Jenny Smith

It's November! Despite severe funding crises, Oregon's schools continue to make progress in educating students, with news out about a Milwaukie school being honored and a record number of English Language Learners becoming proficient.

Seniors and senior advocates continue to speak out against changes to the property tax deferral program, and Huffington Post covers the impact of fees banks charge on debit cards used for unemployment benefits, highlighting Oregon.

Meanwhile, Bank of America has ditched its $5 monthly debit fee plan after outrage from customers.

Happy Friday! Researchers at the University of Colorado have released a report raising questions about the effectiveness and accountability of for-profit virtual schools, like the schools that were given a boost in the last legislative session. Examples cited: One online school in Arizona run by K-12, Inc. (which runs Oregon Virtual Academy) outsourcing instruction to India, and another online school where half of the students didn't have computers.

Multnomah County has officially banned BPA in children's products, and another poll shows Suzanne Bonamici with a substantial lead in the CD1 Democratic primary.

Economic Fairness Oregon and others are adding their voice to the national Move Your Money movement, with a new website to help Oregonians move their money out of big banks: http://moveyourmoneyor.com/

It's Wednesday.

The Oregonian reports that backers of the Clackamas County Board of Commissioners' ballot measure on urban renewal have raised 10 times more than backers of a competing measure being backed by the county chapter of the Tea Party.

The O's editorial board, which strongly opposed Bill Sizemore's teacher merit pay ballot measure in 2008 because they believed local districts should be able to make their own decisions about merit pay, criticizes the Oregon City School District for deciding to oppose a merit pay scheme attached to a federal grant.

Cascade Policy Institute, which has advocated for the privatization of public services like K12 schools, now wants Multnomah County to privatize its library system and charge users a fee to walk into their local library.

It's a chilly Monday, but the sun's out over much of the state.

The Oregonian looks at how to "move your mortgage," much like the national Move Your Money movement. While jobless rates remained essentially flat in Oregon (as previously reported, due to layoffs of teachers and other public employees), Hallmark hopes to make it better by offering unemployment condolence cards for sale.

Ballots are out for the primary in the CD1 race, which has seen an increase in voter registration.