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.