There is an interesting religion question shaping up in Florida. The Broward County Superintendent has ordered a charter school within the district to stop teaching the Hebrew language over concerns that in teaching it the teacher may be advocating the Jewish religion. This same school is named after a Jewish priest and is directed by a Rabbi. Here is a story on the issue. This would make a very interesting court case, by the way, so don't be surprised if we have not heard the last from this story.
There are more religion concerns in Texas, where the state legislature this year passed the Schoolchildren's Religious Liberties Act (quite the interesting read by the way). Largely the new law just codifies court rulings regarding the religious freedoms that students are afforded. But, administrators are now reporting some confusion about how to implement the law and increased devisiveness regarding religious issues in schools. There is especially concern about the model school policy contained in the law, which some complained did not match well with the law itself. This led the Texas Association of School Boards to create a different model policy, putting school boards in the difficult position of having to choose between the two. Still other districts are relying on their own attorneys to create school policies that comply with the law, but also meet the specific needs of the particular district. Needless to say, you should expect more litigation on this law and subsequent policies in the very near future.
Third, a study in Seattle found that school defibrillators may not be worth the cost as they are used very infrequently, and when they are used it is most frequently by adults. Also, schools are already highly trained in CPR. For more information on this issue, you may want to check out Andrew R. Roszak's presentation at the Education Law and Policy Forum, titled The Legalities of Legislatively Mandated Automated External Defibrillators in Educational Settings. (Always nice to give props to my alma mater, SIU Law School, and its students).
The answers to the questions to Representatives George Miller and Howard McKeon from the PBS series on Reauthorizing NCLB are posted here (click on question for responses). Also, the questions and answers to the three teacher of the year recipients are posted here. Remember you can read my take on the whole series here.
On a issue of more personal interest, universities are now beginning to outsource e-mail to Microsoft and Google. Well, what the heck took so long? Not only do the corporate e-mails offer more space and features, but they also do a better job of protecting users from spam and viruses, according to this U.S. News article. Although I am often critical of public school and business partnerships, this is one example of how they can both benefit each other, as well as the users of the system.
Finally, the NY Times had an interesting article regarding some of the numbers of schooling. I thought I would paste their image with some of the interesting numbers below. And, if you are really looking to waste time, you can watch CBS News', " What New at School 1972 Edition."
