said at a town hall on the campaign trail in Salem, New Hampshire on Tuesday, as she referenced the attack at a Christian school in Nashville, where a shooter armed with two assault-style rifles and a handgun killed three … [Read more...] about Nikki Haley says treating shootings as only a ‘gun issue is the lazy way out’ after Nashville school tragedy

On the morning of Oct. 5, President Bush and his education secretary, Margaret Spellings, paid a visit, along with camera crews from CNN and Fox News, to Friendship-Woodridge Elementary and Middle Campus, a charter public school in Washington. The president dropped in on two classrooms, where he asked the students, almost all of whom were African-American and poor, if they were planning to go to college. Every hand went up. “See, that’s a good sign,” the president told the students when they assembled later in the gym. “Going to college is an important goal for the future of the United States of America.” He singled out one student, a black eighth grader named Asia Goode, who came to Woodridge four years earlier reading “well below grade level.” But things had changed for Asia, according to the president. “Her teachers stayed after school to tutor her, and she caught up,” he said. “Asia is now an honors student. She loves reading, and she sings in the school choir.” Bush’s Woodridge … [Read more...] about What It Takes to Make a Student

Seven in ten children from families on universal credit are not eligible for free school meals, a report warns today. Tight-fisted ministers have rejected calls to extend provision to more pupils. In England, children whose families claim universal credit are only entitled to free school meals if their earnings are less than £7,400 a year after tax. This threshold has been frozen at the same level since it was introduced in 2018. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, this means 1.7million pupils in England whose families are entitled to universal credit are not eligible for free lunches, worth about £460 per pupil per year. The report found that the salary cut-off means that parents earning near the £7,400 income cap are being discouraged from earning a little more as it would mean losing their access to free meals. The Mirror is campaigning for more children to get free school meals For a single parent with two school-aged children, this “cliff edge” means … [Read more...] about Barmy rule that means parents on Universal Credit better off if they cut hours at work

Following is the transcript of Barack Obama's economic speech at Cooper Union in New York, as provided by CQ Transcriptions Inc. Thank you so much for being here. Let me begin by thanking Dr. Drucker and Cooper Union for hosting us here today. I have to say that the last time an Illinois politician made a speech here it was pretty good. So... (LAUGHTER) ... the bar is high. And I -- I want everybody to know right at the outset here that this may not be living for generations to come, the way Lincoln's speech did. I want to thank all our elected supporters who are here. I want to -- there are a couple of special guests that I'm very appreciative for being in attendance: Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve Board... (APPLAUSE) We appreciate his presence. William Donaldson, the former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. We thank you. And finally I want to thank the mayor of this great city, mayor Bloomberg, for his extraordinary … [Read more...] about Obama on ‘Renewing the American Economy’

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

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

Every year at this time, viral college-acceptance videos start making the rounds, passed along from student to student, parent to parent, racking up views in the tens of millions. The videos—which have expanded their reach from YouTube to TikTok—follow a formula that goes like this: A teenager looks nervous and might even be crying, claiming that she’s absolutely, positively certain she won’t get in. Next comes a monologue about how she’s shaking so much, she can’t move or even breathe. Somehow, she manages to log in to the admissions portal and see that the decision is available. There’s more freaking out about how she won’t get in. Finally, she clicks a button and—OH MY GOD—she got in! Expressions of utter shock and piercing screams ensue. One can spend hours watching thousands of videos like these, and many teens do. Some people might find these videos harmless or even uplifting, but that has not been my experience, nor does it resemble what I have heard from other teens around … [Read more...] about Stop Sharing Viral College-Acceptance Videos