1-18-14 Open Congress : Major Bill Actions Education This Week - U.S. Congress - OpenCongress

Education - U.S. Congress - OpenCongress:

Bill Introduced: H.R. 3873: Supporting Community Schools Act of 2013

To amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 in order to support the community schools model.

7h 

JAN 16

Bill Introduced: H.R. 3738: Broadening Opportunities Through Education Act

To direct the Secretary of Education to award grants to States that enact State laws that will make school attendance compulsory through the age of 17.

2d 

Bill Introduced: H.R. 3734: 416d65726963612043616e20436f6465 Act of 2013

To establish a task force to share best practices on computer programming and coding for elementary schools and secondary schools, and for other purposes.

2d 

JAN 15

Bill Introduced: S. 1884: Pay It Forward College Affordability Act of 2013

A bill to establish a Pay It Forward model for funding postsecondary education.

3d 

JAN 14

Bill Introduced: S. 1890: Preserving Education Access and Autonomy Act of 2013

A bill to ensure that decisions by the Secretary of Education to award grants or other assistance to States or local educational agencies are not contingent upon the adoption of specific educational curricula.

4d 

JAN 09

Bill Introduced: S. 1874: Partnerships for Affordability and Student Success Act

A bill to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to strengthen Federal-State partnerships in postsecondary education.

9d 

Bill Introduced: S. 1873: Protect Student Borrowers Act of 2013

A bill to provide for institutional risk-sharing in the Federal student loan programs.

9d 

JAN 08

Bill Introduced: H.R. 3694: Net Price Calculator Improvement Act

To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to make technical improvements to the Net Price Calculator system so that prospective students may have a more accurate understanding of the true cost of college.

10d 

Bill Introduced: H.R. 3692: Schools of the Future Act

To authorize a competitive grant program to implement and evaluate digital learning in rural locales.

10d 

JAN 07

Bill Introduced: H.R. 3686: School Nutrition Fairness Act

To require official White House meals and meals served at White House or Department of Agriculture cafeterias to be in compliance with the nutrition requirements for the school breakfast program and the school lunch program.

11d 

JAN 03

Bill Introduced: H.R. 3663: Reducing Federal Mandates on School Lunch Act

To prohibit regulations establishing certain limits for the school lunch program, and for other purposes.

15d 

Bill Introduced: H.R. 3660: ALLERGY Act

To amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to require local educational agencies to implement a policy on allergy bullying in schools.

15d 

Bill Introduced: H.R. 3873: Supporting Community Schools Act of 2013

To amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 in order to support the community schools model.

6h 

YESTERDAY

Bill Sent To President: H.R. 3547: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014

An act making consolidated appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2014, and for other purposes.January 16, 2014: Presented to President.

18h 

Bill Introduced: S. 1852: Economic Freedom Zones Act of 2013

A bill to provide for the establishment of free market enterprise zones in order to help facilitate the creation of new jobs, entrepreneurial opportunities, enhanced and renewed educational opportunities, and increased community involvement in bankrupt or economically distressed areas.

1d 

JAN 16

Bill Introduced: H.R. 3734: 416d65726963612043616e20436f6465 Act of 2013

To establish a task force to share best practices on computer programming and coding for elementary schools and secondary schools, and for other purposes.

2d 

Bill Introduced: H.R. 3738: Broadening Opportunities Through Education Act

To direct the Secretary of Education to award grants to States that enact State laws that will make school attendance compulsory through the age of 17.

2d 

JAN 15

Bill Introduced: S. 1884: Pay It Forward College Affordability Act of 2013

A bill to establish a Pay It Forward model for funding postsecondary education.

3d 

JAN 14

Bill Introduced: S. 1890: Preserving Education Access and Autonomy Act of 2013

A bill to ensure that decisions by the Secretary of Education to award grants or other assistance to States or local educational agencies are not contingent upon the adoption of specific educational curricula.

3d 

JAN 09

Bill Enacted: H.R. 3304: Military Land Withdrawals Act of 2013

To authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2014 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes.December 25, 2013: Became Public Law No: 113-66.

8d 

Bill Enacted: H.J.Res. 59: Budget agreement bill

Making continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes.December 25, 2013: Became Public Law No: 113-67.

8d 

Bill Introduced: S. 1873: Protect Student Borrowers Act of 2013

A bill to provide for institutional risk-sharing in the Federal student loan programs.

9d 

Bill Introduced: S. 1874: Partnerships for Affordability and Student Success Act

A bill to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to strengthen Federal-State partnerships in postsecondary education.

9d 

Bill Introduced: H.R. 3717: Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act of 2013

To make available needed psychiatric, psychological, and supportive services for individuals diagnosed with mental illness and families in mental health crisis, and for other purposes.

9d 

JAN 08

Bill Introduced: H.R. 3697: Adult Education and Economic Growth Act

To increase access to adult education to provide for economic growth.

10d 

Bill Introduced: H.R. 3692: Schools of the Future Act

To authorize a competitive grant program to implement and evaluate digital learning in rural locales.

10d 

JAN 03

Bill Introduced: H.R. 3660: ALLERGY Act

To amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to require local educational agencies to implement a policy on allergy bullying in schools.

15d 

JAN 01

Bill Introduced: S. 1851: Small Business Health Fairness Act of 2013

A bill to provide for incentives to encourage health insurance coverage, and for other purposes.

17d 

1-18-14 Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida ALL Week

Scathing Purple Musings | Color me purple in Florida, red in Washington, dark sky-blue in Israel and public school in Education:

Scathing Purple Musings 

 Color me purple in Florida ALL Week

Chamber of Commerce Strikes Back at George Will For Criticizing Common Core

Boy, that was fast. It took only a few hours for US Chamber of Commerce CEO Thomas J. Donahue to respond to conservative columnist George Will’s shredding of Common Core and its proponents. Will  called out the Chamber and others for engaging in “political dishonesty” intended to keep Core’s “nature and purpose to remain as cloudy as possible for as long as possible.” Writing in the Washington Pos

by Bob Sikes / 1h

“We’ve Been VAMboozled” in Florida

So said United Teachers of Dade president Fedrick Ingram at yesterday’s “Walk a Mile in Our Schools” rally in Miami. From David Smiley’s report in the Miami Herald: A handful of local politicians participated in Friday’s rally, including Democratic state senators Oscar Braynon II and Dwight Bullard, and Miami-Dade School Board members Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall, Perla Tabares Hantman and Martin K

by Bob Sikes / 1h 

YESTERDAY

National Review: Common Core Marks Return to Mathematical Ignorance

David G. Bonagura’s column which details Common Core’s serious flaws in it’s math standards is the second anti-Core piece the conservative daily National Review has published this week.  Writes Bonagura: The problem with Common Core is not that it provides standards, but that, despite its claims, there is a particular pedagogy that accompanies the standards. And this pedagogy is flawed, for, just

by Bob Sikes / 14h 

Pro School Choice Think-Tank Rips Florida’s “Tweak” to Common Core

Robert Holland is Senior Fellow for Education Policy at the Heartland Institute in Chicago. He pens the following letter-to-the-editor in the Bradenton Herald: The Florida Department of Education’s proposed revisions to the so-called Common Core State Standards amount to a little more than a public relations ploy, but not much more (Herald, “Florida schools officials propose 98 changes to Common C

by Bob Sikes / 16h 

Why it Will Be Main Stream Republicans – And Not the Tea Party – Which Will Sink Common Core

Its was easy for everyone to dismiss the early opposition to Common Core Standards as crack-pot tea party stuff when it came from Michelle Malkin and Glenn Beck. To be sure, the references to communism were over-the-top, but the arguments based on concerns regarding federal control and data sharing still have merit. The early surge of opposition did indeed come from tea party groups but it was moc

by Bob Sikes / 1d 

JAN 16

Gary Chartrand’s Irreconcilable Conflicts of Interest

This week’s report that the Jacksonville Public Education Fund is proposing a new school grade formula marks the second time the think tank founded and financed by chairman of Florida’s board of education, Gary Chartrand,  has flexed it’s muscles. In June, JPEF’s top policy wonk, Jason Rose was on Tony Bennett’s cozy little “task force” that Chartrand ordered to ironically look into changing the f

9 by Bob Sikes / 2d 

JAN 15

Are Stew’s Standards All About Keeping Florida’s Race to the Top Cash?

Fifteen percent. That’s the number of changes allowed in Common Core Standards ambiguous loosely defined copyright and the estimated amount of largely cosmetic changes Florida education commissioner Pam Stewart made to Common Core Standards to make them “truly ours.” The other number is $375 million. It’s how much Florida has left of the Race to the Top grant its was awarded by the Obama administr

by Bob Sikes / 3d 

JAN 14

Most of Stewart’s Common Core Changes “Just Add Clarity”

Respected conservative education blogger, Shane Vander Hart, doesn’t think much of that changes Florida education commissioner made to Florida’s Common Core Standard and  poked holes in the process Stewart and the FLDOE used. The commenting period ordered by Florida Governor Rick Scott ended on 10/31/14.  The comments were supposedly evaluated and standards rewritten in 2 1/2 months (over the hol

by Bob Sikes / 3d 

Florida’s Cut and Paste Education Standards

A cryptic question came from a Common Core supporter today during the FLDOE’s workshop to explain Florida’s standards which we told are “truly our own.” Kathleen McGrory of the Miami Herald reports for the Times/Herald Tallahasee Bureau: Only a handful of people asked questions during Tuesday morning’s workshop on the proposed revisions to the Common Core State Standards. One question was technica

by Bob Sikes / 3d 

Michelle Rhee’s Florida Rep Says No Parent Trigger This Year

From Gradebook’s Jeff Solochek: A national advocacy group that in recent years has pressured Florida lawmakers to adopt the controversial “parent trigger” school takeover plan will not push that initiative again in 2014. Instead, StudentsFirst will spend its political capital urging the Legislature to improve the state’s financial reporting so that families can see clearly how spending is tied to

by Bob Sikes / 4d 

JAN 13

Stew’s Standards Have Arrived

From Kathleen McGrory in the Tampa Bay Times: TALLAHASSEE — Hoping to incorporate public input and assuage criticism, state education officials on Monday released 98 proposed changes to the controversial Common Core State Standards. The suggestions represent additions and minor tweaks to the national benchmarks, which have been adopted in more than 45 states and outline what students should know a

by Bob Sikes / 4d 

Skepticism in the Florida Senate on Common Core Roll-Out

Pam Stewart will be back at the legislature to deliver Florida’s own set of Common Core Standards, but it’s quite clear that senators on both sides of the aisle are skeptical of her being able to deliver on the entire package. Writes Kathleen McGrory: TALLAHASSEE — When Pam Stewart became state education commissioner in September, lawmakers said they would give her time to untangle the complicated

by Bob Sikes / 5d 

JAN 12

“Common Core Catastrophe”

Williamson Evers is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and former U.S. assistant secretary of Education. Pittsburg Herald Tribune reporter Eric Heyl interviewed the George W. Bush appointee and got his thoughts on Common Core. ….it’s a kind of utopian project to align all the classrooms in the country to be doing roughly the same things. Anything like that is just an unimaginably difficul

by Bob Sikes / 5d 

For-Profit Charter Schools Want Standard Contracts to Dodge Accountability

Florida republican legislators are using predictable – and false – talking points to justify their latest charter school reform bill. Erin Kourkounis reports in the Tampa Tribune: …Three changes set for consideration in the state Legislature would inject the Florida Department of Education into a process now largely controlled at the school district level. The proposals would require a review of a

by Bob Sikes / 5d 

Rick Scott’s Common Core Political Problems

Education commissioner Pam Stewart has provided much-needed calm in Florida’s education universe. Rick Scott probably wishes he had her in place all along instead of ideologues Gerard Robinson and Tony Bennett. But Scott would probably admit that those were the kind of guys he wanted when he was elected in 2010. And he was smitten by the carefully crafted Michelle Rhee story and had completely bou

by Bob Sikes / 6d 

JAN 11

Michael Bileca’s One Size Fits All Charter School Bill(s)

Mark me down as skeptical anytime I hear one of Florida’s republican legislators say are they are worried about friction between school boards and charter schools. And then some  new enlightened piece of legislation will take care of all that. Let’s consider a bill under consideration in Rep. Michael Bileca’s (R-Miami) education subcommittee for Choice and Innovation. Sun Sentinel reporter Scott T

by Bob Sikes / 6d