Alabama: The Alabama Policy Institute opposes the state proposed rules for the education tax-credit program. The think tank says the law does not prohibit tax credits from being used by students already enrolled in private schools, so long as the student is assigned to attend a school labeled as “failing” (Education Week).
Arkansas: School districts are declaring themselves exempt from a school choice law because they are still under court desegregation orders, leaving many parents unable to choose new schools for their children (KATV.com).
California: The Brandon Board of Education votes against busing 200 students who opted into a public school choice program to another school district (The Oakland Press).
Florida: Charter schools in the Tampa Bay area give parents lots of school choices (Tampa Bay Times). Florida’s K-12 tax credit scholarship program (administered by Step Up for Students, which co-hosts this blog) saw a 25 percent growth in enrollment last year, while a new study by Northwestern University professor David Figlio shows students in the program annually gain a years worth of learning (Heartland News). More on the study from redefinED here and here. Rapper Pitbull started a new charter school in Miami in order to make education “sexy” and “cool” again (The Atlantic Cities, NBC News).
Georgia: The Atlanta superintendent of public instruction recommends against authorizing new charter schools but is overridden by the Board of Education (Education News).
Indiana: Private schools near Connersville have seen a dramatic increase in students using vouchers since the program expanded (The News Examiner). Scholars in Indiana are still debating the constitutionality of the state’s voucher program (The Times of Northwest Indiana).
Louisiana: The state’s “Course Choice” program will receive an extra $1 million to eliminate the wait-list as the enrollment continues to rise (Associated Press, The Advocate).
Massachusetts: Charter school demand is up and state lawmakers are looking at possibly bumping up the charter cap (Lowell Sun).
New Hampshire: School choice opponents file another complaint against the tax credit program (Concord Monitor).
New York: Catholic private schools in New York create their own scholarship fund to aid low-income students wanting a Catholic school education (Staten Island Advance).
Ohio: Transformation Alliance, a Cleveland area nonprofit, launches a campaign to inform parents of high quality schools available to them through school choice. The goal of the “Right School, Right Now” campaign is to help parents find empty seats at high quality schools (Freshwater).
Tennessee: U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander wants to encourage more charter schools and school choice (Claiborne Progress).
Texas: Four out of every five charter schools in Texas get passing grades in the state’s new school rating system (Dallas Morning News).
Virginia: Gubernatorial nominee Ken Cuccinelli’s education plan includes more charter schools, preschool vouchers and parent trigger (Washington Post).
Wisconsin: Most private schools applying to participate in the voucher program are religious schools but that might be because other private schools had already converted to charter schools (The Cap Times). A new GOP sponsored bill would grade voucher school performance and prohibit voucher use at failing private schools, but the local teacher union says the bill doesn’t go far enough because it doesn’t require open meetings, open records or licensed teachers (Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin State Journal). 2,415 students apply for 500 available vouchers. Just over 2,000 of them apply to 48 private schools but only the top 25 schools are allowed to participate in the first year (Fox 6 Now, WUWM Public Radio). Have any questions about school choice in Milwaukee? The Milwaukee Sentinel Journal answers them in a published FAQ (Sentinel Journal). Parents pack two large gymnasiums for an event hosted by Hispanics for School Choice. Hispanic school choice enrollment is growing in the Milwaukee area (Journal-Sentinel).
National: A survey by Black Alliance for Educational Options finds 9 in 10 African Americans across several southern states support school choice (Heartland News).
