Tagged: education

After accepting the recommendations of a panel appointed to study how public schools in New York can be improved, Governor Andrew Cuomo made it clear that not all schools are created equal, and they cannot be treated as such. The governor says schools in the poor, high-needs areas of New York must also provide student support in social services. Tim Kremer, the executive director of the New York State School Boards Association, agrees with the governor but has concerns about where the money will come from. He spoke today with WAMC’s Brian Shields.

Many of the recommendations released Wednesday have been proposed before but blocked by politics or lack of funding. Gov. Andrew Cuomo says those remain major obstacles.

Some of the ideas are already in place to some degree, including teacher competency tests and using schools to address health, mental health and other social needs.

  There was a rally on Long Island, and then the bus departed for the Hudson Valley for a stop in Kingston before calling it a day in Albany.

The message was clear. New York State's schools are hurting and a lack of funding is making it difficult to educate our children.

“We are maintaining. We should be in good shape for the next couple of years,” said Maureen Bowers, a Kingston school board member, as she spoke in front the Educate NY Now Express bus that was making the run to Albany. 

Earlier this week, officials in five states announced they would be participating in a pilot program that would add hundreds of hours in classroom time to the school year. WAMC’s Berkshire Bureau Chief Lucas Willard has more…

School for thousands of Massachusetts public school students is about to get quite a bit longer.

Massachusetts is among five states announcing today that they'll add at least 300 hours of learning time to the calendar in some schools starting in 2013. The initiative is intended to boost student achievement and make U.S. schools more competitive on a global level. The other states are Colorado, Connecticut, New York and Tennessee.