AM News: Can USDE Monitor NCLB Waivers?

Ed. Dept. Gears Up to Oversee NCLB Waivers EdWeek: As the school year begins, states are preparing to provide their first evidence that they are implementing their plans as proposed—and are already asking federal officials if they can tweak their proposals.

Florida Schools In Session, But Teachers Absent NPR: There's typically a lot of teacher turnover during the summer break, and schools can't always get vacant teaching positions filled by the time school starts. [is this really a big problem nationwide?]

Jeb Bush Says Education Film Will Be 'Game-Changing' For Reform Movement HuffPostEdu: One of Bush's current causes is helping to promote a new movie that tells, in Hollywood fashion, the story of two single moms who take over a failing public school in the hopes of turning it around. Titled, "Won't Back Down." After the film was shown in Tampa last week, Bush sat on stage with Michelle Rhee, the former chancellor of D.C. public schools, a Democrat, and the two discussed education reforms.

 Lunch Trays Got Too Lean in City’s Fight Against Fat NYTimes: Worried that children were losing the war on obesity, New York City began to slim down its school lunch offerings several years ago, replacing fries with baked potato strips and introducing nonfat chocolate milk, whole grain pasta and salad bars, among other tweaks.

U.S., Arizona Settle Over Students With Limited English Phoenix: The U.S. departments of Justice and Education have reached an agreement with the Arizona Department of Education over the state's rush to move students out of its English language learning program.

Comments

[Bruce]

It would be a good thing if education policy were "the one little Switzerland where left and right can agree", as Jeb Bush says in today's HuffPost article, especially if our education policies were more like Switzerland's. That country's education system, in my view the best in the world (as I have argued in my blog [http://principalfoundations.blogspot.com/2012_02_01_archive.html]), is especially noteworthy for its dual system of separate academic and vocational high schools, associated with far lower levels of youth unemployment than those in countries which maintain comprehensive education all the way through 12th grade, as ours does, and for its democratic federal devolution of educational control, which it shares with Australia and Canada, probably the next two best systems, in my judgement.

[Sarah]

Hmm, not sure if I’m for or against the idea of UDSE overseeing waivers. Logically, and I’d like to believe this, government regulation could make the process less... for lack of a better term, questionably valid. That being said, USDE hasn’t exactly proven its own validity as of late.

[Sarah]

And it’s baffling that Bloomberg thinks children eating breakfast will cause obesity... when hundreds of studies have more-or-less proven that a full breakfast encourages weight loss. I have seen our local school's attempt at calorie cutting this year, and honestly it's a joke. They replaced pizza with calzones, throw black bean salad into every meal, and for monthly birthday celebrations, you get a yogurt smoothie instead of a cupcake.