What’s churning:
Updated: The Edujobs paperwork showed up today, three days after President Obama signed the $10 billion “edujobs” bill that supposedly will save 161,000 educators jobs across the country. The 8-page application is simple – governors just have to promise to meet certain requirements and choose a method for distributing the money. But, the instructions run to 23 pages, and a top state education official has told EdNews districts can expect lots more paperwork if they accept the money. (Links to application and instructions.)
As we’ve reported, Colorado officials are a bit uncertain about the state’s eligibility, and an Associated Press roundup story found plenty of criticism of the program – mostly from GOP governors.
Arne Duncan is turning up the heat on for-profit colleges, already on the hot seat in Congress and the media for alleged high-pressure recruitment tactics, pricey tuition and a supposed indifference to student success. In a letter to Congress, the education secretary announced today that DOE will hire 60 more investigators to put on the case.
The news had an impact on Wall Street. Forbes.com reported that share prices slumped for several major for-profit education companies.
As if we need more proof that summer is waning, the “Hot Lunch” speakers list is out for fall. The Donnell-Kay and Piton foundations bring in some of the country’s most interesting speakers on education, from Eva Moskowitz to Diane Ravitch. Yes, we know they’re both New Yorkers but could they be farther apart in ideology?
First up is Ramon Cortines, superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, talking on Sept. 10. You can find out more about the speaker series here or, if you can’t make the lunch, you can check our site for video highlights. We’ve got the 2009-10 speakers on video here for your viewing pleasure.
On tap today:
Denver Public Schools will celebrate the opening of its first new high school building in 30 years. DPS was hit hard by the white flight that followed forced busing to desegregate the city schools in the 1970s. The district’s enrollment, once topping 90,000 students, plummeted to below 60,000. Only since 1990 has DPS reported gradual gains, reaching a 30-year high of 73,873 students in 2007 and still climbing.
So it may be fitting that the new high school is part of what will become a preK-12 campus in Green Valley Ranch named in honor of Evie Garrett Dennis, the first woman and the first African-American to head DPS as superintendent in the early 1990s. Dennis is expected to be on hand, as are Lt. Gov. Barbara O’Brien and City Councilman Michael Hancock, among others. The ceremony begins at 10 a.m. at 4800 Telluride St., between Pena Boulevard and Tower Road. Here is an insightful 1994 Rocky Mountain News profile of Dennis, from the end of her tenure at the helm of DPS.
Good reads from elsewhere:
- No to Common Core: Colorado State Rep. Keith King (R-Colorado Springs) laments the state’s ‘capitulation.’
- Charter woes: Half of Chicago’s charter schools are in the red.
- Borrrrring: A columnist says school reform lingo is all wrong.
- Smoothing the way: A summer program helps refugee kids prepare for life in U.S. schools.