- The Washington State Supreme Court’s ruling that the state wasn’t meeting its constitutional obligations to fund schools was thankfully toothless on enforcement, freeing legislators in a budgetary bind to include ed in some tough but necessary fiscal decision-making. Charter schools anyone?
- The Hewlett Foundation will hand out a cool $100K to techies that code software capable of reliably grading essays as part of state tests. Ambitious, sure, but a great example of philanthropy driving needed innovation in edtech.
- Dozens of Catholic schools in Philadelphia are shutting down due to a 35 percent drop in enrollment since 2001 even as the mayor wants to get rid of 50,000 seats in underperforming district schools. Hmmm, there must be a solution...
- Slowly but surely, incentives and common sense are winning out, as the number of district schools in Chicago accepting the mayor’s offer of extra cash for a longer day quadrupled this week despite the teacher union’s continued objections. Keep at it, Rahm!
- It’s that time of year: Governors from Virginia to Arizona are making all kinds of ambitious proposals in their State of the State addresses, from an extra $1 billion for Florida’s schools to Andrew Cuomo appointing himself as lobbyist for students in the Empire State. Let’s just see if these executives can back up all the talk in an election year.
