Charter Schools
Any school can get you a diploma. This school might get you a house
Fewer young people want to work in trade jobs than ever before, and that’s left a hole in the job market. A private school in Birmingham is giving some young people skills needed to address that problem.
Proposed Ivey budgets: Income tax rebates; public money for charter schools; modest pay raises
Gov. Kay Ivey’s proposed budget for 2024 will call for state money for start-up charter schools, tax rebates for those who filed income taxes in 2021 and some pay raises for state employees.
New aviation high school in Bessemer aims to help students soar
At the Alabama Aerospace and Aviation High School, students, parents and teachers are excited as they prepare for the school’s take off on Monday.
Proposed Charter School Plans to Serve LGBTQ Youth
Many students who identify as LGBTQ here in Alabama say they’ve been harassed or assaulted because of their sexuality. A new charter school proposed in Birmingham aims to make these young people feel safe in the classroom.
Birmingham Denies Application For Woodlawn Charter School
The Birmingham school board denied the application Thursday for a proposed charter school in Woodlawn.
In A Segregated County, A New Charter School Offers An Alternative
Only about half of University Charter School's 300-plus students are black. That's a rarity in Sumter County, Ala., which, like many school systems, has struggled to achieve integration.
First Public Charter School Approved for Birmingham
The Alabama Public Charter School Commission voted this month to approve a request to open STAR Academy, which will be the state’s first public charter school and will open in Birmingham. Charter schools are a contentious subject, with both opponents and supporters both citing statistics supporting their opinions.
Birmingham Board of Education Denies Two Charter School Applications
After hours of heated speeches, the Birmingham school board unanimously denied two applications for church-backed charter schools Tuesday night. The board itself was unified, but there are clearly real divisions in the community over how best to educate the city’s students.
What Can Finland Teach Alabama About Education?
Several decades ago, Finland’s education system was considered mediocre. But starting around 2001, it came to be regarded as a powerhouse, usually at or near the top of the world’s nations on internationally normed tests. How? And can those strategies work in Alabama?
Birmingham Considering Spanish-English Charter School
The Spanish immersion dual-language school would be the first charter school of its kind in Alabama.
Matters of Choice: Race, Economics and Choice in North Carolina
In North Carolina, students get their choice of charter schools, but those schools are increasingly divided by race. In this southern state where some of the nation’s most noted school desegregation battles were waged, a recent Duke University study shows that many schools are either predominantly white or predominantly minority. Efforts are being made, however, to change that trend.
Matters of Choice: Florida — A Hot Spot for School Choice
While many ideas may have originated in other states, Florida has adopted them and created a massive alternative system. WFSU-FM’s Lynn Hatter takes a look at the decades-long movement that is school choice in Florida, one of the nation’s hot spots for school choice programs, as part of the Southern Education Desk's series, "Matters of Choice."
Matters of Choice: New Orleans – The Choice Epicenter
Most Southern states allow for some form of school choice – magnet schools, vouchers for private schools, charter schools and more. How do these options affect learning, school demographics, and student success? We explore Matters of Choice beginning with this report from WWNO’s Mallory Falk in New Orleans.
Charter Schools Expected to Open in Alabama in 2017
Charter schools are expected to open in Alabama in 2017.
Trisha Powell Crain on Top Education Stories of 2015
This year has been extremely busy on the Alabama education beat: a study commissioned by the state education department itself called school funding inadequate and unequal; state Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh floated a draft bill that could, among other seismic shifts, tie teacher pay to student test results; and, as Alabama School Connection’s Trisha […]
Teaching Tough Topics: Teaching Beyond The Test
Civil Rights, Voter ID laws, Felon Rights. These topics aren’t foreign for teachers and students in Southern classrooms. But what happens when pressure to teach to the test prevents challenging conversations?
Highlights From Issues and Ales: The Future of Education in Alabama
This year, the Alabama Legislature voted to allow charter schools in the state and expanded the Alabama Accountability Act. What does this mean for the future of Alabama’s public and private schools? Can public education adequately prepare all Alabama children for career success?
Trisha Powell Crain Talks Money, Politics, and More in Alabama Education
There's never a shortage of stories coming from Alabama's schools. But before WBHM's and the Southern Education Desk's "Issues and Ales" education forum Thursday evening, we wanted to shed as much light as possible on the big picture behind the headlines. For better or worse, that backdrop always includes money and therefore politics. So our education reporter Dan Carsen sat down with Alabama School Connection founder and BirminghamWatch contributor Trisha Powell Crain to talk about that and more.
Birmingham School Board Approves Application to Authorize Charter Schools
"In an effort to be a player in this process, we really needed to become an authorizer, so that anyone who is interested in moving forward with a charter school application would have to first come to the school district,” Dr. Kelley Castlin-Gacutan .
Hoover Schools Chief Says No to Becoming Charter Authorizer
“I hold no assumption that there is a charter school entity out there that can do the work better than we’re doing,” says superintendent Dr. Kathy Murphy.
First Charter Schools Open In Mississippi; Alabama Charters Could Come Soon
States across the U-S have increasingly been turning to charter schools in an effort to bolster struggling public school systems. Two of the most recent states to adopt the controversial form of education are Mississippi and Alabama. As part of a Southern Education Desk series examining charter schools in the South, we turn to Mississippi Public Broadcasting's Paul Boger for a report on how those states are adopting to the alternative form of public education.
Paying For Charter Schools In The South
Florida has about 650 charter schools. They are part of school districts but are privately managed and largely free of many of the rules governing traditional public schools. But as enrollment in charters has increased, so has the financial cost. WFSU’s Lynn Hatter reports for the Southern Education Desk that Tennessee and Georgia are also struggling to find ways to support their charter schools.
Getting Parent Buy-In For A New Alternative
The big push for charter schools in Louisiana started after Hurricane Katrina. The state’s Recovery School District took over most of the public schools in New Orleans, and quickly issued charters. The organization has moved on to Baton Rouge, but, without a hurricane scattering teachers and students, charters really have to get parents to buy into the alternative they’re selling.
Lessons For New Orleans
Charter schools are changing American education. Some say for the better, some say the worse. This week the Southern Education Desk looks at the charter school movement throughout the south. We start in New Orleans, the testing ground for the movement.
Alabama’s Teacher Of The Year On Teaching, Common Core, Mascots And More
Vestavia Hills science teacher Jennifer Brown is Alabama’s 2015-2016 Teacher of The Year. The 16-year educator, who once wanted to be a professional basketball player, sits down with WBHM’s Dan Carsen to talk about her motivations and about controversial issues like Common Core, charter schools, standardized testing and Vestavia Hills City Schools’ “Rebel” mascot. But the […]
Governor Bentley Signs Charter School Bill Into Law
Governor Robert Bentley has signed a bill to allow charter schools in the state.The governor's spokeswoman said Bentley signed the GOP-championed bill into law on Thursday. Between the charter schools, the Alabama Accountability Act and 2-year colleges, it was a big week for education in the Alabama Legislature. Here to catch us up is Don Dailey. He's the host of Capitol Journal on Alabama Public Television.
