McCain v. Obama on education (World Magazine), Parents matter most (Wall Street Journal), Satrting a school when the right one doesn’t exist (New York Times), and more in today’s Morning Shots.

Making the Grade?
World Magazine, NC, August 29, 2008
Barack Obama and John McCain try to convince Americans that their vastly different education proposals would pass instead of fail.

Raising the Bar: How Parents Can Fix Education
Wall Street Journal, August 29, 2008
More than budgets or bureaucrats, more than textbooks or teachers, parents are the reason that kids perform as they do in school.

Fiscal Conservatism Helped Louisiana Beat Katrina
Wall Street Journal, August 29, 2008
For the first time in our history, Louisiana has become a hotbed for education innovation. In New Orleans, state and local education leaders are working with national nonprofits and foundations to implement a variety of promising reform efforts…

A More Perfect Union
The Atlantic Magazine, August 28, 2008
The problem with teacher’s unions is inherent in the way that Democrats talk about unions: by banding together, they say, you create a powerful counterweight equal and opposite to the power of the companies in negotiations. So the schools have a gigantic, powerful bargaining bloc. Who doesn’t have a bargaining bloc? The kids.

A Watershed Labor Negotiation
Washington Post, D.C., August 29, 2008
Negotiations are stalled over Rhee’s proposal to give teachers the option of earning up to $131,000 during the 10-month school year in exchange for giving up absolute job security and a personnel-and-pay system based almost exclusively on years served.

In Tough Times, Some Families Finding Private School Tuition Too Much
Sun-Sentinel, FL, August 29, 2008
Pulling children from private schools, where they can receive religious instruction and avoid the FCAT, is not a choice parents want to make. But with family budgets shrinking and prices rising, more are choosing to enroll their kids in public classrooms.

Will ‘No Tuition’ Spell Chaos in Indiana Schools?
Indianapolis Star, IN, August 29, 2008
The new rules should give parents more opportunity to choose their child’s school. Unless the legislature steps in, though, school districts have discretion to decide whether to accept transfer students and, if they do, which ones they will accept.

Winnetka Families Celebrate New City School
Chicago Sun-Times, IL, August 29, 2008
Chicago students will be protesting at a north suburban school Tuesday, but Thursday, about 30 Winnetka families celebrated the opening of a new Chicago charter school campus.

Board Confused on Oversight of SAU 16 Charter School
Portsmouth Herald News, NH, August 29, 2008
Confusion spread among the members of the Exeter Region Cooperative School Board on Tuesday, Aug. 26 when the subject came up at a meeting about who is in charge of the Great Bay eLearning Charter School (GBeCS) and its funding.

Charter School Debate Continues with New Ones Coming
Downtown Express, NY, August 29, 2008
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein’s announcement on Aug. 18 to open 18 new charter schools this fall increased the total number of New York city charter schools to 78 and stirred enormous dissent within Community Education Councils across the city.

Washington Co. Follows National Trend in Private Education
Washington Observer Reporter, PA, August 29, 2008
Ten Christian schools operate in Washington County, serving about 1,000 families. There is one Christian school in Waynesburg.

Public Is Enthusiastic About Charter Schools
Baltimore Sun, MD, August 29, 2008
But it is unfortunate that two words in the headline “Charter growth: A skeptical public gradually embraces charter schools statewide” (Aug. 24) could give rise to a false impression.

To Find the Perfect School, You Might Need to Start One
New York Times, NY, August 28, 2008
Ms. Zuckerman and her co-founders, Julia Harquail and Michelle Smith, all had children with Down syndrome, and none felt confident that even the vast resources of New York City could provide the kind of education they wanted.