Today's news

HOMELESS: They live in hotels, cars and borrowed corners. They often have to move at a moment's notice. School sometimes provides the best hours of their lives. Reporter Donna Winchester explores the life of children who have homework, but no home.

TAXING QUESTION: Pinellas County voters approved a special tax 2-1/2 years ago to bolster the teacher salaries. The tax expires in about 18 months, and district officials are wondering whether the community is willing to renew the tax.

SURPRISE CHAMPS: Few expected the Lacoochee Eagles Special Olympics basketball team to go far. But the youngsters have become a source of pride for, this, one of Pasco County's poorest communities, as they head to the state championships on Friday.

READY TO REACH OUT: Looking for new ways to help kids who don't like school, Pasco County education and civic leaders visited the much touted Okaloosa County CHOICE program of career and technical institutes. Their reaction: "Blown away" and ready to jump on board.

GENDERS DIVIDED: And they're just fine, educators at a Fort Pierce middle school tell the Stuart News. "We have found it reduces the number of distractions and increases the time on task," teacher Katie Shook says.

RACES DIVIDED: The principal of a northern California high school split students by race while announcing test results. He said it was to keep harassment down, NPR reports. The decision has sparked some heated debate.

TEACHING THE TEST: Is it right to give extra help to some kids but not to others? Is it proper to ignore regular lessons to teach children how to stay focused on a test? The Washington Post explores the questions behind test ethics amid on Maryland district's efforts to make "adequate yearly progress."

Split up, boys and girls. And don’t forget your uniform.

Single-gender classes and student uniforms could be coming statewide to some of the state's most struggling schools, the chair of a key House education committee said Tuesday. "I do believe we’re going to try to take a stab at some language" for legislation, said Rep. David Simmons, who chairs the Committee on 21st Century Competitiveness. "Something has to be done to improve D and F schools. What we’re doing now is not enough."

Simmons' comments came after his committee heard a presentation on single-gender classes from a Volusia County principal and a presentation on school uniforms from an official in Polk County, which has had a far-reaching uniform policy for more than a decade.

Woodward Avenue Elementary is one of a handful of schools statewide (along with a couple of schools in Pinellas) that has, with parental permission, separated boys from girls in an effort to boost student achievement. Now in its third year, the experiment at Woodward has resulted in higher test scores, particularly for boys, who initially lagged far behind the girls in reading and writing.

Meanwhile, anecdotal evidence in Polk County shows uniforms have resulted in lower disciplinary rates and less gang activity. But, warned that district’s general counsel, expect a legal and public relations fight if the Legislature passes a policy with any kind of statewide scope. In Polk, more than 650 people showed up at initial hearing on uniforms - most of them opposed to the idea - and a lawsuit based on free-speech issues dragged on until 2000. (The district won.)

Simmons said more specifics on both ideas will be ready within two to three weeks.

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Today's news

NO TAX CUT FOR SCHOOLS: School district leaders never liked candidate Charlie Crist's idea of reducing their tax revenue by offering homeowners a second homestead exemption. Schools need the money, they contended. Now governor, Crist agrees. "I'm an education advocate," he explained Wednesday. "I'd rather not see their funding be reduced."

SUMMER STAYS LONGER: Those same school district leaders couldn't convince lawmakers to give them some more flexibility on when to start classes each fall. A Senate committee killed a bill that would have let a school board supermajority begin the school year earlier than two weeks before Labor Day, the Associated Press reports. Lawmakers ordered the later start dates just last year, contending districts were eating up summer as they inched closer to July for the first day of classes. The tourism industry backed that initiative.

EXPLORING OPTIONS FOR GIFTED KIDS: Hernando County school officials visited Sarasota County's acclaimed Pine View School for gifted students, hoping to get some ideas for a magnet school of their own. Board member Jim Malcolm has advocated doing more for the high achievers for years.

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF THE LUNSFORD ACT: The Pasco County school district has $18,000 set aside for dental services for poor students. It hasn't spent a dime of it. Not that there aren't needy children. There just aren't dentists willing to pay for background checks required by the Jessica Lunsford Act, which aims to keep sexual offenders away from school children.

SAME-SEX CLASSES FOR HERNANDO: A Hernando County elementary school wins approval to try educating youngsters in single-gender classrooms. It's the second county in the Tampa Bay area to launch the program.

WILL THEY HAVE TO CLIMB THE ROPE? There's a move afoot to bring daily P.E. classes back to elementary schools, the Palm Beach Post reports.

CHILL OUT, KIDS: Overachieving high school students need to relax and quit pushing themselves so hard. That's the message at several schools in the northeast, where the race to Harvard and the like can get vicious, the Washington Post reports. "We're trying to change the atmosphere so that people understand it's better to have a well-balanced student going to a 'good-fit' college, as opposed to a neurotic going to an Ivy League school," explained Fran Landau, counseling director for one of the schools.