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June 27, 2007

Education News for Wednesday, June 27

Lorain Council drops charter school plan - The possibility of another charter school moving to Lorain was all but killed Monday by City Council. An ordinance that would rezone the Colorado Avenue Industrial Complex so that 8.6 acres of land could be sold for Constellation Community Schools to build a 100,000-square foot facility to serve kindergartners through 12th-graders was tabled in committee, effectively guaranteeing the issue won’t be considered again as proposed.

Think Tank Faults Vouchers For Disabled - Another pillar of former Gov. Jeb Bush's educational reforms - McKay Scholarships - took a jab in a study released Tuesday. Florida's largest voucher program, using taxpayer money to pay private school tuition for students with disabilities, lacks accountability and offers no proof that it helps children, the study from Education Sector says.

Council Mostly Applauds Nominee - D.C. Council members and city leaders yesterday gushed praise on Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s nominee to take over the $2.3 billion public school modernization program, but some were highly critical of the mayor for the secrecy with which he made the choice. Council members questioned Allan Y. Lew during a public roundtable on his nomination and voiced displeasure with Fenty's lack of consultation in the process for choosing Lew and other appointees.

N.H. raises dropout age to 18 - Gov. John Lynch signed a law Tuesday that raises the school dropout age from 16 to 18. More than a dozen states, including California and Texas, already require students to stay in school until age 18.

High School Sports: Legislature looks at eligibility issues - Jordan Bingham of northern Utah County is going to be a high school sophomore this fall. He wants to attend the new Karl G. Maeser Preparatory Academy in Lindon, a charter school preparing to open on Aug. 20 with about 175 students.

State has balanced budget - Last week, the sky was falling on state lawmakers and Gov. Ted Strickland after news broke that the state had a $230 million hole in the two-year state budget.

New Report Clears School of Cheating - When Philip Nobile reported in 2004 that the assistant principal of the Brooklyn high school where he taught had ordered other teachers to cheat on the scoring of Regents exams, he was embraced by a powerful city investigator as a whistle-blower.

Lt. Governor Cagle Announces Charter Advisory Committee Appointments  - Lt. Governor Casey Cagle announced the appointments of Dr. Charles Knapp, Otis Brumby Jr. and Mark Whitlock to the new Charter Advisory Committee.

Charter schools' bid for cash stalls - With the loss of up to $800 million in construction money looming over them, Broward School Board members decided Tuesday to hold off on giving Pembroke Pines charter schools a share of the school district's construction money.

Charter schools booming in the suburbs - Such rigorous curriculum and individual attention, administrators say, have boosted the Chester County school's standardized math and reading scores substantially since it opened in 2000. Last month, the Center for Education Reform recognized that improvement by naming Renaissance a national charter of the year.

Blacks in Fairfax, Montgomery Outdo U.S. Peers in AP - Black students in Montgomery and Fairfax high schools are far more successful in Advanced Placement testing than their peers in nine of the 10 school systems in the nation with the largest black populations, according to a Washington Post analysis.

Midland ponders enrollment - Midland School District Superintendent Lynn Roe King is optimistic with a hint of worry. King said he is confident the district can re-invent itself after being placed on the state’s fiscal distress list in 2006, but declining enrollment has the longtime educator troubled.

Schoolyard secrets - Editorial: The arrest this month of a reporter, accused of trespassing for taking soil samples at a pesticide-contaminated Paramus, N.J., middle school, is a powerful reminder of our tolerance for official secrecy about environmental health risks at schools.

Atlanta wants to shut down charter school - Atlanta Public Schools officials want to close a charter campus — which opened four years ago with hopes of getting more inner-city children into college — even though the principal says his students are outperforming their traditional public school peers.

New charter bridges Africa and Minnesota - Comfort Lartey-Ofori said she decided to start a charter school because for years she and other African professionals in the Twin Cities complained that traditional American schools teach children very little -- if anything -- about West African people and their culture.

Santa Fe school board, union strike contract deal - The Santa Fe school board ratified a collective bargaining agreement with the teachers union Tuesday after 15 months of drawn-out and sometimes contentious negotiations.

Consistency counts - Editorial: The LAUSD's policy for charter schools is to give failing campuses a one-year extension to fix their academic problems before getting their charters renewed. That is, unless the school is really failing, in which case it either gets its charter revoked or a five-year extension - depending on whether it rounds up hundreds of furious parents to stamp around and scare L.A. school board members. 

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