TALLAHASSEE -- State Democratic leaders are adding their voices to the controversy surrounding Florida's bid for federal Race to the Top stimulus funds.
In a letter released Friday, the ranking members of House education committees asked Education Commissioner Eric J. Smith to "urgently revise" the application which teachers' unions have said they' [...]
Rep. Dwight Bullard, D-Miami, has filed legislation to replace the FCAT with end-of-course exams in a range of subjects. Bullard and fellow House Democrats say the exams would expand and better measure what students learn over the course of the year -- replacing the current practice of teachers who spend [...]
In case anyone wondered why the teachers’ unions have so much power and can get seemingly endless number of politicians to vote to screw children again and again, this is your answer (and this is the reason Democrats for Education Reform is so important):
The Center for Responsive Politics and [...]
NATIONAL:With demand booming, U.S. says grant program's price tag will soar by $18 billion through 2011. Democrats see no impact on student loan reform.
[...]New York City’s hedge fund multimillionaires are backing charter schools, reports the New York Times.
“If you’re at a hedge fund, this is definitely the hot cause,” said Joe Williams, the executive director of Democrats for Education Reform, a nonprofit group that lobbies for charters and is financed [...]
As January approaches, education organizations in Washington are starting to lay the groundwork for reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, whose current version is the No Child Left Behind law. And that includes the contingent of Democrats who are skeptical of standardized testing.
One of the groups on [...]
The chairmen of Congress's education committees on Thursday disputed a report that a proposed lender alternative to President Obama's student loan restructuring proposal would save nearly as much money as the administration's plan. Rep. George Miller and Sen. Tom Harkin were responding to news reports indicating that the [...]
In Poor Schools or Poor Kids? on Education Next, Joe Williams of Democrats for Education Reform speaks for the Education Equality Project (accountability, pay reform, choice) while Pedro Noguera gives the Broader, Bolder perspective (preschool, health care, nutrition, parent training) on improving K–12 schooling.
Noguera: There are schools across the [...]
The plaintiffs and lawyers in the high-quality-schools lawsuit say their effort is non-partisan, but there are a lot of big-name Democrats with close ties to it.
Co-counsel Jon Mills is a former Democratic House speaker, and some of the other lawyers on board work for Southern Legal Counsel, a public interest law firm [...]
As Democrats in the House of Representatives joined the Obama administration in urging college leaders to prepare for the government's seemingly likely switch to 100 percent direct student lending, Congressional Republicans issued a challenge of their own, introducing legislation (with the support of one key Democrat) that would [...]
Florida Democrats can't get enough of the new lawsuit.
From House Democratic Leader Franklin Sands: "Not only are Florida schools inadequately funded, but the state's school accountability system is in need of serious repair. It's high time for Florida's education accountability system to be updated so that it no longer'" [...]
