Friday, May 14, 2010
South Bay schools relieved, anxious over budget cuts Education - San Jose Mercury News
Schools Matter: New Blog Tracks Charter School Scandals
New Blog Tracks Charter School Scandals
Sharon Higgins has another blog going, which looks like a great place for anyone to keep up with the growing epidemic of corruption created by Wall Street's version of public schools, where the only thing that is public are
Judge bans webcam spying on Philly students - Boston.com
Judge bans webcam spying on Philly students
May 14, 2010
PHILADELPHIA—A judge has permanently banned a suburban Philadelphia school district from secretly monitoring students with webcams on their school-issued laptops.
The new ruling says Lower Merion can use other kinds of technology to find laptops but only if parents and students agree to it. The order requires school
Illegal immigrant student hopes case helps reform
Harvard College dismisses hacker student
Illegal immigrant student hopes case helps reform
When Jessica Colotl, an illegal immigrant college student, got arrested for a minor traffic violation at her suburban Atlanta campus, she became an accidental poster child for immigration reform.
Harvard College dismisses hacker student
Harvard College has dismissed an undergraduate student who allegedly hacked into online accounts of his instructors and gained unauthorized access to the Registrar's Office's grading portal.
Student’s Arrest Tests Immigration Policy - NYTimes.com
Student’s Arrest Tests Immigration Policy
By ROBBIE BROWN
Published: May 14, 2010
ATLANTA — Jessica Colotl, a 21-year-old college student and illegal Mexican immigrant at the center of a contentious immigration case, surrendered to a Georgia sheriff on Friday but continued to deny wrongdoing.
Kate Brumback/Associated Press
Jessica Colotl speaking Friday at a news conference in Atlanta after being released on bail.
Ms. Colotl was arrested in March for driving without a license and could face deportation next year. On Wednesday the sheriff filed a felony charge against her for providing a false address to the police.
The case has become a flash point in the national debate over whether federal immigration laws should be enforced by local and state officials. And like Arizona’s tough new immigration law, it has highlighted a rift between the federal government and local politicians over how illegal immigrants should be detected and prosecuted.
“I never thought that I’d be caught up in this messed-up system,” Ms. Colotl said Friday at a news conference after being released on $2,500 bail. “I was treated like a criminal, like a threat to the nation.”
Civil rights groups say Ms. Colotl should be spared deportation because she was brought to the United States without legal documents by her parents at age 11. They also note that she has excelled academically and was discovered to be here illegally only after a routine traffic violation.
Supporters of immigration laws and the sheriff’s office in Cobb County say she violated
Portland 'priority zone' would give seven schools special treatment | OregonLive.com
Portland 'priority zone' would give seven schools special treatment
By Betsy Hammond, The Oregonian
May 14, 2010, 5:28PM
View full sizeJimmy Vang, a sixth-grader at George Middle School, gets help from teacher Kirsti Neidig to solve a math problem during an intensive “math camp” class, his third math class of the day. Superintendent Carole Smith has proposed that schools including George, which has high academic needs and a concentration of low-income and immigrant students, be placed in an Academic Priority Zone that guarantees them special treatment.Tucked in Portland Superintendent Carole Smith's high school redesign blueprint is a companion plan to give unprecedented help and protection to a handful of high-poverty elementary and middle schools along with the city's two longest-struggling high schools. Among the promises: better principals, a longer school year, more hands on deck and the right to reject teachers offloaded from other schools.
The hope is that Jefferson, Roosevelt and Franklin high schools -- which would receive students who move up from the five elementary and middle schools slated to receive special treatment -- will see a burst of success as more of their incoming freshmen arrive prepared. Jefferson and Roosevelt would also get extra resources and special treatment to help them keep students on a strong trajectory.
The other five schools, from the district's northernmost reaches to its southeastern corner, are George Middle School, Bridger and King K-8 schools, and Kelly and Sitton elementaries. Minority and low-income students make up the bulk of enrollment at all seven.
View full sizeThe pledge to those schools, laid out in Smith's 88-page high school plan now before the Portland School Board, is that they'll be ushered into an Academic Priority Zone. They would be guaranteed extra help, such as instructional coaches, after-school or summer school sessions; more power to choose their own teachers; and case managers to help troubled students and families. Even as other schools see cuts in the next few years -- somethingPortland Public Schools expects unless state funding forecasts improve -- schools in the priority zone would get to keep their extras, Smith and school board members say.
Why? Getting students to arrive prepared for freshman year requires more time, coordination
Schwarzenegger proposes elimination of state's main welfare program - ContraCostaTimes.com
Schwarzenegger proposes elimination of state's main welfare program
Posted: 05/14/2010 06:42:17 PM PDT
Updated: 05/14/2010 08:01:52 PM PDT
After days of promising unpalatable cuts, Schwarzenegger on Friday called for eliminating CalWORKs, a program that provides money to poor families with children. Schwarzenegger said the program must be eliminated because federal judges have prevented the state from making incremental cuts.
"They have prevented us from using a scalpel," he said, "so we now have to use the ax and eliminate some of those programs."
Democrats in the state Legislature were quick to say they would not allow CalWORKs - which stands for California Work Opportunities and Responsibility to Kids - to be scrapped.
"If, God forbid, this budget became a reality, California would be the only state in the union to not have a safety net for children," said state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. "It's a non-starter."
In San Bernardino County, about 47,000 families - more than 111,000 people - receive monthly assistance from
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NorthJersey.com: Clifton school officials use reverse-911 to prevent student walkout
Clifton school officials use reverse-911 to prevent student walkout
NORTHJERSEY.COM
STAFF WRITER
CLIFTON — Thousands of students might have walked out of Clifton High School on Friday morning in protest of state education funding cuts — but school administrators appear to have pulled the plug on the plan even before it gained momentum.
When school officials got word of the protest plan, they told kids they would be banned from the prom if they participated, a high-ranking police official said.
A student who learned on the social networking site Facebook of a plan to stage a massive 8 a.m. walkout tipped off school administrators, who immediately began working to stop it, said schools Superintendent Richard Tardalo.
When district computer technicians identified the Clifton High student who was organizing the protest, her parents were called and the teenager was warned to cancel the event and tell all other students through Facebook that the walkout was called off, the superintendent said.
And a reverse emergency-call-system message was sent out Thursday night to all parents of high school students warning of serious consequences should any student participate in the walkout. School officials would not specify the consequences students would have been faced with had they not complied.
But Detective Capt. Robert Rowan said students were told that if they were caught in the walkout, the
When school officials got word of the protest plan, they told kids they would be banned from the prom if they participated, a high-ranking police official said.
A student who learned on the social networking site Facebook of a plan to stage a massive 8 a.m. walkout tipped off school administrators, who immediately began working to stop it, said schools Superintendent Richard Tardalo.
When district computer technicians identified the Clifton High student who was organizing the protest, her parents were called and the teenager was warned to cancel the event and tell all other students through Facebook that the walkout was called off, the superintendent said.
And a reverse emergency-call-system message was sent out Thursday night to all parents of high school students warning of serious consequences should any student participate in the walkout. School officials would not specify the consequences students would have been faced with had they not complied.
But Detective Capt. Robert Rowan said students were told that if they were caught in the walkout, the
• Clifton school officials use reverse-911 to prevent student walkoutNORTHJERSEY.COM
• Teaneck auditor finds $8.4 million in potential cuts THE RECORD
• Ridgewood school district receives accolades THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
• Passaic Valley to trim school budget by $80,000 THE RECORD
Student show sets sights on sustainability
Student show sets sights on sustainability
In an industry where the lines between seasons and trends are so blurred and often repeated, it's...
Academy of Art students' fashions impress pros
With decades of runway shows under her belt, it takes a lot on the catwalk to impress Suzy Menkes, the...
Photos
30 years after Mount St. Helens blew, the volcano reveals its secrets | OregonLive.com
30 years after Mount St. Helens blew, the volcano reveals its secrets
By Joe Rojas-Burke, The Oregonian
May 14, 2010, 4:42PM
Hundreds of people crowded the Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center on a Sunday afternoon in early May, 2010. Emily Dehne of Portland and her friend Casey Levin of St. Louis played a card game while waiting for an eruption of Mount St. Helens. Levin was in Portland to visit Dehne, when the two decided to drive up to the visitor center.A sudden series of earthquakes at Mount St. Helens caught scientists by surprise in March 1980. Less than a week after the quakes began, a blast of steam and ash opened a small crater at the summit of the reawakening volcano.Geologists didn't know enough to give public safety officials a clear picture of the danger.
"They wanted us to tell them what the earthquakes meant, and I had no idea," says Steve Malone, the University of Washington professor who led the seismic monitoring. "All I could tell them was there's a lot of earthquakes, and something's coming."
Photos: Mount St. Helens
Photos from the Oregonian archive
Mount St. Helens 2010
Bad, Bad Budget Cuts | California Progress Report
Bad, Bad Budget Cuts
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By Anthony WrightToday, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed a new California budget that eliminated or eviscerated health and human services.
In a tough budget situation, Governor Schwarzenegger’s revised budget represents the worst possible choice for California families, for our health system, and for our economy. At a time when millions are looking for relief, the Governor has proposed cuts that will deny medically necessary care, place greater financial strain on families, and turn back hundreds of millions of dollars in federal matching funds for our economy.
THE SPECIFIC HEALTH IMPACT: California children and families, seniors and people with disabilities will find their prescriptions and doctors visits limited, their coverage for certain treatments capped, and significant costs for getting doctor and hospital care. Some of these cuts will not just delay and deny care, but will have life and death impacts.
BETTER CHOICES FOR CALIFORNIA: There are better choices for California—ones that balance cuts with revenues, preserves the health system we all rely on, and fosters our economic recovery. In contrast, Governor Schwarzenegger’s budget undermines our ability to create jobs and our health infrastructure--the foundation on which we need to take advantage of the new opportunities under health reform.
NO NEW TAXES?: Governor Schwarzenegger says there are no new taxes in his proposal, and that’s true for corporations. For eight million in low-income California families, there are significant increased costs to have and access basic medical care.
Boehner Says No to Teacher’s Jobs, Children’s Future
Boehner Says No to Teacher’s Jobs, Children’s Future
Boehner Says No to Teacher’s Jobs, Children’s Future
Posted in: NEA Today, Top Story
By Rene’ Carter and Cynthia McCabe
When 300,000 educators’ jobs are on the line, something has to be done to protect the children they teach, right? Not so, said Congressman John Boehner (R-Ohio) this evening, calling an effort to save teachers’ an attempt to “pad the education bureaucracy.”
Unfortunately Congressman Boehner is playing politics with our children’s and nation’s future. Keeping teachers in the classroom instead of the unemployment line will not ‘pad the education bureaucracy.’ The only thing worse than the Congressman’s deliberate mischaracterization of the bill and his political posturing is his credibility on what makes for responsible action by Congress in a time of crisis.
And just in case Congressman Boehner thinks there is not a problem in his home state of Ohio — where more than 1,000 teachers now face layoffs and where in Cleveland alone class size are projected to jump from 20 to 45 students — we share this story from an Ohio teacher recently posted on http://educationvotes.nea.org. Joanne of Canton, Ohio, writes: “I am a dedicated teacher of 35 years, a National Board Certified Language Arts teacher with an M.Ed. and many, many hours of additional certification. I worry about keeping my teaching job — a job I love. Aid to our school district has been cut by over $1.9 million. We have 1930s buildings with drinking fountains and toilets that don’t work…If you think teachers are at the source of our students’ failures, visit me or any teacher. Spend the day. I guarantee that you will be exhausted, frustrated, yet amazingly satisfied with your experience. But I still love my job. Don’t blame my union. Don’t blame my colleagues. See for yourselves how it is.”
It’s very doubtful that Congressman Boehner will accept Joanne’s offer. But we challenge him to go to her class before the end of the school year and tell her students why he’s not supporting a bill to save more than 300,000 education jobs and why he’s not trying to help ensure that they get the best education possible.
And since he won’t go to Joanne’s class, we have to call Congressman Boehner — and all our members of Congress at (202) 224-3121 – and tell them to stop playing politics with the future of our children – include the Education Jobs Fund in the supplemental funding bills now moving through Congress!