As the state Senate rushed last month to pass a bill that would expand the number of charter schools in certain districts, it added an amendment that would probably prevent them from opening in Boston, Lawrence, and several other cities where the quality of education has long been a concern.
The amendment, added in the final hours of debate without any analysis of its impact, creates a second set of criteria to determine which school districts would be eligible for new charter schools. Instead of basing eligibility purely on low MCAS scores, as originally proposed, the amendment would also require the district to show that it is among those slowest to improve their scores.
The effect of the amendment is to dramatically shrink the number of districts eligible for new charter schools, from the projected 33 districts to about four, according to an analysis by the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association.
No charter school bill has been enacted; the House has yet to take up the measure.
Letters - The Mayor, the Teachers and the Tests - NYTimes.comRe “Mayor to Link Teacher Tenure to Test Scores” (front page, Nov. 26):
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s plan to include test scores in the teacher tenure decision is ill conceived. The teacher’s effectiveness is only one component of what goes into a student’s test score. Teachers cannot select their students, but most do their best with whomever they are given to work with.
The mayor’s plan will result in teachers’ doing whatever they can to avoid teaching high-risk students, like those with poor attendance, poor reading and math scores, and poor work habits, attitudes or discipline. The incentive to influence scores in unprofessional ways will only increase, as will a lack of collegiality among teachers.
Healthy, organic and cheap school lunches? Order up - USATODAY.comOAKLAND — On the combination plate of problems plaguing the USA's public schools, few are as intractable as this: Can you serve fresh, healthful meals each day to millions of kids without breaking the bank, or must you resort to serving up deep-fried, processed, less expensive junk?
For more than a decade, big food thinkers have chewed on this, making it a cause célèbre. But most often they find that feeding kids well requires one simple thing: more money.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Frustrated educators, parents and community leaders presented a laundry list of needs for Staten Island's school district at a town hall-style meeting with Schools Chancellor Joel Klein yesterday evening.
The nearly 200 who packed the room at the Michael J. Petrides Educational Complex, Sunnyside, said their children were being shortchanged, and they were angry that they were being stonewalled and lied to by the Department of Education.
Education Department gives $500k to three brand-new '21st century' schools, despite budget cutsThe Education Department quietly forked over $500,000 to three pet schools, even as most schools lost tens of thousands of dollars in budget cuts.
The three brand-new "21st century" schools got the extra funds outside the normal budgeting process after private donations that the schools had been hoping for did not materialize, sources told the Daily News.
The schools can use the extra cash to hire consultants, buy computer equipment, pay teachers to work more hours - anything that helps them "align" with the Education Department's "21st century vision."
Efforts under way to stem U.S. school dropout problem - Yahoo! NewsCHICAGO (Reuters) – Jesus Garcia dropped out of high school and figured he was destined for prison or a life shortened by violence -- until he found an alternative school that became the family he never felt he had.
"Without this school, kids would be dealing drugs, dying, gang-banging, all of it. Without this school there would be no leaders, no mentors," Garcia, an aspiring chef, told a group of former dropouts who have re-enrolled in alternative schools.
Some 30 percent of Americans drop out before finishing high school. They are more likely to be unemployed, receive public assistance, commit crimes and go to jail than those who graduate. They also are less healthy and have a lower life expectancy, according to research presented at a Columbia University conference
Class Struggle - How to raise minority participation in Advanced PlacementMy colleague Nelson Hernandez reports on the extraordinary progress Montgomery County has made raising both participation and success in college-level courses in high school. Black and Hispanic students in the county are also doing significantly better on AP tests than minority students in the rest of the state
High Court Weighs Student Loan Case : NPRThe Supreme Court on Tuesday heard the case of a young man who — finding himself in dire economic straits — declared bankruptcy on his debts, which included a student loan. Then, 17 years after a court first approved his bankruptcy, the lender contacted him and said that he still owed them money.
A group that tracks college loan debt yesterday served up some sobering news for students on two fronts.
The average debt nationally among graduating seniors with loans reached $23,200 last year, a sum that has grown by about 6 percent annually since 2004, according to The Project on Student Debt based in Berkeley, Calif.
And graduates saddled with those loans likely are having a harder time finding a job to pay them off, given a third-quarter 2009 unemployment rate of 10.6 percent for graduates 20 to 24 years old That's the highest national rate for that group in the 10 years data has been available.
Pennsylvanians at least can take comfort knowing their state does not carry the biggest average campus debt. That distinction fell on the District of Columbia, according to the Project's study of debt released yesterday.
Stymied by Stimulus? | The Texas TribuneAs the first version of the state budget circulated at the beginning of the 2009 session, school advocates had a reason to get excited. The budget included $1.9 billion in new education funds, most of it going directly to schools via weighted formulas for distribution. There was only one problem.
The money didn’t exist.
“It was a deficit budget as written,” said Scott Hochberg (D-Houston), who chaired the Appropriations subcommittee on Education.
How the economy is failing students - Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2009 | 2 a.m. - Las Vegas SunThe Clark County School District has always struggled with its sky-high population of poor children. The number of homeless students is expected to reach 8,000 by the end of the academic year, a 30 percent increase. And a full 44 percent of the district’s students receive free or reduced-price lunches, a commonly used indicator of childhood poverty.
Family poverty, in turn, is correlated with lagging student achievement.
LOS ANGELES — Long used to manageable property tax bills, California homeowners have been lamenting over the last few years that their assessments did not reflect the enormous slide in the value of so many homes here.
Now, for the first time in more than 30 years — since a law was enacted limiting the amount property taxes could rise — property tax bills will reflect negative price inflation, reducing most homeowners’ tax bills come January.
Sacramento News & Review > Blogs > SNOG > Opponents sue to stop strong mayor plan. KJ probably thrilled. > December 1, 2009If Kevin Johnson wins his strong mayor campaign, he may look back and say that today was pivotal.
This morning KJ’s opponents filed a lawsuit against the city to try and get Johnson’s strong mayor initiative (SMI) taken off of the ballot. In the process, they may be giving up some of the moral (and political) high ground they had.
Lawsuit challenges Sacramento's strong-mayor initiative - Sacramento City News - sacbee.comSacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson's strong-mayor proposal should be removed from the June 2010 ballot because it violates the state constitution, a lawsuit filed Tuesday states.
Opponents of the proposal said it calls for sweeping revisions of the city charter. According to the lawsuit, revisions can be proposed to voters only by a governing body such as a City Council or elected charter commission – not through the initiative process.
Marcos Breton: Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson is his own worst enemy - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento BeeIf Kevin Johnson could have avoided serious injuries as an NBA player, who knows where he would be now?
The fiery point guard for the Phoenix Suns might have made the Basketball Hall of Fame, led a different life and never become mayor of Sacramento.
As Richard Rothstein, David Berliner and Bruce Biddle, and others have reported, schools have been steadily providing an ever-increasing level of education to American students, despite all the constant haranguing we hear about about an education “crisis” today.
Crisis: 1a. A crucial or decisive point or situation; a turning point. b. An unstable condition, as in political, social, or economic affairs, involving an impending abrupt or decisive change (American Heritage Dictionary)
There was never a golden age of education prior to this era, unless it was the time when public schools and their teachers were not under this current aggressive and vicious attack, which was initiated and is being sustained by the corporate class. It is they, using political puppets, who have actually now created a true crisis in public education, by invading school districts to implement their chaotic transformation!
The war against public schools, and the teachers who work in them, is serving two purposes. One, in the true neo-liberal fashion, it is paving the way to the privatization of public education. Secondly, the constant chatter and bickering is serving as a distraction from more important issues and crises which the corporate/political leadership refuses to address.
