Today's news

REMEDIAL MUSIC: The Hillsborough School Board explores ways to make catch-up courses in reading and math fun. That could mean weaving the subject matter into classes that kids enjoy, like art, music and P.E.

GETTING THERE: Private and government investment in research projects at Florida's public universities is up about 58 percent since 2000. Educators expect the numbers to continue to grow.

PAY THEM? No way, columnist Sue Carlton writes. Schools should not resort to performance pay - she calls them bribes - for students who meet achievement markers.

STAYING PUT: The racial makeup of the jury will matter as a class-action lawsuit alleging that Pinellas schools have failed to educate black children moves ahead. So the judge agrees to pull a panel from across the county, rather than from the more heavily white area where the case was filed.

FROM THE OP-ED PAGES: The FCAT scoring problem is just the tip of a larger problem at the Department of Education - a combative defensiveness over the accountability program that must be defused, the Times editorial board says.

ANOTHER GRADUATION: Central High in Brooksville is next.

'STUDENTS X': The term doesn't aim to keep student identities private from prying eyes. It's the name of a disc found in a Pasco teacher's school desk, one that includes porn photos with his students' faces superimposed on them. The teacher recently committed suicide in the face of an investigation.

CONTRACT WITH A STIFF PENALTY: Some Broward County principals had at-risk students sign contracts saying they would improve academically. Then they threatened the students with expulsion if they didn't do well, the Sun-Sentinel reports.

SOME RAISE: Palm Beach schools plan to increase the hourly rate for substitute teachers - to the level they earned more than a decade ago, the Palm Beach Post reports. And then districts wonder why subs go work at McD's instead.

TURN IT OFF: Vermont's governor signs a bill banning school buses from idling on school grounds, the AP reports. The goal is to protect the environment and save gas, one bus at a time.

IT STARTED IN FLORIDA: A Key West vacation turns into a contracting scandal in Dallas, where three men are indicted for defrauding the school district of $39-million, the Dallas Morning News reports.