The Governator eked out a victory against the California Teachers Association:

In a rare defeat for teachers’ unions, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill Thursday to make it easier for some principals to reject incompetent teachers.

The new law won’t make it easier to fire public school teachers — something the governor sought and failed to win with an initiative last November — but it eliminates one escape route for teachers facing bad reviews.

SB 1655 by Sen. Jack Scott (D-Altadena) restricts future union contracts so that principals at the lowest-performing schools no longer have to give jobs to weak teachers transferring within the district. The measure will affect about 3,000 schools.

It’s not a big deal overall, but in California, where the CTA generally does what it wants–and given the fact that this was sponsored by a Democrat–it shows there are limits to the union’s clout.  This also seems to illustrate that that Schwarzenegger can still play hardball with the CTA, even in the wake of his failed battle from last year. 

Escape hatch for incompetent teachers closed - In a rare defeat for teachers’ unions, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill Thursday to make it easier for some principals to reject incompetent teachers.

State finds errors in high school graduation, dropout rates - Graduation and dropout rates reported by Michigan’s high schools are not always accurate, according to a state audit released Thursday.

Utah schools suffer setback - School report cards under the federal No Child Left Behind law were released Thursday, and though achievement benchmarks remained the same, fewer schools scored up to par.

Feud over mayor’s take over of LA schools public only - Even as Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and school district officials prepare to wage war in court, senior aides on both sides are quietly laying the groundwork for a future partnership and collaborating on major initiatives, including a system to track dropouts.

Check back later for more education news. 

UPDATE:

All aboard the charters? - NRO: Chester Finn opinion: Charter schools have taught us much. Since Minnesota enacted America’s first charter law in 1991, 39 states have followed suit and eager school reformers have created some 4,000 of these independent public schools…

Debate on NY education heats up; charter or public schools? - It seems when you get both sides in a room, the number one topic is money. Both the charter and public schools need it to provide for the students, and each wants a bigger slice of the pie.

Right Wing Prof is calling us out!  These two posts are worth your time, but this stinger from the first link is pretty much the linchpin of his argument:

Educrats hold all the power, whether the school is private, public, or charter. And the source of all the problems in education today come directly from the educration bureaucracy.

No, even with vouchers, there will be no true, free market in education. There will be a severely constricted market, at least until schools start deliberately hiring teachers who do not drink the Dewey kool-aid. And that won’t happen until there are schools that aren’t being run by educrats that don’t drink the Dewey kool-aid. So while I support vouchers, I don’t believe for a second that vouchers — choice — will make a significant difference in the quality of education.

The Prof makes some very salient points.  They’re not new, either, especially with Arthur Levine’s recent ed school report making waves. 

Here’s what I’d like everybody to do.  Read those two posts.  Internalize them.  Because they connect quite nicely to some stuff I’ve been meaning to get to regarding Levine’s study and the changing face of school choice dynamics.  Stay tuned. 

(UPDATE: Wrong name.  Fixed now.) 

La Maestra over at California LiveWire has my back on helping students in AP classes:

What I see Welsh upset about is what I’ve spent four years trying to do with my AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) students, and in fact, is what the AVID program is geared toward. AVID’s purpose is to challenge students academically by placing them in higher-level classes than they would have otherwise been in, and then–the important part–PROVIDING THEM WITH SUPPORT ONCE THEY’RE THERE.

Mathews, while he does an excellent job refuting Welsh’s arguments, misses one key necessity–co-curricular support outside of the class itself. The process of moving "average" kids to higher-level classes won’t work just by dumping them in AP classes and hoping they hang on. Virtually every student in higher-level classes is there at least in part because of a supportive parent, and this often-overlooked factor is often the determining factor between an "average" student and a "higher-level" one.

My previous post on this is here.  This notion that leaning on students to test their limits is somehow unfair or harmful is itself harmful. 

The fusion of higher ed and K-12 continues:

Loudoun County School Superintendent Edgar B. Hatrick III announced a partnership this week between the school system and Inova Loudoun Hospital to develop courses that will give more high school students hands-on training in medical professions.

The Claude Moore Charitable Foundation has given the venture a push with a $150,000 donation, which was presented to the partners before Hatrick’s "State of Education" address at a Chamber of Commerce meeting Tuesday morning.

The training programs could offer a solution to staffing shortages at hospitals and become a national model, said J. Hamilton Lambert, executive director of the Fairfax County-based foundation.

Some might point to this as evidence that eeeeevil corporations are converting schools from places of childhood innocence to factories whose sole purpose is to churn out obedient little worker drones.  Even assuming schools were ever independent from the labor force (which is something I seriously doubt can be supported by historical record), consider the fact that this nation is presently suffering from an ongoing health care labor shortage, which will only be exacerbated in a few years months when that first wave of baby boomer retirees really hits hard.  Also, maybe it’s a good thing that students are exposed to highly-paid career opportunities!

American education is a lesson in symmetry: in comparison to a suffering K-12 system stands our, post-secondary network, which with all its faults is the envy of the world.  I think this is just another sign of an increasing collaboration between the two systems, and one that is long overdue.  If students come out of it with increased career opportunities–not to mention opportunities for increased earning potential–then at the end of the day, victory will have been achieved.