Fast Report
11/08/2005 — State takeover proposed for New Orleans schools
• Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco is proposing a state takeover of the New Orleans school system.
At a Nov. 1 press conference, Blanco called for a special legislative session, Nov. 6-22, to consider a package of initiatives to help the state recover from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, including “legislation that will recreate the New Orleans school system.”
She called for the state of Louisiana to “step in and assume responsibility for that city’s failing schools, using, among other things, the charter school model as one of the tools in our recovery efforts.”
The governor’s announcement comes right on the heels of the Orleans Parish school board’s Oct. 28 decision — after much contention — to transform 20 public schools into charter schools. Last year, the state declared the district in “academic crisis.” The district’s finances are managed by a private company, Alvarez and Marsal.
Alito has extensive judicial record
• President Bush’s nominee for the Supreme Court, Judge Samuel Alito of the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, has a long judicial record and has issued several key rulings on education-related cases.
On the 3rd Circuit, Alito has often ruled in favor of employers in support of teachers’ and students’ First Amendment rights.
In Saxe v. State College Area School District (2001), Alito supported the rights of students who challenged a school district’s anti-harassment policy. The students argued that the policy infringed on their right to speak out on what they consider the sinful nature of homosexuality. In Child Evangelism Fellowship of New Jersey Inc. v. Stafford Township School District (2004), the 3rd Circuit said a school district could not refuse to distribute promotional materials for a religious club to elementary students if it also distributed materials for secular clubs.
In a special education case, Shore Regional High School Board of Education v. P.S. (2004), the 3rd Circuit found that a school district did not provide a free and appropriate public education when it failed to protect a special-needs student who had been harassed by classmates for his perceived sexual orientation.
In that case, the 3rd Circuit said the district failed to accord “due weight” to a special education hearing officer’s decision that the student should have been transferred to another district.
Seattle’s admissions policy upheld
• The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Seattle school district can use race as a tie breaker in high school admissions.
“We conclude that the district has a compelling interest in securing the educational and social benefits of racial — and ethnic — diversity,” the Oct. 20 decision states. “We also conclude the district’s plan is narrowly tailored to meet the district’s compelling interests.”
Seattle considers students’ preferences in assigning high schools. If a high school has more applicants than classroom slots, the district uses a series of tie breakers to decide who will be admitted.
First, the district admits students who have a sibling at the school. The second tie breaker was race. If a school’s student body varied by 15 percent or more from the district ratio of 40 percent white and 60 percent nonwhite, minority students were given preference if they brought the student body closer to that ratio.
A group called Parents Involved in Community Schools sued the Seattle school board in 2000 charging that the use of a “racial balancing policy” was discriminatory. The district stopped using race as a factor as the case made its way through the courts.
A 9th Circuit panel sided with the parents last year, but the recent ruling by the full court overturned that decision. The parents group plans to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Science groups pull out of state standards
• The National Science Teachers Association and the National Academy of Sciences are refusing to allow their materials to be used by the Kansas state board of education because of the way the state’s science standards treat evolution.
The groups say the science standards have “significant errors regarding the theory of evolution,” overemphasize controversy in the theory of evolution, and distort the definition of science.
The two organizations asked the Kansas state board to refrain from referencing or quoting from NSTA’s Pathways to the Science Standards and the National Science Education Standards, published by the National Academies’ National Research Council.
Technology funding is a major concern
• Funding for technology and integrating technology into the classroom are among the biggest challenges that school districts face in the area of technology, according to the results of a survey announced by NSBA Oct. 27 at the Technology + Learning2 Conference in Denver.
Sixty-three percent of the respondents rate their school district’s curriculum as excellent or good in preparing students for the 21st century. But 85 percent say their new teachers are only “somewhat prepared” or “not prepared” to effectively integrate technology into the classroom.
Nearly 54 percent of respondents said that their district has students enrolled in online classes.