Friday’s ed news
FLORIDA: A bill to expand the state’s most popular school choice program and allow education savings accounts for disabled kids gets blocked, but itschances aren’t over yet.
MICHIGAN: The Obama administration is also threatening Michigan over its No Child Left Behind waiver. If the state doesn’t pass laws the feds like, they receive sanctions.
NORTH CAROLINA: A bill would let students enroll in any school district in the state, despite their ZIP codes.
CALIFORNIA: Support for increasing school taxes, already below majority support, drops further.
Thursday’s ed news
LOUISIANA: A new bill would delay the state’s phase-in of Common Core tests by three years.
MICHIGAN: A review finds no link between teacher pay and student achievement.
ARIZONA: Districts convert some schools to charters to get extra state funding, but without changing much else about the schools.
FLORIDA: The House approves a bill that would expand opportunities for high school students to complete a year of college.
CHARTERS: On average, charter schools get $3,800 less per student than district schools, a nationwide study finds.
HIGHER ED: Today’s the day students mail off their decisions letters for what college they’ll attend. What’s next for them?
DATA: Google says they will stop scanning the email accounts of kids in school.
FEDS: Education Secretary Arne Duncan spars with U.S. Senators about his autocratic approach to education policy.
TEACHERS: Common Core’s creators get to pick National Teacher of the Year winners.
Wednesday’s ed news
CHARTERS VS. CHOICE: How charter schools can reduce education diversity–by pushing Catholic schools to close.
WISCONSIN: The chairman of the Senate Education Committee says Gov. Walker will not end Common Core because his campaign donors dictate his policy.
STUDENT LOANS: How President Obama is costing taxpayers billions to send young people into low-paying careers.
MICHIGAN: Most teachers will never collect pensions. Instead, they will subsidize comfy pensions for other teachers.
FLORIDA: The House votes to let trained teachers carry concealed guns at school.
SOUTH CAROLINA: The state board of education will consider letting schools teach facts about human origins that may contradict the theory of evolution.
Tuesday’s ed news
DROPOUTS: New numbers show one in five students drops out of high school.
TESTING: Like last year, a number of states are having problems administering computerized tests.
WASHINGTON: The Obama administration yanked the state’s No Child Left Behind waiver. Why that displays its dictatorial spirit.
NORTH CAROLINA: Lawmakers take the first step towards dumping Common Core.
CHARTERS: Walmart owners’ fortunes fund charter schools for poor kids.
Monday’s ed news
KANSAS: Gov. Brownback signs a bill allowing the state’s first school choice program.
LOUISIANA: Voucher enrollment is set to increase by about a third, to 9,000 students.
ARIZONA: Gov. Brewer has signed two bills to slightly enlarge the state’s school choice program.
MICHIGAN: The U.S. Supreme Court allows the state to ban racial preferences in college admissions. Colleges say they will discriminate based on race anyway.
WISCONSIN: The Obama administration targets the state’s voucher program.
KENTUCKY: A new law restricts some uses of student data.
TESTING: Federal officials are changing the only test that will provide independent data through the shift to Common Core, and moving it from paper to computer testing.
NORTH CAROLINA: A judge lets school districts temporarily ignore a state law ending teacher tenure.
For last week’s School Reform News roundup, click here.
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Image by Mo Riza.
Joy Pullmann is a research fellow on education policy for The Heartland Institute and managing editor of The Federalist, a web magazine on politics, policy, and culture.
