San Diego Union-Tribune

SAN DIEGO – U.S. education chief Margaret Spellings made a whirlwind tour of San Diego yesterday to discuss how technology in schools can raise student achievement and better prepare students for the real world.

The salutatorian will be the first in her family to earn a high school diploma. One graduate is homeless. Many others had once been on the brink of slipping through the cracks.

The Virginia Supreme Court says a former all-women's college did not break a contract with female students when it decided to enroll men.

The credit crunch has driven dozens of lenders out of the student loan market. But a number of new Web sites are trying to sidestep the traditional players, facilitating loans between students and anonymous investors or even friends and family members.

When Blanca Cervantes enrolled at UC San Diego's medical school in 2005, she didn't expect offerings such as a massage clinic during finals week or organized soccer games. Nor did she expect medical school to lead to depression, force her to take time off and cause her to be part of a suicide awareness campaign.

Districts tearing up teachers' pink slips: Months after massive protests and alarm over school layoffs began, only a fraction of the teachers who received pink slips will lose their jobs. Yesterday, the San Diego Unified, Poway Unified and Chula Vista Elementary school districts became the latest to rescind layoff notices and restore all permanent teaching positions.

One bans alcohol at residence halls
COLLEGE AREA – When students return for the fall semester at San Diego State University, there will be a host of new drug and alcohol policies awaiting.

Pickens on Wednesday promised $100 million to his alma mater, Oklahoma State University, to fund endowed academic chairs.

Dropout prevention specialist Jenifer Mendel knocked several times on door of the trailer-park home of a 17-year-old El Cajon boy who had missed nearly a month of school.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Attorney General Jerry Brown and 19 members of Congress are supporting families that choose to home-school in a challenge to a state appeals court ruling.

SAN DIEGO – Superintendent Terry Grier's contract with the San Diego Unified School District calls for him to receive up to $10,500 in annual performance bonuses if he meets three goals set by the school board.

SAN MARCOS – More people have been paying attention to what's happening in China in recent years, especially with Beijing hosting the Olympics in August. In San Marcos, the school district for the first time will be offering an introduction to Chinese. The federally funded language program, called STARTALK, will be taught in summer school and could extend for seven summers.

A new survey finds that most American college students are worried about the economy and believe the country is headed in the wrong direction.

Budget crunch expected to increase class sizes in primary grades 
Candace Glazer is a kindergarten teacher, but you also could say she's a conductor who leads 20 5-year-olds.

University prepares to hand out diplomas to its Class of 2008, Anna Siebring, a junior, will be mailing out applications to transfer to another school.