funding

Bake sales struggle after New York City Department of Education, as part of an anti-obesity drive, began restricting what could be sold in machines and in fund-raising events held in schools.

Rep. Andy Harris said Thursday that he will request an expanded review of the Maryland Department of Education's use of federal funds after an audit found that the state may have to return up to $540,000 in misspent stimulus dollars and money designated for poor children.

Although school is back in session at Buena Vista schools, a state takeover is still on the table for the Saginaw County district.

The last budget of outgoing schools CEO Andrés Alonso includes cuts to per-pupil funding and high schools but retains spending power for principals and adds academic programs.

Lawmakers are pushing what they call the Opportunity Scholarship Act, a bill that would give parents up to $4,200 in vouchers to send their children to private schools.

On Monday, a group of Senate Democrats, accompanied by members of the American Federation of Teachers, called on Republican Gov. Tom Corbett and the Department of Education to stop implementing the Common Core standards, which Corbett's Democratic predecessor, Gov. Ed Rendell, started to get students ready for college and careers.

As part of a deal with the city, Portland Public Schools plans to commit $1.5 million from its reserves to fund arts teachers should courts strike down the arts tax.

California schools would get $1 billion more than proposed in January to enact stringent new "common core" academic standards, plus almost a quarter-billion dollars more as part of his education-funding overhaul, under a revised budget proposal Gov. Jerry Brown released Tuesday.

In Buena Vista, Mich., a school district of less than 500 students closed its schools Tuesday because it is broke. At an emergency meeting Monday evening, hours after teachers voted to work for free for at least a week since the district determined it could not pay them, the school board opted to shut down schools.