Friday’s ed news
WISCONSIN: Gov. Scott Walker says a school choice expansion will pass.
LOUISIANA: Teachers unions, parents, and lawmakers from both parties support a Parent Trigger that would let parents petition to have their school placed back under district control.
INDIANA: A bill to pause Common Core passes a conference committee and heads toward likely passage.
FLORIDA: Senators seek a Parent Trigger compromise.
NATIONWIDE: Thousands of parents rally for school choice.
UTAH: The state’s new Common Core testing regime is untested and not delivering what officials promised.
TEXAS: Lawmakers consider a bill to give all students in poor areas tax-paid school breakfast.
PENNSYLVANIA: A struggling school district considers being first in the nation to switch all its traditional schools to charter schools.
CHARTER SCHOOLS: A new review shows most recent studies show charter school students learning more than traditional school peers.
FLORIDA: The state will open the first online-only public university in the United States.
Thursday’s ed news
PARENT TRIGGER: Let failing Kentucky schools become charter schools, opines WDRB. Florida lawmakers haggle over the state’s Parent Trigger bill.
INDIANA: Lawmakers are close to a deal on a measure to pause Common Core national standards.
WASHINGTON DC: Charter schools spend $13,000 less per student than traditional public schools, and get better results.
MINNESOTA: Students attempting to take their state tests online face repeated technical problems.
CHEATING: Former DC schools chancellor Michelle Rhee responds to allegations she did not look into reports of cheating during her tenure.
CHICAGO: Charter school parents form advocacy group to counter smears against their kids’ schools.
MISSOURI: The House backs a constitutional amendment securing parents’ rights.
UNIONS: An Indiana judge horsewhips a teachers union for spurious legal arguments.
NORTH CAROLINA: The Senate education committee passes a bill requiring all kids to learn cursive and the multiplication tables.
NEW YORK CITY: Sol Stern can’t figure out why Common Core means city schools retrenching failed progressive methods.
MAINE: A bill would cap student test performance as 10 percent of a teacher’s evaluation.
Wednesday’s ed news
INDIANA: Lawmakers reach a deal on expanding the state’s voucher program.
ALABAMA: The Senate leader says “I can’t tell who’s telling the truth” on Common Core, and wants to postpone a vote on legislation to withdraw. Lindsey Burke on why Alabama should instead take the lead.
MEXICO: Teachers riot in the streets against new evaluations, so isgruntled parents start teaching their own kids.
COMMON CORE: U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan pleads with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to get more energetic about pushing Common Core.
TEXAS: The House hears a bill to raise the state’s charter school cap from 215 to 305.
MICHIGAN: Gov. Rick Snyder thinks the hush-hush group working on cheaper, better education has some good ideas.
UNIONS: Union members in New York discover their late president stole $800,000.
VIRGINIA: Are state lawmakers complacent about mediocre student achievement?
WYOMING: A public school tells concerned teachers to stop talking about Common Core.
Tuesday’s ed news
TEXAS: Two-thirds of Texas voters support vouchers.
LOS ANGELES TIMES: California’s not ready for Common Core.
MASSACHUSETTS: Seven hundred rally in the capitol to get lawmakers to remove the state’s charter school cap.
MICHIGAN: How school districts hide their political spending.
COLORADO: A school finance revamp adding $1 billion in spending does little to improve education, critics say.
SCIENCE: Reviewers of the Common Core science standards think they’re poor-quality and overly political.
UNIONS: The American Federation of Teachers “blacklists” any pension funds whose employees donate to causes unions dislike.
NEW YORK: The state considers requiring all high school students to write a research paper.
SOUTH CAROLINA: Lawmakers consider ending the state’s high school exit exam, citing cost and students “who don’t test well.”
Monday’s ed news
CALIFORNIA: A Los Angeles mayoral candidate supports the Parent Trigger, pledges to be the “education reform mayor.”
TEXAS: The state board of education formally objects to tax-credit scholarships. Teachers object to tying their evaluations to student test scores.
TENNESSEE: Voucher and Parent Trigger legislation that failed this year will come back in 2014.
NEW YORK: The state’s new Common Core tests contain advertisements for Mug Root Beer, LEGO, and more.
PHILADELPHIA: The city schools face a budget catastrophe with massive cuts. About 200 parents and local leaders rally for more charter schools.
GRIT: Challenging academics promote student character and work ethic, not thumb-sucking workshops.
IOWA: Gov. Terry Branstad’s chief of staff defends a snarky video prodding Democrats to support an education proposal.
IDAHO: Gov. Butch Otter signs five bills containing education provisions voters roundly overturned last year.
ILLINOIS: By a large margin, the House passes a bill to pause new online charter school openings for one year.
NORTH CAROLINA: A bill would block school districts from suing their county commissioners for more money.
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.
