Sweeping changes, if adopted

President Barack Obama used his penultimate State of the Union address to call for a dramatic expansion in college access and increased investments in early childhood that include help for parents with childcare costs, reports Alyson Klein for Education Week. The initiatives would be part of a proposed overhaul of the tax system already rejected by the Republican-controlled Congress. The president's speech made a prominent pitch for making the first two years of community college free for most students. The plan would offer nine million students an average of $3,800 a year to cover college costs -- an estimated federal price tag of $60 billion over a decade -- that would be covered through changes to the tax system that include raising the capital gains tax (which impacts investors), hiking the amount of inherited money subject to taxation, and placing new fees on financial institutions. Though Republicans have already dismissed the tax overhaul, the president framed the tradeoff as a way to support middle-class taxpayers, whom he said fueled the nation's economic recovery. However, Mr. Obama stayed above the fray on a key K-12 policy debate in Congress: As it rewrites NCLB, should the federal government should continue to require annual testing? More

Source:  Public Education News Blast

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Los Angeles Education Partnership (LAEP) is an education support organization that works as a collaborative partner in high-poverty communities.