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Education News for Tuesday, May 16

Teachers’ Union urges voters to pass school budgets – The New York State United Teachers Union has launched a million dollar ad campaign asking voters in nearly 700 school districts to pass the budgets for education spending. (more)

Spellings: Encourage Girls in Science Ed – Low participation in math and science activities by girls is keeping them from achieving their full potential and weakening the nation’s ability to compete, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said Monday.  (more) 

U.S. Asks Panel to Add It Up – Seventeen mathematicians, cognitive scientists, and math educators were named today to a presidentially appointed panel that, in the words of Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, is supposed to tell U.S. math teachers "what’s most effective in the classroom." (more)

Texas legislature passes school finance measure – Texas lawmakers reached the top of a mountain they’ve been climbing for more than three years Monday, handing Gov. Rick Perry a plan that will change the state’s school finance system and, they hope, resolve the lawsuit that hundreds of school districts brought against the state. (more)

US divided about educational outsourcing – Welcome to the latest trend in the world of outsourcing. With the students in the US increasingly relying on overseas tutors, online tutoring has become the newest industry to be outsourced to other countries. (more) 

Teachers union president faces 3 rivals – Baltimore Teachers Union President Marietta English is facing three challengers as she asks teachers to elect her to another term. (more) 

How Sanford’s vision of ‘choice’ can fit with tax reform, school progress – South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford talks the loudest about private school choice. But he also supports public school choice — charter schools, magnet schools, open enrollment within and even between districts. (more) 

Schwarzenegger, Villaraigosa Forge an Unlikely Partnership – The two California politicians find common ground in a mutually beneficial relationship that could pay off at the polls. (more) 

Graduating Ahead of the Class – Teen will get college degree, and then finish high school. (more) 

Energizing engineers – High schools try to interest more kids in a lucrative field that badly needs fresh talent. (more) 

Some districts add School Choice seats – A handful of school districts near Springfield, Massachusetts have decided to increase the number of School Choice seats they will offer next year. (more) 

It’s like Christmas for critics of public schools – Opinion: Three news events from the last week have highlighted the insane way that Californians are attempting to improve the state’s public school system. (more) 

Check back later for more education news.   

UPDATE:

NH: Pass HB 76, open escape valves – The entire Manchester school district has been designated In Need of Improvement, and this spring school administrators said they expect that the district will not make AYP again next year. (more)

In Portland, school choice foes, fans set to spar again – Just as Portland Public Schools wraps up months of debate about school closures and reconfigurations, a new debate is just beginning. (more)

Sanford’s vision of choice – If you ever got to a point where you were funding kids and you put the money in the kid, it would lead to complete portability, which is something I’m after, and it would lead to equity, which is something y’all are after… (more)

FL: Teachers union is for Smith and Davis – Underscoring the competitive nature of their rivalry, Jim Davis and Rod Smith ended up Friday with a dual endorsement from the state’s teachers’ union in their Democratic campaigns for governor. (more)

UPDATE:

Ed Week commentary: Redefining ‘rigor’ for a new century – (subscription required) One of the hottest topics in education is high school reform. Public- and private-sector initiatives to redesign high schools, strengthen the curriculum, and improve results for students abound. (more)

DC eyes plan for shared space – Ed Week (subscription required) Under the plan, a charter school in the Knowledge Is Power Program, or KIPP, network would open this coming fall in the building now occupied by Washington’s Scott Montgomery Elementary School. (more)

AZ AIMS test survives challenge for now – A judge on Monday declined to suspend the AIMS exit exam as a graduation requirement for this year’s high school seniors. (more)

Alan Bonsteel: Schools failed the exit exam – We are nearing a day of reckoning for California’s failed public schools. The day is fast coming when a quality education in a school freely chosen by the family is considered not a privilege, but rather, a fundamental human right. (more)