Mahopac is leading the pack, with a 50% opt-out rate

Federal authorities are investigating Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett and a $20.5 million contract the district awarded on a no-bid basis to a training academy that formerly employed her, sources said.The CPS inspector general’s office began an investigation into the contract with north suburban-based SUPES Academy and Byrd-Bennett’s relationship to the company in 2013, a source said. The U.S. attorney’s office then started its own probe, and a grand jury has been reviewing evidence for at least a year, the source said.CPS officials have discussed the possibility of appointing an interim CEO depending on the outcome of the investigation, a source said. Byrd-Bennett, who was appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel in October 2012, attended a regularly scheduled meeting at CPS headquarters Wednesday and remains in her post.Read the rest of the story at the Chicago Tribune

GWEN IFILL: Next: the struggle to draw college graduates back to the classroom.

by Akane OtaniFactory jobs dwindled over the last several decades, and instead of low-skill, low wage service work filling the void left by manufacturing’s decline, a new report shows that college-educated workers have taken over a much bigger share of the economy. While the makeup of the labor force has changed, the shift has not been from a manufacturing-driven economy to one underpinned by legions of people in dead-end fast-food jobs. Rather, the country’s economic value is now largely propped up by college graduates.For the report, published Monday by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce, Georgetown’s Anthony Carnevale and Stephen Rose analyzed several sets of government data to show that job opportunities for college-educated workers have grown, and college graduates produce more than half of the country’s economic value. From 1967 to 2007, the share of high-skill management and professional jobs rose 14 percent, and that those jobs represent 35 percent of all U.S. jobs. Over the same period, …

by Maureen SullivanSenator Marco Rubio of Florida today becomes the third freshman senator to enter the field for the Republican presidential nomination. Over the past few years he has opposed Common Core curriculum standards and advocated for educational vouchers, a federal corporate income tax credit and an overhaul of the college student loan industry.Speaking at Miami’s Freedom Tower, he said, “All parents deserve to choose the education that’s right for their children.” These are some of his other views:College Degrees:Not everyone should be forced to get a four-year degree in order to find a job. There are millions of good-paying jobs out there and we should allow people to have access to skills they need in a cost-effective way. In the 21st century some of the best jobs require more than high school–traditional high school–but less than four years of college.Read the rest of the story on Forbes.com.

BATs Congratulate Hillary ClintonThe Badass Teachers Association would like to congratulate you on your recent announcement to run for president.  The Badass Teachers Association is an education activist organization that is nationwide. Currently, we are 55,000 strong with chapters in every state.  We are organizing on the ground to change the conversation back to what public education should be, about children and their future.  We have far reaching capability on Twitter, via our website, our blog, and Pinterest.Our organization was founded in June of 2013.  We fight for strong public education for all children and for teacher autonomy in the classroom. We are a group that refuses to take the blame for our government’s inability to address child poverty and its impact on how children perform in school. We fight, on a daily basis, the efforts of big money to privatize our schools and use our children as market capital.We …

by Catherine LuceyDES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Eight years after Mike Huckabee tapped the support of evangelical homeschooling families as part of his winning coalition in the 2008 Iowa Republican caucuses, a lineup of GOP hopefuls is seeking to duplicate that effort.Five Republican 2016 prospects courted homeschool families in Des Moines on Thursday at an annual gathering sponsored by a statewide group called the Network of Iowa Christian Home Educators. While the number of homeschoolers in the state may be relatively small, they are viewed as a well-organized subset of the evangelical population that participates in the political process.”Some of the most coveted activists in the Iowa caucuses are homeschool parents,” said conservative radio show host Steve Deace, himself a homeschool parent who appeared at Thursday’s event. Read the rest of the story in The Huffington Post. 

9 April 2015 – Just one third of countries have achieved all the measurable education goals set in 2000 and only half of all countries have achieved universal primary enrolment, the United Nations agency mandated with promoting learning spotlighted today, urging countries to bridge the $22 billion annual finance gap needed to achieve quality basic education for all by 2030.“The world has made tremendous progress towards ‘Education for All’…however the agenda is far from finished,” said Irina Bokova, Director-General at the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), on the heels of the key findings produced in the 2015 EFA Global Monitoring Report (GMR) .Education for All 2000-2015: Achievements and Challenges, produced by UNESCO tracks the progress of a set of six goals ranging from improving quality of education to ensuring equal access to learning. Released today, the report found that 47 per cent of countries reached the goal of …

by Nick Valencia

Lord James Knight, formerly the Minister for Education in England and current Managing Director of Online Learning at TSL Education, took time to answer questions about the state of online and blended learning in education across the globe. Lord Knight’s response to my last question about the future and expanse of online learning speaks,

Elementary schools would be allowed to eject students only if they do serious harm or are a threat to safety

MAYA KOSOFF

By Madeline Will

by Lyndsey Layton

// Mark Cuban talks with Bloomberg’s Cory Johnson about the education market while at the ASU GSV Education Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona.