This report from the Anchorage Daily News has me wondering what is going on in Palmer? The incident occurred on a school bus with kids fully clothed. How can this be? Why charge her with a felony and keep her in custody? Does she have parents? Isn’t this unreasonable treatment for such a young child? […]

Today’s Anchorage Daily News reports that an assistant principal at Greuning Middle School has turned himself in after being charged on three felony counts related to drug use. Mario Toro was acting strangely at a staff meeting at another school and had a white substance under his nose. Police were called and obtained a warrant […]

Here are the educational bills in progress as the 2008 legislative session starts in Juneau tomorrow, January 15th. Contact information about legislators can be found here.

Bill
Title
Sponsor
Status

HB 1
INCREASE AMT OF BASE STUDENT ALLOCATION
GATTO
(H) FIN 01/16/07

HB 2
VOCATIONAL EDUC ACCOUNT
NEUMAN
(S) FIN 05/02/07

HB 12
FULL FUNDING OF PERS/TRS
HAWKER
(H) STA 01/16/07

HB 66
REQUIRE CPR FOR HIGH SCHOOL […]

File this under odd educational news. Young Toni Kay wore Tigger socks and a denim skirt to Redwood Middle School in Napa Valley, California. Not a big deal one would think. In fact, sounds pretty normal to me. But it was actually an act of civil disobedience. That’s because the school’s dress code allowed only […]

I was invited to yesterday’s webcast of the final cut of Two Million Minutes, hosted by Bob Compton. The film’s final cut is a fine production improved in presentation but similar in substance to the previous version I had seen. The trailer can be seen here.
Screenings have been provided for the Indian students’ families and […]

Here’s a notice for readers in Northern California or any Alaskans heading south next week. There will be a public screening of Two Million Minutes in Palo Alto next week.
Both Bob Compton, Executive Producer, and Tim Draper, Managing Director of Silicon Valley venture firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson and an expert in the film, will be […]

Reviewers have found 109,263 errors in sample copies of math textbooks that will be used in classrooms next fall in Texas. Errors are not trivial; how about 4 plus 7 equals 10? There are severe financial penalties for errors in final copies used in classrooms. But I have to ask this. If the samples are […]

Boulder Valley School District in Colorado will no longer give valedictorian awards. Such honors encourage “unhealthy competition.” Students have to take more academically challenging classes to have a chance to be valedictorian. The district may choose to award summa, magna and cum laude honors instead.
Which begs some questions: Won’t those be competitive awards, also? And, […]

I received a review copy of the documentary Two Million Minutes: A Global Examination this week. I posted the trailer last month and the producers requested my opinion of the real deal. So, here goes.
First, it’s a well-done, professional production that follows six exceptional students in their senior year. Two each, a boy and […]

There’s a lot of squawking about SB 777, The California Student Civil Rights Act which was signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger on October 12. On the Right, World Net Daily reports this from the World Congress of Families:
It will prohibit anything that suggests that the natural family - a man and a woman, married, […]