Daily Headlines for June 2, 2011
Former Tennis Star Andre Agassi Teams With L.A. Bankers To Finance Charter School Construction
Los Angeles Times, CA, June 2, 2011
The Canyon-Agassi Charter School Facilities Fund is an unusual for-profit investment fund that intends to finance as much as $750 million in charter schools nationwide.
Are Magnet Schools Perpetuating Segregation?
Huffington Post, NY, June 1, 2011
The debate over segregation continues at one of the nation’s top schools after the principal received the following message: integrate or lose funding.
Schools: No Longer Separate, Still Not Equal
San Diego Union Tribune, CA, June 2, 2011
Fifty-seven years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that a separate education was not an equal education.
Rethinking Accountability Models In U.S. Public Education
Atlanta Journal Constitution, GA, June 1, 2011
Policymakers introduced the No Child Left Behind Act in an effort to improve the U.S. public education system through a nationwide accountability system that sets proficiency targets in math and reading each year.
Agassi Forms Fund to Build Charter Schools With Canyon Capital
Bloomberg, June 2, 2011
Andre Agassi, the former tennis champion, and Canyon Capital Realty Advisors LLC said they created a real estate fund that will spend $500 million to capitalize on and promote the movement for U.S. charter schools.
FROM THE STATES
ARIZONA
Peoria, Deer Valley Districts Compete With Charter Schools
The Arizona Republic, AZ, June 1, 2011
Northwest Valley students and parents are finding more education options as school districts add programs to compete with charter schools.
CALIFORNIA
Charter School Petition OK’d, with Strings
Stockton Record, CA, June 2, 2011
Another new charter school is threatening to take a bite out of Stockton Unified and other school districts in the region.
CONNECTICUT
Despite Enrollment Growth At Charter Schools, State Still Far Behind
Connecticut Mirror, CT, June 1, 2011
The State Board of Education Wednesday approved expanding the number of students Connecticut’s charter schools can enroll, but a recent report by the U.S. Department of Education ranks Connecticut well bellow the national average in the percentage of public school students that attend charters.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
D.C. Charter Schools up by 1
Washington Times, DC, June 1, 2011
Three of the District’s charter schools will not reopen in the fall, yet when the new school year begins, D.C. still will have more than it does now – a point that advocates for charter schools say proves their worth.
FLORIDA
Polk’s 23 Charter Schools Brace for Cuts
The Ledger, FL, June 1, 2011
Polk’s 23 charter schools stand to lose a projected $5.9 million because of state budget cuts, but how far-reaching the impact will be on their budgets has yet to be determined.
GEORGIA
Charter-School Students Get A Lesson In Judicial Activism
Atlanta Journal Constitution Blog, GA, June 1, 2011
The last lesson that thousands of Georgia students might receive from their charter schools was a guest lecture from the state’s Supreme Court. The subject was civics – specifically, what judicial activism looks like.
ILLINOIS
New Chicago Schools CEO Kicks Off ‘Listening Tour’
Chicago Sun Times, IL, June 2, 2011
New Chicago Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard kicked off a “listening tour’ Wednesday by talking to a dozen parents about establishing systemwide “parent-teacher agreements’ by this fall – but insisted he would not use them as a “gotcha” vehicle against parents.
Budget Would Cut $171 Million From Public Schools
Chicago Tribune, IL, June 1, 2011
The state budget plan now in Gov. Pat Quinn’s hands would slash $171 million in public school funding, erasing financial support for everything from teacher and principal mentoring to state writing tests for high school students.
LOUISIANA
John McDonogh Alumni, Parents Oppose Mixing Student Groups
Times Picayune, LA, June 1, 2011
Plans to move students in an accelerated high school program into the same building that houses John McDonogh High School ran into searing opposition Wednesday evening, as alumni and community members gathered to complain about the idea of mixing two student populations in a dilapidated building.
NEVADA
Governor Didn’t Get Much on Education
Las Vegas Review-Journal, NV, June 2, 2011
Gov. Brian Sandoval sent the Legislature a relatively bold set of education reforms this year. But the Legislature, dominated by Democrats who have long treated the teacher unions as their most favored constituency, initially buried them all.
NEW YORK
At Elite School , Longer Classes to Go Deeper
New York Times, NY, June 2, 2011
If the subject matter was a bit unusual for high school students, the amount of time they had to grapple with it was more so – 2 hours 10 minutes, in what is called a class block. Long blocks became standard this year at Calhoun, as part of a radical attempt to alter the structure of the school day and school year
The NAACP’s Clout is a Terrible Thing to Waste: Black Rights Group Is Wrong to Sign onto UFT Lawsuit
New York Daily News, NY, June 2, 2011
Education has traditionally been America’s great equalizer, the engine of our country’s unique capacity for mobility. And when schools fell into disrepair in this city, New Yorkers acros
s the spectrum pitched in to restore them. But now, a lawsuit filed by the teachers union and the NAACP is threatening to stop progress in its tracks.
OHIO
A Steep Climb
The Columbus Dispatch, OH, June 1, 2011
Over the next few years, Ohio’s schools are headed for a collision between well-intentioned expectations for academic progress and hard reality, as state and federal goals for how many children pass standardized tests are scheduled to shoot upward, far beyond the modest improvement most school districts have shown.
A’s May Earn School Districts Bonuses
Columbus Dispatch, OH, June 2, 2011
With looming cuts slated for Ohio schools in the upcoming state budget, districts have an opportunity to bring in some revenue – as long as they get an A or an A+ on next year’s report card.
OKLAHOMA
New Race to the Top a Good Fit for Oklahoma
The Oklahoman, OK, June 2, 2011
OKLAHOMA seems a natural fit for a newly announced round of federal money to improve early childhood education programs. Our state’s reputation as a leader in such programs is well known. But reputation alone won’t be enough.
RHODE ISLAND
Gist Reaches Out
Providence Journal, RI, June 2, 2011
Acknowledging the strain and scrutiny Rhode Island teachers are facing, state Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist used her annual “state of education” address to the General Assembly Wednesday evening to highlight what she calls the “vast majority” of Rhode Islanders’ respect for teachers and to advocate for “spirited debate” instead of destructive dialogue about how to improve public schools.
SOUTH CAROLINA
Limited School Choice Would Help SC
Greenville News, SC, June 2, 2011
State lawmakers have rejected yet another school choice bill that went a bit too far in using tax money to help pay for private education in South Carolina.
TENNESSEE
Student’s Learning Experience, Not Type of School, Matters Most
The Tennessean, TN, June 1, 2011
Charter schools were legislated in part to provide innovation in education. Charter school are simply public schools that offer parents a choice among many public “schools of choice.”
UTAH
New Group Launched For Charter Schools
The Salt Lake Tribune, UT, June 1, 2011
The charter school movement is all about offering parents a choice in public education. Now, Utah’s charter schools have a choice when it comes to membership in an organization.
WISCONSIN
Voucher School Growth Has Merit
Appleton Post Crescent, WI, June 2, 2011
The May 15 Post-Crescent editorial titled “Public education on a track to peril” is yet another example of entrenched thinking and entitlement bias.
VIRTUAL EDUCATION
Chesterfield Hopes To Market High School Classes Online
Richmond Times-Dispatch, VA, June 2, 2011
Want your child to get a Chesterfield County education from the comfort of your Richmond home? That could be possible as early as this fall, and it won’t require fudging addresses and it may not require out-of-pocket tuition payments.