A Shout Out to Voice of San Diego-- linked to this blog!

Check out these "Bright and Early" commentaries from Voice of San Diego. June 12, 2009--the blog makes the B&E!  

Bright and Early

 E-MAIL POST

There's a ton of interesting local opinion today along with your education news: A student editorial from Hilltop High decries the spending habits of Sweetwater Union High School District Superintendent Jesus Gandara in a budget crisis and his "Stalinistic approach to school politics." We blog on the San Diego teachers union joining the Labor Council and give you the background on why this is happening to unions nationwide. The Union-Tribune reports that the Ramona student finally got to present her report on gay leader Harvey Milk after the ACLU threatened to sue, and prints dueling editorials on preschool on its opinion page. And I accidentally overlooked this opinion piece yesterday by San Diego Unified trustee John Lee Evans that touts their "third way" of balancing the budget. Ruth McKinnie Braun at SDNN talks to "The Book Whisperer" on getting kids to read. The La Jolla Light reports on a dustup over expansion plans at a French bilingual school. KPBS talks to a High Tech High teacher heading to Uganda. And back at VOSD, my coworker Rani Gupta tracks the $17M tab to date for the nonexistent downtown library and its potential future as a schoolbrary, and I blog on a scufflebetween a charter school and the district over bond building plans.

Because budget news is school news these days: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger takes a step toward carrying out his threat to block an emergency loan to the state and a lawmaker calls his actions "hallucinatory and irresponsible." The Los Angeles Times continues the op-ed debate over charter schools -- this round is over which students charters educate. And Education Week is packed with California news, from the doubts about the governor's digital textbook ambitions, a lawsuit that decries the state for suspending its monitoring of programs for English learners, homeless students, migrants and neglected or delinquent kids.

And on the national stage, the Wall Street Journal explains the move toward "data-driven schools" and what that really means. The Christian Science Monitor reports that GED classes are packed nationwide. NPR explores cheaper ways that schools can go high-tech. The blog Eduwonk asks why negotiations with teachers unions can't be open, as the Washington Post editorialized they should be. And you were right about that eerie teacher in the second grade: Education Week reports that veteran teachers kind of do have eyes in the back of their heads.

-- EMILY ALPERT

Friday, June 12 -- 7:45 am

http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/education/schooled/