School Closure Personal For The Obamas? The Chicago Sun-Times is out with a list of 193 schools that could potentially be closed under Chicago Public Schools' effort to save money by shuttering "underutilized buildings." Among them is Bouchet Academy -- and as Alexander Russo notes, that's the elementary school Michelle Obama attended. (It was called Bryn Mawr Elementary School when she studied there.)
Role Model Fail? Germany's education minister is under investigation for plagiarism, reports the Associated Press. "A committee of academics at Duesseldorf's Heinrich-Heine University voted Tuesday to begin the probe after hearing the results of a preliminary investigation into whether Annette Schavan failed to properly cite passages of her 1980 thesis in philosophy," AP writes. Chancellor Angela Merkel has her back.
Texas Rolling Back Testing? A Texas state senator introduced a bill that would significantly reduce standardized testing, reports the Texas Tribune. "SB 225 would significantly reduce the number of state standardized tests students must pass to graduate -- from 15 to five in reading, writing, biology, Algebra I and U.S. history," writes the Tribune. "It would also leave whether to count the state exams toward anything besides graduation requirements up to local school boards. A rule that requires state end-of-course exams to count toward 15 percent of students' final grade is currently suspended, but it would take effect again next year if lawmakers do not change it."
Cuomo's Pre-K Push? New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) rolled out his budget today. In it is a push for full-day pre-kindergarten in districts whose students have high needs, according to GothamSchools. Cuomo would also give bonuses to the teachers who rank highest on new evaluations.
Congress Organizes? Here are the subcommittee assignments the Democrats on the House Education and the Workforce Committee Received Today.