Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

What’s more important: School buildings or the teachers who fill them?

With an eye-popping price tag of $578 million, the opening of the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools will mark the inauguration of the nation's most expensive public school ever. (AP)
With an eye-popping price tag of $578 million, the opening of the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools will mark the inauguration of the nation’s most expensive public school ever. (AP)

A new public school building in Los Angeles that cost more than $500 million to build–at a time when the city has laid off more than 3,000 teachers and cut several academic programs–has raised eyebrows across the country, adding fuel to a national debate about how important one’s environment is to learning and how best to spend limited educational resources.

Next month’s opening of the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools will be auspicious for a reason other than its both storied and infamous history as the former Ambassador Hotel, where the Democratic presidential contender was assassinated in 1968. With an eye-popping price tag of $578 million, it will mark the inauguration of the nation’s most expensive public school ever.

The K-12 complex to house 4,200 students has drawn national attention as the creme de la creme of “Taj Mahal” schools, $100 million-plus campuses boasting both architectural panache and deluxe amenities.…Read More

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Jobs bill to stop teacher layoffs nears approval

A new bill could help save thousands of teaching jobs across the nation.
A new bill could help save thousands of teaching jobs across the nation.

Legislation to provide billions to save the jobs of teachers and other public workers is on track to pass the U.S. Senate, helped along by the votes of a couple of GOP moderates.

Democrats cracked a GOP filibuster on Aug. 4, and the U.S. House of Representatives was being called back from its summer break for an expected final vote next week to help cash-strapped states and school districts.

The $26 billion measure would help states ease their severe budget problems and, advocates said, stop the layoffs of perhaps 300,000 teachers, firefighters, police officers and other public employees. Though scaled back, the bill also would salvage a victory for Democrats who have been unable to deliver most of the jobs help they and President Barack Obama promised.…Read More

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