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Education News for Friday, July 14

Advisory panel issues LA school reforms recommendations at odds with mayor’s plan -As the debate over control of the Los Angeles Unified School District raged around it, a little-watched commission exploring reforms to the public school system formally agreed Thursday to a set of sweeping recommendations. (more)

School choice for kids object of parents’ suit – Asbury Park Press reports on Thursday’s news conference and filing of class action suit. (more)

Parents sue to remove kids from failing schools – "We’re sending our children on a mission of suicide," said Van Ness Crawford, the lead plaintiff and widowed father whose triplet sons attend Malcolm X. Shabazz High School in Newark. (more)

Paterson named in NJ lawsuit – If the state gives an underperforming public school a set amount of money for each student, why shouldn’t parents be able to spend that money at a better school? (more)

Congress seeks improvements to NCLB – With the No Child Left Behind law facing renewal next year, Congress is looking at ways to improve the landmark education law. (more)

Check back later for more education news.

UPDATE:

School Choice – When it comes to school choice, soon Rockford students may have no choice as to which school they attend. Currently they submit their top three choices to the district, then administrators decide where they are assigned. (more)

People For the American Way Foundation Opposes the 65% Deception– People For the American Way Foundation is a staunch defender of public education. We believe that public education – like an independent judiciary and fair elections – is an essential component of our American democracy. (more)

Senate Appropriations Committee Expands DC School Voucher Program – People For the American Way President Ralph G. Neas said today’s Senate Appropriation Committee expansion of the federally mandated District of Columbia voucher program is bad news for D.C. students and schools (more)

Teachers flunk Bush school law – Saying its members believe George W. Bush’s school-funding legislation, the No Child Left Behind Act, gets “a failing grade,” the National Education Association voted July 4 to lobby for a comprehensive rewrite of the statute next year. (more)

Bound Brook schools cited in lawsuit – In an assault on New Jersey’s education system, a group of parents has filed a lawsuit calling for using public money to send students in two dozen New Jersey communities — including Bound Brook — to private schools. (more)

Suit expands voucher debate– The national school-voucher fight has arrived on New Jersey’s doorstep.In an action that could change the face of education in the Garden State, parents of 12 children attending failing public schools in 25 districts sued the districts and the state commissioner of education yesterday. (more)

School-choice advocates file class-action suit – School-choice advocates sued yesterday in an effort to give students in failing public schools, including one in Perth Amboy and three in New Brunswick, the right to attend a different public or private school. (more)

Suit seeks to permit school choice – School-choice advocates filed a lawsuit Thursday that could redraw the boundaries of school districts and affect urban and suburban communities alike…Clint Bolick, president of the Arizona-based School Choice Alliance and an advocate in an Ohio case that led the U.S. Supreme Court to approve vouchers, said state judges have already found that education is a "legally enforceable right." (more)

Bradley grants issued – Grants the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation recently allocated will help the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra balance its budget and support accreditation of voucher schools. (more)

Parents sue to remove kids from failing N.J. schools – A group of parents on Thursday sued the state Board of Education and 25 school districts, seeking to remove their children from poorly performing classrooms and spend their public education funding at other schools — even private ones — in any town. (more)

State board OKs math and science charter school – A special high school for Gwinnett students interested in math, science and technology received state approval Thursday.  The State Board of Education approved the county’s first charter school, the Gwinnett Charter School of Advanced Mathematics, Science and Technology, said Dana Tofig, spokesman for the state education department. (more)

Mom’s dream: A school for children with autism – Tucked into a Kass Circle storefront near Michelle’s Elbow Room restaurant and Pizzaz Hair Design, the Golden Branch Academy still lacks furniture and just got a phone c
on
nection. (more)

Assemblyman, parents talk special ed– About 50 San Ramon Valley parents upset with the school district’s special-education services met with Assemblyman Guy Houston, who promised to look into their claims. (more)

Mayor Booker Chases Newark Robbery Suspect –  Newark Mayor Cory Booker tossed off his jacket and gave chase when he saw a police officer with gun drawn chasing a robbery suspect. (more)