Here we go, bright and early, will all your education news for the morning:
We explain how the San Diego Unified budget is now nearly complete — sans layoffs, cutting the arts or athletics, or other feared cuts — and why its expected deficit has dropped so dramatically.
The Union-Tribune has a striking investigation revealing that a member of the First 5 Commission, which doles out money for early childhood programs, has resigned after it was revealed that she voted to send $8.3 million to a charity and a private preschool she owns, and also reports on the programs that were spared in the San Diego Unified budget. SDNN has more on the school district budget, as does KPBS and about every television station in the city. Channel 10 zeroes in on Paradise Hills Elementary, which was up for closure before the school board scuttled the idea, celebrating the decision.
Edu-news is relatively quiet on the state level today: Summer school cutbacks are happening around San Jose, parcel taxes to help Bay Area schools had mixed success at the ballot box, and the San Francisco Chronicle reports that Schwarzenegger is talking about digital textbooks to save money. (He is also getting back into action movie mode: “Day of reckoning?”)
Education Week has this commentary, provocatively titled “The Problem with Strip Searches.” And these guys from Harvard say the stimulus could be a bad thing because it gives schools the luxury of not needing to change.