The End of Small Schools--Or The Beginning?

Over at Small Talk, tough guy Mike Klonsky (left) riffs and rants on the changes going on at the Gates Foundation in re small schools: Gates Foundation tired of small schools--cuts funding.

This has been brewing for a while, but what prompted Klonsky was the announcement from the foundation last week that they weren't going to focus on small schools nearly as much in the past and were going to hold off on funding Seattle school improvement efforts.

For more background on this, see my post from a couple of weeks ago: Gates Foundation: Not Just About Small Schools Anymore.

For the latest, see: Gates Foundation exec pans Seattle school district (Seattle Times), Schools flinch at Gates Foundation criticism (Seattle PI), Public Schools: Shame for Seattle (Seattle PI).

Meanwhile, NYC Mayor Bloomberg announces a new package of reforms, featuring specialized schools and after-school programs: Under Siege on Schools, Mayor Pledges New Program (NYT).

UPDATE: Gates pulls money from small schools SF Chron via DA Daily