The Texas House approved on Thursday an amended version of a bill to introduce sweeping changes to the state’s charter school system.

Senate Bill 2 passed on a 105-34 vote on second reading. It now faces a third reading before it can be reconciled with a similar version the Senate passed last month.

“I think the bill supports quality charters, helping them to expand and grow but at the same time helping to shut down the poor performers,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock, R-Killeen.

Its author, Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, has called SB2 the most comprehensive charter school legislation since the state introduced the publicly funded and privately run schools in the 1990s. Previous efforts to change the system made it through the Senate but failed to gain traction in the House.

The bill would update rules on the renewal, expansion and revocation of charters, raising the current cap of 215 charters that can be authorized at any one time by allowing an additional 10 per year up to a total of 275 by 2019. Charter holders may operate multiple schools under a single charter.

It would also tighten nepotism rules – an amendment exempts current employees – and give operators the right of first refusal on the lease or purchase of unused facilities in traditional public school districts.

Patrick initially sought to provide charters with state funding for facilities, create a separate board to authorize new charters and to eliminate the state cap altogether.

He and other supporters have argued that Texas needs more charters to provide choices to families, including the more than 100,000 Texas school children on charter school waiting lists.

Critics of the bill questioned whether the state could maintain proper oversight of rapid charter school expansion. Later versions of the bill, including the one the House passed Thursday, took a more gradual approach and left authorization decisions in the hands of the State Board of Education.

On Thursday, Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, tried to amend the bill to delay raising the cap for one year while quality controls are put in place.

“I’m not opposed to charter schools,” he said. “The only point I’m making is that before we open the door for more charter schools, let’s place quality into the system.”

It failed 52 to 86.

The House adopted other amendments, including one requiring teachers at charter schools to hold bachelor’s degrees and another requiring the majority of a charter’s board members to be “qualified voters.”

Rep. Bill Zedler, R-Arlington, introduced the latter amendment, saying it was not aimed at any particular charter operator. Critics of the Harmony Public Schools charter network have complained to lawmakers in the past about the presence of Turkish citizens among Harmony leadership.

During the debate, Rep. Yvonne Davis, D-Dallas, called three points of order – technicalities that can be used to stall or derail a bill – but all three were overruled.

Education reform measures signed into law by Gov. Phil Bryant constitute real progress, business leader and education advocate Jim Barksdale said.

“Follow-through in future years — which will require funding — and faithful implementation are critical,” Barksdale said.

On Wednesday, in front of hundreds at Northwest Rankin High School, once attended by his two children, Bryant signed into law most of his education reform package including charter schools. He touted it as the most significant education package in the history of Mississippi.

“It is transformative. … It will begin a new era for education in Mississippi,” Bryant said. “The changes enacted by this legislation will help the state create and retain the best teachers, create public charter schools of excellence that will give our students in failing schools access to higher education, and create reading practices that will stop the exercise of social promotion.”

Kevin Gilbert, president of the Mississippi Association of Educators, said he’s generally taking a wait-and-see approach — that is, will the provisions do what supporters say they will do and will adequate resources be provided for implementation.

Bryant lauded Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, House Speaker Philip Gunn and other legislative leaders instrumental in getting the legislation passed.

“The goal we all share is that every child will have an opportunity for success,” Reeves said.

The legislation passed allows up to 15 charter schools a year to start in low-performing, D- and F-rated districts, without local school board approval. Local districts would have veto power over them in A, B and C districts. Reeves and others wanted only A and B districts to have veto power and other more expansive measures, but the House, with only a slim Republican majority and some GOP opposition, couldn’t pass the more expansive legislation.

Reeves believes, once charter schools prove themselves, there will be a push for their presence beyond failing districts.

The Legislature also passed the Literacy Based Promotion Act, designed to prevent the social promotion of children from third to fourth grade if they can’t read proficiently. They would receive “intensive intervention” to help with their reading.

Lawmakers approved $9.5 million to start the program, which was part of Bryant’s “Education Works” agenda, modeled after Florida’s education reforms.

Lawmakers also passed a pilot merit pay system for teachers, a pilot state pre-kindergarten program supporters hope can be expanded and regulations that would require districts with graduation rates lower than 80 percent to institute improvement plans. Education Works also included creating 200 scholarships for students with a 3.5 grade point average and 28 ACT score who commit to teaching in a Mississippi public school for five years.

A strong early education program will be critical to increasing reading scores and for children to be better thinkers, said Cathy Grace, a veteran early childhood educator.

“It has been 30 years since the state last took the next step in needed education reform,” Grace said, and “let’s hope it doesn’t take that long next time.”

But some public education advocates and lawmakers say one thing the Legislature didn’t do with education this year was “fully fund” it. Although K-12’s $2.3 billion budget includes an increase of nearly $50 million, more than half of that was for retirement system cost increases, and it leaves the Mississippi Adequate Education Program funding formula nearly $300 million short.

A state Senate committee on Thursday approved a high-profile school voucher plan, sending it to the full chamber for what could be a fierce floor fight.

Senate Bill 23 by state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, would offer tax credits to businesses that provide scholarship funding for low-income students who want to transfer from low-performing public schools to private or religious schools.

The bill would allow businesses to write off 100 percent of their state business margins taxes, but it caps the total value of all donations at $100 million.

Patrick, who chairs the Senate Education Committee, says the plan could help as many as 10,000 students transfer.

His committee referred the bill to the Senate, but not before an important modification was approved: To qualify for scholarships, children have to be at risk of dropping out of school and come from low-income families. The measure originally allowed at-risk or low-income students to seek scholarships.

The amendment changing or to and was made by state Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville.

“I understand the author’s intent with this bill,” Lucio said. “This could give those students who most need educational choice a voucher.”

Patrick accepted the change, saying his intent was “to help students who are poor and in failing schools.”

Lucio responded, “I am for helping poor kids, including keeping them in our public schools.”

To get scholarships, students must come from households with incomes less than 200 percent of that needed to qualify for the free and reduced-price lunch program. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has guidelines for who qualifies based on family size.

A family of three can qualify to get reduced-price or free lunches at school if their yearly income doesn’t exceed $36,000. Patrick’s proposal would allow families to seek assistance if they have income up to double that level.

Opponents say the plan will drain yet more funding from public schools still reeling from the $5.4 billion in cuts to public education that the Legislature approved in 2011. But Patrick said money for his plan would come from other portions of the budget — not out of funding already earmarked for public schools.

Although Patrick’s fellow Republicans control both chambers of the Legislature, his bill faces seemingly long odds. It has yet to be considered by the state House, which while passing its version of the state budget last week, the lower chamber overwhelmingly approved an amendment to keep public funding in public schools

Parents at 24th Street Elementary School have overwhelmingly chosen a partnership between the Los Angeles Unified School District and a charter school to run the persistently low-performing Jefferson Park campus.

Among those eligible to cast ballots, 80% chose a proposal that combines the efforts of the school district with those of Crown Preparatory Academy, which already runs an unaffiliated middle school out of surplus space on the campus. The results were announced Wednesday morning.

The reconfigured program will have the district manage kindergarten through fourth grade and the charter run a program for students in grades five through eight.

“This is a very big day for parents,” said Amabilia Villeda, one of the parent organizers, speaking in Spanish to parents gathered Wednesday at a park near the school. “I want to thank everyone for your support in making this day a reality.”

The 359 parents eligible to vote were those who signed a petition, under the state’s controversial parent-trigger law, to force aggressive change at the school. Their options include turning the school over entirely to an independently managed charter organization. Charter schools are exempt from some laws that govern traditional schools. Most are non-union, including Crown Prep.

In all, 190 parents cast votes and 179 were determined to be eligible based on who signed the original petition. Among these, 152 chose the partnership proposal. Fifteen voted for Crown Prep to run the campus on its own; nine voted for L.A. Unified to remain in control; three voted for Academia Moderna, another charter operator that submitted a bid.

The balloting took place from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday in polling stations set up under tents.

The petition drive was spearheaded by Parent Revolution, a group that has lobbied for parent-trigger laws across the country. Previous efforts have resulted in litigation with school districts and conflict among parents for and against it. School districts and employee unions have criticized the parent-trigger as unfair and divisive.

In this drive, L.A. Unified opted not to challenge the petition, but to submit its own reform plan and compete for the approval of parents. Under the plan, parents will participate in a hiring committee. Any teachers who wish to remain at the school will have to interview with this committee. Parents said they were impressed with the district’s ability to offer pre-school education and services to disabled students. They said they liked the charter because of its demonstrated ability to raise academic achievement.

“I’ve seen the struggle of some parents here that they’ve gone through so many problems with their children,” said parent Esmerelda Chacon. “I’m very, very happy with the results we got.” She added that her 8-year-old son is “going to like the changes for next year.”

The balloting was set up as a festive occasion, with activities that included face painting for children, piñatas and a raffle. A midday lunch of chicken, rice and tamales was provided for parents at the park. Later in the day, organizers supplied pizza and sodas.

Public tax dollars may be used to fund private school tuition under Indiana’s voucher program, the state Supreme Court unanimously ruled today.

“We hold that the Indiana school voucher program, the choice scholarship program, is within the legislature’s power under Article 8, Section 1, and that the enacted program does not violate either Section 4 or Section 6 of Article 1 of the Indiana Constitution,” the justices wrote in the 5-0 decision.

The ruling, on a teachers union-supported lawsuit from 2011, ends the legal challenge to the program at the state level. The case could be made again in federal court. But in 2002 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a similar program in Ohio, making any further appeal a long shot.

The Indiana case began shortly after the program was created in 2011 when a group of teachers, school officials and parents who oppose vouchers sued the state, arguing the program was unconstitutional.

Vouchers allow low income families to redirect tax dollars from their local public school district to pay tuition when their children transfer to private schools.

In its second year, the program is the fastest-growing in history, jumping to 9,324 students receiving vouchers this school year from 3,919 last year. The program is redirecting more than $38 million in state aid from public schools to private schools, although officials say a provision that guarantees at least 10 percent of a school district’s per pupil amount be returned to the state resulted in a savings of $4.2 million that was redistributed among all public schools last year.

Opponents have argued that vouchers unfairly take away funds that public schools need to benefit primarily religious institutions, especially Catholic and Christian schools. The vast majority of schools accepting vouchers are religiously-affiliated. The lawsuit also claimed the program violated the state’s duty to provide a free and “uniform” public school system.

In 2012 a Marion County judge ruled the program was constitutional, prompting an appeal to the Indiana Supreme Court.

Indiana’s big voucher numbers are due in large part to the design of the program, which is less limited than those in other states. For example, Ohio also has a statewide program, but it restricts vouchers to communities with failing schools. Wisconsin, which has had vouchers for 20 years, limits them just to the city of Milwaukee. Indiana’s program is open to any student meeting the income guidelines — anywhere in the state.

Former State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett hailed the program’s popularity as demonstrating kids need avenues to attend the schools that best serve their needs. But Glenda Ritz, who defeated Bennett in November, opposes vouchers and originally was a plaintiff in the case. She removed herself from the lawsuit while she was running for office.

Ritz’s opposition to the voucher program has caused her political headaches at the statehouse. Earlier this year she had to fend off an effort by House Republicans to move administration of the voucher program from her office to Gov. Mike Pence’s supervision.

Indianapolis Public Schools have the most students within its boundaries using vouchers of any district in the state at 1,262, up from 644 last year. The number of students who have actually transferred from IPS is 947, up from 365 last year. The rest already were attending private schools using a state program that also made them eligible for vouchers.

But Republicans are aiming to expand vouchers further.

House Bill 1003, which passed the House and is being debated in the Senate, eliminates a requirement that students seeking vouchers to first attend a public school for at least two semesters for incoming kindergarteners. Any kindergartners who meet the income limits would be eligible. Other newly eligible for vouchers under the bill include students with disabilities, siblings of children receiving vouchers and children in foster care.

Eligibility for vouchers depends on family income and size. A family of four that earns less than $42,000 annually can receive up to 90 percent of the state aid for a child’s public school education. Families of four making $42,000 to $62,000 can receive 50 percent of the state aid amount.

The voucher law capped the number of students allowed in the program at 7,500 last year and 15,000 this year. But there is no cap going forward unless the legislature decided to add one. There has been no discussion of a cap during this legislative session.

Attorneys on both sides of the debate over using public funds to pay for students to attend private schools are honing their arguments for a showdown today with oral arguments before the Louisiana Supreme Court.

No witnesses may be called and each side has a limited amount of time to present arguments. Written arguments have been filed, so justices are familiar with the case.

Baton Rouge District Judge Tim Kelley’s ruling that using the funding formula, known as the Minimum Foundation Program, or MFP, violated a constitutional provision that says the fund can only be used for public schools has drawn national attention. Organizations on both sides of the issue are at loggerheads arguing for separation of church and state or for offering children the best chance for an education.

The Interfaith Alliance has joined an amicus brief in the appeal that challenges the program on the grounds of religious freedom. The brief, authored by another Washington, D.C.-based organization, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and also joined by the American Civil Liberties Union, argues that public funds should not be used to teach religious belief.

“Let me be clear,” said the Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, head of the Interfaith Alliance and pastor at Northminster Baptist Church in Monroe, “I am not bothered by a Christian school teaching its students the same tenets that children in my church learn every Sunday. What I find appalling is that these schools are teaching theology in science, history and math classes and, through school vouchers, are doing so with my taxes. I defend their right to teach future generations about their faith, and the right of any Louisiana citizen to choose a private religious school over a public one — but neither the parents nor the schools should receive financial support from our government to do so”

Many of the schools accepting voucher funds are religion-based and use religion-based curriculum.

“Louisiana legislators are siphoning money from tax-starved public schools to feed private schools that promote dogma and aren’t accountable to the taxpayers,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. “It’s a travesty, and the court should put an end to it.”

The anti-voucher groups are on the side of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, Louisiana Association of Educators and Louisiana School Boards Association, the organizations which originally filed suit challenging the Legislature’s Act 2 of the 2012 session as being unconstitutional.

The Washington, D.C.,-based Black Alliance for Educational Options, The Institute for Justice, the American Federation for Children and Stand for Children, national organizations pushing school choice, also are involved on the state’s side. They argue that children in failing schools deserve to receive vouchers so they can have a chance to receive better education.

Black Alliance President Kenneth Campbell said after Kelley’s ruling, “As a result of this decision, hope and opportunity have been taken away from families who are only trying to escape failing schools and gain access to better educational options.”

Gov. Bobby Jindal, the lead proponent of the vouchers and a larger education initiative, called Kelley’s ruling “wrong-headed and a travesty for parents across Louisiana who want nothing more than for their children to have an equal opportunity at receiving a great education.”

But this particular argument before the high court is over whether state money in a fund that has traditionally paid for public school education can legally be used to pay private schools to educate students who normally would attend public schools.

It’s not about church and state or whether children deserve a better education. It’s about the constitutional use of state funds.

Kelley did not rule that vouchers are unconstitutional; only that it’s unconstitutional to use the Minimum Foundation Program to fund them.

The attorney general’s office hired Jindal’s former executive counsel, attorney Jimmy Roy Faircloth of Alexandria, to represent the state in the case and the appeal to the state Supreme Court.

Faircloth maintains that it’s the state’s responsibility to provide the best education available and that schools graded C, D and F schools are failing to do that. The vouchers are available to students who are zoned to attend schools with those grades.

After Kelley’s ruling, a second Baton Rouge jurist, District Judge Michael Caldwell, threw out the other piece of Jindal’s education package, Act 1, which primarily deals with tenure, because the legislation contained too many objects. The Louisiana Constitution contains language that limits bills to a single object.

Besides making it harder for teachers to earn tenure and easier to lost it, the bill also stripped school boards of the authority to hire and fire teachers, required school systems to submit superintendents’ contracts to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, eliminated salary schedules and eliminated layoff policies based on seniority.

The state also has appealed Caldwell’s decision.

Kelley didn’t rule that Act 2, the voucher bill, contained too many objects, but Steve Monaghan, president of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers union, said the organization is asking the Supreme Court to rule on the issue. He said the federation has filed a “cross appeal” to the one filed by the state asking the Supreme Court to rule.

Besides vouchers, Act 2 cleared the way for creation of numerous charter schools and set up a “course choice” program so outside sources can offer online and in-person classes that aren’t available in local schools.

“We are confident that we will win in the Supreme Court,” Jindal and White have consistently said, expressing confidence that Kelley’s ruling would be overturned.

But for the first time Thursday, Jindal said he would call the state Legislature into special session to re-approve the bills if the high court rules that House Bill 2 was unconstitutionally constructed.

The Black Alliance is sponsoring a Tuesday morning rally at the Supreme Court building in New Orleans to show support for vouchers. Parents of children enrolled in voucher schools are to tell of the successes their children are having in private schools.

The hearing is set for the court’s 2 p.m. session.

“We hope that the letter of the Louisiana Constitution will prevail,” said Joyce Haynes, president of the LAE. “Judge Kelly made the decision to uphold what is set forth in the constitution of the great state of Louisiana. It’s sad that our governor continues to ignore the constitution and spend money on attorneys and court fees all at the expense of Louisiana tax payers.

“We’ve been fighting for the 99 percent of Louisiana families who chose not to partake in the voucher program,” she said. “We need to adequately fund the institutions where the vast majority of our students learn, and a majority of Louisiana’s students learn in public school classrooms. As advocates for public education, it is our job to make sure that our public schools are adequately funded so that the educational experience is optimal for all of Louisiana’s children. This is their constitutional right.”

Monaghan says the Louisiana Department of Education is ignoring the state Constitution in its pursuit of its ideas of improving education.

White’s newest concept is “Louisiana Believes,” which is also the name of the Education Department’s website.

“It’s more of a belief system” he said. “If the research is there” proving something works, “they believe it. If it doesn’t, they ignore it.”

The new Minimum Foundation Program presented to the Legislature does not contain the traditional language referring to funding being in compliance with the Constitution.

If the Supreme Court upholds Kelley’s ruling, the funding formula will have to be reworked. It currently funds vouchers through the Minimum Foundation Program.

Student proficiency in math and reading improved at the median D.C. public charter school over the past five years, while student proficiency at the city’s median traditional school declined, according to a new analysis of school data.

The study, which the nonprofit D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute expects to release Wednesday, also found geographic trends. In more-affluent wards, proficiency rates at the median school rose over the past five years, while in poorer wards the median school’s proficiency rate fell.

The findings suggest that charter schools are slightly outperforming traditional schools and that to meet ambitious improvement goals, city school leaders will have to make greater strides over the next five years than they have in the past five, a period of rapid and wide-ranging reform efforts.

“We still have a long way to go to see citywide performance go up,” said Soumya Bhat, the study’s author. “That theme is consistent.”

Public officials often assess school progress by tracking the average scores of students in charter schools, in traditional schools and citywide. Between 2008 and 2012, the share of all D.C. students proficient in math and reading rose five points, from 42 percent to 47 percent.

Bhat instead examined the trajectories of individual schools. Using the results of annual standardized tests at 152 schools that existed in both 2008 and 2012, she analyzed the share of students who scored proficient or advanced at each school. She then tracked how the median school — the one squarely in the middle of the pack, with the same number of schools doing better and doing worse — performed.

Citywide, that middle-of-the-pack performance did not improve over the past five years, dropping slightly from 41.8 percent to 41.2 percent.

Proficiency rates at the median charter school rose from about 44 percent in 2008 to about 50 percent in 2012. At the median traditional school, proficiency rates fell from 40 percent to 37 percent over the same period, chiefly because of declines in reading.

Bhat said those numbers suggest the traditional school system might need to consider substantial changes to boost achievement, particularly at the 40 lowest-performing schools, where the goal is to raise proficiency rates by 40 percentage points by 2017.

School system spokeswoman Melissa Salmanowitz was provided with an advance copy of Bhat’s analysis. She said officials could not comment, because they have not had an opportunity to fully review the data.

Median school proficiency rates dropped in poorer parts of the city, including east of the Anacostia River and east of Rock Creek Park in Wards 4 and 5. They rose across Wards 1, 2, 3 and 6, which include the more affluent Upper Northwest and Capitol Hill neighborhoods.

The study points out that performance trends varied widely within every category of school. Since 2008, proficiency rates have risen significantly — by at least five percentage points — at about one-third of all traditional and charter schools. They have declined by that much at another one-third of schools. And one-third of the city’s schools have had modest changes of less than five percentage points.

A growing number of states are drawing a hard line in elementary school, requiring children to pass a reading test in third grade or be held back from fourth grade.

Thirteen states last year adopted laws that require schools to identify, intervene and, in many cases, retain students who fail a reading proficiency test by the end of third grade. Lawmakers in several other states and the District are debating similar measures.

Not every state requires retention; some allow schools to promote struggling readers to fourth grade as long as they are given intensive help.

Advocates of the new tough-love policies say social promotion — advancing students based on age and not academic achievement — results in high-schoolers who can barely read, let alone land a job or attend college. Literacy problems are best addressed at an early age, they say.

Critics say the policies reflect an accountability movement that has gone haywire, creating high-stakes tests for 8-year-olds. The child, not the school, bears the brunt of the problem, they say, pointing to research that shows that the academic benefits of repeating a grade fade with time while the stigma can haunt children into adulthood.

“This is completely unsettling. I’m concerned about a number of those legislative initiatives,” said Shane Jimerson, a University of California at Santa Barbara professor who has studied retention for 20 years and found that, from a child’s perspective, being held back is as stressful as losing a parent.

“This is deleterious to hundreds of thousands of students,” he said. “But children don’t have a voice. If you were doing this to any group that had representation, it would not be happening.”

Third grade has become a flashpoint in primary education because it’s the stage when children are no longer learning to read but are reading to learn, educators say. If children haven’t mastered reading by third grade, they will find it hard to handle increasingly complex lessons in science, social studies and even math.

In large urban districts, retention policies can affect a large share of third-graders. In the District last year, for example, almost 60 percent of third-graders were not proficient in reading, according to the city’s standardized tests.

“It’s been that way for a long time,” said D.C. Council member Vincent B. Orange (D-At Large), who is proposing a third-grade retention law that would apply to traditional and charter schools. “And we have to try something different. There has to be a full-fledged assault on the problem in the classroom.”

In some places, retention has morphed from an educational issue into a political fight.

Tony Bennett, Indiana schools superintendent, lost his elected position in November to Glenda Ritz, a teacher who ran because she was angered by Bennett’s third-grade retention policy.

“It was the final straw,” said Ritz, adding that her state should emphasize reading as early as kindergarten and help struggling readers well before third grade. She wants to stop retaining children based on standardized test scores.

Bennett, meanwhile, became state education commissioner in Florida, where the third-grade retention policy has served as a model for other states.

Ending social promotion has become so popular in some policy circles that Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) boasted to a recent meeting of the National Governors Association that he had accomplished it, though Virginia’s laws actually fall short.

“We essentially put an end to social promotion in third grade by major new third-grade reading incentives,” McDonnell told a panel of other governors on Sunday. “I mean, we just do a disservice to these young people, we all see it in our schools. If they get passed along to eighth, ninth grade, it contributes to the drop-out rate if they’re not able to read.”

Virginia requires school districts to identify struggling readers by third grade and provide intensive help. But students do not have to pass a reading test to progress to fourth grade, and schools are not required to retain third-graders who are weak readers.

Literacy is a struggle for many U.S. children, with 33 percent of all fourth-graders nationwide reading below basic levels in 2011, according to federal data. For minorities, the picture was worse: Half of black and Hispanic fourth-graders were below basic in reading.

Children who don’t read proficiently by third grade are four times more likely to drop out of school than those who read well, according to a recent study by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

A matter of debate for more than a century, decisions about whether to hold back a child usually have been made by teachers and principals in consultation with parents.

But in an accountability era ushered in by the 2002 No Child Left Behind law, the new retention policies offer little wiggle room. Decisions are based on test scores, not the subjective judgment of teachers and administrators. Parents have little recourse. And individual students bear the impact, as opposed to an entire school being sanctioned for failing to perform.

The new approach began in earnest in 2002 in Florida under then-Gov. Jeb Bush (R), who promoted an education strategy that also featured private-school vouchers, data-based assessments for schools and teachers, charter schools and online learning.

Mary Laura Bragg, who ran Florida’s third-grade retention program under Bush, said it forced elementary schools to get serious about literacy. Principals moved their best teachers to kindergarten and first and second grades, she said. Schools sought state funds for diagnostic reading tests and other help.

“I saw a sea change in behavior,” Bragg said. “It’s a shame that it was the threat of retention that spurred these schools into doing what they should have been doing all along.”

A study that tracked third-graders retained in Florida found that they showed significant academic gains in the first two years, but those effects faded over time. Still, fewer students have been retained each year since the policy took effect, which suggests the emphasis on early reading is having an impact.

After leaving office, Bush created the Foundation for Excellence in Education to promote his education policies across the country. The foundation, which reported more than $9 million in revenue and assets in 2011, has lobbied and provided technical and strategic help to state officials and lawmakers who want to adopt third-grade retention laws.

Bragg, now a policy director at the foundation, is in frequent contact with lawmakers and education officials across the country. “Our mission is to help spread reform state by state, and a K-3 reading policy is one of those that states are very interested in,” she said.

In Ohio, Gov. John Kasich (R) signed into law the Third Grade Reading Guarantee, which says that starting this year, third-graders who fail a statewide reading test won’t be permitted to enter fourth grade. Similar laws are rolling out in Indiana, Iowa, New Mexico, Tennessee and Colorado.

Most policies require that schools evaluate children as early as kindergarten and notify parents if their child is below grade level. Schools are required to create a plan for each student and provide intensive reading tutoring, summer reading programs or other help. Most states make exceptions to the retention policy for English language learners, students with disabilities or children who have been previously retained.

Retaining a student can be expensive. In addition to providing additional coaching during the school year and summer programs, districts essentially must add another school year to a child’s academic career.

Paula Peterson, principal at Charles Fairbanks Elementary in Indianapolis, said she’s seen children slump under the weight of Indiana’s new law, which took effect last year.

“The children all knew if you didn’t pass, you weren’t going on,” she said, adding that children who failed last spring’s test were demoralized. “A lot of them gave up. They weren’t trying to do any work. The attitude was, ‘What’s the difference? I failed.’ ”

Of 64 third-graders tested last spring, 29 did not pass. After exemptions were granted, 12 children were held back. Seven of those children did not return to Charles Fairbanks Elementary in the fall; the school is in a high-poverty neighborhood where children are frequently moving in and out, Peterson said. That left five students to repeat third grade.

“I know there has to be accountability,” she said. “But I have a problem with anything that hinges on one picture, on saying that one quick snapshot means anything. One test and everything hangs on the balance.”

Cameron Flint, 9, is intensely aware that she must pass the third-grade reading test this month at her school in Evansville, Ind.

“She talks about it, she’s even cried,” said her mother, Bobbie Flint. “She says things like, ‘I hope I go to fourth grade with all my friends.’ ”

Even though she is an honor-roll student, Cameron finds reading difficult and doesn’t perform well on tests. Her teachers notified Flint at the start of the current school year that Cameron was at risk of being held back.

“I freaked out,” said Flint, who learned that Cameron was almost a full grade behind her peers and is mildly dyslexic. Flint hired a tutor and says her daughter has made progress.

“I feel confident she’s going to pass that test,” Flint said. “But I still feel these tests aren’t fair. It’s good to know where your child stands. . . . But let’s not go so far as saying we’re going to retain your child, and you have no say. Don’t threaten my child and her educational career because of one test.”

Worries about stressed-out children are misplaced, Bragg said.

“The pressure shouldn’t be on the kids, it should be on the adults,” she said.

Ralph Smith, managing director of the Campaign for Grade Level Reading, a collaboration between political, education, philanthropic and business leaders to improve literacy, said the country shouldn’t be arguing about social promotion vs. grade retention. If teachers and schools performed well, the debate would be moot, he said.

“Adults should just do what they should be doing, which is to identify the challenges that kids face and respond to those challenges early,” he said.

Just one month into its general session, North Carolina’s state legislature has already proposed more than 30 bills related to education.

From Senate Bill 68’s proposal to require arts education for graduation, to House Bill 44 calling for the state to transition away from funding textbooks in favor of digital learning, it’s clear that education reform will be a goal for the General Assembly this year.

Gov. Pat McCrory has already called for sweeping changes to the state’s education system. Education reform played a major part in McCrory’s campaign for the state’s top office. In his first State of the State address Monday, McCrory called for a change on the education debate.

“Instead of focusing the debate only on the budget, we must now demand results,” he said. “We must ensure that our schools are preparing students for success by effectively teaching them both the knowledge and the skills that will help them lead productive lives and also find jobs.”

The first bill McCrory signed into law since taking office in January puts a premium on career and technical education. The new law encourages students to enroll in courses that will lead to a diploma with an endorsement indicating that they are either “career ready,” “college ready” or both. It also directs the State Board of Education to update the curriculum for career and technical education courses.

“We must ensure our education system provides opportunities and pathways for our students to get the necessary knowledge and skills to fulfill their post-graduation goals, whether that be entering the workforce or continuing on to getting a higher degree,” McCrory said in a statement.

The bill is the first, but likely not the last, piece of education reform the legislature will send to McCrory this session. The House has followed McCrory’s lead; more than 30 bills related to education have already been filed this year, and more are on the way. Legislators are prepared to tackle teacher tenure, charter school expansion and private school vouchers – all issues that could have major impacts for local school districts.

“Every legislative session, there are a lot of bills filed. A lot of them will never go very far but to monitor them is a task,” said Don Martin, superintendent for Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schoola. “There’s a lot of trying to read the tea leaves.”

Martin said school choice proposals – like those that would expand charter schools and allow private school vouchers – have the most potential to affect local districts.

McCrory’s rhetoric is not the only factor driving the education reform talk in Raleigh. State Sen. Peter Brunstetter, R-Forsyth, said education reform really got started in the House two years ago when Sen. Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, started driving the agenda in the Senate. While some pieces of that package were passed, Brunstetter said their work is not done. He expects talk about teacher tenure and performance to be hot button issues this session and talk about charter schools expansion to continue.

“We are not satisfied with the status quo in public education,” Brunstetter said. “But we have successfully started the dialogue that was long overdue in terms of what we can do to improve the quality of public education at the K-12 level.”

Brunstetter has his own ideas about how to improve education. He is the primary sponsor of a bill that would require students to complete at least one credit of arts education to graduate. Brunstetter said he sees value in arts education, even for students who do not necessarily plan on pursuing a future in the arts.

“The idea is it gives students critical thinking skills that pay dividends in areas way beyond art itself,” Brunstetter said. “It exposes students who might not otherwise get exposure to arts.”

It’s too early now to know which, if any of these bills, will get passed and what finals versions will dictate. For now, it’s a game of waiting, watching and trying to keep up with the legislature’s feverish pace.

That has some concerned, who say making so many changes so quickly could result in some unintended consequences. Rep. Ed Hanes, D-Forsyth, said he’s keeping a close eye on how legislation supported by the Republican-controlled state government might impact marginalized and underserved student populations. Hanes said there are ideas floating around in Raleigh that could help or hurt such groups.

“If we’re not careful and we’re not thoughtful, with our pace with the changes being considered… the poorest people are always in the most vulnerable position,” Hanes said. “We can’t move so fast we miss people on the margins.”

Hanes said he hopes proposals for expanded charter systems and private school vouchers – some versions of which would help increase school choice for the state’s poorest students – get fair looks.

Last year, the legislature lifted the cap on the number of charter schools that could be approved in the state. Charter school expansion is inevitable, Lambeth said, leading many districts looking for ways to compete and benefit from charter schools’ lack of regulations.

There’s been talk in the state also about private school vouchers. A bill filed in 2011 would have provided tax credits for parents who remove their children from public school, helping to cover the cost of private tuition. The move would essentially take at least a portion of the tax dollars that go to public schools for each student and give it to private institutions. That bill, House Bill 41, never made it out of committee, but legislators say they expect similar proposals to surface this year. Similar provisions have already been provided for students with special needs that are not being met by traditional public schools.

“The general tenor is to allow parents to have as much choice and decision-making ability for their children as possible,” Lambeth said.

Those proposals are likely to be some of the most contentious. Martin said superintendents across the state are keeping a close watch especially on the voucher proposal. Vouchers would allow students to take public dollars and use them to attend private school.

“It’s really causing a lot of angst among school folks,” Martin said. “It’s a line that should not be crossed.”

Rep. Donny Lambeth, R-Forsyth, said he expects to have a charter school bill filed next month to allow communities to create entire charter school districts. The idea is to give traditional school systems some of the flexibility enjoyed by charters. Lambeth, former chairman of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education, said there is talk of creating a new education caucus to help take a closer look at the dozens of education-related bills.

“It does seem like there is a really high level of interest in a number of education topics,” Lambeth said.

Other likely hot topics this year are school security, student achievement and digital learning.

Senate Bills 27 and 59 would allow for additional armed personnel in schools. Senate Bill 16 would revoke a driver’s license for illegally passing a stopped school bus. Lambeth and Hanes are putting together a bill that’s expected to be filed soon and will “add teeth” to existing laws around school bus stop arm violations.

Lambeth is also collaborating on a two separate bills to address high school dropouts.

Three separate House bills address digital learning – calling for additional spending, more funds and new teaching standards on digital learning.

“It’s a new day down here,” Lambeth said. “There is so much new energy and ideas being brought by the new people.”

Governor Bill Haslam vaguely referenced school vouchers in his State of the State speech last month, and now his limited proposal is up for debate in the legislature. Committees begin their work on the bill this week.

Haslam’s plan limits the program to paying private school tuition only for poor students from failing schools. But many lawmakers would like to see a much wider reach, including the sponsors tapped to carry the governor’s legislation.

“What I’ve told people who really want to expand it, you know down here, votes are everything,” says Rep. Bill Dunn (R-Knoxville). “If you can come to me with 50, 55 votes saying they want the expanded version, then we can talk to the governor about expanding it.”

State Sen. Brian Kelsey (R-Germantown) is the other sponsor. He led several failed attempts to allow vouchers, though no bill had the weight of the governor behind it.

Haslam pumped the breaks on Kelsey’s voucher push in 2011, organizing a panel to study the issue. The governor was initially skeptical that vouchers were the answer to improving education in Tennessee, acknowledging a program of any size does take money from public schools and shift it into private institutions.

Shifting Support
A dozen states already have voucher programs, which have primarily been championed by Republicans. But vouchers have grown in popularity among education reformers, including former Washington D.C. school chancellor Michelle Rhee, whose lobbying group has been hard at work in Tennessee.

“As a lifelong Democrat I was adamantly against vouchers,” Rhee writes in her new book titled Radical. “Here’s the question we Democrats need to ask ourselves: Are we beholden to the public school system at any cost, or are we beholden to the public school child at any cost?”

Republicans have been the bigger supporters of vouchers, saying they give parents more choice in the matter. Tennessee Democrats have largely opposed vouchers.

“We see that a program that would take public money and put it into private schools would do nothing to help either one,” said House Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh (D-Ripley).

But geography is turning out to be a factor for many lawmakers, not just party affiliation.

In Memphis, which has the highest concentration of struggling schools, Democrats like Rep. John DeBerry have become open to vouchers.

Vouchers begin to lose support from some Republicans if the program were opened up to more than just poor students at the state’s lowest-performing schools. Rural GOP lawmakers are already hearing concerns from their local school boards.

“They’re worried that it does take money away from public schools,” says Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey (R-Blountville). “I’m not convinced of that.”

Nuts and Bolts
Under the governor’s plan:

- To qualify, a student has to be enrolled in the bottom 5 percent of schools in overall achievement. This includes half a dozen schools in Nashville. Most are in Memphis.
- The student also has to be part of a household where the income is low enough that he or she qualifies for free or reduced lunch. For a family of four, that’s roughly $42,000.
- The program is currently capped at 5,000 students next year, bumping up to 20,000 by the 2016-2017 school year.

For the schools taking vouchers:

- A private school would have to accept the voucher of roughly $6,000 as total tuition payment, even if the tuition is more than that.
- They would have to give voucher students the state’s standardized tests and show achievement growth.
- Consecutive years of test scores “significantly below expectations” would disqualify a private school from taking voucher students.

Cost:

- There is no cost estimate for Haslam voucher proposal.
- In theory, it wouldn’t cost the state any more money.
- However, local school districts say they will feel the pinch when money follows students who leave for a private school.