The massive flow of federal funding into schools has created a new and unfamiliar political dynamic in state elections this fall, with many candidates voicing concerns about the government involvement while acknowledging its role in saving jobs, propping up budgets, and supporting innovations in education. State elected officials have a long…

What began as a swashbuckling move by the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, the state's governor, and a newly minted billionaire to reshape the beleaguered Newark school system has turned into a tangle of blowback and counterpunches as skeptics contend the plan would violate state law. At issue is the power-sharing arrangement proposed by the three…

The big incoming crop of Republican governors and state lawmakers will inherit bleak conditions for funding school programs and face potentially vexing decisions about whether to pursue the ambitious education proposals crafted by their predecessors, often with bipartisan support. Many of those victorious GOP candidates campaigned on time-tested…

The new class of governors, state legislators, and chief state school officers elected last week will face formidable challenges in dealing with the squeeze the nation's sagging economy--and ballooning state budget deficits--is putting on K-12 education. In the November 4 elections, Democrats added one more governor's office--in Missouri--to their…

The ECS, like other nonprofit groups serving state officials, has faced financial difficulties in recent years, starting when states faced severe revenue shortfalls early in the decade. But its problems became public this spring when Kathy Christie, the group's No. 2 official and a 17-year ECS employee, resigned and said in a letter to the ECS…

The three current presidential hopefuls with experience as state governors have records on education that offer voters an unusually detailed preview of what the nation's schools might expect if any of the three should win the White House next year. Those candidates--New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, on the Democratic side, and former Governors…

Good fiscal news is arriving in state capitals: Tax revenues are finally starting to recover from their four-year swoon. The bad news: States face pressure to meet increasing health-care costs and to replenish rainy-day and other funds legislatures tapped in recent years. The bottom line is that schools will have to fight for significant increases…

An effort to require school districts to funnel 65 percent of their budgets directly into classrooms is gaining traction in several states. Governor Rick Perry of Texas signed an executive order in August mandating that school districts implement the 65 Percent Solution, as the idea is called by the nonprofit group organizing the effort. It also…

Three years after a federal law required states to collect a host of education data, much of that information and more will now be available in one place--giving the public a newfound resource and giving educators headaches over how schools can be compared. On a free Web site to be launched on March 29, 2005, a public-private partnership will post…

In the three years that the Pinellas County, Florida, district has offered its more than 7,800 teachers a performance bonus as mandated by the state, exactly two have qualified and taken home the money. To get a paycheck topped up by 5 percent, Pinellas teachers are required to have had a hand in helping students raise their test scores by 120…