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DC charters allege unfair funding: A charter association and two charter schools have filed a lawsuit contending DC has shortchanged them $2,150 per student for the past six years. Public education advocates counter that regular schools bear added costs of serving all students and the larger community. (Post)

New graduation requirements raise questions: DC’s State Board of Education is proposing new competency-based measures of achievement, but it’s not clear how they would be implemented and whether DC’s other education officials are on board. (Informer)

PCSB chair airs views: The chair of DC’s Public Charter School Board, Skip McKoy, tentatively endorsed the notions of coordinated planning with DCPS and allowing charters that take over DCPS school buildings to exercise a neighborhood preference. (Examiner)

Unaccompanied minors in Montgomery: In the wake of an influx of young immigrants from Central America to the region, the county’s schools enrolled 107 unaccompanied minors, most of them at the high school level. (WTOP)

It’s poverty, not parents: Black parents value education, but they often lack the resources to give their kids what they need to succeed. (Post)

Schools struggle to cope with e-cigarettes: Given the absence of state and federal laws governing e-cigarettes, schools nationwide forge their own policies on these new and increasingly prevalent nicotine delivery systems. (Ed Week)

The 100-child, one-room schoolhouse?: Detroit is experimenting with larger kindergartens— 100 students, three teachers, and much hubbub—with uncertain results. (Post)

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Tagged: charter schools, early childhood education, education, education reform, government, links, pcsb, poverty

Greater Greater Education Staff Contributor Paula Amann brings experience as a high school bilingual teacher, an editor on education policy, and a journalist. She is also the mother of a student in a local public school. She believes school systems should choose teachers, create curricula, and set policy as if the right to a good public education were enshrined in the US Bill of Rights.