Daily Headlines for June 18, 2012
Mayors Back Parents Seizing Control of Schools
Reuters, June 18, 2012
Hundreds of mayors from across the United States this weekend called for new laws letting parents seize control of low-performing public schools and fire the teachers, oust the administrators or turn the schools over to private management.
For Charter Schools, Mixed Results At 20-Year Mark
Minnesota Public Radio, MN, June 18, 2012
This week, charter school officials will gather in Minneapolis to share notes and discuss the progress of the national charter school movement, which marks its 20th anniversary this year. The first charter school in the country, City Academy in St. Paul , opened in 1992 and is still in operation today.
Obama Proposal To Raise Dropout Age Falls Flat
Associated Press, June 17, 2012
President Barack Obama’s call for states to raise the minimum age at which students can drop out of high school seems about as popular as a homework assignment on Friday afternoon.
Better Schools, Fewer Dollars
Wall Street Journal, June 15, 2012
In reality, that task is far from impossible. The story of American education over the last three decades is one not of insufficient funds but of inefficient schools. Billions of new dollars have gone into the system, to little effect.
Taking Charter Schools Into Next Chapter
Star Tribune, MN, June 17, 2012
This week the nation’s public charter school community has come to Minnesota — 4,000 strong — to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the birth of the public charter school movement.
FROM THE STATES
ALASKA
State of Alaska Sets New Education Standards
Fairbanks News Miner, AK, June 17, 2012
Alaska’s Board of Education and Early Development adopted new standards in language arts and mathematics to be put to use in classrooms across the state.
ARIZONA
Arizona Continues Leadership In School Choice
Arizona Star, AZ, June 17, 2012
As a pioneer and staunch supporter of school choice in Arizona, I am gratified to see how far we have come over the last two decades.
CALIFORNIA
Scandal Over Testing Shows The Need For School Choice
Sacramento Bee, CA, June 17, 2012
California leads the nation having the most charter schools, but it is time now for our Golden State to go far beyond that accomplishment, and pass a statewide voucher program, as have Indiana and Louisiana .
Teacher Evaluation Plan a Test for LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy
Daily Breeze, CA, June 17, 2012
Armed with a court order mandating the use of student test scores in teacher evaluations, Los Angeles Unified Superintendent John Deasy now faces the tough job of selling his achievement-based review system to the district’s teachers, union leaders and even its school board members.
Newton: A.J. Duffy in Exile
Los Angeles Times, CA, June 18, 2012
A.J. Duffy is, at least for the moment, a man without a country.
He led United Teachers Los Angeles, the union that represents teachers in the nation’s second-largest school district, for six bruising years, tussling with the mayor and several superintendents and racking up critics
Los Angeles Teachers Vote To Take Pay Cut, Shorten School Year
Los Angeles Times, CA, June 18, 2012
United Teachers Los Angeles members OK a one-year contract under which they would lose up to 10 days of pay and the school year could get five days shorter in exchange for saving more than 4,000 jobs.
COLORADO
‘A New Day And A New Chapter’
Pueblo Chieftain, CO, June 17, 2012
The new director of Cesar Chavez Academy and Dolores Huerta Preparatory High is ready to take the charter schools to new heights.
FLORIDA
Life Force Charter School In Dunedin Closed Now, But How Did It Get So Bad?
Tampa Bay Times, FL, June 17, 2012
It was one of the most egregious cases of mismanagement in Florida charter school history: a public elementary school that enriched its administrators, impoverished its teachers, failed its students and collapsed in disgrace.
GEORGIA
Poor Schools Still Get The Short End
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, GA, June 17, 2012
Legislators this year thought they had fixed a $436 million grant program intended to raise up the state’s poorest school districts, but you can’t convince folks in rural Calhoun County that they succeeded.
ILLINOIS
Few Hillsborough Teachers To Be Fired Under Gates Evaluation System
Tampa Bay Tribune, IL, June 17, 2012
It was to be a carrot-and-stick approach: Great teachers would be rewarded for their greatness. And those who could not or would not measure up? They’d be asked to find another line of work.
Education Reform Groups Work with Parents
Chicago Tribune, IL, June 16, 2012
After using radio ads and petitions to build support for their agenda, education reform groups are now using “parent training” workshops in an effort to create community cohesion behind their efforts.
School Reform Group Pushing For More Charter Schools
CBS Chicago, IL, June 17, 2012
While much of the talk about Chicago schools revolves around a potential teachers strike, one education reform group kicked off the summer this weekend with a push for more charter schools.
LOUISIANA
Voucher Program Lawsuits Grow
Monroe News Star, LA, June 18, 2012
One teacher union already has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s statewide private school voucher program, another teacher group’s lawsuit is being polished before being filed and school boards are considering filing a third lawsuit in the next few weeks.
Show Us Vouchers Are About Helping Louisiana Students
Shreveport Times, LA, June 17, 2012
A decade ago, the sweeping school voucher program pushed by Gov. Bobby Jindal and enacted by the Legislature this session, would have been unthinkable.
State Embraces Vouchers
Monroe News Star, LA, June 17, 2012
The common theme among state laws to improve public education nationwide comes down to one word: choice.
MARYLAND
The Problem With Charter Schools
Baltimore Sun, MD, June 17, 2012
Erica Green’s article, “City school board gives approval to two new charter schools,” (June 14) would, at first glance, appear to report good news. Under careful scrutiny, two good proposals for ways to educate our kids were granted charters. How can you not be supportive of that?
MICHIGAN
Muskegon Heights Plan To Charter Schools, Cut $12-Million Deficit May Be A First
Detroit Free Press, MI, June 18, 2012
The emergency manager for Muskegon Heights Public Schools is taking an unprecedented approach to eliminate the district’s severe debt — one of the worst deficits among Michigan’s schools — by chartering the entire west Michigan district.
District Opens Programs to School of Choice
Observer & Eccentric, MI, June 17, 2012
In a move district financial officials think could bring in nearly $400,000 in new revenue next year, the Plymouth-Canton Community Schools Board of Education Tuesday approved opening four programs to students from outside the district.
MINNESOTA
A Costly Lesson On Tutoring Programs
Minneapolis Star Tribune, MN, June 16, 2012
It seemed like a reasonable thing to do at the time. As part of the 2002 No Child Left Behind federal education law, schools were required to offer tutoring services to kids from low-performing schools.
State Takeover of East St. Louis
St. Louis Post Dispatch, MO, June 17, 2012
The state of Illinois is poised to make a last-ditch effort to save the East St. Louis School District and restore educational and academic standards for its 7,100 students. Current school board members should give up the fight and let the teaching begin.
NEW JERSEY
How Democrats Are Changing Course On School Choice
Star-Ledger Blog, NJ, June 15, 2012
The issue of scholarships for urban kids to attend nonpublic schools is coming to a head in the Legislature. The governor has made the Opportunity Scholarship Act a priority.
N.J. Senate Committee To Discuss Changes To Teacher Tenure
Star-Ledger, NJ, June 18, 2012
A bill that would overhaul the state’s century-old teacher tenure law and link the job protection to annual performance evaluations for the first time will be considered today by lawmakers in the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee.
Emily Fisher Graduates Get Words of Encouragement From Founder, As School Officials Await ‘Must’ Close Resolution
Times of Trenton, NJ, June 17, 2012
Like most other high school students, members of the 2012 class of the Emily Fisher Charter School are thrilled to graduate finally, but they’re not so thrilled about being the school’s final graduates.
NEW YORK
Teacher-Score Deal Close
Wall Street Journal, June 17, 2012
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers were in the final stages of negotiating a deal Sunday to shield schoolteacher evaluations from broad public scrutiny, people familiar with the matter said.
Controversial Talks Over Teacher Evaluations On The Verge Of Crumbling
New York Daily News, NY, June 18, 2012
The controversial talks over how to restrict the release of teacher evaluations were on the verge of crumbling Sunday night, the Daily News has learned.
Integrating a School, One Child at a Time
New York Times, NY, June 16, 2012
Instead, P.S. 257, where 73 percent of the students are Hispanic, has found integration to be far more intricate. One of four Williamsburg elementary schools to win a 2010 magnet grant from the United States Education Department to spur desegregation, it has struggled to follow a federal model created decades ago while focusing on more urgent battles: for resources, students and, above all, test scores.
State: Some Teacher Eval Plans Don’t Need Union OK
Newsday, NY, June 16, 2012
The state Department of Education will allow school districts to submit written, nonelectronic teacher evaluation plans that are due July 1, without a local union leader’s signature, school officials and attorneys said Friday after receiving a letter from the department’s deputy counsel.
OHIO
Demand for Vouchers Declines in TPS District, Reversing Trend
Toledo Blade, OH, June 18, 2012
Demand for vouchers to attend private Toledo schools waned for next school year, abruptly ending a trend of rapid growth.
Failed SB 5 still a Boon For Some Schools
Columbus Dispatch, OH, June 18, 2012
Fallout from the state’s failed attempt to scale back collective-bargaining rights has helped some school districts stretch levies longer than planned, officials say.
Teacher Evaluation Rules Will Put Strain On Schools
Athens Messenger, OH, June 17, 2012
School superintendents in Athens County say new teacher evaluation requirements will take more time and put a greater burden on school staff and administrators.
PENNSYLVANIA
Schools Take New Paths To Balance Their Budgets
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, PA, June 17, 2012
As budgets continue to shrink for state-funded public schools, districts in Western Pennsylvania and across the state are taking unprecedented steps to make ends meet. Those include pay freezes or rollbacks, teacher furloughs, early retirement incentives and changes in how teacher contracts get done.
Public Schools Simply Aren’t Properly Funded
Philadelphia Inquirer, PA, June 17, 2012
A bill that would put Delaware County’s Chester Upland and three other poor school districts in Pennsylvania under state oversight is a Band-Aid that won’t cure the larger problem of inadequate state funding for all public schools.
TENNESSEE
KIPP in Charter Tug-Of-War
The Tennessean, TN, June 17, 2012
The Nashville branch of the prominent KIPP Academy charter school chain has become the battleground for education policymakers to determine how rapidly the taxpayer-funded, privately operated schools will expand in Tennessee .
WASHINGTON
Charter Initiative Signature Drive Begins
Register-Guard, WA, June 18, 2012
Supporters are cleared to begin collecting signatures for a citizen initiative to create a public charter school system in Washington.
WEST VIRGINIA
School Reform Key Is Change
Wheeling Intelligencer, WV, June 17, 2012
West Virginians spend about $3.5 billion a year on public schools, with per-pupil costs among the highest in the nation. Yet our students score below national averages – themselves nothing to brag about – on 21 of 24 indicators of student performance as measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
WISCONSIN
More Apply for School Choice in Wisconsin
Sheboygan Press, WI, June 18, 2012
In the grand scheme of things, giving parents an extra two months to decide whether to transfer into or out of the Elkhart Lake-Glenbeulah School District didn’t help the district all that much.
Achievement Gap: Nerad’s Departure Presents A Wrinkle
Wisconsin State Journal, WI, June 18, 2012
Madison Superintendent Dan Nerad’s impending departure raises questions about the future of this year’s biggest budget initiative: the School District’s $49 million achievement gap plan.
ONLINE SCHOOLS
Panel Puts Off OK of Virtual Charter Schools
Portland Press Herald, ME, June 17, 2012
Despite fierce objections from Gov. Paul LePage, the Maine Charter School Commission will not consider two applications to open virtual charter schools this fall.
Virtual Schools Face A Stumbling Block
The Record, NJ, June 17, 2012
Some lawmakers are pushing for a one-year moratorium on virtual charter schools so this new brand of instruction can be researched.
Lehigh Valley Families Tout The Cyber-School Experience
Express-Times, PA, June 17, 2012
Inconspicuously tucked inside a West Chester, Pa. office park, Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School doesn’t look much like a school from the outside.
Public Schools Try To Lure Pa. Cyber Students Back
Erie Times-News, PA, June 17, 2012
There’s a battle being waged for Pennsylvania’s schoolchildren. Traditional public schools are on the offensive trying to lure back students from cyber and charter schools with their own cyber academics. Public school officials tout better standardized test scores and diplomas from known schools.
Virtual Schools See Numbers Increase, Along With Questions
Amarillo Globe-News, TX, June 17, 2012
When home-school mom Sarah Chase needed to find a way to spend less time planning lessons for her three children and more time on field trips and science projects, she decided to switch to a publicly funded virtual academy.