Bright and Early

Eat up your education news. It’s nutritious: The Union-Tribune writes about a summer camp that gets teens interested in college, and editorializes against a parcel tax for San Diego Unified schools. Ruth McKinnie Braun at SDNN recommends that teens spend time on summer vacation searching for colleges. And we blog on San Diego Unified going under the federal microscope on its stimulus spending and some early opposition from the Taxpayers Association to the parcel tax idea.

State budget talks are stalled over the question of how to alter school funding formulas and how the state will guarantee that the money is restored when the economy rebounds, the Los Angeles Times and the Sacramento Bee report. The bottom line: More school budget cuts are in the pipeline.

The Times also writes that Los Angeles teachers may give up some of their salaries in exchange for reversing some layoffs. And a veteran teacher opines in the San Francisco Chronicle that parent choice in schools is not a silver bullet for making schools better.

In national news, the Wall Street Journal dissects the advantages and disadvantages of digital textbooks. eSchool News reports that Catholic schools are suffering from the economic crisis. Bloggers for the American Prospect write about whether it’s fair to expect teachers to work miracles — and whether turning around the lives of disadvantaged kids is a miracle or just good teaching. And NPR asks: Should everyone go to college?

— EMILY ALPERT