It’s a school news bonanza today.
We got some late breaking news last night that the charterbrary, a plan to merge the planned downtown library with a charter school, is going up for a vote Tuesday at San Diego Unified.
Expect fireworks when the oversight committee for the facilities bond takes up the issue today. We also give you the rundown on a petition by the San Diego teachers union that decries an “environment of fear, hostility and divisiveness.”
The Union-Tribune reports that Sweetwater schools are seeking to balance their budget by instituting larger class sizes in middle and high schools, even if the union doesn’t agree to the changes, and Grossmont schools will use furloughs to balance the books. The North County Times covers high school graduation in Vista. Former San Diego schools chief Carl Cohn almost gets all wonky about “strategic management of human capitol” in this commentary before rescuing it: “What we’re really saying is that we’re going to put the best teachers in front of the kids who need them the most.” And my Google News tracker turned up this blog, which has something to do with San Diego Unified Superintendent Terry Grier and seems to be translated — very entertainingly — from French.
In California school news: The Los Angeles Times reports that the new head of the California Charter Schools Association, Jed Wallace, is promoting a plan that would be more aggressive in closing underperforming charter schools, making good on a longtime aim of the charter school movement. The San Francisco Chronicle writes that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is battling Democratic legislators over whether to stop requiring the high school exit exam for graduation. San Jose schools are balancing their budget using one of the same plans as San Diego Unified: making classes larger in the youngest grades. And those unhappy kids in Chino could get their summer break back — mostly.
And on the national scene, Teacher Magazine seeks to debunk the idea that teachers are kicking back during the summer. The Washington Post reports on ways that Maryland schools are trying to reduce suspensions. Education Week reports on a Columbia University study that found that black and Latino students do better academically when they go to schools that are racially integrated, and one researcher said it suggests that the problems are centered in the school — not at home. And bloggers at The New Republic are abuzz about the idea of national education standards.