November 11, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/opinion/11wed2.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

Congress took a reasonable step in 1994 when it required states receiving federal education money to expel students who brought guns onto school property, but states and localities overreacted, as they so often do. They enacted “zero tolerance” policies under which children are sometimes arrested for profanity, talking back, shoving matches and other [...]

By THOMAS W. CARROLL
November 12, 2009
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/the_merit_pay_test_BcxXcs4nIEUOjYNEwFdT3N

With Election Day behind him, Mayor Bloomberg is politically free to drive a much tougher bargain in negotiations on the city’s teacher-union contract than he did four years ago.

The current contract expired Oct. 31, and City Hall has already warned that it won’t feel bound by the “pattern” of recent [...]

November 12, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/13/opinion/13fri2.html

The rules for the Race to the Top Fund, which is designed to reward states that embrace reform and bypass those that do not, are generally sound and have been greeted with enthusiasm. But some school reform groups and some in Congress have reacted with dismay to the part of the stabilization fund [...]

November 13, 2009
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/12/AR2009111210110.html?wpisrc=newsletter

WITHOUT spending a penny, Education Secretary Arne Duncan prodded states to take important, if small, steps toward school reform. Hoping to win funds from his forthcoming Race to the Top competition, states dismantled barriers to the use of student achievement data in assessing teachers, lifted caps on charter schools and raised standards for [...]

November 13, 2009
http://www.impre.com/eldiariony/opinion/2009/11/13/council-must-stop-hatchet-job-158889-1.html

Friday the 13th is proving to be more than ominous for hundreds of public school aides who are being dismissed today. The New York City Council should be fighting tooth and nail against cuts that pull the rug from under poor communities.

The Bloomberg administration issued two rounds of layoffs of public school aides. [...]

By YOAV GONEN
November 12, 2009
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/teachers_must_give_to_take_XHX2YDuF4mlCFHHiOkYH0I

The city can’t afford to give raises to teachers in line with those given to other unions without significant cost-saving concessions, according to a new report released yesterday.

Mayor Bloomberg this week suggested that the current union bargaining pattern of a 4 percent pay hike for two consecutive years — for which [...]