POLICY ROUNDUP

For 13 years, Summit Prep charter schools have been transforming education in California’s Bay Area. Now Summit is spreading its unique methods to traditional public schools there.

“Last year, Summit created what it calls ‘Basecamp,’ through which 19 schools — two-thirds of them traditional public schools, some of them high poverty, inner-city schools — are adopting Summit’s methods,” wrote David Osborne in a policy memo for the Progressive Policy Institute. “They get two weeks of training in Redwood City, help from Facebook’s engineers, and mentors from Summit who spend one week per quarter on site.”

Individualized learning plans make the Summit model distinctive. On a daily basis, students use online resources created by Summit teachers. When students think they’ve mastered a concept, they must pass a brief test before advancing. Struggling students aren’t pushed along until they have grasped the lesson, and advanced students aren’t held up by average ones.

So far, the model seems to be working: State test scores in Summit’s San Jose schools beat the traditional public schools in the area, schoolwide and for Hispanics, English language learners and special education students.

“Almost two years after I visited my first Summit school,” Osborne wrote, “I’m even more convinced that I’m seeing the future.” — Jason Russell

HEALTH

Congress approves first regulation of e-cigarettes

The growth of the e-cigarette industry, reaching about $3.5 billion in sales since 2010, has coincided with a surge in the number of liquid-nicotine poisoning cases.

“A few drops of this stuff can cause a child to become extremely ill,” said Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., who supported a bill that requires child-resistant packaging for the liquids that give e-cigarettes their kick and flavor. “Requiring child-proof caps on these bottles is just common sense.” The bill, which cleared Congress last week, is now headed to President Obama for his signature.

Child poisonings climbed from 271 cases in 2011 to 3,783 in 2014, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers. More than half of poisoning cases have occurred in children under age six. Nicotine is addictive to adults but can be deadly for children.

The Smoke-Free Alternatives Trade Association, which represents the vaping industry, supported the legislation and encouraged its members to begin implementing childproof packaging voluntarily.

The Food and Drug Administration proposed regulations for e-cigarettes nearly two years ago, but has not yet issued final rules. Although drafted FDA rules would ban sales to minors, the agency has not said it will forbid companies from using flavors, such as cotton candy, that help them appeal to kids. — Joana Suleiman

CRIME

FBI will now track animal cruelty cases nationwide

The Federal Bureau of Investigation believes that animal abuse can be an early indicator of violent crime and will begin collecting data on cruelty cases through its National Incident-Based Reporting System the same way it tracks homicide, assault and arson.

In late 2014, the agency announced it was changing the way it treats those convicted of the charge of animal cruelty. It’s now a Class A felony, like burglary and drug trafficking.

The new data will be broken down into four animal -elated sub-categories: neglect, torture, organized fighting and sexual abuse against animals.

The information collected in 2016 will be available to the public next year. Animal advocates say having access to this type of database will help ensure that shelter and rescue animals stay out of the wrong hands.

The FBI has partnered with the National Sheriff’s Association and the Animal Welfare Institute to make the change. — Joana Suleiman

ENVIRONMENT

Obama’s coming war on salamanders

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing a rule to prevent salamanders from crossing state and national borders.

The service said the move is not to protect humans from the dangers posed by salamanders, even though the agency uses the Lacey Act, which was established to do just that. The action is to protect salamanders from spreading a dangerous fungus that could be “injurious” to many of the United States’ four-legged amphibians.

As it turns out, the salamander trade is fairly big business. The agency said the annual retail sales loss of taking the action is estimated to be “$3.9 million, of which $2.3 million are losses to small businesses. Impacts per small business may be as high as $453,000 for importers and $23,000 for domestic breeders.”

The agency estimates the total economic loss to be $10 million, but says that is offset by the drop in risk from the fungus, which is “not quantifiable.”

Once the interim rule is published, the public will have 60 days to review it and submit comments. — John Siciliano

LABOR

NLRB tightens case against McDonald’s

The National Labor Relations Board has sharpened its case against McDonald’s Corp.

The federal government’s main labor-enforcement agency said it would rule on the question of whether the fast-food franchiser is a joint employer with the privately owned restaurants that bear its corporate brand before it would rule on whether any labor violations occurred at those businesses.

In effect, McDonald’s could be found to be a joint employer even if the cases that provided the original rationale for saying that it was one do not hold up in court. The board also consolidated 30 cases into one, a move that one dissenting board member said would make a joint employer finding more likely.

The case against McDonald’s has been closely watched by business groups, which fear that it would upend the franchise business model by making corporations legally liable for the actions of their franchisees, most of which are privately owned. That would, the business groups argue, force companies to assert control over the franchises or get out of the franchising business altogether.

An expanded joint employer definition also would boost labor unions since it would allow them to try to organize franchises all at once, rather than one outlet at a time. — Sean Higgins

OBAMACARE

GOP targets failed health co-ops

Republican lawmakers are reigniting their investigation into the failures of more than half of the taxpayer-funded Obamacare cooperatives, calling for a new hearing in the Senate this week.

The Senate Finance Committee said it will convene a new hearing to examine “the management failures of Obamacare’s consumer-operated and oriented plans and its impact on consumers, patients and taxpayers.”

Andy Slavitt, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is the only witness. Slavitt isn’t new to congressional grillings on the co-op program.

The Affordable Care Act created 23 co-ops in an effort to spur more competition on the insurance marketplaces. However, about 12 of the insurance startups have closed their doors.

A leading culprit is a lack of federal funding used to mitigate losses in the first couple of years of operation in the Obamacare marketplaces. All marketplace insurers requested nearly $3 billion in federal funds but received only 12 percent.

The reason for the dramatic shortfall is the program had to be revenue-neutral per a congressional order. The program was created so that it would pay out for insurer losses and insurers with high profits would pay into the program.

The 2014 “cromnibus” spending bill required the program pay out only what it received, leading to the shortfall.

The co-ops started to close last summer and fall, forcing hundreds of thousands of customers to get a new plan or else lose their coverage by Jan. 1. — Robert King