Bright and Early: The Education Newsblitz

Here’s the niftiest news of the day: Lincoln High just launched a news website called Voices of Lincoln, with help from the Media Arts Center, the San Diego Association of Black Journalists and some of the fabulous folks here at voiceofsandiego.org! I look forward to linking to our fellow Voicesters. Now for the newsblitz:

• We report on how charter schools are weathering the budget crisis. While charters have some added freedoms, they also have to handle headaches that traditional schools don’t have — such a finding and paying for a home. The squeeze is especially bad for newer charters like Innovations Academy, where two administrators are going without pay and there’s no janitor.
• We follow up our story on the loophole SDSU used in changing its admissions policy for local students, looking at the roots of the advisory committee that didn’t end up advising anyone. And we also break down the numbers on how likely San Diego State was to over-enroll if the policy didn’t change. The key argument used to justify rushing the process was that enrollments would be too high.
• Guest blogger Scott Mullin argues that we are headed for a great recession in public education if greedy self-interest continues to be the motivation driving school reform.
• Administrators will take a pay cut to help balance the budget in Oceanside schools, the North County Times reports. It also writes that the Vista schools have struck a plan to handle budget cuts, but it includes millions that have to be negotiated with employees. Vista is now at impasse with its teachers union.
• California Watch takes a closer look at the idea that a Fresno school district could create its own nonprofit to run its own charter school — which it would then be responsible for overseeing.
• Educated Guess opines that education is one of the areas where President Obama can rightfully claim success, calling his approach “entrepreneurial.” But The New York Times warns that one of his goals, rewriting the No Child Left Behind Act, could be tough sledding in 2010. And Eduwonk isn’t sure that Obama can actually withhold money until the new bill is passed, something the prez pledged to do.
• It’s a rough time to be a new teacher, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports. Then again, it’s a pretty rough time to be a teacher in general.
• The Oakland Tribune reports on a lawsuit against a Bay Area school district for allegedly failing to protect black youth. The suit also targets the local police department.
• Technology provides a link between tots and senior citizens in a Sacramento-area program, the Bee writes.
• Education Week reports that the architects of a plan for common standards across the country — so that all schools cover the same skills over time — are editing down their draft.
• A teacher argues in Teacher Magazine that even with training and time, interactive whiteboards are “an under-informed and irresponsible purchase.” San Diego Unified has been installing them as part of its school renovation bond.
• The Boston Globe writes about how the books of Howard Zinn, who recently passed away, impacted how American history was taught in high schools.
• Core Knowledge was thrilled to see the Washington Post education reporter take his editorial page to task for flattering coverage of the D.C. schools chancellor in a blog post — and hopes their media critic writes about the dustup.
• And here is an alarming number: Ninety-seven percent of Port-au-Prince schools have been destroyed, The New York Times writes. But Haiti plans to start reopening schools next week.

— EMILY ALPERT