The Education Newsblitz: State Budget for Schools ‘Could Be Worse’

I spent the weekend hobnobbing with other education reporters in San Francisco at the Education Writers Association conference. You can check out all the fascinating things people were talking about on my Twitter feed — or by searching the hashtags #ewa2010 or #ewa10. Now for the newsblitz:

• The Union-Tribune delves into the race for Katherine Nakamura’s seat on the San Diego Unified school board.
• City News Service explains how San Diego Unified schools rank compared to other schools in the state, based on tests that students took last spring.
• KPBS’ San Diego Week looks at how the food bank is partnering with local schools to get families signed up for food stamps.
• Marsha Sutton at SDNN is wondering whether California has any better chance of snapping up money in the second round of Race to the Top.
• Parents could be jailed if their kids are chronically truant under a proposed California law, the Associated Press reports.
• The San Jose Mercury News reports that schools there are relieved that state budget cuts for schools aren’t worse.
• Online textbooks are now approved and available for California schools, the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin writes.
• The Rhode Island school that sparked controversy across the country for firing all its teachers is now going to rehire them all, the Associated Press reports.
• Teacher layoffs across the country may be linked to an earlier hiring spree, Education Week writes.
• Obama backs a bill to help prevent teacher layoffs, the Washington Post reports.

— EMILY ALPERT