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Judge delays 8th-grade algebra in California schools SACRAMENTO — A Sacramento County judge has agreed to delay a requirement that all California eighth-graders be tested in algebra.

"In the first place God made idiots," observed Mark Twain. "This was for practice. Then he made school boards." The San Francisco Board of Education's 4-2 vote last week to abolish the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps program, which has been active in the city's high schools for 90 years, tends to support his view. Why is JROTC being done away with? It isn't for lack of interest. More than 1,600 San Francisco students currently take part in its voluntary activities. "Kids love this program as if it's family," notes the San Francisco Chronicle. It is "a program that students...

Montgomery County school officials announced yesterday that they are temporarily banning outside groups such as parent-teacher associations and the Boy Scouts from distributing fliers about activities and events in student backpacks. The decision comes less than a week after a federal appeals court ruled that the school system's policy for flier distribution was unconstitutional because it gave educators unlimited power to approve or reject materials. The case is the outgrowth of a dispute between the school system and Child Evangelism Fellowship of Maryland. The group filed suit in 2001 after the school system denied its request to distribute fliers about...

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday appointed the president of a San Jose Hispanic university to the state Board of Education. David Lopez, 53, replaces the former board president, who resigned unexpectedly June 30. Lopez has been president of National Hispanic University since 2003. The school's goal is to increase college attendance of Hispanics and other typically underserved students. Schwarzenegger has been trying to shore up support among Hispanic voters as he seeks re-election. Also Tuesday, his campaign announced the formation of “Hispanic Families for Arnold,” a group of more than 60 Hispanic community leaders who support his re-election....

Flap over using 'America' in Michigan schools gets widespread attentionhttp://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060529/News01/60529005 http://tinyurl.com/lpvo9 May 29. 2006 3:01PM By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN Associated Press Writer LANSING — A judge and former state school board member is convinced the state was on track to erase the words "America" and "American" from Michigan social studies classes in favor of "United States" until he raised the alarm. "I feel vindicated in the department's reaction in making a complete about face and abandoning this direction. Hopefully it will put all this to bed," Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Michael Warren said Friday. But state Superintendent Michael Flanagan...

The Long Beach Board of Education has just mailed a letter to 235,000 constituents declaring that the board will not be bullied by the teachers union into providing more than the 4 percent pay raise being offered. Most of us love teachers. The popular perception is that they are self-sacrificing altruists dedicated to guiding our children to a golden future. The image is that they struggle to survive on low pay and carry on instruction with few resources. While this romanticized image may actually fit a few teachers, mostly at private schools, what is seldom considered is that the unions...

A Bergen County school chief was awarded more than a half-million dollars in extra pay for unused sick time and other benefits, including $300,000 that was paid to his estate after his sudden death in 2004. The superintendent in Long Branch saw his income top $300,000 last year due to more than $110,000 in one-time buybacks and other payments. And a former superintendent from Teaneck may have added as much as $20,000 to his annual pension when his salary was boosted with end-of-career stipends and pay for unused leave. That doesn't include the $60,000 consultant contract and retirement golf trip...

In front of a crowd of angry parents, teachers and students... San Francisco's Board of Education Thursday night voted to close, merge and relocate more than a dozen public schools...due to declining enrollment. The board did its work during a five-hour meeting before hundreds of angry parents, students and teachers who filled the Everett Middle School auditorium and occasionally shouted -- or wept aloud -- as the panel voted on a case-by-case basis. The first vote hardly caused a stir in the crowd: the Japanese Bilingual Bicultural Program will be merged into Rosa Parks Elementary School... But when the board...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - The state Senate unanimously confirmed three of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's appointees to the state Board of Education Thursday. The senate approved student member Ricky Gill, 17, of Lodi; Bonnie Reiss, an adviser to Schwarzenegger; and Ruth Bloom, a longtime art education advocate. Bloom, 59, has developed curriculum and taught art at UCLA Extension and the Museum of Contemporary Art. Her term on the board expires in January 2007. Reiss, 48, has served as president of the Inner-City Games Foundation and is currently a senior adviser to Schwarzenegger. She has previously worked as an entertainment lawyer, accountant, producer...