Master Teacher Corps: Obama Proposes $1 Billion Effort to Boost Student Achievement Through Effective Teaching

By: Josh Lederman

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration unveiled plans Wednesday to create an elite corps of master teachers, a $1 billion effort to boost U.S. students' achievement in science, technology, engineering and math.

The program to reward high-performing teachers with salary stipends is part of a long-term effort by President Barack Obama to encourage education in high-demand areas that hold the key to future economic growth — and to close the achievement gap between American students and their international peers.

Teachers selected for the Master Teacher Corps will be paid an additional $20,000 a year and must commit to participate multiple years. The goal is to create a multiplier effect in which expert educators share their knowledge and skills with other teachers, improving the quality of education for all students.

Speaking at a rally for his re-election campaign in San Antonio on Tuesday, Obama framed his emphasis on expanded education funding as a point of contrast with Republican challenger Mitt Romney, whom he accused of prioritizing tax cuts for the wealthy over reinvestment in the nation.

"I'm running to make sure that America has the best education system on earth, from pre-K all the way to post-graduate," Obama said. "And that means hiring new teachers, especially in math and science."

The administration will make $100 million available immediately out of an existing fund to incentivize top-performing teachers. Over the longer term, the White House said it plans to launch the program with $1 billion included in Obama's budget request for fiscal year 2013.

But the House and Senate both voted down Obama's budget earlier in the year, making it far from certain that Obama will be able to get congressional approval to spend $1 billion on master teachers. An aide to Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, noted that the federal government already has more than 80 teacher quality programs and said it would be foolish to pump money into programs that may be duplicative or unproductive.

"Republicans share the president's goal of getting better teachers in the classroom," said Kline spokeswoman Alexandra Sollberger. "However, we also value transparency and efficient use of taxpayer resources."

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said he expected the two parties to come together to support achievement in areas of high demand.

"This initiative has nothing to do with politics," Duncan said. "It's absolutely in our country's best long-term economic interest to do a much better job in this area."

A report released in February by the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology found that the U.S. must increase by 34 percent the number of students receiving degrees in science, math and related fields to keep up with economic demand.

The program will start with 2,500 teachers divided up among 50 different sites, the White House said, but will grow to include 10,000 teachers over the next four years. Obama, in partnership with a coalition of groups including the Carnegie Corporation of New York, has set a goal of producing 100,000 additional math and science teachers over the next 10 years.

ACTION ITEM: YES on Charter Schools! YES on Initiative 1240 - Sign the Petition

As posted by the League of Education Voters (www.educationvoters.org)

Note: Approx. 240,000 signatures needed by July 6th.  Make yourself heard! Sign the petition!

As you may have heard, a broad and growing statewide coalition including LEV have come together to bring I-1240, the Washington Public Charter Schools Initiative to the ballot this fall. You can add your support by signing the petition for Initiative 1240. Look for signature gatherers in your neighborhood. Your signature will help us put this initiative on the ballot so that Washington voters can decide for themselves whether parents and students in our state should have the option of public charter schools, just like parents and students do in 41 other states.

Charter schools are independently managed public schools that are authorized and overseen by a state charter school commission or local school board and managed by qualified non-profit organizations. Initiative 1240 will allow up to 40 public charter schools in Washington state over a five-year period and hold them accountable for improving student outcomes. These schools will be able to serve students who are not currently succeeding in our traditional public schools and serve students who need help the most.

Initiative 1240 is supported by a bipartisan coalition of education advocates, teachers, parents, community leaders, and organizations across our state, and support is growing every day. Add your voice to support YES on 1240 by signing the petition today!

Learn more about the initiative, sign the petition, and encourage your friends and family to do the same.

Louisiana Makes Bold Bid to Privatize Education

By Stephanie Simon

June 1 (Reuters) - Louisiana is embarking on the nation's boldest experiment in privatizing public education, with the state preparing to shift tens of millions in tax dollars out of the public schools to pay private industry, businesses owners and church pastors to educate children.

Starting this fall, thousands of poor and middle-class kids will get vouchers covering the full cost of tuition at more than 120 private schools across Louisiana, including small, Bible-based church schools.

The following year, students of any income will be eligible for mini-vouchers that they can use to pay a range of private-sector vendors for classes and apprenticeships not offered in traditional public schools. The money can go to industry trade groups, businesses, online schools and tutors, among others.

Every time a student receives a voucher of either type, his local public school will lose a chunk of state funding.

"We are changing the way we deliver education," said Governor Bobby Jindal, a Republican who muscled the plan through the legislature this spring over fierce objections from Democrats and teachers unions. "We are letting parents decide what's best for their children, not government."


BIBLE-BASED MATH BOOKS

The concept of opening public schools to competition from the private sector has been widely promoted in recent years by well-funded education reform groups.

Of the plans so far put forward, Louisiana's plan is by far the broadest. This month, eligible families, including those with incomes nearing $60,000 a year, are submitting applications for vouchers to state-approved private schools.

That list includes some of the most prestigious schools in the state, which offer a rich menu of advanced placement courses, college-style seminars and lush grounds. The top schools, however, have just a handful of slots open. The Dunham School in Baton Rouge, for instance, has said it will accept just four voucher students, all kindergartners. As elsewhere, they will be picked in a lottery.

Far more openings are available at smaller, less prestigious religious schools, including some that are just a few years old and others that have struggled to attract tuition-paying students.

The school willing to accept the most voucher students -- 314 -- is New Living Word in Ruston, which has a top-ranked basketball team but no library. Students spend most of the day watching TVs in bare-bones classrooms. Each lesson consists of an instructional DVD that intersperses Biblical verses with subjects such chemistry or composition.

The Upperroom Bible Church Academy in New Orleans, a bunker-like building with no windows or playground, also has plenty of slots open. It seeks to bring in 214 voucher students, worth up to $1.8 million in state funding.

At Eternity Christian Academy in Westlake, pastor-turned-principal Marie Carrier hopes to secure extra space to enroll 135 voucher students, though she now has room for just a few dozen. Her first- through eighth-grade students sit in cubicles for much of the day and move at their own pace through Christian workbooks, such as a beginning science text that explains "what God made" on each of the six days of creation. They are not exposed to the theory of evolution.

"We try to stay away from all those things that might confuse our children," Carrier said.

Other schools approved for state-funded vouchers use social studies texts warning that liberals threaten global prosperity; Bible-based math books that don't cover modern concepts such as set theory; and biology texts built around refuting evolution.


TEACHERS WEIGH LAWSUIT

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that vouchers can be used for religious education so long as the state is not promoting any one faith but letting parents choose where to enroll their children.

In Louisiana, Superintendent of Education John White said state officials have at one time or another visited all 120 schools in the voucher program and approved their curricula, including specific texts. He said the state plans more "due diligence" over the summer, including additional site visits to assess capacity.

In general, White said he will leave it to principals to be sure their curriculum covers all subjects kids need and leave it to parents to judge the quality of each private school on the list.

That infuriates the teachers union, which is weighing a lawsuit accusing the state of improperly diverting funds from public schools to private programs of questionable value.

"Because it's private, it's considered to be inherently better," said Steve Monaghan, president of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers. "From a consumer perspective, it's buyer beware."

To date, private schools have not had to give their students state standardized tests, so there's no straightforward way for parents to judge their performance. Starting next year, any student on a voucher will have to take the tests; each private school must report individual results to parents and aggregate results to the state.

The 47-page bill setting up the voucher program does not outline any consequences for private schools that get poor test scores. Instead, it requires the superintendent of schools to come up with an "accountability system" by Aug. 1. Once he does, the system cannot be altered except by legislative vote.

White would not say whether he is prepared to pull vouchers from private schools that do poorly on tests.

He pointed out that many kids applying for vouchers are now enrolled in dismal public schools where two-thirds of the students can't read or do math at grade level and half will drop out before they graduate high school. Given that track record, he argues it's worth sending a portion of the roughly $3.5 billion a year the state spends on education to private schools that may have developed different ways to reach kids.

"To me, it's a moral outrage that the government would say, 'We know what's best for your child,'" White said. "Who are we to tell parents we know better?"

That message resonates with Terrica Dotson, whose 12-year-old son, Tyler, attends public school in Baton Rouge. He makes the honor roll, but his mom says he isn't challenged in math and science. This week she was out visiting private schools. "I want him to have the education he needs," she said.

The state has run a pilot voucher program for several years in New Orleans and is pleased with the results. The proportion of kids scoring at or above grade level jumped 7 percentage points among voucher students this year, far outpacing the citywide rise of 3 percentage points, state officials said.

Studies of other voucher programs in the U.S. have shown mixed results.

In Louisiana the vouchers are available to any low- to middle-income student who now attends a public school where at least 25 percent of students test below grade level.

Households qualify with annual income up to 250 percent of the poverty line, or $57,625 for a family of four.

Statewide, 380,000 kids, more than half the total student population of 700,000, are eligible for vouchers. There are only about 5,000 slots open in private schools for the coming year, but state officials expect that to ramp up quickly.


NO FISCAL ANALYSIS

Officials have not estimated the price tag of these programs but expect the state will save money in the long run, because they believe the private sector can educate kids more cheaply than public schools.

Whether those savings will materialize is unclear.

By law, the value of each voucher can't exceed the sum the state would spend educating that child in public school -- on average, $8,800 a year. Small private schools often charge as little as $3,000 to $5,000 a year.

Yet at some private schools with low tuition, administrators contacted by Reuters said they would also ask the state to cover additional, unspecified fees, which would bring the cost to taxpayers close to the $8,800 cap. The law requires the state to cover both tuition and fees.

In the separate mini-voucher program due to launch in 2013, students across Louisiana, regardless of income, will be able to tap the state treasury to pay for classes that are offered by private vendors and not available in their regular public schools.

White said the state hopes to spur private industry to offer vocational programs and apprenticeships in exchange for vouchers worth up to $1,300 per student per class. Students can also use the mini-vouchers to design their own curriculum, tapping state funds to pay for online classes or private tutors if they're not satisfied with their public school's offerings.

State officials will review every private-sector class before approving it. They are still working out how to assess rigor and effectiveness.

The state has not done a formal fiscal analysis, but public school advocates say subtracting the costs of vouchers from their budgets is unfair because they have the same fixed costs -- from utilities to custodial services -- whether a child is in the building four hours a day or six. White responds that the state is not in the business of funding buildings; it's funding education.

While public schools fear fiscal disaster, many private school administrators see the voucher program as an economic lifeboat.

Valeria Thompson runs the Louisiana New School Academy in Baton Rouge, which prides itself on getting troubled students through middle and high school. Families have struggled to pay tuition, she said, and enrollment is down to about 60 kids.

"We're a good school," Thompson said, "but we've been struggling fiscally."

The vouchers have brought in a flood of new applicants and the promise of steady income from taxpayers. Thompson enrolled 17 new students in two days last month and hopes to bring in as many as 130. "I'm so grateful," she said. "You can't imagine how grateful."

Essay #1: On Creativity Lost

04/11/12

Since the 1960s, we’ve supported an educational regime inexorably linked to unions and their respective demands for fairness in regards to the treatment of teachers - and we continue to be dominated by it even today.  Thus the images of progressivism and democracy at work, coupled with equality and fairness have been unjustifiably emblazoned on our restrained, mute and hypocritical creativity.

At the beginning of the 20^th century, a perceived unfairness in the educational system’s treatment of teachers manifested in the advent of the Teacher’s Union, founded in 1916, and the Teacher’s Guild, formed in 1935.  During this time pensions were awarded only to retired teachers over 65 or with 35 years of service, female teachers faced two years of mandatory unpaid maternity leave after giving birth, principals could discipline or fire teachers without any oversight, and teachers drew a salary of $66 per week – the equivalent of $21,000 a year in 2005 dollars.  Creation of a single, unified body to protect them proved difficult in a system that leaned right, and being that many leaders of these original teacher’s unions were socialists, red-baiting was fairly common. 

Yet, despite the difficulty to gain traction during this time, one group, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), successfully organized itself into a robust and powerful organization both in numbers and in influence, resulting in major strikes and collective bargaining on behalf of teachers that resulted in concessions by state and local governments.  This was progressivism and creativity in their finest hour.

But twilight soon fell upon that bright day.  Creativity was carefully confined.  The multiple labor groups acting on behalf of teachers took custody of it and absorbed it into its current state of rigidity and backwardness.  On the subject of reform, silence became the rule.  The legitimate union established the law and imposed itself as the model, enforced the norm, safeguarded the truth, and reserved the right to speak credibly about the educational system, and about what was best for teachers, for students and for parents.  A single locus of truth with respect to the proper direction for our system and its students sanitized one’s speech.  Creative ideas to further student achievement carried the taint of abnormality; if one insisted on amplifying his or her ideas, he or she would be designated accordingly and would be labeled as a threat to the progressivism espoused by the movement.  Nothing that was not ordered by it could expect sanction or protection. Nor did it merit a hearing.  These ideas would be driven out, denied, and reduced to silence.  Not only did they not exist, they had no right to exist and would be made to disappear upon their least manifestation, whether in acts or in words.  Everyone knew that their policies protecting teachers resulted unquestionably in student achievement, which was why they were forbidden to talk about it, why one closed one’s eyes and stopped one’s ears whenever they came to show evidence to the contrary, and why a general silence was imposed.  This was an era of repression. 

And has our nation not suffered as a result? Since the 1970s, our students’ progress, relative to the rest of the world, has stagnated.  We have dropped significantly in rankings, from once leading the world, to now placing in the top 30 in reading and math.  Domestically, the more than 15 million children growing up in low-income communities are, on average, two to three years behind in reading skills by the time they reach fourth grade.  Half of them will not graduate high school.  This problem obfuscates racial equality, weakens the economy by costing it billions of dollars, and is inimical to fulfilling the potential of a strong democracy.

To be clear, progress has been made in cities like New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Houston, and our nation’s capitol; but with circumspection, and in other places where reform has been less evident, with a near guarantee of innocuousness and ample precaution in order to keep everything between the dinner table and discourse.   What makes the creativity seen in these cities gratifying is its defiance in the face of hypocrisy.  After all, the relationship between power and creativity in terms of repression is not a new phenomenon.  At one point it adversely affected those who now find themselves defining our educational system’s norms.  In their brightest days, labor groups at the beginning of the 20th century were repressed, that is, condemned to prohibition, nonexistence, and silence.  It is ironic that those who fought for their coming freedom at that time now fight against those who are labeled subversive today.  These new “reformers” ardently conjure away the present and appeal to the future as organized labor did in the past. It seems as though some of the ancient functions of prophecy are reactivated therein.  Tomorrow, creativity will be good again.     

But could change come any differently? We know that repression has indeed been the fundamental link between power and creativity since the 1960s; it stands to reason that we will not be able to free ourselves from it without considerable cost – nothing less than a lifting of arcane laws, an irruption of speech, a reinstating of what reason says actually serves the system best, and a whole new economy in the mechanisms of power will be required.  After all, the truth is currently conditioned by an influx of lobbying dollars into the political sphere.  Hence, one cannot hope to obtain the desired result simply from a theoretical discourse, however rigorously pursued.  The current state of affairs is historically and politically protected.  We must not be surprised, then, if the effects of creativity vis-à-vis this repressive power are so slow to manifest themselves; the effort to speak freely and without fear of castigation is so inimical to the status quo, that it is bound to make little headway for a long time before succeeding in its mission. 

It is true that we have a stronger foundation than ever before for this work in the “reform” arena, and because of it, we are seeing an increasing in the pace of change.  Within the past 10 years in urban and rural education, we have learned and accomplished a great deal.  Not only do we have many more examples of success, there is evidence that replicating success is feasible. We now attempt to cultivate talent at both colleges of education and within school districts.  We are increasing diversity in the talent pipeline. We are fostering effective political leadership.  And finally, we are building advocacy infrastructure at the state and local levels.  Perhaps more importantly, the partisan battle between left and right, blue and red, is coming to an end.  Those who consider themselves Democrats are sparking this new wave of creativity.  Their surprising distancing from Labor positions concerning the educational system eliminates the “us against them” rhetoric historically evident in our discourse.   These are encouraging signs of hope, and I fully anticipate that as we move ahead, more research, more data, and more people dedicated to qualifying success at all levels will bring forth the creative drive to answer the education riddle that seemingly perplexes our great nation today. 

Jay Inslee Unveils Education Plan - Proposes an Innovative and Accountable School System

APRIL 5, 2012
Contact:
JAIME SMITH | 253.334.5670

Renton, WA – In a speech to parents, teachers and education advocates today, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jay Inslee introduced his vision for public schools and announced a plan to make Washington schools work for every child.
“If we're going to grow our economy, build on our quality of life and continue our legacy of innovation we need educated young people ready to take jobs in the knowledge economy of the 21st century,” said Inslee. “As governor, I intend to rebuild our public education system where we are currently falling short and expand on those things that we’re doing right.”
Inslee’s plan begins with two critical realities: first, a school system in which 1 in 5 of this year’s kindergartners will either not graduate or not graduate on time is not getting the job done; and second, there are innovative and effective ideas already in use that can be expanded statewide.
Inslee proposed an aggressive expansion of the successful “Innovative Schools” to create unique educational environments, public-private partnerships to expose students to real-world technology, and transitioning to online resources for curricula.
Inslee's plan also calls for better support for teachers and principals, and greater accountability as well. Under the Inslee plan, schools will establish mentorship and job-training programs so that experienced, master teachers are sharing their expertise with newer teachers or those who need help. Inslee also called for evaluation and accountability beyond the classroom, holding principals and superintendents responsible for overall performance in their schools.
Education leaders lauded Inslee’s plan.
“When it comes to educating our kids, Jay sets high standards at every level — from students and parents, teachers and principals to superintendents and school boards,” said Dr. Mary Alice Heuschel, Superintendent of Renton School District and 2011 Washington State Superintendent of the Year. “He understands we must all work together. As we have proven in the Renton School District, fostering a culture of high expectations and building effective partnerships can help us achieve results for every student. Jay's vision for our state's education system will help us get there."
“This is a plan based on high expectations. It’s a plan based on data and evidence of what works, not on ideology. And it’s a plan that is realistic based on today’s economic conditions,” Inslee said. “This is about focusing on the outcomes we want for our students and our state.”
See the complete plan online athttp://www.jayinslee.com/priorities/education-plan.

In Big Change, Inslee Backs Teacher Evaluations as “Significant” Part of Hiring and Firing Decisions

As posted online at Publicola.com
Caffeinated News & Gossip. Your daily Morning Fizz

Jay Inslee at education fundraiser at downtown Sheraton this morning.
1. At a “Conversation on Education” sponsored by the Alliance for Education this morning (AFE is a nonprofit that raises money for Seattle Public Schools), the two gubernatorial candidates, former Democratic US Rep Jay Inlsee and Republican Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna, agreed that the teacher evaluations bill that passed this session, one the teachers’ union had criticized, needed to go even further.
In a big change from last summer, when Inslee told me he opposed a bill last session that linked evaluations to “reduction in workforce” (RIF) decisions, Inslee told the crowd this morning that “to ensure teacher quality … when we make staffing decisions, we [should] make that evaluation system a significant part of the decision in hiring and firing and [reduction in force] decisions.”
Education reform issues such as teachers’ evaluations have caused an internal rift in the Democratic Party, something McKenna has exacerbated by making Democratic President Obama’s education reform agenda his own while Inslee has faced criticism for moving more cautiously.
Education has been a hot issue in the gubernatorial campaign this year. (The national teachers’ union is Inslee’s biggest lifetime funder at the congressional level—and the local chapter, the Washington Education Association, has endorsed Inslee. The teachers’ union has fought many of the reforms that McKenna has pushed for, such as prioritizing teacher evaluations over seniority in personnel decisions.)
At this morning’s forum, moderated by KCTS anchor Enrique Cerna, McKenna said the next step was to “move beyond” the bill to “pay our great teachers more” based on the evaluations. “Performance in the evaluation system needs to be linked to compensation and not be based on seniority,” McKenna told Fizz afterward.

McKenna at this morning’s education fundraiser
Fizz asked Inslee why he had changed his position on ed reform. “If it’s a change,” he said, “it’s a change in the right direction.” He elaborated, saying now that he’d seen the results of the evaluation pilot projects passed in 2009, he was more comfortable moving forward with evaluations.
McKenna came out in support of the idea in his campaign kickoff speech last June.

'Creative Approach Schools' advances with union support

Seattle Public Schools' framework for Creative Approach Schools will allow those schools to opt out of many district and union requirements as long as 80 percent of their teachers sign on. Some watchdogs are concerned about lack of School Board control and the high rate of teacher agreement needed.

By Brian M. Rosenthal

Seattle Times education reporter

In the spring of 2010, leaders of Seattle's teachers union began seeing signs that reform-minded forces would soon make another big push to bring charter schools into Washington state, which the union has long opposed.
Huddled together in their Georgetown office, the leaders came up with a possible pre-emptive strike against a key argument in support of charter schools — that their use of unique methods allows them to help some students who don't succeed in normal schools.
"We wanted to be able to say that there's no reason to have charters in Seattle," union Vice President Jonathan Knapp said. "Because the thing that they always say is that charters provide flexibility. Well, we can have flexibility in public schools, too."
And so, with agreement from the Seattle Public Schools administration, the concept of a "Creative Approach School" was born.
Two years later, the union leaders, district administrators and Seattle School Board members have agreed on a framework for creation of the schools, which will be allowed to opt out of almost any district or union policy for the sake of tailoring their school to the needs of their students.
District leaders have high hopes for the agreement despite opposition from some city government officials and education activists.
80% must sign on
The framework, approved last month by the School Board, spells out how school principals — if they get 80 percent of their teachers to sign on — can apply for Creative Approach designation. The applications require approval by the superintendent and union leaders.
Fifteen schools, nearly 20 percent of the city's collection, have expressed interest in applying.
But so far, many are in wealthy parts of the city and already have an alternative bent.
Some city officials, including Councilmember Tim Burgess, believe that's due to the 80 percent threshold. Burgess and others believe that the everyday challenges of working in high-poverty schools, combined with their high turnover, make it unlikely that they will be able to come up with that much consensus.
In essence, they believe the requirement will prevent the very schools that most need Creative Approach status from getting it.
Some district watchdogs are leery for a different reason — that the new agreement would remove School Board members from policymaking decisions at Creative Approach Schools. They've filed a lawsuit in King County Superior Court to stop the plan.
"Regardless of the merits of Creative Approach Schools, it's the School Board that has to make policy," said Keith Scully, a local attorney representing the activists. "They can't delegate that authority."
Short on specifics
Pressed for specifics about what Creative Approach Schools will look like, Knapp has a short response: "I don't have an answer for that."
"I'm not the one who's going to have the ideas on that," he said. "The idea is that the educators in the school working with the community in that neighborhood come up with the best ways to educate the students in that neighborhood."
Creative Approach Schools still will be required to teach to federal standards, administer state tests and provide frequent reports on their progress.
But beyond that, they could do largely what they want, as long as it is research-supported and cost-neutral to the district (schools are encouraged to seek additional funding from foundations or government entities).
Some ideas for schools
While specifics are up to schools, here are a few of the ideas that have been thrown around, according to administrators involved in the negotiations and principals considering applying:
• Modified schedule, including varied class period lengths, Saturday school, longer school days or an extended school year.
• Specialized curriculum models, such as approaches based on experiential learning or team teaching.
• Intensive partnerships with community organizations, tutoring programs or parent groups.
• Adoption of textbook and other instructional materials based on specific student needs.
• New ways of assessing students (instead of district-mandated tests).
• Distinct hiring strategies, including the right to refuse placement of teachers transferring from other schools.
• Focus on science, the arts, language immersion or something else.
"There are a lot of things that could fit in it," said Phil Brockman, executive director of schools for Northeast Seattle. "That's exactly the point."
Lawsuit filed
It's the sheer broadness of it, combined with the lack of a role for the School Board in approving Creative Approach applications, that concerns some district watchdogs.
They filed the lawsuit earlier this month after some School Board members, led by Sharon Peaslee, unsuccessfully tried to amend the framework to add in board approval of applications.
A hearing has been scheduled for October.
Board President Michael DeBell said the board's oversight role will be met through an annual review of the program.
DeBell is more worried about the other concern, the 80 percent threshold.
Holly Miller, director of Seattle's Office for Education, said the threshold is especially problematic because some struggling schools may want to reorganize themselves with a very different teaching staff — something that is unlikely to happen if the school must get 80 percent of its current staff to sign on.
Knapp said high staff buy-in is essential for any successful school initiative.
The two schools most interested in the program, Thornton Creek Elementary and Nova High School, are alternative schools in relatively wealthy areas. But John Miner, principal of Thornton Creek, said he's also heard of interest from several non-alternative schools.
DeBell said he wished the threshold was lower, but 80 percent was the lowest union officials would go. "I'm concerned, yes, but I'm interested in getting the process started and seeing what occurs," he said.
Several schools are working on applications, with decisions to take place in November and the first programs to get under way in the fall of 2013.