Another fumble by the Washington, D.C. school system is putting in jeopardy $13 million in new funds for the schools that were to accompany the new voucher pilot program there. Don’t miss the frustration quote by Gregory McCarthy. Joanne Jacobs writes up the Norfolk Public Schools in Virginia, an improving urban district with a great leader that has been nominated for the Broad Prize, she also highlights Bill Cosby’s controversial remarks from the other night.
In the NYT David Herszenhorn tells of a controversy about New York’s selective Stuyvesant High School which apparently admitted too few students last year. Joe Nathan and Frederick Hess both repeatedly point out that the “skimming” charge leveled at public charter schools is pretty disingenuous because formalized admission requirements are a fixture in many traditional public schools (and because charters are prohibited from skimming anyway although a small amount likely goes on). Also, the NYT thankfully reports that President Bush’s war on racial equality is over!
Per an earlier item, they did give state education commissioner Yecke the boot in MN.
This Christian Science Monitor story about No Child’s public school choice provisions buries the Citizens Commission on Civil Rights report mentioning it only after the usual gibberish about futility and the provisions being a proxy for vouchers…no mention of opening new public schools to create more seats either…they’re doing that in LA and elsewhere…no fun highlighting solutions though!
Finally, two reasons to read the Toledo Blade: (a) The Mud Hens (b) This story with political and educational implications.