MoCo warns about larger classes, layoffs
With budget action looming at County Council, Weast says cuts coming
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Montgomery Superintendent Jerry Weast (TWP).
Should this man lead a school system?
The president of the Detroit Board of Education is a man named Otis Mathis III. His biography says:
He was raised in Southwest Detroit and still lives there with his wife, with whom he has six children.
He is a “Vietnam-era veteran.”
He earned a bachelor of science degree in criminal justice from Wayne State University.
He served as Wayne County Commissioner.
He was a substitute teacher for Detroit Public Schools.
He was executive director of the Detroit Veterans Center.
He was elected president of the school board by his colleagues in January by a 10-1 vote.
It doesn’t tell you that he was a whiz at math in school, or that he had a reading disability identified in fourth grade that placed him in special education, or that he still has a problem expressing thoughts in writing.
Continue reading this post »He is a “Vietnam-era veteran.”
He earned a bachelor of science degree in criminal justice from Wayne State University.
He served as Wayne County Commissioner.
He was a substitute teacher for Detroit Public Schools.
He was executive director of the Detroit Veterans Center.
He was elected president of the school board by his colleagues in January by a 10-1 vote.
It doesn’t tell you that he was a whiz at math in school, or that he had a reading disability identified in fourth grade that placed him in special education, or that he still has a problem expressing thoughts in writing.
School budget cuts not such big news
[This is my Local Living section column for March 11, 2010.]
You saw the headline on the front of our Metro section recently: “Deep budget cuts approved for Prince George’s schools.” The news from Northern Virginia was much the same: “Fairfax County schools chief proposes dramatic budget cuts” and “Proposed Arlington schools budget cuts back in many areas.”
I have been reading stories like this in the Post for nearly 40 years. They have become a ritual. We think that readers want to know what is being done with their tax dollars in their local jurisdictions’ most important government service, education, and how much more they might have to pay next year.
All that is fine. I just wish the stories did not convey such a strong impression of telling us how schoolchildren are doing, or will be doing, because the stories give few or no clues to that important matter.
Continue reading this post »
The Shaw redemption
Last winter, several eighth-graders presented Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee with what was likely an unprecedented request: add a ninth grade so they could stay at their middle school, Shaw@Garnet-Patterson.
The students said they liked the change of culture that new principal Brian Betts had brought to Shaw--a 2008 merger of two struggling middle schools--located in Ward 1's U Street neighborhood. They wanted more of Betts and his program before they moved on to high school.
Rhee said yes, and about 100 students signed on. She also told my colleague Jay Mathews that it was a one-time thing. "It's maybe not the right decision for the system," Rhee said, "but it is the right decision for those kids."
Rhee has now granted the Shaw kids another extension, and will add a 10th grade this fall. Spokeswoman Jennifer Calloway said Rhee made the decision after meeting with the students again.
Continue reading this post »
Chief Justice responds to GU Law professor
As reported in this paper and others, the news media was briefly distracted last week by a rumor that Chief Justice John Roberts was going to step down for health reasons.
The rumor was spread by Georgetown Law students, who had heard it from a professor, who had made it up. Professor Peter Tague planted the canard in class as part of a lesson on the credibility of sources. By the time he explained that the information was false, students had spread the story into cyberspace.
On Tuesday, speaking to Alabama law students, Roberts replied.
"I do have to announce something," Roberts told the students. "Apparently the professor who said that has been so overwhelmed, he's decided to leave teaching. I feel sorry about it, but what can you do."
Students laughed. It was hard to know, though, if Roberts was joking.
Has Tague, a tenured professor, resigned? Was Roberts planting a false rumor about the man who had planted a false rumor about him?
A Georgetown Law spokeswoman said Tague was not resigning, without further elaboration.
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