Los Angeles charter-school advocates are questioning the legality of a proposed moratorium on new charters. LAUSD's budget and achievement woes have many sources and underperforming charters are one of them, yes. Shutting out all new charters rather than shutting down the worst of the existing ones, however, is a bit like solving a technical disagreement over teacher evaluations by shutting down an entire school district. Ok, bad example.
A Los Angeles Times editorial accused the Adelanto Elementary School District of deliberately obstructing an effort by parents to take control of an elementary school using California’s “parent trigger” law. Well, yes, but did parent-trigger proponents really expect the district and other opponents to acquiesce without resorting to easy bureaucratic and legal stalling tactics? If the parent trigger has become the “lawyer trigger,” is it time to admit the limits of this idea?
Louisiana plans to launch a marketplace for publicly funded courses next year that would allow students to select from online and in-person courses outside of their schools. Kudos to the Bayou State for developing a creative way to guarantee access to the increasingly diverse ways that education can be delivered in the digital era.
Gadfly's prediction: The Chicago strike will end soon (perhaps today?) as national Democrats pressure both sides to end the potentially politically damaging struggle before Republicans can make too much hay from the episode. Gadfly's hope: The spat will inspire greater support among voters for private-school choice options, further eroding teacher unions’ abilities to strong-arm concessions over pay and accountability from politicians that districts simply can’t afford, for budget and quality reasons.
