A study says total teacher pay is adequate to hire and retain a workforce, but those in rural areas say that there isn't enough incentive to draw teachers away from urban areas.

The state Board of Education has voted for what may be the nation's toughest rules against using tribes and native Americans as mascots.

Expessing concerns over costs and effectiveness, parents purposefully keep their students from taking state exams. All the students will get zeroes for their grade, and as a result the school could lose federal funds and will be scrutinized for low test scores.

The Bellevue Patch reports, "Three of four of Bellevue's comprehensive high schools, including Bellevue, Newport and Interlake were ranked in the top 200 of the nation."

Experimental schools in British Columbia are trying out the year-round school model, but critics say it's not a viable option for poorer communities.

Pamela Samuelson writes, "Ideally, a digital library would provide access not only to books free from copyright constraints (those published before 1923), but also to the tens of millions of books that are still in copyright but no longer in print."  

$700 million of that would be for construction and improvements, while the special levy of $500 million would be a record.