Arkansas: A federal judge's ruling on the state's school choice law opens the door for legislative action on choice. (Arkansas News)

Maine: Gov. Paul LePage and the newly formed Maine Charter School Commission are at odds over the pace of the commission's work. (Bangor Daily News)

Louisiana: More financial concerns surface about a private school that has drawn an unflattering spotlight to the state's new voucher program. (Monroe News Star) Meanwhile, state education officials are still considering how best to assess private schools that accept voucher students. (New Orleans Times Picayune.) And lawsuits over the voucher program begin to pile up. (Shreveport Times)

Pennsylvania: Lawmakers get set to consider school choice expansion in the form of more tax credit scholarships. (Harrisburg Patriot News) The Pittsburgh schools system is considering its own virtual school to win back students lost to cyber charter schools. (Pittsburgh Post Gazette)

Michigan: Black students in charter schools outperform their peers in traditional public schools, a study by a charter school support group finds. (MLive.com) (more…)

Arizona: Gov. Jan Brewer signs into law a bill that makes students in D and F schools eligible for education savings accounts. (Arizona Republic) An estimated 100,000 students could be eligible. (Arizona Daily Star)

Florida: U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan questions why the Florida Legislature decided to continue a program that allows low-income parents to choose private tutoring providers. (Associated Press) Tutoring providers fire back, saying Florida's law is a model. (Tampa Bay Times' Gradebook blog)

New Hampshire: Both houses of the Legislature have now passed a tax credit scholarship bill by margins big enough to override an expected veto from Gov. John Lynch. (Concord Monitor)

South Carolina: Gov. Nikki Haley signs into law a bill that will allow expansion of charter schools, including creation of boys-only and girls-only charter schools. (Associated Press)

Louisiana: State teachers union president says opponents will try to undo the sweeping education changes led by Gov. Bobby Jindal, including the statewide voucher program. (Baton Rouge Advocate) (more…)

Florida: The state's top education official offers a strong pitch for continued expansion of school choice options despite recent scrutiny of charter schools. (redefinED) The state Board of Education overrules several school districts that opposed new charter schools. (Orlando Sentinel)

Louisiana: One local school district plans to open a virtual school to compete for home schoolers. (Baton Rouge Advocate) Meanwhile, this district seeks to opt out of the state's new voucher program. (Baton Rouge Advocate) So does this one. (Monroe News Star) Charter schools get a thumbs up from Democratic U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu. (Baton Rouge Advocate)

Alabama: Charter schools bill, watered down after vigorous opposition from state teachers union, is dead. (Montgomery Advertiser)

Massachusetts: State lifts temporary moratorium on new charter schools. (Boston Globe) (more…)

Florida: State Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson responds to newspaper questions about charter schools and vouchers. (Tampa Bay Times Gradebook blog) He suggest school choice critics have a double standard. (redefinED)

Wisconsin: Vouchers have become an issue in the Democratic primary for governor between candidates Tom Barrett and Kathleen Falk. (wispolitics.com)

South Carolina: Jeb Bush talks education reform and school choice at a summit for educators, lawmakers and business leaders. (Associated Press) Parents rally for choice as Legislature considers several proposals. (The State)

Connecticut: Public school choice lottery leaves thousands of Hartford-area students without the school of their choice. (Hartford Courant)

Virginia: State Board of Education approves the state's first full-time virtual school. (Richmond Times-Dispatch) (more…)

I’m not an education reporter anymore, but from my new gig I’m getting even more dizzy watching education evolve. So many states are adding or expanding school choice options – charters, vouchers, virtual schools, tax-credit scholarships – that it’s hard for reporters to keep up. To make it worse, newsrooms are shrinking and there’s more pressure than ever to produce daily stories. It’s really hard to master the wonky details of say, vouchers for special needs students, at the same time you’re covering a middle school brawl and school board sniping.

But reporters are going to have to adapt. They’ll have to cover more ground with more depth.

Readers won’t be well served if education coverage continues to be reflexively focused on traditional public schools. And newspapers’ bottom lines won’t be well served when growing numbers of parents see that their schools are either 1) not being covered or 2) being snared in simplistic story lines that don’t mesh with their realities.

I see plenty of stories that relate to school choice that make me cringe. But I also see some that suggest newsrooms are adjusting: (more…)

Editor's note: Florida has a national reputation as school choice central. And in the state legislative session that ended Friday, lawmakers again took up a wide range of choice proposals, including the parent trigger bill that drew so much attention. Here's a redefinED rundown of what happened from Amy Graham, senior policy analyst for Step Up for Students. The bills that passed both House and Senate are on their way to Gov. Rick Scott.

Charter Schools:

House Bill 903, by Rep. Janet Adkins. The bill requires the Commissioner of Education to annually determine a high-performing charter school or school system’s continued eligibility for “high performing” status, requires each charter school to maintain a website that lists any entity that owns, operates, or manages the charter school, and establishes criteria for charter schools serving students with disabilities. It also requires a sponsor to reimburse a charter school on a monthly basis with all federal funds available for the benefit of the charter school, and authorizes certain Florida College System institutions to establish one charter school.

Final action: Passed by House 86-30. Died in Senate Education Pre-K-12 Committee.

Senate Bill 1852, by Sen. Stephen Wise. Authorizes certain Florida College System institutions to establish one charter school, authorizes each district to share revenue generated by its capital outlay millage levy with charter schools on a per-student basis, and requires sponsors to distribute a charter school’s share of federal funds to the school within 60 days.  It also revises certain restrictions on high-performing charter schools.

Final Action: Died in Senate Budget Committee. (more…)

This recent Gainesville Sun article provides another example of how public education is expanding to include private and home schooled students. The Alachua County School District, where the University of Florida is located, will soon be offering online middle and high school courses through a partnership with the Florida Virtual School. According to the article, “The eSchool will begin in January and is open to all students — public, private and home-schooled students.”

The district is hoping to recoup lost market share and revenue through these new course offerings: “One positive for the district, officials said, is that money paid by the state for student enrollment, also known as full-time equivalent funds, will come to the district instead of going to the Florida Virtual School.”

Even small school districts in Florida have now concluded the old distinctions between public and private education no longer exist. It’s a new world.