Daily Headlines for June 27, 2012
Looking Forward: The Charter School Challenge
Huffington Post Blog by Kevin P. Chavous, June 26, 2012
There are now over 5,600 charter schools, serving two million children in 41 states and the District of Columbia. And, for the most part, these schools are serving our children well. But when charter schools aren’t performing as well as they should, unlike traditional schools, there is a means to shut them down.
Entertainment REIT in Trouble at School
Wall Street Journal, June 26, 2012
Theater Landlord’s Push Into the Education Business Hits a Snag; CEO Says He Has Learned Several Important Lessons
HICKS: Low Confidence in Public Schools is Warranted
Washington Times, DC, June 26, 2012
Whatever the reason, last week the Gallup Organization revealed a poll that indicates confidence in our nation’s public schools is at an all-time low.
Vouchers Help Catholic Schools Survive
National Catholic Register, June 26, 2012
At least partly thanks to a growing wave of states enacting school voucher programs, many Catholic schools are again seeing increased enrolments.
FROM THE STATES
ALABAMA
Alabama Department of Education to Take Over Birmingham schools After Birmingham Board of Education Decision
Birmingham News, AL, June 26, 2012
The Alabama Department of Education will take over the Birmingham school system on Wednesday after the Birmingham Board of Education tonight declined to pass a cost-cutting plan.
CALIFORNIA
Oakland Unified Should Not Exclude Charter Schools From Upgrades
Oakland Tribune, CA, June 26, 2012
Oakland Unified School District has one of the highest percentages of charter school students of any district in California, currently standing at 22 percent. About 1 out of 5 school district students attends one of the 32 charters currently operating in the district.
Schools Reluctant To Call Kids Fluent, Lose Funds
San Francisco Chronicle, CA, June 26, 2012
Nearly 3,000 San Francisco students who started school in the city as English learners were reclassified as fluent in the language last year while untold thousands of other students across the state with similar English skills remained stuck in limited-English classes to keep federal and state funding flowing into their district.
CONNECTICUT
Conn. Joining Teacher Trend
Wall Street Journal, June 26, 2012
Connecticut is set to revamp the way it evaluates public-school teachers with a vote Wednesday that is expected to create a rating system based on student performance, classroom observations and, to a smaller extent, anonymous student and parent surveys.
Educational Partnership Should Benefit All Sides
The Hour, CT, June 26, 2012
Officially they signed a “collaborative partnership memorandum of understanding.” That’s a mouthful, for sure, but hopefully the results will simply be a win-win for Norwalk school children and future teachers coming out of Quinnipiac University.
FLORIDA
SCF Trustees Reach Solution To Charter School Funding
Bradenton Herald, FL, June 27, 2012
Trustees for the State College of Florida who had been concerned about the college’s charter school paying back money that helped with its startup appear to have arrived at a solution Tuesday: taking all state construction funds the charter school receives.
A.A. Dixon Charter School Could Get Reprieve From Closure
Pensacola News Journal, FL, June 27, 2012
A.A. Dixon Charter School of Excellence may get a second chance.
ILLINOIS
Merit Pay For Teachers Not As Good As It Sounds
Rock River Times, IL, June 27, 2012
Merit pay for teachers — sounds good, doesn’t it? Monetary reward for a job well done!? After all, shouldn’t those who give it their all, making huge educational impacts on their students, receive more money than the disinterested or lackadaisical teacher whose primary educational goal is to survive intact until Friday’s dismissal bell?
MARYLAND
Pr. George’s Faces an Education Reality Check
Washington Post, DC, June 26, 2012
Leading any school system is challenging. It’s especially difficult in Prince George’s, where pretty much every politician, from school board member on up, thinks he or she knows what’s best and doesn’t hesitate to interfere.
Montgomery Schools Get ‘Sacred Cow’ Status
Washington Examiner, DC, June 26, 2012
By any measure, education is a top budget priority in Montgomery County. It spends $15,582 per student on its award-winning public school system — the second-highest per pupil expenditure in the nation. But a newly revised state education funding law is punishing Montgomery taxpayers for their generosity.
MICHIGAN
Muskegon Heights Students’ Options Extend Beyond Charter Schools
The Muskegon Chronicle, MI, June 26, 2012
Parents in the Muskegon Heights school district have options outside of schools of choice if they don’t think a charter school is best for their children.
Turnaround Plan For Muskegon Heights Schools Amounts To A Bailout, Group Says
Detroit Free Press, MI, June 27, 2012
A plan to turn schools in the financially troubled Muskegon Heights Public Schools over to a charter operator amounts to a state bailout of the district, a nonprofit research group said in a report Tuesday.
MINNESOTA
There’s No Glut of Charters In Rural Areas
Start Tribune, MN, June 26, 2012
Money isn’t everything in education, but if we are going to demand excellence from our public schools, charters included, they need the funding to do the job.
MISSOURI
Teaching Teachers
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, MO, June 27, 2012
Teaching is an extraordinarily complex and challenging enterprise, made even more so by the introduction of new academic standards that teachers in Missouri and 45 other states and Washington, D.C. , will have to implement this fall. For every educational challenge that teachers encounter, a fellow teacher out there somewhere undoubtedly has solved it. But where can those ideas be found?
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Why Lynch is Wrong and The Washington Post Right
Union Leader, NH, June 27, 2012
The importance of educational opportunity was summed up by the reliably liberal Post: “the opportunity to send their children to better schools — a choice taken for granted by many Americans, including some who are in Congress and the White House — is something beyond measure.”
NEW JERSEY
Will He or Won’t He? Christie Plays Coy About Tenure Reform Bill
New Jersey Spotlight, NJ, June 27, 2012
He didn’t say he’d sign it outright, but Gov. Chris Christie yesterday indicated he could endorse the new teacher tenure bill passed by the Legislature this week — while fighting to end teacher seniority rights another day.
NEW YORK
Cheating Scandal at Elite Stuyvesant High School Highlights Double Standard
New York Daily News, NY, June 27, 2012
By the latest count, more than 50 Stuyvesant High School students, among the best and the brightest New York City has to offer, have been implicated in a cheating scandal.
An Assignment for Gov. Cuomo
New York Daily News, NY, June 27, 2012
Gov. Cuomo has said he wants to be the “students’ lobbyist,” and Tuesday, his Education Reform Commission met for the first time. Headed by Richard Parsons, it is composed of 25 members, all committed to fixing public schools but with widely different views on what that will take.
Moskowitz Delays a Run
Wall Street Journal, June 26, 2012
Charter-schools operator Eva Moskowitz wants to run for mayor. Just not in 2013.
The former City Council member, whose brash style and rapid expansion of her Success Academy Charter Schools network have made her a prime target for opponents, said in an interview she’s decided not to run this time around.
Teacher Evaluation Deal Not Cuomo’s Best Moment
Auburn Citizen, NY, June 27, 2012
Gov. Andrew Cuomo showed his political skill and clout once again at the end of a legislative session when he managed to take what looked like a dead piece of legislation — his proposal to restrict public access to public school teacher evaluations — and got it passed by both the Senate and Assembly.
NORTH CAROLINA
A Vote For Truly Nonpartisan Local Elections
News & Observer , NC, June 27, 2012
Is it in the best interest of the citizens of Wake County that school board and city council elections in recent years have become decidedly partisan? I think not. While county commissioners are elected, along with all state offices, in a wholly partisan manner, school board and city council seats are filled by a method called nonpartisan elections and runoffs.
Davidson College Partners With KIPP Charter
Charlotte Observer, NC, June 27, 2012
Davidson College and Duke University partnered with KIPP Charter Schools to help bring quality private post-secondary education to underprivileged youth throughout the country.
OHIO
Residents Urge Board To Reconsider Options
Youngstown Vindicator, OH, June 27, 2012
Public displeasure continued to be voiced Tuesday over the current busing situation for Catholic students living in the township.
OKLAHOMA
OU President Boren Offers Interesting Ideas On Education Reform
The Oklahoman, OK, June 27, 2012
EDUCATION dollars in Oklahoma might go a little further if there weren’t so many public school districts and college campuses in our state. That’s not us saying this. David Boren thinks it’s possible, too.
PENNSYLVANIA
Committee of Seventy Asks SRC to Release Parameters of Superintendent Contract
Philadelphia Inquirer, PA, June 27, 2012
The Philadelphia School Reform Commission has yet to say whether it wants William R. Hite Jr. or Pedro Martinez to be the next leader of the School District, but the good-government group the Committee of Seventy has a message for the board:
Big Money Behind Push For Education Tax Credit Program
Philadelphia Inquirer, PA, June 26, 2012
A NEW, big-money political-action committee turned up on the Pennsylvania radar screen this spring — at exactly the same time that the Philadelphia Archdiocese launched a full-court press for legislation in Harrisburg that would pump millions of dollars of scholarship money into its struggling schools.
TENNESSEE
Great Hearts Charter School Plan Rejected
The Tennessean, TN, June 27, 2012
The Metro Nashville school board voted Tuesday to reject a controversial proposal from Arizona-based Great Hearts Academy to open five new charter schools across the county, including one in affluent West Nashville .
TEXAS
Charter School Group Sues State Over Money
San Antonio Express News, TX, June 27, 2012
Seeking access to state facilities money, the Texas Charter Schools Association on Tuesday became the sixth group to sue the state over how it pays for public education.
Kudos to YES Prep on the Broad Prize
Houston Chronicle, TX, June 26, 2012
Last week, YES Prep, a Houston-based charter-school chain, won the first-ever Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools.
WASHINGTON
Opponents Of ‘Students Come First’ School Reform Laws Kick Off Campaign
Spokesman Review Blog, WA, June 26, 2012
More than 100 people gathered on the steps outside Boise High School today to kick off a statewide campaign against the “Students Come First” school reform laws, which are up for possible repeal in three referendum measures on the November ballot.
ONLINE SCHOOLS
The Evolving Classroom: Lessons Go Virtual
CNN School of Thought Blog, June 27, 2012
On any given Sunday night, your child’s teacher might face this problem: How do you come up with a lesson plan for 20 or more students for an entire week when all your students are learning at a different pace?
Troubled Philly-Based Cyber Charter School Ordered Closed
Philadelphia Daily News, PA, June 26, 2012
It looks like the plug might finally be pulled on a troubled Philly-based cyber school that had siphoned a hefty sum of tax dollars.
The Money Is Real
News & Record, NC, June 27, 2012
That’s the idea behind the N.C. Virtual Academy, a charter school based in Cabarrus County that aims to enroll 2,700 students when it opens in August.
The Education Establishment Fights Another Losing Cause
Beaufort Observer, NC, June 27, 2012
Anne Blythe, writing for the News & Observer has an interesting story on the ongoing dispute between one school system in the state, Cabarrus County, and the rest of the school systems, the State Board of Education and essentially The Education Establishment in the state.
Three Treasure Coast School Districts Unite For Full-Time Virtual School Option
TC Palm, FL, June 27, 2012
Public school students on much of the Treasure Coast will have the opportunity during the upcoming school year to attend classes full-time without leaving home.
LUSD Nixes Plan To Research All-Digital School
Lodi News Sentinel, CA, June 27, 2012
Discussion of a potential all-new digital school in Lodi Unified School District was stopped in its tracks by the board of trustees at Tuesday’s meeting.