The Plain Dealer
3/12/2008
School districts returning to the ballot box in August or November, as many are sure to do, must focus their tax requests on their needs, not their desires.
There’s no other way to sell a tax increase, or in many cases a renewal, to a cautious public with money problems of its own […]

 By Tamar Lewin
The New York Times
3/13/2008
American students’ math achievement is “at a mediocre level” compared with that of their peers worldwide, according to a new report by a federal panel. The panel said that math curriculums from preschool to eighth grade should be streamlined to focus on key skills - the handling of whole numbers […]

 By Jennifer Smith Richards
The Columbus Dispatch
3/12/2008
The state’s largest teachers union urged its members to speak out against a hike that more than tripled the cost of a five-year teaching license.
Thousands of teachers e-mailed State Board of Education members, either by filling out a form or crafting their own, cramming members’ inboxes and crippling some […]

 Critics count 5 in 4 years; district says 42
By Bill Bush
The Columbus Dispatch
3/12/2008
A national campaign launched yesterday by an advocacy group called the Center for Union Facts needs to do a little more fact-checking, Columbus school district officials said yesterday.
The center said teacher contracts nationally are keeping bad teachers on the job, and […]

 By Samuel G. Freedman
The New York Times
3/12/2008
PHOENIX - One morning last August, Yvonne Watterson, the principal of GateWay Early College High School here, sat in her office, grimly scrolling through the database of its 240 students.
At the behest of a new state law she detested, she looked for which ones listed a Social Security number […]