The Huffington Post (8/5, Diepenbrock) carries a 3,145-word article from The Hechinger Report on the challenges and seemingly ever-changing rules associated with California’s new system of school funding that “gives schools their first significant authority over spending since the late 1970s.” The state was slow to issue rules for the system, educators say, and some groups complain that some districts failed to achieve the system’s goals of better serving students with the most needs, setting goals that were measurable, or clearly show how programs would meet goals, yet there is “nearly universal praise” for “bringing educators closer to their communities and providing insight into what the state’s neediest students require.”
Special Education Administrators Submit Amicus Briefs Challenging “Stay Put” Brief
The Education Week (7/30, Samuels) reports the National Association of State Directors of Special Education and the National School Boards Association filed an amicus brief on July 28 in the M.R. et al v. Ridley School District urging the Supreme Court to review the “stay Put” ruling. The current case challenges the law, which says that students in special education disputes can stay in private school at the cost of the school district while their cases move through the judicial system. The amicus brief argues that the stay put law puts a significant financial burden on school districts and provides incentives for parents to draw out cases as long as possible.
California School Funding Formula Increases Demand For Teachers
The San Jose (CA) Mercury News (7/17) reports that California’s new school funding formula has directed new money into a number of districts, creating “an unusual amount of openings this late in the hiring season” for teachers in some parts of the state. The piece contrasts this with most years, in which districts have done most of their hiring for the following year by spring. The new funding formula “is proving a boon for districts that serve large numbers of English learners and children from low-income families.”
Census Bureau: Funding For Public Schools Drops For First Time Since 1977
The Wall Street Journal (5/23, Porter, Subscription Publication) reports that according to a study released by the US Census Bureau Thursday, for the first time since 1977, when the bureau began collecting data, public elementary and secondary schools had their funding reduced during fiscal 2012. The article points out that such funding fell by $4.9 billion during that year.
ED Releases Report Touting Race To The Top’s Success
USA Today (3/26, Jackson) reports that Education Secretary Arne Duncan released a report on Tuesday saying that the Race to the Top program “benefits 22 million students and 1.5 million teachers in more than 40,000 schools.” Noting that ED’s report says that “eighteen states and Washington, DC, have received a total of $4.35 billion in grants,” USA Today quotes Duncan saying, “The most powerful ideas for improving education come not from Washington, but from educators and leaders in states throughout the country.”
NEA Report Compares State Per-Student Spending
The Dallas Morning News (3/25, Stutz) reports that according to a new report comparing state per-student education spending compiled by the National Education Association, “Texas has moved up slightly” but “still ranks in the bottom five states.” The piece notes that the national average is $11,674, while Texas spends an average of $8,998 per student. The article suggests that the report could provide ammunition for the plaintiffs in the state’s school finance lawsuit, who claim that “the current Texas school finance system is unconstitutional because funding is inadequate to meet state standards and is distributed unfairly.” The Dallas Observer (3/27) also covers this story.
California BOE Approves New Rules For District Funding
The Sacramento (CA) Bee (1/17, Kalb, Lambert) reports that yesterday, the California Board of Education unanimously “approved emergency rules” that will govern “a historic overhaul of school spending designed to direct money to the state’s neediest students.” The new formula “proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown and approved by legislators” would award funds according to a school district’s “share of low-income students, English-language learners and foster children.”
California Democrats Looking To Expand Provisional Kindergarten To All Four-Year-Olds
The Los Angeles Times (1/8, Megerian) reports on a proposal in the California state Senate to “use an upcoming jump in education funding to make transitional kindergarten available to every 4-year-old in California,” calling the plan by Democratic lawmakers “another sign of the state’s rebounding financial health.” The Times reports that the plan would cost nearly $1 billion when it is “fully phased in by 2020.” Noting that Superintendent Tom Torlakson is on board with the plan, the Times adds that it would “would fund the hiring of 8,000 more teachers” and raise the number of students eligible for transitional kindergarten from 120,000 to 470,000.
Common Core Faces Myriad Criticisms
The AP (1/6, Elliott) reports on the “relentless warnings” from Common Core critics, who “say they were written in private and never tested in real classrooms, and that educators aren’t familiar enough with” them. Moreover, critics also cite the “multi-billion dollar price tag” that come with the standards. Opponents also pan the unfamiliar classroom content, but supporters say that such “worries are overblown and miss nuances” of the standards. Critics also “argue that states were pressured to sign onto the Common Core standards to get federal economic stimulus money to keep teachers on the job.” The article notes, near the end, that Education Secretary Arne Duncan “has little patience for the criticism,” noting that he has pushed back against accusations that the Common Core constitutes a “federal takeover of the curriculum.”
California Grants Aim To Boost Arts Education
The Los Angeles Times (11/27, Boehm) reports that the California Arts Council is using a “one-time, $2-million funding windfall” to finance a number of projects “involving arts education and community improvement through the arts.” The Times reports that the group is hoping to leverage “early success stories from the new programs” to develop new revenue streams.
California Agrees To Give Both Common Core Tests
Southern California Public Radio (11/21) reports that the California Department of Education says it is “backing down” from plans to only require districts to give a single Common Core-aligned test this spring, and will now require both the math and English test....
California BOE Member Defends Common Core Testing Switch
In an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle (11/15, Cohn), California Board of Education member Carl A. Cohn writes about the law recently passed in California to provide “a one-year respite from the state’s 15-year-old standardized testing program” as the state transitions to Common Core-aligned tests, and he laments that Education Secretary Arne Duncan is “threatening to withhold at least $15 million – and potentially billions more...as a punishment.” Cohn criticizes ED officials for issuing a “high-handed threat,” and calls on ED to reverse its position on the issue.
California Releases Common Core Implementation Funding
The Imperial (CA) Valley Press (11/14) reports that the California Department of Education has released the full amount of funding for districts to implement the Common Core Standards, noting that districts must “come up with a spending plan, present it to their boards and then have it be approved at a later meeting” in order to spend their allotment of the $1.25 billion the state earmarked for the effort.
California Governor Signs Bill Implementing Common Core Tests
The Los Angeles Times (10/3, Blume) reports that California Gov. Jerry Brown, in a move that sets up a “looming confrontation” with ED, has signed a bill replacing his state’s STAR assessment with a Common Core-aligned assessment.
Analyst Says California Should Not Forego Test Data
Jack Mosbacher, an analyst at California Common Sense, writes in a column in the Los Angeles Times (9/20) about the impasse between California and ED officials over the state’s plans to hasten its transition to Common Core-linked assessments, arguing that given changes to the state’s education funding formula and other policy changes, “a year without [student test] data is unacceptable.”
