Bright and Early: The Education Newsblitz

I’d like to blame this wicked cold on all the schools I visit, but the voiceofsandiego.org office and my boyfriend are suspiciously sniffly, too. Now for your slightly nasal newsblitz:

• We write about a school that turned itself around without taking the drastic steps that are en vogue in Washington, D.C. for failing schools. Instead, Euclid Elementary took small steps that made a big difference.
• The Union-Tribune writes about the debate over whether the labor pact on school renovations and construction in San Diego Unified is deterring nonunion companies from bidding. Nonunion companies are vying for the work, but fewer companies are competing.
• Also in the UT: The editorial board argues that Obama’s education plan is sound but he’s sending mixed messages.
• SDNN highlights the San Diego Science Festival.
• A magnet middle school in Vista is trying to get certified as an International Baccalaureate school, the North County Times writes.
• Garfield High snapped up an education grant from the Barona Indians, the Daily Transcript reports.
• California may be talking tough when it says failing schools have to fire teachers or their principal, become charters or take other serious steps — but the Contra Costa Times reports that the state can’t actually enforce those rules. Some schools may flout them.
• Educated Guess blogs that a study that found that California schools rarely budged in two decades actually makes the case for the dramatic changes that Obama wants for failing schools. Check out Jay Mathews’ column in the Washington Post for an alternate view.
• Good news about California! Latino college students here graduate at higher rates than Latino college students nationwide, the San Jose Mercury News writes.
• Oakland schools are offering $300 a day to emergency teachers who can come in if the Oakland teachers decide to strike, the Oakland Tribune reports.
• In the San Francisco Chronicle, a history professor argues that charter schools should face some restrictions over what they teach. A charter school leader counters that they’re doing just fine with what they’re doing.
• Education Week blogs: Should teachers have a special credential to teach online?
• One professor argues on NPR that yeah, school textbooks lean left. He proposes a middle ground.
• In The New York Times, an author argues that local control is killing U.S. schools.
• A Rhode Island teacher hanged a fake Obama in effigy to protest his reforms for failing schools, the Associated Press reports. The teachers union condemned the act.
• And The New York Times does a phenomenal job explaining the complicated debate over whether one New York charter school should be closed. This is a microcosm of why closing charters is so contentious.

— EMILY ALPERT