Daily Headlines for January 8, 2014
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
Cantor touts school choice to fight poverty
The Hill, January 8, 2014
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) on Wednesday will hail the movement for greater school choice as “the surest way” to end the cycle of poverty, lending his voice to a new conservative push for solutions to help the nation’s poorest families.
Charter school reform debate coming to Senate floor
The Sentinel, PA, January 7, 2014
The state Senate is set to vote as early as this month on the latest proposal to overhaul Pennsylvania’s 16-year-old charter school law.
New York scores high for school choice in report
New York Post, NY, January 8, 2014
New York is right near the top of a new nationwide scorecard on school choice — a status it could kiss goodbye under the policies of Mayor de Blasio.
State asks vouchers judge to end federal oversight in decades-old school desegregation case
Times-Picayune, LA, January 7, 2014
Lawyers for Gov. Bobby Jindal are asking a federal judge to end a 1976 landmark Louisiana case prohibiting public aid to all-white private schools, which would in effect return control of private school funding to the state.
STATE COVERAGE
CALIFORNIA
Full STEAM ahead: BCS program integrates art and science disciplines
Los Altos Town Crier, CA, January 8, 2014
Bullis Charter School’s STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) initiative, a staple at the 10-year-old school, integrates art into the sciences.
FLORIDA
For top principals, look to Miami-Dade schools
Miami Herald, FL, January 8, 2014
The Miami-Dade school district is home to five of the six best principals in Florida, according to a new analysis. The analysis, released Tuesday by Florida State University and the nonprofit Florida TaxWatch, considered data from more than 3,000 high-poverty schools. Principals were evaluated based only on student achievement gains in math and reading.
Seven new charters could take 5,000 students, $30 million from district schools next year
Palm Beach Post, FL, January 7, 2014
The Palm Beach County School Board on Wednesday will vote on contracts for seven new charter schools that could combine to take an estimated 5,000 students and more than $30 million in state revenue from Palm Beach County District-run schools next year.
KANSAS
What’s the Matter With Kansas’ Schools?
Op-Ed, New York Times, NY, January 8, 2014
KANSAS, like every state, explicitly guarantees a free public education in its Constitution, affirming America’s founding belief that only an educated citizenry can preserve democracy and safeguard individual liberty and freedom.
KENTUCKY
Kentucky faces education crisis
Leaf Chronicle, TN, January 7, 2014
Kentucky legislators are approaching a critical point as they prepare to open the 2014 session of the General Assembly Tuesday.
LOUISIANA
You want local, elected school boards? Charter-based voting would do it
The Lens, LA, January 7, 2014
It’s a common gripe among critics of New Orleans school reform: Charter school governance is too clubby. Self-selected and autonomous boards can’t be voted out by constituents, which some say limits community control of a charter school.
MASSACHUSETTS
Charter school’s tutoring program is neither sustainable nor ethical
Letter, Boston Globe, MA, January 8, 2014
LAWRENCE HARMON’S Jan. 4 op-ed “Define tutors as what they are: volunteers” misses the point. Whether the Match Charter School tutors are considered volunteers or whether they are simply minimum wage earners, they are being exploited.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Bill Before House Would Boost Funding For N.H.’s Charter Schools
New Hampshire Public Radio, NH, January 7, 2014
House lawmakers are scheduled to take up a bill Wednesday to increase annual per pupil funding for New Hampshire’s nearly two dozen charter schools.
NEW JERSEY
Innovative Enrollment Initiative Gives Students Real Choice
Huffington Post, January 7, 2014
If we’re serious about reforming public education in our nation, we have to ensure all our kids have access to high-quality schools. Newark, New Jersey, is launching an innovative new universal enrollment program this week aimed at achieving that goal as well as promoting equity and transparency, but federal regulations may stand in the way of full implementation.
N.J. Board of Education to hear from superintendents of state-run districts
Star-Ledger, NJ, January 7, 2014
The superintendents of the four school districts under state control will address the New Jersey Board of Education tomorrow morning in Piscataway.
NEW YORK
Charter School Parents Protest Co-Location Suit
New York Daily News Blog, NY, January 8, 2014
Charter school parents and advocates protested Tuesday against a move to stop dozens of charters from setting up shop in public schools buildings.
Education Supplement: Charter Corrections
Village Voice, NY, January 8, 2014
As a new mayor moves to rein in charter schools, a Bushwick administrator navigates an unclear future
NORTH CAROLINA
Expansion of charter schools should be conservative
Editorial, News & Observer, NC, January 7, 2014
Back in 1996, when the N.C. General Assembly authorized the creation of charter schools, the idea was that the number would be limited to 100 and that the charters would be part of the public system. They would be laboratories of sorts, not bound by some of the conventional rules of curricula and required programs.
Wake school board grapples with end of teacher tenure
WRAL, NC, January 7, 2014
Legislation approved last year that eliminates tenure for public school teachers in North Carolina is not popular around the table at the Wake County Board of Education.
OHIO
Make room for merit in schools
Editorial, Columbus Dispatch, OH, January 8, 2014
Despite its troubles, the Columbus City School District has some gems, in the form of its most-successful alternative schools.
OREGON
Portland Public Schools teachers contract: District has conceded on key sticking points, union president says sides ‘really close’
The Oregonian, OR, January 7, 2014
Portland Public Schools leaders have offered large concessions on two of the biggest sticking points in negotiations with the teachers union in an attempt to avert what would be the first strike in district history.
PENNSYLVANIA
Charter school gets OK to use former Agere site in Allentown
Allentown Morning Call, PA, January 7, 2014
A charter school proposed for the long under-used former Agere building in east Allentown received approval from the city’s Zoning Hearing Board on Tuesday, though approval from the city school district is still pending.
TENNESSEE
Metro school board’s Michael Hayes gets election challenge from Becky Sharpe
The Tennessean Blog, TN, January 7, 2014
The next round of Metro school board elections — which many expect will generate the same kind of heightened activity and campaign fundraising levels as the last one — has its first challenger.
TEXAS
Education Reform Group Mobilizes for 2014 Elections
Texas Tribune, TX, January 8, 2014
An education advocacy group that became a lobbying powerhouse during the 2013 legislative session with the backing of Texas tort reform heavyweights is now turning its sights to the upcoming election cycle.
UTAH
More students graduating from high school in Utah County
Daily Herald, UT, January 8, 2014
Statistics don’t lie — except when they do. The graduation rates for Utah high school students have increased statewide, up 3 percent since 2012 — 9 percent since 2009. And the dropout rate has decreased by 10 percent since then.
WASHINGTON
Education innovation gets hearing in Yakima
Editorial, Yakima Herald, WA, January 8, 2014
At long last, the Yakima Valley this evening will get a peek at what a charter school might entail. We begin with “at long last” because Washington state has been slow to implement one tool that could expand educational opportunities for our students.
WISCONSIN
Diminished in wake of Act 10, 2 teachers unions explore merger
Journal Sentinel, WI, January 7, 2014
Facing reduced membership, revenue and political power in the wake of 2011 legislation, Wisconsin’s two major state teachers unions appear poised to merge into a new organization called Wisconsin Together.
Independent Charter Schools: Siphoning off public money to private interests
Letter, Pierce County Herald, WI, January 7, 2014
“Will the Legislature allow statewide expansion of charter schools and how will that affect my local public school?”
WYOMING
Home-school group: Let teen take classes
Jackson Hole News & Guide, WY, January 8, 2014
Citing Wyoming statute, the Home School Legal Defense Association in Washington, D.C., is requesting that the school district allow a home-schooled student to take Jackson Hole High School classes that give students high school and college credit simultaneously.
ONLINE LEARNING
Charter school gives each student laptops
Longview News-Journal, TX, January 8, 2014
Lufkin’s Pineywoods Community Academy has more than 100 students who attend high school and college who might have a better chance at being successful this year after the charter school armed each student with a computer.
For three Catholic schools, ‘Cyber Days’ replace old snow days
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA, January 8, 2014
The digital age giveth and it taketh away. For students in northern climes, the ritual of turning on the TV or radio on winter mornings, aquiver with the anticipation of a snow day declaration — indeed the snow day itself — may be threatened by the inexorable march of technological progress.
Oklahoma’s education laws, regulations need to match 21st-century realities
Editorial, The Oklahoman, OK, January 8, 2014
WHEN Oklahoma first enacted its charter school law in 1999, fear was a common reaction. After all, other states collected horror stories of charter school operators embezzling state funds meant for kids and of schools closing up shop midyear, leaving students stranded.
Online schools: Wired for failure under currrent conditions?
Atlanta Journal Constitution Blog, GA, January 7, 2014
Should we be more concerned with the rush to embrace online learning and the lack of scrutiny of the growing for-profit sector in virtual education?
School districts make plan to offer online classes
Chicago Tribune, IL, January 7, 2014
High school students from five west suburban school districts may have the choice of taking some of their courses online next fall.
Teacher writes of ‘virtual-charter hell’ in Louisiana-connected company
The Times-Picayune, LA, January 7, 2014
Oregon educator Darcy Bedortha spent 15 months in “virtual-charter hell” teaching for K12, an online education company with a foothold in Louisiana.