Young Adults transition to Adulthood

Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Youth Indicators 2011: America’s Youth: Transitions to Adulthood, Washington, D.C., December 2011

The percentage of young adults ages 18 to 24 who have completed different levels of education has changed over time. About 81 percent of young adults had obtained at least a high school diploma or equivalency certification in 2009. From 1980 to 2009, the proportion of young adults whose highest level of education was high school completion decreased from 46 to 29 percent. Conversely, the proportion of young adults who had completed some college increased from 25 to 36 percent.

In 2010, a higher percentage of 16- to 24-year-olds were unemployed than 25- to 29-year-olds. About 19 percent of 16- to 24-year-olds in the labor force were unemployed in 2010, compared with 11 percent of adults ages 25 to 29. In addition, among 16- to 24-year-olds the unemployment rate varied by sex, educational attainment, and race/ethnicity. Males were unemployed at higher rates than females at each level of educational attainment for 16- to 24-year-olds. The overall unemployment rate for Blacks in this age group (31 percent) exceeded that for Whites, Hispanics, and Asians (15 to 21 percent). Higher levels of education were associated with lower unemployment rates for White, Black, and Hispanic 16- to 24-year-olds.

(AR) Part-time students outnumber full-timers at two-year colleges

Arkansas News Bureau

More part-time students were enrolled in the state’s two-year colleges in Arkansas last fall than full-time students, according to a report released today by the state Department of Higher Education.

Shane Broadway, interim Higher Education director, said he believes it is the first time that the number of part-time students at two-year colleges has outnumbered full-time students.

Overall, the number of students enrolled at all colleges and universities — public and private — in Arkansas in the fall rose 2.1 percent from the fall of 2010, the department said.

(FL) Bright Futures scholarships may get tougher to keep

The Orlando Sentinel

Recipients of Florida's Bright Futures scholarships may be in for a much dimmer future if their grades slip in college.

Those receiving the most valuable scholarship would eventually have to maintain a 3.5 grade point average — up from the current 3.0 — to keep the scholarship under a proposal supported by the Florida House higher education budget committee. The Senate hasn't taken up the issue yet.

Those with the second tier Medallion scholarships would have to maintain a 3.0, up from the current 2.75.

(AL) Growth in Alabama's Education Trust Fund slows

The Birmingham News

Tax collections for the state Education Trust Fund totaled $1.73 billion in October through January, an increase of 1.4 percent compared to the same period a year earlier, the state Finance Department reported today.

The trust fund is the main source of state tax dollars for public schools and colleges.

January wasn't a good month for the trust fund. Net tax collections totaled $383.5 million, a drop of $30.7 million -- 7.4 percent -- compared to January 2011.

That slowdown lowered the trust fund's growth for October to January, the first four months of the fiscal year. The growth for October through December, the first three months, was 4.3 percent.

(KY) Education budget cuts would delay overhaul of curriculum and testing

The Lexington Herald-Leader

The state's top education leaders told a legislative panel Wednesday that proposed budget cuts to the Department of Education would delay implementation of new standards that were part of a 2009 overhaul of Kentucky's education system.

Terry Holliday, commissioner of the Department of Education, told a House budget subcommittee that cuts proposed under Gov. Steve Beshear's two-year budget also would mean less money for teacher professional development and less money for technology assistance for local school districts. There also would be no new state money to help some schools that have been deemed low-performing schools.

(AR) Some leery of cap on enrollment at career centers

Arkansas News Bureau

More than 30 of the 86 Vilonia High School students enrolled in a popular medical professions class offered by a regional career technical center at the school would not be allowed to attend if a rule approved by a legislative committee last year is implemented.

The rule would limit the percentage of students from a single school district who can attend a regional technical education center to 60 percent of the total enrollment in the program.

At Vilonia, 86 of the 88 students in the program — 98 percent — attend Vilonia High. The remaining two students attend Mt. Vernon/Enola High School.

(TX) Silencing Cheers, to Save Troubled School District

The New York Times

A plan to save a school district has come down to rows of yellow Post-it notes.

Dozens of the pieces of paper dot a wall in Superintendent Ernest Singleton’s office, covering white poster boards labeled with the 11 state benchmarks that the Premont Independent School District must meet to remain open next year. Each note points to a step taken toward the corresponding goal.

Scrawled on one Post-it are two words that have brought national attention to this 570-student South Texas school district: suspend sports.

(VA) Pre-Labor Day opening bill heads to House

The Richmond Times Dispatch

A measure that would allow school districts to starts classes before Labor Day cleared the House Education Committee this morning by a 16-4 vote and now heads to the full House of Delegates.

The action comes the week after a Senate committee killed a similar bill, which means an uncertain future for the legislation if it wins approval by the full House.

A debate over whether students should be boarding a bus or punching a clock come Labor Day has become a perennial battle in the state legislature, with educators lining up in favor of allowing localities to choose whether to start before Labor Day, and the state’s tourism and hospitality industry voicing opposition.

(WV) Tomblin submits pay-down plan for OPEB liability

The West Virginia Gazette

Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin submitted legislation Tuesday to provide the final piece of the puzzle to pay down the state's massive liability for future health-care benefits for retired state and public school employees, also known as the OPEB liability.

Plans are to pass the legislation (SB469) and get it back to the governor for his signature as quickly as possible, which could be by the end of the week.

The plan would take $35 million a year of personal income tax collections that currently are set aside to pay down long-standing deficits in the former state-run workers' compensation program, debts that will be paid off by 2016.

(AR) School gardens expand in state

Northwest Arkansas Times

Many children in Amanda Terry’s first-grade class at Hardin Elementary in Redfield had never seen a vegetable plant before last October.

They had eaten vegetables before, of course, but to see plants in neat rows with dirt powdered around their bright green stems was a completely new experience, Terry said.

Terry’s students are part of an ongoing effort by the University of Arkansas Agriculture Division’s Jefferson County Cooperative Extension Office to educate children about the importance of keeping a garden and eating fresh vegetables.

(MS) Spending on textbooks dips

The Jackson Clarion-Ledger

School districts across Mississippi spent $14 million less on textbooks last year than they did three years ago.

And it wasn't all because of budget cuts.

School districts across Mississippi reported to the state Department of Education $22 million in textbook expenses last year. That's a decrease from The 2008-09 school year, when the reported textbook expenses total was $36 million.

While amounts spent and any increase or decrease varied by district, most have reported decreases over the past three years, according to information obtained from the state Department of Education through an open records request.

(FL) Lawmaker pitches school tax swap

The Miami Herald

Cash-strapped school districts may soon have an alternative to the property tax revenue that funds construction and maintenance.

A House panel on Tuesday approved a measure that would allow Florida school boards to levy a half-penny sales tax in exchange for a reduction in school property taxes. The revenue could only be used for capital projects.

If the law were to pass, school boards would have to put the tax swap on a countywide ballot, and a majority of voters would have to approve it.

Rep. Erik Fresen, a Miami Republican sponsoring the bill in the House, said the sales tax would provide “a steadier, more predictable revenue stream for the school districts, while providing some tax relief for the voters.”

(FL) Florida issues ranking for every school in the state

The Tampa Bay Times

The state Department of Education quietly released more FCAT-based rankings Monday — this time of every elementary, middle and high school in the state.

Following last week's ranking of all 67 school districts, the latest numerical ratings drew the same kind of response: Cheers from the top. Groans from the bottom. And lots of criticism that they're way too simplistic.

The DOE said on its website that the rankings are part of ongoing efforts to give parents, teachers and taxpayers ways to better evaluate their schools.

(US) School Chiefs' Group Elbows Into Policy Fight

Education Week

Amid the cacophony of special interests fighting to be heard in statehouses and on Capitol Hill, a cadre of current and former chief state school officers is elbowing its way into the nation's education debate at a time when states are taking more control of K-12 education.

A little more than a year old, Chiefs for Change is an invitation-only group of nine current and two former state chiefs whose causes include teacher evaluations tied to student achievement, more school choices for families, rewards for successful schools and more-intensive interventions for failing ones, and more-transparent accountability systems.

(FL) $69.2 billion House budget plan trades increased school funding for Medicaid cuts

The Tampa Bay Times

The House is advancing a $69.2 billion no-new-taxes budget that increases college tuition by 8 percent, cuts payments to hospitals and nursing homes and eliminates 4,700 more state jobs, many from the closing of six prisons.

The House Appropriations Committee passed the spending plan Wednesday on a party-line vote with Republicans voting yes and Democrats voting no, sending the budget to the full House for a vote next week. When the Senate releases its budget proposal, the two chambers will start the yearly search for common fiscal ground.

(KY) Bill that would let local school districts raise dropout age advances

The Lexington Herald-Leader

The Senate Education Committee unanimously approved a bill Thursday that would let local school districts decide whether to raise the dropout age from 16 to 18.

School boards could raise the dropout age if the local superintendent recommends the action and the state Department of Education gives its approval.

The sponsor of Senate Bill 109, Sen. Jack Westwood, R-Erlanger, said he favors local control over Gov. Steve Beshear's long-standing proposal to raise the dropout age statewide, beginning in 2017.

(VA) House panel advances bill on school sports, home-schoolers

The Richmond Times Dispatch

Soccer standout Patrick Foss has represented the United States throughout the world but is unable to play for his community school.

He was among a series of speakers who fed a passionate debate over a measure designed to ease access for home-schooled students to sports at public schools. The legislation cleared a key hurdle by securing the approval of the House Education Committee.

It now heads to the full House of Delegates with Gov. Bob McDonnell's backing.

(TX) In-state tuition rule altered for illegal immigrants

The Austin AmericanStatesman

The state's higher education agency tweaked its rules Thursday to require colleges and universities to send reminders to illegal immigrants who pay in-state tuition rates that they promised to seek legal status in exchange for cheaper tuition.

The tuition break helped doom Republican Gov. Rick Perry's campaign for president.

Under the rule change, which would affect several hundred Central Texas students, schools must now remind students annually and upon graduation of their obligation to apply for permanent resident status when they become eligible to do so. The Higher Education Coordinating Board said schools also must refer students to federal officials for instructions on how to achieve such status.

(US) Student proposal: Pay college tuition after graduation

USA Today

With public university administrators continually arguing for tuition increases to counter state appropriations cuts, it seems far-fetched that their budget problems could be solved by eliminating student tuition and fees altogether.

But that's the idea put forth by a group of students from the University of California at Riverside, who in January proposed a new funding model for the University of California system that seeks to solve two of the system's biggest problems: unpredictable and large decreases in state appropriations, and the steady increase in tuition costs.

Under the students' plan, called the UC Student Investment Proposal, students in the system would pay no upfront costs for their education but would agree to pay 5% of their income to the system for 20 years after graduating and entering the workforce.

(FL) Senate panel rejects in-state tuition for children of non-citizens  

The Miami Herald

Renato Lherisson is one of many students — the number is impossible to determine — who must pay out-of-state tuition even though they are U.S. citizens and Florida residents. It is because they are dependent on their parents, who are not citizens. And in Florida, it is the parent’s status that counts.

At least 12 states offer some form of tuition assistance to children of illegal immigrants.

The Florida law is being challenged in Miami federal court by a group of U.S.-born children who, like Lherisson, were denied in-state tuition because their parents are not citizens.

 A bill that would have extended in-state tuition to such students, if they lived in Florida for at least two years, was voted down Tuesday in a Senate Higher Education Committee meeting.

(KY) For-profit college regulatory bill proceeds to House

The Lexington Herald-Leader

The private, for-profit college industry would stop regulating itself at the state level under a bill that a Kentucky House committee approved Wednesday.

House Bill 308, which proceeds to the full House, would abolish the controversial Kentucky Board for Proprietary Education, which licenses scores of for-profit schools offering two-year associate degrees, technical certificates and other diplomas in various career fields.

(FL) Lawmakers face big hurdles in trying to revamp state university system  

The Miami Herald

Starting with several bills this session to create bigger change later, Senate President-designate Don Gaetz promises a revolutionary effort when he takes over as the next Senate president that will “lash” the state’s primary and higher education systems to its economic needs.

But deeply vested interests, at universities and in the House and Senate, are among the most formidable walls to significant overhauls.

Higher education has long been thorny in Tallahassee.

Over the past decade, the boards running public universities have been broken and recreated. Powerful lawmakers slip themselves into decisions about campuses in their districts or at their alma matters, if not onto schools’ payrolls.

(VA) University presidents oppose curbs on tuition use

The Richmond Times-Dispatch

University presidents are lobbying the General Assembly to block a budget proposal that would restrict how much tuition revenue they can use for student financial aid.

Low-income students have access to federal financial aid, but funds from tuition and fees are "our major source" for providing aid to students from middle-income families, University of Virginia President Teresa A. Sullivan told a group of senators last week.

While Gov. Bob McDonnell's proposed budget has been praised for increasing funding for higher education, the plan also would cap the amount of revenue used for financial aid that is generated from in-state students through tuition and fees.

(GA) Ga. college students turn to food stamps as tuition rises

Atlanta Business Chronicle

It’s an open secret on Georgia’s college campuses that more students are turning to food stamps as an unconventional form of financial aid as tuition and fees rise, reports Atlanta Business Chronicle broadcast partner WXIA-TV.

The "Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program" is providing college students who qualify with $200 a month toward their groceries, making them part of the 20 percent of Georgia's population currently receiving the benefit, WXIA reported, adding that many students are seeking the aid in addition to any part-time jobs they can find.

Obama College Aid Proposal Puts a Focus on Affordability

The New York Times

President Obama is proposing a financial aid overhaul that for the first time would tie colleges’ eligibility for campus-based aid programs — Perkins loans, work-study jobs and supplemental grants for low-income students — to the institutions’ success in improving affordability and value for students, administration officials said.

Under the plan, which the president outlined on Friday morning in a speech at the University of Michigan, the amount available for Perkins loans would grow to $8 billion, from the current $1 billion. The president also wants to create a $1 billion grant competition, along the lines of the Race for the Top program for elementary and secondary education, to reward states that take action to keep college costs down, and a separate $55 million competition for individual colleges to increase their value and efficiency.

(US) Education: States should do more to reach students

The Associated Press

In its initial review of No Child Left Behind waiver requests, the U.S. Education Department highlighted a similar weakness in nearly every application: States did not do enough to ensure schools would be held accountable for the performance of all students.

The Obama administration praised the states for their high academic standards. But nearly every application was criticized for being loose about setting high goals and, when necessary, interventions for all student groups — including minorities, the disabled and low-income — or for failing to create sufficient incentives to close the achievement gap.

Analysis Raises Questions About Rigor of Teacher Tests

Education Week

The average scores of graduating teacher-candidates on state-required licensing exams are uniformly higher, often significantly, than the passing scores states set for such exams, according to an Education Week analysis of preliminary data from a half-dozen states.

The pattern appears across subjects, grade levels, and test instruments supplied by a variety of vendors, the new data show, raising questions about the rigor and utility of current licensing tests.

There are, in essence, two main ways to interpret the findings. Some observers say the data suggest most states set low passing marks, screening out only candidates with the very lowest level of content knowledge.

(TX) Yearlong study shows Central Texas achievement gap begins with children as early as 3

The Austin American-Statesman

According to results announced Thursday, the lack of key skills that children should have by kindergarten — such as communication, problem solving and fine motor skills — are most apparent in the St. John, Quail Creek, Dove Springs and Manor school district areas, which have high numbers of low-income families and poor standardized test scores among older children.

The study — the first of its kind to provide such detailed developmental data for Central Texas — was conducted by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, who mapped areas with concentrated population of preschoolers with developmental delays. With the data, education and social service providers can target their early childhood services to the specific needs of each neighborhood.

(IL) Prepaid tuition plan won't be shut, state commission decides

Chicago Business Journal

The College Illinois prepaid tuition program, which was closed to new investors last year after questions emerged about its financial status and unorthodox investments, won't be shut down permanently.

The Illinois Student Assistance Commission, which meets Friday to begin examining ways to restore the college savings program to health, has pledged to find a way to keep it going, a spokesman said. It's unclear, though, when it will reopen to new participants.

ISAC Chairman Kym Hubbard — whom Gov. Pat Quinn appointed last year after a Crain's investigation exposed a large funding shortfall in the $1.1 billion investment fund supporting the prepaid tuition contracts and major shortcomings in its administration — had said late last year that she would be willing to propose halting the program if she concluded there was no way to fix it.

(NY) $70M in remedial work for unprepared students saps SUNY budget

The Albany Times-Union

New York's high schools are struggling to prepare graduates for college and it is costing the state $70 million in revenue.

State University of New York Chancellor Nancy Zimpher said at a state budget hearing on Wednesday that New York spends more on remedial education for its high school graduates than it does on funding eight entire SUNY campuses. She said about half of all students who enter the community college system need remedial and developmental education and that's why taxpayers spend tens of millions in an attempt to help them succeed.

PreK-12

(SC) South Carolina task force tackles childhood obesity

(LA) Gov. Bobby Jindal proposes grading early childhood programs

(TX) Texas education officials decry 'over-testing' in public schools

(TN) TN taps new pipeline for top teachers

(VA) House of Delegates backs bill to repeal 'Kings Dominion law'

(MS) $305M more sought for K-12

(VA) Virginia schools get top grade on science standards

(WV) Senator chides state education chief

(FL) Educators criticize latest Florida school rankings

(KY) Senate committee approves alternative dropout bill

(FL) Florida Senate approves school prayer bill

(KY) House passes bill to promote 'green cleaning'

(GA) Constitutional amendment set for vote Thursday

(MS) Plan for school choice outlined

Higher Education

(KY) Capilouto: State budget cuts will mean higher tuition and fewer scholarships

(GA) Ga. lawmakers consider anti-hazing bill

(GA) Much debate over bill to bar illegal immigrants from Georgia colleges

(FL) Gov. Rick Scott says he's opposed to college tuition hike

(MS) Community colleges say cuts could increase fees

(GA) Leaders at other merged universities see risks, rewards

(US) Gaming the College Rankings

(FL) University students protest higher tuition

(VA) Study faults costs, courses at the state's colleges

(MO) University of Missouri tuition could go up 6.5 percent

(KY) Kentucky lawmakers warned of tuition hikes under budget cuts