Democrats in Congress say they are prepared to resist President Bush's level-funding budget proposal for education until the next president--who they hope will be more inclined to raise spending--takes office. That means the outcome of this year's budget showdown could hinge on the November election, not on a compromise between the White House and…

This article reports how an "Education Week" review of hundreds of e-mail exchanges that detail a pattern of federal interference in "Reading First" have skirted legal prohibitions. In regular e-mail discussions, Christopher J. Doherty, the Reading First director at the U.S. Department of Education until last September, and G. Reid Lyon, a branch…

This article discusses the withdrawal of the United States government from educational reform in Iraq. It has however, through the U.S. Agency for International Development, awarded a two-year National Capacity Development contract, which is aimed at helping Iraq's government ministries to function better. This article discusses how security…

Michael A. Rebell, a 61-year-old former Peace Corps volunteer, is one of a small band of lawyers whose legal efforts are changing the way many states pay for their public schools. He was among many lawyers of the era who had been inspired by landmark cases such as "Brown v. Board of Education." In the late 1980s, he noticed education cases would…

In this article, the author discusses that Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. is pledging to sign a bill that puts Utah education policy ahead of the No Child Left Behind Act. State education officials now hope to make the case to the U.S. Department of Education that Utah should not be penalized for failing to comply with the federal law. The…

An effort to require school districts to funnel 65 percent of their budgets directly into classrooms is gaining traction in several states. Governor Rick Perry of Texas signed an executive order in August mandating that school districts implement the 65 Percent Solution, as the idea is called by the nonprofit group organizing the effort. It also…

In this article, the author talks about the debate that flared regarding aid given to states. Officials of the Bush administration countered complaints that Republicans are inadequately financing the No Child Left Behind Act. They said the states didn't spend all of the federal K-12 money available to them in a timely manner. State officials…

Five-and-a-half years ago, against the advice of his wife and his academic colleagues, Samuel C. Stringfield stepped out of his ivory tower. The then-50-year-old education researcher, a nationally known expert on school improvement, became a member of the Baltimore city school board. Until the time came when he left the board and the Center for…

In this article, the author reports some 3,800 near-simultaneous "house parties" organized throughout Pennsylvania to call on their federal lawmakers to put more money into education. The parties, in which three-quarters of them were organized by teachers such as Jane Dugdale, are the main election-season event of a new coalition of…