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Every weekday I’m sharing the day’s top education stories from my reads and feeds. Top of this morning: Hawaii’s education department may have to cut about 400 positions that weren’t filled anyway, and 11 Texas school districts are suing for the right to give their students minimum grades of 50 or higher.

• Hawaii’s education department may have to cut 400 budgeted positions to save $15 million, but it turns out many of those positions , the Star-Advertiser reported on Saturday. I’ll be at a special meeting regarding the budget cut today.

• Some school districts in Texas are for the right to boost failing report card grades to at least a 50 The Dallas Morning News reported today. Some districts have policies that set the minimum grades as high as 70. But if there are no consequences for students performing poorly, where is the incentive to study? And where is the incentive for the teachers to coach those who are struggling?

• New York in its per-pupil spending, Buffalo Business First reported today. It spent $17,173 per student in the 2007-08 school year — 67 percent higher than the nation’s average of $10,259 per student. Hawaii came in 13th place on , with per-pupil spending of $11,800. In the previous fiscal year, Hawaii placed 14th, with expenditures of $11,060 per student.

• Minnesota, which blazed the trail for students to complete some college courses while still in high school, for the underprivileged, according to an article in The Hechinger Report today. Interesting overview of options available to many high school students nowadays that can help cut out some of their college expenses later on.

• A psychology professor at The University of Virginia wrote for The Washington Post’s Answer Sheet blog today, criticizing of single-sex classrooms. Don’t ignore the science and research, he admonished. Interesting thoughts, as I know in Manoa recently went co-educational after many years as an all-girls institution. Civil Beat may delve deeper on this issue in coming weeks.

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