School Reform News Roundup, Week of May 21-26

Published May 25, 2012

The state of Pennsylvania may take over school districts in fiscal chaos.

Ohio’s legislature is stalled on several legislative proposals, including the Cleveland plan needing quick passage to pair with a local levy.

Sixteen thousand North Carolina students would leave public schools for private schools if the state passes an education tax-credit, a legislative analysis found.

Race to the Top for school districts promises to become a mess, writes Rick Hess.

Mike Petrilli critiques Mitt Romney’s new education policy platform.

From Thursday:

State Senate negotiations over the Cleveland schools overhaul are at a critical stage.

Rick Hess critiques Mitt Romney’s education proposals released yesterday.

Louisiana private schools have room for 5,000 voucher students this fall.

In light of a New York Times slam against tax credit scholarships, John Kirtley discusses smart program design to avoid abuses of taxpayer dollars.

Almost five times more students applied for New York charter school seats than were seats available.

Arne Duncan’s Race to the Top district-level federal grants plan concerns local officials, who say they fear it’s a federal takeover that conflicts with the Tenth Amendment.

From Wednesday:

The Obama administration extends the Race to the Top federal grant competition to local school districts.

A New York Times article “exposing” tax-credit scholarships largely misses the mark and already-existing mechanisms to prevent abuses, write Chester Finn Jr. and Adam Emerson in Education Next.

South Carolina considers ways to restructure teacher pay away from performance-blind schedules.

The Washington Post again comes out to criticize the Obama administration for making every attempt to shut down D.C.’s successful vouchers program for poor kids.

Rick Hess compares two types of school choice supporters: the “Tocquevillians” and the “Occupy School Choicers.”

A survey says large numbers of local Utah politicians support or don’t know much about Common Core education standards

A Common Core standards architect moves to the College Board, which provides AP and SAT testing. He foresees aligning the tests, which nearly every college-bound high school student takes, with the Common Core.

Thomas Friedman foresees a revolution in higher education.

From Tuesday:

Utah teacher Cole Kelly: Fired and blacklisted for choosing a teachers union alternative? Video here

The New York Times takes aim at tax-credit scholarships.

Illinois lawmakers vote to end a graft-ridden state college scholarship program.

The U.S. Department of Education unveils a Race to the Top grant competition for school districts today.

Approximately one quarter of Pennsylvania school districts are broke. Schools teaching nearly half of California kids are in the same straights.

Charter schools open opportunities for families in a bogged-down state, said a Michigan panel yesterday.

Federal college aid is actually just corporate welfare, writes Andrew Biggs in The Atlantic.

From Monday:

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan visited Florida to give a laundry list of things he thinks Florida does wrong on education. He suggested lobbyists are the reason the state has kept its private tutoring requirement for failing low-income kids.

Though tax-credit scholarships have been put on the legislative back burner in Pennsylvania, Catholics in the state are rallying for their passage.

Ohio legislators continue dickering over reading requirements for third graders.

Philadelphia’s School Reform Commission hears feedback on its massive district restructuring plan.

New Orleans education entrepreneurs are exploring the role of government in a decentralized system.

The New York Times missed the real story in its overblown, victimized-focus article about student loans, says Julia Seymoar of the Business and Media Institute.

What is ‘ed-tech‘?

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam considers expanding state-funded pre-K.

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Image by Mo Riza.