Teach union strikes back: Defiant in face of contempt ruling, hefty fines - Boston Teachers Union leaders last night vowed to fight a judge’s decision finding the union in contempt for the executive board’s vote on an illegal one-day strike.

Panel: Phila. District Should Question Private Management (Edweek.org registration required) - Concluding that some privately managed public schools in Philadelphia have not delivered the same rates of improved achievement as those run by the city district, an independent committee is urging local education officials to consider shifting operation of some of the lowest-performing schools back to the district.

Push voucher bill past next hurdle - Opinion: Georgia’s Senate Bill 10, which would provide scholarships to disabled students, deserves passage by the full House.

Calloway top choice for Detroit school superintendent - A Detroit Public Schools search committee voted Thursday night voted to recommend Connie Calloway as the next superintendent of the 119,000-student school system.

Nevada Measure Offers School Choice Option - Nevada lawmakers are looking at a bill that would give Washoe County parents a choice about where their kids attend school. No zoning, no restrictions, no assigned school locations…so what do local parents think of all this educational freedom?

A Closer Look at Asian-American Achievement (Edweek.org registration required) - Transcript of an online chat with Don T. Nakanishi, director of the UCLA Asian-American Studies Center.

Report Card: No Child Left Behind Part II - A look at how NCLB affects special education students.

Will ‘No Child’ act get left behind? - Lukewarm acceptance of NCLB can be found throughout the community when speaking to the politicians who will soon be asked to consider reauthorizing the program and the educators who daily have it to consider.

Bush visits New Orleans’ charter school - Calling it a bright spot in a city still going through difficult times 18 months after Hurricane Katrina, President Bush visited one of the city’s 31 charter schools during a trip to New Orleans, praising local efforts to change a school system that was struggling even before the storm.

President Bush Visits Samuel J. Green Charter School - Transcript of Bush’s remarks. 

Keep an open mind about new education - An explanation from an educational consultant about change in education.

Md. Ranked No. 4 Among States For Child-Care Center Standards - Oversight and regulation of child-care centers in many states are disturbingly low, according to a study released yesterday that ranked the Defense Department well above any state for its child-care standards and Maryland fourth in the nation.

FCAT-based teacher bonuses reluctantly approved in Martin - Martin County, Florida teachers and school board members approved a controversial bonus program for teachers Thursday, though both groups said they hope they won’t have to do it again.

Rank-and-file teachers deny voting for Fenty takeover - Members of the Washington Teachers Union say they never voted to support Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s school takeover plan, despite Tuesday’s endorsement of the proposal made by union leaders on behalf of the group’s 4,200 teachers.

Advocating for D.C. schools - Opinion: The battle over reforming D.C. Public Schools was a set up, and if stakeholders aren’t careful they will lose sight of what the so-called advocates and other special-interest groups want. Make no mistake, their goal is not to raise students to a higher level of learning. Their goal is to maintain control of school funding. Specifically, they want to maintain control of the distribution of that money.

Education needs reform, not money - Opinion: Utah legislators have appropriated nearly a half million dollars in new money for education this year, but educators are still griping, trying to fight what KSL-TV calls a "we’ve fixed it" attitude at the Capitol. For all the bickering, one would never see that the problem with education is not about money.

BESE chooses Pastorek for post - Paul Pastorek of New Orleans, a lawyer and former outspoken president of the state’s top school board, was chosen Thursday to be Louisiana’s next superintendent of education.

Will voters decide on vouchers? - Less than 24 hours after the Utah Legislature adjourned, opponents of the school voucher program applied for a referendum petition that could land a final decision in the hands of voters in the next general election.

Voucher debate focuses on choices, funding - In a debate over school vouchers Thursday morning at the Provo City Library, a proponent and opponent of the issue facing Utah schools tossed up examples of government services to support their for-and-against arguments.

Selective School Choice - Opinion by Alliance president Clint Bolick: There’s something about our nation’s capital that converts many leading Democrats to school choice. Perhaps it’s the glimpse that Washington, D.C. affords into inner-city public schools.  But in most cases this appreciation of school choice extends only to their own children — and not to the millions of children in failing public schools. Indeed, a nearly perfect correlation exists among Democratic presidential candidates who have exercised school choice for their own children and those who would deny such choices to the parents of other children.

The responsibility for teaching - Opinion: The education of children is an awesome responsibility bestowed by God upon their parents. A parent’s ability to fulfill this responsibility should not depend on where they can afford to live or whether they have enough money to pay private school tuition.

Students Taking Tougher Courses, Dropout Rates Soar - The newly released results from the 2005, 12th grade National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) known as the "Nation’s Report Card" and the 2007 California Education Report Card present a mixed picture of educational achievement for high schoolers. Overall high school achievement is stalled, the education gap between whites and low income students and students of color is widening and dropout rates are soaring.

At budget deadline, deficit looms - With a deadline to present its 2008 budget looming, the Philadelphia School District faces a deficit of about $176 million for next year, the School Reform Commission chairman said yesterday.

Charter School Bill Advances - The number of charters the Arkansas Education Board could grant for open-enrollment charter schools would double under a bill endorsed Thursday by the House Education Committee.

Mayor urges more accountability for school district - A recent incident involving a teenage tagger illustrates the need for greater accountability by Los Angeles Unified, said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is fighting to reform the city’s public schools.

Education reformers get schooled - Dr. Charlotte Frank knew she’d be in a tough spot when she agreed to lead the New York City Council’s Middle School Task Force.  The effort to develop a new blueprint for public education reform was announced two weeks ago by Speaker Christine Quinn — one month after the Bloomberg administration had unveiled its own school restructuring plans.

Getting real about per-pupil spending - Opinion by California Parents for Educational Choice president Alan Bonsteel: One claim of supporters of maintaining the government’s monopoly on public education is that our public schools teach our children common values. One would like to think that among those common values would be truthfulness. In fact, though, if we were to grade our public schools on the accuracy of what they tell the public, they’d get an F.

Bush To Visit Indiana To Tout ‘No Child Left Behind’ - President George W. Bush will make a stop in southern Indiana in support of reauthorizing "No Child Left Behind."

Editorial: Added math, science credits should be practical offerings - It’s easy to say "Absolutely" to the notion of more math and science – more "smarts" – for our students to soak up.

Grasmick Affirms Graduation Mandate - Maryland School Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick told the State Board of Education yesterday that she is committed to having students pass high school exit exams starting with the Class of 2009, despite plans that would delay when students in special education and limited English proficiency programs must pass them.

What gives on who gives? - A list of selected donors to the two bigger-money campaigns in this year’s Los Angeles school board election.

UPDATE:

To Keep Or Close Concord High, That Is The Question - Some say they see benefit in closing the high school, but are finding their judgment is in conflict with their emotional attachment to the school. 

Barrett blasts budget - Gov. Deval Patrick’s recently unveiled $26.7 billion budget could be disastrous for the city’s school department. City officials fear the governor’s proposal will create a shortfall of $325,000 and result in job cuts for teachers and school staff. 

State Administrator Agrees to Close East Oakland High - Because of OUSD’s open enrollment policy, students currently enrolled will have the opportunity to enroll next year in any high school in the district that has the room to accommodate them. With many of the district’s high-choice high schools already at capacity, however, students currently at East Oakland Community will be “defaulted,” according to district representatives, to the high school in whose attendance zone they live.  

Will Vouchers Spur Parochial School Growth? - Now that the Legislature has created Utah’s first private school tuition voucher, does the state’s largest private school district have expansion plans?

Future of vouchers: Legislature in uncharted water with universal plan - Editorial: The governor’s signature on Utah’s brand-new school voucher bill was hardly dry when amendments were proposed. Then the amendments were amended. That kind of evolution is likely to mark the life of this misbegotten law, which undercuts public education by initiating the country’s first universal voucher program to funnel taxpayer money to private schools. 

Bush Touts Education Reform Law At Indiana School - Calling it one of the most significant pieces of legislation he has signed, President George W. Bush urged Congress on Friday to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Law during a visit to a southern Indiana school. 

President Bush Discusses No Child Left Behind Reauthorization - Transcript of President Bush’s speech. 

Consultant: City Schools Need A Discipline Czar - A consultant recommends that the 173,000-student city school district hire a discipline czar to overhaul an inconsistent disciplinary system that leaves many classrooms in chaos. 

Charters in peril in deficit crisis? - Philadelphia School District officials yesterday said for the first time that closing underperforming charter schools is among actions they are contemplating to erase a ballooning budget deficit. 

Report: District losing control - The Philadelphia School District’s student disciplinary system is plagued by inconsistencies, high turnover in personnel, and a lack of training, staff and resources - all leading to a breakdown in procedure and an insufficient transfer of problem pupils out of the schools, according to an independent consultant’s report released yesterday. 

High schools look to boost image in face of competition from charters - The Santa Cruz City Schools district hasn’t launched any systematic effort to promote its schools or boost enrollment. But tired of standing by and watching enrollment fall, a few educators are taking on the task themselves, turning open houses into marketing events and trying to lure "customers" away from the competition. 

School closures leave parents cynical - Changes in Oakland district raise questions about sincerity of requests for community input. 

New push on school funding fix - New group, long-standing plan: Group touts income tax increase with reduction in property taxes. 

Limited-English Students Struggling to Close Language Gap - Office of English Language Acquisition Director Kathleen Leos was online Friday, March 2 at 1 p.m. ET to discuss the problem and what the Education Department is doing to address it. 

Schools Chancellor Responds To Opposition Over Restructuring Plan - A day after hundreds showed up to protest his schools overhaul plan, NY1 Education reporter Michael Meenan spoke with Schools Chancellor Joel Klein who weighed in on the opposition.  

Charter school crisis -  Two area public charter schools could close this summer because their three-year federal seed grants expire, and the state only pays them one-third the statewide average cost per child. 

New law may set off charter school boom - Other charter school legislation passed in this session includes a law that will allow schools to obtain low-rate financing through the state to pay for building leases. 

No Spanish-Speaking Child Left Behind - Opinion: According to U.S. government figures, English is the second language for approximately 5.5 million students in the United States, nearly one-tenth of the total U.S. student body. 

Fenty’s School Takeover Plan Gets Rough Reception - Mayor Adrian M. Fenty is facing a mini-rebellion on his home turf, where almost all those vying to replace him as Ward 4 council member say they either oppose his plan to take over D.C. public schools or want the issue to be decided by voters in a referendum.