Maryland District Shelves Plans for School-Bus Fee
The Montgomery County, Md., school board last week abandoned plans to charge students for riding school buses after the board’s lawyer warned that the policy could violate the state constitution.
Proponents of the $50 transportation fee had hoped it would help offset a $13 million shortfall in the district’s $882 million budget. (See Education Week, Feb. 28, 1996.)
Admissions Policy Approved
The San Francisco school board has approved a new admissions policy for the district’s highly regarded Lowell High School.
Superintendent Waldemar Rojas proposed the changes in part to address concerns of Chinese-American parents that the former admissions policy discriminated against their children. (See Education Week, Jan. 24, 1996.)
The new policy will allow up to 20 percent of the school’s freshmen to be admitted based on a combination of academic achievement, socioeconomic status, extracurricular activities, and ethnicity.
