Education

Corporal punishment declining in Miss. schools

A report finds Mississippi students were physically punished, typically with a wooden paddle, 39,000 times during the 2011-12 school year.

That punishment was meted in 99 of the state’s 151 school districts, according to the districts’ counts self-reported to the state Department of Education and obtained by The Clarion-Ledger through an open records request.

The numbers reflect a trend in decline. For example, in 2007-08, 58,343 instances of corporal punishment were reported, and that number has dropped almost every year. […]

Education

If ‘fiscal cliff’ talks fail, teachers’ jobs, student aid, Head Start could at risk

If budget talks fail and automatic spending cuts take hold, federal spending on education would be cut by about 8 percent across a broad range of programs, including money for special education, low-income students and schools near military bases, The Sun Herald reported.

Compounding the potential problem is that many states have been hammered by the recession and don’t have funds to cover the shortfall. The U.S. Department of Education reported that 80 percent of school districts in a recent poll said they would not have state or local funds to make up for the lost federal money. […]