Education category, Page 52
Kids with disabilities face off-the-books school suspensions
The phone call from her son’s school was alarming. The assistant principal told her to come to the school immediately. But when Lisa Manwell arrived at Pioneer Middle School in Plymouth, Michigan, her son wasn’t sick or injured. He was sitting calmly in the principal’s office. John, who has ADHD...
Free college? Some Allegheny College students won’t pay tuition anymore
Some Allegheny College students don’t have to worry about tuition bills anymore. The Meadville college announced it is introducing a Commitment to Access Program that will cover all tuition costs for in-state students whose family income is $50,000 or less. The program, which will kick off in fall 2023, will...
Some Western Pa. students grapple with post-covid learning loss
Before the pandemic, Alana Griffin said her son was advanced in his academics. Now, she said, she considers the 9-year-old to be at an average level. Her other son, who is 8, needs to catch up in reading and math, she said. Though her children see a weekly tutor, the...
Pitt-Greensburg to display art, honor alumni, hold festival during Blue & Gold Homecoming Celebration
The University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg will honor outstanding alumni, showcase campus and local art and host festival activities during its annual Blue & Gold Homecoming Celebration continuing through Saturday. The art show is underway at Millstein Library on campus. Running through Oct. 7 on the library’s second floor, it...
Libertarian group sues to block student debt cancellation
A libertarian group in California filed a legal challenge to President Joe Biden’s plan for student debt cancellation on Tuesday, calling it an illegal overreach that would increase state tax burdens for some Americans who get their debt forgiven. The lawsuit, believed to be the first targeting Biden’s plan, was...
Penn State officials hope for 47% increase in state general support funding
Penn State officials plan to aim high in their 202-24 state funding request. On Friday, the Board of Trustees will vote on whether to approve a request for an additional $115 million in general support funding from the state. If approved by legislators, that would bring the university’s general support...
How to get a student loan refund if you paid during pandemic
NEW YORK — When President Joe Biden announced a plan to forgive student loan debt, many borrowers who kept making payments during the pandemic wondered if they’d made the right choice. Borrowers who paid down their debt during a pandemic freeze that started in March 2020 can in fact get...
Efforts to ban, restrict LGBTQ curriculum in Pa. schools hinge on who becomes the next governor
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — As a closeted gay child growing up in Lancaster in the 1990s, J Eric Fisher didn’t feel safe. He...
Why did Penn State create a new VP position during a hiring freeze?
This story was produced by the State College regional bureau of Spotlight PA, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to investigative and public-service journalism for Pennsylvania. Sign up for our regional newsletter, Talk of the Town. The Penn State Transparency Tracker is an ongoing effort by Spotlight PA to document and...
Teacher shortages are real, but not for the reason you heard
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Everywhere, it seems, back-to-school has been shadowed by worries of a teacher shortage. The U.S. education secretary has called for investment to keep teachers from quitting. A teachers union leader has described it as a five-alarm emergency. News coverage has warned of a crisis in teaching. In...
No-cost pre-K program to accept more children in Greensburg, Mt. Pleasant areas thanks to state funding
Since Frock Childcare Learning Center began offering a free pre-K program, the center has served a “broader range” of local children and families, Frock teacher Lauren Markiewicz said. Two years ago, the Mt. Pleasant center partnered with the Private Industry Council of Westmoreland/Fayette to offer Pre-K Counts, a division of...
Free breakfasts for all Pa. schoolchildren to start soon
Pennsylvania parents will soon be able to check making breakfast off their list of things to do in the morning rush to get their children ready for school. Starting Oct. 1 and running through the remainder of the 2022-23 school year, that morning meal will be provided in schools. Gov....
Pittsburgh Public Schools, city pledge to provide students with more jobs, internships
Students participating in the Career and Technical Education program at Pittsburgh Public Schools will have increased access to job shadowing, paid internships and jobs, city and school officials announced Friday. A partnership between the city, the school district and local corporate partners aims to prepare students for the workforce and...
Saint Vincent College to break ground for new recreation and athletic center
Saint Vincent College is set to break ground Friday for its new Dunlap Family Recreation and Athletic Center. The new 72,000-square-foot building will be located near the Fred Rogers Center on the college’s campus in Unity. It will include facilities for recreation and exercise, intramural athletic competition and varsity athletic...
Grant funds app to support mental wellness for Seton Hill athletes
Seton Hill University is partnering with digital platform The Zone to help student-athletes connect to mental health services. Supported by a $25,000 grant from the Staunton Farm Foundation of Pittsburgh, the university will offer a mobile app to Seton Hill athletes, allowing them to request tele-help for mental health issues...
Franklin Regional Panther Foundation to fund gardens, microscopes, mariachi festival
The latest round of grant funding by the nonprofit Franklin Regional Panther Foundation will help fund a portable podcast studio, a mariachi festival and much more. Franklin Regional Senior High School teacher Jim Passarelli secured a $9,900 grant that will allow the district to take advantage of a long-abandoned area....
How will student loan relief impact the economy, higher education? Western Pa. professors weigh in
People are talking about the Biden administration’s student loan relief plan “as if these loans will magically disappear,” according to Antony Davies, economics professor at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. The problem is, they won’t. On Aug. 24, the administration announced its plans to cancel up to $10,000 of student debt...
Seton Hill faculty member receives Black Educators’ Excellence Lifetime Award
A member of the Seton Hill University faculty has been recognized by the Pittsburgh-based State of Black Learning organization for her career achievements. Tricia Shelton, an assistant professor of education at Seton Hill, recently received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the organization’s Black Educators’ Excellence Awards. The ceremony was held...
School lunch ideas for pint-size vegetarians
Do you have a vegetarian living in your home? Even a little one? There are many kinds of vegetarianism, but many folks are reducing the amount of meat in their diets, or cutting it out altogether. And these choices are being made by kids, too. So with the new school...
High-stakes year begins for kids still learning to read
ATLANTA — Five of the 19 students in teacher Chelsea Grant’s third grade classroom are reading below grade level. When it’s time to read aloud on a recent Friday, the students show vastly different levels of skill and confidence. “Remember you read with expression, feeling and fluency,” Grant told her...
Greensburg Salem looks to increase student engagement as kindergarten numbers drop
Greensburg Salem School District is looking to get students more engaged in learning as they returned to the classroom Tuesday for the fall semester. District Superintendent Ken Bissell said in a letter posted on the Greensburg Salem website that staff have been “busy all summer preparing for engagement in teaching...
Surprise: Pa. borrowers may end up paying state taxes on forgiven student loans
Residents of Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia and 10 other states could end up with a surprise tax hit of hundreds of dollars next year on forgiven student loans. President Joe Biden’s announcement that the government would forgive some student debt for individuals earning less than $125,000 was welcome news to...
Point Park program allows those with other degrees to pursue teaching career
Over the course of Craig Johnston’s 20-year engineering career, the thought of becoming a teacher often crossed his mind. But it wasn’t until 2020 — months before the covid-19 pandemic would shut down most aspects of day-to-day life — that Johnston took the leap. In January of that year, Johnston...
Pa. lawmakers eye stronger guidelines as school districts enhance security measures
Following the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Pennsylvania lawmakers approved a grant program with the goal of getting $300 million to state school districts for security upgrades. Four years after the killing of 17 people, schools in Western Pennsylvania are continuing to make...
Pitt-Greensburg welcomes first-year students for fall semester
Upperclassmen, alumni, faculty members and family pitched in Wednesday to help first-year students settle into campus residence halls at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg. Final enrollment figures weren’t available for the fall semester, but university President Robert Gregerson said, “Enrollment is up from last year. We had a really...
