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Star Ledger--Charter school tracker: Which N.J. schools are closing, expanding
TRENTON -- The Christie administration last week announced its decisions on more than two dozen applications to expand, renew or open new charter schools.
While four schools were ordered to close at the end of this school year, the state approved more than 6,000 new charter school seats through the expansion of existing schools, a significant increase in school choice.
The state Department of Education also gave 21 schools a five-year renewal of their charter. Here's the rundown of the decisions:
Adam Clark | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com|March 06, 2017 at 11:40 AM
Star Ledger--What will Trump's push for 'school choice' mean for N.J. students?
Calling education the “civil rights issue of our time,” President Donald Trump used his address before Congress last week to highlight one of his top issues – school choice.
Echoing a campaign promise, Trump vowed to push for students in poor school districts to be able to use public funds to attend a charter, private or religious school.
“I am calling upon members of both parties to pass an education bill that funds school choice for disadvantaged youth, including millions of African-American and Latino children,” Trump said. “These families should be free to choose the public, private, charter, magnet, religious or home school that is right for them.”
Trump did not say what form his school choice program would take. But he did give a few hints of what a federal push for school choice might look like in New Jersey and around the country.
What is school choice?
In the education world, “school choice” means giving public school students the option of attending a school outside of their neighborhood.
That could mean creating publicly-funded charter schools to give students another option of a school to attend in their town or neighboring districts. Or it could mean giving students vouchers to use public funds to attend a private school, a religious school or be home schooled.
The idea is most popular in urban and low-income districts, where some parents are eager to move their children out of low-achieving schools.
Kelly Heyboer | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com| Updated March 06, 2017
Washington Post--Congressional Republicans poised to overturn Obama-era education regulations
Congress is pushing to overturn as early as this week regulations that outline how states must carry out a federal law that holds public schools accountable for serving all students.
Leaders of the Republican majority claim that the rules, written during the Obama administration, represent an executive overreach. Democrats argue that rescinding the rules will open loopholes to hide or ignore schools that fail to adequately serve poor children, minorities, English-language learners and students with disabilities.
The debate comes as Republicans are making a sweeping effort to roll back regulations finalized in the last few months of Barack Obama’s presidency. GOP lawmakers say that in this case they are targeting actions under Obama’s Education Department that contradict legislative intent when the school accountability law was passed in 2015.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/congressional-republicans-poised-to-overturn-obama-era-education-regulations/2017/03/06/b48e8454-feed-11e6-8ebe-6e0dbe4f2bca_story.html?utm_term=.fecd223b9c9e
Emma Brown March 6 at 12:03 PM
Education Week--What Happens to Education Spending if the Budget Stays in a Holding Pattern
Right now, the federal budget is flying in circles. It's operating on a "continuing resolution" through April 28 that essentially holds fiscal year 2017 spending levels at their fiscal 2016 amounts. Trump recently released a very broad outline of his spending priorities for fiscal 2018 that includes a $54 billion cut from domestic agencies—fiscal 2018 starts in October—although we still don't know how that 10 percent cut in non-defense discretionary spending would specifically impact the U.S. Department of Education.
But where does that leave fiscal 2017 in terms of education spending? And what happens if Congress decides to apply that continuing resolution to the rest of fiscal 2017 through September? With each passing day, that looks increasingly likely.
Below, we examine how a few programs in the Every Students Succeeds Act would be affected if Congress approves a continuing resolution for the rest of the fiscal 2017.
By Andrew Ujifusa on March 6, 2017 7:22 AM
