Every prospective teacher in Minnesota would have to complete a yearlong internship, under a plan outlined by the Minnesota Board of Teaching.
The board’s proposal, presented to the legislature late last month, would replace student teaching as it now exists in Minnesota, according to Kenneth Peatross, the board’s executive director. Instead of student teaching, aspiring teachers would undergo a clinical internship similar to that which doctors complete in teaching hospitals.
Each professional-development school, as they are known, would train 10 to 20 interns, Mr. Peatross said. Veteran teachers as well as instructors from higher education would work with the interns in a variety of classroom settings, and the interns would also complete a series of performance-based assessments designed to test their competence.
Gov. Jim Edgar and the Illinois legislature have agreed to cut $273 million in state spending, but spared a large chunk of school funding from the ax.
Lawmakers agreed late last month to accept a budget plan worked out between the Republican Governor and state Democratic leaders.
Mr. Edgar had called for cuts of $100 million in elementary- and secondary-school aid and $91 million in spending for human services. But the compromise budget package freed up $87 million from other areas, so that only $60 million had to come from school spending and $57 million from human services.
The budget plan calls for most state agencies to lose about 7 percent of the funds remaining in their budgets for the fiscal year ending in June.
State-supported universities suffered a cut of $49 million, the amount recommended by the Governor.
Gov. Mario M. Cuomo of New York has signed legislation to delay community-school-board elections in New York City until May 1993.
Sponsors of the bill passed by the legislature had argued that the city’s school system needed another year to work on reform and revisions in the community-school-district structure before selecting new board members.
The electoral delay has been criticized by community groups, which contend that it is a violation of the federal Voting Rights Act.
The Alaska House has approved a measure authorizing an increase in the state’s foundation formula for public schools, but Gov. Walter J. Hickel has threatened to veto it.
The House voted 30 to 9 last month to increase the foundation unit from $60,000 to $63,000, which would generate an additional $35 million for Alaska schools if the money is appropriated in a separate bill.
A Virginia Senate committee has voted down a proposal to require doctors to notify a parent before performing an abortion on a minor.
Observers said the 11-to-4 vote in the Education and Health Committee last month makes it unlikely that the legislature will adopt a parental-notification rule this year.
