Wednesday May 20th from 11:00am – 11:30pm EDT Join us for a conversation with child protection advocate Francey Hakes, who will be discussing rules to establish safety regarding kids and smartphones, including what constitutes a “friend,” and the topic of cyberbullying. Hakes was the first-ever National Coordinator for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction, and a former Assistant U.S. Attorney specializing in technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation. Note: You must RSVP to the event in order to see it.  Click on the link below and enter your name and email. You’ll receive a response with the link to the event. RSVP

If you look at the numbers, there’s the typical mix of good news/bad news for this year’s crop of college graduates. Let’s start with the good news.According to the National Center for Education Statistics, colleges and universities expect to award about 1.8 million bachelor’s degrees. Experts are noting that this class faces the most favorable job climate in years, due to a pent up demand for workers.

by Thomas KaplanIn a campaign-style tour meant to put pressure on lawmakers, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo visited churches and a yeshiva on Sunday to promote a bill to give tax credits to families of students at private schools, including religious ones.Read the rest of the story at The New York Times.

Bullying remains a serious issue for students and their families, and efforts to reduce bullying concern policy makers, administrators, and educators. According to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, “As schools become safer, students are better able to thrive academically and socially. The Department, along with our federal partners and others, has been deeply involved in the fight against bullying in our nation’s schools.” This is why we are so pleased to share that, after remaining virtually unchanged for close to a decade, new data indicate that the prevalence of bullying is at a record low.Read the rest of the story at the Homeroom blog at the U.S. Department of Education website.

by Arianna ProtheroA Michigan lawmaker’s push to regulate home schooling in the wake of a horrific case of child abuse is stoking anew a broader debate over the rights of parents to educate their children at home with little oversight from school and government officials.Like Michigan, few states obligate home-schooled students to meet regularly with mandatory reporters—people such as doctors, certified teachers, or clergy members—who might catch signs of abuse and report it, according to the advocacy and research group Coalition for Responsible Home Education.Read the rest of the story at Education Week.

by Maureen SullivanCarly Fiorina, the former CEO and chairman of Hewlett-Packard, today announced her run for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. She has never held public office and calls her run a “return to citizen government.” She pokes fun at her undergraduate degree from Stanford in medieval history and philosophy but says it comes in handy when she wants to poke holes in President Obama’s comparison of ISIS terrorism with the Crusades.Read the rest of the story on Forbes.