Education Next

Voters in Los Angeles rejected a ballot measure that would have created a new stream of local funding for the Los Angeles Unified School District. The district hoped the new funds would help pay for a labor contract agreement reached with striking teachers and for ballooning costs for benefits for current and retired teachers. Chad Aldeman wrote for Ed Next about the high cost of health care and other benefits for retired teachers in the district and across the nation.

An analysis by the Wall Street Journal finds that the number of high school students being given special allowances for test-taking, such as extra time, has surged in recent years, especially in affluent areas. In an article for Education Next, Miriam Kurtzig Freedman predicted that these numbers would grow after the College Board ended its practice of flagging (with an asterisk) the SAT scores of test takers who had been allowed extra time.