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Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:
News and Analysis
Today’s kindergartners offer a glimpse of tomorrow’s demographics. A new data analysis by Pew Research Center finds a big increase over the past decade in the number of states where at least one-in-five public school kindergartners are Latino. (Pew Research Center)
In the roiling national debate about the best ways to improve public education, one aspect gets scant attention: the relationship between the tax dollars school systems spend and academic results. (Washington Post)
Why would the federal Department of Justice cite the Civil Rights Act and the specter of segregation to try and block a school choice program where more than nine in 10 participants come from racial minority groups? Or use the Americans with Disabilities Act to claim another school voucher program discriminates against individuals with disabilities, without so much as a single complaint from a student or parent to prove their case? (Politico)
New Jersey
Quiet meeting in July listens to more than three-dozen educators concerned about new statewide testing system. (NJ Spotlight)
Pennsylvania
If there is no cigarette-tax agreement in Harrisburg by Aug. 15, Philadelphia School Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said Wednesday, he will have to lay off employees and consider a delay in the opening of schools. (The Inquirer)