Bright and Early: The Education Newsblitz

I’m fresh out of puns. Sorry. Go forth and read your newsblitz:

• New technology is a rare boon for classrooms in the middle of budget cuts, but some teachers and parents are balking at high-tech equipment while other, more mundane fixes are being delayed. We explain where the money is coming from, why technology is going first and what the community members who oversee the bond money have to say about it.
• The Union-Tribune sums up the budget talks going on in San Diego Unified. We focus on two controversial ideas that the school board has put back on the table: Closing low-enrollment elementary schools and consolidating its small high schools.
• KPBS reports on proposed pay cuts for teachers across San Diego County.
• The Los Angeles Times writes that school districts that refuse to sign on to California school reforms for Race to the Top — including San Diego Unified — could hurt the state’s application for more federal money.
• Also in the LAT: Los Angeles schools will ask voters to pass an $100 parcel tax. San Diego Unified is mulling something similar, and Los Angeles could be a barometer for its success.
• The Oakland Tribune has the heartbreaking story of a student who says his school just didn’t challenge him.
• Teachers, counselors and social workers face layoffs in Long Beach, the Press-Telegram reports. Long Beach is frequently compared to San Diego Unified; just a few years ago it avoided layoff warnings while San Diego Unified sent out hundreds of them.
• Educated Guess blogs that teachers unions will be coordinating protests across the state on March 4.
• The Bakersfield Californian looks at whether suspending students really works — especially in elementary school.
• I missed this one in the Los Angeles Weekly last week: Some Los Angeles principals have given up on trying to fire teachers that they don’t believe are performing well.
• The Associated Press reports on a new study that suggests that a lack of early morning light may be throwing off teenagers in the classroom.
• Rick Hess blogs that the phrase “it’s for the kids” needs to go.
• Education Week reports on the debate over whether some school districts are going overboard in identifying children as English learners.
• Education Next blogs that paying students for passing grades on Advanced Placement tests has now been linked to higher rates of going to college.
• And you thought California budget problems were bad: A Utah legislator is proposing scrapping senior year of high school to save money. No, really. Education Week blogs about the idea.

— EMILY ALPERT