AM News: Free Lunch Rolls Skyrocket Around Country

Duncan Calls for Urgency in Lowering College Costs NYT: Education Secretary Arne Duncan, reacting to anger over rising college costs, urged higher education officials to “think more creatively” about ways to contain costs and reduce student debt.

Surge in Free School Lunches Reflects Economic Crisis NYT: Millions of students are receiving free or low-cost meals for the first time as their parents have lost jobs or homes in the economic crisis.

Individual Los Angeles schools gain new autonomy L.A. Times: The Los Angeles Unified School District and its teachers union have agreed to a new pact granting local schools more autonomy over hiring, curriculum and work conditions and virtually ending a 2-year-old policy that allowed charter operators and others to take over low-performing and new campuses.

Massachusetts Takes Over Lawrence Schools NYT: The Massachusetts board of education voted Tuesday to take over the Lawrence Public School system, an embattled district where fewer than half of students graduate from high school in four years.

Legislator Plays Ball Against For-Profit Charter Schools HuffPost: State Sen. Rebekah Warren is proposing a constitutional amendment that would ban for-profit charter operators from opening schools in Michigan.

Comments

[Bruce]

Most of Secretary Duncan's proposals would lead to the weak certification that has degraded the value of the high school diploma to invade the field of higher education. What I am proposing, instead, is an American baccalaureate certificate matching the systems in use in the Netherlands and Finland, whose systems of higher education are top-rated when it comes to affordabiity and accessibility (http://www.educationalpolicy.org/pdf/global2005.pdf). Under this proposal, students who could demonstrate, upon leaving high school, attainment similar to those leaving secondary education in these two and similar countries (the European Baccalaureate sets the standard there) would be entitled to three years of higher education at public expense.