Most states have cut state funding for schools this year, and a majority of states are funding K-12 education at levels lower than before the recession, after adjusting for inflation, the Huffington Post reports. A survey published Thursday by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities examined 46 states–where 95 percent of the country’s elementary and secondary students reside. Delaware, Idaho, Indiana and Washington were excluded because the way they report funding data makes historical comparisons difficult, the researchers note. Of the states studied, 37 have trimmed K-12 educational funding since last year, after adjusting for inflation–19 of those states cut funding by more than 5 percent…
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Don’t weep at urban violence; prevent it with better schools
Let us not linger too long wringing our hands and shedding our tears. Be assured that I write this as one who has shed many a tear over the loss of far too many young people shot and killed in north Minneapolis over the last 20 years. But I also get deeply angry over each untimely death–because this violence does not have to happen, says Gary Marvin Davison, former researcher and writer for the 2004 and 2008 editions of “The State of African Americans in Minnesota” for the Minneapolis Urban League and current director of the New Salem Educational Initiative in north Minneapolis for the StarTribune. What the wonderful youths and adults of north Minneapolis really need are our long-term effective actions, not after-the-fact weeping and lamentation. They need constructive efforts that build for the future more than they need commiseration over momentary calamity…
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