Beth’s Briefings (5-9-16)

Here are news and opinion stories educators, advocates, policy wonks and makers are talking about today:

 

Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, doesn’t talk all that much about education issues, but when he  does, it is usually about the Common Core, rankings and spending. And usually he is wrong, wrong and wrong. (The Washington Post)

 

The Every Student Succeeds Act scales back the federal role when it comes to accountability and school improvement, and grants states and districts new flexibility in using federal funds. But, as part of its bipartisan grand bargain, it also bolsters some federal requirements in one key area: transparency. (Education Week)

 

Much has been made recently of Detroit’s resurgence and growth. In January, President Obama made a swing through the Motor City, touting “something special happening in Detroit.” Yet the comeback has not been evenly felt across the city. The Michigan League for Public Policy’s 2016 Kids Count Data Profile revealed a major fault line earlier this year. From 2006 to 2014, child poverty in Detroit increased some 13 percent, to about 94,000 children or well more than half (57 percent) of the city’s population under the age of 18. The unavoidable conclusion: Many of Detroit’s youngest residents remain mired in hardship and hunger. (The Atlantic)

 

In a bright classroom at Public School 160 in Borough Park, Brooklyn, three teachers orbited 28 students, 21 of whom were still learning English. (The New York Times)

 

A case over school finance in New York has been dragging on now for more than 20 years. The lawsuit, by a group known as the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE), was thought to have been settled in 2006. That’s when the state’s highest court ruled that New York failed to provide New York City with enough money for a “sound basic education,” as required by its own state constitution. The following year, the state Legislature appropriated billions of additional dollars in school aid to rectify the funding formula for all New York school districts. (NPR)