New GAO report on disparities in student discipline

You can read about it in the Times here. Do note:

"This further shows that poverty is not explaining the disparities...There's a racial discrimination problem, and that can no longer be disputed."

What has been missed in education

A good reflection as we end this presidential term (and as the former Secretary of Education visits town) on what's been missed:

One can argue that there are limits to what the federal government can do about states that inadequately fund education and that a Republican Congress would have blocked any attempt by the Obama administration to create more adequate and equitable education funding.
But the honest truth is Obama and his Education Secretary never made adequate and equitable funding a signature education policy imperative. It wasn’t in the incentives and punishments written into RTTT. It wasn’t in any of the demands for being granted a waiver to NCLB...
“We’ve stopped worrying about inputs,” Berliner is quoted, “yet, what’s coming out of schools is still a function of those inputs.”

President's budget doesn't really increase Title I

Per both Politico and EdWeek, while there is an increase in the dollar amount proposed for Title I, it's essentially just the School Improvement Grant money merging over under the 7% set-aside called for under the new federal education law (and depending on how that works out, districts could get less, rather than even the same amount).
IDEA is frozen, as well.
There's an increase for Career and Technical Ed (up $77M), an increase for preschool development (up $100M), a new "Computer Science for All" proposal ($100M), PLUS Charter School Grants get a $17 million boost over current $350 million and Magnet Schools Assistance gets an additional $18M to bring it to $115 million.
Also, this on an ESSA outcome:

The president's budget is also expected to seek $500 million for the new block grant program in the just-passed Every Student Succeeds Act, into which a number of other programs were consolidated. 

The administration wants to put a twist on that program, though. Instead of having the money go out by formula to states and then districts, as it does under ESSA, it would first go by formula to states, who would then send it out competitively. And the grants would be at least $50,000. 

Under ESSA, districts that receive less than $30,000 from the block grant don't have to abide by the rules in the law for using it. But, if the grants are as big as $50,000 districts who get them would have to spend at least 20 percent on one activity that helps improve student health and safety, and another 20 percent on at least one activity that helps students become more well-rounded. And they couldn't spend more than 15 percent of the funding on technology infrastructure.

U.S. DoE memo is here. 

"...let's...embrace the fact that you showed up at all..."*

On Saturday, President Obama in a video message commented that we had too much testing in our schools, and that it needed to be limited. This was followed up by official guidance from the federal Department of Education.
And then the internet flipped out.
If you're a long-time reader, you know that I've been outraged by President Obama's education policy since before he took office (That link goes to December 2008). That it has doubled-down on much that was wrong with No Child Left Behind to begin with, while adding extra measures of things that are also awful, has been a frequent theme for me (and it's why I voted against Race to the Top).

But there's two things that bother me about the chorus of negativity that met the President's announcement.
First, most of the scoffing (shading to outrage) comes from educators, in one way or another; from teachers to education policy makers and think tanks, many people in education reacted negatively to this announcement. I thought, though, that we in education didn't give up on people. I thought we were about explaining it again, changing how we tackled a subject, coming back to what students don't get. I thought we were about getting everyone there, no matter how long it takes.
Does that not apply to adults or to presidents? Or did we really not mean that at all?

The second thing that bothers me about the reaction is what's missed: we're in the middle of the renewal of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Congress has to pass it and the President has to sign it. Many in the Democratic party have been taking their signals from the President in education policy. That has meant that much of what we loathe--and much of that centered around testing--has been pretty non-negotiable. For him to say that there's too much testing and to lay out some clear parameters for testing opens the door for new levels of negotiation on what can be in ESEA (and get votes and gain his signature) than there were before. That absolutely matters.
And in the meantime, we're still living in the ESEA waiver universe, and the department handing out those waivers just changed the rules on how we're operating. I look forward to states submitting waiver applications publicly that take very, very seriously:

•  testing that is PART of classroom instruction
• testing and test prep that is NOT a separate item
• testing that is FULLY transparent to parents and to the public
• testing that is NOT the sole measure of anything

..and so forth (do please read the DoE fact sheet). I venture that very few, if any, current waivers include any of this. It's up to the states now to take DoE at their word and submit waivers--and be VERY public about them--that actually follow those rules.

And then we can see if the lesson has truly been learned. A test, if you will.
*Sam Seaborn to C.J. Cregg, "Mr. Willis of Ohio," The West Wing, Season 1, episode 6

"Because the single most powerful word in our democracy is the word 'We.' "

If you didn't watch President Obama's speech yesterday at Selma, go read or watch it:

What greater expression of faith in the American experiment than this; what greater form of patriotism is there; than the belief that America is not yet finished, that we are strong enough to be self-critical, that each successive generation can look upon our imperfections and decide that it is in our power to remake this nation to more closely align with our highest ideals?

The president is in town

A few more updates for tomorrow

• WPD has just released the motorcade route, in the hope of having people avoid it: Pleasant down from the airport, to the Newton Square rotary, down Highland to Worcester Center Blvd. That will all close as of 2:30; they expect to reopen it sometime around six.
• The streets immediately surrounding the DCU Center close tomorrow at 10 am. 
• For those attending graduation: doors open at 1 pm. Given the above, think ahead about parking. All will have to pass through airport-type security (so travel light!) and don't forget your ticket! All must be inside by 3 pm.
• Graduation is scheduled to start at 4 pm. 
• And again, no, no plans at this time for early dismissal for any of the Worcester Public Schools. All schools save Worcester Tech are operating on their normal schedules. There will of course be traffic delays, as there will be for the city. Buses are will drop off at usual stops. And can I suggest that this would be a great day to have your kids walk or take the bus, if at all possible? 
• And remember: DC does this all of the time; I'm sure we can manage it once!

I know the rumors are rife...

...but no, no plans at this time to dismiss anyone from school early Wednesday, per Superintendent Boone.
There will be a Connect-ed tomorrow after the last plans are confirmed. 

For those of you downtown: the graduations are coming!

Tonight, Claremont Academy graduates. Next week, we start the big schools downtown.

All graduations start at 6 pm; graduates have to get there within the hour ahead. If you are downtown, there will be an invasion of capped and gown seniors, along with their families, sometime after 5 pm.
Tuesday (June 3): South High
Wednesday (June 4): Doherty Memorial
Friday (June 6): North High
Monday (June 9): Burncoat High

Wednesday, June 11 is Worcester Technical High School's graduation. President Obama is giving the graduation address at this ceremony. This ceremony is at 4pm, but all those attending must be inside the building by 3pm. Due to the President's attendance, this ceremony will be in the DCU arena itself, not the conference section. We have not heard yet how the President is coming into town, but expect things to be pretty crazy downtown from midafternoon on, and from whatever direction he's coming in from.

I'll post more information as I have it. 

A little help here, Arne!

Looks as though Congressional members of the education committee would really appreciate it if the Obama administration might take an interested in ESEA renewal. They didn't give the Secretary a very easy time when he was before them today.

Irony really is dead

It grieves me today to announce the death of irony: the Obama administration has announced a new Race to the Top...for equity. 

State of the Union 2014

While I did not watch last night, I did follow the conversation on Twitter (try #SOTU and #SOTUedu). The White House posted the full text here. 
The big questions beforehand were: would he mention Race to the Top? would he mention Common Core?
He started (to much reaction from teachers on the web) with a shout out to teachers:

Today in America, a teacher spent extra time with a student who needed it, and did her part to lift America’s graduation rate to its highest level in more than three decades.

Okay, list of Americans; you get a pass from me on rhetorical flourishes. The bulk of the education section--after economy and the environment--starts here:

 Five years ago, we set out to change the odds for all our kids...

Then he talks about college loans, which is generally beyond the scope of this blog, but I agree with those who think this could have been a great chance to talk about loan forgiveness (and if you haven't read this piece about how we could make public college free for everyone, you should).
Here's where some people lost their bets on if he'd mention Race to the Top (smart money was that he would, as he has every year):

 Race to the Top, with the help of governors from both parties, has helped states raise expectations and performance.  Teachers and principals in schools from Tennessee to Washington, D.C. are making big strides in preparing students with skills for the new economy – problem solving, critical thinking, science, technology, engineering, and math.

Oh, dear...no, Mr. President, it didn't. Even setting aside the debate over what exactly RTTT did to expectations (always a dicey thing to prove), you're way too early to talk about RTTT doing anything about performance. The Common Core just got implemented. Most of the tests haven't been used yet. It's simple cause and effect: changes take time. About all that's happened is a whole lot of money has been spent. And you should really read Bruce Baker  and Tom Loveless on what you can tell from NAEP results (surely we've got someone in the Department of Education doing that?).
And you caught that STEM mention, right?

Some of this change is hard.  It requires everything from more challenging curriculums and more demanding parents to better support for teachers and new ways to measure how well our kids think, not how well they can fill in a bubble on a test.  But it’s worth it – and it’s working. 

Ah, "more challenging curriculums". Sorry, if you bet that he would say "Common Core," you lost. That's as close as he gets. Notice that it's plural, because it's not a national curriculum; as we keep being told, it's a set of national standards.
Regarding the "curriculums" versus "curricula" debate, please see Kory Stamper on "octopi." 
"(M)ore demanding parents" is echoing his Secretary of Education who earlier this month essentially went after parental expectations of education as the new shadow enemy keeping our children from international excellence. That was in the same speech where Duncan derided the number of teachers who come from particular parts of the college graduating class, though, so the parental piece didn't get much coverage.
On bubble tests, we've been hearing for years that President Obama doesn't like them, and yet:

Must work on the disconnect between Pres Obama's thoughts on bubble tests and fact that they've increased five fold under Secy Duncan.@tcbgp
— Rita Solnet (@ritacolleen) January 29, 2014

Not sure where the fivefold is; suffice to say it's getting worse rather than better.
On "worth it and working" please see above regarding Race to the Top. Also note the large number of demoralized teachers, the crisis in local education funding, and the one in four children in the U.S. living in poverty--all, I would argue, of significant import in talking about education and if and where it's working.

The problem is we’re still not reaching enough kids, and we’re not reaching them in time.  That has to change. 

Yes! Absolutely!

Research shows that one of the best investments we can make in a child’s life is high-quality early education.  Last year, I asked this Congress to help states make high-quality pre-K available to every four year-old.  As a parent as well as a President, I repeat that request tonight. But in the meantime, thirty states have raised pre-k funding on their own.  They know we can’t wait.  

Okay, no argument there, EXCEPT that starting with three year olds is already granting a major gap among kids. We've got to go earlier and work with families. However:

 So just as we worked with states to reform our schools, this year, we’ll invest in new partnerships with states and communities across the country in a race to the top for our youngest children.  And as Congress decides what it’s going to do, I’m going to pull together a coalition of elected officials, business leaders, and philanthropists willing to help more kids access the high-quality pre-K they need.

Not. Another. Race to the Top.
We're talking about three and four year olds. We are having absurd conversations about "performance" about TODDLERS. Have any of the people making these decisions talked to a four or a three year old lately?
We're going to have another competition for funding? Are we not sick--and I mean that literally--of this pitting of children and their educations against each other yet?
And, oh, look who we're going to ask to help: elected officials, business leaders, and philanthropists. Three groups--and I say this as part of one of them--that have demonstrated that they know a ridiculously small amount about what education needs, whilst having a ridiculous inflated sense of how much they know. WRONG CHOICE, Mr. President. It won't get you bold-faced names, but how about asking some preschool teachers? some parents of preschoolers? some child development specialists? some pediatricians?
You know, people who know about kids?

Last year, I also pledged to connect 99 percent of our students to high-speed broadband over the next four years.  Tonight, I can announce that with the support of the FCC and companies like Apple, Microsoft, Sprint, and Verizon, we’ve got a down payment to start connecting more than 15,000 schools and twenty million students over the next two years, without adding a dime to the deficit. 

Great, super, but the cynic in me points out that Verizon, Sprint and others are part of the reason that this has been hard and wonders what exactly they all want in exchange. And there are some things that government should pay for.
Then back to higher ed again--with an encouraging note about keeping young men of color on track (we'll have to see what that looks like)--before:

The bottom line is, Michelle and I want every child to have the same chance this country gave us. 

It's pretty clear that the President and Mrs. Obama had a lot going for them in terms of family support as they were growing up. It's not at all clear to me that he or his administration realize what a difference this makes in what happens to kids, or that he or they wish to do what they can for kids who don't have that.
Not to mention that the education that they are choosing for their daughters in no way reflects the education that he is moving the rest of the country towards.

Lies, Damn Lies...

Good post over at The Indignant Teacher on the "Dam of Lies" around the Common Core and Race to the Top here in Massachusetts:

Except one day suddenly there were people in decision-making roles in Massachusetts who weren’t the “smartest” in the group. They traded in our “smartest” state standards for RTTT and CCSS, knowing it was a weaker system. Over time, NAEP data evolved into something that would ultimately remove the “smartest” title from Massachusetts students. This year’s data shows Massachusetts having dropped to #2, after Vermont, in terms of “smartest” adults based on education attainment demographics.

Clearly there’s a pattern, and it’s not a positive one. We are losing status as “smartest”, and it wouldn’t take a Rhodes Scholar to determine why. So why do we, as a state, allow the pattern to continue? Why can’t we do what we know works – what’s proven to work? And really, why did we sign on to this in the first place?

Scrolling back through the history, it's worth noting this speech from Governor Patrick, expressing reluctance to adopt the standards "if it means compromising our values." That was after we'd lost in round one, but before we'd won in round two: just when the decision was being made to cave on the Common Core. I'd also note some of this interchange with both Chester and Ingram after Massachusetts had been announced as a winner.
Beyond the push about needing the money (which was questionable at best, particularly when you consider how strictly spending it was structured), there was definitely a lot of political pushing going on around Race to the Top. For our bluest state to refuse the much-touted educational policy initiative of a Democratic president would have looked bad. It would have been smart, but it would have looked bad.
And it sure does look as though political expediency was put over educational attainment.
And should you need a revamp on my take of why Race to the Top was a bad idea, here you are. 

The Joyce Foundation in Chicago

This is another of those "follow the spaghetti" articles on influence and money in education. This time, it's on the Joyce Foundation in Chicago.
Also helps if you're wondering where our new Secretary of Commerce came from. 

ESEA reauthorization: maybe a floor vote

The spring rush got away from me, so it has been some time since I've done any sort of an update on the re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in Congress. Sorry about that.
Back in mid-June, the Senate Education committee approved a (Democratic) renewal, which in many ways looks like the Obama administration's NCLB waivers. However, there was here, as there has been elsewhere, some concerns raised around the impact of federal regulations (and spending) on rural schools.
The following week, the House Education committee approved a (Republican) renewal, which kind of goes in both directions: it keeps the 3-8 testing, but leaves accountability decisions up to states, reverses maintenance of efforts (on spending) requirements, would require teachers to be evaluated based on student performance, and tosses a whole bunch of lines of financing together into one pot. There's been some concerns raised on keeping the attention of districts on, for example, the performance of special education students.
There's a chance that the House will be considering this bill sometime soon, and I'd recommend that link on "what to watch" for further reading. Personally, I'm totally fine with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce not supporting this bill, but the civil rights community has a point. Watch that Title I conversation, in particular; Title I is seen as a big pot of money that everyone wants a part of. As the K-12 education blog points out as well, nobody here is dealing with the major objections that have been raised for years by parents and educators, so...let's say I don't have a lot of hope of anyone actually fixing anything here. Sorry about that, too.

Embattled Common Core?

It's been an interesting couple of weeks for the Common Core standards.

• The Republican National Committee, meeting in Los Angeles, voted to oppose the Common Core standards. You can read the entire resolution here. While it--not surprisingly for a partisan organization--spends some time attacking both Secretary Duncan and President Obama, it also get the rushed timelines and the outside funding bits right.
• This lead to Secretary Duncan urging business leaders to defend the Common Core. There's some concern that the RNC position will make sticking to the CCSS difficult for Republican governors up for re-election. 
• Then, earlier this week, Indiana's legislature reached a deal which "pauses" implementation of the Common Core. 

Now, while there's been a real attempt to paint this as a far right conspiracy-fearing position (thank you, Secretary Duncan), Valarie Strauss points out that opposition to the Common Core is coming from both the right and the left. There are even some parallel arguments: that this weakens educational standards, that states were effectively forced into it, and that its creation didn't include those closest to the classroom. Paul Horton posts an excellent takedown of Duncan's position today. 

Meanwhile, as we heard again last night, Massachusetts rolls forward with implementation. 

While we're talking about the State of the Union

...you might go read Alan Simpson on his disappointment in the President's message on education.

State of the Union 2013

I find it easier to go through the State of the Union and other such speeches the next day, once I can look at the full text. Here, from the New York Times, is the Pre-K-12 education section of last night's speech:

Study after study shows that the sooner a child begins learning, the better he or she does down the road. But today, fewer than 3 in 10 four year-olds are enrolled in a high-quality preschool program. Most middle-class parents can’t afford a few hundred bucks a week for private preschool. And for poor kids who need help the most, this lack of access to preschool education can shadow them for the rest of their lives.
Tonight, I propose working with states to make high-quality preschool available to every child in America. Every dollar we invest in high-quality early education can save more than seven dollars later on – by boosting graduation rates, reducing teen pregnancy, even reducing violent crime. In states that make it a priority to educate our youngest children, like Georgia or Oklahoma, studies show students grow up more likely to read and do math at grade level, graduate high school, hold a job, and form more stable families of their own. So let’s do what works, and make sure none of our children start the race of life already behind. Let’s give our kids that chance.
Let’s also make sure that a high school diploma puts our kids on a path to a good job. Right now, countries like Germany focus on graduating their high school students with the equivalent of a technical degree from one of our community colleges, so that they’re ready for a job. At schools like P-Tech in Brooklyn, a collaboration between New York Public Schools, the City University of New York, and IBM, students will graduate with a high school diploma and an associate degree in computers or engineering.
We need to give every American student opportunities like this. Four years ago, we started Race to the Top – a competition that convinced almost every state to develop smarter curricula and higher standards, for about 1 percent of what we spend on education each year. Tonight, I’m announcing a new challenge to redesign America’s high schools so they better equip graduates for the demands of a high-tech economy. We’ll reward schools that develop new partnerships with colleges and employers, and create classes that focus on science, technology, engineering, and math – the skills today’s employers are looking for to fill jobs right now and in the future.

First of all, if this all sounded to you an awful lot like Governor Patrick's State of the State address a few weeks back, well, that wasn't just you ("He mentioned that it’s 'our generation’s task' to fix this mess and pushed for early education and some other really familiar sounding proposals. So familiar, in fact, I think the Axelrod/Patrick/White House conference call might have been a really good one this year.") That's pretty disappointing; I'd hope for a broader vision from the federal government. 
Overall, this boils down to preschool, early college high school, and STEM, which makes it largely a retread of what we've been hearing in education for the past few years. 

Now, don't get me wrong: preschool--and frankly, it's about time we came up with something to separate out when we're talking about kids younger than 4--is an important thing to support, and to support much better than we do now. Head Start is the largest and longest running preschool program in the United States and the results are that are pretty amazing. See, for example, the chart Andrew Sullivan posts today on the results at age 27. The rest of what you'll see up there (and elsewhere) is the "but the results fade out after third grade." However, it is the test score results that fade out after third grade, and I sure hope that we're doing a lot more in this country than raising standardized test scores.
I hope.
I think there's a couple of things that the President missed here (yes, realizing that he did have to cover the entire country in the limited time available). Anything that looks like universal preschool leaves out those that choose or wish to choose to have their young children spend time at home. It may be home with a parent; it may be the home of a grandparent. This may be a minority--it may even be a somewhat silent one--but we make a mistake if we leave it out. We also make a mistake if we assume that it only follows the "mom's home; dad's at work" pattern. We have a number of cultures across the country who would rather have a child with Gramma, whatever her level of education, than in any sort of preschool.
That's why I wish here, much like with Race to the Top, that instead of going for a competitive and institutional answer, he'd gone for a coordinated and community one. For someone who spoke at such length about Harlem Children's Zone, he didn't follow up. Yet the parts of that model that were new (not the ducking out of the public school system with charters)--talking to parents about talking to their babies, getting not to kids but to families very young--are tackling the so-called achievement gap where it actually starts, and doing so in a way that isn't isolating the kids, but is bringing the entire community along. 
Diane Ravitch hits my part of my concern on the early college high school; we say kids need more education, and then we say we should follow the example of a country with a lower college graduation rate? The other piece of my concern is based on what we've seen here in Worcester; if those programs are competitive in any way, we'll end up with the brightest kids in them, not those who actually could benefit most from the program. That's a mistake, and it's one that will make both halves of the problem worse.
On STEM: what can I say? It's hip now. It was after Sputnik, too. At some point, I hope we'll remember why we thought we ought to be teaching literature and history and the social sciences.
I hope. 

One Today

The following is the poem Richard Blanco wrote and recited at yesterday's Presidential Inauguration. Along with being a civil engineer, Blanco is a teacher, thus the school-related imagery. 

One sun rose on us today, kindled over our shores,
peeking over the Smokies, greeting the faces
of the Great Lakes, spreading a simple truth
across the Great Plains, then charging across the Rockies.
One light, waking up rooftops, under each one, a story
told by our silent gestures moving behind windows.

My face, your face, millions of faces in morning's mirrors,
each one yawning to life, crescendoing into our day:
pencil-yellow school buses, the rhythm of traffic lights,
fruit stands: apples, limes, and oranges arrayed like rainbows
begging our praise. Silver trucks heavy with oil or paper—
bricks or milk, teeming over highways alongside us,
on our way to clean tables, read ledgers, or save lives—
to teach geometry, or ring-up groceries as my mother did
for twenty years, so I could write this poem.

All of us as vital as the one light we move through,
the same light on blackboards with lessons for the day:
equations to solve, history to question, or atoms imagined,
the "I have a dream" we keep dreaming,
or the impossible vocabulary of sorrow that won't explain
the empty desks of twenty children marked absent
today, and forever. Many prayers, but one light
breathing color into stained glass windows,
life into the faces of bronze statues, warmth
onto the steps of our museums and park benches
as mothers watch children slide into the day.

One ground. Our ground, rooting us to every stalk
of corn, every head of wheat sown by sweat
and hands, hands gleaning coal or planting windmills
in deserts and hilltops that keep us warm, hands
digging trenches, routing pipes and cables, hands
as worn as my father's cutting sugarcane
so my brother and I could have books and shoes.

The dust of farms and deserts, cities and plains
mingled by one wind—our breath. Breathe. Hear it
through the day's gorgeous din of honking cabs,
buses launching down avenues, the symphony
of footsteps, guitars, and screeching subways,
the unexpected song bird on your clothes line.

Hear: squeaky playground swings, trains whistling,
or whispers across café tables, Hear: the doors we open
for each other all day, saying: hello, shalom,
buon giorno, howdy, namaste, or buenos días
in the language my mother taught me—in every language
spoken into one wind carrying our lives
without prejudice, as these words break from my lips.

One sky: since the Appalachians and Sierras claimed
their majesty, and the Mississippi and Colorado worked
their way to the sea. Thank the work of our hands:
weaving steel into bridges, finishing one more report
for the boss on time, stitching another wound
or uniform, the first brush stroke on a portrait,
or the last floor on the Freedom Tower
jutting into a sky that yields to our resilience.

One sky, toward which we sometimes lift our eyes
tired from work: some days guessing at the weather
of our lives, some days giving thanks for a love
that loves you back, sometimes praising a mother
who knew how to give, or forgiving a father
who couldn't give what you wanted.

We head home: through the gloss of rain or weight
of snow, or the plum blush of dusk, but always—home,
always under one sky, our sky. And always one moon
like a silent drum tapping on every rooftop
and every window, of one country—all of us—
facing the stars
hope—a new constellation
waiting for us to map it,
waiting for us to name it—together.

Elsewhere on the ballot on election day: a wrap-up UPDATED

So we know the news from the top of the ticket--and there's a good letter here to President Obama this morning--but there were a number of other education-related issues and positions of interest nationwide.

• Congratulations this morning to Glenda Ritz, the state superintendent-elect in Indiana! Ms. Ritz defeated Tony Bennett, who has been pro-corporate type reform and was HUGELY funded by those sources. Ritz has been quoted as saying there's too much emphasis on standardized tests. Good news!
• Bridgeport, CT defeated a ballot question calling for a mayorally-appointed school board. Score one for democracy! Michelle Rhee's group spent $100,000 on that loss.
• According to the tweets coming out of Chicago last night, the city would like to elect their school board, by an overwhelming (80%!) margin. That measure was non-binding. 
• Miami-Dade County in Florida has passed a $1.2 billion (with a "B") bond issue for schools. 
• Houston, Texas passed a $2 billion (likewise, "B") bond issue for their schools.
• California defeated Proposition 38 which would have progressively increased state income taxes to fund education. However, the state passed Proposition 30, which is Governor Jerry Brown's measure to increase taxes on the wealthiest, as well as add a temporary increase to the state sales tax, all for education funding.
• Alabama defeated the change to their constitution, that, while taking out the language on segregated schools, would have cast doubt on the guaranteed right to a public education.
• Georgia passed a measure that moves the power creating of charter schools back to the state level (from the local level). And we know how well that one works...
• I've heard reports that Washington also passed their measure 1240 on charter schools--that state hasn't allowed them--but I can't find definitive word.

Mixed, but not a bad night for education. And Mr. President? We're holding you to that promise on sequestration not happening.