Gates's Gigantic Growth? Michigan State University Professor Sarah Reckhow takes a look at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's funding patterns over on Alexander Russo's blog. "The decade from 2000 to 2010 was a time of enormous growth and evolution for the Gates Foundation," Reckhow writes. "Warren Buffett's pledge of more than $30 billion substantially increased the Gates Foundation's resources, and grant-making more than doubled from 2005 to 2009. Even more marked are the Foundation's dramatically shifted priorities." Over the years, Gates has shifted its money from directly funding schools to instead subsidizing research, advocacy and activism.
New York Sued? Parents in New York City are suing Governor Andrew Cuomo and state schools chief John King for withholding money to the city's schools over a teacher evaluation standoff, reports the Wall Street Journal's Lisa Fleisher. The parents are represented by Michael Rebell, an attorney who previously got the state to spend more money on its schools through a case known as the Campaign for Fiscal Equity. "The fact that plaintiffs are being held hostage to a political battle between the state, the city and the UFT, in which they have no involvement or responsibility whatsoever, plainly tilts the balance of the equities strongly in plaintiffs' favor," the suit said (as quoted by WSJ).
Cheating Bill Hits D.C.? Washington, D.C. Councilmember David Catania introduced a bill that's supposed to "make it all but impossible to cheat" on standardized exams, reports the Associated Press. D.C. is the scene of several testing investigations following a USA Today story that found an abnormally high wrong-to-write erasure ratio on students' answer sheets -- usually a tell-tale sign of cheating. Catania's bill would make standardized tests "beyond reproach" in his own words, elevating the criminality of facilitating cheating. It also mandates more intense training on test security.
Superintendent Certification Shrinkage? Over in Indiana, the state legislature is advancing a bill that would deregulate the district superintendent positions: the Indiana "House bill would no longer superintendents to have teachers' or superintendents' licenses. Republican Rep. Todd Huston of Fishers said school boards could still require their superintendents to hold a state license, but the bill would give them the option of hiring an experienced nonprofit or business leader," reports the Indiana Business Journal.
Sequestration Is A-Coming President Barack Obama urged lawmakers to prevent the automatic cuts to federal spending -- including education. More via Politics K-12.
**EXTRA CREDIT** Common Core ban advances in Alabama Republican party? And also, they say they're not going to accept money from the state, local, or national teachers union.