How is it Friday already? How can I bear to part with Bright and Early for two days? Take heart and savor the newsblitz:
We blog that advisors to San Diego Unified said that scrapping its fraud hotline would be a bad idea. Cutting the hotline to save money was one of the recommendations of an internal team that scrubbed the budget for savings.
While in San Diego, federal education Secretary Arne Duncan weighed in on the debate over a California bill meant to help improve its chances of getting more school stimulus money, the Union-Tribune reports. “This will be a test,” he said.
KPBS also reports on the speech and gets a perspective from teachers union President Camille Zombro.
The Los Angeles Times blogs that Schwarzenegger is threatening to veto that bill because he favored a rival bill that gives parents different powers. Educated Guess, a blog by John Fensterwald, does a nice job of explaining what is in the current bill and what it would take to get Schwarzenegger to sign it.
The San Francisco Chronicle sides with Schwarzenegger, calling the current bill “a race to mediocrity.”
In Vista, the question of how much the teachers union has to reimburse the school district for keeping its president — a veteran teacher — out of the classroom has proved sticky. The North County Times explains the situation and what the school board decided to do.
Near San Jose, a school district decided to close a middle school for savings, angering parents. Similar discussions about school closures have been testy in San Diego.
The same thing just happened in San Juan and is being discussed in Del Mar, the Sacramento Bee and Union-Tribune report.
Los Angeles Times columnist Sandy Banks writes about what’s working at one revamped high school.
The Associated Press reports that a Bay Area school district will stop using a curriculum that encourages children not to bully gay people, which proved controversial, and instead talk more broadly about bias.
And finally, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education releases its annual reports on free speech at college campuses. You can check it out here.