Los Angeles has had another round of public charter school openings (roughly one of every three new charters in the state).  Naturally, that has caused some rumblings in the district.  However, I love this rare moment of candor:

District officials, as well as the president of the teachers union, bristle at assertions by the Charter Schools Association that middle and high school charters are significantly outperforming their district counterparts.

A fairer comparison would be with the district’s magnet schools, which outperform charters, school board member Jon Lauritzen said.

"I think it’s basically unfair to compare an entity that is able to take their entire budget and focus it entirely on their own schools," he said. "They have some real advantages over our schools in the flexibility of actually providing the type of education that a particular community wants, whereas we are trying to provide a curriculum that works for everyone all across the school district." [emphasis added]

So charter schools spend their money more efficiently and utilize a curriculum that the community actually wants instead of a one-size-fits-all approach.  Yeah, I think that pretty much covers it.  Meanwhile, the Indianapolis school superintendent wants the city to stop granting charters.  For all the usual reasons.

Amidst the LAUSD takeover lawsuit, one observer said incoming LAUSD supe David L. Brewer "has to tread carefully".  Looks like Brewer didn’t get the memo:

Los Angeles’ incoming schools chief vowed Thursday to make removing "bad teachers" a major focus of his plan to improve schools — and made clear he was willing to sacrifice his early popularity over the issue.

"I’m going to be unpopular," said David L. Brewer, who is expected to take over as schools superintendent by the middle of next month.

"It’s called the right teacher in the right classroom in the right school…. Some people do not belong in the classroom, OK? They don’t belong there. We’re gonna get them out. The question is how is the system going to react to the way we get them out."

And the union fired back:

When read a transcript of Brewer’s comments, A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, said the incoming superintendent has much to learn about the school district.

"He’s also going to have to understand that a major cause of problems at schools are principals and assistant principals who are not team builders or team leaders," Duffy said.

"I hope he schools himself in the issue of administrators who are top-down, ‘Do what I say’ people rather than … team-building, collaborative people who regard and respect classroom teachers," Duffy said.

"We will continue to fight tooth and nail to protect our folks who are speaking out at school sites and representing teachers."

If political bloodsport is your thing, LAUSD should make for good entertainment after the election. 

SC debates get heated over school choice - The Legislature spent a good bit of time and energy over the past two years debating Republican Gov. Mark Sanford’s push to help parents pay private school tuition, and voters have taken notice.

Do anti-Demo mailers have pro-voucher link - At least six Democrats running for seats in the state Legislature say they are victims of a smear campaign by advocates for more choice in education.

LAUSD adding more charter schools in the fall - Los Angeles Unified opened 20 charter schools this fall - roughly one-third the total launched statewide - with most of them modeled after existing programs, the California Charter Schools Association announced Thursday.

Indiana school’s progress in the spotlight - With the No Child Left Behind Act up for renewal in 2007, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings is gathering input from those charged with bringing every child to grade level performance by 2014.

Check back later for more education news. 

UPDATE:

Doyl vs. Green - On Nov. 7, Wisconsin voters will decide who will be the state’s CEO for the next four years. The major candidates for governor are Jim Doyle, the incumbent Democrat, and Mark Green, the Republican congressman from Green Bay.

S.C. voters divided over school choice - The Legislature spent a good bit of time and energy over the past two years debating Republican Gov. Mark Sanford’s push to help parents pay private school tuition, and voters have taken notice.

Three wealthy donors provide most of Texas parties’ money - The donors say they merely want to help the parties. Baron wants to help rebuild the Democratic Party. Leininger is backing a party that agrees with him on private school vouchers. Perry aims to fund a statewide get-out-the-vote effort.

Ohio teachers get pre-election bonuses - The National Education Association said Monday that grants are unnecessary and duplicate existing programs. The union called on the government to put money into underfunded programs created by Bush’s No Child Left Behind initiative.

Next leader of LAUSD schools vows to remove bad teachers - Los Angeles’ incoming schools chief vowed Thursday to make removing "bad teachers" a major focus of his plan to improve schools — and made clear he was willing to sacrifice his early popularity over the issue.

In the Summer of  2001 Dame Marie Clay, creator of the New Zealand based Reading Recovery program, and her entourage came to the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC, to speak with House Education Committee Staffer Bob Sweet.  Her purpose was to ascertain whether Reading Recovery would be eligible for Reading First funding once the bill was passed.  Bob explained to Ms. Clay that explicit, systematic phonics instruction had to be included in any program eligible for RF funding because it was one of the necessary key components of reading instruction that had been established through decades of carefully conducted quantitative research.  These findings had been validated in the Report of the National Reading Panel in 2000 and were now going to become an essential part of the Reading First Law.  He pleaded with Ms. Clay to use her extensive network of teacher training programs all over the US to help in the implementation of the RF program.  He encouraged her to provide the leadership within the RR family to make the modifications necessary, and thus make RR eligible for RF funding consideration. 

More ““R” Stands for Reading Rat Race (Nancy Salvato)”

The blogosphere in general (well, the conservative/libertarian wing, anyway) has Day by Day.  We get WMD:

NOTE: Used with permission.