funding

When you're not yet 10, $8,453 is a lot of money. The elementary school students at Morris Jeff Community School in New Orleans' Mid-City neighborhood oohed and aahed Tuesday as State Superintendent of Education John White awarded that sum to each of 26 New Orleans "Top Gains" schools that made significant improvements in student performance last year, for a grand total of $219,800. And in Covington later that day, White gave $230,000 to the 27 Top Gains schools in St. Tammany.

Gov. Rick Perry had called it “foolish and irresponsible” for Texas to apply for funds from the Obama administration’s signature education initiative. He feared Race to the Top funding would come with too many federal mandates on how to run classrooms in his state.

Two administrators in a troubled eastern Kentucky school district filed lawsuits offering some details about the management and financial problems that resulted in a state takeover.

The Houston Independent School District took a big step in 2007 toward becoming environmentally friendly by designing two new schools to meet a coveted "green" standard set by a private-builders' group.

New York schools would lose $164 million in federal funding for the 2013-14 school year if Congress does not find compromise on the nation’s looming “fiscal cliff,” according to a state School Boards Association analysis.

Court rulings on student transfers and school funding will collide with the desire of charter school and voucher advocates to take advantage of a new Republican majority when Arkansas legislators tackle education issues next year.

The principal of a Massachusetts high school is reviewing a school-sanctioned sexual education course after a parent complained that a flier about the class advocated condom use. According to the Berkshire Eagle, Pittsfield High School Principal Tracey Benson received the complaint from parent Bruce Radke, who saw a list of 32 phrases -- described as "Condom Sayings" -- that was passed out to about 15 students, including Radke's daughter Aleisha, a junior at the school.

The Omaha Public Schools last year accidentally asked for too much money, and the state mistakenly obliged.

After the Upper Arlington schools’ first levy defeat in decades, district officials are trying to figure out how to plug a budget gap that they say is somewhere between $2 million and $4 million.