Public School Policies

School nurses have long given peace of mind to parents, who entrusted nurses with their children's medical issues during school hours. School nurses have carried out a wide range of responsibilities in schools, ranging from treating a sore throat and administering medication to handling medical emergencies. Unfortunately, budget cuts at school districts across the country have left many students without the medical help they need if an emergency arises. Full-time school nurses have become as out of fashion as chalkboards and electric typewriters, and it doesn't appear they will be returning to the world of education any time soon, according to recent reports.

Read the National Association of School Nurses' A Case for School Nurses for a detailed fact-based rationale as to why school nurses are necessary. Additionally, the NASN makes the point that "A student’s health is directly related to his or her ability to learn. Children with unmet health needs have a difficult time engaging in the educational process. The school nurse supports student success by providing health care through assessment, intervention, and follow-up for all children within the school setting. The school nurse addresses the physical, mental, emotional, and social health needs of students and supports their achievement in the learning process."

What School Nurses Do

According to the Center for Nursing Advocacy, there are many tasks that school nurses perform every day, including:

• Providing health care to students and school staff
• Overseeing health management and the provision of

Across the country, school districts are being forced to tighten their belts as budgets get smaller and expenditures continue to grow. However, recent audits of a number of districts reveal that some schools may be able to save some of their staff and programs by getting smarter in their money management strategies.

In fact, some audits are showing funding that is blatantly wasted by lack of discretionary spending or poor bookkeeping procedures. In the current economic crisis through which many families are struggling, few have much compassion for school districts carelessly flushing taxpayer dollars away.

Tough Times

According to the American Association of School Administrators, the economic slowdown is having a very real impact on public schools today. To compound the problem, stimulus funds will soon run out, leaving school districts in an even bigger financial bind. A recent study by AASA shows that "school districts' economic situation does not mimic the stability and recovery beginning to take hold nationwide." This means that budget cuts for the upcoming school year might be even deeper than those that have been made for the previous two academic calendars.

When times are tough, everyone is expected to sacrifice and count their pennies carefully. However, some school districts are not adhering to these guidelines, and auditors are finding out that money is being wasted, rather than used to save programs and teachers' jobs. Three school districts in particular have recently hit the news, thanks to poor money

Most adults remember standardized testing, used to assess how well students were learning and retaining the core material taught to them. Today, schools still require students to take assessment tests each year, which serves as a benchmark for the performance of teachers as well as students. However, the assessments conducted today vary from state to state, since it is the state government’s responsibility to develop an appropriate evaluation process for their own schools.

However, state-governed evaluations may soon come to an end. The Obama administration would like to provide national education standards that all states would be required to follow, according to a report on VOANews.com. These national standards would offer continuity in education throughout the country and help students compete more effectively in a global economy, according to proponents of the initiative.

On the other side, opponents assert that more government involvement will not necessarily translate into higher quality education.

Let us delve into both sides of the debate to determine the pros and cons of sending educational assessments to the national level. This video offers a brief explanation.

Introducing Common Core State Standards

To address the issue of standard deviations between states, the Common Core State Standards initiative was established. This state-led effort was coordinated by the National Governor's Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers.

The standards were developed

A new trend in public education is sweeping the country: the introduction of teacher-led schools that put teachers in the driver's seat of both the classroom and the daily operations of the schools at large. Teacher-led schools have begun operating in cities across the country, including Los Angeles, Denver, Boston, and Milwaukee. Recently, a new teacher-led school was introduced in Detroit as well, according to an article in Detroit Free Press.

Bye-Bye Bureaucracy

The concept of teacher-led schools started with the idea that teachers were better equipped to meet the needs of students than administrators ever could be. Teachers work with children and curriculum every day, but in traditional campuses, still need to get modifications and new programs approved by principals and school supervisors before they can put them into action. By eliminating school administration, teachers put themselves in the position of adjusting curriculum and adding programs to meet the specific needs of the students in their schools.

Many of the teacher-run schools starting today have been located in low-income neighborhoods, where students already have many socioeconomic hurdles to overcome. For example, teacher-governed schools in Minnesota and Wisconsin consist of a high number of low-income Latino students, and one school in the area boasts a 100% Native American population. Another serves gay and lesbian students who were bullied in mainstream schools, according to a report at The Free Library.

This video reports on schools without principals.

Despite the budget cuts that have hit school districts nationwide over the past two years, recent numbers released for 2008 show that education was surprisingly healthy in the financial realm before the economic slowdown.

A recent analysis of U.S. Census Data by Bloomberg showed that public school systems spent more on education per student during this year than in the previous 16 years of education spending. An article in Bloomberg Businessweek recently reported that the average spending per student across the country was $ 10,259, with some districts spending more and others spending much less.

What the Numbers Show

The Bloomberg report was calculated for the 2007-2008 school year, and it included all 50 states. To get an accurate picture of education spending over the last two decades, numbers were adjusted for inflation. The results showed that this particular academic year boasted the biggest spending increase since at least 1992, the earliest year this type of data was available.

In a Georgia Education News blog report, Lisa Blumerman, chief of the Governments Division at the U.S. Census Bureau, said, "This report on public school spending shows us how taxpayer money is being spent on education. Public education is the single largest category of all state and local government expenditures. These data provide a detailed picture of how available resources are spent within the public education system."

School funding comes from various local, state, and federal sources. In 2008, public school systems received $582.1 billion in