A lack of regulations governing home-schooling in 10 states and the District of Columbia may have facilitated the deaths of Banita M. Jacks' four daughters, whose bodies were found last week, the New York Times reported. Jacks, who has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder, was not required to notify authorities that her children would be home-schooled when she removed them from their schools. Although home-schooling was previously illegal in nearly every state, it is now permitted nationwide and only stringently regulated in six states. According to Mitchell Stevens, associate professor of education and sociology at New York University, school officials are best at uncovering spot child abuse, since law requires them to report cases of possible abuse. Without home-schooling regulations, children are not in contact with these officials, possibly preventing the discovery of abuse.
Residents of Greenwich, Conn., are protesting the proposed busing of students to Greenwich's New Lebanon Elementary from different areas across the district, according to the New York Times. The proposal is in response to a state law that requires schools to be racially balanced with the percentage of minorities in a school district not exceeding the percentage of minorities at an individual school by more than 25 percent. Some Greenwich locals believe the busing could lead to a lengthy lawsuit because of a United States Supreme Court ruling that students in two other states could not be reallocated to schools based on race.
Although state appropriations for higher education are up a record seven and a half percent for the 2008 fiscal year, studies suggest that increases in state money for higher education may slow in future years, according to Inside Higher Ed. Monetary allocations have increased annually since 2004, when appropriations decreased by 2.1 percent. State budgets are predicted to deteriorate significantly, however, which could diminish future growth, according to recent studies by the National Conference of State Legislatures and the National Governors Association. Total state appropriations for the 2008 fiscal year are projected to be approximately $77.5 billion.
