Dan Domenech at the American Association of School Administrators blogged today on the coming release of a new documentary by Davis Guggenheim that explores how far our public education system has fallen. Yet, Domenech writes, the most recent Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll found that 77 percent of parents assign a grade of A or B to the school attended by their oldest child. Meanwhile, 49 percent of parents assigned a grade of A or B to the school in their community.

It's not so much that the new $10 billion Education Jobs Fund makes any money available to school district transportation departments as much as it promises fewer further cuts or reductions to support service budgets. At least that's the hope.

With the publication of national guidelines on selecting the safest school bus stops for students, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is expected to continue rolling out new or revised training materials that are of interest to school transporters, and the long desired national release from Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood encouraging more students to ride the school bus.