Daily EducationNews.org
Friday, April 14, 2006

Arizona Republic
Dowling's budget war betrays kids, teachers
Stonewalling the county supervisors is not going to salvage any part of Sandra Dowling's education empire. Worse, it jeopardizes the future of the very people to whom Dowling claims such a deep commitment: the district's kids and teachers.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Parent battles Harry Potter
Citing demonic passages, Gwinnett woman asks school board to pull popular books.

Restore focus to education in Cobb
In the Cobb school redistricting wars, almost everyone has acted childlike except the children.

Tutors outside the box
Debra Long oversees the cafeteria at Arnco-Sargent Elementary School for 180 days a year, ensuring her charges attend classes with full, satisfied tummies. But for the past six weeks, Long added a task to cafeteria duty: test tutor.

Boston Globe
Colleges consider stressing danger of pressure groups
Dressed in sneakers and jeans, they hang out along the edges of campuses, handing out fliers and calling out to passing college students.

Cincinnati Enquirer
Cosby: watch your children
Bill Cosby told a parenting session at Xavier University that parents must stay involved in every aspect of their child's life.

eSchool News
Technology helps teach reading skills
Software can aid in addressing what ACT calls a 'serious problem'
Substantial experience reading complex texts in high school is a key indicator of college success, according to a new report from the not-for-profit ACT. The report calls on schools to incorporate the reading of more complex texts to boost students' reading skills--a challenge that some schools already are meeting with the help of technology.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Reaction to editorial cartoon puts student on the defensive
A Paschal High School senior's drawing for the school paper angers some of his Hispanic classmates.

Houston Chronicle
Truants' mother admits children missed school because of N.O. trips

HISD critics say Ongoing, TSU Lab serve mostly at-risk students

Ledger
Charters To Compete For Funding
BARTOW -- Charter schools were founded to compete with public schools. The argument is that the competition will make public schools better by offering more educational options.
Now, new charter schools in Florida will compete with each other for something very basic -- money.

Los Angeles Daily News
Mayor's school-takeover strategy ignites firestorm |
A draft outline of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's takeover strategy for the Los Angeles Unified School District touched off a political firestorm Thursday, with educators and analysts saying it lacks substance and could plunge the 727,000-student system into chaos.

Los Angeles Times
Nebraska Votes to Divide Schools
Move to split the Omaha system largely by race is called state-sponsored segregation by its critics.

Gov.'s Allies Upset at Enemy Within
By Robert Salladay
Republicans say too many people outside the party are being appointed to offices.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Students fish for answers in lead poisoning experiment
In the past few weeks, eighth-graders at Bell Middle School have been comparing the behavior of lead-poisoned fish to that of fish that have never been exposed to the toxin as a way to study childhood lead poisoning.

Newsday
Parents can monitor kids with cell phone tracking
Companies starting to offer systems that will tell parents the location of their cell phone-toting children.

New York Post
RANDOM GUN SCANS TARGET SCHOOLKIDS
By DAVID ANDREATTA Education Reporter City students have pop quizzes and pop tarts down pat. Now they'll be introduced to the pop scan.

Readin', 'Ritin' 'n Ringtones
A clash Wednesday outside the Second ary Schools for Law, Research and Journalism in Park Slope ended with five arrests.

New York Times
Students to Get No Warning Before Searches
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
New York City police officers with metal detectors will conduct surprise sweeps for weapons as students enter middle schools and high schools.

With Lacrosse's Future Unclear, Duke Recruits Look Elsewhere
By JULIET MACUR
As accusations of rape continue to engulf the Duke University lacrosse team, a majority of the recruits, as well as several current players, are considering the possibility of going elsewhere next season.
Officer Describes Woman in Duke Case as Drunk

As Budget Pain Filters Down, New Yorkers Start to Cry Out
By DANNY HAKIM
College students, some of whom face a reduction in tuition assistance, are one group that would be affected by Gov. George E. Pataki's $2.9 billion cut to the Legislature's budget.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
'Catch immigrant' game raises an outcry at PSU
The College Republicans at Penn State University wanted to enter the debate about the nation's borders by playing a "Catch an Illegal Immigrant Game." People would be invited to "catch" group members wearing orange shirts symbolizing illegal aliens.

Rocky Mountain News
2006 Mile High Teachers

Sacramento Bee
.E. Graswich: School board's Jennings leaves purse snatcher empty-handed
Moment of truth: Sacramento city school board member Rick Jennings didn't know whether the guy had a gun or a knife. All Rick knew was the young man had just grabbed a woman's purse and escaped on a bicycle. Rick chased in his car.

Area kids can log in to 'virtual school'
When it comes to shopping, medical advice, even dating, sometimes surfing the Internet is just easier than going out.

Saint Paul Pioneer Press
Pawlenty's math instruction goal might not add up
Educators unsure if algebra proposal can work in practice
Mary Hoffman's board is packed with algebra, tricky problems loaded with exponents and variables. Work it out in chunks, she tells her slightly puzzled eighth-graders at Apple Valley Falcon Ridge Middle School. Simplify whenever possible. By the time the bell rings, her Algebra 1 students usually get it.

San Antonio Express-News
Latino survey suggests generation gap on sex
Almost half of 183 Latino teens surveyed in San Antonio and New York said they had never had a helpful conversation with their parents about sex, while 82 percent of parents of Latino teens said they have had a productive conversation, according to results to be published in the May issue of Latina Magazine.

Clinton to deliver LBJ school speech
Former President Bill Clinton will deliver this year's commencement address at the University of Texas' Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, the school announced.

Perry says expanding session topics possible
In a letter to House Speaker Tom Craddick, Republican Gov. Rick Perry said once again that if lawmakers can agree on tax reforms to meet a court-ordered deadline, he'll consider expanding the scope of the upcoming special session to allow them to take up school reforms such as teacher pay.

UTSA gets grant for writing project
The University of Texas at San Antonio has received a grant from the National Writing Project to establish the San Antonio Writing Project.

San Diego Union Tribune 
Student fights write-up for showing U.S. flag
A small American flag, tucked into the back right-hand pocket of her pants. And for that, the Fallbrook High School sophomore was stopped by a security officer, taken to an assistant principal's office and written up in an incident report that was placed in her student file.

San Jose Mercury 
Governor opposes preschool initiative
REQUIRED TAX HIKE IS THE DEAL KILLER
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is opposing a June ballot initiative promoted by Rob Reiner that would raise income taxes on the rich to pay for universal preschool, his campaign team said Wednesday.

St. Louis Post Dispatch 
Tax transfer keeps district in black
St. Charles School District's preliminary budget for the next school year projects no deficit spending because of a 28-cent tax rate transfer voters approved April 4, administrators said Thursday night.

Tallahassee Democrat
Chicago students try FAMU 101
By the time they got to Tallahassee, 79 high-school students from Chicago had shed winter coats and visited six historically black colleges and universities in three Southern states. Schools like Fisk University and Alabama State.

Washington Post
Fairfax Gains Mask Gap For Black Students
The county's black students are scoring consistently lower on state standardized tests than their counterparts in poor school districts.

U-Md. Students Vote to Soften Pot Penalties
The university is the fifth college in the nation to pass a referendum to reduce penalties for students caught with marijuana.

International Articles

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Parents targeted on trust schools
Teachers' leaders hope to persuade parents to oppose a key plank of government plans for England's schools.

Police silent about honours probe
Police looking at alleged abuses of the honours system refuse to say whether they will interview Labour donors.

New powers 'will improve schools'
Local authorities are to get new powers to raise standards in poorly performing schools, says Ruth Kelly.

The Globe and Mail
Rude teenage awakening
IVOR TOSSELL 
Last weekend, after The Globe reported that the Star Wars Kid had settled his lawsuit against the people who turned him into the laughing stock of his school -- to say nothing of a global icon -- an e-mail mulling the question made the rounds of a few acquaintances.

The Guardian 
Kelly urges random drug tests for all pupils
Random drug testing in schools has cut the number of teenager users and should be considered by headteachers across the country, Ruth Kelly, the education secretary, said yesterday.

The Gulf Times
Play gives children a lesson in food hygiene
THE importance of healthy living was highlighted in a play staged at the Education Ministry's auditorium by the General Administration for Municipal Health in the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Agriculture, in association with the Ministry of Education.

The Independent (UK)
Teachers call for healthy eating on the curriculum
Healthy eating lessons should be compulsory for all children up to the age of 16,delegates at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers' annual conference in Gateshead said.

Boring lessons 'are preparation for life'
Teachers say children need more boring lessons to help them deal with the world beyond the classroom door.