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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
National
Bradford: Integration Is the New Poverty — at Least When It Comes to Crafting Excuses for America’s Underperforming Schools
It’s never been cool to be a racist, but now may be the easiest time, at least in my memory, to be one in America. The pungent mix of social media flippancy and a shift in the nation’s politics toward two largely white constituencies (the Rust Belt’s disaffected and dislocated, and the coastal progressive elite) has wrecked the walls that used to keep hate, fear, distrust, and malice against minority folks at least tolerably private. (The 74)
Century-Old Decisions That Impact Children Every Day
Alexandra Lange’s interest in school design started in her childhood, when she read Little House on the Prairie, with its indelible depiction of Laura’s one-room schoolhouse in Wisconsin. Today, she’s an architecture and design critic. Her new book, The Design of Childhood, considers the physical spaces where our children learn and grow: from the living room rug crowded with toys, to the streets, welcoming or dangerous, to classrooms, bright and new or dilapidated. (NPR)
Report: Families Can Expect To Pay 20 Percent of Income on Summer Child Care
As schools start to close for summer, working parents face a deceptively tough question: Who will care for their children over the summer? Parents want their children to be happy and healthy during the 10 to 12 weeks that school is out of session, but with the high costs of child care, many working parents struggle to ensure this is the case. (Center for American Progress)
States
Hawaii
Eruption Threatens Future Of Some Big Island Charter Schools
The continuously erupting Kilauea volcano on the Big Island is threatening the future of nearby charter schools whose funding from the Hawaii Department of Education is tied to the number of students enrolled, school board members were told Thursday. “We have no idea what we’re still dealing with,” said Sione Thompson, executive director of the Hawaii State Public Charter School Commission. The latest eruption began in early May and has intensified, disrupting the end of the 2017-18 school year — which concluded May 31 — for some schools, including relocated commencement ceremonies, canceled field trips and displaced families. (Honolulu Civil Beat)
New Jersey
Parents make trip to Trenton to show support for school superintendent
Outgoing Camden City School District [CCSD] Superintendent Paymon Rouhanifard was inside the New Jersey Department of Education building Wednesday waiting to give the district’s annual report to the state board of education. Outside, a contingent of Camden parents were gathered to not only show support for the progress that has been made over Rouhanifard’s tenure, but to also make public their support for who they believe will continue the progress that has been made over the past five years — CCSD Deputy Superintendent Katrina McCombs. (TapintoCamden)
New Mexico
New Mexico Considers New High School Diploma Alternatives
New Mexico education officials are considering a proposal that would change the path for students to use alternative methods to graduate if they don’t get high enough scores on competency tests. The Albuquerque Journal reports the proposed rule would mandate that all public and charter schools follow detailed alternatives that would be verified by the state’s Public Education Department. Under the rule, a student without the necessary scores would have to go through a new two-step process to meet competency requirements. Part of that process would include an internship or getting a minimum grade point average of 3.0 in an appropriate class. (U.S. News & World Report)
North Carolina
Power struggle continues as NC superintendent, state board each claim victory in high court ruling
The state superintendent and State Board of Education are each claiming victory in Friday’s court ruling over their ongoing power struggle for control of the Department of Public Instruction and the $10 billion public school system. In a statement Friday, Superintendent of Public Instruction Mark Johnson said the North Carolina Supreme Court’s ruling “validates the common-sense proposition that the duly-elected Superintendent of Public Instruction should lead” the agency. About an hour later, attorneys for the state board said they were pleased with the court’s decision, explaining that it “reaffirms that the State Board of Education – and not the Superintendent of Public Instruction – has the ultimate authority under the Constitution to supervise and administer the state’s public school system.” (WRAL)
Pennsylvania
Philly school district proposes to renew 16 charters, move to close one
The Philadelphia School District is recommending that all but one of the 17 charter schools it evaluated for renewal this year be allowed to continue operating. The recommendations, which the district is to make public Monday, propose conditions for renewing many of the schools, including two run by Aspira, the organization recently accused by Pennsylvania’s auditor general of operating charter schools without adequate transparency or oversight. (The Philadelphia Inquirer & Daily News)