July 12, 2010
When Richmond’s Patrick Henry School of Science and Arts opens Aug. 11, it will be the 10th charter school to open in the state since Virginia began allowing such programs in 1998.<br /&g t; But if history is any indication, Patrick Henry could have a bumpy road ahead: All but three of the other nine […]
July 12, 2010
They cut staff, dipped into their savings, and came up with new ways to lower expenses, but even so, almost all school districts in the Philadelphia suburbs are raising their property taxes for the coming school year. More than half of those districts are increasing taxes at a rate above Pennsylvania’s budgeting benchmark "education inflation" […]
July 12, 2010
Florida schools struggling to emerge from the bottom of the heap have started offering merit pay to teachers. In many cases, the money will be handed out this summer. About half of the state’s poorest-performing schools are giving bonuses to educators whose hard work has paid off — if, for example, their students’ test scores […]
July 12, 2010
The state recommends that the Arlington school district have $45 million in its savings account, not the $70.5 million that it has. The district also has $18 million in a separate account from leasing property for gas drilling. Facing their fourth consecutive budget deficit, Arlington officials plan to use some savings to cover a projected […]
July 12, 2010
Federal authorities are encouraging school districts to spend education stimulus money to save jobs and blunt the effects of statewide budget cuts, but districts have been slow to draw their share of the funds. "We really hope that you’ll do your best to see how these funds can help alleviate the layoffs and budget crises […]
July 12, 2010
Some education officials in New Jersey are warning that a new legislative agreement that would cap annual property-tax increases could further erode already-tenuous budgets for the state’s public schools. Republican Gov. Chris Christie struck a deal earlier this month with Democratic leaders in the legislature to impose a 2 percent cap on growth in local […]
July 12, 2010
School districts are rallying behind a lawsuit calling for an overhaul of the way California pays for its public schools. Baldwin Park Unified, Bonita Unified, Walnut Valley Unified, Alhambra Unified and East Whittier City school districts recently approved resolutions backing the Robles-Wong v. California lawsuit, filed in Alameda County in May. It alleges the resources […]
July 9, 2010
The District’s attempt to contain the nearly $300 million-a-year cost of private school tuition and services for special education students is headed toward review by a federal judge. Steven Ney, one of the attorneys representing the 2,700 D.C. students in private schools, said Thursday that he will soon seek a preliminary injunction to block implementation […]
July 9, 2010
Writes author Homer Hickam, “It’s better to confess ignorance than to provide it.” Last year, a group of charter school teachers and students spent a day in Albany. There, legislators told them candidly the reason a charter school funding cap was put into the state budget was that they were instructed it was a good […]
July 9, 2010
The high cost of special education has become the latest point of contention in New Jersey’s drama-filled path toward a new property tax cap. On one hand, most agree it’s an increasing burden on districts across the state. But do extreme cases need to be excluded from the cap altogether when relatively few districts have […]