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Industry News


Charter School Nonprofit Aspire Gets $93M in Bond Funding (CA)

May 7, 2010

Aspire Public Schools in Oakland got $93 million in bond funding with the help of $8 million in unfunded guarantees from the Gates Foundation and another $8 million from the Schwab Foundation. Oakland-based Aspire runs 25 charter schools all over the state — locally it has six in Oakland, one in Berkeley, and two in […]

Sloppy Paperwork and Missed Deadlines Cost DeKalb Schools millions (GA)

May 7, 2010

Sloppy paperwork cost DeKalb County  schools $25 million dollars last year and almost cost millions more again this year, officials said. The mistakes caused the state Department of Education to revoke $11 million in construction funds and temporarily withhol d another $14 million, according to records obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. DeKalb taxpayers ended up […]

Minnesota House Approves Health Care Bill (MI)

May 5, 2010

The Minnesota House on Tuesday passed a health care bill that erases $170 million of the state budget deficit, lays the groundwork for federal health care changes, spells out hundreds of million in cuts to mental health, welfare and other programs, and pushes the 2010 legislative session a step closer to the finish line. It […]

Educators: School Grading Plan is Unfair (IN)

May 5, 2010

Dozens of teachers and school administrators showed up Friday at the Indiana Department of Education to offer their evaluation of a new plan  to issue letter grades for their schools. Their consensus: The proposal deserves an F. In a passionate hearing, educators from around the state implored state officials to scrap a plan to grade […]

Charters ‘Fail’ Sped: Critics Knock Low Enrollment of Severely Disabled (NY)

May 5, 2010

City charter schools enroll far fewer of the most severely disabled stu dents than traditional public schools, state records show. Only about 1% of special education students in charter schools are so disabled they require separate classes – compared with the 33% of special ed students in district schools. These include students who are emotionally […]

Goodbye, Stimulus. Hello, State Budget Cuts (US)

May 5, 2010

Think states have made deep spending cuts? You ain’t seen nothing yet. States have been struggling with huge budget gaps since 2008, but this year could be worse as federal stimulus funds wind down. Until now, stimulus money spared governors and state lawmakers from making some of the most brutal budget cuts. But with this […]

State Error Costs Northern Lehigh (PA)

May 5, 2010

Fixing an error in the state formula for basic education funding will leave Northern Lehigh School District with $166,000 less than the administration anticipated in the 2010-11 school year. The Pennsylvania Department of Education’s recalculation will affect 379 school districts. Northern Lehigh is the only school district in Lehigh County affected by last month’s change. […]

Voters Back School-Funding Plans Across Central Indiana (I N)

May 5, 2010

Referendums seeking millions of dollars in additional funding passed easily Tuesday in numerous central Indiana school districts. Voters in Washington Township, Pike Township, Speedway, Carmel Clay and Noblesville approved higher tax rates to help prevent teacher cuts or support building projects. Washington Township voters overwhelmingly approved a property-tax rate increase of 8 cents per $100 […]

State Passes Budget, Losses Projected for School Funding (MO)

May 5, 2010

The passage of the $23.3 billion state budget by the Missouri General Assembly last week will mean more cost cutting measures for the Lee’s Summit R-7 School District. “In the state budget, there was flat funding for the foundation formula,” said R-7 superintendent David McGehee. “We were projecting about an 8 percent reduction in the […]

Schools Urge State Help With Special-Ed Costs (PA)

May 4, 2010

Testifying before a panel of Republican state legislators at the Spring-Ford School District’s Ninth Grade Center last week, Spring-Ford and Pottstown school district administrators called on Pennsylvania to help meet the growing costs of special education programs. Spring-Ford Superintendent Marsha Hurda joined the Pottstown district’s director of special education and student services, Pam Bateson, and […]