Access News from June 9 - June 20, 2008
Daily news stories about education funding
litigation, education funding policy, cost studies,
advocacy and No Child Left Behind.
(Some links go to pages that require free subscriptions)
June 20, 2008
School Funding Litigation/Policy
NJ governor calls it a legal and moral responsibility
to revive school construction program to the tune of
another $3.9 billion
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VA legal aid center for families questions the legality
of many school fees and back-to-school costs
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State Roundup
Attorney General’s Office asks AZ Supreme Court
to strike down a lower-court decision that rules it
unconstitutional to use taxpayer money to pay for private-school
tuition
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ID Board of Education will forsake standardized testing
this fall, and plans to restore another test that was
cut in late 2007 to save money
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MA governor will propose a sweeping package aimed at
closing the achievement gap in public schools
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ME school districts make progress in consolidation
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OR board of education approves changes to high school
exit exam as well as tougher graduation requirements
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Federal/NCLB
Commentary – When it comes to measuring progress
under NCLB, “the ‘growth model’ pilot
isn’t what you think it is”
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Other News
Reading First program would be eliminated under a fiscal
2009 spending measure approved unanimously by a House
Appropriations subcommittee
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June 19, 2008
School Funding Litigation/Policy
New report predicts fiscal year 2009 will be tougher
than this year on school budgets
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IL is not expected to help schools with increasing
gas prices, and schools may have to cut back on services
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KS audit says that over 70 percent of increased spending
by school districts in recent years went toward student
instruction
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LA bill to boost basic state aid to public schools
by 3 percent comes closer to approval
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LA House gives final approval to proposed $10 million
plan to finance private school tuition grants for certain
students in the city's public schools
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PA Senate approves spending plan that slashes nearly
$118 million in proposed plan for basic education funding
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State Roundup
CA court sides with U.S. Department of Education, ruling
that teachers who enter schools through alternative
teacher-preparation programs can be labeled “highly
qualified”
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States hope to learn from FL, No. 1 in the nation in
vouchers, No. 2 in charter school enrollment, and No.
4 in the percentage of high school students passing
college-level exams
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MA school overhaul plan includes proposal to allow
high school students as young as 16 to take an international
evaluation test that would allow them to graduate
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MI House introduces legislation to provide more flexibility
for struggling students to take a less-stringent course
toward meeting the state's tough new graduation requirements
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Despite uniform threshold for admission to public school
gifted programs, analysis says that children from NYC’s
poorest districts are offered a smaller percentage of
the entry-grade gifted slots in elementary schools
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OR ballot initiative could put a two-year cap on the
amount of time that English-language learners can spend
in “English-immersion programs” or receive
instruction in their native languages
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When OR education officials set out to devise a graduation
testing requirement for high school students, they looked
to other states for inspiration - on what not to do
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SC Superintendent of Schools urges education advocates
to fight for much-needed changes to the state's decades-old
school funding formula
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Other News
U.S. Department of Education says students in the D.C.
school voucher program, the first federal voucher program,
did not generally do better on reading and math tests
than did their public school peers
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June 18, 2008
School Funding Litigation/Policy
NH approves a new aid system that will take effect in
mid-2009, but the system will not be fully implemented
until 2012
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NY governor intensifies campaign for a 4 percent annual
cap on school property tax increases; taxpayers group
threatens to wage political war against lawmakers who
block the proposal
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NY governor accuses teachers' union and other property-tax
cap opponents of trying to subvert the democratic process
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GOP seeks cuts in PA’s school funding budget
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RI rejects bill to spend public dollars for private
school costs
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State Roundup
AR plans to rework school choice law in 2009
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GA legislators call for an independent investigation
into problems with state tests that led to high failure
rates among students
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PA hopes to adopt new state regulations to expand services
for gifted students, through a broader approach of classification
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Federal/NCLB
Though NCLB was intended to hold school officials accountable
for educating disadvantaged children, researchers and
advocates say “Title I is not having its intended
effect”
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Report says top students stagnate under NCLB
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U.S. Department of Education will allow MI and MO to
use “growth models” to measure student progress
toward state goals under NCLB
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School Integration
CT superior-court judge approves the latest settlement
in the long-standing lawsuit over the racial isolation
in Hartford’s schools
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Other News
Study says national focus on helping students who are
furthest behind is yielding steady academic gains for
low-achieving students at the expense of top students
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National Governors Association is asking the U.S. Department
of Education for more flexibility in proposed regulations
for a common formula to calculate graduation rates
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Report says low income and minority children which
could benefit most from quality preschool are the least
likely to be enrolled
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June 17, 2008
School Funding Litigation/Policy
Poll says over 70 percent of New Yorkers support a cap
on property tax increases “to force school districts
to budget and spend resources more carefully”
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PA schools fear they will be punished for prudence
under a proposed state education formula that puts new
emphasis on how much a district taxes local property
owners
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State Roundup
ND shows little change in its graduation rate since
2001, says analysis
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‘Teacher gap’ is shrinking in NYC schools,
says report
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RI now requires performance based assessments for graduation
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June 16, 2008
School Funding Litigation/Policy
92 school districts in SD have voted to back a constitutional
challenge to the school funding system
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State Roundup
Study says that CA students who will be at risk of failing
the high school exit exam can be identified in the fourth
grade based on grades, classroom behavior and test scores
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FL teachers union and associations representing school
boards sue the state over pro-voucher proposals
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Larger public schools in HI could benefit from proposed
changes to the budget formula
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LA appears to be on track to enact a voucher plan for
New Orleans that borrows from other school choice programs
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LA House Education Committee oks bill for state aid
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MI reports slight progress in high school graduation
rates
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Poll shows that Nevadans favor increasing the room
tax, paid primarily by tourists, to increase funding
to the state's public school system
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OH education officials secure a grant to explore alternative
assessments
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TX private schools could get public dollars to help
dropouts finish high school
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Federal/NCLB
Coalitions seek influence on presidential campaign and
the future of NCLB
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National Association of Secondary School Principals
calls for adopting common reading and mathematics standards
and guidelines in the reauthorization of NCLB
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School Integration
CT judge approved the latest settlement in the Sheff
v. O'Neill school desegregation lawsuit
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Other News
States move toward implementing a uniform system to
report graduation rates
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Summer school programs swell because students aren’t
meeting academic standards set by states
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Evaluation says free tutoring prescribed by NCLB to
help students at struggling schools has yielded little
or no positive effect on student test scores
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June 9, 2008
School Funding Litigation/Policy
CA teachers protest proposed education cuts
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State Roundup
D.C. groundbreaking voucher program may well be heading
into its final year of operation, according to officials
and supporters of the program
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MI’s new tougher graduation rates may not make
the grade
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Report calculates that NV has the lowest high school
graduation rate in the country at 45.4 percent
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Four years into the effort to curb dropout rates, keep
teenagers on track, and prepare every graduate for college,
OR's small schools have yet to deliver on those promises
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Federal/NCLB
U.S. Department of Education denies request to give
ID schools another chance before facing sanctions under
NCLB
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Presidential candidates are at odds over K-12 education
policy, but both back NCLB goals
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Other News
More teachers meet a highly qualified standard, but
poorer schools are less likely to employ them
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