Latest News and Comment from Education

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

UPDATE: Joy Resmovits: School Closures Violate Civil Rights, Protestors Tell Arne Duncan + Scott Walker Wants Merit Pay, Arizona School Funding Screwup: Ed Today

Joy Resmovits: Scott Walker Wants Merit Pay, Arizona School Funding Screwup: Ed Today:



School Closures Violate Civil Rights, Protestors Tell Arne Duncan

WASHINGTON -- The standards-based education reform movement calls school change "the civil rights issue of our time." But about 220 mostly African American community organizers, parents and students from 21 cities from New York to Oakland, Calif., converged on Washington Tuesday to tell U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan he's getting it backwards on school closures.

Members of the group, a patchwork of community organizations called the Journey for Justice Movement, have filed several Title VI civil rights complaints with the Education Department Office of Civil Rights, claiming that school districts that shut schools are hurting minority students. While most school closures are decided locally, 


Scott Walker Wants Merit Pay, Arizona School Funding Screwup: Ed Today

Scott Walker-Style Merit Pay? Speaking at a Friday convention, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) said he wants the state to begin a program that would pay teachers partially in accordance with their ratings, reports the Badger Herald. "One of the things we're looking to do going forward is to put additional resources into public education over the next two years in this budget in a variety of different ways is in part ... put money behind performance," Walker said. "How can we provide an incentive bonus?"

Arizona School Funding Oops? According to a new audit, Arizona's charter schools received more money than they deserved in 2006, but other schools received less than what was owed to them, reports the Associated Press. To make up the difference, Arizona will pay $38 million in March to schools who lost out, and pay the charters that were overpaid $6 million less over 17 months. "I am fairly certain every school district and every charter will either owe money or be owed money back," said Lyle Friesen, the department's deputy associate superintendent of school finance. If they're not proficient in math...

Ohio Ed Reform? Business leaders in Ohio are pushing Gov. John Kasich to "push hard on educational