Education category, Page 91
Congress weighs bankruptcy relief for student loan debt
More than 40 years after Congress began tightening restrictions against discharging student loan debt in bankruptcy, federal lawmakers Thursday introduced a bill to provide bankruptcy relief for struggling borrowers. The Student Borrower Bankruptcy Relief Act of 2019 would remove the 2005 section of the bankruptcy code that made all private...
Pennsylvania’s board of education backs changes to school start, dropout ages
Pennsylvania’s State Board of Education is giving its support to proposals by Gov. Tom Wolf to require students start schooling by age 6 and continue until they’re at least 18. The board voted unanimously Wednesday for the Democratic governor’s proposals that he unveiled in February. The Republican-controlled Legislature still must...
Point Park University launches $20K mission to ease losses in small-town journalism
Point Park University’s Center for Media Innovation in Pittsburgh is launching a $20,000 fellowship designed to tackle the growing dearth of investigative journalism in communities that no longer host a daily newspaper, officials announced Wednesday. A three-year grant from the Allegheny Foundation underwrote the creation of the Annual Doris O’Donnell...
Franklin Regional board may change grading scale, broaden range
Franklin Regional school director Paul Scheinert hoped students were benefiting from having a more rigorous grading system where “A” grades (the district uses a plus/minus system as well) range from 92 to 100%, “B” grades range from 82 to 91% and so on. But seeking to give students a more-level...
IUP professor named as a Fulbright scholar, headed to Honduras
An Indiana University of Pennsylvania professor has been named a Fulbright scholar and will spend the upcoming academic year seeking out new species of amphibians and reptiles and supporting conservation efforts in Honduras. Josiah Townsend, an associate professor at IUP, was chosen as a 2019-20 Fulbright U.S. Scholar grant recipient....
Hempfield students to participate in Remake Learning Days
Some Hempfield students are taking a step back from the curriculum for a day as they prepare to present projects they have been working on as part of the Remake Learning Days Across America. The day, which focuses on science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, allows students to pick...
Franklin Regional senior’s tough decision? Choosing between elite collegesVideo
No one likes to make a difficult decision. But it helps when that decision is which of four of the most prestigious academic institutions in the United States to attend for college. As he considered his post-secondary education, Franklin Regional senior Bhav Jain had to choose among acceptance letters from...
Don’t spare the blood: Apollo-Ridge looks to realism for mock DUI crashVideo
A mock car crash that included a drunken driver, a dead passenger and other injured parties was the lesson of the day Wednesday at Apollo-Ridge High School. Although mock accident scenes are nothing new, the high school decided to add flair or, rather, blood and make-up for students to look...
$464K in grants to help Western Pa. schools boost security efforts
Four Western Pennsylvaina school entities — a school district, an intermediate unit and two technical schools — have received a total of $464,709 in state grants to enhance their safety efforts. State Rep. Joseph Petrarca, D-Vandergrift, said the grants were announced by the state’s School Safety and Security Committee, which...
Pennsylvania teacher salaries rank 10th in the nation
Pennsylvania teachers average the 10th-highest salaries in the nation, according to a National Education Association annual pay analysis. While Pennsylvania teachers ranked below colleagues in New York, New Jersey and Maryland, they were well above teachers in West Virginia (who ranked next to last) and the bordering states of Ohio...
Swarthmore College fraternities disband amid protests
SWARTHMORE, Pa. — The only two fraternities at Swarthmore College have opted to disband amid outrage over years-old documents containing derogatory comments about women and the LGBTQ community and jokes about sexual assault. Delta Upsilon and Phi Psi announced their decisions in separate Facebook posts Tuesday night. “We cannot in...
Lawmakers debate future of loan relief for public workers
In 2007, the U.S. government made a promise to public service workers: Make 10 years of payments on their federal student loans and any remaining debt would be erased. But officials have largely failed to deliver. And that’s left lawmakers questioning whether to end the program or try to fix...
Slippery Rock responds to Dr. Phil’s comments on admissions scandal
Slippery Rock University officials are responding after Dr. Phil McGraw named the institution during an interview with People about the college admissions scandal. Sixteen parents, including actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, allegedly committed fraud to get their kids into top universities. In an interview Thursday, McGraw said, “They’re not...
Report: Nearly 100,000 undocumented immigrants graduate from U.S. high schools each year
Nearly 100,000 undocumented immigrants are estimated to graduate from U.S. high schools every year, a new report says, although many do not have the same protection against deportation and other benefits that the “dreamers” do. The report, based on census data, was published by the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, a...
Texas high school posts dress code for parents
A Texas high school is telling parents that they need to dress appropriately for school. James Madison High School in Houston shared a letter on April 9 with parents stating they must set an example of what to wear in certain settings, including the school. The letters listed several items...
Kiski Area students get real lessons from a real cop
The mood was sober during Allegheny Township police Officer Charity Butz’s presentation Tuesday on the dangers and penalties for driving under the influence for a freshman health class at Kiski Area High School. But the students perked up considerably when they wore goggles that simulate being drunk or under the...
McKeesport school officials say they did not block Black Student UnionVideo
McKeesport Area School District officials on Tuesday refuted claims in a civil rights lawsuit that they are trying to thwart formation of a Black Student Union. Superintendent Mark Holtzman, who is named as a defendant in the lawsuit along with the district, told reporters that the American Civil Liberties Union...
Proposal would require Maine students learn about Holocaust
AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine lawmakers are considering a bill designed to require students to learn about the Holocaust. Democratic Sen. Louie Luchini of Ellsworth introduced the bill, which received a public hearing before a legislative committee Monday. Luchini says it’s time for Maine to join the less than a quarter...
Redstone Highlands offers nursing, HVAC scholarships to Pitt-Greensburg, WCCC
Students who want to pursue a nursing career this fall semester can apply for one of three scholarships worth a total of $96,800 to attend either the University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg or Westmoreland County Community College. Redstone Highlands, which offers a variety of living options for senior citizens at facilities in...
Kiski Area School District inks new 5-year deal with secretaries
Kiski Area School District and its secretaries have a new, 5-year contract calling for average 2.35 percent raises over the life of the contract, according to Peggy Gillespie, the district’s assistant to the superintendent for finance and operations. The new contract takes effect July 1 and covers 19 secretaries represented...
Penn Hills financial crisis inspires bill aimed at keeping districts from similar fate
A state lawmaker presented a bill package April 17 that seeks to avoid school district financial crises and allows for greater punishment of school officials if poor decisions are made. State Rep. Tony DeLuca, D-Allegheny, along with state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, unveiled the bill package, dubbed “School Board and...
Hempfield data show early start times elicit better grades
Hempfield Area High School students will continue to start classes each morning at 7:25 a.m. Assistant Principal Gregory Saraceni compiled average grades from early classes at the high school and compared them to the same class held later in the day. In general, higher grade averages were seen in first...
Yough welcomes Carnegie Mellon’s free computer science curriculumVideo
Yough Senior High School in Herminie sits amid the rural countryside of Westmoreland County, a world away from the tech hubs that have cropped up in Austin, Silicon Valley and even Pittsburgh. But that hasn’t kept Yough students from accessing a cutting-edge computer science curriculum on Python, a computer coding...
Saint Vincent to showcase student projects, art demos
Student research and artistic talent will be on display April 24 during Saint Vincent College’s 16th Annual Academic Conference. Open to the public, the conference is scheduled for 2:30 to 7 p.m. in the Sis and Herman Dupré Science Pavilion on the college campus in Unity. Admission is free. The...
Pitt graduate workers begin union vote
Pitt graduate student employees began voting in a four-day union election today. The election open to some 2,000 graduate research and teaching assistants comes more than three years after graduate students began organizing under the auspices of the United Steelworkers in Jan. 2016. The organizers said they were seeking safeguards...
