The General Electric Foundation has committed $18-million to help targeted school districts prepare for the onset of common national standards in math and reading, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Erie Times-News.

Nonprofit education group Student Achievement Partners will use the four-year grant to help seven districts with teacher training and other tools to implement the Common Core State Standards. The organization helped write the standards, which 46 states have agreed to put in place by July 2013.

The GE Foundation Web site lists Atlanta; Cincinnati; Erie, Pa.; Milwaukee; New York City; Stamford, Conn.; and Jefferson County, Ky., as participants in its Developing Futures in Education project.

In other education news, a budget crisis is pitting a low-income Pennsylvania school district against the nonprofit charter school that educates nearly half its students, The New York Times writes.

With $20-million in debt and nearly empty cash coffers, the Chester Upland School District will have trouble paying teachers beyond this month. The system is required to divide its funding with the Chester Community Charter School, which is suing the district over unpaid bills.

A Pennsylvania judge ruled last week against immediately satisfying the charter school’s claims, noting that while budget cuts have forced the school district to slash staff and reduce class offerings, Chester Community had not made cuts or tried to reduce an “unusually large management fee” to the for-profit company that manages it.