Each week in our Friday Five, we’ll highlight five news stories or DFER DC updates to help keep you in the loop on our work, what’s on the horizon, and what’s happening in local politics that may affect DC public and public charter schools.
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Of course Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) chooses Liberty University as the setting to announce he’ll be running for President. Liberty University is one of the worst colleges in the country for poor and minority students. High price, high debt, and deplorable black student completion rates as compared to peer institutions serving similar students.
High Price & High Debt
Deplorable Black Graduation Rates Among VA Colleges
Low Graduation Rates for Minority Students As Compared to Peers
To view the data up close, click here.
Reconsider SB 1530
(Highland Community News, August 7, 2012)
“California and the nation witnessed the demise of SB 1530 (Padilla) when members of the Assembly Education Committee simply abdicated their responsibility to vote.” Those were the written words of Senator Gloria Romero (Ret.) State Director of Democrats for Education Reform California to California Assembly Speaker Perez.
SB 1530 would modify the process for firing teachers accused on the most “egregious” misconduct, such as those involving sex abuse, drugs or violence toward children, and empower school districts to make decisions on firing teachers who have imperiled our children’s lives.
Now that the Legislature in back in session and dealing with the aftermath of Los Angeles Unified School District’s sex-abuse scandal at Miramonte Elementary school, Senator Gloria Romero (Ret.) is calling upon the Assembly Speaker to hold Assembly members on the Education Committee accountable and schedule SB 1530 for a Reconsideration vote. She stated, “Speaker Perez must strongly encourage his members to support SB 1530 (Padilla) before the end of the legislative session.”
Senator Padilla’s bill would ensure that school board members have the power to act swiftly in removing educators who prey on children.
SB 1530 cleared the Senate on May 29, 2012, by a 33-4 bipartisan majority. Unfortunately, the intense lobbying by both the California Teachers Association and United Teachers Los Angeles later resulted in the bill falling one vote shy of approval by the Assembly Education Committee.
Former Phoenix Suns standout Kevin Johnson officially announced yesterday that he is running for mayor of Sacramento, California, in what the experts are already calling a “knock-down, drag-out fight.”
Johnson, who founded and operates St. Hope Public Schools, an independent charter school district, said Sacramento needs change. “Right now, people see our city as nonresponsive, tired, uninspired and bureaucratic,” Johnson told a crowd of more than 200 supporters yesterday.
Keep an eye on this one.
