LANSING -- Longer school days may be on the horizon for Michigan kindergartners. The Legislature has approved a school funding plan that includes a provision to phase in full-day, everyday kindergarten by reducing funding for kindergartners on half-day and alternate-day schedules.
Legislation to raise the dropout age from 16 to 18 should not continue to languish in the Senate Education Committee. The premature exodus of students from school is a vital issue that affects not only individual students, but the state's economy.
Americans, especially young ones, aren't reading as well or as much as they once did, a new study shows. That may seem, at first blush, like a problem mostly for writers and bookstores.
By Tom Watkins
Michigan is at a tipping point. Are we going to invest in our people and our collective future or become an economic backwater?
GRANDVILLE -- Katie Messina teaches to a sea of bobbing heads.
In this era of No Child Left Behind, I often cringe when asked what I do for a living, because I know when I say, "I'm an English teacher" I am about to get an earful.
Too much is at stake for school districts not to be actively engaged in Lansing. New legislation that would prohibit districts from hiring lobbyists is a bad idea that lawmakers should not allow to become bad public policy. School districts deserve the chance to have their stories told just like cities, universities and other groups. This bill is an excellent example of why. The legislation is unfair and of little value.
It's an old high school graduation tradition: choosing a valedictorian, a school's best and brightest. Some school leaders, however, are pushing for changes to highest grade-point formulas in favor of something that measures knowledge and also rewards students who take college-level courses.
GRAND RAPIDS -- Ed Kettle is running for a 1st Ward seat on the City Commission, but he also wants a shot at running Grand Rapids Public Schools. If elected, Kettle said he will urge the City Commission to petition the governor for a City Hall takeover of the city's schools system.
GRAND RAPIDS -- Grand Rapids needs to help stem the flow of city students to charter and suburban schools by better selling its programs -- with a new communications director, Superintendent Bernard Taylor says.
