Legislators are anxious to pass the K-12 budget for 2015-17; however, the proposal currently on the table is for $7.235 billion. An allocation at this level would mean a $4.5 million shortfall in 2015-16, which is the equivalent of cutting nine instructional days or 55 teachers or 114 support staff. The state's revenue has increased 9.5% since the 2013-15 biennium. If K-12 received a 9.5% increase and enough money to fund full-day kindergarten, that would equate to a K-12 allocation of $7.5 billion, which would be enough to allow districts across the state to maintain their current service level. Patrons are asked to write to their elected officials now and urge support of a K-12 budget of $7.5 billion or higher. Click here to read Superintendent Scott's complete article, and click here to go to our Budget Matters webpage for more information.

High School English teachers or anyone who would like to cover the topic of copyright and fair use, might want to have students try their hand at the fair use quiz created by MIT Libraries. This quiz is great for a classroom discussion or even to test your own understanding of how to make fair decisions and when one can legally ignore copyright.