Alabama: 719 students transfer schools under the new school choice law, with 52 attending private schools (AL.com, Dothan Eagle).
California: AB 917 will make it even harder to convert a public school to a charter school. Currently the law requires half of all teachers to approve the conversion but the new bill would require half of all employees – regardless of whether they teach students – to approve the conversion (Fox and Hound Daily). California charter schools are turning to grants to stay afloat and afford capital expenses (Fresno Bee).
Indiana: The state attorney general issues an opinion which states special education voucher students attending private schools can continue to receive special needs services from local public schools (Courier Journal). A new report ranks Indiana No. 1 for education reform (Eagle Country Online). A faith-based alternative private school has been approved to accept voucher students, but only one student will apply for a voucher since the state already paid for the education of the other students (Chronicle-Tribune).
Louisiana: Some school choice students face an hour-long bus ride to school, but their parents say it’s well worth it (The Advocate). The state files to delay the U.S. Department of Justice’s lawsuit against the fledgling voucher program (The Advocate, Times-Picayune).
Massachusetts: More than 40,000 students are on wait-lists for charter schools and the Boston Herald editorial staff weighs in, blaming the size of the wait-list on Democrats who caved to pressure from charter school opponents and created artificial barriers to enrollment and growth (Boston Herald).
Maine: Seven different groups press the state for permission to open charter schools (Maine Sunday Telegram).
New Jersey: Gov. Chris Christie isn’t giving up on the Opportunity Scholarship Act yet, believing the state needs school vouchers (NJ Spotlight).
North Carolina: The state board of education approves 26 new charter schools to open their doors in 2014 (News & Observer). Low-income parents can apply for vouchers starting next year (Fayetteville Observer).
Ohio: A few families are still waiting to see if they will be awarded EdChoice scholarships for this school year (Journal-News). Ohio charter schools are being closed for poor performance but may reopen the next year with a different name but the same management company (Akron Beacon Journal).
Tennessee: The Metro Nashville Public Schools superintendent hires an attorney to argue charter schools were unconstitutional but the mayor of Nashville fired back, calling the expenditure a waste of taxpayer money (Education News).
Utah: Charter schools in Utah receive similar grades to the state’s public schools (Desert News).
Wisconsin: Gov. Scott Walker’s original school choice expansion bill was going to target only nine school districts but ended up covering the entire state (Gazette Extra). Voucher students are starting school in Green Bay (Green Bay Gazette). Parents and supporters of St. Marcus School, a high-performing, high-poverty private voucher school in Milwaukee, marched on the Malcolm X Academy school building, demanding the public school board sell the empty and unused school building to St. Marcus. The school district refuses to sell unused buildings to private voucher schools (Milwaukee Sentinel-Journal). A plan to kick low-performing private schools off the voucher program finds little support in the state legislature (Associated Press).
Nation: Jonathan Strong over at the National Review scrutinizes the U.S. Justice Department’s strong-arm tactics against voucher programs (National Review). Editorials and op-eds from major newspapers continue to pile on President Obama and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder over the DOJ lawsuit to stop school vouchers for low-income students, but the DOJ defends its actions (Chicago Tribune, Chicago Tribune, New York Post, National Review, NewsMax, Human Events). A new study examines charter schools in a major urban district and discovers they are not pushing students out (Education Week).
