The Center for Effective Discipline congratulates Governor Ted Strickland for making Ohio the 30th state to ban school corporal punishment. Yesterday the Governor signed HB 1, the biennial budget bill containing a ban on corporal punishment. The corporal punishment ban was proposed by the Governor.

As someone whose wife is saddled with huge amount of student loans for her Psy.D. degree, a new program that's starting this week may be good news. Perhaps it may not be as good as it seems to. The new Federal student loan consolidation program depends on a number of things.

Student loans are very hard to pay back in this economy. Studies show that in May 2009 15.5 percent of people age 20 to 24 are unemployed. This is the age of an average college graduate, which is very likely to have student loans to pay back. Now everyone start to remember the College Cost Reduction and Access Act.

Researchers from the University of Murcia (UM) have investigated the issue of cooperation between families and schools, and are proposing changes be made to the organisational structure of schools to allow families to take an active part in managing them and to take on joint responsibility for their educational programmes.

With the Taliban-era ban on girls from attending school still fresh in the minds of Afghans, the country's education system can already boast that nearly 40 percent of students are girls. Since the authorities opened the way for private investment into Afghanistan's education system nearly two years ago, more than 300 private schools have opened, from Kabul to remote provinces.

The President has just signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, joined by Senator Kennedy, President Bill Clinton, the Congressional leaders who supported the legislation, and countless others dedicated to passage of the bill at the SEED School, where service is a core part of the curriculum. Appropriately, the President announced a major call to service:

Barack Obama is serious about Education reform. Very serious, and much in his budget and stimulus is good for that end. It is not surprising therefore to find the powerful hand of private lenders attacking Obama's proposal to reform the student loan system.

One of the banes of the educational practices and structures of the subject matters of various scientific disciplines is that they make both knowledge and learners fragmented. The methods and structures of science and social rearing of children and technology instruction have drawn a lot of flake from well-meaning educators, social scientists and feminists.

The recent stimulus plan is making higher education more accessible.

The stimulus package winding through Congress has lots of money for education. Reports indicate that most funds would go to economically depressed districts struggling to meet desired education outcomes.

Today, President-elect Barack Obama introduced Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan as the next Secretary of Education. Across the board, Duncan is being described as someone “known for taking tough steps to improve schools while maintaining respectful relations with teachers and their unions.”