Below are links to news stories of interest from newspapers that came up during a search today. These links were active at the time of this e-mail, but should you want to save a story, printing it or cutting and pasting the entire article and saving it to your computer is recommended.
State News 
D203, union reach tentative agreement
Suburban Chicago News – Neither side is releasing any details at this time, Jaensch said. First, the Naperville Unit Education Association will present the details of the contract to its members this week, the date yet to be determined. The members will then vote on the contract, he said.
Law requires Woodland board to negotiate
Ottawa Daily Times – The Woodland School Board and the Woodland Education Association appear to be further from reaching an agreement concerning overpayments made to faculty. Last month, the school board reported $217,360.96 was overpaid to 75 current and former
Illinois school superintendents’ pay keeps rising The average salary and benefits for Illinois’ top school executives grew 4.1 percent last year, and a record 150 superintendents earned $200,000 or more. That’s according to salary information provided by the Illinois State Board of Education.
District 220 cutting teachers
Barrington Courier-Review – Community Unit School District 220’s Board of Education unanimously approved a budget direction including about $2.39 million in cuts, including eliminating the equivalent of 15.3 full-time teachers and five other staff positions at Tuesday’s meeting. These include about $1.39 million in staff and operations cuts, and $1 million in maintenance project cuts,
Superintendent says Palmyra school district may resort to teacher layoffs
Quincy WGEM (NBC) 10 – Superintendent Churchwell says when close to 80-percent of the school’s budget goes to paying teacher salaries, layoffs could be inevitable. Churchwell says they are also planning on not replacing teachers who retire.
Suburban teachers fearing significant layoffs
Chicago WBBM 780 Radio – Fewer teachers and larger classroom. Those are the predictions of school analysts and taxpayer watchdogs. A wave of teacher layoffs is underway in Chicago suburbs — and experts say that is just the tip
Slashed state budget could mean up to $29 mil. more in cuts for U-46
Chicago Daily Herald – The gut-wrenching news followed State Superintendent Christopher Koch’s Monday message warning school officials that Gov. Pat Quinn’s office may propose a 2011 budget calling for at least $900 million in cuts to elementary and secondary education.
Torres: U46 planning for worst
Elgin Courier News – Though the audience was small, School District U46 Superintendent Jose M. Torres reached out Tuesday evening to the Lions Club of Elgin to discuss candidly the district’s financial battle to stay afloat. With about 15 club members present, Torres discussed everything on the chopping block — from teachers’ jobs to sports.
Springfield School Board to decide on dismissal of employees
Decatur WAND (NBC) 17 – There’s a big decision before the Springfield school board. The Board is expected to approve the dismissal of dozens of Springfield Public School employees. That means teaching staff, substitutes, and non-teaching employees may soon be out
Proposed Dist. 129 cuts include 31 teachers
Chicago WLS (ABC) 7 – For the second year in a row the staff of the West Aurora School District faces layoffs. The school board is considering a list of proposed financial reductions because state aid will be down by at least 10-percent to 15-percent next year. The proposed cuts include 51 staff positions;
School board hears from parents, students, teachers
DeKalb Daily Chronicle – Parents, students and teachers packed into the board room of the DeKalb school board on Tuesday night to hear about teacher layoffs and voice their concerns. The DeKalb school board discussed dismissing 78 teachers for the 2010-11 school year,
H.S. students walk out to protest cuts
Chicago WLS (ABC) 7 – Some west suburban high school students are protesting proposed budget cuts that would result in teachers losing their jobs. Like so many school districts in the Chicago area, the Morton High School District is dealing with a budget crisis.
Naperville student who set fires to remain in class
Chicago Daily Herald – Naperville Unit District 203 gave up its fight Tuesday to keep an expelled 9-year-old from returning to school after he was accused last year of igniting bathroom fires in two schools. The school board unanimously voted Dec. 14 to expel the Naperville third-grader for the remainder of the academic year, prompting the boy’s parents to ask a judge to intervene.
Classroom
Lincoln-Way Sun – Shoes for Haiti – FRANKFORT — A shoe drive at Chelsea Intermediate School in Frankfort will help hundreds of people devastated by the earthquake in Haiti. The effort was organized by Nancy Sorci , field secretary for the Illinois Education Association in Matteson, physical education teacher Linda Nelson and the other encore teachers at Chelsea School. In only a few weeks of collecting, more than 900 pairs of shoes were donated, with 720 coming from Chelsea students and staff.
School board unanimously approves college-prep academy The Springfield School Board on Tuesday approved plans to open a small college preparatory academy next fall, after concluding that it’s worth the extra $120,000 to run the program.
Groups Rally for CPS Funding
Chicago WFLD (Fox) 32 – deficit, but Governor Pat Quinn is proposing a 15 percent cut in state funding, and that deficit could balloon. The deficit is growing due to CPS’s pension obligations, contractual raises for teachers in addition state-wide economic problems. CPS has already cut about 536 employees and mandated furloughs this year, and are expected to have to mandate more furloughs next year.
Chicago Quaker school would be the state’s first
Chicago Tribune – elementary or a high school in the Chicago area, but none had seriously pursued it, Robinson said. He helped spark the effort in 2007 after finding no sense of community among parents, students and teachers at the public school where his daughter attended kindergarten. Robinson recalled being troubled that he and his wife had no telephone numbers for any of the other parents
Chicago schools need a lesson in teaching black history
Medill News Service – Black History Month is over but students and community leaders say it never really started for Chicago Public Schools.
University of Illinois tuition could rise as much as 20 percent URBANA — The state’s worsening financial picture has forced the University of Illinois to consider raising freshman tuition by up to 20 percent, as well as borrowing money to ease its cash crisis — something it opposed just last month.
Political News
School voucher idea advances in Springfield
Quad Cities Dispatch Argus Leader – A new school-voucher program proposed by Democratic state Sen. James Meeks of Chicago has cleared its first test, but murky waters loom ahead. His voucher proposal would allow parents of students in the academically lowest 10 percent of Chicago Public Schools to have the option of sending their children to a private school, if space is available. Formerly a strong advocate for improving Illinois’s public schools, Meeks said his plan comes as a result of violence and increasingly poor test scores in CPS schools.
‘A decent education’
Chicago Tribune – When state Sen. James Meeks asks fellow Democrats to give education vouchers to kids who attend some of the worst schools in Chicago, the legislators often tell him they don’t want to divert dollars from public education. Meeks’ response:
Brady learning to think ’statewide’
Braidwood Journal – The point here is that Bill Brady is obviously not yet thinking like a statewide candidate. For crying out loud, you can’t introduce a bill to help out your local puppy gas chamber when you’re trying to be governor. I mean, seriously, what kind of thought process concocts an idea like that?
I’ve Got a Budget Idea for Gov. Pat Quinn …
Quinn last week opened an online forum for Illinois voters to voice their opinion on how to fix the state’s $13 billion budget hole. Not all the ideas came from the fringe, but among the 2,000 comments at www.illinois.budget.gov, those are the most entertaining. Here’s a collection of some of the more interesting budget ideas, some of which were culled by the St. Louis Post Dispatch and the Peoria Journal Star.
Dozens seek to replace Scott Lee Cohen as lieutenant governor nominee
Chicago Tribune – Substitute teachers, a one-time undercover vice cop and a Republican union worker willing to switch parties are among an eclectic group of 46 people unveiled Tuesday as applicants seeking to succeed
Ten Most Ridiculous Lt. Gov. Applications
NBC Chicago – You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll want Scott Lee Cohen back.
Question of the day, March 3: Legislative scholarships Should General Assembly members continue to have the privilege of awarding college scholarships? more
Our Opinion: Eliminate legislative scholarships STATE UNIVERSITIES across Illinois are struggling today to cover basic expenses because the state owes them hundreds of millions of dollars.
Fix Illinois without raising taxes
Chicago Tribune – Letter to the Editor – On March 10, 2010, Governor Quinn will be making his annual budget address. Governor Quinn has made it clear that he believes the only way out of the states financial mess is to raise our taxes. Americans for Prosperity strongly disagrees!
Kirk backs jobless benefits extension U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk of Highland Park, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Illinois, opposes a Kentucky Republican senator’s stand against extension of unemployment benefits.
Ill. Senate Dems To Dissect GOP Candidate’s Budget
WBBM TV CBS 2 Chicago – The Democrats are likely to focus on the service cuts that would be required, part of an effort to portray Brady as too extreme and to build support for other budget ideas. Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn wants to cut spending but also raise income taxes.
Laughs, boos for Blago at NU To some, the irony was as thick as the shock of hair on his head: indicted ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich addressed Northwestern University students Tuesday night about ethics and morals in government. One student said the event was akin to inviting Tiger Woods to speak about fidelity.
National News
US teachers more interested in reform than money
Belleville News-Democrat – SEATTLE — U.S. teachers are more interested in school reform and student achievement than their paychecks, according to a massive new survey. The survey of 40,090 K-12 teachers – including 15,038 by telephone – was likely the largest national survey of teachers ever completed and includes the opinions of teachers in every grade, in every state and across the demographic spectrum.
First lady hails value of reading, Dr. Seuss
Belleville News-Democrat – Tuesday by reading “The Cat in the Hat” to a group of children wearing red-and-white-striped stovepipe hats like the book’s main character. Mrs. Obama helped kick off the National Education Association’s 13th annual “Read Across America” celebration at the Library of Congress. The event marked the day that Dr. Seuss, or Theodor Seuss Geisel, would have turned 106.
Health Reform’s Reconciliation Ref — Alan Frumin
As Democrats try to salvage health care reform, there is one man who above all others will help determine its fate, and he is not Barack Obama or Harry Reid or even a member of Congress
Pakistan’s Taliban War: Bringing Back the Music
Little U.S. aid had been spent because of fears of corruption and violence. A brief musical interlude may now give Islamabad a chance to reform its wild frontier
The Incredible Shrinking Europe
If Europe wants to become a global power to rival the U.S. and China then it needs to stop acting like a collection of rich, insular states and start fighting for its beliefs. Now
How High Could the U.S. Tax Rate Go?
Given the ballooning federal deficit there is near unanimity among economists that higher taxes are on the way. But will the tax target high-income earners, the middle class or all Americans?
LostWatch: Thieves in the Temple
SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, find the right stone to push at the temple and watch last night’s Lost
How Rick Perry Turned Around the Battle for Texas
Hutchison was the prohibitive election favorite about a year ago but now the Daughter of Texas is identified with the Washington the Lone Star State loves to hate
In Diyala, Dangerous Omens for an Iraq Without U.S. Troops
Despite local successes against al-Qaeda, Sunni-Shi’ite and Arab-Kurd tensions raise the threat of post-election violence
Chile: Prepared for the Quake but Not the Tsunami
A significant number of the dead in Chile were victims not of pancaked buildings but of quake-caused waves that punished the country’s coast
Colombia Gets Ready for Life After Uribe
Alvaro Uribe had sought to win the right to run for President another time — like his neighbor and rival in Venezuela. But the courts have denied him that right and there is no appeal
Jay Leno’s Long Nightmare Is Over
Jay Leno’s transition from primetime failure to once-and-future host of the Tonight Show lasted about a minute and a half
Most Viewed Articles on washingtonpost.com
1) Same-sex couples line up as D.C. gay marriage law takes effect
Sitting at a desk in the marriage bureau of the D.C. Superior Court on Wednesday morning, Angelisa Young’s eyes filled with so many tears, she eventually buried her face in her fiancee’s chest.
2) Rep. Charles Rangel to temporarily quit key tax post
Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) announced Wednesday that he would temporarily step down as chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, days after being admonished for breaking House rules by accepting corporate-financed travel.
3) ‘Enough!’ is enough: Bunning backs down
For five days, retiring Sen. Jim Bunning held his fellow Republicans hostage. He stood his ground, angry and alone, a one-man blockade against unemployment benefits, Medicare payments to doctors, satellite TV to rural Americans and paychecks to highway workers.
4) Ask Tom: Our food critic talks shop
Washington Post food critic Tom Sietsema answers your questions, listens to your suggestions and even entertains your complaints about Washington dining.
5) New formula to give fresh look at poverty
The Obama administration Tuesday embraced an alternative way of defining what it means to be poor, stepping gingerly into a long-running debate over whether to revise the method that has been used to measure poverty for decades.
6) Rove admits to error on Iraq as Bush strategist
Former president George W. Bush did not mislead the nation about weapons of mass destruction as a way to “lie us” into war, his former top political aide, Karl Rove, asserts in a new memoir, “Courage and Consequence.”
7) Obama reaches out to GOP on health-care bill
As Democrats on Capitol Hill prepared a risky effort to muscle sweeping health-care legislation to final passage, President Obama on Tuesday made a last gambit to split Republicans on the issue, proposing to incorporate a handful of GOP ideas into his signature domestic initiative.
8.) Political theater with a point
The health-care reform debate makes ‘political theater’ sound pretty good.
9) Perry bests Hutchison in Texas
Texas Gov. Rick Perry cruised to victory in the state’s Republican gubernatorial primary Tuesday night, crushing Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and setting the stage for a run for a third full term this fall.
10) U.S. backs efforts to ban international trade of Atlantic bluefin tuna
The U.S. government announced Wednesday that it supports prohibiting international trade of Atlantic bluefin tuna, a move that could lead to the most sweeping trade restrictions ever imposed on the highly prized fish.
Word of the Day for Wednesday, March 3, 2010
eructation \ih-ruhk-TAY-shuhn\, noun:
The act of belching; a belch.