PA – Hearings in the Pennsylvania State House continued on school choice through August, as leaders on both sides shared their thoughts about why the raucous debate last session should continue – and be completed – this coming session. A bill to provide choice for children in more than a hundred failing schools (not unlike Indiana, for example) and a bill to improve the state charter law by allowing for multiple authorizers are being supported by prominent R’s and D’s in the Keystone state.
NJ – The NJ Daily Record shouts out its support for kids trapped in failing schools by backing the proposed Scholarship Opportunity Act, a bill that would offer tax credits to businesses that donate money to a scholarship fund. Students in chronically failing schools can then apply for a scholarship from these funds.
FL – Next up among Governor Scott’s education priorities are strengthening charter schools and expanding school choice for Florida’s families. “We have to legislate to expand school choice and expand charter schools,” he said on Thursday. “Because parents know where their child should go to school… We just need to make sure we give them as many different environments as possible so they have as much choice as possible.”
GA — Eleven charters were finally approved by the State Board of Education after they were left in limbo following the state Supreme Court’s ruling in May but nine of them will be short of funds because they are only authorized by the state, not the local board. State Sen. Fran Millar (R) has been working on this issue, and it looks like a Charter Schools Amendment may appear on the November 2012 ballot in Georgia as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment.