DA Daily

Officials here in the third-largest district in the country voted, after an emotional meeting, to close 49 public schools that they said were not being fully used.

Fewer than 60 percent of Florida’s third-graders — 57 percent — are reading at or above grade level, according to FCAT results released Friday morning. The figure represents a slight increase from last year’s 56 percent.

Dinner cruises. Fried chicken and biscuits. Theater performances. A mother/daughter makeover. Such were activities that Baltimore City Schools spent using federal stimulus and Title I funds, a federal audit discovered.

State lawmakers spent time yesterday getting details about a plan to create an independent auditor for the Columbus City Schools and share the district’s property taxes with charter schools.Among the concerns: whether charters also would be audited and whether district schools would be left under-funded.