Kevin Carey for Democracy: A Journal of Ideas

Kevin Carey for Democracy: A Journal of Ideas:

"Claiborne Pell died at age 90 on January 1, 2009. In the weeks that followed, the former Democratic senator from Rhode Island was lauded for his many achievements, but one stood out: The first sentence of Pell’s obituary in The New York Times cited 'the college grant program that bears his name.' Pell Grants are the quintessential progressive policy, dedicated to helping low-income students cross into the promised land of opportunity and higher education. 'That is a legacy,' said Joe Biden, 'that will live on for generations to come.'"

What the encomiums to Pell failed to mention is that his grants have been, in all the ways that matter most, a failure. As any parent can tell you, colleges are increasingly unaffordable. Students are borrowing at record levels and loan default rates are rising. More and more low-income students are getting priced out of higher education altogether. The numbers are stark: When Pell grants were named for the senator in 1980, a typical public four-year university cost $2,551 annually. Pell Grants provided $1,750, almost 70 percent of the total. Even private colleges cost only about $5,600 back then. Low-income students could matriculate with little fear of financial hardship, as Pell intended. Over the next three decades, Congress poured vast sums into the program, increasing annual funding from $2 billion to nearly $20 billion. Yet today, Pell Grants cover only 33 percent of the cost of attending a public university. Why? Because prices have increased nearly 500 percent since 1980. Average private college costs, meanwhile, rose to over $34,000 per year.

But the biggest problem with American higher education isn’t that too many students can’t afford to enroll. It’s that too many of the students who do enroll aren’t learning very much and aren’t earning degrees. For the average student, college isn’t nearly as good a deal as colleges would have us believe.

Don’t blame cows for climate change | Drovers.com - Industry News

Don’t blame cows for climate change Drovers.com - Industry News:

"UC Davis Associate Professor and Air Quality Specialist Frank Mitloehner says that McCartney and the chair of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ignored science last week when they launched a European campaign called 'Less Meat = Less Heat.' The launch came on the eve of a major international climate summit, which runs Dec. 7 through Dec. 18 in Copenhagen.

McCartney and others, such as the promoters of 'meatless Mondays,' seem to be well-intentioned but not well-schooled in the complex relationships among human activities, animal digestion, food production and atmospheric chemistry, says Mitloehner.

'Smarter animal farming, not less farming, will equal less heat,' Mitloehner said. 'Producing less meat and milk will only mean more hunger in poor countries.'"

Feds Investigate Ex-CalPERS Officials - HispanicBusiness.com

Feds Investigate Ex-CalPERS Officials - HispanicBusiness.com:

"Federal officials are investigating possible ties between CalPERS' former chief executive, a controversial former board member and a financier who just pleaded guilty in a New York pension fund corruption case.

Court records show the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a subpoena in June to financier Elliott Broidy, who pleaded guilty Thursday to
felony charges that he showered nearly $1 million in illegal gifts on state officials in New York.

The federal enforcement agency demanded records of any contacts Broidy had with former CalPERS CEO Fred Buenrostro and former CalPERS board member Alfred Villalobos, among others."

t r u t h o u t | ACORN Did Nothing Illegal, Independent Probe Finds

t r u t h o u t ACORN Did Nothing Illegal, Independent Probe Finds:

"The Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) doesn't show a pattern of intentional and illegal behavior in undercover videos that conservatives shot of ACORN staffers. That's according to an independent, two-month review of ACORN released Monday.Scott Harshbarger, senior counsel at Proskauer and former Massachusetts attorney general, created the findings of the report. The independent review is the result of two months of research and interviews by Harshbarger and lawyer Amy Crafts working in Proskauer's Boston, Washington and New York offices. It shows the independent analysis requested by ACORN on September 21 in the wake of the video controversies, significant negative news coverage and lost support among some funders, allies and supporters.

The independent report makes clear that the controversy involving hidden-camera videos, which were edited before being partially released to the public, showed fundamental problems in the organization and structure of ACORN that date back to its founders. Also, the report notes that the video controversy was seen largely as ACORN's 'third strike' after the disclosure in June 2008 of an embezzlement cover-up, which triggered the firing of ACORN's founder, and allegations of voter registration fraud during the 2008 election."

Boys’ Educational Failure Is No Mystery

Boys’ Educational Failure Is No Mystery:

"A lot has changed since 1960. If Connie Francis were to sing “Where the Boys Are” today, she would not likely be talking about Ft. Lauderdale. And she probably wouldn’t be talking about college, either. This is because, in a decades-old phenomenon, boys have increasingly been stumbling academically.

Colleges have taken note of this and, in certain cases (mostly private institutions), have actually been favoring boys in the admissions process. It’s an interesting, albeit unofficial, twist on affirmative action. But this, in turn, has been noted by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, inspiring it to investigate whether colleges discriminate against girls by admitting less qualified boys."

It’s tempting to delve into the double standards evident here. When politically favored groups underperform, quotas are virtuous; when other groups do — such as boys — quotas are a vice. There is also Title IX, which has been used to ensure that the number of female student athletes in a school is proportional to girls’ percentage of its student body, despite the fact that far more boys are interested in sports. Yet Big Brother doesn’t apply this principle to other extracurricular activities, most of which are dominated by girls. Even more outrageously, when colleges voluntarily institute something approximating proportionality in the most important sphere, academics (to keep the male/female student ratio fairly close to 50/50), Big Brother investigates them. Yet I don’t want to devote too much ink to this today, because boys don’t really need affirmative action. They need correct action.

Stories about boys’ academic malaise will no doubt surprise some, yet the statistics are staggering. Treating the issue in the Wall Street Journal, Richard Whitmire writes:
Nearly 58% of all those earning bachelor's degrees are women. Graduate programs are headed in the same direction, and the [sex] gaps at community colleges — where 62% of those earning two-year degrees are female — are even wider.

...The numbers are startling. This summer the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University published the results of a study tracking the students who graduated from Boston Public Schools in 2007. Their conclusion: For every 167 females in four-year colleges, there were 100 males.

Education Week: Lure of 'Race to the Top' Roils California Legislature as Fiscal Crisis Continues

Education Week: Lure of 'Race to the Top' Roils California Legislature as Fiscal Crisis Continues:

"Leaders in California are still at odds over what new policies and school improvement efforts they must embrace to make the state a strong contender for some of the $4 billion being offered in federal Race to the Top Fund grants as the deadline to apply closes in.

With up to $700 million in economic-stimulus money on the line in the cash-starved state, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, and a bipartisan group of state lawmakers are pushing to lift California’s cap on charter schools and to make it easier for parents to move their children out of low-performing schools, among other measures.
But some Democratic lawmakers in the Assembly, who are the majority in that house of the legislature, along with the two state teachers’ unions and organizations that represent school board members and administrators, have so far declined to..."

Calif. Higher Ed Leaders Call for More State Funds - ABC News

Calif. Higher Ed Leaders Call for More State Funds - ABC News:

"California's promise of an affordable higher education for its residents is being jeopardized by state budget cuts, the leaders of the state's college and university systems warned."

The cuts threaten to violate a half-century-old document known as the Master Plan for Higher Education that has made California's higher education system a model for the world.

In a rare joint appearance, the heads of the University of California, California State University and community college systems on Monday told lawmakers the education promise was in doubt because they don't have the money they need.

"You better increase the size of the pie because that's what the issue is all about," Jack Scott, chancellor of the state's 110 community colleges, told a joint legislative committee examining the state's master plan.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature have cut spending at UC and CSU by 20 percent to help balance the state's budget amid the steep economic downturn. Community colleges received about 8 percent less funding in 2009-2010 fiscal year.

To deal with the cuts, the UC system, which has about 220,000 students, has raised student fees 15 percent since January, reduced freshman enrollment by 6 percent and forced most of its 180,000 employees to take furloughs and pay cuts up to 10 percent.

Governor Schwarzenegger Says Money For Schools Is Up To The Assembly- myMotherLode.com

Governor Schwarzenegger Says Money For Schools Is Up To The Assembly- myMotherLode.com:

"Governor Schwarzenegger was Tuesday's KVML 'Newsmaker of the Day'. Here are his words:

'Hello, this is Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger with another California Report.

This week our state Assembly has been debating education legislation that is crucial to the future of California schools.

We have an incredible opportunity right now to make our schools better, because the Obama Administration has put together the largest pot of discretionary funding for education reform in U.S. history."

The program is called Race to the Top and it could mean hundreds of millions of dollars for California's students.

But right now our state can't compete for this funding because we don't have laws in place that will make us competitive against other states.

That is why I called a special session of the Legislature on education reform and the Senate passed laws that make us eligible for up to $700 million in federal funding for our schools.

Imagine what that investment could mean to our children, especially in these difficult economic times.

Now it is time for the next step. It is time for our state Assembly to pass the comprehensive package already passed by the Senate.

Keep the Promise of Affordable Higher Education | California Progress Report

Keep the Promise of Affordable Higher Education California Progress Report:

"Testimony given at Joint Committee for Review of the Master Plan on Higher Education - December 7, 2009)

The Master Plan for Higher Education promised affordable access to a high quality post secondary education for all Californians who wished to pursue it.

It wedded a visionary economic blueprint for the state’s workforce to the moral, intellectual and political purposes of providing our state’s citizens with the means to participate in our democratic institutions.

It was meant to be accountable due to its substantial cost.

Its goals remain the right ones, but changing political and economic circumstances have undermined its promise today, and threaten, if unaddressed, to renege on its promise for future generations."

Legitimacy of our perspective:

The California Federation of Teachers (CFT) represents librarians and lecturers in the UC system, and in the community college system, we represent full and part-time classroom faculty, counselors, librarians, and paraprofessional classified staff.

We have followed closely the deteriorating circumstances in which they work, with increasing workloads; and now more recently with furloughs and layoffs.
The CFT and our members are committed to equipping our students to take their places in the economic, social and political life of California.

We value equal educational opportunities for all people and we continue to support any legislative efforts to benefit the students and educational employees in the State of California.

I am an Accounting Professor at Sacramento City College in the Los Rios Community College district and have been a teacher in California for more than thirty years.

I have participated directly and indirectly in past reviews of the Master Plan for Higher Education and most recently in 2002, was a CFT representative to assist in the work of the Joint Committee to Develop a Master Plan for Education (Pre-K-16) chaired by Senator Dede Alpert.

Mo. schools complain over supplies with Obama logo - Yahoo! News

Mo. schools complain over supplies with Obama logo - Yahoo! News:

"COLUMBIA, Mo. – Several Missouri schools are complaining about notebooks and pencils with designs similar to the logos from President Barack Obama's campaign. The Columbia Daily Tribune reported that complaints from unhappy officials at three Missouri schools have prompted the supply company responsible for the materials to travel across the state recalling notebooks and pencils.

The design at issue includes a picture of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. Above the coins is the phrase: 'CHANGE' and underneath it reads: 'WE CAN BELIEVE IN.' Below the words is a circle used by Obama's campaign, in which the top half is blue and the bottom is red with three white lines cutting through it."

U.S. Census Finds Increase in Foreign-Born Workers - NYTimes.com

U.S. Census Finds Increase in Foreign-Born Workers - NYTimes.com:

"Nearly one in six American workers is foreign-born, the highest proportion since the 1920s, according to a census analysis released Monday.

Because of government barriers to immigration, the share of foreign-born workers dipped from a 20th-century high of 21 percent in 1910 to barely 5 percent in 1970, but has been rising since then, to the current 16 percent.

In 2007, immigrants accounted for more than one in four workers in California (35 percent), New York (27 percent), New Jersey (26 percent) and Nevada (25 percent)."

Supreme Court to Hear Rights vs. Religion Case - NYTimes.com

Supreme Court to Hear Rights vs. Religion Case - NYTimes.com:

"WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear an appeal from a Christian student group that had been denied recognition by a public law school in California for excluding homosexuals and nonbelievers. The case pits anti-discrimination principles against religious freedom."

The group, the Christian Legal Society, says it welcomes all students to participate in its activities. But it does not allow students to become voting members or to assume leadership positions unless they affirm what the group calls orthodox Christian beliefs and disavow “unrepentant participation in or advocacy of a sexually immoral lifestyle.” Such a lifestyle, the group says, includes “sexual conduct outside of marriage between a man and a woman.”

The law school, Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, part of the University of California, allows some 60 recognized student groups to use meeting space, bulletin boards and the like so long as they agree to a policy that forbids discrimination on various grounds, including religion and sexual orientation. The school withdrew recognition from the Christian group after it refused to comply with the policy.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, ruled in favor of Hastings in March.

Class Struggle - Do we need lunch periods, or even cafeterias?

Class Struggle - Do we need lunch periods, or even cafeterias?:

"A flood of emails Monday resisting my suggestion of longer school days to raise achievement leads me to wonder if parts of the regular school day could be put to better use. Is the typical raucous high school lunch period, in an overcrowded and sometimes dangerous cafeteria, really necessary? My colleague Jenna Johnson wrote last week of imaginative principals letting students avoid the cafeteria in favor of staying in classrooms to catch up with work or having club meetings. Can lunch become a time for stress-free learning, rather than Lord of the Flies with tile floors?"

Okay, I confess I have long considered lunch a waste of time. I avoided the cafeteria during high school. My favorite lunch was eating a sandwich in a classroom while convening the student court, of which I was chief justice, so we could sanction some miscreant for stealing corn nuts from the vending machine. (I heard a radio ad for that classmate's business when I was home recently---he has become a successful attorney.) At the office these days I stay in my cubicle and have crackers and fruit juice, maybe a cookie if somebody has brought them from home.

For homeless college students, each day brings tests of will - washingtonpost.com

For homeless college students, each day brings tests of will - washingtonpost.com:

"Lots of college students have special tricks to help them get through these next few weeks of finals. Red Bull, coffee amped up with espresso shots, secret study spots . . .

Ronnell Wilson has learned that this is the time to be extra careful about his backpack. Right before midterms, he lost all of his class work when someone at the shelter swiped his backpack as he slept.

Miracle Lewis front-loads all of her presentations and reports early in the semester, always volunteering to go first and turning her projects in early. All she has left now are final exams in statistics and professional ethics."

Chinese college students flocking to U.S. campuses - USATODAY.com

Chinese college students flocking to U.S. campuses - USATODAY.com:

"LINCOLN, Neb. — Bojaio Sun knew next to nothing about football – or the state of Nebraska, for that matter – until he started looking for U.S. colleges and universities on the Internet. Now, as one of a growing number of Chinese students at the state's flagship university here, he catches every game he can.

'I am very proud to be a 'Husker,' he says.

President Obama announced plans last month to 'dramatically expand' to 100,000 the number of U.S. students who study in China over the next four years, calling such exchanges 'a clear commitment to build ties among our people in the steady pursuit of cooperation that will serve our nations, and the world.' But Sun, who grew up in China's Jiangxi province, is part of a surge already taking place in the other direction. Last year alone, 98,510 Chinese graduate and undergraduate students poured into U.S. colleges and universities, lured by China's emphasis on academic achievement and the prestige of U.S. higher education."

LAUSD facing 5,000-plus job cuts - LA Daily News

LAUSD facing 5,000-plus job cuts - LA Daily News:

"The Los Angeles Unified school board is expected to vote on a two-year budget plan today that calls for the elimination of more than 5,000 district positions unless employee unions agree to furloughs and pay cuts.

The layoffs could be avoided if all district employees were to take an 11.75 percent pay cut, which could come in the form of furloughs or other cuts.

The district is facing a shortfall of some $1.2 billion through 2012, according to a report by Chief Financial Officer Megan Reilly.

The layoffs would include nearly 1,400 teachers, which would balloon class sizes in kindergarten through third grade to a student-teacher ratio of 29 to 1 from 24 to 1."

Nonprofit to offer practical advice to D.C. charter schools - washingtonpost.com

Nonprofit to offer practical advice to D.C. charter schools - washingtonpost.com:

"Charter schools will have a new place to turn for advice next year when members of the D.C. Public Charter School Board start a nonprofit organization that will research how the schools can best be run.

The group will focus on finances and governance and is being set up by Chairman Thomas A. Nida, who steps down from the Charter School Board in February, and Dora Marcus, who was on the board until last month. Both reached their two-term limits."

"There's a lot of focus with academic achievement for schools," Nida said. "There's not nearly as much work done helping establish best practices for financial management and governance."

The Charter School Board has been criticized for tending to shut down charters for financial reasons rather than for academic ones. Nida said that's because it was easier to catch financial problems early and that it underscored the need for more research about how to evaluate charter schools' finances.

Detroit Public Schools to demolish vacant buildings | freep.com | Detroit Free Press

Detroit Public Schools to demolish vacant buildings freep.com Detroit Free Press:

"Detroit Public Schools officials announced today they will begin tearing down the most dangerous vacant school buildings beginning in January."

Robert Bobb, the district's emergency financial manager, made the announcement outside the old Sherrard School, which closed in 2007.

The graffiti-marked school is an example of the kind of vacant schools Bobb said are being targeted. Glass and other debris litter the grounds of the school. And stolen windows make it an easy target for thieves -- and neighborhood children -- to enter.

"They have been a real blight," Bobb said of the buildings.

The district will use $3.1 million in money left over from the 1994 bond and nearly $30 million from the bond proposal voters approved in November.

In all, 14 buildings will be demolished, though more may be added to the list, officials said. Among the 14 schools: the old Cass Tech High, Finney High, Chadsey High and Munger Middle.

Portland pushing big-school model for high schools; parents have lots of questions | Portland News - – OregonLive.com

Portland pushing big-school model for high schools; parents have lots of questions Portland News - – OregonLive.com:

Portland Public Schools wants every high school student to have access to band, choir, career pathways and at least 10 college credit courses. Those opportunities don't exist for all students today.

But to implement this new core program, the state's largest school district is going big, making a 180-degree turn from the small school programs it began just five years ago.

Portland proposed this model after gathering feedback from community forums this fall and during the past 18 months. Parents and students overwhelmingly favored the idea of bigger schools where students would have access to a wider variety of courses and opportunities. And Portland's small schools have struggled to meet academic achievement benchmarks and received mixed reviews from students, who say they want more electives and advanced courses.

The district has tried to redesign individual schools before, but this is the first time the district has tried to change its entire system, a move prompted in part by the results of a study that revealed that only 54 percent of students in the class of 2004 graduated within four years. The statewide graduation rate, measured differently, was 68 percent in 2008.

Portland's new model of a neighborhood high school requires each campus have 1,200 to 1,350 students. Bigger schools means fewer schools -- likely six to seven high schools, not the 10 campuses in the district now.

The overall goal is to improve the graduation rate, narrow the achievement gap and eliminate inequities within the system.

WNYC - News - NY Charter Schools Score Well in National Study

WNYC - News - NY Charter Schools Score Well in National Study:

"NEW YORK, NY December 07, 2009 —New York gets higher scores than most other states for the quality of its charter schools, according to a national study.

The Washington- based Center for Education Reform, which supports charters, looked at funding, operations, and limits on charters. The group's President, Jeanne Allen, says schools do well in New York because there's a tough application process.

'They have to demonstrate their ability to teach, they have to demonstrate their ability to pursue their mission, they have to demonstrate that they know what to do with budgets, that they know what to do with law and the regulations that do apply,' Allen says."