Education News: February 16, 2007

Following are some of the top headlines from the world of education for the week ending February 16, 2007.

A School District With Low Taxes and No Schools
(Source: The New York Times, 2/15/07): The newly incorporated Christopher Verde School District is a district without teachers, classrooms, or schools. Students in the district attend schools in neighboring districts, but parents do not pay taxes for the upkeep of these neighboring districts. Taking advantage of a loophole in Arizona law, residents of the Christopher Verde area decided to make their own school district. The driving force behind the proposal was a group of older retirees who are reticent to shoulder the tax burden of sending children to school.

Teachers Gain in Talks, Put Off Their Strike Vote
(Source: The Boston Globe, 2/15/07): The Boston Teachers Union voted yesterday to put off the proposed Thursday strike when last-minute concessions were made at the bargaining table on Wednesday. The district agreed to keep a cap on class sizes and the union made some unannounced concessions in return. Approximately seventy-five percent of the union members voted to put off the strike.

Record Number in Special Ed
(Source: The Oregonian, 2/15/07) Over 80,000 students are enrolled in special education programs in the state of Oregon. This is a record high for the state. Recently, Oregon has been experimenting with remedial programs targeted to help failing students immediately. In the past, students were placed in special education after falling several grade levels behind. Students are now broken into small groups which receive personalized remedial programs. So far, this new approach has achieved great success.

Scotts Valley Parents Asked to Pay $36.13 If Their Kid Skips School
(Source: The San Jose Mercury News, 2/14/07) Scotts Valley Unified School District in San Jose, California, is now asking parents of students who skip school for reasons other than illness to pay $36.13 per day. This new program does not mandate that families pay the fee. However, it believes that people taking their children on vacation will reimburse the district. The district loses $36.13 in state funding for each day that a student misses school.

City Braces For a One-Day School Strike
(Source: The Boston Globe, 2/13/07): 58,000 students in Boston will have a day off from school on Thursday if contract negotiations are not concluded before then. The teachers’ union and the city of Boston have failed to hammer out a contract, disagreeing about salary increases and teacher contributions to healthcare coverage. Libraries and community centers in the city are preparing to handle students on Thursday, implementing additional staff and educational programs for the day.

The Modern Age: Generation Confused
(Source: The San Francisco Chronicle, 2/11/07): Recent debates over mandating Gardasil, a vaccine that protects women against seventy percent of the strains of the virus that causes cervical cancer, stoke disagreements about sexual education for today’s teenagers. In a society that seems polarized into safe sex and abstinence camps, teenage behavior is monitored closely by health officials looking for the most effective way to strike a balance between the two.

A New Policy to Keep Students In Line
(Source: Los Angeles Times, 2/12/07): The Los Angeles school district is discussing the adoption of a new policy called “positive behavior reinforcement” to lessen discipline instances at schools in the district. Currently dispensing over 70,000 suspensions a year, the district is searching for creative ways to reduce punishment and highlight positive motivation. The new program would include increased rewards for good behavior, more peer mediation, and increased parental involvement in the classroom.

Super-Sized Salaries
(Source: The Boston Globe, 2/11/07): School superintendents in the Boston area have seen large increases in their salaries the last several years. School boards attribute these increases to a competitive job market with few qualified applicants. Superintendents need advanced degrees and ample time spent in the education field. Rising compensation in certain districts has led to salary increases in others as districts fight for the most attractive candidates.

Broad Voucher Plan Is Approved in Utah
(Source: The New York Times, 2/10/07): The Utah state legislature passed a bill enabling every student in the state to receive voucher money for private schools on February 9. The program will provide between $500 and $3,000 per student, depending on family income levels. Utah currently has the largest class sizes in the country and it spends the least amount of money per student per year. The bill will use a budget surplus to finance the program.