January 21, 2011

Education Roundup: Armed Teachers?

Majory Collins/Zumapress.com

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Guns in Los Angeles schools permeated education news this week. Why? Well, first two students were shot in an LA classroom after a gun discharged in a third student’s backpack. Then, in a separate incident, several LA schools were put on lockdown after an unknown assailant shot a police officer near a local high school.

Would armed teachers help keep schools safe from shootings? One Nebraska senator thinks so, and introduced a bill this week to allow school administrators, teachers, and counselors to carry concealed handguns in schools. Click here for Huffington Post Education‘s take on the bill, or find out how teachers and parents responded in Education Week‘s forum.

Speaking of school shootings, MoJo education blogger Kristina Rizga reports this week on Natalie, a new “star” Mission High student who says she got kicked out of her previous school for botching a writing assignment related to a school shooting death. It’s a gripping dispatch; don’t miss it.

More news:

  1. A Florida state legislator filed a bill requiring teachers to grade parents on their school involvement Orlando Sentinel reports.
  2. Our failing educational system is botching national security, the San Diego Union-Tribune opines, citing The Education Trust’s report that one in four high school graduates failed the military’s basic exam for math, reading, and problem-solving skills. 
  3. US News & World Report and the National Council on Teacher Quality announced that they’re grading the quality of teacher training programs that educate and produce more than 200,000 teachers every year. The first-ever review will be published in 2012.
  4. Why does it take more than 100 days to removing tenured teachers accused of crimes or malfeasance? It shouldn’t, according to a proposal funded by the American Federation of Teachers (PDF). Education Week has more details.
  5. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg apologized for schools chancellor Cathie Black’s “joke” that birth control would solve school overcrowding, reports HuffPo.

Click here to see all of MoJo‘s recent education coverage, or follow our education reporter on Twitter or with this RSS Feed.

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

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