The Education Spring Goes To College
THIS WEEK: Richer Schools Get More Money … Education Not An Equalizer … Hedge Funders Back Cuomo … NCLB Hasn’t Worked … Bad Republican House Budget
TOP STORY
The Education Spring Goes To College
By Jeff Bryant
” The Education Spring has become an influential force in higher education too. The popular groundswell of grievances with higher education policy differs in some important ways from what’s driving anger in the K-12 community. Particularly egregious is how government disinvestment in higher education has coupled with a predatory loan policy to hike college student debt levels to an unimaginable $1.3 trillion. But the unifying theme is the same – that We the People – not political ideologues, bureaucrats, or corporate profiteers – should be in control of our education destinies.”
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NEWS AND VIEWS
In 23 States, Richer School Districts Get More Local Funding Than Poorer Districts
The Washington Post
“In 23 states, state and local governments are together spending less per pupil in the poorest school districts than they are in the most affluent school districts … Nationwide, states and localities are spending an average of 15% less per pupil in the poorest school districts … than they are in the most affluent … Wealthier towns and counties are able to raise more money through taxes to support their schools than poorer localities can … State aid is often not enough to make up the difference Federal spending … is serving as an equalizer … But federal spending was never intended to equalize funding for poor children … It was meant to add more money for students who need more services.”
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Education Is Not Great Equalizer for Black Americans
NBC News
“New research is showing that getting another degree or a higher paying job may do less than believed to make good on the American Dream for families of color. Black Americans with college degrees have less in savings and other assets than white Americans who dropped out of high school … Just as education does not erase wealth divides, racial disparities in savings and assets remain persistent even when black workers earn more. The median black family earning an income in the middle fifth of all wage earners had slightly less accumulated wealth than the median white family earning incomes in the bottom of fifth of earners … Black families with some wealth are often compelled to use those extra dollars make up for longstanding economic gaps … The majority – 7 out of 10 – of African Americans kids born into families in the middle fifth of wage earners will fall out of the middle class as adults.”
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Hedge Fund Executives Give ‘Til It Hurts To Politicians, Especially Cuomo, To Get More Charter Schools
New York Daily News
“Hedge fund executives have unleashed a tsunami of money the past few years aimed at getting New York’s politicians to close more public schools and expand charter schools. They’ve done it through direct political contributions, through huge donations to a web of pro-charter lobbying groups, and through massive TV and radio commercials … Since 2000, 570 hedge fund managers have shelled out nearly $40 million in political contributions in New York State, according to a recent report by Hedge Clippers, a union-backed research group. The single biggest beneficiary has been Andrew Cuomo, who received $4.8 million from them … direct donations don’t tell the full story … The indirect contributions are even more astounding … Cuomo and the Legislature approved up to $2,600 more per pupil for charter school facilities … Now, the governor wants the Legislature to increase the state limit on charter schools.”
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No Child Left Behind: What Standardized Test Scores Reveal About Its Legacy
The Washington Post
Monty Neill, executive director of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing writes, “NCLB provided that the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) should be the primary means for evaluating the success … Here are key findings … The rate of progress on NAEP at grades 4 and 8 was generally faster in the decade before NCLB took effect than since … The slowdown in math was pronounced, especially at grade 4 … Score gains slowed after NCLB for English language learners, while score gaps increased between ELLs and non-ELLs … Scores for students with disabilities flattened or declined… Scores for high school students have stagnated … NCLB’s failure to even raise scores on other standardized exams should be considered in light of widespread evidence of curriculum narrowing and extensive teaching to the test.”
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House Budget, Short on Education Details, Would Lock In Sequester
Education Week
“House Republicans unveiled their fiscal year 2016 budget … The nonbinding spending blueprint would cap discretionary spending for things like federal education programs at sequester level, making it extremely difficult to obtain any of the increases proposed in the president’s budget. And it outlines even steeper cuts for fiscal year 2017 and beyond for a total overall decrease of $759 billion, or 14 percent below the current caps … It asks each committee, including the House Education and the Workforce Committee, to recommend $1 billion in funding cuts for programs from fiscal 2016 through fiscal 2025 … On Monday, the president addressed the funding discrepancy … ‘I can tell you that if the budget maintains sequester-level funding, then we would actually be spending less on pre-K to 12th grade in America’s schools in terms of federal support than we were back in 2000.’”
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