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Education News for Thursday, July 13

E3 leads charge for vouchers – Excellent Education for Everyone, a small nonprofit organization, is taking credit for exposing scandals that have rocked the Camden, New Jersey school system and now plans to launch a massive battle to overhaul urban education reform. (more)

Suit to ask N.J. to ease transfers for pupils – Parents from around the state plan to file suit against New Jersey and several poor-performing school districts today for the right to let their children transfer to other schools, public or private. (more)

New Jersey Families Using State Constitution as Justification for School Vouchers – In the newest tactic of the school choice movement, a group of families in New Jersey is piggybacking on a decades-old school-funding lawsuit and using the state’s constitution as justification for school vouchers. (more)

Supporters of school vouchers filing suit – School voucher advocates plan today to file a class-action lawsuit against the state and at least two dozen school districts in the first major legal effort to bring the hotly contested use of vouchers to New Jersey.  The top teachers union calls legal action "a PR stunt". (more)

Upper Grades, Lower Reading Skills – Teaching reading has long been considered the job of primary grade teachers. But some educators are calling for more attention to be paid to the reading needs of middle and high school students, many of whom are struggling to master this critical skill. (more)

Schoolbooks Are Given F’s in Originality – Textbooks by different authors use substantially identical language to cover several subjects. (more)

Angry board spurns dropout study – City school board members angrily denounced a study that estimates 35 percent of high school students — including nearly half of all black male students — drop out of Pittsburgh Public Schools. (more)

UTLA leaders back mayor’s school reform – After hours of heated debate late Wednesday, United Teachers Los Angeles leaders voted narrowly to back Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s plan to reform Los Angeles public schools through new legislation in Sacramento. (more)

L.A Teachers Chide Union for Deal With Villaraigosa – Disgruntled members of the city’s potent teachers union called a special meeting Wednesday night, demanding union officials explain and justify the deal they struck with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to reform the Los Angeles Unified School District. (more)

Antonio’s Big Test – July is ushering in a season of creeping doubt for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and his plan for L.A. Unified, a complex bill that would give Villaraigosa veto power over the hiring and firing of the superintendent, yet preserve the elected seven-member school board — albeit with a diminished role. (more)

56 New Orleans Schools to Accept Students for New Year (Education Week registration required) – The Louisiana Department of Education has issued a list of 56 New Orleans public schools that will be accepting students for the coming school year, more than double the 25 that were opened this past year. (more)

Official touts progress of No Child Left Behind – A U.S. Department of Education official said Wednesday he’s pleased with the reaction lately to the federal No Child Left Behind Act. (more)

Getting the business – When businesses get involved in education, it improves America’s ability to innovate and stay competitive, according to U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. (more)

Check back later for more education news.   

UPDATE:

Parents sue schools to have public pay to send kids elsewhere – AP coverage of the NJ class action lawsuit. (more)

Parents sue NJ schools so students can transfer – 1010 wins: A group of New Jersey parents plan to file a lawsuit Thursday against the state and some of its low-performing school districts to allow their children to switch schools – and have the old schools pay for it. (more)

Ed Week: Choice advocates seek voucers as remedy for NJ students in low-performing schools (subscription required) – In what they are calling a national test case, voucher proponents have launched an effort to use school choice as a remedy for students in 97 New Jersey schools… (more)