2013 January School Reform News

The January issue of School Reform News reports that unfunded government employee pensions are gobbling many states’ education budgets, leaving governments scrambling to find money to cover pensions in addition to school operating costs.

Also in this issue:

• Thirty-five Mississippi schools have performed so poorly for three years in a row that parents can now convert them into charter schools under the state’s 2010 Parent Trigger law.

• The number of public school administrators and nonteaching staff has increased seven times as fast as enrollment since 1950, a new study has found.

• Oklahoma’s Supreme Court has upheld special-needs vouchers.

• Nearly two-thirds of Michigan’s schools contract out for services, and they are pleased with the results.

• Red-state Indiana voters chose a teachers union official to replace Tony Bennett, their school choice champion and superintendent.

• Florida wants to double K-12 charter and voucher school enrollment in the next six years.

• Obamacare sends Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, into K-12 classrooms to talk sex.