February 14, 1996
Education Week, Vol. 15, Issue 21
Education
Lugar Touts Role in Defending School-Meals Programs
As the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Sen. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana was instrumental last year in defeating a House GOP proposal to convert the federal school-meals program into state-run block grants.
Teaching Profession
Toledo Teachers' Union Reinstates Peer-Review Process
The Toledo Federation of Teachers has resurrected the acclaimed peer-review process that assigned veteran teachers in the Ohio district to review the work of their colleagues.
Education Funding
President Vows Veto Unless School Aid Grows
President Clinton pledged last week to veto the next stopgap spending bill Congress sends him if it does not boost school funding, according to a National Education Association lobbyist.
IT Infrastructure & Management
TCI Launches Company To Provide TV Programs, Software to Schools for Fee
Washington
The nation's largest cable-television company has launched a new company that will provide a variety of TV programming and computer software to schools that pay to subscribe.
The nation's largest cable-television company has launched a new company that will provide a variety of TV programming and computer software to schools that pay to subscribe.
Early Childhood
Special-Ed. Services in Ill. Fall Short, Judge Rules
Illinois has failed to provide educational and developmental
services to all the state's eligible infants and toddlers with
disabilities, a federal judge ruled last week.
Education
Philanthropy
The National Association of Independent Schools has published a "how
to" book on the nuts and bolts of fund-raising for private schools.
Education
News in Brief: School-Finance Suit Is Dismissed in N.M.
A New Mexico judge has thrown out a lawsuit filed by 10 medium-size school districts challenging the state's education-funding formula.
Education
Okla. Governor Proposes Bonus-Pay Program for Teachers
Gov. Frank Keating of Oklahoma last week proposed a nearly $11 million bonus-pay program for teachers in the state's fastest-improving schools.
School Climate & Safety
Police Seek Motive in Triple Slaying at Washington School
With a teacher and two students dead and a 14-year-old boy jailed on murder charges, the town of Moses Lake, Wash., last week mourned its losses and struggled to come to grips with what had happened.
Teaching Profession
Striking Teachers Return to Class in San Diego
Teachers returned to work last week in the San Diego Unified School District after reaching an agreement that ended a strike that began Feb. 1.
Education
Ga. Chief Takes Aim at NAEYC Materials
Georgia state schools Superintendent Linda C. Schrenko backed off last week from an earlier threat to stop state-funded pre-kindergarten programs from using any materials published by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
Education Funding
State and Local Budget Writers Brace for Worst
Uncertainty over federal funding is leading many local and state officials to use worst-case scenarios to plan next year's school budgets, anticipating at least a 17 percent cut in federal aid.
Uncertainty over federal funding is leading many local and state officials to use worst-case scenarios to plan next year's school budgets, anticipating at least a 17 percent cut in federal aid.
Special Education
Katrina de Hirsch, Expert In Learning Disabilities, Dies
Katrina de Hirsch, a pioneer in the field of childhood language and learning disabilities, died Jan. 30 at her home in New York City. She was 93.
School Climate & Safety
School Fires in Alaska Prompt Code Questions
Five times since 1994, residents of remote Alaska villages have seen their only school destroyed by fire.
Special Education
N.Y. Plan Calls for Mainstreaming Preschool Children
New York state education officials unveiled a plan last week that calls for mainstreaming preschool children with disabilities and shifting the cost of educating them to school districts.
Standards
N.J., N.Y. Advance Efforts To Adopt Academic Standards
Despite declarations the momentum behind the national movement for academic standards had flagged, two of the nation's biggest states forged ahead last week and released standards designed to elevate student achievement.
School Climate & Safety
Project To Track Guns Reports Little Success
Two years into a project designed to track how juveniles get their hands on guns they use in crimes, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms is reporting little success.
Standards
Summit Seeks New Focus on School Reform
The nation's governors and top corporate executives will trumpet standards and technology as medicine for what ails the nation's schools when they gather next month in New York state for an education summit.
Education
Judge in Cleveland Case Refuses To Step Down
A federal judge in Ohio will not step down as the presiding judge in Cleveland's school-desegregation case and has denied a request to return the state-run Cleveland public schools to local control.
Ed-Tech Policy
States, Districts Seen Bearing Cost of Replacing Computers
Though businesses and the federal government are helping link the nation's schools with the information highway, the cost of replacing the aging computers in those schools will fall to states and local districts, participants in a recent national teleconference said.
Education
Tribune Co. Purchases Two Textbook Publishers
The Chicago-based Tribune Co. is expanding its presence in the education market. The company has agreed in recent weeks to buy two publishers of textbooks and other educational materials.
Education
Clinton, Senate Democrats Vow To Bar D.C. Vouchers
Senate Democrats have pledged to filibuster, and President Clinton has vowed to veto, a bill that would allow $5 million in federal funds to be spent on vouchers that students in Washington could use at public or private schools.
Assessment
Goals Panel To Survey State Assessments, Ask For More NAEP Data
Washington
As part of its efforts to track progress toward the eight national education goals, the National Education Goals Panel is compiling a survey of what each state is doing to measure the academic achievement of its students.
As part of its efforts to track progress toward the eight national education goals, the National Education Goals Panel is compiling a survey of what each state is doing to measure the academic achievement of its students.
Early Childhood
'Potty-Gate' Bill Requires Bathroom Dividers
After a two-hour debate that has since become known as "potty-gate," the Georgia House has declared that even pre-kindergartners deserve a little privacy in the restroom.
School & District Management
$107 Million Over 5 Years Awarded to 7 Research Centers
The Department of Education last week awarded five-year grants to seven new national education-research centers.
Federal
Telling Tales Out Of School
At first, Chip Angell couldn't make head or tail of the woman's story. She phoned late last spring, a time of year when the warm daytime sun here gives way to an evening cool that makes for a pleasant stroll around the town square. A lawyer, Angell works out of a storefront office just off the square. For five years, he has run legal interference for many $6- and $7-an-hour workers who are headed for bankruptcy, tangled in insurance red tape, or just plain down and out.