BOSTON – In the latest chapter of an ongoing debate around the number of Massachusetts students waiting for charter school seats, Auditor Suzanne Bump on Friday released an analysis finding that an updated waitlist could still lack accuracy.
On Feb. 18, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education announced that 34,000 children were on waitlists for seats in charter schools across the state, an update to an initial report indicating a 37,000-name list.
WASHINGTON – A serving U.S. Army officer who went to court to keep his beard for religious reasons notched a significant victory Thursday, when a federal judge blocked special tests for the decorated veteran while the case is pending.
Federal District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington ruled that the Defense Department can't impose "any non-standard or discriminatory testing" on Capt. Simratpal Singh, who had faced what he called "discriminatory" tests to determine whether his beard or a turban he wears would interfere with a gas mask or helmet. Singh is a devout Sikh, a South Asian religion whose adherents sometimes wear beards and turbans in keeping with its core tenets.
