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Tuesday, March 12, 2013

UPDATE: Department Of Defense Schools Await Furlough News + Military Schools Grapple With Budget Cuts Confusion, Instability

Military Schools Grapple With Budget Cuts Confusion, Instability:



Department Of Defense Schools Await Furlough News; More Early Education Details From Obama Administration: Ed Today

More Early Ed Details? Yesterday, President Barack Obama's education advisor Roberto Rodriguez addressed the Council of the Great City Schools legislative conference, and gave folks a few more details about Obama's early ed plans, according to Education Week. The program is apparently a full-day preschool program that is to be overseen by school districts, he said. "We want to go beyond the three-hour-a-day preschool model," Rodriguez said. But he still wouldn't provide any details on how much money the federal government would spend on the initiative.

Sequestration Nation? Department of Defense schools stillhaven't learned the extend of the effects of sequestration cuts, a fact that has rankled DoD teachers and families across the globe, we report. DoD schools across the globe could face up to 22 days of furloughs, but the body that governs these schools is still figuring it out. Some teachers want to find other cuts. "It seems odd that we're told we're mission-essential, but now, we can suddenly be furloughed," one teacher in the UK told me.

Middling Reform In Virginia? According to the Washington Post, Gov. Bob McDonnell's attempts to reform 


Military Schools Grapple With Budget Cuts Confusion, Instability

When BettyLou Cummins became a teacher in Defense Department schools 34 years ago, she knew that her livelihood would depend on the federal government.

"It's been said that Congress is our school board," said Cummins, who teaches at Ramstein High School on Ramstein Air Base in Germany and serves as a vice president of the Federal Education Association.

But now, she said, that school board has failed her. "And the stress level is through the roof."

Over the past week, since Congress failed to prevent the implementation of across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration, parents of students in Defense Department schools around the globe have heard all sorts of rumors regarding how the cuts will affect them. Concerned parents have approached teachers raising