Louisiana is examining an education reform package being advanced by Governor Bobby Jindhal that would tie teacher job security to how they fared on external performance metrics. The Iowa House has passed a slate of education reforms that would require yearly evaluations for school teachers, a test for graduating high school seniors and an extraRead… Read more »
Municipal wifi networks in states across the nation are under attack as they try to move forward. A new bill in Minnesota would limit the ability of cities in the state to move forward on their own broadband networks. A Georgia bill with similar restrictions, however, has been shelved despite support from Republicans in theRead… Read more »
The National League of Cities (NLC) wraps up its annual congressional conference today after three days of meetings with municipal officials, members of congress and the President discussing issues facing cities and how to support America’s economy. NLC leaders called on the President to do more to support job growth in America. NLC leaders highlightedRead… Read more »
As the federal government pursues a ‘cloud first‘ strategy, service providers are rushing to offer government cloud solutions. However, for some providers new to the public sector, like Google, many serious questions about data security and ownership will need to be answered. CivSource spoke with Jeff Gould, CEO & Director of Research, Peerstone Research andRead… Read more »
Dell and the American Red Cross are launching a new digital operations center – the first social media based operation devoted to humanitarian relief. The Red Cross is also recruiting digital volunteers to help respond to questions and provide information to the public about disasters as they happen. The center is modeled after Dell’s SocialRead… Read more »
Republican lawmakers in the Minnesota statehouse are proposing a new alternative to health insurance exchanges – personal savings accounts. They call the plan a free-market alternative to proposals from Democratic Governor Mark Dayton and federal health care reform requirements. Under the terms of a newly proposed bill, individuals would have access to personal health premiumRead… Read more »
CoreLink Data Centers has announced a significant increase in its Health IT portfolio with the addition of HealthCare Strategies (HCS) to its client roster. HCS provides clinical data-based analytics, and predictive modeling for health care. CoreLink has a significant healthcare IT industry presence. According to HCS the company was chosen for this background as GovernmentRead… Read more »
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada is launching a new open data project focused on its justice system. The provincial government has created an online portal called Justice BC, which provides several new data sets about criminal proceedings and justice reform. Government officials hope to spark broader citizen engagement and raise awareness about the current challenges justiceRead… Read more »
The Oklahoma state legislature is looking at a measure that would apply the Open Records Act to the statehouse. Oklahoma is one of only five states left that do not subject their state legislature to open records laws. Under the terms of the proposed bill, members of the public would be allowed to request recordsRead… Read more »
Lawmakers are examining changes to the education system in Iowa. Yesterday the state joined a group of states seeking waivers from the federal government to opt out of some of the requirements imposed by the No Child Left Behind Act. Teacher evaluations have also been scrapped from the Governor’s education plan and replaced with evaluationsRead… Read more »