Times of Florida

Presumed GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s campaign has released a list of people who are advising the campaign on education issues, including a former U.S. Secretary of Education and a current state schools chief.

The Huffington Post  |  By Tyler Kingkade After approving a $300 million cut to Florida‘s public universities in earlier April, thus cutting public higher education state funding for the fifth year in a row, Governor Rick Scott vetoed legislation late last week that would allow the University of Florida and Florida State University to raise … Continue reading »

Miami –  The National Council of La Raza on Tuesday launched the Florida operation of its national Mobilize to Vote, or M2V, campaign to promote voter registration among about 800,000 Hispanics in a state that is considered to be key for the November elections.

Written By Gabriela Guadalupe Fox News Latino I am a Hispanic undergraduate student at Florida International University and when I graduate in 2014, I need a job. The big question is where will I find one?

By Christopher Dawson Summary: Luidia, maker of the very cool eBeam interactive whiteboard tool, just released market data that lets us draw some interesting conclusions.

by Paul Begala  Have Romney’s relentless attacks on Latinos sent the right off an electoral cliff?  For generations, we Texans gave our boys names like William Travis and Sam Houston. Know what the No. 1 name for boys in Texas is today? No, not Rick Perry or George W. For 14 of the last 15 … Continue reading »

Neftali Martinez, 10, walks into the classroom and gets right to work. He looks up the words “universe” and “biology” in the dictionary. He reads part of a story about outer space. He participates in a review session for the vocabulary test he will take in two days.

By Marcos Restrepo Florida Republicans are actively pursuing legislation to expand funding for charter schools, as part of a larger push to strengthen school choice in Florida and give more tax payer dollars to privately-run, non-traditional, K-12 public charter schools.

By ELIZABETH ARANDA | Special to The Tampa Tribune In the last month, much attention in politics focused on the Latino electorate and their role in shaping the Republican primary results in Florida.

By LIZETTE ALVAREZ – New York Times Florida lawmakers contend that education is essential to high-wage jobs in the state, but the Legislature is again expected to slash millions of dollars from the budget for higher education and may usher in another round of tuition increases.

By Sarah Gonzalez A bill seen mostly as an effort to give immigrant families cheaper college tuition rates has died in the Florida Senate Judiciary Committee.

Holding back third-graders who can’t read gets parents involved, they say. Written by JASON NOBLE The prospect of repeating third grade provides a powerful incentive for parents and educators alike to ensure students are literate

Fox News Latino The No Child Left Behind law aims to close persistent educational achievement gaps between the rich and the poor, whites and minorities. But in schools with large numbers of English-language learners, like Miami’s Latino-majority Norma Butler Bossard Elementary, the law’s achievement targets may wind up hindering efforts to improve.  

By Kyle Munzenrieder ​The amount of Florida middle and high school students who have used drugs, cigarettes or alcohol continues to decline according to the latest survey by the State’s Department of Children and Families.

By Zack Budryk Capital News Service RICHMOND – Gov. Bob McDonnell, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and other Republican officials called for more “school choice,” including helping low-income students

Ediberto Roman Professor of Law, Florida International University During an era when anti-immigrant politicians and pundits have effectively stalled all efforts at comprehensive immigration reform, there does not seem to be any chance on the horizon for policy change on the national level.

by Donna Krache, CNN Penmanship. To grown-ups, the word conjures up memories of coarse sheets of paper with solid and dotted lines – and a pencil so big that you had to practically balance it on your shoulder to practice writing your letters.

Julio A. Fuentes, President, CEO & Founder of the Florida State Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Florida’s first and only statewide business advocacy organization, specifically focused on the Hispanic business community in Florida

With three different victors in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, whichever candidate carries Florida will have a decisive lead.

By Generation Opportunity Generation Opportunity Expands Reach Across Florida, Issues Online Training Guides to Organize Young Voters

By JoAnne Allen Republicans need to think of immigration as an economic issue — not just a border security issue, former Florida governor Jeb Bush wrote in a Washington Post opinion article on Wednesday, laying out a strategy for wooing Hispanic voters.

By Leslie Postal, Orlando Sentinel Florida lawmakers want to give parents the power to dictate the future of poorly performing public schools, sparking criticism from parent advocates and others that the effort is part of a continuing campaign to privatize education.

Join HCreo and thousands of Americans from all backgrounds on January 22-28, 2012 for National School Choice Week. Go to http://www.schoolchoiceweek.com to find out how you can participate.

– Written with Ann Garcia. Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney oncetacitly supported immigration reform. Sadly, his recent embrace of hard-line immigration positions

BEN FELLER, AP White House Correspondent WASHINGTON (AP) – Declaring the American dream under siege, President Barack Obama delivered a populist challenge Tuesday night to shrink the gap between rich and poor,

By Juan Williams Thirty percent of America’s high school students drop out and never graduate. Fewer than half of the nation’s black and Hispanic students graduate on time from high school.

From the New York Times What is it like to get up at 3 every morning to leave the country to go to school? To walk for miles and wait in long lines at an international crossing, to hustle along by trolley and bus, worrying all the while about missing the 8 a.m. bell?

by Maya Rodriguez / Eyewitness News NEW ORLEANS– Vanessa Prout and several of her grandchildren spent part of their weekend immersed in schools. “I was just trying to get some more information on it and other schools,” she said.

“Because of the proliferation of new technologies, the younger generation today is outgrowing traditional forms of education – remember pencils, chalkboards, textbooks and graphing calculators? Whether we are in the car, on the train, at work, or in a classroom, mobile technology in particular is giving us the ability to learn on-the-go.

B. A. Birch New data has shown that many high poverty schools are being shortchanged by their districts — despite federal law ruling otherwise. Nine out of every 10 students at Hiawassee Elementary in Orange County live in poverty.  And federal data shows that the school district spends about $2,065 on teachers per student. However, … Continue reading »

By Fernando Espuelas, Special to CNN (CNN) – Republican political lore has it that Latinos are natural GOP voters. Family-oriented and deeply religious in many cases, Latinos would seem to be a natural segment of the electorate to connect with the Republican social conservative ethos that dominates today’s GOP.

KIMBERLY HEFLING WASHINGTON — The expansion in public prekindergarten programs has slowed and even been reversed in some states as school districts cope with shrinking budgets. As a result, many 3- and 4-year-olds aren’t going to preschool. Kids from low-income families who start kindergarten without first attending a quality education program enter school an estimated … Continue reading »

By Teresa Wiltz – America’s Wire Amy Wilkins, vice president for government affairs and communications at the Education Trust Washington, DC (January 18, 2012) — Educators are expressing alarm that the performance gap between minority and white high school students continues to expand across the United States, with minority teenagers performing at academic levels equal … Continue reading »

José Díaz-Balart, chief political analyst for Telemundo by Victoria M. DeFrancesco Soto José Díaz-Balart, chief political analyst for Telemundo, had one important task during the September 7, 2011, Republican debate—to ask the candidates about immigration. Díaz-Balart asked his question, got his answer and was dismissed from the stage. The stereotype was fulfilled; a Latino asked one … Continue reading »

By Michele Miller DADE CITY — While most of his peers are in their second period class at Pasco High, Timothy Dombrowski typically has a few hours to kick around before punching in for his 12:30 p.m. shift at McDonald’s. The job offers a humbling and valuable training experience for Dombrowski, who is hoping to … Continue reading »

C. M. Rubin “With our future as a nation at stake, we need to be bold for our schools to be successful with all children.” — Eric NadelsternA Bronx native and graduate of DeWitt Clinton High School, Eric Nadelstern worked in New York City public schools for 39 years, rising to the position of Chief … Continue reading »

Wells Fargo recognized Hispanic Creo for outstanding leadership in education reform movement. Hispanic CREO’s Mission is to improve the educational outcomes for Hispanic Students by empowering families through parental awareness in School Choice. 

By Dean Allen We all should agree that the goal of anything and everything we do with our public education system in Washington state is improving student learning and achievement. Our shared objective is success for each student, but unfortunately this objective is not yet being met. By 2018, two out of three family-wage jobs … Continue reading »

by Elizabeth Baier, Minnesota Public Radio Northfield, Minn. — Inside a crumbling trailer in Northfield, Samantha Castro Flores walks to the bedroom she shares with her mother and 4-year-old sister and shows off a closet bursting with clothes. Samantha is an all-American girl, a 10-year-old born in Northfield. She listens to MTV, watches SpongeBob cartoons … Continue reading »

By JERI CLAUSING ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Republican Party is beefing up its minority outreach nationwide and preparing to put its rising Latino stars on the campaign trail amid concerns that tough immigration rhetoric in the presidential primary is taking on an increasingly anti-Hispanic tone. But immigrant-rights groups and some political watchers say the damage … Continue reading »

by Will Sentell – Capitol News Bureau “Every child does not receive an equal opportunity to a quality education today. That is a matter  of fact, not a matter  of opinion.” GOV. bobby jINDAL,  in his inaugural address  on Jan. 9 Louisiana is one of just four states that provide tax-funded scholarships or vouchers for rank-and-file … Continue reading »

By John O’Connor Gregory Moine / FlickrEducation should play a lesser role this year, but there’s still plenty of bills before lawmakers. The biggest issues affecting education debate in Tallahassee this year may have nothing to do with classrooms. The once-every-ten-years redistricting, South Florida casinos and overhauling state insurance rules should provoke contentious debate, lawmakers … Continue reading »

By CHRISTINE ARMARIO – AP Education Writer MIAMI — After years of soaring toward the top, Florida fell from fifth to 11th in a nationwide education ranking, a drop driven largely by weaker student performance and spending cuts. Education Week‘s annual “Quality Counts” report gave the state a C-plus overall, down from a B-minus the … Continue reading »

By Marcos Restrepo DREAM Act supporters (Flickr/Korean Resource Center) Evangelical leaders joined DREAM Act-eligible youth in Florida this week to launch Nuestro Futuro, a campaign to work with church networks and youth leaders to bring Latino evangelical youth to the polls in 2012. Nuestro Futuro ”will partner with hundreds of churches in six key states … Continue reading »

Some immigrant students discover dream of college is just a dream – The Seattle Times SEATTLE — When she was in the eighth grade, the student — now a senior at Kent-Meridian High School — signed up for a state scholarship program the Legislature had just created. The College Bound Scholarship program allows middle-school students … Continue reading »

By Marcos Restrepo Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. (Pic via Facebook) Republican Sen. Marco Rubio and GOP strategist Ed Gillespie will give the keynote speech at the “Inspiring Action” conference in Miami in late January, just days ahead of Florida’s Republican presidential primary, the Hispanic Leadership Network announced Thursday. The Hispanic Leadership Network — “a sustained effort to … Continue reading »

Utah‘s State Office of Education is concerned about the growing number of dropouts in the state’s high schools, the largest percentage of which are Hispanic students, according to the ABC affiliate in Salt Lake City. “Ten percent of students overall dropped out of school. Among Latino students – Utah’s largest minority group – 26 percent … Continue reading »

By Julie Young With the recent passage of the Digital Learning Now Actin Florida, which expands virtual education options to parents and students, one trend that finally has the power to truly revolutionize the very fabric of our education system is online learning. It’s truly amazing to see how education has been transformed during the … Continue reading »

By Orlando Sentinel Florida has won a share of a $49-million federal grant that will be used to “create new high-quality” charter schools and spread information about existing ones, the U.S. Department of Education announced today. New York also won a slice of the five-year grant.