Charter news

In local news Congress is offering five grants to charter schools willing to locate in troubled District of Columbia neighborhoods, in hopes of enticing families with children to stay in the city rather than leave for the suburbs. Each grant could be worth up to $1 million.

On the national front there's a bit of a dust-up brewing around the academic performance of charter schools vs. public schools. The American Federation of Teachers, who have opposed charter schools, released a report based on National Assessment of Educational Progress data claiming that academic performance in U.S. charter schools is lower throughout the country than in regular public schools. The story had been picked up by the NY Times, who also published an editorial critical of the charter movement. NPR also did two major pieces on the subject, one on the Tavis Smiley show, the other on All Things Considered.

Others, however, are crying foul. Mickey Kaus over at Slate and Eduwonk (here and here) are pointing out that the report's conclusions aren't so cut and dried.