Daily Headlines for October 1, 2013
Click here for Newswire, the latest weekly report on education news and commentary you won’t find anywhere else – spiced with a dash of irreverence – from the nation’s leading voice in school reform.
NATIONAL COVERAGE
Arne Duncan: ‘ideologues and extremists in our parties’ killing education reform
Washington Examiner, DC, September 30, 2013
Striking a combative tone, President Obama’s top schools official on Monday blamed the “ideologues and extremists in our parties” for standing in the way of education reform.
Duncan warns of shutdown impact on schools
Washington Times Blog, DC, September 30, 2013
Joining a chorus of Obama Cabinet members condemning the funding stalemate between Congress and the White House, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on Monday warned that the looming government shutdown would hurt American students.
Education at a crossroads
Opinion, Washington Times, DC, September 30, 2013
Nothing has been more contentious in the field of education than the idea of school choice. It’s odd. We take it for granted that we’ll find dozens of brands of cereal at our grocery stores and hundreds of stations on our cable TV
Embrace options to public schools
Opinion, Portsmouth Herald, NH, October 1, 2013
In a democracy, holding someone hostage, subjecting them to unpaid work and denying them the right to meet their basic needs is a human rights violation. However, since the 1850s we have been subjecting children to these conditions daily, calling it “education.”
Jeb Bush should get over Common Core
Column, Washington Examiner, DC, September 30, 2013
This is priceless. Former Florida Republican Gov. Jeb Bush, consummate politician and 2016 presidential aspirant, has now bitterly accused opponents of his federal education schemes of possessing “purely political” motives. Projection, anyone?
La. Gov. Bobby Jindal steps up fight with Obama over school voucher program
Washington Times, DC, September 30, 2013
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Monday invited President Obama to travel to the Bayou State to meet with the parents of the students who are benefiting from a school voucher program that is now the target of a federal government desegregation lawsuit.
New lunch regulations are too hard to swallow for many schools
Washington Times, DC, September 30, 2013
Fried foods and sweets aren’t the only casualties of the government’s revamped school lunch menu.
The charter school mistake
Op-Ed, Los Angeles Times, CA, October 1, 213
‘Reforming’ schools by giving tax money to corporations is a distraction from the system’s real problems — poverty and racial segregation.
STATE COVERAGE
ARIZONA
Phoenix Union enrollment at 36-year high
Arizona Republic, AZ, September 30, 2013
In fact, enrollment in the district is at its highest in 36 years. The district, which has 16 schools, has 27,031 students.
CONNECTICUT
New Haven awarded $3.7 million in magnet school funding
New Haven Register, CT, September 30, 2013
The New Haven Public Schools were awarded $3.7 million in federal magnet school funding “to infuse four schools with innovative and engaging magnet themes,” schools spokeswoman Abbe smith said in a release.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
D.C. officials release recalculated test scores
Washington Post, DC, September 30, 2013
A tougher grading scale on the District’s 2013 standardized tests would have yielded lower-than-reported math proficiency rates for many schools, with stark differences at the middle-school level, according to data released Monday by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education.
FLORIDA
Charter schools offering fine choice for education
Opinion, Sun Sentinel, FL, October 1, 2013
Among my several Legislative assignments, I am pleased to be a member of the Charter Schools Subcommittee (technically, the School Choice & Innovation Subcommittee) which focuses on our pre K-12 public schools and more to the point, focuses on providing our children and their parents with far greater choice than in the past.
Charter school without a home faces termination
Sun Sentinel, FL, September 30, 2013
A charter school that has struggled to find permanent housing this year will likely get the ax on Tuesday.
Florida Exams: Scott Fails Test
Editorial, The Ledger, FL, October 1, 2013
In pursuing his re-election next year, Rick Scott has tried to brand himself as the “education governor.” But a teacher assessing his effort would have to say he has not shown consistent progress.
Traditional, charter schools seek common ground in South Florida
Miami Herald, FL, October 1, 2013
They compete for students, space and funds. But there’s hope that Florida’s charter schools and traditional public schools can move past the friction that defines their coexistence and collaborate to better benefit students.
ILLINOIS
CPS seeking charter schools for overcrowded neighborhoods
Chicago Tribune, IL, September 30, 2013
As Chicago Public Schools solicits applications for new charter schools on the Northwest and Southwest sides, officials have launched community advisory councils to help sell the controversial initiative to neighborhoods that historically have not been interested in charters.
MAINE
Maine charter schools get federal dollars
Kennebec Journal, ME, September 30, 2013
Schools in Cornville and Fairfield will receive money to develop programs and share best practices.
MASSACHUSETTS
Community Charter School of Cambridge earns a No. 1 ranking in MCAS
Cambridge Chronicle & Tab, MA, September 30, 2013
Community Charter School of Cambridge announced the school was among the highest-performing public schools in Massachusetts based on the 2013 MCAS scores.
MARYLAND
Gansler proposes preschool to close achievement gap
Baltimore Sun, MD, September 30, 2013
Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler proposes that the state pay for all-day preschool for low-income students to close the achievement gap between poor and wealthy students, a disparity the gubernatorial candidate calls “our biggest moral stain.”
MICHIGAN
Count Day nears Michigan schools, with vital funds at stake
Detroit News, MI, October 1, 2013
For Michigan’s 56 school districts with budget deficits, Count Day is especially crucial as they try to stay open and out of state control.
MISSISSIPPI
Mississippi judge blocks takeover of Leflore County schools
Sun Herald, MS, September 30, 2013
Hinds County Circuit Judge Winston Kidd has blocked the state’s takeover of the Leflore County school district.
State Board of Education fails credibility test
Opinion, Clarion Ledger, MS, September 30, 2013
Since the State Board of Education has foisted a so-called “rigorous” set of educational standards in the form of Common Core on Mississippi school children, I wonder if they are up to being held to a more rigorous standard themselves?
NEW YORK
Bronx parents oppose charter push at Junior High School 144
New York Daily News, NY, September 30, 2013
Icahn Charter wants to squeeze a high school into a building holding two middle schools. City says there’s room for everyone.
Shut and open case
Editorial, New York Daily News, NY, September 30, 2013
School closures — the great bugaboo of the United Federation of Teachers and New York’s Democratic political establishment — have been a historic benefit to tens of thousands of the city’s high school students. The city must continue to shutter failure factories.
NORTH CAROLINA
Lee school delay may only be reprieve against charter onslaught
Column, News & Observer, NC, October 1, 2013
The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools (CHCCS) are in the bull’s-eye of national charter management companies (CMOS).
OHIO
With only 3 students, Columbus charter school had to close
Columbus Dispatch, OH, October 1, 2013
A Columbus charter school that began the year with only three students closed on Friday, the school’s founder said.
OREGON
Portland School Board to hold public hearings for two charter schools
Oregonian, OR, September 30, 2013
The Portland School Board on Tuesday will hear from two groups hoping to open charter schools in 2014. Charter schools are publicly financed but often independently run. In Oregon, a district, the state or a college must approve a charter school before it opens.
PENNSYLVANIA
Charter bill just first step
Opinion, Scranton Times-Tribune, PA, October 1, 2013
Pennsylvania taxpayers have been paying charter schools, based partially on costs that they do not incur, for more than a decade.
Protesters say visiting philanthropists want to defund public schools
Philadelphia Daily News, PA, October 1, 2013
ABOUT 20 PROTESTERS chanted outside a North Philadelphia charter school yesterday afternoon, claiming a group of visiting philanthropists were “deciding what education looks like in America, not the parents, not the students.”
School panel won’t push to ditch seniority – for now
Philadelphia Inquirer, PA, October 1, 2013
PHILADELPHIA Despite being urged to unilaterally ditch seniority rules, the Philadelphia School Reform Commission said it would not do that – at least not right away.
TENNESSEE
Education Leaders Frame Reforms in Faith Response
Memphis Daily News, TN, October 1, 2013
The leader of the Memphis Teacher Residency program and the superintendents of Shelby County Schools and the Achievement School District told several hundred people at Second Presbyterian Church this weekend that Memphis’ public education reformation needs less “negativity” and more citizen involvement.
Parents’ outcry may reverse course on eliminating MLK Magnet grades 7-8
The Tennessean, TN, October 1, 2013
After hearing sharp and widespread criticisms about a plan to eliminate two grades from a high-achieving but crowded Nashville high school, district officials reversed course with a new plan Monday.
TEXAS
Department of Education grants Texas waiver from No Child Left Behind Requirements
El Paso Times, TX, September 30, 2013
The U.S. Department of Education will grant Texas a conditional waiver from federal No Child Left Behind requirements, meaning significantly fewer schools will face penalties under the long criticized accountability system.
UTAH
Lawmakers: Don’t gag Utah parents who vet Common Core testing
Salt Lake Tribune, UT, October 1, 2013
Parents who vet the questions Utah students will be asked next spring on standardized tests should not be under a gag order, a Utah lawmaker says.
WISCONSIN
Milwaukee Collegiate Academy doubles down on achievement
Journal Sentinel, WI, October 1, 2013
Milwaukee Collegiate Academy, an independent public charter high school of about 200 students sandwiched between a Popeye’s and a coin laundry at N. 29th St. and W. Capitol Drive, is taking dramatic steps this year to strengthen academics, culture and student performance.
ONLINE LEARNING
Burrell pleased with cyber programs
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, PA, October 1, 2013
Burrell administrators are pleased with the progress of the school district’s cyber offerings and are considering options for expansion.