Calls for action on ESEA. Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Monday called for action on a long-overdue overhaul of the elementary and secondary school law, contending that Congress has "failed to carry out its basic core responsibilities on education." The last reauthorization of the law, known as No Child Left Behind, expired in 2007 and has been criticized by both parties as requiring unachieva...
Shutdown's limited initial effects of education. The U.S. Department of Education is on partial shutdown, with many employees furloughed, but school districts are functioning in full. The effects of the government shutdown would be harder felt in the education sector if the shutdown were to continue for a prolonged period. Pell grants and federal direct student loans will largely be unaffected by ...
Legislators ask for information on relationship between schools and lenders. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ranking Member of the House Finance Committee Maxine Waters (D-CA), and Ranking Member of the House Education and Workforce Committee George Miller (D-CA) demanded that eight U.S. banks produce information about agreements they may have with colleges to encourage students to use their product...
Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin named Rebecca Holcombe, current director of the Dartmouth Teacher Education Program in Hanover, N.H., to lead Vermont's Agency of Education, starting in January. Before going to Dartmouth. Holcombe was a principal at Fairlee School in Vermont and a social studies and science teacher at the Frances C. Richmond School in Hanover, N.H. The governor’s office took over ...
Congress considers renewal of the Higher Education Act. Momentum is slowly building to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA) with college costs and student debt under bipartisan scrutiny. The most recent reauthorization of the HEA passed in 2008 and expires in 2014. On Thursday, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held a hearing on reauthorization. It is the first of 12 hearin...
Passage of a budget for FY14 was complicated by action taken on a $1.9 billion transportation bill filed by Gov. Deval Patrick to fund transportation projects and increase funding for education. Lawmakers rejected Patrick’s $1.9 billion request for new taxes and sent back a bill with $500 million in new taxes including a 3-cent hike in the gas tax. Patrick subsequently vetoed the bill admoni...
Maine lawmakers averted a government shutdown, overriding Gov. Paul LePage’s veto of the budget for FY14 and FY15. Both branches exceeded the required two-thirds vote, with the House voting 114–34 in support of the override, and the Senate voting 26-9 in support.
While Democrats won the budget battle in rejecting LePage’s budget plan, they lost a number of battles including a mo...
Granite State lawmakers on June 26 approved a $10.7 billion two-year budget with bipartisan support. Members of the Senate, which is controlled by Republicans, unanimously supported the budget, while more than 300 of the 400-member Democrat-controlled House approved the spending package.
Bipartisan agreement on the two-year plan was bolstered by growth in March and April tax revenues, which gener...
Lawmakers passed a budget totaling $8.2 billion with no new fees or taxes and worked to address the state’s ailing business climate by providing structural changes and government reforms. Gov. Lincoln Chafee opposed the structural changes, but let the bill become law without his signature.
The budget provides for:
payment of $2.5 million related to the state-supported bonds of baseball st...
The school shootings in Newtown dominated the beginning of the 2013 legislative session. Lawmakers passed a bipartisan gun violence prevention bill, the toughest in the nation. The legislation further restricts the use of assault weapons and imposes more background checks and restrictions on the sale of high-capacity magazine clips. In addition, both branches of the General Assembly adopted a free...