The April 2010 issue of School Reform News reports on the Obama administration’s announcement of 16 finalists for its first allocation of Race to the Top education funds. Reformers across the country are scratching their heads trying to figure out why some states were chosen.
Also in this issue:
- Six states are planning a $75 million turnaround effort aimed at persistently failing schools.
- Congress is considering how to expand charter schools as part of its reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The All-STAR Act would provide funding but also carry extra federal oversight.
- While Congress contemplates charter expansion, Colorado lawmakers are considering three bills to tighten charter ethics rules and certification.
- School choice may continue its slow but steady gains in Georgia with legislation to expand the state’s voucher program to cover foster children and military families.
- School reform advocates say a new report from the Brookings Institution is wrong to push the reform movement away from voucher plans and other sweeping changes.
- In her latest book, education historian Diane Ravitch claims choice and competition are undermining schools. But the mountain of evidence Ravitch has furnished in her previous work undoes her arguments.
- School choice activists in Arizona are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a lower court ruling that found the state’s 13-year-old tax credit scholarship program unconstitutional.
