Education Week - March 1, 2017 - 4

NEWS IN BRIEF
Charter Law Found Legal
In Washington State

Chris Howell /The Herald-Times via AP

A judge in Washington state has
ruled that the state's charter school
law is constitutional, another twist
in an ongoing legal battle.
The ruling last month marks a
big victory for proponents of charter schools and the eight that are
already operating in the state. The
state's largest teachers' union-the
Washington Education Association-
has not said whether it will appeal.
Washington's original charter
school law was passed by voter referendum in 2012. In fall 2015, the
law was struck down by the state
supreme court but revived by the
legislature the following spring. A
group of parents and the WEA sued
over the new version of the law,
challenging its constitutionality.
-LESLI A. MAXWELL

Probe Into iPad Buy
In Los Angeles Dropped
A two-year federal probe into the
Los Angeles school district's controversial multimillion-dollar plan to
buy iPads for all students has ended
without any charges being ﬁled, the
district announced last week.
The U.S. attorney's ofﬁce dropped
the investigation into the district's
purchase of Apple's iPads loaded
with a Pearson curriculum, according to the announcement. It did not
elaborate in the statement.
The quiet ending came in sharp contrast to years of tumult over the issue,
which raised procurement questions
about top district ofﬁcials' communications with Apple and Pearson before
the contract was awarded. Questions
also centered on implementation issues in classrooms-from security
breaches to lack of teacher training-
the purchase of an incomplete curriculum from Pearson, and the use of bond
funds to pay for technology.
-MICHELE MOLNAR

Education Dept. to Examine
Texas Districts' Special Ed.
The U.S. Department of Education has advised Texas ofﬁcials that
it will take a closer look at special
education programs in 12 districts.
In a recent letter to state education
Commissioner Mike Morath, federal
ofﬁcials expressed concern that the
districts were failing to identify, locate, and evaluate children needing
special education.
Federal representatives will visit
district schools to review their special education referral and outreach
practices. A Texas Education Agency
statement says the agency is cooperating with the federal effort.
-ASSOCIATED PRESS

Claiming Bias in Funding,
Chicago Sues Illinois
The Chicago school board, along
with five parents, has sued Gov.
Bruce Rauner and the state of Illinois, claiming that the state's
education funding formula creates
a separate and unequal education
system that discriminates against

4 ACROSS, 5 DOWN
Daniel Larsen, a 7th grader
at Jackson Creek Middle
School in Bloomington, Ind.,
displays his published New
York Times crossword
puzzle in his home. The
youngest crossword
creator in the newspaper's
history, Daniel made it on
his ninth try.

the district's students, most of whom
are black and Hispanic.
The suit asks that the state's
education funding formula and the
district's pension-funding obligation
be declared unlawful under Illinois'
2003 Civil Rights Act.
The plaintiffs argue that the
funding system results in Chicago
students receiving 76 cents in ﬁscal
2016 for every dollar that students
outside the city in predominantly
white districts received. Moreover,
they contend that Chicago is the
only district in Illinois that funds
most of its own pension program,
which diverts a higher percentage
of its budget away from education.
-DENISA R. SUPERVILLE

College Board Takes Steps
To Up Security Globally
The ﬁrm that oversees registrations for the SAT college-entrance
exam is boosting security around
the world following test-stealing and
other cheating in recent years.
The College Board said it's reducing the number of international
testing dates from six to four for the
2017-18 and 2018-19 school years. It
says the move will reduce opportunities for test content to be stolen. It
also is taking steps to prevent past
cheaters from retaking tests and

4 | EDUCATION WEEK | March 1, 2017 | www.edweek.org

will alert law-enforcement agencies
in the United States and abroad of
companies and people it suspects of
illegally obtaining test content.
Another planned change includes
an increase in audits of test centers
-AP
worldwide.

Science and Engineering Fair
Loses Support of Intel
After nearly 20 years of sponsorship, the technology company Intel
will no longer support the International Science and Engineering Fair,
currently known as the Intel ISEF,
starting in 2019. The Society for Science & the Public, the nonproﬁt that
runs the fairs, is launching a competitive process to ﬁnd a new sponsor.
The news comes two years after
Intel announced it would drop
its backing of the Science Talent
Search, a contest for high school
seniors also run by the Society for
Science & the Public.
Both moves are evidence of a shift
in attention, at Intel and in many
schools, from more traditional science fairs to other initiatives like
the Hour of Code, which offers computer science activities, and maker
"faires" at which people make and
showcase engineering projects. At
the same time, the ISEF remains
the largest K-12 science contest in
the world.
-JACLYN ZUBRZYCKI

Wash. Holds Fundraiser
To Pay AP Exam Fees
Washington state is holding a
massive fundraiser to defray the
cost of Advanced Placement exam
fees for low-income students.
The state's lieutenant governor,
Cyrus Habib, has teamed up with
state schools chief Chris Reykdal
and a local college-access nonproﬁt
to launch an emergency $800,000
fundraising drive to make AP and
International Baccalaureate exam

fees affordable for low-income students this spring.
When the Every Student Succeeds
Act was passed in December 2015, it
eliminated a longtime federal subsidy that defrays the cost of AP tests
for low-income students. They still
get waivers from the College Board,
and in some cases, from their own
states.
-CATHERINE GEWERTZ.

S.D. and Idaho Differ
On Climate Change
South Dakota lawmakers have rejected a bill that would have allowed
science teachers to discuss strengths
and weaknesses of evolutionary and
climate change theories.
The sponsor, GOP state Sen. Jeff
Monroe, said the intent was to give
teachers additional latitude to explain potential flaws in commonly
taught scientiﬁc theories without fear
of retribution.
Meanwhile, a legislative panel
in Idaho has approved new K-12
science standards that do not
reference the impact of human activity on ecosystems and climate change.
-MARVA HINTON

Union Agency Fees
Challenged Anew
The same group behind the challenge to teachers' union service fees
for nonmembers that ended in a U.S.
Supreme Court deadlock last year in
Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association has ﬁled a new lawsuit.
The Center for Individual Rights
has found a new set of plaintiffs:
eight California teachers who object
on First Amendment free speech and
association grounds to the "agency"
fees their local, state, and national
teachers' unions charge them as
nonmembers for costs associated
with collective bargaining.
Because of the death of Justice
Antonin Scalia, the court announced

a 4-4 deadlock that upheld a ruling
in favor of the teachers' union in
Friedrichs.
-MARK WALSH

Appointed School Board
Can Stand, Court Rules
A federal judge has rejected an effort by former Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn
and some Chicago residents to force
the city to adopt an elected school
board.
The lawsuit contended that a school
board appointed by Chicago's mayor
violates the Constitution and civil
rights. They said such a board raises
the question of taxation without representation.
The court said the plaintiffs have
no fundamental right to vote in school
board elections.
-AP

Colo. District Mulls Building
Tiny Houses for Teachers
A Colorado school district is considering tiny-home construction
as a strategy to recruit and retain
teachers in the area, reports the
Post Independent.
Home prices in the district, known
for its ski resorts, are out of reach
for teachers whose starting salary is
$41,000, according to the district's pay
scale. After 15 years, they can make
$49,200. Yet the median home value in
the Eagle County district was $635,000
for 2016, according to zillow.com.
Initiatives to provide affordable
housing options to teachers are neither new nor uncommon. But the
idea of providing teachers with tiny
homes, generally no bigger than 400
square feet, appears a novel concept.
-BRENDA IASEVOLI

ACT Adds July Date
To Testing Schedule
ACT Inc. announced last week
that it will begin offering a summer
test date for the ACT college-admis-
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Education Week - March 1, 2017

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