Education

The New York Times reports: Members of a special team at the Education Department that had been investigating widespread abuses by for-profit colleges have been marginalized, reassigned or instructed to focus on other matters, according to current and former employees. The unwinding of the team has effectively killed investigations into possibly fraudulent activities at several large for-profit colleges where top …

Oregon’s The World reports: The North Bend School District is facing serious discrimination allegations. The allegations include an LGBTQ student being forced to read Bible passages as a form of punishment and whether or not LGBTQ students were discriminated against after reporting sexual harassment. These allegations are detailed in a March 6 letter from the Oregon Department of Education to …

The Guardian reports: A teacher who leads a classroom for teenage refugees staged a silent protest by wearing several overtly political badges while receiving an award from Donald Trump at the White House. Mandy Manning works at the Newcomer Center at Joel E Ferris High School in Spokane, Washington, which specialises in English language development for new refugees and immigrant …

The Associated Press reports: For 108 years, the Boy Scouts of America’s flagship program has been known simply as the Boy Scouts. With girls soon entering the ranks, the group says that iconic name will change. The organization on Wednesday announced a new name for its Boy Scouts program: Scouts BSA. The change will take effect next February. Chief Scout …

Denver’s ABC affiliate reports: As Colorado teachers prepare to walk out on Thursday and Friday to call for higher wages and increased school funding, some state lawmakers are working to make sure any plans to strike don’t go unpunished by introducing a bill in the Senate that could put teachers in jail for speaking out. The bill, SB18-264, would prohibit …

The Miami Herald reports: Not the most normal sight: a gun left in the bathroom stall. But that’s exactly what went down on Sunday in a men’s room at the Deerfield Beach Pier. The circumstances of how the Glock 9mm got there are unusual. According to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, the weapon was left by Sean Simpson. If his name …

TMZ reports: David Hogg might soon be trading one sunshine state for another … because the Parkland leader’s been accepted to UC Irvine!!! The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School senior tells us he got an acceptance letter from the prestigious school last week … officially welcoming him to the Anteater family. The letter says, in part, “Students choose UCI to …

This is fantastic: Striking Oklahoma teachers jangled their keys and chanted “Where’s my car?” at their governor after she compared their demands to a “teenager wanting a better car.” Public schools in Oklahoma are closed this week as teachers strike for better pay and resources. On Tuesday, Gov. Mary Fallin (R) said the teachers striking for improved pay and benefits …

The Washington Post reports: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos asked her department’s Office of Inspector General if grounds existed to prosecute employees who leaked budget data to The Washington Post and unclassified information to Politico, according to an internal department report. The response: It would be challenging, because the department has “little” written policy or guidance on how employees are supposed …

CBS News reports: For the third day, thousands of Oklahoma teachers marched at the state capitol. Inside the rotunda, educators, and hundreds of their students demanded an increase in school funding. On Tuesday, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin signed a bill giving teacher-support staff, like teachers’ aides and janitors, a $1,250 raise. Last week, she signed a measure that gave teachers …

The Tulsa World reports: Thousands of Oklahoma teachers are descending on the Oklahoma Capitol on Monday in the first day of what could be an extended teacher walkout. Early Monday afternoon, Tulsa Public Schools and Broken Arrow Public Schools were among those announcing they would shut down again Tuesday in support of the teacher walkout. By 9:15 a.m., a continuous …

NPR reports: Linda Brown, who as a schoolgirl was at the center of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that rejected racial segregation in American schools, died in Topeka, Kan., Sunday afternoon. She was 76. Her sister, Cheryl Brown Henderson, confirmed the death to The Topeka Capital-Journal. The 1954 U.S. Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education, involved several …

The Tennessean reports: A bill requiring Tennessee schools to prominently display the national “In God We Trust” motto is headed to the governor for his signature. The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Susan Lynn, R-Mt. Juliet, overwhelmingly passed the state House on Monday with 81 of the 99 members voting in favor of it. Before the vote, the Republican lawmaker spoke …

The New York Post reports: The private school attended by Barron Trump, the president’s youngest son, is backing stricter gun control measures — but dismissing his father’s proposal to arm teachers. St. Andrew’s Episcopal School and more than 100 schools in Maryland and the Washington area signed an open letter calling on Trump and Congress to do more to stem …

NBC News reports: A teacher who also serves as a reserve police officer accidentally fired a gun inside a Seaside High School classroom Tuesday, police said, and three students were injured. Dennis Alexander was teaching a course about gun safety for his Administration of Justice class when his gun went off at 1:20 p.m. Alexander was pointing his gun at …

NBC’s Washington DC affiliate reports: A school resource officer accidentally fired his gun inside a middle school in Alexandria, Virginia, Tuesday morning, police say. No one was hurt. The officer was inside his office at George Washington Middle School in the Del Ray neighborhood when he accidentally discharged his service weapon about 9:10 a.m., according to Alexandria police. The officer, …

CNN reports: Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos stumbled her way through a tense portion of her interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes” Sunday night, struggling to answer some basic questions about schools in her home state of Michigan and admitting that she does not “intentionally” visit underperforming schools. “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl asked DeVos if in Michigan, students who …

The Washington Post reports: The White House on Sunday vowed to help provide “rigorous firearms training” to some schoolteachers and formally endorsed a bill to tighten the federal background checks system, but it backed off President Trump’s earlier call to raise the minimum age to purchase some guns to 21 years old from 18 years old. Responding directly to last …

The Hill reports: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos defended President Trump’s plan to arm some teachers to protect students from shootings in remarks on Wednesday after visiting the site of the Parkland, Fla. high school massacre. “Let’s be clear. I think to say ‘arming teachers’ is an oversimplification and a mischaracterization, really,” DeVos told reporters after meeting with students and faculty …

The Citrus County Chronicle reports: Crystal River Middle School social studies teacher Dayanna Volitich has been removed from the classroom as part of a Citrus County School District investigation following the revelation that she espoused racist views in a podcast and on social media under the alias Tiana Dalichov. Volitich has issued a statement: “None of the statements released about …