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
Reformed Reformer Ravitch Defends Public Education
Editorial, Valley News, NH, November 3, 2013
You’ve probably heard about America’s failing schools, and about this reform, that reform and more reform. There’s always a simple new fix for public education — vouchers, choice, charters, standards, testing, accountability, merit pay, the Common Core.
UW deserves to authorize more charter schools
Appleton Post Crescent, WI, November 3, 2013
Your editorial, “Reject move toward independent charter schools,” attempts to convey the misconception that charter schools authorized by public universities would be void of any oversight, when it’s actually this type of system that produces schools of the highest quality and accountability for students most in need of other options.
STATE COVERAGE
CALIFORNIA
Charter school on Westside creates extra traffic, ruffling neighbors
Los Angeles Times, CA, November 3, 2013
The friction in Del Rey is another dispute linked to ‘co-location,’ the practice of housing a traditional public school and a charter school on the same campus.
COLORADO
Colorado Is Asking Taxpayers for $1 Billion to Help Schools
New York Times, NY, November 4, 2013
In one poor school district in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, students take classes in a bus garage, using plastic sheeting to keep the diesel fumes at bay. In another, there is no more money to tutor young immigrants struggling to read. And just south of Denver, a district where one in four kindergartners is homeless has cut 10 staff positions and is bracing for another cull.
Financial backers widen reach in support of vouchers, school choice
Denver Post, CO, November 4, 2013
Financial backers who want school districts to adopt the anti-union, pro-voucher and school- choice model set by Douglas County have fanned out to other parts of Colorado, donating to candidates who are promising similar results.
CONNECTICUT
How Will Charter School Help Fix Absenteeism?
Letter, Hartford Courant, CT, November 2, 2013
The Hartford Board of Education is set to turn over Clark Elementary School to a private management company, Achievement First [Oct. 30, Connecticut, “Charter School Plan Spelled Out”. One reason given was excessive absenteeism at Clark.
DELAWARE
MOT Charter high school proposal set for public hearing
Delaware News Journal, DE, November 3, 2013
The proposed MOT Charter High School, which hopes to open in time for the 2015-2016 school year, gets its first public airing before the New Castle County Planning Board Tuesday night.
GEORGIA
Cluster creates private schools at public expense
Letter, Atlanta Journal Constitution, GA, November 4, 2013
I have been a teacher for almost three decades and a parent for 18. I have served on the board of a DeKalb County charter school — the International Community School — and on the board of the tuition-free, private, Global Village School.
FLORIDA
School districts opposing legislation to standardize Florida charter applications
St. Petersburg Tribune, FL, November 2, 2013
Though the 2014 legislative session is months away, public and charter schools are already polishing their speaking points in their seemingly-endless battle over students and funding.
ILLINOIS
Illinois school districts adjust as minority student population surges
Chicago Tribune, IL, November 4, 2013
Illinois public schools are almost “majority minority,” a shift in demographics that is prompting suburban districts that once were predominantly white to change their curriculum and culture.
LOUISIANA
Fair Park HS students protest possible charter school takeover
KSLA-TV, LA, November 1, 2013
Dozens of Fair Park students protested Friday afternoon, after learning that their high school could be taken over as a charter school.
MASSACHUSETTS
Spirit of Knowledge charter school caught in Escobar dealings
Worcester Telegram, MA, November 4, 2013
The small charter school that collapsed last week amid a cascade of financial and organizational problems had long struggled with a deadly hole in its budget.
MICHIGAN
Expansion of charter schools fracturing community unity
Letter, The Ann Arbor News, MI, November 3, 2013
This is no longer true. With the advent of privately-owned, mostly for-profit – but publicly funded – charter schools the goal of communities working together for the common good is directly challenged.
There’s no one solution for keeping kids in school
Opinion, Detroit Free Press, MI, November 2, 2013
Seeing a classroom full of 4-year-olds learning the alphabet, singing songs about colors and drawing stick-figure family portraits gives me hope about the class of 2027. Detroit Public Schools’ plan to educate more pre-K students, add more art and music to its elementary schools and engage parents is an excellent way to ensure that more students make it to graduation day.
MISSOURI
Plans to open charter school in Riverview Gardens scuttled
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, MO, November 2, 2013
A Missouri lawmaker is trying to launch the first charter school in the unaccredited Riverview Gardens School District but says his plans for next school year have fallen by the wayside because of the state Board of Education’s meeting schedule.
NEVADA
‘Classical model’ charter school OK’d for Las Vegas
Las Vegas Review-Journal, NV, November 1, 2013
A proposed Las Vegas charter school where students would learn Latin, read original Constitution documents and be required to acquire more credits to graduate than other schools won unanimous approval Friday from the state Public Charter School Authority.
NEW JERSEY
School election trend shows lack of involvement
Courier Post, NJ, November 3, 2013
A competitive school board election is hard to find these days.South Jersey voters will head to the polls Tuesday to vote for school board candidates who have no competition. Some smaller towns don’t even have names on the ballot, leaving the vote entirely up to write-ins.
NEW MEXICO
Evaluating … the evaluations: Critics decry new system for rating teachers; supporters say it helps kids
Albuquerque Journal, NM, November 3, 2013
While teachers and administrators at Albuquerque Public Schools have been vocal in opposing the state’s new teacher evaluation program – hundreds of APS teachers rallied at a protest attended by the superintendent last month – the reaction has been mixed elsewhere in the state.
NEW YORK
A Vote for Schools
National Review Online, November 4, 2013
On Tuesday, New Yorkers will head to the polls to elect Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s replacement. Barring a Miracle on Ice–type turn of events, Democrat Bill de Blasio — who has led Republican Joe Lhota by as much as 45 percentage points — is expected to take the helm.
De Blasio’s education agenda is full of hot air
Opinion, New York Post, NY, November 3, 2013
Bill de Blasio’s public-education agenda consists of seven boasts (things he says he’s already done, part of his record as public advocate) and 19 plans for future changes (“policies, agendas and programs” that he promises to “work tirelessly to implement”). Minus the overlap, they add up to two dozen ideas. Here’s how I score them:
Don’t demonize charter schools
Crain’s New York Business, NY, November 3, 2013
More than 50,000 students are on wait lists for the city’s 183 charter schools, and 30,000 more seats will be needed within four years. Yet despite charter schools’ popularity and purpose—to provide more education choices—they foster a fair amount of animosity. Critics question their effectiveness and complain of diversion of taxpayers’ money. Most visible among them is mayoral front-runner Bill de Blasio.
Local school leaders claim city plan based on bad numbers
Brooklyn Daily, NY, November 4, 2013
School’s in — like it or not! A city board approved controversial plans to install new schools inside the buildings of two existing Brooklyn public school, in spite of overwhelming public opposition and claims the proposal is based on flawed data.
NY begins first statewide school-to-job project
Wall Street Journal, November 3, 2013
The first statewide program in the nation using an innovative school-to-career program to link students with companies in search of specific job skills is set to begin in New York.
State audits find flaws in purchasing at two Buffalo charter schools
Buffalo News, NY, November 4, 2013
State audits of Health Sciences Charter School and King Center Charter School found that procurement policies at one school were weak and that officials at the other were not routinely following the purchasing policy.
NORTH CAROLINA
Choosing a charter
WRAL, NC, November 1, 2013
Just knowing that a school is organized as a public charter school is only the beginning of the research for a parent who is thinking about changing where their child learns, say experts interviewed for a story on the state’s growing number of charter schools.
Educators’ frustration over tenure law, impact justified
Editorial, Daily Advance, NC, November 2, 2013
Not surprisingly, the new law that ends teacher tenure in bits and pieces is causing confusion and consternation. It falsely portrays public education as broken in need of fixing. The fixing, however, is divisive and appears to be politically driven.
PENNSYLVANIA
A broken system: Law governing charter schools needs reworking
Opinion, Pocono Record, PA, November 3, 2013
The tension at the meeting reached a peak when one mother got to her feet. “We have to accept that what was done was wrong,” Gisela Vasquez said with frustration about the history of Pocono Mountain Charter School.
City woman addresses school crisis by opening her own
Philadelphia Inquirer, PA, November 4, 2013
Katharine Savage is a devoted city dweller, a believer in public education who joined a civic group devoted to improving the neighborhood school she imagined her three children would someday attend.
Crooks give charters a bad name
Editorial, Pocono Record, PA, November 3, 2013
Joan Chalker, a former top aide in a suburban Philadelphia charter school, pleaded guilty last month to three counts of obstruction of justice. Chalker provides yet another example of unethical people who look at charters as cash cows.
Enrollment cap stuns school districts in ‘choice’ program
Philadelphia Inquirer, PA, November 4, 2013
Sterling is one of many South Jersey districts grappling with news of the cap announced Oct. 3. Nearby Glassboro may have to cancel a specialized theater program, and other schools in the area are losing hundreds of thousands in expected income.
Pocono Mountain Charter School battle tab at $800K
Pocono Record, PA, November 4, 2013
The dollars spent in the war between Pocono Mountain School District and Pocono Mountain Charter School are nearing the $1 million mark, all footed by the taxpayer and with no end in sight.
RHODE ISLAND
R.I. wins high marks for use of teacher evaluations
Providence Journal, RI, November 3, 2013
Rhode Island is one of eight states in the nation that are ahead of the curve in using rigorous new teacher evaluations to prepare new teachers and help those already in the classroom become more effective.
SOUTH CAROLINA
Private-school choice gaining ground in SC
The State, SC, November 1, 2013
Support for private-school choice programs in South Carolina has increased dramatically in the last five years, but the public remains deeply divided over the issue, according to a new Winthrop Poll.
TENNESSEE
Herenton charter school’s final day ends hopeful experiment
Memphis Commercial Appeal, TN, November 1, 2013
Willie Herenton’s hopeful attempt to educate troubled youth ended quietly Friday when the charter schools he created to serve teens on probation closed, nine weeks after they opened at Northside High.
VIRGINIA
November Charlottesville officials try to explain drop in graduation rate
Daily Progress, VA, November 3, 2013
Charlottesville City Schools officials struggled to explain a slide in on-time graduation rates and a rise in the dropout rate for the class that entered Charlottesville High School for the 2009-10 academic years.
WASHINGTON
Five groups seeking charter school approval in Valley
Yakima Herald-Republic, WA, November 3, 2013
From a well-known early childhood education provider to a Texas-based nonprofit wanting to expand its brand to the Pacific Northwest, five nonprofit organizations are hoping to establish charter schools in the Yakima Valley.
WEST VIRGINIA
Teacher preparation needs reform too
Editorial, Charleston Daily Mail, WV, November 4, 2014
WEST Virginia’s programs to prepare elementary and secondary school teachers got mixed reviews last week in a report from a national group on teacher quality.
WISCONSIN
Charter schools offer a golden opportunity to help children
Fond du Lac Reporter, WI, November 3, 2013
As America struggles with high numbers of school drop outs and too few students who are proficient in math and reading, state lawmakers in Madison have a golden opportunity to strengthen one of the most promising approaches to better public schools for all Wisconsin children.
On vouchers, Republicans do for those who can do for themselves
Column, Wisconsin State Journal, WI, November 3, 2013
Few things are more likely to drive people into the arms of the anti-school-voucher crowd than the headline last week declaring nearly three-fourths of voucher recipients in the state’s expanded voucher program had already been attending private school.
ONLINE LEARNING
Goochland students test-drive iPads
Richmond Times-Dispatch, VA, November 4, 2013
Thanks to a pilot program, third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students at the school have been using iPads in the classroom and for schoolwork at home.
New Idaho academy gives drop-outs a second chance
Idaho Press Tribune, ID, November 4, 2013
On Thursday, Idaho Youth Challenge Academy staff will hold a community forum to explain what this new school is all about.
Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School to open satellite in Erie
Erie Times-News, PA, November 3, 2013
Pennsylvania’s largest online charter school has long had a marketing presence in Erie, recruiting students with billboards and ads.
Scranton’s new cyber school has nearly 50 students
Scranton Times-Tribune, PA, November 2, 2013
Some of the students returned to the district from cyber charter schools. Others had dropped out of high school or were considering dropping out. Some students, like Anthony, were just seeking flexibility and an option other than traditional high school.
State bills would replace school textbooks with technology
Gadsden Times, AL, November 3,2013
Textbooks have been a part of students’ lives since the days of the one-room school house. But several members of the Alabama Legislature say it’s time to throw out many of the books and replace them with laptops, tablets and other modern technology.