News

NY: Charter Schools in Wealthy Areas at Center of NYC Battle. At Success Academy Union Square, a charter school in Manhattan, parents dropping off kindergartners one frigid morning include a radiologist with a Louis Vuitton bag slung over one shoulder and a fashion designer married to an investment banker. . . New York state law requires charter schools — publicly funded but privately run — to improve student achievement, especially among those “at risk of academic failure.” Still, Success Academy, the nonprofit that is the city’s biggest charter chain, is opening schools in wealthier neighborhoods like Union Square, where the median household income was $103,198 in 2012, about twice the city median, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The evolution of Success Academy illustrates a growing debate nationwide over charters serving higher-income families. Bloomberg

GA: Push to privatize foster care, adoptions fails. A sweeping plan to privatize the state’s child welfare system failed to pass Thursday in the frenzied final hours of the legislative session amid infighting between the House and Senate over unrelated bills to legalize medical marijuana and mandate autism coverage for some children. Atlanta Journal Constitution ($)

MA: Mass. highway officials eye plan to install new toll lanes on the South Shore. . . This Route 3 HOT lane is among three potential public-private partnerships that state transportation officials are looking to advance this spring. There’s  the new Cape Cod Canal toll bridge under consideration, and there’s also a broad effort to find revenue-producing opportunities at some of the 133 state-owned properties adjacent to highways, such as rest areas, weigh stations and park-and-rides. Gov. Deval Patrick is keen on getting one of these public-private partnerships off the ground, and he is hopeful that at least one highway project will be on track before he wraps up his last year as governor in December. Boston Business Journal (blog)