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Voters will decide minimum wage ballot measures in several states
Grace McGovern, a 24-year-old bartender and server at a downtown Boston brewery, recalls one recent customer vividly. He was very rude. It was a slow night, and she only had one table, a large group led by a man who “kept touching my lower back and my leg and making jokes,” she told Stateline. It […]
Ballot questions tackle high property taxes that come with rising home values
No state illustrates this year’s flurry of ballot measures to cut property taxes better than Colorado. There, the results of two likely voter questions could reduce funding for schools, roads, emergency responders and other local government services. Colorado’s ballot measures are just two of nearly a dozen upcoming questions dealing with property taxes in states […]
Backed by a basketball champion, more kids who stutter may have therapy covered
Former NBA and University of Kentucky basketball player Michael Kidd-Gilchrist has stuttered all his life. Once he got to college, his health insurance finally paid for speech therapy, coverage he did not have as a child. It helped, but more than a decade later he still has difficulty articulating his words. Now, thanks in large […]
When ‘universal’ pre-K really isn’t: Barriers to participating abound
When Tanya Gillespie-Lambert goes to an event in a local park in Camden, New Jersey, she takes a handful of brochures about free preschool with her. She has no hesitation about approaching strangers — moms with kids especially — to plug the service in the local public school district, where she’s director of community and […]
For child care workers, state aid for their own kids’ care is ‘life-changing’
SMITHFIELD, R.I. — Child care worker Marci Then, 32, looked over at two 4-year-olds in her care who were tussling over a toy plate in a model kitchen set. “Are we sharing?” she gently asked them. They both let go. Then works at Little Learners Academy child care center near Providence, Rhode Island. Her daughter, […]
Universities try 3-year degrees to save students time, money
With college costs rising and some students and families questioning the return on investment of a four-year degree, a few pioneering state universities are exploring programs that would grant certain bachelor’s degrees in three years. The programs, which also are being tried at some private schools, would require 90 credits instead of the traditional 120 […]
Undergrads are unionizing, in a sign of labor’s resurgence
Junior psychology major Erin Green works part time at the children’s preschool at Sonoma State University, caring for university employees’ kids ages 1 to 5. Some of the non-student workers in her center belong to a union. But she didn’t, until just a few weeks ago. Green, a 46-year-old returning student who works 20 hours […]
More public colleges admit high schoolers even before they’ve applied
For some ninth graders near Fresno, California, the invitation — years before they’ll don a cap and gown — comes out of the blue: You’ve been accepted to Fresno State, the letter says. Public universities across the country increasingly are sending such acceptance letters even before students apply to college. In more than a third of […]
Freedom Caucuses push for conservative state laws, but getting attention is their big success
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — When a Republican colleague threatened to read aloud from a 2-foot stack of books — including a biblical guide to leadership and a tome by anti-tax activist Grover Norquist — to protest inaction on his bills last week, Missouri state Sen. Rick Brattin quickly took up the cause. Seizing on a chance to […]
If schools won’t ban kids’ cellphones, some lawmakers say, they will
At David H. Hickman High School in Columbia, Missouri, the rule is that students must keep their cellphones out of sight during class. In reality, the teachers tasked with enforcing the rule are no match for teenagers’ “almost compulsive” need to be on their phones all the time, said science teacher Noelle Gilzow. Gilzow confiscates […]
Transparency bills seek to reveal the true costs of college
University students in Alaska kept asking Republican state Sen. Robert Myers why they were being blindsided with requirements to buy expensive textbooks after they signed up for classes, he said. Students complained to Myers that universities warned them about high tuition but not about the costs of textbooks, lab fees and equipment that also add up. Often, students sign up for […]
State universities admit more out-of-state students for the tuition bump
CORVALLIS, Ore. — Kennedy Cole, a college junior studying accounting, knew she wanted to attend school outside her native Nevada to expand her choices, meet new people and explore different places. Emma Nichols, a sophomore majoring in vocal performance, chose a school close to her home in Corvallis, Oregon. The two friends, Oregon State University […]