Education update: G-20's youngest activist has 'no fear,' slain teen football star mourned & DeVos gets sued

Happy Thursday, education news junkies.

As Western Pennsylvania grapples with flash floods and scattered thunderstorms , the world's most powerful leaders are descending upon Hamburg, Germany for the G-20 Summit , where 19-year-old Muzoon Almellehan, a former Syrian refugee, will have a platform as the youngest ever Goodwill UNICEF Ambassador .

Her top priority: Getting across the point that "education is a right," and that "it is not enough to just offer shelter, they must also offer hope."

The teen activist told The Evening Chronicle that she has no fear about confronting the likes of Russia's Vladimir Putin or Donald Trump — who, by the way, apparently could use advice on pre-planning his hotel stays .

The Trib's daily roundup of education-related news from around the region, state and nation starts now.

LOCAL

SLAIN FOOTBALL STAR MOURNED: "He was a good athlete, a leader on the team," recalled retired longtime Woodland Hills High School football coach George Novak of Jeremiah Isaiah Jones — the 19-year-old former Woodland Hills standout quarterback found shot to death early Sunday morning. The shooting victim's two younger brothers currently play for Woodland Hills. No suspects have been named, reports the Trib's Chris Togneri .

FEWER YOUNGSTERS: The number of youths living in both Allegheny and Westmoreland counties continues to drop at a faster rate than the rest of the population, the Trib's Brian Bowling reports .

Westmoreland County had a total estimated population of 355,458 people in 2016, a 3 percent drop from 2010, census data show. The number of people between ages 5 and 17 was 54,713, nearly 5,000 fewer than in 2010.

Allegheny County's estimated population was 1.2 million people, a 0.1 percent increase from 2010, but its school-age population was 167,080, or about 10,000 fewer people than in 2010.

HAIR-CUTTING IN HIGH DEMAND: The Barber School of Pittsburgh has expanded to a third location in Monroeville, Christine Manganas reports for the Trib . The growth of the local training program — which also has sites in Pittsburgh's West End and Ambridge, Beaver County — coincides with federal labor data that shows the need for barbers, hairdressers and cosmetologists should grow by 10 percent between 2014 and 2024 — faster than the average for all occupations. Related fun fact: Pennsylvania has the fourth highest employment rate among states for barbers, behind Texas, New York and California.

INVESTING IN STEM: Franklin Regional School District officials who initially worried whether enough students would sign up for a new introductory engineering class are happy to share that interest has far exceeded their expectations, the Trib's Patrick Varine reports .

Starting this fall, 500 West Jefferson Hills students each will get a Google Chromebook, thanks to the district deciding to purchase 500 laptop computers as part of its new "one-to-one initiative," or one computer for every student in grades 5-8. The Chromebooks, which cost $349 apiece, were purchased through the district's technology budget and a state-issued Ready-to-Learn Block Grant, the Trib's Stephanie Hacke reports .

HARRISBURG

SUPPORT FOR PRISONERS' KIDS: More than 81,000 children have a parent who is incarcerated in Pennsylvania, making them far more likely to drop out of school, get arrested and generally have worse outcomes later in life.

A bill introduced in the state Senate would use a combination of charitable funds and a 1 percent fee on vendors with corrections contracts of $5 million or more to create a new trust fund to support children of prison inmates. The Trib's Deb Erdley details the proposed legislation , which Corrections Secretary John Wetzel said could be a "game-changer for the many children with parents in Pennsylvania prisons."

WAITING ON A REVENUE PLAN: Most state lawmakers were told to stay away from Harrisburg at least through Thursday while legislative leaders negotiate how to pay for Pennsylvania's $32 billion 2017-18 spending plan approved last week. Among contenders for plugging the state's $2.2 billion revenue gap : expanding casino-style gambling, enacting new taxes and license fees and borrowing against future revenues. Legislators have until Monday to come up with a plan before the budget becomes law.

In the meantime, find out how much your local county or school district stands to get from the 2017-18 state budget via PennLive's searchable database .

NATIONAL

DEVOS GETS SUED: The attorneys general of 18 states — including Pennsylvania — and the District of Columbia are suing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos over her announcement last week she would suspend rules developed under the Obama administration aimed at holding for-profit colleges to higher standards and thwarting financial fraud, the Associated Press reports . DeVos has said she wants to protect students but slammed the rules as written to be "a muddled process that's unfair to students and schools."

The Trib's Debra Erdley caught up with Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who lamented that safeguards to protect for-profit college students are "being abandoned by the very federal agency that should be enforcing them."

CAMPUS SECURITY: U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, has joined fellow Democrat Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri in slamming changes by the Trump administration they argue will hamper efforts at reducing and responding to sexual assaults on college campuses.

The pair argue the policy shift of the Education Department's Office of Civil Rights — first made public by ProPublica — "fails to protect all students," the Times Union reports .

EXTRA CREDIT

SUPERSIZE MY DIPLOMA: McDonalds has bankrolled the cost of obtaining a high school diploma for 900 employees who did not graduate high school, as part of a benefits program begun two years ago, reports Amanda Eisenberg of Employee Benefit News .

The online program — which results in a diploma, not a GED — costs about $1,295 per student and is fully covered by McDonalds.

McDonalds officials say the extended education benefits aim to empower employees and help them shed the stigma of a dropout while simultaneously increasing retention and cultivating a stronger internal pipeline of management-track workers. Walmart and Hilton Hotels appear to be following suit with similar offerings.

GOT TIPS?

Questions? Story ideas? Send them to: schooltips@tribweb.com.

To reach me, TribLIVE reporter Natasha Lindstrom: call 412-380-8514 or find me on Twitter @NewsNatasha.