“Primary and secondary education” on The Daily Caller

SEATTLE (AP) — A study of Washington state teachers has found that deciding layoffs based solely on which teachers have the least seniority has a significant impact on students’ ability to learn, adding to a growing chorus calling for schools to take a hard look at union contracts dictating who gets to keep their jobs. (more)

ATLANTA (AP) — An overwhelming majority of Americans are frustrated that it’s too difficult to get rid of bad teachers, while most also believe that teachers aren’t paid enough, a new poll shows. (more)

MIAMI (AP) — A national education assessment released Thursday shows that high school seniors have made some improvement in reading, but remain below the achievement levels reached nearly two decades ago. (more)

MOUNT VERNON, Ohio (AP) — People in the tiny Ohio town of Mount Vernon used to have to think back years to recall a violent crime. (more)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Two middle schoolers filed a free-speech lawsuit Monday against a Pennsylvania school district that suspended them for wearing the popular “I (heart) boobies!” bracelets. (more)

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Officials in a western Pennsylvania school district are apologizing after they say students at a local high school were accidentally shown pornographic pictures during a school assembly. (more)

Hoping to portray themselves as more affordable and all-around better neighbors, private colleges from Appalachia to Boston are sweetening financial aid packages for students from their own backyards. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Last-minute money to save the jobs of tens of thousands of teachers and other public workers overcame a Republican filibuster Wednesday and sped toward Senate passage. The House, under pressure to help hard-pressed schools nationwide, was being called back from its summer break for an expected final vote next week. (more)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A second lawsuit has been filed against a suburban Philadelphia school district accused of spying on students through cameras in school-issued laptop computers. (more)

FORT VALLEY, Ga. (AP) — During the school year, Mondays in this rural Georgia community are for video games, trips to grandma’s house and hanging out at the neighborhood community center. (more)

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas schoolchildren will be required to learn that the words “separation of church and state” aren’t in the Constitution and evaluate whether the United Nations undermines U.S. sovereignty under new social studies curriculum. (more)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — All the teachers who were fired from their positions at a struggling Rhode Island high school are voting on an agreement that would restore their jobs. (more)

PHOENIX — Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has signed a bill targeting a school district’s ethnic studies program, hours after a report by United Nations human rights experts condemned the measure. (more)

HADDONFIELD, N.J. (AP) — They’re the kind of obscenity-laced schoolyard taunts that could get a student suspended. (more)

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Gov. Bob McDonnell bluntly ruled out tax increases as a solution for Virginia’s $4 billion budget shortfall, promising to target them for vetoes. (more)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Philadelphia teachers union has agreed to a multi-year contract with the city’s public schools. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama travels to a Virginia school Tuesday to talk about his efforts to improve education. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will ask Congress for $1.35 billion in his 2011 budget proposal to extend an education grant program for states, although the Education Department remains months away from announcing its first round of awards, senior administration officials said. (more)

The recession has reached the executive suites of the nation’s public universities and colleges, putting a stop to a string of large annual pay increases for school presidents. (more)

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour has let key lawmakers know how he proposes to cut $413 million from the state’s $5 billion budget, and some of them are worried that it cuts too deeply in the wrong places. (more)