Scott Walker-Style Merit Pay? Speaking at a Friday convention, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) said he wants the state to begin a program that would pay teachers partially in accordance with their ratings, reports the Badger Herald. "One of the things we're looking to do going forward is to put additional resources into public education over the next two years in this budget in a variety of different ways is in part ... put money behind performance," Walker said. "How can we provide an incentive bonus?"
Arizona School Funding Oops? According to a new audit, Arizona's charter schools received more money than they deserved in 2006, but other schools received less than what was owed to them, reports the Associated Press. To make up the difference, Arizona will pay $38 million in March to schools who lost out, and pay the charters that were overpaid $6 million less over 17 months. "I am fairly certain every school district and every charter will either owe money or be owed money back," said Lyle Friesen, the department's deputy associate superintendent of school finance. If they're not proficient in math...
Ohio Ed Reform? Business leaders in Ohio are pushing Gov. John Kasich to "push hard on educational change," reports CBS. Echoing an argument U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has made countless times, they're telling the governor that they have more high-wage high-skilled jobs, but not enough qualified local applicants to fill them. They lauded the state's A-F gradings of schools and "third-grade reading guarantee." The letter comes as the business leaders and the state's struggling schools await news of Kasich's budget.
Spreading It Around? Students from the New York City music school Juilliard traveled to Hong Kong to take questions from would-be students. The storied school is preparing to create its first international campus in China, reports the New York Times. The campus will use primarily new faculty recruited in China, but New York professors will be able to conduct workshops and visits at the new campus.
Education In Afghanistan? Here's an interesting Times piece on a school in Marja, Afghanistan, that has thrived over the last few years -- despite a volatile history with governments that are often anti-education. "When the Taliban came to power in the 1990s we lost a lot of students and a lot people left Marja," headmaster Abdul Aziz said, as quoted by the Times. "Then in 2002 after the Taliban fled, people came back and the schools reopened until the Taliban came back again in 2006, and then the schools closed. Then we reopened in 2010 when the Marines came."