Education Headlines
Monday, August 20, 2012
State's 'the check is in the mail' forces schools districts to break out credit card
Like a homeowner living beyond their means, California is paying some of its bills late, by months or even years. And this "the check is in the mail" method of balancing the state budget has forced many of California's 977 public school districts to either dip into shrinking financial reserves or pay borrowing fees and interest on short-term loans to cover their expenses in the meantime.Superintendent recommends leasing classrooms to private school
School officials in Carlsbad have struck a deal with a private school to lease 16 classrooms at Magnolia Elementary School for almost $250,000 a year, substantially less than the amount the private school offered earlier this month.As year begins, Marin schools use new national standards
There is still much uncertainty about how instruction may change because teachers and administrators are still analyzing the standards and their implications.Charter schools fighting for survival
As state budget cuts ravage schools districts across California, some charter schools have been hit particularly hard, said Vicky Waters, a California Charter Schools Association spokeswoman.O.C. schools may cut up to 1 month if tax hikes fail
Orange County's public schools plan to cut the school year by up to four weeks if California voters reject tax increases this fall, even as most will continue providing automatic pay raises to teachers and other school staff.High cost of school bond shocks Poway Unified
Residents of the Poway Unified School District are dealing with a bad case of sticker shock after realizing a $105 million bond deal struck by school officials last year left them on the hook for nearly $1 billion.In an era of teacher layoffs, some districts are still hiring
Before the first bell of the school year is to ring at Ekstrand Elementary School, the "new kids" at Bonita Unified gathered last week on the school's grassy quad, introducing themselves over breakfast.Charter school group's chief blamed for 2010 cheating scandal
Educators say John Allen asked Crescendo principals to show teachers the state standardized test.The Los Angeles Unified School District was going to suspend him, but the board voted to fire him and close the campuses.New law to require concussion training for high school coaches
High school coaches in California will be required to receive training in concussions under legislation signed into law today by Gov. Jerry Brown. Assembly Bill 1451 requires high school coaches to receiving training every two years on recognizing the signs of concussions and responding to them appropriately. The training can be acquired online.California Teachers Assn. a powerful force in Sacramento
The union, backed by an army of 325,000 teachers and a war chest as sizable as those of the major political parties, can make or break all sorts of deals.Walters: Complexity obscures California school money
When Gov. Jerry Brown labeled the state budget a "pretzel palace of incredible complexity," he almost certainly had in mind the budget's largest, most complicated piece – financing schools.Rosenblatt: Having gone to school doesn’t mean we all can run a school
There is a fundamental difference between being involved intimately in supporting schools and actually running a school or educating children. We’ve all had the experience of believing we can run the restaurant better because we all eat. But intellectually, we know it’s very different to actually run a restaurant than to patronize one. Yet we are all too easily tempted to believe that we better understand how to educate children because we all went to school.LAUSD truancy-diversion program keeps violators out of the courts
Chronically truant students will be referred to city-run youth centers rather than funneled into the criminal justice system under a program debuting Monday in the Los Angeles Unified School District.Buchanan takes reins of Assembly Ed, voices caution about common core
Joan Buchanan, newly appointed chair of the Assembly’s Education Committee, has grown skeptical about the state’s progress in bringing the new common core curriculum standards into California classrooms.AB 18, once praised funding overhaul bill, moves as mere study request
The last major effort to overhaul the state’s school funding system has been formally scaled-back into legislation authorizing only a new study of the issue. AB 18 by Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, once held promise as the vehicle for simplifying the state’s byzantine education funding formulas while bringing more equity into the system.Fensterwald: District settles with ACLU over program for English learners
While insisting that it did nothing wrong, a Central Valley school district has quickly settled a lawsuit filed by several chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a half-dozen parents and teachers who charged that the district had adopted a destructive program for English learners, which the state, in turn, failed to monitor.Steinberg seeks to change report cards for California schools
California schools spend all year grading student performance, but lawmakers are turning the tables with an issue that strikes at the heart of education: How should a school be graded? Parents have a right to know if their child's campus is passing or failing; the current yardstick is based entirely on standardized test scores, sparking a Capitol push for change.Friday, August 17, 2012
