Child Welfare
Andy Kroll, writing for Mother Jones, questions the progress of Mississippi’s child welfare system since Gov. Haley Barbour agreed to a settlement with nonprofit litigator Children’s Rights, which sued the state over its treatment of system-involved youth in 2004.
Education/Jobs
Georgia has the highest rate of teen unemployment in the country according to an analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data, reoports Henry Unger at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Twenty-five states have teen unemployment above 25 percent according to this story.
President Obama gave a short speech about inequality in education to a primarily black audience at the Sheraton New York Hotel in Manhattan this week, just days after announcing his intention to seek a second term. Helene Cooper of The New York Times notes the White House’s keen awareness of the President’s need to tap into his base of black support for his re-election campaign.
The quality, effectiveness and purpose of online courses for K-12 students has come under fire recently, according to Trip Gabriel with The New York Times, due to the lack of evidence that students actually learn from them and that school districts aren’t using them as a way to cut costs.
AP is reporting the approval of a Maryland bill to regular for-profit colleges. The measure prohibits commissions and bonuses for student recruitment and creates a Guaranty Fund to reimburse students if colleges breach a contract with the student.
Juvenile Justice
Click here for the transcript and radio broadcast of KALW News’ Rina Palta’s report on one California county’s stand against a heavy reliance on juvenile detention.
Miscellaneous
PolicyLink CEO Angela Glover Blackwell, in a column for the Huffington Post, says gutting the Corporation for National and Community Services and YouthBuild is going to knock the legs out of communities.
