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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

Education now global, schoolyard fight on tap
Column, Washington Times, DC, October 2, 2013
It’s time. It’s time to look again at how the United States stacks against other countries in education now that Education Secretary Arne Duncan blew it on Monday.

Preparing Teachers for the Urban Classroom
Letters, New York Times, NY, October 3, 2013
Kudos to Joe Nocera for highlighting the overly theoretical approach to preparing teachers in most traditional programs. Without clinical training, one in three new teachers in New York City exits the school system within three years, stymied by poor preparation and the lack of continuing support.

Teacher status around the world: how the US stacks up
Christian Science Monitor, MA, October 2, 2013
The first-ever Global Teacher Status index finds significant disparities in how teachers are viewed. In China, teachers are as respected as doctors; in the US, they’re more often compared with librarians.

The Closing of Diane Ravitch’s Mind
Opinion, City Journal, October 3, 2013
Education writer and activist Diane Ravitch is very angry these days. She’s convinced herself and her followers that elements of the American corporate elite are working to destroy the nation’s public schools, the indispensable institution that has held our republic together for more than two centuries. According to Ravitch, these fake reformers—the “billionaire boys’ club,” as she calls them—are driven by greed: after destroying the schools and stigmatizing hardworking teachers, she says, they want to privatize education and reap the profits from the new market.

STATE COVERAGE

ARKANSAS

Voucher sins
Editorial, Arkansas Times, AR, October 3, 2013
An interim committee of the Arkansas legislature will study the subject of school vouchers before the next regular legislative session convenes in January 2015. We recommend the lawmakers take a look at Georgia, among others.

CALIFORNIA

Backers of proposed El Cerrito charter school ask panel to revive plan
Contra Costa Times, CA, October 2, 2013
Supporters and opponents of a proposed charter school to be located in El Cerrito argued their cases passionately Wednesday evening before the Contra Costa County school board that is considering the charter’s petition after the West Contra Costa school district denied it.

How Charter Schools Lose in SD Unified’s Land-Sale Spree
Voice Of San Diego, CA, October 2, 2013
The San Diego Unified School District has one of the largest real estate portfolios in town, but its assets are quickly dwindling as it sells off “excess” schools and properties to restore furlough days and pay for promised pay raises to teachers and staff.

Turning the city of L.A. into a classroom
Op-Ed, Los Angeles Times, CA, October 3, 2013
Mayor Eric Garcetti and the city would be further ahead by connecting schooling to out-of-school learning, with a program like Chicago’s badge system.

COLORADO

Suit filed to invalidate signatures for Colorado education tax measure
Denver Post, CO, October 2, 2013
A lawsuit challenging the petition-gathering process that got a $950 million school-tax proposal on the November ballot was filed late Wednesday, according to a group opposing the measure.

CONNECTICUT

When is school reform not reform?
Commentary, CT Post, CT, October 3, 2013
Connecticut has received some amount of attention lately for the so-called school reform movement being sponsored and directed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, Commissioner of Education Stephan Pryor, and in Bridgeport, nationally known Superintendent Paul Vallas.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Bill aimed at curtailing ‘social promotion’ is endorsed by D.C. Council panel
Washington Post, DC, October 2, 2013
A bill that aims to end the “social promotion” of students in the District’s public schools passed a D.C. Council committee Wednesday.

D.C. charter school allegations raise questions for city officials
Editorial, Washington Post, DC., October 2, 2013
D.C. PUBLIC charter school officials say that, as soon as they learned about alleged fiscal irregularities at the city’s oldest charter school, they took swift action.

FLORIDA

Lee County Education: Pivot Charter charts course for success
News Press, FL, October 3, 2013
A Florida auditor general report released in late August found that Lee County had four schools with low finances and deficits in their net assets during the 2011-12 school year. But of the four, one remains open and has emerged in the black — Pivot Charter School in Fort Myers.

Miami-Dade schools enrollment up because of charter growth
Miami Herald, FL, October 2, 2013
Student enrollment has increased by the thousands this year in Miami-Dade schools — charter schools, that is.

INDIANA

State education board fixes school grading glitch
Munster Times, IN, October 2, 2013
The State Board of Education approved a plan Wednesday designed to produce more accurate ratings of Indiana schools with nontraditional grade groupings.

LOUISIANA

Caddo plan to close 3 schools, convert 17 others to avoid state takeover
Shreveport Times, LA, October 2, 2013
Caddo schools officials are planning to close three schools, revamp as many as 17 others and remove teachers and principals at failing schools in an effort to avoid state takeover of district schools.

John White’s hypocrisy runs amok
Opinion, The Advocate, LA, October 2, 2013
Governor Bobby Jindal, of Louisiana, along with his hand-picked Superintendent of Education, John White, and Republican leaders across the nation have sold the American people a false bill of goods.

Louisiana school voucher program improves racial integration in some cases, study says
Times-Picayune, LA, October 2, 2013
In some cases, students transferring out of public schools through Louisiana’s voucher program improved the racial balance in the schools they left behind, as well as that of the schools they entered, according to a study released Thursday by EducationNext.

MARYLAND

Laurel charter school to build on successful math, science program
Maryland Gazette, MD, October 3, 2013
A Laurel charter school is expanding next school year, offering a math- and science-focused curriculum at a new school in northern Prince George’s for lower grade levels and at a new school in the southern part of the county.

MASSACHUSETTS

Group says state should OK charter school expansion
Patriot Ledger, MA, October 3, 2013
Legislation that would allow for the expansion of charter and non-traditional public schools could help close the achievement gap among the state’s students, supporters say.

MISSISSIPPI

Charter push for Jackson’s Lanier High underway
Jackson Clarion Ledger, MS, October 3, 2013
It both hurts and haunts longtime Jackson physician Aaron Shirley, a proud 1951 alumnus of Lanier High, to see what has happened to his school.

Is takeover best option for school?
Natchez Democrat, MS, October 3, 2013
Next week, the fate of Morgantown Middle School will rest in the hands of the Mississippi Department of Education

NEW JERSEY

New Jersey Public Schools- separate, unequal, and unfair
Op-Ed, New Jersey Spotlight, NJ, October 3, 2013
Policies that disproportionately harm and disenfranchise communities of color are incapable of improving either educational achievement or equity

Newark schools could lose chance for $30M in federal funds after fight over ‘Race To The Top’ application
Star-Ledger, NJ, October 2, 2013
The Newark school district will likely lose any chance of winning roughly $30 million in federal funds because of a dispute between union and district officials over the city’s “Race To The Top” application.

State education department approves just three out of 38 charter proposals
New Jersey Spotlight, NJ, October 3, 2013
On the eve of the November election, the Christie administration has approved just three more application for charter schools in New Jersey, continuing its on-again, off-again relations with the charter movement.

NEW YORK

City Council members call for end of Mayor Bloomberg strategy for closing struggling schools
New York Daily News, NY, October 3, 2013
Critics say the public doesn’t have enough input in the city’s current process, while Chancellor Dennis Walcott defended the practice and said the city has become a ‘model for urban school systems.’

De Blasio backers push Walcott to hit charter schools
New York Post, NY, October 3, 2013
City Council members urged the schools chancellor to throw in the towel now on controversial space-sharing arrangements between schools Wednesday in preparation for a likely Bill de Blasio mayoralty.

De Blasio eyes ex-Baltimore schools chief as next NYC chancellor
New York Post, NY, October 3, 2013
The former education boss of Baltimore is being pushed for schools chancellor if Bill de Blasio is elected mayor, The Post has learned.

Don’t undermine charter schools with rent
Editorial, amNY, NY, October 2, 2013
Charter schools are a success story in New York City, a town that’s desperate for educational progress. So why does Bill de Blasio want to make life harder for them?

Unchartered waters: Protestors vow no co-location at Seth Low Intermediate School
Brooklyn Daily, NY, October 3, 2013
Families and teachers from Seth Low Intermediate School decried a city plan to install a controversial charter school chain in the building at the corner of W. 12th Street and Avenue P during a raucous public hearing on Sept. 30.

OHIO

Panel to sort charter schools for Columbus levy funds
Columbus Dispatch, OH, October 3, 2013
A new citizen committee could begin drafting rules as early as next week to determine which charter schools could receive local tax dollars from a Columbus City Schools levy on the Nov. 5 ballot.

OREGON

Hillsboro School Board disagrees about whether to invite charter school applications
The Oregonian, OR, October 2, 2013
Is the Hillsboro School District hostile to charter schools? On Tuesday evening, its school board couldn’t decide.

PENNSYLVANIA

Pennsylvania House passes new school property tax reform effort on bipartisan vote; bill now moves to Senate
Patriot News, PA, October 3, 2013
The state House of Representatives has kick-started a new debate on property tax reform, with 149-46 passage of a bill Wednesday that would give local school districts the ability to shift their budgets away from heavy reliance on real estate taxes.

RHODE ISLAND

Escalating costs of Mayoral Academy bear watching
Letter, Daily Breeze, RI, October 3, 2013
I don’t know how or why the decision was originally made to send Lincoln students to the Blackstone Valley Prep Charter School, but as a taxpayer of Lincoln I resent the town having to pay $1.3 million for charter school tuition.

WASHINGTON

Official: W.V. keeping charter school options open
Yakima Herald, WA, October 3, 2013
West Valley School District is considering becoming a charter school authorizer, but Superintendent Mike Brophy said Wednesday that members of the school board are uncertain about moving forward with the plan.

WISCONSIN

Bill would allow UW schools, technical colleges to authorize charter schools
Wisconsin State Journal, WI, October 2, 2013
All University of Wisconsin System campuses, state technical colleges and educational service agencies would be able to authorize charter schools under a bill to be discussed by a legislative committee Thursday.

ONLINE LEARNING

Ambridge develops new online, arts academy
Beaver Times, PA , October 3, 2013
George Davis, in the early weeks of September, found some challenges in his senior class schedule, so he shared them with a guidance counselor at the Ambridge Area High School.

Cyber student’s request to attend Franklin Regional dance prompts policy discussion
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, PA, October 2, 2013
Franklin Regional officials plan to develop a policy to enable students who attend charter schools or who are homeschooled to attend school dances sponsored by district organizations.

Education reform bill aims to recoup tuition paid to cybers
York Dispatch, PA, October 2, 2013
A bill to reform funding for cyber charter schools passed in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, a move that has public and cyber school officials weighing the merit of the legislation.

Funding, virtual charters, building alliances set as priorities for D300
Elgin Courier News, IL, October 2, 2013
The Community Unit School District 300 Board of Education recently approved five legislative priorities for the legislatively-active district to tackle this school year.

Learning and removing barriers
Opinion, Black Hills Pioneer, SD, October 2, 2013
Blended learning is the new catch phrase to enhancing the student experience in the classroom. In essence, blended learning can give the classroom teacher greater control over the curriculum and how that material can be delivered to allow student collaboration.

Second-class students?
Opinion, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, PA, October 2, 2013
The recent passage of state House Bill 618 is devastating for Pennsylvania public cyber school children. HB 618 would cut the funding for our public cyber schools by as much as 10 to 15 percent. This loss would be devastating for our schools.

Virtual academy provides an alternative to home-schooling, traditional schooling
Kitsap Sun, WA, October 2, 2013
Washington Virtual Academy is one of a handful of digital public schools that offer online learning options for students and families who choose not, or are unable, to take part in traditional schooling or home school.

Virtual school’s first year brings hurdles to jump, leaps of success
Star-Telegram, IN, October 2, 2013
In its first year, iUniversity Prep, an open enrollment online school in the Grapevine-Colleyville school district, provides an alternative to brick-and-mortar public schools. The virtual school currently enrolls grades 6-11, but plans to add a grade level each year beginning with 12th grade next year, then down to third in the years that follow.

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

Duncan’s unusual ‘state of education’ report
Washington Post Blog, DC, October 2, 2013
They have said over and over that the problem isn’t that government isn’t capable of helping to improve education, or that education can’t work because too many children are poor, but that the thrust of his education reforms don’t deal with the biggest problems facing schools or schoolchildren.

Education reform advocate John White: We’re in danger of becoming the enemy
Washington Post, DC, October 1, 2013
Advocates for charter schools, teacher evaluations and other changes to public education that have become mainstream in recent years are at risk of turning into the establishment they once railed against, warned the man at the center of Louisiana’s schools upheaval.

Escaping ‘Government’ Schools
Column, Town Hall, October 2, 2013
Now I know that public school –government school is a better name — is one of the worst parts of America. It’s a stultified government monopoly. It never improves.

STATE COVERAGE

ARIZONA

Appeals court upholds school voucher program
Arizona Star, AZ, October 2, 2013
State lawmakers are free to give parents what amounts to a voucher of public funds to educate their children at any private or parochial school they want, the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled today.

CALIFORNIA

Teacher dismissal bill deserves a Brown veto
Editorial, Sacramento Bee, CA, October 2, 2013
California has a cumbersome and costly teacher dismissal process. But efforts at reform have consistently been beaten back by the powerful California Teachers Association. This legislative session was supposed to be different.

COLORADO

Academy 360 aims to change the conversation
EdNews Colorado, CO, October 1, 2013
It was 7:45 a.m. on a cloudy Monday morning. About 100 children hopped up and down on the cracked asphalt outside their school, pretending to dribble basketballs, toss baseballs and jump rope.

Union donors push Amendment 66 proponents past $5 million mark
Denver Post, CO, October 1, 2013
Proponents of the Amendment 66 school finance revamp and tax hike passed the $5 million mark in campaign contributions with more than $1.8 million reported Monday.

DELAWARE

Biden’s office says charter study group broke open-meeting laws
New Journal, DE, October 2, 2013
A group created by Gov. Jack Markell violated the state’s open meetings law last year when it did not keep minutes or open its meetings to the public, an Attorney General’s opinion released Tuesday said.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Charter school officials diverted millions, lawsuit alleges
Washington Post, DC, October 1, 2013
Options Public Charter School was founded to improve the fortunes of the District’s most troubled teens and students with disabilities, and the District government sent millions of taxpayer dollars to the school each year for their education and care.

FLORIDA

In Hollywood, fight over charter high school gets noisy
Miami Herald, FL, October 2, 2013
Every morning when school is in session, traffic along Hollywood Boulevard and the surrounding streets slows to a crawl as parents drop their children at the Ben Gamla Charter School, which houses kindergarteners through eighth-graders.

GEORGIA

Charter schools surpass enrollment projections
Cherokee Tribune, GA, October 2, 2013
Cherokee Charter Academy enrollment is above projection and the carpool line is getting more efficient, according to a school report presented at the Local Governing Council meeting Sept. 25.

IDAHO

Idaho schools chief Luna pushes for more education funding
Idaho Statesman, ID, October 2, 2013
Tom Luna, who struggled to find support for his Students Come First education reforms in 2011, got early backing for his proposed 2015 public schools budget unveiled Tuesday. The key: Luna isn’t going it alone this time. He’s investing in proposals at the heart of Gov. Butch Otter’s Task Force on Improving Education, which has unified a sometimes fractious educational community.

ILLINOIS

Charter Schools Stress Concentration
Opinion, ChicagoNow, IL, October 2, 2013
Unless and until you’ve seen it for yourself, you just may not understand. So I’ll paint a picture for you from my five years of working in administration for one charter school, and my other year experience working for a Hispanic network of charter schools, and then my most recent experience of going back into a charter last month and lasting a total of 32 minutes before I knew I had to get out!

National honor for Grayslake’s Prairie Crossing Charter School
Chicago Daily Herald, IL, October 2, 2013
Prairie Crossing Charter School in Grayslake is celebrating its second consecutive national education award.

INDIANA

Demand for school vouchers doubles
Journal-Gazette, IN, October 1, 2013
The number of Indiana students applying to receive vouchers allowing them to use state money to pay for private schools has more than doubled for a second consecutive year.

Indiana lawmakers can’t reach agreement on Common Core
Indianapolis Star, IN, October 2, 2013
On Tuesday, lawmakers who spent the summer evaluating Common Core standards declined to make any recommendation about whether Indiana should stick with them.

LOUISIANA

A new model for schools
Editorial, The Advocate, LA, October 1, 2013
While it will occupy the same site, the new Lee High School will be a different place than its predecessor of many years in south Baton Rouge.

Union claims EBR school system violated law with ad praising teachers
The Advocate, LA, October 2, 2013
A local teachers union claims the East Baton Rouge Parish school system violated its employee privacy rights with a full-page ad it purchased in the Sunday Advocate congratulating by name 1,113 educators rated highly effective under the state’s new teacher evaluation system.

MAINE

LePage agency recommends $9.5 million cut in education funding
Portland Press Herald, ME, October 1 2013
The Maine Legislature must still approve the reduction, which it’s unlikely to do.

MINNESOTA

Minneapolis teachers approve Q comp pay plan
Star Tribune, MN, October 2, 2013
Minneapolis teachers have approved a proposal to use the state-backed Q Comp alternative teacher pay plan, meaning two of the state’s three largest districts will launch the program this month.

MISSOURI

Legislators hear pleas to address school transfer law
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, MO, October 2, 2013
Missouri lawmakers listened for more than five hours Tuesday as St. Louis-area school superintendents and state educators described the disruption and financial losses that have piled up as a student transfer law swung into effect this year.

NEW YORK

Charter schools the best hope for escaping special ed
Opinion, New York Post, NY, October 2 2013
So it turns out that one big reason why New York City charter schools have fewer kids in special education is that a child at a charter is more likely to escape special ed than one attending a traditional public school. They do a better job getting kids out of it, and of keeping at-risk kids from falling into it.

D for de Blasio
Opinion, New York Daily News, NY, October 2, 2013
Mayoral frontrunner Bill de Blasio’s plan to kill city charter schools by a thousand cuts just got a vocal new foe.

Kids are not guinea pigs
Editorial, Albany Times Union, NY, October 2, 2013
Before we spend more, or less, or subject students to another experiment, New York should explain why education here costs so much for less than stellar results.

Parents tell DOE, ‘Keep charter school out of Seth Low!’
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, NY
October 1, 2013
A plan hatched by the Department of Education (DOE) to put a Success Academy charter school inside Seth Low Intermediate School in Bensonhurst and have the two schools co-exist in the same building was met with vociferous opposition by parents, teachers and elected officials who spoke at out a raucous public hearing on Sept. 30.

NORTH CAROLINA

Davie County is committed to helping at-risk students
Editorial, Winston-Salem Journal, NC, October 2, 2013
Many families can tell a story about a relative, a grandfather perhaps, who had to drop out of high school to go to work to support the family. It has always been a difficult but honorable thing to do.
http://www.journalnow.com/journal_west/editorial/article_577b377e-2acc-11e3-8440-0019bb30f31a.html

OHIO

Don’t Look at School Report Cards For What Parents Really Want to Know About Schools
StateImpactNPR, OH, October 1, 2013
It’s a good time to ask whether Ohio is giving parents the information they want about their kids’ schools.

OKLAHOMA

Common core plan undermines Oklahoma educators making decisions for Oklahoma students
Opinion, Tulsa World, OK, October 2, 2013
I am staunchly in favor of more rigor and higher standards for Oklahoma schools. That is why I am adamantly opposed to Common Core.

OREGON

Grant helps alternative Oregon school show gains
Herald and News, OR, October 2, 2013
Three years ago, Marshall High School was offered millions to turn itself around, a tall task for a school that targets struggling students. After an infusion of $2 million that ended last academic year, the alternative school finds itself with higher test scores and a new curriculum to support future growth.

SOUTH DAKOTA,/strong>

State board approves rules for flexibility in teacher evaluations
Aberdeen News, SD, October 1, 2013
South Dakota school districts should have flexibility to use state standards or their own systems for evaluating teachers, the state Board of Education decided Tuesday.

ONLINE LEARNING

Bill requiring public schools to offer online courses emerges from Pa. House Education Committee
Patriot-News, PA, October 2, 2013
Legislation that seeks to transform the way education is delivered to sixth- through 12th-graders emerged out of the House Education Committee on Tuesday.

L.A. Unified’s iPad rollout marred by chaos
Los Angeles Times, CA, October 2, 2013
Confusion reigns as L.A. Unified deals with glitches after rollout of ambitious an-iPad-for-every-student project.

USD 403 stepping into the 21st Century with virtual school
Great Bend Tribune, KS, October 2, 2013
USD 403 Otis-Bison School District has firmly stepped into the twenty-first century, offering technology as a way to improve the number of available classes and opening a virtual school, Southwinds Academy. This small Kansas town is on the forefront of the future.

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.