Three days of education news to catch up on — can you handle it?

We blog on some ideas in San Diego Unified for using stimulus dollars for kids living in poverty. The Union-Tribune writes about how the reversal in the housing market has thrown off school enrollment projections, a National City middle school that has gone whole hog on algebra and the financial situation of “basic aid” school districts that rely directly on local property taxes. It also lists the four school districts on a state watch list for financial woes. KPBS updates us on the next turn in the library project, including the schoobrary.

And back at VOSD, we clear up some confusion over what that bulldozer was doing at Gompers last week — and check out this interesting letter in response to our article about educators on paid administrative leave.

The Sacramento Bee chronicles cuts to school busing in the state budget. Schwarzenegger is hedging on whether he’ll suspend a state law guaranteeing a minimum level of education funding, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. And the Contra Costa Times describes the increase in class sizes in Bay Area schools and the differing studies on whether smaller classes help students achieve.

Both Education Week and the Los Angeles Times report that federal education czar Arne Duncan delivered his message to a national teachers union last week in San Diego — and it included the hot potato issue of merit pay. “You can boo, but just don’t throw any shoes, please,” Duncan joked. The Washington Post zeroes in on the shortage of black male teachers. And the Wall Street Journal finds that the teaching profession is no longer “recession proof”.

EMILY ALPERT

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