Follow KANAAE on:

Weekly News Round-Up for November 3rd
posted by: Melissa | November 03, 2017, 08:39 PM   

Each week, KANAAE brings its members a round-up of what’s happening in education. From big, eye-catching headlines to the stories most papers overlook, we find the news our members really want to see. This week: the union changes course, a showdown over charter regulations, and a new tax plan!


NJ Teachers Unions Abandons Democratic Candidate: The teachers’ union is typically pro-Democrat, but the New Jersey Education Association is fighting against the Democratic Senate President, Steve Sweeney. Instead, they are backing a pro-Trump Republican, Fran Grenier, even though Sweeney is a former union boss. NJEA claims that Sweeney’s lack of support for union priorities, such as pensions and benefits, is the cause of the tensions. Recently, news has come out that former White House personality attempted to recruit teachers unions to the Trump campaign.


Showdown Between L.A. Unified Schools and Charters: A fight is looming between charter and district schools in Los Angeles. Charter schools say that they have been burdened with unreasonable and onerous regulations and are refusing to comply with the regulations that cross the line. In response, the district is expected to recommend closing those schools.


GOP Tax Plan Promotes School Choice: The new GOP tax plan has made steps to give parents more choices in education. Under the plan, a special account that was previously used only for college savings could now be used to send K12 students to private schools. However, some critics, including some pro-school choice advocates point out that the system only benefits already wealthy families and does little to promote choice among poor and working class families.


Mayor Moves to Control Philadelphia City Schools: After 16 years of state control, the city of Philadelphia is poised to gain local control over its own schools. The state took control of the district in 2001 when it was facing a huge deficit and chronically low test scores, however little improvement has been seen. It was the largest school district to face a state takeover at that time. The governor, mayor, and teachers union all support returning control to city. If that happens, a school board will be appointed by the mayor, following the example of cities like Washington, D.C. and New York City.


Happening Elsewhere:

Move to merge charter school union into CTU stalled

It's time to address cybersecurity education, say policymakers

Report: Scaling and Sustaining Competency-Based Education

Gov. Larry Hogan announces tech education initiatives for Maryland Public Schools

Evolution and climate change already at issue in new Utah science standards

Georgia schools did better on report cards, but there are caveats

SAT scores show vast disparity among Illinois high schools

School choice marching orders: Giving military families access to education savings

Gov. Snyder signs bill boosting investments in career tech education

Sacramento teachers plan to walk out Wednesday

Raises, shorter school days part of tentative deal with Wichita teachers


What’s going on where you are?

Share below!


Comments (0)Add Comment

Submit a comment
 (not published)
smaller | bigger

busy