Latest news with #EFA
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Educational Freedom Accounts now universal in New Hampshire in new law
Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed a bill into law Tuesday that makes so-called "school choice" universal in New Hampshire. SB 295 makes the school voucher program known as Education Freedom Accounts universal in New Hampshire by eliminating the household income limit of 350% of the federal poverty guidelines for all students. This means that all families regardless of income level will have the potential to access the program that allows families to use annual state education funds for private and homeschooling expenses. This bill establishes universal eligibility as soon as July 2025. It includes a 10,000-student cap on the program for the 2025-2026 school year, which would double the program that currently contains 5,321 students. For each subsequent year, the cap would be increased by 25% if total enrollment of the prior year is greater than 90% of the that year's enrollment cap. Ayotte had called for an expansion of the EFA program, but this bill goes further than what she had outlined. Ayotte's plan called for removing income limits for students who had attended public schools for at least a year, but to keep the 350% income cap (about 112,000 for a family of four) on students who have already been homeschooled or were already enrolled in a private school. Ayotte signed the expanded bill into law Tuesday. 'Giving parents the freedom to choose the education setting that best fits their child's needs will help every student in our state reach their full potential," she said in a statement. More: Open enrollment will hurt NH public school students: Seacoast superintendents speak out Republicans have been attempting to expand the EFA program for the past few years, arguing that families should be able to choose the best school for their children. 'With the passage of this bill, we are now able to deliver universal school choice for all New Hampshire families,' said Sen. Victoria Sullivan, R-Manchester, who sponsored the bill, in a statement. 'These changes will give families more options that will help New Hampshire's future leaders flourish in school environments that best suit them.' But Democrats have long fought against the program, saying that it will cost the state too much money, hurt public schools that are already underfunded and benefit already wealthy families. 'Get out your wallets folks. Wealthy people want subsidies from taxpayers like you to send their kids to private schools,' said Rep. David Meuse, D-Portsmouth, adding that the law is expected to 'increase the state's obligation to pony up your tax dollars for the GOP school voucher scam by tens of millions of dollars over the next biennium while many state services will be cut due to declining state revenues.' Teachers' unions in the state are also against the program. In a statement released after the signing, the largest teachers' union in the state, NEA-NH, said that the law will hurt public schools. 'All students deserve a high-quality education and the support they need to thrive. Unfortunately, expanding the unaccountable voucher scheme will exacerbate the already inequitable public education funding system in New Hampshire,' said NEA-NH President Megan Tuttle. 'Limitless vouchers will take millions of dollars out of public schools to subsidize private school education for a few at the expense of nearly 90% of students who attend community public schools.' NH Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut has long supported the program. His seven children were homeschooled. "New Hampshire's Education Freedom Account program has already transformed lives by giving families access to the educational pathways that best fit their children's needs," he said in a statement. "Expanding this opportunity through universal eligibility is a bold and forward-thinking move that reimagines what education can be, providing every student with the opportunity to reach their full potential and experience a bright future." This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: 'School choice' now universal in NH after governor signs bill into law
Al-Ahram Weekly
6 days ago
- Sport
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Ahly, Pyramids FC play in Champions League, Zamalek, Masry in Confederation Cup: EFA to CAF - Egyptian Football
The Egyptian Football Association (EFA) announced on Sunday that they informed the Confederation of African football (CAF) with the names of the Egyptian Clubs that will participate in the major continental tournaments next season. According to an EFA statement, Ahly and Pyramids FC would participate in the CAF Champions League as the holders and runners-up of the Egyptian Premier League 2024/2025 season, respectively. Meanwhile, Zamalek and Masry will play in the CAF Confederation Cup. The White Knights are Egypt Cup winners, while the Port Said-based club ended the league competition in fourth place. The new season of the Champions League and the Confederation Cup will kick off next September. Pyramids FC recently won the Champions League title after beating South Africa's Mamelodi Sundowns in the final. Meanwhile, the 12-time African Champions Ahly were eliminated from the semi-final. On the other hand, Zamalek was eliminated from the quarter-final of the Confederation Cup last season, while Masry also said goodbye in the same round. (For more sports news and updates, follow Ahram Online Sports on Twitter at @AO_Sports and on Facebook at AhramOnlineSports.) Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
See - Sada Elbalad
6 days ago
- Sport
- See - Sada Elbalad
Official: Al-Ahly and Pyramids FC in the Champions League
Amir Haggag The Egyptian Football Association (EFA) notified the Confederation of African Football (CAF) of the participation of Al-Ahly and Pyramids FC in the new edition of the CAF Champions League, as the first and second placed teams in the Egyptian Premier League competition last season (2024-25). Zamalek, the Egypt Cup champion, and Al-Masry, the fourth-placed team in the league table, will also participate in the CAF Confederation Cup. The Egyptian Professional Clubs Association set August 8 as the start date for the new 2025-26 Premier League season, following its recent meeting with the EFA and the heads of the Premier League clubs, and after agreement with the EFA and Hossam Hassan, the national team coach. The Egyptian Football Association announced the end of the Egyptian Premier League in May 2026. This is the second consecutive season in which the association has fulfilled its pledge to finish the competition in line with the schedules of the major European leagues, following years of confusion and postponements that disrupted the league's schedule. The league's start date, set for August 8th instead of the 15th, was brought forward so that players can play three or four rounds with their clubs before the national team's training camp in September to resume its 2026 World Cup qualifiers. The league also aims to end the competition well before the World Cup, allowing the national team to set up its training camp in preparation for the tournament in a timely manner. This comes as part of the Egyptian Football Association and the association's efforts to provide the national team with every means of comfort and success. The new season will see the participation of 21 teams, following the decision to abolish relegation last season. The league will be held in a two-stage format, with the first stage being played in a single-round league format. The teams will then be divided into two groups: a crowning group, which includes the teams competing for the title and continental championship qualifying spots, and a relegation group, which will compete to remain in the league. read more Gold prices rise, 21 Karat at EGP 3685 NATO's Role in Israeli-Palestinian Conflict US Expresses 'Strong Opposition' to New Turkish Military Operation in Syria Shoukry Meets Director-General of FAO Lavrov: confrontation bet. nuclear powers must be avoided News Iran Summons French Ambassador over Foreign Minister Remarks News Aboul Gheit Condemns Israeli Escalation in West Bank News Greek PM: Athens Plays Key Role in Improving Energy Security in Region News One Person Injured in Explosion at Ukrainian Embassy in Madrid News China Launches Largest Ever Aircraft Carrier Sports Former Al Zamalek Player Ibrahim Shika Passes away after Long Battle with Cancer Lifestyle Get to Know 2025 Eid Al Adha Prayer Times in Egypt Business Fear & Greed Index Plummets to Lowest Level Ever Recorded amid Global Trade War Arts & Culture Zahi Hawass: Claims of Columns Beneath the Pyramid of Khafre Are Lies News Flights suspended at Port Sudan Airport after Drone Attacks Videos & Features Video: Trending Lifestyle TikToker Valeria Márquez Shot Dead during Live Stream News Shell Unveils Cost-Cutting, LNG Growth Plan Technology 50-Year Soviet Spacecraft 'Kosmos 482' Crashes into Indian Ocean News 3 Killed in Shooting Attack in Thailand
Gulf Today
11-06-2025
- Gulf Today
Villagers step up to halt Sierra Leone deforestation
Lucie Peytermann, Agence France-Presse Deep inside a Sierra Leone national park, a mother of seven was about to set dozens of tree trunks ablaze to make charcoal. Producing the cheap fuel in this way is illegal in the protected rainforest near the capital of a country highly vulnerable to the ravages of climate change. But Aminata Sankoh, a widow who said she had no other choice for making a living, defiantly shrugged off a stern warning from a group of villagers who monitor the forests as part of a groundbreaking grassroots initiative. "You are saying you are not affected by this deforestation, that there will be tree planting — but it will affect your own great grandchildren!" chided group leader Caesar Senesie. The extent of the deforestation in the humid tropical forest and what remains of the primary forest is clear as far as the eye can see. Some has been taken over for marijuana plantations — Sierra Leone is battling drug problems — and land grabbing is also rife to satisfy demographic pressures. Nearly a third, or 5,600 hectares (13,837 acres) of the forest within the Western Area Peninsula National Park has been lost or severely degraded since 2012. Last year alone "intensive deforestation" led to the loss of 715 hectares, or the equivalent of 1,330 football pitches, according to the World Food Programme. UNESCO says the area is home to between 80 and 90 per cent of Sierra Leone's biodiversity. But charcoal is the only way for many Sierra Leoneans to cook in the face of power cuts and soaring energy prices. Finding the illicit charcoal producing sites means venturing deep into the forest by road and on foot, but an AFP team managed to visit the area. Groups of men fended off exhaustion as they carried out backbreaking work in stifling 35-degree Celsius (95-Fahrenheit) heat, stacking up tree trunks covered with stones. Near Sankoh, the widowed mother, a mound several metres wide began to smoke. The worn-out 45-year-old said her husband died four years ago and to feed her children and pay for their schooling, she took a job breaking stones on construction sites. But two years ago, she made a decision. "I used to break stone... but I am not doing it any longer because I was struggling a lot. So I decided to come to the forest and do charcoal burning," she said. Faced with the failures in protecting the forest as well as land seizures, units comprising 40 villagers have been set up. "Even at night, when we have a fire break out, I call my guys, we move straight away," Senesie, the group leader, said. "We, the community, are the solution to protect the forest," he added. Funded by the Global Environment Facility, the initiative was launched by the Environmental Foundation for Africa (EFA) NGO, with support from the government and the United Nations Development Programme. People carry out illegal activities in the national park "because they can and believe that they will get away with it every time", Tommy Garnett, EFA founder and executive director, said. He blamed poverty, ignorance and greed for driving the deforestation. "This situation is destroying our natural heritage at an alarming rate," warned Garnett, who for 30 years has been involved in conservation projects in Sierra Leone and other west African countries. Sierra Leone is the 11th most vulnerable nation to the impact of climate change out of 191 countries ranked by the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative. Faced with the inefficiency and the alleged corruption of some forest rangers — who, under-equipped and underpaid, sometimes turn a blind eye — campaigners are banking on involving the worst hit local communities. Garnett said that paying villagers an incentive of $60 a month to make daily patrols and collect evidence had shed more light on what was happening in the forest than a decade of official patrols. EFA has replanted 103,000 trees in the past year, with the goal of an additional 500,000 by 2028. A few kilometres (miles) away, another unit of villagers from the "Mile 13" settlement were doing their bit under Sulaiman Barrie, who angrily complained of recent forest fires in the vicinity. "This was never the Sierra Leone we knew... This was never the Mile 13 I knew when I was just a boy," an emotional and exhausted Barrie said, smoke from the fires still rising above the mountains behind him. "We are standing now in a protected area... where we have all sorts of animals," he said. The community must "step up and protect the forest", he insisted. The government has also taken steps, Tamba Dauda, director of surveys within the lands, housing and country planning ministry, said. "We are quite aware of the massive deforestation that is ongoing," he said, highlighting the establishment of a land and environmental crime unit within the police to pursue perpetrators. Despite such efforts, Joseph Rahall, founder of the NGO Green Scenery, warned that the forest's very survival was at stake. "We are beyond the emergency level," he said. "If we don't manage the Western Area Peninsula very well, in 10 to 15 years there will be no forest."
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
New Hampshire establishes Parental Bill of Rights, universal school vouchers
CONCORD, N.H. – New Hampshire's governor Kelly Ayotte signed two bills Tuesday to give parents more control over their children's education. House Bill 10, which cites the 'fundamental liberty' parents have to take care of their children, creates a 'Parental Bill of Rights'. It allows parents to opt their children out of health or sex education, and to exempt them from vaccinations for religious reasons. NH House passes bill to ban cell phones in schools The bill also allows parents to view their children's records and any educational material being taught to them, along with affirming the right of parents to choose to enroll their children in private, religious, or home schooling. Senate Bill 295 revises the requirements for school vouchers in the state. The state's Education Freedom Account (EFA) program offers grants to families who are home-schooling or enrolling their children in private school. Previously, these grants were only available to families with an income of less than 350 percent of the federal poverty level, or $112,525 a year for a family of 4 as of this year. SB 295 removes this limit so that families of all events are able to apply for the grant. Hassan, Noem lock horns over habeas corpus Each bill passed in a near-party line vote. Democrats in New Hampshire's legislature were unanimous in their opposition to SB 295, with the House Democratic Office calling the bill a handout for millionaires that will cost the state over $50 million dollars. But New Hampshire education commissioner Frank Edelblut said the EFA program 'has already transformed lives by giving families access to the educational pathways that best fit their children's needs'. HB 10 also prompted criticism from House Democrats, who warned that the bill could make it harder to protect vulnerable children, while Ayotte said she was proud to sign the bill, saying it ensured 'parents are the central voice in their children's education.' New Hampshire bakery wins free speech case over a painting of doughnuts, pastries The parental bill of rights will take effect July 1, and the changes to the EFA program will be effective August 9. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
