Child Welfare
The push in California to open court hearings related to foster care placements will face its biggest test yet when a senate assembly committee takes it up today, reports Garrett Therolf of the Los Angeles Times.
Open up the courts, argues the Mercury News editorial board. Don’t open up the courts, says a former public defender and juvenile justice advocate.
Education/Jobs
New Hampshire is on the verge of passing a law that would lower the state’s dropout age from 18 to 16 with parental consent. The measure, reported by the Associated Press, has passed the House and is now being considered by the Senate.
Hamburg, Pa. is hoping that a new late bus will help schools deal with struggling middle school students by affording more time for extra instruction, reports Brian Dowlin in the Berksmont News.
The editorial board of Minnesota’s Star Tribune takes a look at the bipartisan bill to yank driving privileges from high school dropouts.
Valerie Strauss , in her education column for the Washington Post, criticizes the Obama administration’s embrace of using contests to decide funding, focusing her column on a $1 million competition for community colleges.
The arguments for federal support of for-profits are valid, writes the editorial board of the Des Moines Register, but the industry also clearly needs more oversight.
Juvenile Justice
Some South Carolina politicians aren’t happy that juveniles from Washington, D.C. are placed in the state, reports Tom Howell of the Washington Times. One of the pols quoted said he lived a quarter mile away from the facility where two D.C. juveniles recently escaped, and he “didn’t even know the place existed until I heard about the escape.”
