Thursday, June 3, 2010

Fee hikes weigh on state students - The Boston Globe

Fee hikes weigh on state students

Campuses try to offset cuts

Sam Dreyfus of Brookline says his parents have taken out a second mortgage to pay for him and his younger sister to attend UMass Amherst. ((Yoon S. Byun/ Globe Staff) )

By Tracy Jan

Globe Staff / June 3, 2010

Text size – +

Tens of thousands of students and their families will be shelling out more money next school year to attend Massachusetts public universities, colleges, and community colleges as campuses raise fees to make up for anticipated cuts in state funding.

	Discuss
	COMMENTS (51)

University of Massachusetts students will be expected to pay $1,100 more in fees under a plan approved yesterday that cemented last year’s 15.8 percent increase, the largest since 2004. At state and community colleges, at least 17 out of 24 campuses are seeking fee increases of between 3 percent and 13 percent.

Fees, which make up the bulk of student costs, cover faculty salaries and other academic costs. Tuitions will remain the same for next year.

The extra burden looms large for financially struggling families who have turned to the public system in strong numbers for its lower cost.

Former top speller is voice of national bee

by Lauren Sausser, Associated Press Writer

The only hard copy of the official Scripps National Spelling Bee word list is under lock and key somewhere inside the Grand Hyatt Washington, and even Jacques Bailly, the bee's official pronouncer, is unsure of its exact location.

Charters: All About The Authorizers This Week In Education

This Week In Education

Charters: All About The Authorizers

by Alexander Russo

It's all about the authorizers, Greg Richmond from NACSA will tell you. And he might be right. Do they know what to look for? Are they politically and financially independent? Do they (can they) review and close low performing charters? Check out this new map of who's in charge of approving and supervising charters in various states.

Big News from NYC & DC? Meh. | Intercepts

Big News from NYC & DC? Meh.

by Mike Antonucci

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced he will “freeze” salaries and avert 4,400 teacher layoffs. One unidentified union leader called the proposal a ”stunt.”
It’s a stunt, all right, and not just because Bloomberg can’t take unilateral action on a collective bargaining agreement. What kind of pay “freeze” results in an average salary increase of 3.3%?

The mayor’s move does not entirely freeze teachers’ pay. Teachers typically receive an annual raise and “step increases” for seniority and for earning advanced degrees or academic credits. Teachers will still receive step increases, which can range from around $400 at the beginning of a career to more than $8,000 for teachers who reach 20 years. Teacher salaries would still go up an

Black Parallel School Board

About Us - Black Parallel School Board

The Black Parallel School Board (BPSB) is a community organization developed to work parallel to the Sacramento City Unified District Board of Education.

The Black Parallel School Board (BPSB) is a community organization developed to work parallel to the Sacramento City Unified District Board of Education. Its major responsibility is to support the educational growth and achievement of Black students. In order to do that we will monitor all educational activities and programs of the school district to ensure that they are compatible with the needs of African American students of the district. Additionally, the BPSB provides support services to parents regarding the education of their children. BPSB members will attend school meetings with parents to advocate for their children; BPSB members will also provide workshops for parents interested in learning techniques to make learning more successful.
Visit: http://www.blackparallelschoolboard.com/Aboutus.html
Black Parallel School Board Meeting
June 5, 2010
Saturday 10:00am
Oak Park United Methodist Church
3600 BroadwaySacramento, CA 95817

Md., D.C. poised for common education standards, but not Va.

McDonnell (Jacquelyn Martin - AP)

Enlarge Photo

Network News

X PROFILE

View More Activity

By Nick Anderson

Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 3, 2010

For the first time, schools in the District, Maryland and many other states would share a common vision for what students should learn every year in English and math under a proposal released Wednesday that marked a major step toward voluntary national standards.

But Virginia schools would stand apart.
The emergence of what advocates call "common core standards," in a proposal from the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, is rapidly splitting state education leaders. Many embrace the initiative as an improvement over homegrown standards that vary in rigor and quality from state to state. In their view, the nation cannot compete with other global economic powers unless schools can agree on how and when to teach such subjects as algebra.
But some -- probably a minority at this point -- say that their state standards are good enough and that replacing them would force a needless and costly overhaul of curriculum, instruction and testing. Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) has voiced this argumentrepeatedly in recent days to explain why the state dropped out of a federal grant competition that had encouraged the common standards movement.
As a result, Virginia's 1.3 million students will probably stick with the state's Standards of Learning in coming years, while about 75,000 students in the District and 840,000 in Maryland will follow the common core.
The governors association and school officers council released the final of five drafts of the common standards Wednesday at a high school in Georgia, with statements of support from Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) and Delaware Gov. Jack Markell (D). American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten drew a sports analogy in her argument for common standards: "Can you imagine in football if one team got to make a first down after seven yards," she asked, while other teams had to move the ball 10?
The document was developed by educators and academics, drawing on experts from

D.C. contract ratified by three to one. Half the teachers didn’t vote. � Fred Klonsky's blog

D.C. contract ratified by three to one. Half the teachers didnt vote.

by preaprez

Local contracts are local business.
That is why I get pissed when state leadership gives away our local collective bargaining rights., That is what they did here in Illinois in order to please Arne Duncan and get some Race money.
Or when politicians want to legislate away at the federal level seniority rights that have been bargained locally.
That is not to say I don’t have an opinion about another local’s decision to accept or reject a contract. For example, the DC contract that was just ratified three to one by the WTU membership. It’s their contract. They have to live with it. But I think it is a lousy deal.
Since the chancellor of D.C. schools is Michelle Rhee, and since every time Michelle Rhee passes gas it threatens to become a part of Arne Duncan’s USDE agenda, the local contract has national implications.
The D.C. contract guts seniority rights and closely aligns compensation to test scores in exchange for potential

States' Fiscal Condition Still Dismal, New Report Finds - Politics K-12 - Education Week

States' Fiscal Condition Still Dismal, New Report Finds

by Alyson Klein

State finances remain as bad as they have been in decades, and the fiscal picture isn't likely to clear up anytime soon, according to a report released this morning by the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officials.
"Fiscal 2010 presented the most difficult challenges for states' financial management since the Great Depression, and fiscal 2011 is expected to present states with similar challenges," the report says. "The severe national recession that most likely ended in the second half of calendar year 2009 has drastically reduced tax revenues from every revenue source."
And fiscal 2011 isn't looking much brighter, the groups say: A majority of states are contemplating cutting K-12 education next year as they brace for overall spending reductions for what could be the third year in a row.
State general fund spending declined an unprecedented two years in a row, in both fiscal years 2009 and 2010, the report found. It estimates that fiscal 2010 general fund expenditures will be $612.9 billion among all the states, down from $657.9 billion in the previous fiscal year—an 8 percent decline. And in their budget requests, 13 governors proposed spending less in fiscal 2011 than in fiscal 2010.
Overall, 44 states estimate that they will be spending less from their general funds in fiscal 2010 than they did in

School District on Grand Jury: We’re On It Already voiceofsandiego.org.

Education

School District on Grand Jury: We’re On It Already

San Diego Unified just issued a statement in response to a new county grand jury report that highlights misuse of student government funds, illegal fees for student activities and other problems, many of which were already uncovered by school district internal auditors.

The school district has until the end of August to write a detailed response to the concerns and recommendations. Its statement says, in part:

Prior to the release of the report, the district had already taken numerous actions related to the Grand Jury's findings. The district Fraud Hotline, established in 2006, continues to provide an invaluable service for the district in combating waste, abuse and corruption. Investigations stemming from the Hotline have resulted in corrective action, including the discipline and termination of district employees as well as saving the district millions of dollars. ...
Similarly, the Board of Education has been very proactive by having staff issue guidelines about the proper use of student fees, charges, deposits, donations and fundraising related to courses and activities were developed and distributed to all school sites in December 2009.

-- EMILY ALPERT

Posted in Schooled, This just in on Wednesday, June 2, 2010 3:56 pm. Comments (2)

County Grand Jury: Schools Misuse Student Money, Charge Illegal Fees

A county grand jury report released today criticizes San Diego Unified schools for misusing more than $100,000 meant for student government, instead spending it on school supplies, equipment and things that benefit faculty, such as a Christmas party for employees. The problems were originally uncovered in internal school district audits.

Such money is meant for extra activities, not the basics that schools are supposed to supply. The report states that the problem is widespread: Roughly 75 percent of schools audited by school district investigators had misused the funds, including the School for Creative and Performing Arts, Hoover High, Longfellow Elementary, McKinley Elementary, Mission Bay High and Washington Elementary.

The grand jury, a volunteer citizen group that investigates local governments, recommended San Diego Unified require more training for principals, vice principals, financial clerks and student government advisors to ensure they have checks and balances to track and control how money is spent. It also advised the school district to increase its auditing staff.

This Week In Education Reform: What RTTT & The Spelling Bee Have In Common

This Week In Education

Reform: What RTTT & The Spelling Bee Have In Common [image: ScreenHunter_20 Jun. 02 22.34] "Shared elements of RTTT and the national spelling bee: narrow criteria, few winners, limited, effects, public fascination." Via my own Twitter feed. (Shameless and duplicative, I know.)

Think Tanks: US News Journalist Joins EdSector [image: Female] EdSector had to do something to replace co-founders Tom Toch and Andy Rotherham and try and get its mojo back but I'm not sure that hiring another former US News and World Report alum was the thing they needed to do. Like a lot of ...

Zoho Challenge | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Zoho Challenge I don’t know how new Zoho Challenge is, but it’s definitely new to me. It seems like a very good way to create online tests (and include multimedia in them). I’m adding it to The Best Ways To Create Online Tests.

I Like Twextra Twextra is a new web application that lets people create a simple webpage with an automatically shortened link for sharing in something like Twitter. That purpose is fine, but it works great for another reason — and that’s why I like it. Some ...

New Oil Spill Resources Here are today’s additions to The Best Sites To Learn About The Gulf Oil Spill: Spill Reaches Alabama Shore is a Wall Street Journal slideshow. ‘If Exxon Valdez was a heart attack, Deepwater is a cancer’ is an audio slideshow from The Guardian. ...

More Neat World Cup Resources

My Best Posts About Helping Students Develop Their Capacity For Self-Control

by Larry Ferlazzo

Helping students developing a greater capacity for self-control is an on-going effort (and challenge) in some of my classes.
I’ve written quite a bit about how I have attempted to apply recent research on the subject to my classroom practice. I’ll be including a piece on this in my upcoming third book, which is on classroom management and

Seventeenth Edition of The ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival Is Up!

by Larry Ferlazzo

Mary Ann Zehr at Learning The Language has just posted the Seventeenth Edition of the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival. It’s a great collection of blog posts from teachers all around the world.
Mary Ann has arranged it as a Question/Answer post, with each post answering a question she lists. It’s a pretty neat idea.
The August 1st edition of the Carnival will be hosted by

Thursday, June 3, 2010