DEFICIT SPENDING CONCERNS: Chicago Public Schools released a proposed $162 million capital budget for its 2014 fiscal year Wednesday that officials said will focus only on the "most urgent needs and educational facilities," in light of a projected $1 billion budget deficit, but Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation, expressed concern about the district spending money and issuing more bonds without a clear plan on how to solve its massive budget deficit. (Tribune)

CHARTER TEACHERS UNIONIZE: Teachers at one of Chicago’s largest charter-school networks — run by the United Neighborhood Organization — have voted to organize into a union. More than 400 teachers and staff at UNO’s 13 schools decided to join the Chicago Alliance of Charter School Teachers and Staff, known as Chicago ACTS, more than doubling its membership in a move national labor leaders hailed as key to their efforts to unionize charter schools. (Sun-Times)

IN THE NATION
PUBLIC-PRIVATE EXPERIMENT: Educators and policy observers are keeping a close eye on two controversial experiments in private management of public schools now unfolding in this western Michigan city and in the Detroit-area community of Highland Park. Citing chronic budget woes in the communities’ low-performing school districts, Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan last year declared a state of financial emergency and appointed an emergency manager for each district. The managers, in turn, hired two separate companies—Mosaica Education and the Leona Group—to run the schools. (Education Week)

ENROLLMENT-BASED BUDGET CUTS: D.C. schools chancellor Kaya Henderson and Mayor Vincent C. Gray say school-level cuts are necessary because of the system’s failure to meet enrollment projections. The system received per-pupil funding this year for a projected enrollment of about 47,000 students, but only 45,500 showed up for class. (The Washington Post)

O'Connor, a former longtime head of the City Council's Education Committee, said his sister is a contract employee without benefits and she is qualified for the job. Sugrue worked at CPS for 17 years before she became an education consultant.

CLOSURE CZAR: Catherine Sugrue holds the newly created title of CPS director of school transition, reporting to Tom Tyrell, the retired Marine charged with safeguarding 30,000 displaced students.

BASEBALL DUSTUP: A North Side Chicago Public Schools principal says internal leadership problems, not "racist tendencies," led to his baseball team forfeiting a game Saturday on the city's Far South Side. The explanation came after a series of media reports, which the principal says are largely inaccurate, said that parents feared for their athletes' safety on the South Side. (Tribune)

GAME OVER: Brooks College Prep’s baseball coach said Sunday he doesn’t want to play Payton College Prep ever again after a group of Payton parents refused to send their kids to the Far South Side school for a night non-conference game, citing safety concerns. (Sun-Times)

TEST CANCELLED: Chicago Public Schools cancelled a district-mandated standardized test last Thursday amid growing concern about overtesting in the system. CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett sent a letter to parents Thursday informing them that kindergarten and first grade students would not be taking the Northwest Evaluation Association test next week. Second-grade students will take a different version of the same test next week so that third-grade teachers can understand where they stand academically at the start of next year. (WBEZ)

IN THE NATION
UNHERALDED IMPROVEMENTS: In an Op-ed, the chancellor of D.C. Public Schools Kaya Henderson touts the improvements the district has been making under her stewardship that have generated little fanfare. "People must think that if we are not angering the community, clashing with unions, creating discord in our schools and making headlines, we must not be making change," Henderson writes. (The Washington Post)

COLLEGE LOAN CHANGE: The Obama administration has found itself at odds with a key voting block—college students and their advocates—as well as many of its Democratic allies in Congress, because of an important, if technical, budget proposal that could have significant implications for college access. In a move intended to stave off a doubling of interest rates on federally backed Stafford Loans over the summer, the administration is seeking to shift those interest rates from the current predictable, fixed-rate system to a market-based rate at the time of the loan. Right now, interest rates on subsidized Stafford Loans are set at 3.4 percent, but they're slated to jump to 6.8 percent in July, unless Congress and the administration act. (Education Week)

NEW TACTIC: Stymied in its efforts to stop the city from closing scores of schools, the Chicago Teachers Union on Monday said it will turn its attention to a voter registration campaign and efforts to oust Mayor Rahm Emanuel and other elected officials. (Tribune)

SCATHING REPORT: The Chicago Teachers Union released a report examining the upheaval at two elementary schools—one in West Englewood and one in East Garfield Park—slated for closure in recent years by Chicago Public Schools. "A Tale of Two Schools: The Human Story Behind Destructive School Actions in Chicago" used testimony from parents, staff, administrators and community leaders to address district neglect, barriers to improvement, low student morale and other concerns at Simon Guggenheim Elementary and Jacob Beidler Elementary schools, and examine the overall causes and effects of school actions, according to a news release by the union.

POOR ATTENDANCE: The Austin High School campus’s large auditorium was nearly empty during a Chicago Public Schools meeting held to address public concern for the closure of Emmet and Key Elementary Schools. About 30 people sat scattered around the auditorium on April 13 for the Francis Scott Key Elementary School meeting, held from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. That number only grew by a few people at 7:30 p.m. when the Emmet Elementary School meeting started. (Austin Talks)

IN THE NATION
BILINGUAL DECREE: A judge Monday approved changes to a consent decree for Denver Public Schools that will establish new rules for bilingual education classes for the district’s 36,000 students who do not speak English. Nearly 90 percent of those students are Latinos. (KDVR.com)

SUPERINTENDENT TRENDS: Katherine Schultz, a professor and dean of the School of Education at Mills College in Oakland, notes two trends that have come to characterize the urban school district superintendency in recent years. First, urban superintendents rarely stay in their positions for more than a few years, she says. And second, new superintendents tend to start with their own bold visions, in order to make their mark. "This is nearly always a mistake; this strategy inevitably slows the momentum of progress and the consequent discontinuity often causes disruption in the lives of children, teachers and families." (The Washington Post)

GED OVERHAUL: Several dozen states are looking for an alternative to the GED high school equivalency test because of concerns that a new version coming out next year is more costly and will no longer be offered in a pencil and paper format. (AP/Philly.com)

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: New York City public school students are undergoing rigorous preparation for the redesigned exams, which are likely to cover some material that is not yet in the curriculum. (The New York Times)

CRITICISM FOR CTU: Mayor Rahm Emanuel backed schools chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett Thursday amid charges that the plan to close 54 schools is racist, and criticized the Chicago Teachers Union for what he said was its inability to articulate an alternative to continuing with a failed status quo. “Fifty-six percent of African-American males are dropping out” before high school graduation, Emanuel said at an unrelated news conference. “The status quo is unacceptable. And that’s what Barbara spoke to.”

NEIGHBORHOOD BUS TOUR: The Chicago Teachers Union gave a busload of aldermen and other elected officials a first-hand look Thursday at neighborhoods that would be affected by plans to close more than 50 public schools, CBS 2′s Dana Kozlov reports. Safety concerns for students headed to a new school were highlighted by a mile-plus walk between Genevieve Melody Elementary School – slated to be closed – and Edward C. Delano Elementary – the receiving school about a half-mile away. The walk included a stroll past gang lines, drug deals, and horrible blight.

SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT: Michael Miner of The Reader calls out the Tribune for its use of "an estimate" from Andrew Broy of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools in an editorial overstating the number of students who are waiting for spots in the city's charter schools.

IN THE NATION
PROTESTING DOE: Teachers, students, parents, researchers and other activists on Thursday started the second annual “Occupy the DOE” event on the grounds of the U.S. Education Department to protest corporate-based school reform. Among those attending the four-day event, sponsored by United Opt Out, an organization dedicated to the elimination of high-stakes standardized testing in public schools, are Diane Ravitch, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, veteran educator Deborah Meier, early childhood expert Nancy Carlsson-Paige and language acquisition expert Stephen Krashen. There is a scheduled march to the White House on Saturday. (The Washington Post)

PHOTO DOCUMENTATION: A dozen or so teens, who hail from some of the Washington D.C. area’s most troubled neighborhoods, are using photography to document and protest the kind of school security issues that have taken center stage in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., shootings.

CLOSINGS AND OPENINGS: A Tribune editorial praises the closing of two "underperforming" charter schools while saying it's important to expand the charter network.

BLACK HISTORY YEARROUND: Black history will be taught in all Chicago Public Schools next school year — and not just during February. It's the outcome of a monthslong battle that a South Side community group has waged to bring CPS into compliance with a state law that mandates black history be taught in all public schools. (DNAInfo)

WORKING ON IT: “CPS has been hard at work developing a new social science framework that incorporates African American History,” said Robyn Ziegler, director of media affairs for CPS, in a statement. (WBEZ)

IN THE STATE
RETIREMENT TAG: More than 42 percent of the former educators who have retired from Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 receive pensions of more than $100,000 a year, while statewide less than 4 percent of retired educators receive six-figure pensions. (Daily Herald)

TYING TO THE TEST: A growing number of school districts—including large ones like those in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Hawaii—have become recent converts to new principal-evaluation systems that tie school leaders' appraisals to student test scores. (Education Week)

BOARD GUTTING UPHELD: A federal judge refused to block the governor’s removal of two-thirds of the members of a school board in suburban Atlanta. (AP/NYT)

Delegates for the Chicago Teachers Union voted Tuesday to call off their seven-day strike. And though the union did not achieve all it initially sought, CTU President Karen Lewis claimed several victories. She argued that the union had successfully rejected Mayor Rahm Emanuel's attempts to institute merit pay, fought off more stringent requirements in a new teacher evaluation system and secured a recall policy for top-performing teachers who are laid off because of school closings. (Tribune)

Chicago parents deliver 1,000 postcards to CPS leaders. (AP/Washington Post)

How social media and the teachers strike stung a local restaurant owner. (Tribune)

IN THE STATE
Classes will resume today at Lake Forest High School after the school board and striking teachers reached a tentative agreement on a four-year contract, officials from both sides said this morning. (Tribune)

A guidance counselor and former girls basketball coach at south suburban Rich Central High School has been fired after writing a racy, graphic book about women and relationships. (Tribune)

The Rockford School District will soon have another way to collect money, but it won’t be used for salaries, building expansions or renovations. This time, it’ll come in the form of donations to the Rockford Public Schools Foundation, a charitable organization run on donations, fundraising and grant money. (Rockford Register Star)

IN THE NATION
According to the Institute of Education Sciences' Turning Around Low-Performing Schools project, it's not just particular programs or practices but the interplay of school implementation with district policies and support that can make a low-performing school turn around and build momentum over time. (Education Week)

For the first time since the teachers’ strike began, Chicago Public Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard spoke out Wednesday afternoon, first denying a widespread rumor that he had resigned. He also discussed why he hasn’t been attending negotiations personally. (CBSChicago)

With the Chicago teachers strike expected to drag on all week, maybe longer, aldermen on Wednesday braced for the political fallout from angry parents as City Hall researched possible legal solutions. (Sun-Times)

Rahm Emanuel started a fight with teachers that only he can finish, writes Carol Marin in the Sun-Times.

Bulls star and CPS graduate Derrick Rose weighs in on teachers strike—via Twitter.

Karen Lewis has emerged as a formidable figure in the stand off between the Chicago Teachers Union and CPS. More than a few news organizations have scrambled to profile her. The Atlanta Journal Constitution calls her a "brash advocate" who has "a long distinguished record in the classroom and the overwhelming support of her union's 30,000 members."

NPR looks at how Lewis rose through the ranks to become head of the teachers union.

Meet Karen Lewis, the union leader at the center of the Chicago teachers strike. (Time)

The Chicago Teachers Union strike is giving one Chicago company a boost in business. Sittercity, a website that helps parents find baby sitters and nannies, has seen membership jump 35 percent in the past 24 hours in the Chicago market, said Mary Schwartz, director of public relations.

A striking Chicago Public Schools teacher was hit by a car today while he was picketing outside an elementary school in the Humboldt Park neighborhood. (Tribune)

In the Chicago teachers’ strike, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s oft-cited goal of expanding charter schools is not officially on the table, but a union official called it “the elephant in the room.” (The New York Times)

Several news organizations have noted, including the Washington Post, the Christian Science Monitor, and the Wall St. Journal, that the Chicago teachers' strike is being posited by some as a referendum on President Obama’s education initiatives. (EducatedReporter.com)

As Chicago teachers strike, students are on the loose and at loose ends. (The New York Times)

Chicago strike puts spotlight on teacher-evaluation reform. (Education Week)

Service Employees International Union Local 1 Tuesday informed companies that employ about 1,800 of its members as custodial workers in city schools that those workers might go out on strike with teachers in 48 hours, according to Jerry Morrison, assistant to the president of SEIU Local 1. (Tribune)

Mayor Rahm Emanuel continued to sell his message that the Chicago teachers strike was “avoidable” as picketing teachers provided the background noise to a news conference at a Marquette Park school. The mayor had to sneak into the building past a crush of red-shirted teachers at Tarkington School of Excellence. (Tribune)

Gov. Pat Quinn was briefly confronted by striking Chicago Public Schools teachers today as he attended a memorial honoring Illinois soldiers who have died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Tribune)

Teacher evaluations took center stage in negotiations between CPS and the Chicago Teachers Union on Tuesday, with Mayor Rahm Emanuel saying he believed teachers could not legally strike over some of the issues at hand but backed away from the idea of an injunction to try and end the strike. (Catalyst)

The walkout by more than 20,000 Chicago teachers strains traditional Democratic Party alliances and adds fuel to a national debate over whether teachers should be held accountable for failing public schools. (Los Angeles Times)

The Chicago teachers' strike could start long-overdue conversation about the state of schools. (Chicagonow.com)

Thousands rally in Chicago teachers' strike, pushing back against corporatized education reform. (Democracy Now)

The New York Times caught up to the Chicago strike story a little bit with its front-page profile of CTU President Karen Lewis, but still the newspaper still ignored all of the year's context and history, according to Substance News. (Note: New York Times posted the wrong link to its Lewis story, so Substance has the full story on its site here.

Students chime in on teachers strike, and offer solutions. (WBEZ)

IN THE NATION
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