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Daily Headlines for May 2, 2011

Do American Students Study Too Hard?
Wall Street Journal, April 30, 2011
A new documentary argues that kids these days memorize too many facts. Go figure.

School Choice and Urban Diversity
Wall Street Journal, May 2, 2011
Many more middle-class parents would live in big cities if they could pick the public schools their kids attend.

How Schools Can Help Struggling Students
New York Times, NY, May 1, 2011
In his April 26 column, “The Limits of School Reform,” Joe Nocera uses the case of one 13-year-old to illustrate how the education system fails one child, and not because he did not have a caring, skilled teacher or supportive school, but rather because socioeconomic background and personal issues “vastly outweigh what goes on in school” in determining students’ success or failure.

Back to School for the Billionaires
Newsweek, May 1, 2011
They hoped their cash could transform failing classrooms. They were wrong. NEWSWEEK investigates what their money bought.

Parents Risk Jail For A Good School
Kansas City Star, MO, May 1, 2011
When I hear larceny, the last thing I think about is someone stealing an education.
But these days, despite shrinking school districts, mass teacher layoffs and blatant education inequality, parents can face jail time for lying about where they live so their child can go to a good school.

School Reform Best Path To High-Paying Jobs
Knoxville News Sentinel, TN, May 1, 2011
The president and Congress have many important items on their agenda: wars, deficits, gas prices, energy policy and more. However, no list of key issues is complete without adding education reform. Improving the performance of American students strengthens our economy, increases our productivity and ability to innovate, and creates high paying jobs.

FROM THE STATES

ALABAMA

Lawmakers Consider Charter School Proposal
Montgomery Advertiser, AL, May 1, 2011
Republicans including then- Gov. Bob Riley pushed hard a year ago for legislation that would allow charter schools in the state, but the Alabama Edu¬cation Association and Demo¬crats in the Legislature killed the proposal before it ever started moving.

CALIFORNIA

Public Education And Private Money May Prove A Mixed Bag
Los Angeles Times, CA, May 1, 2011
We support taking private dollars to help make ends meet. But there is reason for concern when a slate of top positions is filled through the largesse of private citizen benefactors

FLORIDA

Why Parents Favor Charters – 2 Points Of View
Orlando Sentinel, FL, May 1, 2011
Karen Hankins makes the half-hour drive from her home in the Clarcona area each morning to take her three children to Nap Ford charter school in downtown Orlando.

Senate-Passed Measure Put Charter Visions at Odds
St. Petersburg Times, FL, May 1, 2011
There are two competing visions of charter schools in Florida – one rosy, and one far darker.

GEORGIA

Charter Schools Gain Traction In Midstate
Macon Telegraph, GA, May 1, 2011
While the fate of state-approved charter schools all over Georgia remains in limbo, charter schools with local backing are gaining more prominence in the midstate.

ILLINOIS

Parent Power
Chicago Tribune, IL, April 30, 2011
A trigger law or policy would harness the power of Chicago parents. School officials would be more accountable to deliver better results. The people who run excellent schools would have nothing to fear. Everyone else would be accountable to parents.

LOUISIANA

New Leader of Recovery School District Takes Over Today
Times Picayune, LA, May 1, 2011
Since his days in Jersey City, White, 35, has charged up the ranks of a nationwide reform movement aimed at eliminating those sorts of obstacles. Today, he officially takes over as head of the Louisiana Recovery School District, a job that gives him oversight of most New Orleans public schools.

MASSACHUSSETTS

A Calculated Risk Taken, Rewarded
Boston Globe, MA, May 1, 2011
After enduring growing pains, charter school set to graduate its first class

MICHIGAN

New Rules for Schools — State Must Do More Groundwork to Make Competition Work for Students
Detroit Free Press, MI, May 1, 2011
Strip away the frills and Gov. Rick Snyder’s plans to revamp education in Michigan boil down to one word: competition.

NEVADA

It’s Not Multiple Choice
Las Vegas Sun, NV, May 2, 2011
Improving education is more complex than many simplistic plans suggest

NEW YORK

The $100 Million School That Could Remake Harlem
New York Post, NY, April 30, 2011
It’s a $100 million holistic Harlem complex meant to combine the latest research on how to provide the best education to kids in poor communities, which means going beyond reading, writing and arithmetic.

Brizard’s Departure Should Be A Wake-Up Call
Democrat and Chronicle, NY, May 1, 2011
City school reform is now into its fourth decade and the schools are poorer, more segregated and more educationally dysfunctional than ever.

A New Measure for Classroom Quality
New York Times, NY, May 1, 2011
OF
all the goals of the education reform movement, none is more elusive than developing an objective method to assess teachers. Studies show that over time, test scores do not provide a consistent means of separating good from bad instructors.

NORTH CAROLINA

Fuzzy Math Muddles School Choice Debate
Times and Democrat, NC, May 2, 2011
In every profession there are certain tools. No one would tolerate a dentist who scraped plaque with wire strippers or an auto mechanic reaching for a scroll saw rather than a wrench to tighten belts.

OHIO

Pay for Performance
Toledo Blade, OH, May 2, 2011
AMONG the many groups that oppose Ohio’s new collective-bargaining law for public employees, none are more adamant than teachers unions. The law would replace salary schedules that reward longevity and advanced degrees with a merit system that supposedly is based on teacher performance.

Charter Backer Says House Proposal Weakens Oversight
Columbus Dispatch, OH, April 30, 2011
A leading school-choice supporter says the sweeping changes proposed by House Republicans would weaken oversight of charter schools severely and threaten to turn Ohio into a “laughingstock of the nation’s charter-school programs.”

OKLAHOMA

Tax Credit Scholarship Bill Could Be Improved
The Oklahoman, OK, May 1, 2011
THE best thing that could happen for Oklahoma’s schoolchildren is education reform so bold and innovative that it wouldn’t matter if they lived in a poor neighborhood or a rich one, or in a school district that had a good reputation or a bad one.

PENNSYLVANIA

KIPP Charter Schools Open Up To Invite Credibility
Philadelphia Inquirer, PA, May 2, 2011
Against a backdrop of scandals at other Philadelphia charter schools, one charter organization has devised its own system to provide more accountability.

Corbett Praises Chester Community Charter School
Gant Daily, PA, May 2, 2011
Gov. Tom Corbett toured the Chester Community Charter School, telling students that “having a choice means having a chance.”

Schuylkill County Schools Bristle At Notion Of Vouchers
Republican Herald, PA, May 2, 2011
In addition to proposing solutions to the $2.8 million deficit in its 2011-12 budget, the Blue Mountain school board also took a stand against part of Gov. Tom Corbett’s budget plan Thursday night.

RHODE ISLAND

Two R.I. Teachers’ Unions Rally To Bolster Morale And Defend Their Profession
Providence Journal, RI, May 1, 2011
Held at the Ryan Center at the University of Rhode Island, the day was designed to reinvigorate Rhode Island classroom teachers dispirited by the far-reaching debate about how to improve schools, a national conversation that often feels like an attack on teachers, said Larry Purtill, NEARI’s president.

VIRGINIA

Meritorious Teachers
The Free Lance-Star, VA, May 1, 2011
HARD WORK should be rewarded. That’s a universal principle applicable at all levels of the education process. But is Gov. McDonnell’s merit-pay pilot program for teachers well-founded.

WISCONSIN

UWM Getting Results In Charter School World
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, WI, April 30, 2011
UWM holds its 12 charter schools accountable and is getting promising results

Bill Would Give Disabled Students Vouchers For Private Schools
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, WI, May 1, 2011
Wisconsin lawmakers have introduced a bill that would allow students with disabilities living anywhere in the state to attend private schools at taxpayers’ expense.

VIRTUAL EDUCATION