The Choice Channel

“The implications for governments and communities are wide-ranging, demographers said. As the current crop of youngsters reaches kindergarten age, school systems that would otherwise be losing students will continue to grow or remain stable. They will also need to accommodate an ever-larger number of students who were raised in immigrant households where English was not spoken. In addition, although most Hispanic children younger than 5 are native-born U.S. citizens and therefore eligible for government health care and other benefits, research indicates that if their parents are not U.S. citizens, they will be less likely to claim assistance, said Michael Fix, director of studies at the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute.” (08/07/08)

http://tinyurl.com/5wubvp

“Every school year, at hundreds of high schools across Pennsylvania and New Jersey, students are asked - and sometimes required - to take a vocational aptitude test with a strange-sounding name - the ASVAB, which stands for Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. Since Vietnam, the test has been a powerful peacetime recruiting tool for the Pentagon; hundreds of thousands of student scores have routinely been sent to the military each year, typically leading to follow-up calls from recruiters.” (08/06/08)

http://tinyurl.com/638rm4

“In a discrimination case that is still crawling through the Louisiana court system after seven years, McNeese State University’s president has asserted that it is not a ‘high priority’ for disabled students to access the university’s student union. The case, which stems from a 2001 accident, was brought by a student who — while in a wheelchair — was injured trying to pry open a bathroom door in the union. The door was not made accessible for disabled people, according to the suit.” (08/06/08)

http://tinyurl.com/5w5z28

“A teachers group asked the courts Tuesday to stop Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott from giving tax dollars to private groups to educate school dropouts. The Texas Education Agency proposal resembles a school voucher program, which state lawmakers expressly prohibited last year, the Texas State Teachers Association said in its motion for an injunction.” (08/05/08)

http://tinyurl.com/6mp7uc

“A community group that supports D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee’s proposed salary and bonus package for teachers has hired a small group of instructors at $1,000 a week to lobby colleagues for the plan, drawing accusations from union leaders of interference with the collective bargaining process. A spokesman for Strong Schools DC, founded in May by half a dozen local philanthropists with a history of involvement in education issues, said five public school teachers were employed “to spread the word” about Rhee’s plan.” (08/06/08)

http://tinyurl.com/6bvno7

“Starting today, operators of the nation’s more than 4,300 public charter schools and professionals seeking to teach, lead and assist more than 1.3 million students in those schools have a powerful new on-line tool connecting them: the free Public Charter Schools Job Board. … The new online job board is intended to be the most comprehensive, easy-to-use tool matching highly-skilled professionals and highly-rewarding jobs in charter schools, support organizations, authorizers and other employers throughout the charter school community.” (08/05/08)

http://tinyurl.com/67gx54

“A Leon County circuit judge ruled Monday that two constitutional reforms designed to expand taxpayer-funded vouchers for private schools can go before voters statewide in November. Opponents promised to appeal. Judge John C. Cooper rejected arguments by attorneys for the Florida Education Association, school superintendents and other education groups that the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission had overstepped its authority by putting Amendments 7 and 9 on the Nov. 4 ballot.” (08/05/08)

http://tinyurl.com/5cr5ho

“Some of the nation’s worst sex offenders will no longer be eligible to receive generous educational financial aid packages while they are confined in treatment centers under a bill approved by Congress. little-noticed provision of a broader higher education bill makes such offenders ineligible for Pell Grants, the nation’s premier financial aid program for low-income students, starting July 1, 2009. Both the Senate and the House approved the bill late last week and President Bush is expected to sign it into law.” (08/04/08)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26011552/

“Around 220,000 11-year-olds are still failing to master at least one of the three basic subjects of reading, writing and arithmetic, tests results published today show. The figures show the biggest problem is with writing where only 67 per cent of youngsters achieved the required grade – a figure which has remained static for the past three years. Boys fare worse than girls with just 60 per cent achieving the required standard – compared with 74 per cent of girls.” (08/05/08)

http://tinyurl.com/6brvxf

“A legal appeal over a 2003 Texas law mandating a moment of silence for schoolchildren is heating up. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to hear the case this fall. Both sides have asked for oral arguments and advocacy groups are weighing in with friend-of-the-court briefs. A North Texas couple is appealing the January ruling from a federal district court that upheld the law. U.S. District Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn said the law has a secular purpose of encouraging thoughtful contemplation and does not advance or inhibit religion.” (08/05/08)

http://tinyurl.com/5ph4ta