Loeb Award Finalist, Virtual schools update

This morning UCLA's Anderson School of Management announced the finalists for the 2013 Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, the most prestigious in said field.  I'm greatly honored to have been among them.

The nomination is for my Maine Sunday Telegram investigation on online education interests have shaped the development of digital learning and virtual schools policies here in Maine. It's in the Small and Medium Newspapers category with worthy competitors from the Raleigh News & Observer, Tampa Tribune, and Charlotte Observer. This is the story that won a George Polk Award earlier this year.

The winners will be chosen at an awards ceremony in New York June 25th.

By coincidence, in today's Portland Press Herald, I have an update on the issues raised in the Sept. 2 investigation. In short, the effort to adopt the policies advocated by Jeb Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education has stalled, though the state education commissioner says they remain part of the ongoing policy discussion.