Bright and Early

Good morning and welcome to your school newspalooza! The Union-Tribune writes about the possibility of a parcel tax for San Diego Unified. The North County Times reports that solar energy may be used to power suburban schools in the future. And SDNN has punches and counterpunches on the high school exit exam.

Everyone’s talking about Los Angeles schools. Remember that big Los Angeles Times series on firing teachers? One of the key people it centered on, a special education teacher accused of making improper advances toward students, has now been fired seven years after being removed from the classroom. NPR zeroes in on the Los Angeles high school that went charter. Education Week looks at decentralizing decisions in Los Angeles Unified — a similar push to what the San Diego Unified board wants to happen here.

And it wouldn’t be education news without budget news. Both the Mercury News and the San Francisco Chronicle dive into the budget talks in Sacramento and what they could mean for school funding, which will be a subject of discussion among Gov. Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders today.

Out beyond the Golden State, USA Today writes about the push for schools to prepare kids to take risks and cites High Tech High in San Diego as an example. Federal education czar Arne Duncan told another teachers union, this time the American Federation of Teachers, that he won’t push through school reform “unilaterally.” And Education Week reports on a national study that shows that states have had mixed success in bringing student scores for black and white students to the same level.

— EMILY ALPERT