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Monday, March 22, 2010

School Budget Cuts: No End In Sight - AOL News

School Budget Cuts: No End In Sight - AOL News

No End in Sight for School Budget Cuts

Updated: 14 hours 43 minutes ago
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Dana Chivvis
Dana ChivvisContributor
(March 21) -- Last year was not a good year for anyone's wallet. But the recession is taking an extraordinary toll on school systems, as sweeping budgets cuts are enacted in cities and states nationwide. Experts say the budget crisis will be felt acutely this year and that it might only be the beginning.


Education budgets are closely tied to property taxes, leading some to predict more of the same in the years ahead.


"Education is accustomed to growing every year. Even leveling off is seen as a kind of death threat," Chester E. Finn Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute educational think-tank, told AOL News. "What's going on now is unprecedented in the last few decades."


Many states and cities have already made drastic changes. California's education budget was cut by $17 billion over the past two years and will be cut another $2.4 billion this year. As of Thursday, more than 23,500 pink slips had been handed out to school employees.


In November, the California regents voted to increase tuition at the state's universities by 32 percent, leading to student protests on campuses across the state. Similar hikes under consideration in several other states led to a nationwide day of student protest March 4. In Georgia, the regents first considered a 77 percent tuition increase but dropped the proposed hike to 35 percent in early March.


In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie announced this week that next year's budget would reduce total
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PR-CANADA.net - McGraw-Hill Education Meets California's Requirement for Postsecondary Digital Textbooks Ten Years A

PR-CANADA.net - McGraw-Hill Education Meets California's Requirement for Postsecondary Digital Textbooks Ten Years A



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Posted by marin2008
Sunday, 21 March 2010
In the wake of enormous economic challenges, many of our nation's educational institutions are turning toward digital solutions to provide flexible learning options. Some states have gone a step further by setting a deadline for a complete digital transition - a new California state law requires that all textbooks used in public and private postsecondary institutions be made available digitally by the year 2020. While the deadline is nearly 10 years away, McGraw-Hill already is meeting California's standard by offering digital versions of 95 percent of its current higher education titles. All of McGraw-Hill Education's content for elementary school and secondary school is available in digital form.
"McGraw-Hill enthusiastically embraces the digital revolution, and believes that the creation and delivery of digital content is integral to the future of education," said Peter C. Davis, president, McGraw-Hill Education. "We are committed to providing the content and digital technology that facilitate teaching and drive student achievement in California and nationwide."
McGraw-Hill's growing line of digital, interactive programs for the higher education market includes McGraw-Hill Connect - a revolutionary assignment and assessment platform that individualizes lesson plans for students while incorporating material found outside conventional textbooks. By pioneering these new capabilities today, McGraw-Hill is helping to expand the possibilities for
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AB 656 gaining grounds in colleges, universities

AB 656 gaining grounds in colleges, universities

San Jose Education Examiner


AB 656 gaining grounds in colleges, universities






San Jose, CA (March 21) -- From San Jose and San Francisco colleges and universities, Majority Leader Alberto Torrico took his campaign trail for higher education funding to Contra Costa Colleges through his Assembly Bill (AB) 656.
AB 656, otherwise known as the oil severance tax bill was introduced by Torrico in Congress, to generate about $2 billion oil tax money earmarked for California's public higher education system.
He joined the students in a rally at the Contra Costa College's Amphitheater to amplify their issues on budget education cuts.
According to Torrico, California is the only major oil-producing state that does not charge the tax on oil companies.
"At a time when our state is spending more money on prisons than we do on all three higher education systems combined, California must boost its funding to keep the doors to our colleges and universities open to students," Majority Leader Torrico said.
He added that, "Studies show there will be an even large wave of students seeking a higher education in the near future, but we currently don't have sufficient funds to handle the enrollment growth, let alone the students we have now. We have to stop the record student fee hikes, staff furloughs, admission caps and canceled courses or fewer students will be able to make their
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The Standards Distraction - WSJ.com

The Standards Distraction - WSJ.com

The National Standards Distraction

Accountability and choice remain the best drivers of reform.

The Obama Administration wants to standardize what is taught in American public schools, and there's nothing wrong in principle with setting benchmarks for what the average child should know by a certain grade. But national standards are no substitute for school choice and accountability, which are proving to be the most effective drivers of academic improvement.
With the Administration's blessing, the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers have proposed a set of uniform K-12 math and reading standards for all states. Compliance will supposedly be voluntary, but Education Secretary Arne Duncan said states that support the effort will have a better chance of receiving Race to the Top money. And President Obama suggested that states that opt out risk losing millions of dollars in Title I grants for low-income students.

1standards2Not surprisingly, all but two states—Texas and Alaska—quickly expressed support for uniform standards. But over the past week, a half dozen or so others—as varied as California, Massachusetts, Virginia and Minnesota—have had second thoughts. Governor Rick Perry said Texans should determine what's taught in their state, while Massachusetts and California rightly say their standards are superior to what's been proposed.
Associated Press
The biggest challenge may be reaching agreement on what a national curriculum should include. In the 1990s, the Bush and Clinton Administrations advocated national history standards. But the process became dominated by educators with a multicultural agenda preoccupied with political correctness and America's failings. The Senate censured the history standards by a vote of 99 to 1. The recent brawl over the Texas social sciences curriculum suggests that what works in Nacogdoches isn't going to fly in
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Student Loan Bill Poised to Pass in Health Vote - NYTimes.com

Student Loan Bill Poised to Pass in Health Vote - NYTimes.com

Student Loan Bill Poised to Pass in Health Vote


By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN


WASHINGTON — Along with the major health care legislation, the House on Sunday approved a major revamping of federal student loan programs that eliminates fees paid to private banks to act as intermediaries.

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Instead, the government will expand a direct lending program, a step that theCongressional Budget Office said would save taxpayers $61 billion over 10 years, and use the money to increase Pell grants for students.
The student loan bill is a centerpiece of President Obama’s education agenda, and it was included in the budget reconciliation measure that also made final revisions to the Senate-passed health care bill.
The bill sets automatic annual increases in the maximum Pell grant, scheduled to rise to $5,975 by 2017 from $5,350 this year. The new Pell initiative also includes $13.5 billion to cover a shortfall caused by a steep rise in the number of Americans enrolling in college and seeking financial aid during the recession.
In last year’s budget resolution, Congressional Democrats put forward a plan to complete major education and health care legislation through a reconciliation bill.
The budget reconciliation rules set goals for reducing future federal deficits, and the loan bill helps to meet those goals by redirecting $10 billion in savings from subsidies to private
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Community colleges, students join for protest

Community colleges, students join for protest

Community colleges, students join for protest

Nanette Asimov, Chronicle Staff Writer
One way to protest education cuts is to block classroom doors, shut down campuses and hurl torches at a chancellor's house. All have been tried recently by students angry at rising tuition and declining quality of California's higher education.
Then there's the approach thousands of community college and California State University students plan to take today in Sacramento.
"We will be respectful, not disrupt class, and work with our administration," said Lee Fuller, a delegate to the Student Senate of the California Community Colleges, which is sponsoring what they've dubbed the "March on March."
It's the third large rally this month to demand that state lawmakers restore millions of dollars to public education.
The earlier rallies were mainly peaceful, but drama stole the spotlight each time. On March 4, protesters ran onto Interstate 880 in Oakland late in the day, snarling rush-hour traffic for hours. Three days earlier, five students from the University of California refused to leave a lawmaker's Sacramento office. Their arrests grabbed the headlines.
There's no guarantee that acts of civil disobedience won't be tried today, as an expected 10,000 students will march from Raley Field to a rally at the state Capitol and an address from Community College Chancellor Jack Scott.
But student organizers say attention by mayhem is not what they want. Many plan to bus to the Capitol with administrators from their schools.
"This is a peaceful protest," said Bradley Stottler, a Berkeley City College student and community college senate delegate. "We're there to have our voices heard."
 Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/21/BA7Q1CIJJG.DTL#ixzz0iuDxQhJS
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Charter school surviving by running as a business

Charter school surviving by running as a business

Charter school surviving by running as a business
March 22, 2010, 03:30 AM By Heather Murtagh Daily Journal Staff
Heather Murtagh/Daily Journal
A San Carlos Learning Center first grade student mixes a green mixture that will soon become lizard bread.
Holding a little wooden stick, first grade student Sydney stirred the green concoction in her little Dixie cup.
“It’s green because of the dye,” she explained while continuing to stir.

It’s a Friday in Colleen McPeek’s class at the San Carlos Charter Learning Center. McPeek always tries to keep cooking in the loop during Friday centers, a time in which children are able to work in small groups and try a variety of activities. In this particular center, the students are making green bread.

“The kids just love it,” she said.

Having small group time and being able to assess a student’s individual level of learning is a luxury for many schools right now. In a time of massive budget cuts, the San Carlos Charter Learning Center is making it work on less by looking at education from a business perspective. First, the school generates income through before-, after- and summer-school offerings. But the largest resource is free: Volunteers. The key, officials said, is managing those volunteers throughout the campus to maximize benefits to the school and all the children served. As a result, teachers like McPeek are able to regularly offer smaller, individualized plans for her students.

Serving 260 children in kindergarten through eighth grade with a $2.2 million annual budget has forced a lean operation and thinking outside the box, said Director Christopher Mahoney.

Keeping afloat has meant restructuring education in recent years while becoming a business and offering other programs.

California became the second state to allow charter schools in 1992, behind Minnesota. Originally, a 100-school limit was placed on such schools. San Carlos became the first to open a charter school with the San Carlos Charter Learning Center, which was granted a charter in 1993 and opened its doors to 85 students the following year. It’s funded per student from the state at a level slightly below the district in which
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A ruinous meltdown, state after state

A ruinous meltdown, state after state



A ruinous meltdown, state after state

By Bob Herbert
A story that is not getting nearly enough attention is the ruinous fiscal meltdown occurring in state after state, all across America.

Taxes are being raised. Draconian cuts in services are being made. Public employees are being fired. The tissue-thin national economic recovery is being undermined. And in many cases, the most vulnerable populations - the sick, the elderly, the young and the poor - are getting badly hurt.

Arizona, struggling with a projected $2.6 billion budget shortfall, took the drastic step of scrapping its Children's Health Insurance Program. That left nearly 47,000 low-income children with no coverage at all. Gov. Jan Brewer is also calling for an increase in the sales tax. She said, "Arizona is navigating its way through the largest state budget deficit in its long history."

In New Jersey, newly elected governor, Chris Christie, has proposed a series of budget cuts that, among other things, would result in public schools receiving $820 million less in state aid than they had received in the prior school year. Some well-off districts would have their direct school aid cut off altogether. Poorer districts that rely almost entirely on state aid would absorb the biggest losses in terms of dollars. They're bracing for a terrible hit.

For all the happy talk about "no child left behind," the truth is that in Arizona and New Jersey and dozens of other
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Texas curriculum vote stirs conflict | eSchoolNews.com

Texas curriculum vote stirs conflict | eSchoolNews.com

Texas curriculum vote stirs conflict

Some opponents worry that conservative-backed changes to Texas's social studies curriculum will influence other states, but others say these concerns are overblown

By Maya T. Prabhu, Assistant Editor


The conservative slant that Texas curriculum may take could influence curriculum in other states.
Observers are conflicted as to what effect the conservative slant that Texas's curriculum might take will have in other states.
Some historians are decrying the proposed changes to Texas’s social studies curriculum for next year, saying many of the changes do not accurately reflect United States history. But the potential injection of conservative ideals into the social studies, history, and economics lessons that will be taught to millions of Texas students for the next decade might not have as much of an effect on the rest of the country’s curriculum as some opponents fear.
“It’s a bit of an urban myth that the Texas curriculum automatically hops state borders. I think the media accounts have been exaggerated,” said Jay Diskey, executive director of the school division for the Association of American Publishers. “Nearly all states expect or require publishers to align to their state standards.”
If the curriculum passes as is when the final vote is cast in May, teachers in Texas will be required to cover the Judeo-Christian influences of the nation’s Founding Fathers, but not highlight the philosophical rationale for the separation of church and state.
The new curriculum standards also would describe the U.S. government as a “constitutional republic,” rather than a “democratic” system, and students will be required to study the decline in value of the U.S. dollar, including the abandonment of the gold standard. The standards also herald “American exceptionalism” and the U.S. free enterprise system, suggesting it thrives best without excessive government intervention.
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2nd Banana SUNDAY, MARCH 21, 2010

2nd Banana SUNDAY, MARCH 21, 2010


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