GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

New York State’s Senate is heading for a vote on a bill that would more than double the charter school cap today, but Albany observers said it’s unlikely the bill will make it through the Assembly unchanged.

Introduced last Friday by the Senate Rules Committee, which is chaired by Senator Malcolm Smith, the bill is part of the state’s second bid for $700 million in Race to the Top money. Sources in Albany said the Senate is likely to vote on the bill this afternoon — it’s being pushed by Democratic Conference Leader John Sampson and won the endorsement of Governor David Paterson — but the bill’s chances in the Assembly are considerably less certain.

Though Assemblyman Karim Camara introduced Sampson’s bill today, Assemblyman Alan Maisel said he doesn’t think the bill has enough support to reach the floor, especially because it doesn’t give the state comptroller the power to audit charter schools.

“I don’t think it will be going to the Assembly,” Maisel said. “People who are pushing this bill are making it sound like, ‘God, we need this money so badly.’ But you cannot use the money for the current budget deficit that we have.” (more…)

• Despite the buzz around charter schools, nationally many of them aren’t that good. (Times)
• State Senate Dems proposed a bill that would raise the charter cap. (GothamSchools, Post, Daily News)
• Senators will begin debating the proposed bill in earnest today. (Post)
• The Post says the bill’s measures to constrain charter schools do not amount to “poison pills.”
• The Daily News says there should be more charter schools because teachers want to work in them.
• City charter schools enroll fewer special needs students who require separate classrooms. (Daily News)
• The UFT’s 630 paid employees include three whose salaries top $200,000. (Post)
• UFT President Michael Mulgrew appears to have taken to calling Joel Klein Chancellor Numbnuts. (Post)
• LaGuardia High School could soon get metal detectors after student work was vandalized. (Post)
• The founding principal of Brooklyn’s Edward R. Murrow High School died at 76. (Wall Street Journal)
• More children qualified for gifted classes even as fewer applied. (GothamSchools, Times, Post, NY1)
• Six low-income districts had so few children qualify that they won’t open gifted classes. (Daily News)
• A disabled teacher at a Bronx school perseveres despite health problems and a broken elevator. (Times)
• Colorado politicians are weighing a bill that would curb teacher tenure protections. (Wall Street Journal)
• The Times says New Haven’s teacher evaluation plan shows unions and districts can work together.
• In letters to the editor, Times readers weigh in on how school districts should evaluate teachers.
• A New Jersey principal is asking parents to get their kids off of social networking websites. (CNN)
• The Catholic school model of urban education is underappreciated, Samuel Freedman writes. (Times)