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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis:
Detroit Public Schools Face Drastic Cuts, Closures
Financial woes in the Detroit Public School District are expected to continue for the next three years and that will mean more school closings. A deficit elimination plan obtained by The Detroit News says the district will close 28 schools. The closures are expected to save DPS about $13.4 million in operating expenses, but hundreds of district employees will be out of a job. (CBS)
Jerry Brown Makes Veiled Hit On EdSec Arne Duncan? Harnessing Teachers’ Voices: Ed Today
Did Jerry Brown Just Ding Arne Duncan? In his State of the State address yesterday, Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown (D) talked a bit about federalism and education policy. He proposed a new funding formula and called for more local control. (Some background: his more customized No Child Left Behind waiver was rejected by the U.S. Education Department). Then it got a little snipe-y! (Huffington Post)
New Jersey:
Newark Parents and Activists Take School Closure Complaint to D.C. for Civil Rights Hearing
Forty Newark parents and activists boarded a charter bus to Washington, D.C., late yesterday to join in what is becoming a growing backlash to public school closures in cities across the country. (NJ Spotlight)
New York:
Assembly Democrats are opposed to Gov. Cuomo’s new, $224 million line in the sand in the city’s teacher evaluation fight
Assembly Democrats are strongly opposed to Gov. Cuomo’s decision to impose a second strings-attached deadline on the city to approve a teacher evaluation plan. (NY Daily Times)
View Point:
Michael Petrilli: The Obama Administration invents a right to wheelchair basketball
Let me acknowledge—sincerely—that I love wheelchair basketball. I would vote for candidates to public office who would provide funding for “inclusive athletics” and would be proud if my sons’ schools offered such programs to their special-needs students. Yet it boggles my mind that the Obama Administration, without an ounce of public debate or deliberation, without an iota of Congressional authorization or approval, could declare by fiat that public schools nationwide must provide such programs or risk their federal education funding. Talk about executive overreach! Talk about a regulatory rampage! Talk about an enormous unfunded mandate! (Fordham Institute – Flypaper)