Sign Up For Our Newsletter

Education news for Wednesday, June 14

LA Unified to lose millions from drop in enrollment – Enrollment in city schools will continue to drop by thousands of students next year, Los Angeles education officials said Tuesday, and the decline is expected to cost the Los Angeles Unified School District tens of millions of dollars in state funding. (more)

Rudy goes nuclear – A small gathering in Mid town yesterday got a sneak peek at Rudy Giuliani’s formula as he gears up for a likely 2008 presidential run. (more)

AP: Agency to examine NCLB loophole – Under pressure from lawmakers, the Bush administration outlined plans Tuesday to examine why some states are excluding huge numbers of children when reporting test scores under the No Child Left Behind Act. (more)

SC education race seen as referendum on school choice – State Education Superintendent candidate Karen Floyd received key endorsements from Gov. Mark Sanford and South Carolina’s two U.S. senators but had trouble getting past the 50 percent mark in the five-way Republican primary Tuesday. (more)

Check back later for more education news.

UPDATE:

Education schools to be graded – The Michigan Board of Education unanimously approved a measure Tuesday that will grade the state’s college and university schools of education by issuing annual report cards — part of a series of changes backers hope will ensure high-quality teachers in every classroom. (more)

NY mayor to give more control to public schools – Partly because these schools would largely operate independent of the centralized school bureaucracy, officials said the city would be able to cut a net sum of roughly 210 administrative jobs and pass on some $80 million in savings to the participating schools and related programs. (more)

Glitch in ohio school program; some in need don’t qualify for vouchers – Vouchers are off limits to hundreds of other children because state law says students seeking vouchers are eligible only if they are enrolled in and actually attended a school rated "academic watch." (more)

Sanford may face long road ahead – Gov. Mark Sanford defeated challenger Oscar Lovelace in Tuesday’s Republican primary for governor, but his margin of victory foreshadows what could be a difficult race for Sanford in this fall’s general election. (more)

Staton concedes education race to Floyd – Staton, a Columbia businessman who has been active in public school accountability efforts, got 35 percent of the vote, or about 40,000 less than Floyd, on Tuesday. (more) 

NY union to pay after inquiry into ING– The attorney general’s investigation found that that the union and ING made efforts to hide their close relationship from teachers who were being pushed toward ING’s retirement products, which often had high fees. (more)

Millions in charter school grants announced – Three organizations-the KIPP Foundation, the Charter School Development Corporation, and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation-will receive a total of $21.6 million for three grants through the Charter Schools Facilities Grants program, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced. (more)

Southern Baptists won’t back public school pullout – Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention refused Wednesday to support a resolution urging the denomination to form a strategy for removing children from public schools in favor of home schooling or education at private schools. (more)

New Orleans charter schools await one last OK – Wrapping up its first major phase of selecting new operators for struggling New Orleans public schools, the state is poised this week to approve the opening of four more charter schools for next school year. (more) 

AZ veto ends parents’ school wish – Gov. Janet Napolitano rejected Senate Bill 1040, which would have paved the way for this small group of parents to send their children to their district of choice, the Cave Creek Unified School District. (more)

Find ways to get top teachers in underperforming schools – It doesn’t take an expert to figure out that the level of success students attain is related to the quality of their teachers. (more)