Education
Funding problems found in charter school construction program
Tony Kennedy of the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune reports that some of the state’s charter schools have found a loophole in the Minnesota law that forbids charter schools from owning property. Millions of dollars in public money have gone to build schools even though the properties remain in the hands of private nonprofit corporations. According to…
Read MoreSchools not made aware of tainted food supplies
An investigation by Blake Morrison and Peter Eisler of USA Today illustrates failures in food safety programs as schools unknowingly continued to receive food from suppliers with a history of tainted products. Del Rey Tortilleria of Chicago was linked to illness outbreaks at over a dozen schools between 2003 and 2007. “And in a 2006…
Read MoreEducation, Inc. series
A three-day series by The Journal Gazette (Fort Wayne, Ind.) examined the local charter schools run by national, for-profit Imagine Schools Inc., the largest charter school management company in the nation. The series found that the idea of local, independent control – demanded by IRS rules governing non-profits – is non-existent, as the hired management…
Read MoreDrastic swings in test scores lead to questions of cheating
An Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation found 19 public elementary schools statewide with extraordinary gains or drops in standardized test scores between spring last year and this year — raising questions of cheating.
Read MoreContaminated drinking water found in schools across the U.S.
A 10-month investigation by Garance Burke of the Associated Press has found unsafe levels of contaminants such as lead and pesticides in school drinking water in all 50 states. “But the problem has gone largely unmonitored by the federal government, even as the number of water safety violations has multiplied.” An interactive graphic allows the…
Read MoreAccuracy of Florida school safety reports called into question
WFOR-TV (Doral, Fla.) conducted a six-month investigation into school violence in Florida and discovered “wide discrepancies” between the numbers of violent incidents reported on the state’s Department of Education website and actual police reports filed about violent incidents at schools in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. The state claims that the discrepancies can be linked to…
Read MorePrivate school tax credits going to publicly-funded charter schools
In the most recent installments of its series on private school tuition tax credits, The Arizona Republic revealed that the system is so lax that publicly-funded charter schools have been able to tap into the tax credit intended for private schools. The Republic also found that a number of private school tuition organizations are failing…
Read MoreRetreat pay a costly perk in UNC system
Dan Kane and Eric Ferreri of The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.) took a look at a little known perk for University of North Carolina administrators known as “retreat rights” that paid them as much as a full year’s leave at their administrative salaries while they prepared for courses. In several cases, the administrators left…
Read MoreMany Dallas-Fort Worth graduates struggle in college
Holly Hacker of The Dallas Morning News looked at new data compiled by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board that showed how Texas public school students from the Class of 2007 fared in their first year at Texas public universities. Analysis showed that “at some North Texas high schools, half or more of graduates who…
Read MoreRigged Privilege series
A three-part investigation by the East Valley Tribune (Mesa, Ariz.) looked at Arizona’s Private School Tuition Tax Credits program. “The tuition tax credits law was supposed to revolutionize school choice for disadvantaged children. Instead it fostered a rigged system that keeps private education a privilege for the already privileged.“
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