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Daily Headlines for November 16, 2012

School Districts, Eyeing Looming Debt Crisis, Brace for More Cutbacks
New York Times, NY, November 16, 2012
During the campaign, both President Obama and Mitt Romney repeatedly extolled the value of schools and teachers. Mr. Romney, in their first debate last month, even vowed, “I’m not going to cut education funding.”

Former Entertainment Properties Gets Good Returns With Diverse Portfolio
Kansas City Star, MO, November 15, 2012
The most unusual new real estate venture being taken on by EPR is the business of financing charter schools. It’s a growing national industry with an estimated 500 charter schools coming on line each year across the country valued at $2.5 billion.

A Little Perspective On Finland’s Educational Success
Seattle Times, WA, November 15, 2012
We are right to feel inspired by the educational successes of countries like Finland. Borrow an idea or two, but let’s not contort ourselves into Finland.

FROM THE STATES

COLORADO

School Board Leans Toward Rejection Of New Charter School
Glenwood Springs Post Independent, CO, November 16, 2012
The Roaring Fork School District Re-1 board and state charter school officials are both leaning toward denying a new charter expeditionary learning school in Glenwood Springs that has been proposed to open next year.

CONNECTICUT

Bridgeport’s School System Is Still Broken
CT Post, CT, November 15, 2012
In the past 17 months, there was more chatter about the embarrassing state of the Bridgeport public school system than there had been in a long time. There was also more action taken, right and wrong, to try to address the fact that so many kids here are trapped in failing schools.

State Falls Short On School Desegregation Requirements
Connecticut Mirror, CT, November 15, 2012
Connecticut has run out of time to comply with a court order to reduce the inequities caused by the segregation of Hartford ‘s largely black and Hispanic school population.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Embracing the Hollywood Model: The Opportunities Emerging from D.C.’s School Closings
Dropout Nation, November 15, 2012
Certainly one can expect traditionalists in the nation’s capitol to be vexed by Tuesday’s decision by D.C. Public Schools to shut down 20 of its schools with low enrollment over the coming two years. After all, the district has long-existed as a jobs program for the American Federation of Teachers’ Chocolate City affiliate and for politicians such as the ever-embarrassing Marion Barry, who used his tenure on the school system’s now-defunct board as a stepping stone to his long (and often-undignified) political career.

D.C. School Closures Are Focus Of Hearing
Washington Post, DC, November 15, 2012
Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson’s plan to close 20 under-enrolled schools across the District drew a throng of parents, teachers and activists to a packed D.C. Council hearing room Thursday evening, the first opportunity the public has had to weigh in on the proposal that would close one in six of the city’s schools.

Seeds Of School Choice Are Now Blooming In D.C.
Washington Examiner, DC, November 15, 2012
Why has DC Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson announced plans to close 20 underenrolled D.C. public schools — one of every six DCPS campuses — even though the District’s population has been growing at its fastest pace in 60 years? Henderson ‘s decision — which makes economic sense — is a tacit admission that the school choice movement has gone mainstream in the unlikeliest of places.

FLORIDA

Don’t Raise Taxes For Charters
News Press, FL, November 15, 2012
No right-thinking school board of any public system in Florida is going to take the political knife and raise property taxes to help fund capital projects for privately-run charter schools.

Lake Wales Charter System, School District at Odds Over Records, Student Eligibility
The Ledger, FL, November 15, 2012
There is no ruling yet on a dispute between Lake Wales Charter Schools and the Polk County School District on distribution of students’ information.

Pembroke Pines Charter School Teachers Win Raise Through Arbitration
Sun Sentinel, FL, November 15, 2012
The city-run charter school system must give 323 teachers back pay by the end of the state legislative session in May, an arbitrator ruled Thursday.

Researcher: Florida District Schools Outperform Charter Schools On Average
StateImpact NPR, FL, November 15, 2012
While charter schools are an increasingly popular option for Florida students, a University of Central Florida researcher says they don’t perform as well as district schools.

GEORGIA

Cairo May Convert To A Charter School
Albany Herald, GA, November 15, 2012
The Grady County Board of Education has petitioned the Georgia Board of Education to convert Cairo High School to a charter school to be called the Grady High School, a College and Career Academy (CHS/CCA).

IDAHO

Teachers To Receive $38M In Bonuses
Idaho Mountain Express and Guide, ID, November 16, 2012
Regardless of the defeat of education reforms by Idaho voters in the Nov. 6 general election, school teachers in Idaho will soon be receiving $38 million in “pay-for-performance” bonuses.

LOUISIANA

OneApp Includes More La. Schools
The Advocate, LA, November 16, 2012
The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approved policy changes at a meeting in New Orleans on Wednesday night regarding the new “OneApp” process and the effort to expand the streamlined enrollment to more schools.

Orleans Parish School Board Committee Approves One New Charter, Denies Another
Times Picayune, LA, November 15, 2012
The Orleans Parish School Board on Thursday gave tentative approval to a new charter school focused on engineering and innovation. The board’s accountability committee also denied a charter to a proposed arts school, and recommended changing the management of two existing charters.

Charter School In Kenner Will Focus On Health Sciences
Times Picayune, LA, November 15, 2012
Kenner officials gushed enthusiasm Thursday about plans to open a charter school in their city. Kenner Discovery Health Sciences Academy expects to start classes in August with students from prekindergarten through third grade, plus fifth and sixth grades, and steadily add grades each year.

NEW JERSEY

School Reform in Newark
New York Times, NY, November 16, 2012
Newark and its teachers’ union deserve praise for the groundbreaking contract that the two sides have hammered out. The relatively calm negotiations that led up to the union’s ratification vote this week stood in sharp contrast to the vitriol that surrounded a similar agreement earlier this year in Chicago that led to a polarizing strike.

Newark Union Embraces Merit Pay
The Record, NJ, November 16, 2012
MOUNTAINS can move. It happened Wednesday, when Newark teachers approved a contract that includes merit pay.

NEW MEXICO

Teacher Pay Plan Failed To Hike Scores
Albuquerque Journal, NM, November 16, 2012
New Mexico’s three-tier teacher licensure system, which has cost the state more than $330 million, has little connection to whether teachers boost their students’ test scores, according to a new Legislative Finance Committee report.

NEW YORK

School Board Protests Chameleon Charter Conversion Bid
Buffalo News, NY, November 15, 2012
The Buffalo Board of Education is vowing to protest attempts by a nonprofit group to convert East High and Waterfront Elementary schools into charter schools. The board Wednesday voted to register its complaints in a letter to State Education Commissioner John B. King Jr.

SUNY Works To Better Prepare Teachers For State Standards
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, NY, November 15, 2012
Education professors from New York’s public university system gathered in Albany on Thursday to brainstorm how they can better prepare future teachers for classroom demands, particularly several new or upcoming state-mandated requirements.

Teachers Union Sues To See Joel Klein Emails
New York Daily News, NY, November 15, 2012
The union sued the city once before for access to emails between Klein and charter school proponents, but the documents it received were heavily redacted with entire pages blacked out.

NORTH CAROLINA

Cape Lookout High School Charter Renewed Until 2014
Daily News, NC, November 16, 2012
A lesson in perseverance paid off for a Carteret County charter school that has successfully fought to stay open.

OHIO

Charter School Could Close Soon
Columbus Dispatch, OH, November 16, 2012
A struggling Columbus charter school could be forced to shut down by the end of the month, leaving more than 100 students searching for new schools on short notice.

Charter Schools Attracting Larger Share Of Students In Cleveland
Cleveland Plain Dealer, OH, November 16, 2012
Cleveland and several other Ohio cities are among those with the highest concentration of charter enrollment in the country, according to a newly released report.

Districts: Funding Loss Unfair
Cincinnati Enquirer, OH, November 16, 2012
Just three months in existence, a new state scholarship program for disabled students is angering some Greater Cincinnati school officials, who say their districts are forced to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars on private school tuition for students who have never attended public schools.

PENNSYLVANIA

Lawmakers Walk Away From $500M
Scranton Times-Tribune, PA, November 16, 2012
Now that the state Legislature has finished its two-year session, lawmakers should reflect on their keen sense of priority. The majority rapidly passed a voter identification law designed to serve partisan political goals, but failed to reform the state and school pension systems – the single largest financial issue facing the state government and 500 local school districts.

Philadelphia School Reform Commission Suspends Parts Of State Public School Code
Philadelphia Inquirer, PA, November 16, 2012
The Philadelphia School Reform Commission voted to suspend portions of the state public school code Thursday night, saying it needed room to cap charter enrollment and shorten the timeline for closing schools.

East Allentown Charter School Agrees To Cap Enrollment
Allentown Morning Call, PA, November 15, 2012
Lincoln Leadership Academy Charter School has a new five-year charter. But the renewal cost the east Allentown charter school major enrollment concessions in an agreement approved Thursday by the Allentown School Board.

TENNESSEE

Tax Dollars Better Spent On Traditional Public Schools
The Tennessean, TN. November 16, 2012
If charter schools have such a great model, then why doesn’t the Metro school board adopt it for all schools? If millions of tax dollars are invested in failing charters, something very wrong is going on.

Vouchers Prompt Mixed Reactions From Parents
Nashville Public Radio, TN, November 15, 2012
Some state lawmakers say Tennessee’s consistent ranking in the mid-forties for education means it’s time to consider a school vouchers program. It would reroute money meant for public schools, to instead help some parents pay private school tuition. WPLN’s Daniel Potter heard opinions from several parents about vouchers, and has this story.

TEXAS

Schools To Be Graded On Achievement Gap
San Antonio Express, TX, November 16, 2012
Education Commissioner Mike Williams said Thursday that the state’s yet-to-be-labeled rating system, to be unveiled in March, will include a measure of how well schools and districts are doing in closing the achievement gap that persists among poor and minority students.

HISD May Delay Teacher Parts Of Evaluation Plan
Houston Chronicle, TX, November 16, 2012
HISD leaders are considering another delay in implementing part of a highly anticipated teacher evaluation system after facing problems with the rollout this year.

WASHINGTON

Charter Schools Measure May Face Court Challenge
Everett Daily Herald, WA, November 16, 2012
Washington is laying the groundwork for its first charter schools even as the head of the state’s public school system looks to challenge the legality of the ballot measure that would allow them.

Election 2012 Sends Mixed Signals On Education Reform
Seattle Times, WA, November 15, 2012
Washington’s so-called education reformers scored a significant victory when voters narrowly approved charter schools last week, but they suffered across-the-board losses in candidate races

WEST VIRGINIA

State School Chief Fired
The Intelligencer, WV, November 16, 2012
The West Virginia Board of Education fired Schools Superintendent Jorea Marple on Thursday, and two board members who opposed the decision said they will resign.

ONLINE SCHOOLS

Blended Learning Pilot Met With Praise
Union Leader, NH, November 15, 2012
Bedford’s pilot Blended Learning program was met with warm sentiment at the School Board meeting, Tuesday, Nov. 13. After two trial classes over the summer, the program is progressing toward an installment for a whole semester in the spring.

Easton Agrees To Launch Cyber School
Allentown Morning Call, PA, November 15, 2012
Students in the Easton area who have a serious illness, work a full-time job or have other issues could soon have an option to earn a degree from the district without showing up to class every day.