Education News for 06-11-2012

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State Education News

  • Ohio schools prepare for another budget hit (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

    • COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Therese Konrad, who has taught in the Rocky River School District for 24 years, says her students always rise to the challenges she presents them. Read more...

  • State may add schools for gifted (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Should Ohio have special schools for smart kids? Advocates for gifted students say a new proposal for regional schools would ensure the students have access to more rigorous courses and learning opportunities that keep Read more...

  • School rating plan minds achievement gaps (Columbus Dispatch)

    • For years, Ohio educators have struggled to close the gaps. White students perform much better than their black and Latino peers in most of the state’s school districts. Poor students generally do worse than their wealthier Read more...

  • Schools' summer slide’ worse for poor kids (Dayton Daily News)

    • American students in grades one through nine reportedly lose one month of learning, on average, during a typical three-month summer break — which is often referred to as the “summer slide” — Read more...

  • Needy kids can get summer lunches (Dayton Daily News)

    • Forty-five percent of Ohio children were eligible for free or reduced-priced lunches this past school year through the National School Lunch Program. Read more...

Local Education News

  • Summer reading program combines major Summit County entities (Akron Beacon Journal)

    • Reading and exercise will be key parts of a summer reading program for adults and children at the Akron-Summit County Public Library. Read more...

  • Private company disrupts status quo at South High, renews student (Columbus Dispatch)

    • There were classes, and there were sports. But there was little else at South High two years ago. The couple of lunchtime clubs barely attracted students’ attention. Read more...

  • Tech-savvy South Range grads get age-old advice (Youngstown Vindicator)

    • The new high school is surrounded by wide-open spaces, split-rail fences, horses and cows. Read more...

  • School board OKs placing 5.9-mill levy on Nov. ballot (Youngstown Vindicator)

    • POLAND The Poland board of education has agreed to place a five-year, 5.9-mill emergency operating levy on the Nov. 6 general-election ballot. Read more...

Editorial

  • City teachers mistakenly dig in against proposed concessions: editorial (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

    • It will take more than two to tango if the Cleveland schools hope to banish a looming $19 million deficit. Read more...

  • Let Local Schools Make the Decisions (Wheeling Intelligencer)

    • A federal program intended to help students doing poorly in school turned into a fiasco in Ohio. Now the state is doing what should have been done all along - Read more...

  • Legislating in Ohio for the kids -- yeah, sure: Brent Larkin (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

    • When it comes to charter schools, Republicans who control the Ohio House don't lie all the time. Only when their lips move. Read more...

  • Charter schools get short end of the funding stick (Columbus Dispatch)

    • The Sunday Dispatch article “Residents carry more school costs” highlighted the need for school districts to keep going back to the levy well to cover costs Read more...

  • Don't punish the kids because they can't read (Columbus Dispatch)

    • To improve the teaching of reading, we’re now going to flunk third-graders that districts haven’t taught to read. Somehow, this latest magic bullet seems aimed more at the victims than the culprits. Read more...

Romney - too many teachers

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“He says we need more firemen, more policemen, more teachers. Did he not get the message in Wisconsin? The American people did. It’s time for us to cut back on government and help the American people.” ~ Mitt Romney, Friday, June 8th 2012.

Does Mitt Romney truly believe that firemen, police and teachers are not Americans too? Does Mitt Romney really believe we'd all be better off with a lot less teachers? Less firefighter? Less police?

Based upon he previous policy choices while Governor of Massachusetts that very well might be what he believes

UPDATE - NEA Responds

GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s disdainful comments on Friday about needing fewer teachers, police officers and firefighters showed how out of touch he is with middle class America. Appearing today on "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, a high-profile Romney campaign supporter and potential candidate for vice president, continued the attack on working families when he called for the elimination of unions for teachers, police officers and firefighters.

"Mitch Daniels is wrong. America isn’t better off when teachers can’t advocate for their students or first-responders can’t negotiate for better training and more safety equipment—which could mean the difference between life and death," said NEA President Van Roekel, who also appeared on the morning news program. "These divisive and politically motivated tactics Gov. Daniels is pushing to help the Romney campaign are disrespectful and demeaning to the people who teach our children, protect our communities and run into burning buildings to save lives."

Under Daniels’ leadership, Indiana’s poverty rate ballooned to 16.3 percent in 2010—a three-decade high that is more than a full percentage point above the national average. In 2008, before Obama took office and a full three years into Daniels’ first term as governor, five Indiana cities had poverty rates of at least 20 percent. Indeed, Daniels’ criticism of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act ignores the 64,000 Indiana jobs it had saved as of March 2010.

"Once again, we see how Daniels is putting politics above people, and these comments counter the needs of middle class America," added Van Roekel. "We call on Romney to condemn the disdainful comments made by Daniels, a Romney supporter, about our hardworking public servants. Instead of attacking teachers, police officers and firefighters, we should respect them."

Taking a page out of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s playbook of "divide and conquer" politics, Daniels said he wants to get rid of unions for public employee like teachers, police officers and firefighters.

"As we saw in Wisconsin, it was never about the money. The reason they went after public sector unions and left some private sector alone is to try to drive a wedge between people," said Van Roekel. "We need to turn the page of these divisive tactics and instead look for ways to work together to get the economy moving again and lift up middle class families."

The Disaster Capitalism Curriculum

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Great piece

Welcome to other side of the looking glass, and into the Bizarro world of so-called "education reform" - an upside-down universe in which up is down, left is right and multimillionaire CEOs are civil rights heroes championing social justice, while public school teachers are corrupt fat cats, maintaining a status quo which oppresses students in poverty and racism.

[readon2 url="http://truth-out.org/art/item/9391-the-disaster-capitalism-curriculum-the-high-price-of-education-reform-episode-i"]Read more...[/readon2]

Beyond Rhetoric

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While the "Cleveland plan" legislation is yet to be finished in Columbus, with some thinking it might not get done at all, the real "Cleveland Plan" is moving beyond lofty rhetoric, and it has nothing to do with students or their success, and certainly nothing to do with creating a world class environment meant to retain and attract the best teaching talent that would lead to that success. In order to close the budget deficit the district faces, the board voted to accept the following cuts

  • Elimination of three voluntary professional days, saving the district about $2.85 million.
  • Reduction of proposed bonuses for teachers handling extra-large classes, saving the district about $368,000.
  • Elimination of three mandatory professional development days, saving the district about $3.45 million.

Despite the calls for merit based pay to incentivize teachers, gone are bonuses for even attempting to deal with massive class sizes caused by previous lay-offs. Despite the historic agreement made with the teachers union over teacher evaluations, gone are professional development opportunities to improve pedagogical skills.

This news is on top of what was already a troubling and telling sign that the rhetoric around the so called "Cleveland plan" was shaping up to be just that, rhetoric.

The Cleveland school district plans to cut about 600 teachers from its payroll by fall to trim a budget deficit, leading to shortened school days and cuts in music, art and gym classes.
[...]
The plan calls for school days for kindergarten through eighth grade to be shortened by 50 minutes, that time being shaved from art, music, gym and media classes.
[...]
The shorter day contradicts Gordon's long-term goal of having longer days or longer school years in some schools.

You can plainly see that the rhetoric used to sell the Cleveland plan simply doesn't add up to the actions being proposed. The real crisis is Cleveland has always been obvious, with it's roots firmly embedded in an unconstitutional school funding system.

One group of people do seem to have a real plan to help all of Ohio's public schools - parents, rallying for school funding

public school advocates pushing for a new funding formula are taking their voices straight to lawmakers. They march on to Capitol Square, carrying signs and chanting…..hoping to make their voices heard.
[...]
the public school funding activists say they don’t like what they’ve seen from the Governor and lawmakers during the past year and a half. And the advocates say they will keep the heat on to try to convince lawmakers to reduce reliance on property taxes and change the system so that all schools have what they need.

It's time to really put students at the center of reform, and that means funding to provide an excellent education, in safe, welcoming schools. Without that, reform is just empty rhetoric.

Education News for 06-01-2012

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Local Issues

  • Catholic schools plan inner-city tuition fund (Dayton Daily News)

    • Catholic school officials are working to create a “sustainable fund” to pump cash into financially struggling urban elementary schools in the Dayton area, the first step toward a regional need-based tuition-assistance program. Read More...

  • Board of Education votes to accept recommendations of Independent Fact-Finder (WOIO - Cleveland)

    • Following the May 29 release of an independent Fact-Finder's recommendations, made to resolve changes in contract language between the Cleveland Board of Education and the Cleveland Teachers Union, the Board voted tonight to accept the Fact-Finder's recommendations. Read More...

  • City schools need 9.15 mills (Dispatch)

    • Columbus City Schools need 9.15 new mills to raise the $355 million that the district says would maintain current programs and fund new ones through the summer of 2017, officials told a special “ millage committee” yesterday. That would cost taxpayers about $280 extra for each $100,000 in property value, and doesn’t include possible extra mills for construction bonds. Read More...

  • Cleveland Schools Board of Education backs plan to cut teachers' holidays, professional development days (Plain Dealer)

    • The Cleveland school board and Cleveland Teachers Union leaders don't agree on a possible solution to their pay dispute -- one that would close about $13 million of the district's projected $19 million deficit next school year. Read More...

  • Debt linked to ex-charter school treasurer grows (Dayton Daily News)

    • Another $52,000 was heaped onto the debt owed to taxpayers by embattled former area charter school treasurer Carl Shye with the release Thursday of the final audit New City Community School in Dayton.
    This is the 18th state audit in which Shye is accused of mishandling public funds, putting the total owed to $819,369, according to state data. He was indicted last month on federal charges of embezzling $472,579 from four Ohio schools, including New City and another Dayton school. Read More...

  • Student Goes From Homeless to Harvard (Fox 8 – Cleveland)

    • David Boone, 18, walks the halls of Cleveland’s MC2STEM High School in his navy blue blazer, looking like a young man who owns the world. Chances are good that’s the kind of success he will find one day, not only because of where he’s going but because of where he’s been. “Childhood is childhood. You live, you learn, and sometimes some challenges are thrown at you,” he said. Read More...

  • Team will try to line up record 75 miles of pennies (Dispatch)

    • At 6:30 a.m. Sunday, an armored truck will arrive at the Columbus Arts Festival and an off-duty police officer will stand guard over its weighty contents: 1,275 bags of pennies. The 30-pound sacks will be distributed across Genoa Park, where more than 2,000 students and other volunteers will wait with plastic cups to be filled with the coins. Read More...

  • The price of pay-to-play (Enquirer)

    • Kendall Knudson knows first hand the pain of soaring pay-to-play high-school sports fees. Those fees sidelined the Lakota East sophomore – and countless other area teens – this spring. What’s more, Kendall is forced to think about Lakota Schools’ record-high $550 fee per sport whenever she huddles with her former teammates prior to a track meet to cheer them on. Then she takes a disappointing walk to the stadium stands to watch. Read More...

Romney education policy aligns with ALEC agenda

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As its inner workings have been revealed over the past few months, one thing is clear about the American Legislative Exchange Council, the radical conservative “bill mill” that gives powerful corporations access to lawmakers: The group makes no apologies for putting the needs of Corporate America, and the wealthy citizens it comprises, before those of middle class America.

The same could be said of presumptive GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Earlier this week, Romney finally got around to introducing some details of his education policy —and much of what he said might as well have been churned out at a meeting of ALEC’s education task force.

Here are top priorities they share:

  • Promote a nationwide voucher program. Funneling public funds to private schools and for-profit charters through voucher schemes has been an ALEC priority for decades—and they’ve been successful in states like Wisconsin, Arizona and Georgia to name only a few. In his education policy speech, Romney said that if he were president, federal education funds would be linked to students, with parents deciding where their child goes to school, be it a public, charter or private school.
  • Eliminate teacher certification requirements. ALEC’s Alternative Certification Act asserts that any professional can teach K-12 classes with virtually no preparation, and it’s a theme woven into its other education bills. Romney similarly believes there is too much “unnecessary certification” getting in the way of professionals from other fields might want to give the teaching thing a go.
  • Make it more difficult for middle class families to afford higher education. Their tactics may differ, but the result would be the same: More and more, college would become a luxury of the upper class. Romney would repeal the law signed by President Obama that eliminates banks as middle men on federally guaranteed student loans and uses those savings to increase Pell Grants, strengthen community colleges and make it easier for students to repay their federal student loans. (Romney revealed his lack of perspective on college affordability earlier on the campaign trail, suggesting that borrowing money from parents or attending outrageously priced for-profit colleges might be solutions for those who cannot easily afford higher education.)

ALEC has generated model legislation that would give tax breaks to families wealthy enough to have college savings accounts—which many middle class families cannot afford. Other model bills would direct public funds to private universities through higher education vouchers.

  • Upend educator unions. Union busting is high on ALEC’s overall agenda (a favorite topic of conversation at its economic task force meetings), and language attempting to limit educator unions’ ability to negotiate crops up in several K-12 education bills. Romney, meanwhile, says standing up to organized labor and taking so-called “right to work law” national is a day-one priority.

So what’s it like for educators when top decision makers sign off on anti-public education legislation? Just ask a teacher from a state where ALEC-friendly lawmakers and governors have already had their way.

“Wisconsin has been slowly going private for years,” says Milwaukee kindergarten teacher Tiffanie Lawson. “And these for-profit charters are not held to the same standards that we are–we’re talking about teachers who don’t have teaching degrees. We’ve seen so much corruption with money going to the choice and charter schools that should be going to the public schools.” (Read more about ALEC’s shocking degree of influence in Wisconsin in the Center for Media and Democracy’s recently released “Wisconsin: The Hijacking of a State.”)

“We see students who leave our schools to go to these charters come back to us,” said Lawson, “because they realize they’re not getting the education they deserve and that the public schools offer what they need: the support, the services. And we need the resources to keep all of that going for our kids.”

Find out more, and get involved, here.