An in-depth exploration of education in the 21st century South.
It was founded 150 years ago, just after the Civil War, to educate freed slaves. It graduated prominent black leaders of the Harlem Renaissance and Civil Rights.
Florida lawmakers could take up an education agenda that includes testing changes, recess, more money for teachers and a greater focus on higher education—at least, in the Senate.
This week, officials with the school announced that they are cutting the number of students who will be admitted next year. The cuts aren’t new, MSMS has reduced enrollment by 12 percent over the past five years from 271 in 2011-2012 to 220 next year.
There’s never a shortage of stories coming from Alabama’s schools. But before the WBHM/Southern Education Desk’s “Issues and Ales” education forum Thursday evening, we wanted to shed as much light as possible on the big picture behind the headlines because — for better or worse — that backdrop always includes money and therefore politics.
Mississippi Public Broadcasting’s piece, 42: The Fight Over Funding, takes an in-depth look at public school funding in Mississippi, how the state’s funding formula for public schools works, and what both sides of the Initiative 42 debate want to do about it. They interview legislators, educators, and others to help Mississippians decide before heading to the polls on November 3.
J.F. Ingram Technical College is a unique part of Alabama’s two-year college system because all of its students are incarcerated. Last month, as part of WBHM-Birmingham’s prison-reporting partnership with Al.com, our Dan Carsen drove down to Ingram’s campus at Julia Tutwiler Prison For Women in Wetumpka, Alabama. He was planning to do a short story on Ingram’s program there, but he came out with so many compelling conversations that he wanted to make a mini-documentary…
J.F. Ingram State is a unique part of Alabama’s two-year college system because one hundred percent of its students are incarcerated. Its new pilot program at Julia Tutwiler Prison focuses on life skills, not just vocational training. As part of WBHM-Birmingham’s prison-reporting partnership with Alabama Media Group’s Investigative Journalism Lab, our Dan Carsen spoke with Ingram State counseling coordinator Rick Vest outside Ingram’s Tutwiler campus. Vest says learning job skills isn’t enough.
In the past decade, it’s gotten much harder for scientists to get the federal grants that fund the vast majority of American research. This year’s sequester has made it even more difficult, and the government shutdown is likely to slow things down even further. So scientists are looking for new ways to pay for their work, including “crowdfunding.” But going online and asking the public for money has real drawbacks. Even so, as Alabama reporter Dan Carsen tells us, some think it could open up the field in a good way.
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