Education Law

This week’s headlines in School Board News Today

The mere scent of the “Race to the Top” funds has put some states and school officials in a frenzy, to say the least.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s aggressive use of the stimulus funds has caught some states off guard, the New York Times says, by the requirements to enact reforms that essentially use the methods educators found problematic in No Child Left Behind. But California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger isn’t worried about that. Hoping to earn his state some badly needed funds, he has asked the state legislature to pass a package of major reforms that includes merit pay, an expansion of charter schools, and more accountability measures for failing schools. His move has provoked yet another battle with the state’s teachers unions, the Los Angeles Times reports.

And then there’s the swine flu. The Associated Press picked up NSBA’s survey that showed most schools are willing to offer a vaccine this fall and reported on how schools across the country are preparing for the potential of a mass outbreak.

One other major story was the release of the 2009 ACT scores, which showed that scores were holding steady in spite of a larger pool of test takers. But another report said that many students are still not capable of succeeding in college.

Read these and all the week’s news in School Board News Today and the weekly recap.

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on August 21, 2009 (boomark / email).