The education secretary and Democrats on the House education committee tussled over caps on federal student loans, what role the government should play in trying to improve abysmal literacy rates —and whether the U.S. Department of Education should exist at all.

Minnesota's local school boards have long held the power to decide how kids are taught about a variety of health education topics, including human development, nutrition, sex, child abuse prevention and other issues. That power, though, is about to shift.

Blake High School had an outright ban on food deliveries. But students told drivers to meet them at the bottom of a nearby hill instead of driving onto school property. So this fall, staff set up a table to facilitate all of the deliveries made on any given day.