GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

• James Merriman says SUNY’s mixed review of the UFT’s charter schools should humble the union.
• The UFT can’t criticize charters for not admitting more high needs students, writes Rotherham.
• 16 NY state senators tell Paterson they won’t approve a budget with any cuts to education.
• WNYC looks at how other cities finance public transportation for students going to school.
• In TNR, Diane Ravitch responds to Ben Wildavsky’s criticism of her new book.
• Norm lists the different kinds of paperwork teachers at one elementary school have to wade through.
• Richard Kessler notes that Duncan’s ESEA blueprint mentions the arts only four times.
• Teachers unions are lining up to oppose Obama’s education budget for 2011.
• To cut down on spending, one teacher’s school is imposing a work curfew of 3:30 p.m.
• Rochester Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard says he needs leverage and talent to run the system.
• Leonie Haimson says the city got itself into a bake sale drama because it didn’t talk to parents.
• Audit of Chicago’s magnet schools finds that principals have too much power to hand pick students.
• Florida is thinking of adding civics to the annual high stakes tests students have to take.
• One of KIPP’s co-founders says schools that cut back on hours will regret it later.
• And Andy Smarick says Florida’s RttT bid has exciting things to say about teacher quality.

Here’s one way the jobs bill headed for the president’s desk today will affect New York City: it unfreezes more than $1 billion in school construction bonds the city needs to fund its capital plan.

The bonds were effectively frozen because of a significant flaw in last year’s federal stimulus bill, which set aside $22 billion over two years for school districts to sell interest-free bonds to fund school construction. As Pro Publica reported late last year, many banks refused to buy the bonds because they were funded by tax credits that investors found worthless.

The jobs bill the Senate passed today aims to solve that problem by using a direct subsidy, rather than a tax credit, to pay banks for the bonds. (The House passed a similar bill last month and President Barack Obama is expected to sign it.)

New York City, like many school districts around the country, had delayed issuing any bonds because of this problem, according to the mayor’s preliminary budget plan released in January. In the mayor’s plan, the Office of Management and Budget noted that it expected Congress to revise the school construction bond program and predicted that when it did, the city would successfully be able to issue all $1.4 billion in bonds. (more…)

• City officials stand by the schools’ new bake sale rules, which many parents are opposing. (Times)
• The city’s new “Trayless Tuesdays” program to cut down on cafeteria waste kicked off yesterday. (NY1)
• The Post criticizes Trayless Tuesdays as a distraction from the business of teaching and learning.
• Students from PS 59 in the Bronx are dancing at the White Houses St. Patrick’s Day celebration. (Post)
• The new principal of Khalil Gibran Academy is Arab-American. (GothamSchools, Post, Daily News)
• The Daily News says Khalil Gibran’s first principal wasn’t discriminated against but was a bad leader.
• The Obama administration’s next job is to convince skeptics about its education plans. (Times)
• Education policy could be a source of bipartisan consensus after the divisive health care debate. (Time)
• Former education secretary Margaret Spellings agrees that NCLB is ready for a revamp. (NPR)
• Chicago’s schools chief is banning teachers union campaigning at city schools. (Chicago Tribune)
• Teachers and officials in Chicago are sparring over how bad budget cuts will be. (Chicago Sun-Times)