News in Brief: A State Capitals Roundup

The Pennsylvania State Education Association has asked a state court to overturn a law that gives Keystone State officials broad new power to intervene in school districts based on their students' performance on the state's standardized exams.

Eleven districts were initially singled out for intervention by the Education Empowerment Act when it was signed into law last spring. Among other mandates in the law, the districts must devise school improvement plans and then submit them to the state education department for approval. Districts that fail to improve could eventually be taken over by the state.

The teachers' union, which is the state affiliate of the National Education Association, argues in its suit that the law violates the state constitution because the legislature did not...