Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Education Push to Include Merit Pay
Wall Street Journal, March 10, 2009
President Barack Obama is laying out his "cradle to career" plan for education Tuesday, including a controversial plan to boost pay for teachers who excel.

President Obama Education Plan To Call For Performance-Based Pay, Firing Poorly Performing Teachers
New York Daily News, NY, March 10, 2009
President Obama will call for performance-based pay for deserving teachers and to give the boot to poorly performing educators in a speech Tuesday morning.

Charter Schools’ Biggest Crisis: A Place To Call Home
Christian Science Monitor, MA, March 9, 2009
ICS needs a new home. A mile away, in a quiet, residential neighborhood, a roomy public school building stands tantalizingly empty. The DeKalb County school district won’t rent or sell it to ICS – a precedent other charter schools might want to follow

Schools Already Making Plans With Stimulus Money
National Public Radio, March 9, 2009
The more than $100 billion allocated for education in the administration’s stimulus package will take some time to trickle down to local school districts. In some cases, the money may not arrive soon enough to avert more layoffs and budget cuts.

Lessons From The World’s Best School Systems
Times and Transcript, March 9, 2009
Simply throwing more money at the school system does not produce results. Australia has tripled education spending per student since 1970 and the United States has doubled spending since 1980, including greatly lowering class sizes. There has been little return.

Battle Over School Choice
Wall Street Journal, March 9, 2009
Watch the Journal Editorial Report on the battle over school choice.

Chicago Archdiocese Forms New School Board
Chicago Tribune, IL, March 10, 2009
Faced with dropping enrollments and rising school costs amid a crippling recession, Cardinal Francis George announced Monday the creation of a new archdiocesan school board to plan a future vision for Chicago’s Catholic schools.

Educators Question School Plan
Columbus Dispatch, OH, March 10, 2009
Educators in some of the state’s poorest school districts say the governor’s education plan holds great promise, but it needs significant changes to ensure an adequate education for all students, including those in Appalachia.

Influences: What Shapes The Minds That Made The News
Philadelphia Inquirer, PA, March 8, 2009
Byers helped found the Russell Byers Charter School in Center City in 2001, in memory of her husband, the Daily News columnist who was killed in a robbery attempt in 1999. When the school opened, there were 160 students, from kindergarten through second grade. Today, the school offers classes through the sixth grade for 410 students.

The Law’s Promise Of Parent Empowerment: Still Just A Promise
Philadelphia Public School Notebook, PA, March 9, 2009
Philadelphia researcher Ruth Curran Neild, in a study of school choice, observed that, "in districts with few good school choice options for students, there are limits to parents’ ability to find a school that represents a substantial improvement over the school their child already attends."

Charter School Advocates Hopeful For Cap Expansion
North Carolina News Network, NC, March 9, 2009
Supporters of charter schools say there seems to be a chance the cap on the number of those schools could be raised by the legislature this session. Supporters of charter schools say there seems to be a chance the cap on the number of those schools could be raised by the legislature this session.

School Vouchers Aren’t Answer
Athens Banner-Herald, GA, March 10, 2009
Based upon a thorough review of research, political history and policy implications, the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education thinks school vouchers are not the silver-bullet reform some policymakers are seeking.

Groups Seek To Run Failing Schools
The Advocate, LA, March 10, 2009
While eight groups seeking to run eight failing schools in Baton Rouge have ties to Louisiana, three have deep roots in Baton Rouge. The eight schools, and two more in Shreveport, were approved for state takeover in January.

Orthodox Grapple With Charter Schools
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, NY, March 9, 2009
The Yeshiva Elementary School, a fervently Orthodox institution in Miami Beach, Fla., with about 450 students, was in dire straits in late 2008. It was behind on payroll, in significant debt and facing financial collapse.

As LAUSD Layoffs Loom, Debate Over Teacher Seniority Resurfaces
Los Angeles Times, CA, March 10, 2009
The Los Angeles Board of Education is scheduled to vote today on whether to issue these notices to about 9,000 employees, including 5,500 teachers, because of an expected $700-million budget shortfall. Outside of Los Angeles, more than 20,000 teachers statewide are expected to receive preliminary pink slips, according to teachers union officials

School Activities: ICSD Has Right To Ban Students
Ithaca Journal, NY, March 10, 2009
But students of New Roots (and their families) will also have to deal with a host of realities based on their decision to attend the school. One of those realities is the possibility that the Ithaca City School District may ban students who attend a charter school (such as New Roots), or are home-schooled, from participating in extracurricular activities such as athletics and band.

School District Inks Contract with KIPP
Galveston County Daily News. TX, March 10, 2009
After months of negotiations, Galveston public school district officials signed a contract with a nationally recognized charter school to open a campus inside an elementary school this fall.

Give Charter Schools A Chance in Madison
Pioneer Press, MN, March 10, 2009
Madison needs to get past its outdated phobia of charter schools. Charter schools are not a threat to public schools here or anywhere else in Wisconsin. They are an exciting addition and asset to public schools — a potential source of innovation, higher student achievement and millions in federal grants.

Online Learning Bill Clears Wash Senate
Puget Sound Business Journal, WA, March 9, 2009
The Washington state Senate on Monday passed Senate Bill 5410, which would increase the state’s authority over online-school programs. The programs now enroll thousands of public school students statewide.

House Approves School Funding Formula Overhaul
Las Cruces Sun-News, NM, March 10, 2009
A proposal to revamp how New Mexico allocates money to public schools cleared the House on Monday and lawmakers are looking at an increase in the gross receipts tax to pay for proposed educational improvements.

Undue Expulsion for D.C. Kids
Heritage Foundation, March 10, 2009
Since 2004, thousands of children like Fransoir have had scholarships worth up to $7,500 to attend a private school of their choice as a part of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program. Currently, more than 1,700 low-income children are benefiting.