AM News: Don't Forget Broadband Access, Says Rockefeller

Fund That Subsidizes Internet for Schools Should Expand, a Senator Says NYT: Senator John D. Rockefeller IV proposed an overhaul and update of the E-Rate fund, which uses money collected on consumers’ phone bills to subsidize Internet connections for schools.  

Providence, R.I., Wins Mayors Challenge With Literacy Plan NYT: In a contest overseen by Bloomberg Philanthropies, Mayor Angel Taveras won his city $5 million to help parents improve the vocabulary of their children.

LAUSD announces multimillion-dollar settlement of 58 of 191 Miramonte sex abuse claims KPCC: David Holmquist, the district's general counsel, would not say how much each family will be paid until the deal is approved by a judge — only that it is a double-digit multimillion-dollar settlement.

In Michigan District, A New Look For Vocational Education NPR:  Classes like wood shop or auto shop used to be called vocational classes. They were known as an academic dumping ground for students who weren't succeeding in a regular classroom. But a lot has changed. In the rural mid-Michigan school district of Stockbridge, classes now offer a pathway to college, and a way to gain skills to pay tuition.

No Division Required in This School Problem NYT: The young man, Peng Shi, a 24-year-old doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, began asking questions and talking to parents. Then he made a suggestion: why not drop the idea of zones altogether?

Paul Ryan: Pell Grants Frozen At Current Levels Under New Budget HuffPost: Under Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis) "Path to Prosperity" budget framework for 2014, college students would have one less weapon against the creep of climbing college tuitions: Pell Grants would freeze at their current level, with a maximum possible grant of $5,645 per student for the next 10 years.

Comments

[Bruce]

At least Representative Ryan has the courage to take on the enormous structural operating deficit in the federal budget. Complaints will be heard from defenders of the status quo, but present trends, if not more seriously addressed, may well bankrupt our children's generation. If we wanted to really revolutionize American education, we would make the college subsidies contingent upon academic qualification, rather than family income. This is the approach adopted by nearly all of our competitors, most of whom have education systems far more efficient than our own. At present, enormous amounts of time and money are being wasted upon students who did not do the work necessary to prepare for college, too often due to the misguidance of adults whose sympathy exceeds their practical assessment of economic realities.