U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., has introduced a bill to create federal grants to hire guidance counselors for secondary schools with dropout rates of 40 percent or higher.

The legislation would instruct the Department of Education to start a demonstration program authorizing $6 million a year for four years to help the schools hire the counselors. The first five schools chosen to participate would each be located in a different state. At least 10 schools would participate in the demo project.

American public secondary schools have an average counselor-to-student ratio of one to 476. Mr. Casey said his legislation would help benefiting schools to achieve ratios of one to 250, as recommended by the American Counseling Association.  read more »

The United Way of southeastern Pennsylvania has launched a program to collect school supplies for homeless children in the region.

The Stuff the Bus program collects thousands of school supplies for homeless kids in Philadelphia, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery counties, so that each child has a book bag to start school with in September. Joe DiVincenzo is vice president of marketing and communications with the United Way:

“The smiles on their faces, the excitement. It’s one less thing that they have to worry about when the school year starts. These kids have a tremendous handicap. When the day is over, they’re either going back out on the street or to a shelter.”  read more »

Some state lawmakers are seeking to block a proposal to require new state graduation tests for Pennsylvania high school students, arguing that greater legislative input is needed before the state spends any money on the exams.

But their cause is unlikely to succeed because Gov. Ed Rendell’s administration insists the testing program is essential to establishing uniform graduation requirements for the state’s 501 school districts.

The Senate Education Committee voted 10-1 Monday to approve a measure that would give the Legislature the sole authority to impose any new statewide graduation requirements.  read more »

The incoming chancellor of Pennsylvania’s 14 state-owned universities will be paid almost as much as the chief executive he will replace under a contract with the State System of Higher Education.  read more »

Penn State University has decided to directly provide federal student loans, following dozens of other colleges nationwide seeking to protect their loan programs from recent market upheaval.

Penn State’s move means the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, which traditionally awards student loans, will lose up to 8 percent of its business in the state, or about 41,000 of the 500,000 loans it currently oversees.

‘‘It is significant,’‘ Keith New, PHEAA’s spokesman, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. ‘‘It certainly is a concern to us.’‘  read more »

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