| Text of Napolitano address
There was no plan to give Arizona's children the early start they need and deserve. Teacher pay was lagging, and we weren't doing what was necessary to support our new teachers and keep our best educators in the classroom. Phoenix was the largest city in the nation without a university-based medical school and our state was not graduating enough students with college degrees to keep up with our growth.Fast-forward to today. We've created a new grade level by making full-day kindergarten available to every Arizona family. We've made historic investments in early childhood education and in teacher pay. We've broken ground on an all-new medical campus, tripled our contribution to student financial aid, and built up our universities.This is progress, and it is precisely where we needed to go.Now, we must move quickly this year to implement the voter-approved initiative aimed at early childhood.
Schools unhurt by admissions change
Four prominent universities that ditched their early admissions programs have answered questions about whether the move would hurt their popularity. That answer is no. All are reporting record applications this year. Harvard, Princeton and the University of Virginia attracted widespread attention with announcements in 2006 that they would stop holding a separate, early round of admissions in the fall. They argued the practice contributes to anxiety and disadvantages students who need financial aid. This year, they began considering all applicants in a single pool with a January deadline. The University of Florida later made a similar announcement and moved to a single deadline of Nov. 1. Most selective schools kept some form of early admissions. Now, the results are in.
Harmony may be shut down
Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann filed a lawsuit Friday seeking to shut down Harmony Community School, a charter school in Roselawn. Dann's suit claimed that the school has a record of academic failure, financial mismanagement, ethical lapses and consumer fraud. "Harmony has failed to accomplish its primary charitable purpose - educating students - despite receiving $31.9 million in taxpayers' money since 1998," Dann said during a news conference after personally filing the lawsuit in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court. .
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