Singer’s Clips (12-2-14)

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

 

The No Child Left Behind education law could be making a political comeback. (ABC News)

 

Lawsuits across the country have earned national attention for challenging teachers’ job protections, but a lesser-known lawsuit is playing out in Pittsburgh, where a judge is expected to soon rule in a case that involves a small group of special education teachers. Like so many districts post-recession, the Steel City went through a round of teacher layoffs. During the 2011-12 school year, 178 teachers lost their jobs. State statute and the collective bargaining agreement laid out by the teachers union require that teachers be laid off based on seniority. But a handful of less senior special education teachers escaped the layoffs, despite that provision. The district said the teachers’ removal would mean the loss of highly qualified teachers in the classroom, but the union filed a grievance in 2012. An arbitrator and a lower court ruled in favor of the union, so the district appealed. (Politico)

 

When I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in the mid 90’s, I moved to New York City. And I did what most young folks did then: found the cheapest apartment I could afford in the nicest neighborhood possible. That place was a first-floor front studio near Central Park. The block was lovely, but I lived in the worst building on it. Sanitation workers used to wake me up when they threw the cans against my outside windows. In the winter, I heated the place with my open stove. And if anything broke, it took forever to get it fixed. (Michigan Chronicle)

 

The teachers union has kicked off an aggressive campaign to block a possible lifting of the cap on charter schools — and is recruiting parents to help. (NY Post)

 

It’s no secret that the key to ending Rhode Island’s political and economic stagnation is to enact good government reforms that make the state more transparent, cost effective, and consumer oriented. (GoLocalProv)