Pundits: Smarick Returns To Public Service
Proving yet again that he's not afraid to work in the agencies that he writes about, Andy Smarick is headed off to New Jersey to be the deputy superintendent for the state DOE, according to EdWeek. I didn't always agree with Smarick, or even understand what he was saying (about turnarounds, for example), but he was a smart, friendly, welcome addition to the blogosphere and I admire him for walking the walk and returning to public service. AM News: All Arizona (Tax Breaks, Ethnic Studies Ban)
High court to hear Arizona school case AP: The U.S. Supreme Court will consider ending a lawsuit that challenges Arizona's tax breaks for donations for thousands of private school scholarships.... Ariz. Ban On Ethnic Studies Divides Educators NPR: The law targets any ethnic studies classes in the state's public school system that "advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.".. Miss. board denies staging 'sham' prom for lesbian AP: A rural Mississippi school district that was sued by a lesbian student who wanted to bring a same-sex date to the high school prom is denying accusations it routed her to a "sham prom" while most of her schoolmates partied elsewhere... Education" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/24/arts/television/24bordentown.html" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(34, 68, 187); ">Television Review: Considering Separate but Equal on PBS NYT: “A Place Out of Time: The Bordentown School” on PBS traces the history of an all-black school in New Jersey, a microcosm of good intentions and misguided theories... 9 plead not guilty in Obama loan case AP: The former employees of Vangent Inc. are accused of gaining access to a computer at the contractor's office in Coralville between July 2007 and March 2009 and getting into Obama's records while he was either a candidate for president, president-elect or president.Quote: Duncan Unconcerned About Texas Textbooks
"Whatever Texas decides, I do not think there will be large ripple effects around the country. Textbook companies today have a real ability to customize textbooks." -- Arne Duncan on CNN
Money: Districts Might Cut Summer School
Districts might lay off hundreds of teachers, and they might cut summer school, too: A poll by the American Association of School Administrators found that 34 percent of respondents are considering eliminating summer classes for the 2010-11 school year because of money woes.(Summer School Canceled in Many Cash-Strapped States). 
