In brief: Education chief backs standards
RALEIGH, N.C. – U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is offering federal cash incentives to achieve one of his priorities: developing national standards for reading and math to replace a current hodgepodge of benchmarks in the states.
Duncan said Sunday that the efforts of 46 states to develop common, internationally measured standards for student achievement would be bolstered by up to $350 million in federal funds to help them develop tests to assess those standards.
Education decisions generally are controlled by the states, and the federal government cannot mandate national standards. That makes for wide variation from state to state. Students and schools deemed failing in one state might get passing grades in another.
It will be up to states to adopt the new standards. But Duncan has been using his bully pulpit to push the effort – and now he’s using Washington’s checkbook, too. He said spending up to $350 million to support state efforts to craft assessments would be Washington’s largest-ever investment in encouraging a set of common standards.
NASA fixing leak on shuttle tank
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA is repairing a leaky hydrogen gas line on Endeavour’s fuel tank in hopes of launching the shuttle on its space station construction mission Wednesday, four days after the first try was called off.
But another NASA mission, involving a pair of science spacecraft bound for the moon, is scheduled to blast off Wednesday. Top space agency officials will decide today whether to bump the moon mission to make way for Endeavour.
Mission management team chairman LeRoy Cain said it’s likely Endeavour will go first – if the repair effort goes well, no other shuttle problems crop up and the weather cooperates.
Hydrogen gas began leaking from a vent line hookup on Endeavour’s external tank during fueling early Saturday, and the countdown was halted just hours before the scheduled morning liftoff.
Church land fight faces deadline
SALT LAKE CITY – Despite some 40 hours of negotiations, it’s unlikely a settlement can be reached today in a dispute over a property trust once run by polygamous church leader Warren Jeffs, Utah’s attorney general said.
The $114 million United Effort Plan Trust is an arm of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It holds most of the land and homes in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., as well as a church enclave in Bountiful, B.C.
The Utah courts took control of the trust in 2005 after allegations of mismanagement by Jeffs, who was on the run from criminal charges in Utah and Arizona.
The FLDS has been negotiating a settlement with the attorneys general of Utah and Arizona and with a court-appointed accountant to regain control of the trust. A proposed settlement is due today to 3rd District Judge Denise Lindberg.
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said Friday his office and attorneys for the FLDS were close to a deal that would return control of most of the trust’s holdings back to the church.