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by Maureen SullivanWith a speech at Liberty University in Virginia on Monday, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) became the first candidate to declare for the 2016 presidential election. Just about every chance he gets he says he believes school choice is the civil rights issue of the 21st century. Here’s a look at some of his other views on education issues:Common Core State Standards:“We need to repeal Common Core,” he told the Heritage Foundation’s Conservative Policy Summit in January. “We need to get the federal government out of the business of dictating educational standards. Education is far too important for it to be governed by unelected bureaucrats in Washington. It should be at the state level or even better at the local level.”Read the rest of the story at Forutune

by Maggie HabermanThe last time she ran for president, Hillary Rodham Clinton did not have to take a position on the Common Core, Race to the Top or teacher evaluations in tenure decisions.She won the endorsement of one of the nation’s largest teachers’ unions in 2007 after deploring the use of standardized tests and the underfunding of the No Child Left Behind law by President George W. Bush’s administration.Now, as she prepares for a likely second run at the White House, Mrs. Clinton — who largely avoided domestic policy when she was secretary of state — is re-entering the fray like a Rip Van Winkle for whom the terrain on education standards has shifted markedly, with deep new fissures in the Democratic Party. Read the rest of the article on the New York Times website.

Online learning platforms like edX and Udacity began by offering free education but have become significant rivals in enhancing careers.

By: Matt Zalaznick District Administration, March 2015 N inth graders in North Carolina take all their classes on the campus of a major state university. Early-college high school students in Connecticut can gain an inside track to one of the world’s largest tech companies. Online and blended learners in Michigan can spend a fifth year in high school and graduate with an associate’s degree.Aside from providing a money-saving jump-start on college, the rapid spread of early-college high school programs is spurring closer collaboration between K12 and higher ed around preparing students for the rigors of college life and coursework.“This definitely provides a really good opportunity for K12 and college partners to be more explicit about their shared expectations for students,” says Joel Vargas, vice president of Jobs for the Future, a nonprofit that, among other initiatives, helps districts design early-college programs. “They have figured out a way to share responsibility for providing students an opportunity to move seamlessly into and through secondary education.”Read the rest of the story at District Administration