Education News

MPR News keeps track of the latest education news in Minnesota so you can understand the events shaping the future of learning and how it impacts students at any level.

Stay informed about local education events, policies and more happening in schools and colleges across Minnesota.

Two Minnesota lawmakers want better reporting of study abroad dangers
Parents send their children off to increasingly popular study abroad programs, but they often don’t think about the potential for danger. A Minnesota foundation for study-abroad safety estimates more than 400 American students — mostly college students — have died on such programs over the past 15 years in cases such as drownings, hiking accidents Read more →
Is Macalester College obsessed with squirrels?
Macalester College has made The Huffington Post‘s list of “Colleges Most Obsessed With Squirrels.” Wow, OK. I’m not sure what to say. But the Post does. Here it quotes from a college-related blog: Students have had squirrels jump on their feet, seen the critters refuse to move away from them and display “big and bold personalities.” Some Read more →
Black Enrollment Falls as Michigan Rejects Affirmative Action Three years after the court allowed race-based admissions, Michigan voters blocked them at state schools through a ballot initiative. The result is fewer black students crisscrossing the Diag, the wide space that cuts through the heart of the university’s Ann Arbor campus. Black enrollment is down about 30 Read more →
The NCAA will gradually restore the football scholarships the school lost in the aftermath of the child sex abuse scandal involving former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.
How some Tommies reacted to their prez’s remarks about homosexuality
Alfonso Wenker, a University of St. Thomas alumnus who founded the Minnesota Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Ally Campus Alliance tells the Pioneer Press about campus reaction to President Julie Sullivan’s convocation remarks supporting inclusiveness of homosexuals: “It was a pretty pointed statement. It’s no secret that St. Thomas has climate issues for gay students and Read more →
St. Cloud State building rare 24-hour all-Huskies sports channel
Joel Larsen, interim assistant athletic director for marketing and promotion for St. Cloud State University, tells the St. Cloud Times about the university’s plans to use $4.8 million to create a 24-hour sports channel:  “This is a platform that not even the University of Minnesota has. This a television channel that anybody that gets Charter Read more →
The Minneapolis teachers union has requested that mediators allow private contract talks with the district. The teacher's current contract expired months ago and negotiations have been going on summer early June.
Why UW-Madison has more cool-nerd points than the U of Minnesota
It’s Tuesday, it’s off season, and we just need our Game of Thrones fix. I also wish I’d heard university carillonneur Lyle Anderson‘s version of Star Wars and Harry Potter. (h/t blaster.com)
Anti-NRA tweet leads to University of Kansas professor’s administrative leave After the Washington Navy Yards shooting, tenured associate professor David Guth lashed out, and then felt the backlash of the university, which rapidly distanced itself from his views. (New York Daily News via Education Dive) One less way to pay for college The prepaid college savings plan that Read more →
The union asked the Bureau of Mediation Services to close the negotiations to the public last week, although the district received formal notice of the request today.