NC Governor Pat McCrory presented the “State of the State” speech on Monday, highlighting his three main priorities as the economy, education, and efficiency. With respect to education reform, the governor reiterated many of the recommendations he’s advocated in the past: encouraging strategic partnerships with businesses, tearing down the four “silos” of education to foster […]

Senator Daniel Inouye, a Hawaii Democrat and long-time chairman of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, died Monday evening at 88. Inouye was a Medal of Honor-winning World War II veteran and represented Hawaii in the Senate for four decades. Leahy In Line Vermont Democrat Patrick J. Leahy is likely to succeed Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii as chairman of […]

  PBS NewsHour has an informative summary of what’s at stake in the fiscal cliff negotiations as it relates to education. The aspect of the “cliff” that would impact education budgets most directly is sequestration — mandatory cuts to discretionary federal spending. The White House Office of Management and Budget estimates sequestration would reduce discretionary […]

Today, the U.S. Department of Education announced that 61 applications have been selected as finalists for the Race to the Top-District (RTTT-D) competition. The 2012 RTTT-D program will provide close to $400 million to support locally developed plans to personalize and deepen student learning, directly improve student achievement and educator effectiveness, close achievement gaps, and […]

APLU President Peter McPherson and the Association of American Universities (AAU) President Hunter R. Rawlings III once again urged President Obama and congressional leaders to strike a deal on a balanced long-term deficit-reduction agreement to prevent federal cuts tied to sequestration. The new letter was sent today and included the original July 2012 letter sent […]

APLU’s Council on Government Affairs (CGA) reports that the Senate Democratic Conference voted yesterday to keep its leadership team with Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) as Minority Leader, Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) as Senate Democratic whip, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) as conference vice chairman and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) as conference secretary. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) […]