Education Week - November 13, 2013 - 4

NEWSINBRIEF
WITH ALL DUE HASTE
Rosemary Downing
teaches a General
Educational Development
test-preparation class at
the Carlos Rosario
International Public
Charter School in the
District of Columbia. Those
who passed part, but not
all, of the GED test are
rushing to complete it
before a new version rolls
out in January. Otherwise,
their scores will be wiped
out, and they will have to
pay significantly more to
earn a certificate. About
1 million of those who took
the high-school-equivalency
exam could be affected.
Catholic Scholars Encourage
Opposition to Common Core
More than 130 Catholic scholars
have signed a letter to the nation's
Roman Catholic bishops condemning
the Common Core State
Standards and urging the church
leaders to resist adopting them, or
abandon the standards if implementation
has already begun.
The signatories include professors
in many disciplines, including theology,
philosophy, and architecture.
More than 100 dioceses and archdio-
ceses have embraced the standards in
mathematics and English/language
arts. But the signers argue that those
educators are doing "a grave disservice
to Catholic education in America"
because the new standards lack sufficient
rigor to prepare students to do
well in college.
-CATHERINE GEWERTZ
House GOP to Examine
Impact of Health-Care Law
The House Education and the
Workforce Committee announced
last week that it plans to explore
the impact of the Affordable Care
Act on schools.
A hearing, scheduled for Nov. 14,
is expected to cover such topics as
school districts cutting back on parttime
staffers and closely monitoring
hours for substitute teachers to
avoid having to provide health-care
benefits.
Many education groups, including
teachers' unions, helped push
for "Obamacare," arguing in part
that healthier families would mean
healthier students, who would show
up better prepared to learn.
-ALYSON KLEIN
Child-Care Costs Increase
Faster Than Family Income
The cost of child care increased up
to eight times the rate of increases
in family income from 2011 to 2012
and eclipsed every other household
expense in the Northeast, Midwest,
and South for families with two
children attending a center-based
program full time, says a report
released last week by the advocacy
group Child Care Aware of America.
The U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services suggests that
families pay no more than 10 percent
of their income for child care,
but in 38 states and the District of
Columbia child-care costs exceed
that recommendation by "much,
much more," the report says.
Family income rose 0.6 percent,
and the cost-of-living increased 1.6
percent from 2011 to 2012, according
to the study. Meanwhile, child
care for infants placed in a center
full time rose 2.7 percent; the cost
of those enrolled full time in homebased
day care jumped 3.7 percent.
-JULIE BLAIR
Anti-Immigration Measure
For Schools in Ala. Gutted
Alabama state officials have
agreed not to enforce several key
provisions of the state's anti-immigration
law passed in 2011, including
one that requires school districts
to ask new students to show
proof of citizenship or lawful immigration
status to enroll.
The agreement is part of a settleAssessment
Undertaken to Determine Fate of DOD Schools
A new Department of Defense study will examine
the future of on-base schools.
Parents with children who attend base schools
will receive a letter explaining the assessment,
which is being conducted by the National Defense
Research Institute and is expected to be completed
by summer.
Nationwide, 23,000 students attend DOD schools
at 60 locations across 15 military installations.
The study will consider five alternatives to the
way DOD schools are operated and may include, but
are not limited to, retaining the status quo; closing
on-base schools, transferring schools and stu-
dents to another authority, such as the local school
district; keeping the same district boundaries but
establishing a new local education agency; or setting
the schools up as charter schools, according to
Elaine Kanellis, a spokeswoman for DOD schools.
A similar study was conducted in 2003, she said,
but several factors have since affected military communities
and schools, such as a decade of war, multiple
deployments, and frequent separations of service
members. The study will also consider changes
that have occurred in the educational world such as
exams, practices, and programs directly related to
the classroom.
-McCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
ment with civil rights groups that
challenged the law, believed to be
the most stringent of a wave of
measures passed in recent years.
The mandate has been on hold
since early 2012. After the law first
took effect in late 2011, districts
reported losing large numbers of
students.
-LESLI A. MAXWELL
States' Child-Care Rules
Found to Be Too Lax
Parents with children in day care
often assume workers have cleared
background checks and the facility
has passed unannounced inspections,
but a review released last
week finds many states don't have
such requirements.
The watchdog arm of the U.S.
Department of Health and Human
Services found that 21 states do not
require an annual unannounced
inspection of all licensed child-care
providers and that only 15 require
background checks considered comprehensive
by the agency, according
to the report. Even when unannounced
inspections are required,
they aren't always done, says the
report from HHS' inspector general.
About 1.6 million children attend
day-care programs with federal subsidies.

Los Angeles Issuing
Fewer Truancy Tickets
The number of truancy tickets issued
to students in the Los Angeles
school district has dropped by more
than 93 percent during the past four
years, according to a report released
last week.
Under a partnership launched
last year among district, city, and
school police, truant students are
more often sent to city youth centers
to receive educational counseling
4 | EDUCATION WEEK | November 13, 2013 | www.edweek.org/go/commentary
-ASSOCIATED PRESS
and other services to address their
academic struggles.
African-American and Latino students
still receive a disproportionate
number of tickets, though the
district says rates have declined for
those groups as well.
Thousands File Comments
On Common Core in Fla.
Gov. Rick Scott's decision to review
Florida's new school standards has
triggered an avalanche of comments,
suggestions, and protest from parents,
teachers, and residents.
More than 19,000 submitted com-
ments by the Florida education department's
Nov. 1 deadline. Three
public hearings were also held
around the state that went on for
hours as some critics derided the
standards as anti-American or part
of a strategy to force schoolchildren
to take more high-stakes tests.
A spokesman for the department
said the comments would be
analyzed and an overview would be
provided to board members at their
Nov. 19 meeting.
-AP
Mo. Superintendents Offer
Student-Transfer Option
A group of school superintendents
has developed an alternative to a
Missouri law that allows students
to transfer from unaccredited to accredited
districts.
Under the plan, successful districts
would take over school systems
that suffer from prolonged failure.
But students wouldn't be bused
to neighboring districts, as has happened
this year in two unaccredited
St. Louis County districts.
The plan, drafted by 20 lead-
ers from around the state, would
allow students to transfer to better
schools within districts that score
-AP
Carolyn Kaster/AP
http://www.edweek.org/go/commentary
Education Week - November 13, 2013

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