Some things to look at from across the country

•  In another round of trying to get religious charter schools to happen, Oklahoma has rejected a Jewish charter school, and the proposers plan to sue. This is of course aimed at getting such a case back in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, whose 4-4 decision last year on St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School was due to Justice Amy Coney Barrett recusing herself.
  
  
• South Carolina has advanced a bill out of their education committee which would bar districts from having minimum grades rather than the grade actually earned for students. One might expect the conservative support, but I'll observe that support also came from their state teachers' association. 
  
  
• Maine is looking at their school funding formula. I thought this part was especially interesting: 
  

  Maine Educational Policy Research Institute proposes a 90/10 model for calculating how much of their costs districts can afford to cover with local funding. That means 90% of the expectation would be based on property taxes (the current system) and 10% would be based on the economically disadvantaged student rate. Researchers found that rate to be the best proxy for the poverty level in a community.

  Note that Maine's formula does include transportation, which Massachusetts does not include. Also this is an "I know, right?" with a different answer: 
  

   Johnson said special education is the area of the model that is “the most under stress.” Because of a step in the formula that bases state funding on past spending, the current formula disproportionately privileges wealthier districts.

  But before changing the formula, the institute proposes shifting special education to a regional model, wherein districts would collaborate on providing special ed services. Researchers are planning a forthcoming special education-specific report.