Kevin’s blog
Expert analysis and the latest news from award-winning journalist Kevin Richert.
CSI working on weekend course program
The “Weekend College Plus” program will be geared toward nontraditional students and Hispanic students, the Twin Falls Times-News reported.
Wayne Hoffman’s big disclaimer on public schools
“I don’t think government should be in the education business,” the executive director of the Idaho Freedom Foundation wrote Friday, in a guest opinion that ostensibly weighs in on the school funding formula rewrite.
Superintendent Ybarra’s schedule: Feb. 18-22
Heading the schedule: Monday’s legislative budget hearing, as the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee draws up the 2019-20 budget requests for K-12.
Blaine County disputes Ybarra’s mastery ‘waiting list’
Superintendent GwenCarol Holmes is the third administrator to question the list, which state superintendent Sherri Ybarra has touted in her push to expand Idaho’s mastery pilot.
Report: Funding formula ‘wealth adjustment’ could put more financial pressure on schools
The Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy issued a report Tuesday on the possible outcomes of a “noble goal.”
Superintendent Ybarra’s schedule: Feb. 11-15
Here’s the schedule, as released Monday morning.
More grim budget news: January tax collections fall far short of projections
All told, tax collections for this budget year now sit $128.3 million short of projections. And against this backdrop, lawmakers will begin writing budgets for education and other state agencies.
Idaho’s AP numbers remain well below national average
Idaho students can take Advanced Placement exams — at taxpayer expense. Still, the percentage of Idaho students passing an AP test remains mired at No. 39 nationally.
The Medicaid waiting game is over. What happens now?
It won’t take long to see how Tuesday’s ruling, and sluggish tax collections, affect the budget-writing process.
Trump touches on school choice in State of the Union
The issue received a one-sentence mention Tuesday night. One topic did not: the fate of the “Dreamers,” students and adults in the United States under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.