Wake up and smell the education news! We dissect the negotiations between San Diego Unified and its teachers union and why they’ve taken so long. The Union-Tribune reports that Grossmont schools are taking the first step toward closing a charter school where numerous teachers have been convicted of sex crimes and a blogger attacks the “maintenance of standards” idea in the San Diego teachers’ proposal.
SDNN opines that the downtown library is worthwhile but the schoobrary isn’t. Back here, we blog on the idea of floating a parcel tax for San Diego Unified and what it would cost to put the whole thing together: $130K for a consultant to do polls, outreach and more. And this really has nothing to do with education, but I’m jealous that nobody has nicknamed me “the Eiminator.”
Zooming out to California: Chino schools won’t be able to use summer school to fix a scheduling error that will cost them major moolah, the Associated Press reports. The California Teachers Association unveiled a television ad attacking Schwarzenegger’s idea of suspending a state law that guarantees minimum funding for schools, the Los Angeles Times reports. And the Sacramento Bee explains why legislators are looking at doing that — and what it might entail.
And in national school news: Education Week writes about how states are already vying for a pool of later stimulus funds called “Race to the Top” — even though nobody is quite sure what the rules are yet — and California is probably at a disadvantage because we make it tough to link student performance to teacher data. NPR zeroes in on Obama’s interest in merit pay for teachers. And you may find this scary or you may find it reassuring: The people who make admissions tests say they have a new test that measure’s your integrity.