• An overwhelming majority (77 percent) of Americans believe a substantial increase in federal funding for education would have a positive impact on innovation and growth in the U.S. economy, the Committee for Education Funding reported Sept. 3.
In other poll results, 82 percent of Americans believe increased federal funding would expand access to higher education, and 79 percent believe increased federal funding would help states avoid cuts in education aid.
Schools unprepared for terrorism
• America's schools are "soft targets for terrorism," and major gaps in preparedness remain while school safety budgets are cut nationwide, reports a national survey of 728 school-based police officers released Aug. 19 by the National Association of School Resource Officers.
More than 76 percent of the school resource officers (SROs) who responded to the survey believe their schools are ill-prepared to respond to a terrorist attack, and 90 percent say their schools are soft targets for potential terrorist attacks. In addition:
• 41 percent of SROs report that funding for school safety in their schools is decreasing;
• 87 percent say the number of crimes that occur on school campuses nationwide is underreported to police;
• 61 percent believe the requirement in the No Child Left Behind Act calling for states to identify "persistently dangerous" schools will result in further decreased school crime reporting; and
• 70 percent of the officers believe aggressive behavior in elementary school children has increased in their districts in the past five years.
Billions spent to educate illegals
• Educating the children of illegal immigrants is costing U.S. taxpayers $7.4 billion a year, reports the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).
According to Breaking the Piggy Bank: How Illegal Immigration is Sending Schools into the Red, the money being used to educate illegal alien children could be used instead to put a computer on the desk of every junior high school student in the nation.
The annual cost of educating illegal immigrants is $2.2 billion in California and more than $1 billion in Texas.
"With state budgets in crisis and children taking the hit, communities' limited tax dollars are being diverted to accommodate mass illegal immigration," the report states. "In some states, the amount of money spent to educate illegal alien children accounts for a substantial portion of the state budget shortfall."
FAIR is a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group that "aims to restore reasonable and moderate levels of immigration to ensure all Americans have a good quality of life today and tomorrow."
High school exit exams are costly
• High school exit exams, now required in 19 states, have led to improvements in curriculum and instruction but have also led to soaring implementation costs and disproportionately low pass rates for minority, poor, and disabled students and for English language learners.
That is the assessment of the Washington, D.C.-based Center on Education Policy (CEP) in its Aug. 13 report, State High School Exit Exams: Put to the Test.
Public opposition and high initial failure rates have led some states to respond with waivers, alternative tests, delayed consequences, lowered cut scores, or voided results, CEP finds. But these changes affect only small numbers of students, and states are proceeding with their exit exams.
"The states are struggling with maintaining a balance between firmness and fairness," says Jack Jennings, executive director of CEP. "While states want to refrain from watering down requirements, they are seeing low pass rates for minority, poor, and disabled students."
"While we cannot yet directly link exit exams to higher dropout rates, there is enough evidence to suggest a relationship between the two," says Keith Gayler, the associate director of CEP and leader of the exit exam project. "States must find ways of minimizing this risk and supporting students while taking advantage of the positive impacts."
"States should stop treating exit exams as if they are low-cost or no-cost solutions to reform schools," Jennings says. "If states expect exit exams to improve instruction and raise achievement, they should contribute more to the costs of remediation, professional development, and prevention."
Guidance issued on supplemental services
• The U.S. Education Department issued an extensive "non-regularly guidance" document on the supplemental services provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act Aug. 22.
Schools must provide such services -- tutoring, remediation, or other educational assistance -- to all low-income students in schools that do not make adequate yearly progress for three years.
The document covers such issues as how districts should pay for supplemental services, how to identify eligible students, district agreements with supplemental service providers, the role of parents, and monitoring.