The Supreme Court ruled today that religious employees of a church, including private, religious schools cannot sue for employee discrimination, according to the AP.
In the Michigan case, the Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School of Redford, Mich., was sued by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of Cheryl Perich, a teacher at the school who sometimes also led chapel service. Perich taught one religious class and four secular classes four days a week.
Perich tried to return to work from disability leave after being diagnosed with narcolepsy in 2004. The school had hired a substitute for that year, and Perich was fired after she threatened to sue for her job back. Perich sought anti-discrimination protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The Academy of Arts and Minds in Coconut Grove used to be a shopping mall. But no one was buying space, so the owner of the property founded a charter school and now rents his property to his school. The campus still looks like a shopping mall. There are wrap-around balconies on every floor and the classrooms have floor-to-ceiling windows very much like a store front.
Real estate investment firms have spied a new market in charter schools and are snatching up properties anticipating growth, according to Bloomberg.
Among the industry leaders is a fund founded by former tennis star and charter school advocate Andre Agassi. Perhaps the most interesting nugget from the piece is this: Leasing charter schools property is more lucrative than commercial property:
For Entertainment Properties, the charter-school investment yield is 9 percent to 10 percent, according to Keith Bokota, an analyst at Principal Global Investors. That compares with November’s 7 percent average capitalization rate for commercial- property deals of more than $5 million, according to Real Capital Analytics Inc., a New York-based property research company.
The Canyon-Agassi Charter School’s Facilities Fund appeals to investors seeking a good return on their money while doing something positive for education, said Glenn Pierce, its chief executive officer. Investors in the Los Angeles-based fund — which lists Citigroup Inc., Intel Corp. (INTC), the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the University of Michigan among its backers — can expect yields in the “low teens after fees,” he said.
Teachers and other union members camped out at the Wisconsin state house last year to protest a law stripping collective bargaining rights.
What a difference an election can make.
Last year Legislatures across the country — buoyed by a Tea Party sweep in 2010 elections — challenged teachers and other public employee unions over their ability to collectively bargain pay and other benefits. Florida Gov. Rick Scott wanted to limit collective bargaining in his initial 20-page education plan.
The battle was nationwide news in Wisconsin and later in the year in Ohio, where voters easily overturned a state law stripping collective bargaining rights for public employees.
That fight doesn’t appear to be coming to Florida this year, according to an education expert who previously advocated the legislation.
Patricia Levesque, director of the Foundation for Florida’s Future, said she’s heard no talk of trying to strip collective bargaining rights in the Legislature this year.
More students and less tax money means Gov. Rick Scott's proposed $1 billion for school won't go quite as far replacing budget cuts.
Gov. Rick Scott insists lawmakers add $1 billion for K-12 education this year, but that money won’t go as far replenishing cuts as first thought according to a Legislative budget update this morning.
Scott Kittel, Scott’s education policy adviser, told a House budget subcommittee this morning that the state now expects more students than initially expected. Property tax revenues are also expected to decline more than first projected, he said.
The net result is an additional $20 million of that proposed $1 billion is needed just to cover current costs and won’t replace any of the money cut from schools since 2008.
As PoltiFact noted after Scott’s speech yesterday, more than 40 percent of that proposed new money will cover rising costs or declining tax revenues. The remaining $590 million in Scott’s proposal would help replenish the $1.35 billion lawmakers cut from K-12 education in the current budget year (much of it was expiring one-time federal money the state did not replace).
House Speaker Dean Cannon said House members have muddied the mission of state universities.
Florida House Speaker Dean Cannon said state lawmakers trying to benefit their own parochial interests have muddied the mission of the state’s higher education system.
Cannon, R-Winter Park, said the House will study how to improve the system because the state’s economy is tied to a “strong and dynamic” higher education system, according to prepared remarks sent to the media.
Cannon did not promise a bill — in fact he said it’s up to the Board of Governors and not the Legislature to set the university system’s priorities. But Cannon said both the House and the Senate would have a conversation about overhauling higher education.
He looks a little stern here, but Gov. Rick Scott made a funny in his State of the State speech Tuesday.
The one truly funny moment during Gov. Rick Scott’s State of the State speech came when he referenced his much-publicized spat with anthropologists earlier this year.
In arguing for the need to better match college graduates with open jobs, Scott cited anthropologists as a degree Florida probably didn’t need any more of.
In Tuesday’s speech Scott had a little fun.
“Our efforts on education cannot end here,” Scott said, according to the prepared version of his speech. “Florida has a rich cultural history surrounding its colleges and universities.
“Don’t take my word for it. Ask any anthropologist.”
Gov. Rick Scott’s speech is scheduled to start at 11:30. We’re keeping an eye on education issues, including the budget, higher education, school choice and legislative issues.
Education should play a lesser role this year, but there's still plenty of bills before lawmakers.
The biggest issues affecting education debate in Tallahassee this year may have nothing to do with classrooms.
The once-every-ten-years redistricting, South Florida casinos and overhauling state insurance rules should provoke contentious debate, lawmakers and education advocates said. Those bills could squeeze out education as the session’s marquee issue.
Last year the Legislature approved a sweeping bill requiring teacher evaluations and performance-based pay. The law also eliminated long-term teacher contracts.
But that doesn’t mean education will be forgotten when the legislature resumes today. Lawmakers are considering bills that would expand access to online courses, allow students to graduate high school early and give parents more control over restructuring low-performing schools.
Rep. Bill Proctor, R-St. Augustine, is chairman of the House education committee.
Last year’s big legislative education debate could also be this year’s big issue, according to the chairman of the Florida House education committee.
Rep. Bill Proctor, R-St. Augustine, told the Florida Times-Union that a top priority was to make sure districts were making progress on a law that requires teacher evaluations, implements performance-based pay and eliminates long-term contracts, among other changes.
A controversial bill that, among other things, tethered teacher pay to student performance and put an end to tenure passed last session after former Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed a similar bill in 2010.
In an interview this week, St. Augustine Republican Bill Proctor, chairman of the House Education Committee, wants to make sure the 43-page law is implemented correctly. That and tackling higher education reforms will be his committee’s top two priorities.
“We just want to make sure things go smoothly,” Proctor said of the law. “There is just so much there that I think it is incumbent upon us to make sure things go well.”
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The Supreme Court ruled today that religious employees of a church, including private, religious schools cannot sue for employee discrimination, according to the AP.
