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A NOLA CHARTER DIPLOMA
New Orleans: How a Student Graduated Although She Could Not Count or Read
From Diane Ravitch
The parents of a student in New Orleans were dismayed when they realized that their daughter would graduate from high school even though she could neither count nor read. She was surely entitled under federal law to extra help but she never got it. Now she is a statistic: a graduate. A victory for the all-charter system that failed her.
TAX CREDIT FOR BOOK FEES?
$1,200 in textbook rentals? Parents battle book fees
“If you can’t fund it, you could at least give the families a tax credit or tax deduction for paying that, because we do that for private school parents and we do that for home school parents,” said Shank. “So why can’t we do that for everyday parents who are sending their kids to public schools?”
From WISH-TV.com
This month Indiana families will pay millions of dollars in school book fees for their students in public schools, but some families and groups are hoping this could be the last year.
The Indiana Coalition for Public Education states Indiana is one of eight states that charges parents for students’ textbook fees, indicating that 42 other states have “figured out how to do it.”
“We heard from a parent who had lived in three different states where books were covered,” said Marilyn Shank, vice president of the ICPE. “They moved to Indiana with five children and they were astonished to get a bill for $1,200.”
IN DESPERATE NEED FOR TEACHERS
Schools leader: Indiana ‘in desperate need of a lot of teachers’
From WISH-TV.com
As many students across the state returned to school, the Indiana Department of Education School Personnel Job Bank on Tuesday showed more than 600 available teacher positions.
“We’re in a teacher shortage. We’re in an administrator shortage. We’re in an educator shortage,” said Jennifer McCormick, the state superintendent of public instruction, on Tuesday. “We’re also in a bus driver shortage. We’re in a school cafeteria worker shortage. The list goes on.”
“A lot of it goes back to pay,” McCormick said. “We can tip-toe around the issue, but a lot of it, when you have unemployment this low across the state of Indiana and across the nation, it goes back to pay.”
McCormick said 3,500 teachers were on emergency teaching permits in 2018. The Department of Education’s website says, “An Emergency Permit is issued at the request of a school district in a content area for which the district is experiencing difficulty staffing the assignment with a properly licensed educator.”
“We’re in desperate need of a lot of teachers,” McCormick said.
NEW SCHOOLS NOT NEEDED: 5 CHARTERS CLOSE
NEW SCHOOLS NOT NEEDED: 6 CHARTERS OPEN
Without enough students or cash, 5 Indianapolis charter schools closed. Now, 6 new ones are opening.
Indiana spends money on closing charters instead of using our tax dollars to support public schools which serve all children.
From Chalkbeat*
Six new charter schools are opening in Indianapolis this year. At the same time, five charter schools closed their doors in the face of enrollment, financial, or academics woes.
The new schools have various focuses, such as project-based learning or educating students with autism, and most are expansions of existing Indianapolis charter networks. They serve students in K-12 — notably including two high schools that are taking root just one year after Indianapolis Public Schools closed three campuses due to low enrollment. Indianapolis schools must compete for students and, therefore, viability, and each year a handful of charter schools, which are publicly funded and privately managed, are forced to shutter.
The five schools that closed this year were two schools in one of the city’s highest-performing charter networks, a school that was given a second life after closing once before, a tiny elementary school, and a campus dedicated to serving troubled teens.
INDY ENDS PRESCHOOL PROGRAM FOR 3YEAR OLDS
Indianapolis ends preschool program, leaving 3-year-olds without access to scholarships
From Chalkbeat
Hundreds of 3-year-olds in Indianapolis will no longer qualify for preschool funding now that the city is ending its scholarship initiative.
Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett did not include $4.2 million for the Indy Preschool Scholarship Program in his 2020 budget, unveiled Monday.
The scholarship program, which will end after this school year, paid for 6,526 3- and 4-year-olds from low-income families to attend high-quality programs of their choice over the past four years.
On My Way Pre-K, a state-funded $22 million preschool voucher program that was launched soon after the city’s pilot, will largely take its place. The state program serves some 3,000 4-year-olds from low-income families.
It doesn’t, however, accept 3-year-olds.
E-LEARNING IN NACS
Some snow days to become e-learning days at NACS
From Fort Wayne's NBC
Teachers and staff at Northwest Allen County Schools are getting everything ready to welcome students back to class on Wednesday.
The district is instituting a big change this year as it slowly rolls out e-learning days in place of some snow days.
IT staff at Northwest Allen County Schools are in all the buildings, getting the technology cleaned and ready for students to return to class.
“Right now we’re putting new students into them that are coming in at the last minute, taking withdrawal students out. We’re sorting, we’re cleaning, we’re just preparing everything to have the best start for school,” says NACS computer technician Pat Thurber.
The district distributes 7500 devices like tablets and laptops for students, plus teachers and staff.
FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL OVERSHADOWED BY ARRESTS
Trump’s War Against Latinos
From Diane Ravitch
Jack Hassard writes about the excitement of the first day of school. The children in their best clothes, looking forward to meeting their new teacher. But when school is over, their parents are nowhere to be found. They were arrested by ICE.
The mass arrest of 680 workers in Mississippi occurred only days after the slaughter in El Paso, where the killer targeted what he thought were Mexicans.
*Note: Chalkbeat sponsors include pro-charter foundations and individuals such as EdChoice, Gates Family Foundation, The Walton Family Foundation, and others.
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