Square Feet | The 30-Minute Interview - David C. Walentas - NYTimes.com

Square Feet | The 30-Minute Interview - David C. Walentas - NYTimes.com:

"Mr. Walentas, 71, is the founder and principal of the Two Trees Management Company, which has developed and managed more than four million square feet of commercial and residential real estate, mostly in New York City. Mr. Walentas is also credited with establishing the Dumbo neighborhood in Brooklyn."

Q. Could you explain the genesis of the Dumbo name?

A. We were in SoHo almost 40 years ago, and then we did the Silk Building in NoHo. When I was in NoHo, I asked one of the artists, one of the kids, SoHo, NoHo, what’s next? And somebody said, “Dumbo.” I said, Where the hell is Dumbo? He said, “Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass.” So I came over one day, walked around the neighborhood and said, Wow!

Q. And that’s where the bulk of your development has been since — by the Manhattan Bridge.

A. We bought two million square feet 30 years ago for $12 million, about $6 a foot, which today seems incredibly cheap. But for 20 years everybody thought I was the dumb in Dumbo; now they think I’m a genius.

Q. What are you getting per square foot now?

A. We routinely sell condos for $1,000 a foot. We have a 6,000-square-foot triplex at One Main for $25 million — the Clock Tower.

Q. Are you close to selling that Clock Tower penthouse?

Schools comparison website going live

Schools comparison website going live

The federal government's controversial website giving information on the performance of all schools will go live from this Thursday.

The site, called My School, will provide profiles for almost 10,000 schools and will allow parents to compare schools in their area as well as statistically-similar schools in other regions.

In navigating the web page, parents will be able to look at the profiles of their child's school which includes the numbers of students, teachers, attendance rates and the percentage of indigenous students.

Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard made no apology for the introduction of the website.

"I'm passionate about this and I believe this is the right direction for this country," she told Sky News on Monday.

It was about providing more information for parents and the nation than was ever provided before.

"We're going to shine a light on best practice."

However the government's push to introduce the website and National Assessment Plan - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) results has been met with staunch criticism from the public education union, the AEU.

New York entrepreneurs look to profit from rising interest in Chinese business

New York entrepreneurs look to profit from rising interest in Chinese business

When Mike Cheng moved from midtown to Shanghai three years ago, he could barely speak Mandarin Chinese. By the time the young Asian-American entrepreneur moved back to New York nine months later, he was on his way toward mastering the language - and starting a business.

Knowing he had many friends eager to learn, Cheng, now 28, decided to launch Mando Mandarin, a Chinese-language education company that provides live, Web-based classes taught by instructors in China.

With minimal marketing effort, the Rego Park, Queens-based company has grown steadily, with 40 private students currently signed on. Cheng is now making a push into the private school arena. He expects Mando Mandarin's sales to hit $250,000 this year.

"With China rising, there has to be a business opportunity," Cheng said in an interview from Shanghai, where he was working on expanding his business.

From Chinese-language course providers to book publishers and media startups, New York entrepreneurs are positioning themselves to profit from the exploding interest in Chinese business, language and culture.

"A large and growing number of companies throughout the city are taking advantage," said Robin Harvey, founder of Greenwich Village Chinese, an after-school and summer language program whose students range in age from toddlers to eighth graders.

Threatened With Closure, Jamaica High Still Inspires Fond Feelings - NYTimes.com

Threatened With Closure, Jamaica High Still Inspires Fond Feelings - NYTimes.com:

Multimedia

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They Passed Through Jamaica High

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Julie Glassberg/The New York Times

JAMAICA NOTABLES Clockwise from top left: Bob Beamon, ’66, Olympic champion; Michael Weiner, ’58, now known as Michael Savage, conservative author and talk show host; Letty Cottin Pogrebin ’55, Co-founder of Ms. Magazine; Judith Shapiro, ’59, President, Barnard University.

"INSIDE the high-ceilinged vestibule of the Georgian Revival showplace that is Jamaica High School, a red sign reads, “Eighty percent of success is just showing up.” Alas, the school’s average attendance rate this year is 79 percent."

Jamaica, which spent most of a century as a jewel in the city’s public school system, is now slated to be closed for poor performance. At a recent public hearing, hundreds of parents, teachers and alumni defended its record, and angrily asked why the city did not do more as the school’s graduation rate slipped below 50 percent starting in 2002.

The original Jamaica High opened in 1896 with a few hundred students in what was then a rural enclave of central Queens. The current building opened in 1927 and, in its heyday, had an enrollment topping 5,000. From the letter sweaters and pleated skirts of the late 1950s to the secretary of education’s naming it one of the nation’s outstanding high schools in 1985, Jamaica maintained a strong reputation. Among the graduates found in the pages of its yearbook, Folio, are Walter O’Malley, longtime owner of the Brooklyn (and, later, Los Angeles) Dodgers (class of 1922); the author and composer Paul Bowles (1928); John N. Mitchell, President Richard M. Nixon’s attorney general (1931); Stephen Jay Gould (1958); and the men who became the Cleftones (1955).

Congress Finances Program to Use Technology in Education - NYTimes.com

Congress Finances Program to Use Technology in Education - NYTimes.com

More than a decade ago, Lawrence K. Grossman, former president of both NBC News and PBS, and Newton N. Minow, the former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, were asked by several foundations to explore how nonprofits like schools, libraries and museums could tap into emerging digital technologies.
Their bold recommendation in 2001 was to set up a multibillion dollar trust that would act as a “venture capital fund” to research learning technology.
After a tortuous journey — “It’s been one ‘starting all over again’ after another after another after another,” Mr. Minow said — their organization, what is now being called the National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies, finally has Congressional appropriation through the Education Department and will be introduced Monday. It could be handing out grants by fall.
“It’s time that education had the equivalent of what the National Science Foundation does for science, Darpa does for the national defense and what N.I.H. does for health,” Mr. Grossman said in an interview. He and Mr. Minow, senior counsel at the law firm Sidley Austin, will be the co-chairmen of the nonprofit organization, along with Anne G. Murphy, former director of the American Arts Alliance.

Link by Link - Google Entices Africans to Contribute to Swahili Wikipedia - NYTimes.com

Link by Link - Google Entices Africans to Contribute to Swahili Wikipedia - NYTimes.com

“THE farmer and the cowman should be friends” is the hopeful refrain of Oklahomans in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “Oklahoma.” After all, their activities rhyme: “one likes to push a plow; one likes to chase a cow.”
Alas, the cultivators and the grazers seem destined for conflict. The largest online grazer of them all, Google, has repeatedly come upon fences as it roams the Internet seeking new material for search results.
There is China’s corner of the Internet, for example. The government there allowed Google to enter but insisted that its computers ignore writing and photographs about the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, say, or the status of Tibet or political dissent in general.
Google agreed to those conditions — that material simply doesn’t show up when someone looks for it at google.cn — though it says it is now refusing to abide by those rules in light of a hacking attempt emanating from China.
Another barrier Google recently ran up against involves authors and publishers concerned by the company’s effort to digitize books in university libraries. Many of these are so-called orphan works, for which copyright holders could not be found, and so without securing permission, Google unleashed its page scanners. Only recently has it tried to settle with the authors and publishers so it can put the works online.

Morning Roundup: "Hurt Locker" Gets Oscar Boost; Bill Gates at Sundance; "Jersey Shore" Melee; "Hope For Haiti Now" Raises More Than $57 Million - Speakeasy - WSJ

Morning Roundup: "Hurt Locker" Gets Oscar Boost; Bill Gates at Sundance; "Jersey Shore" Melee; "Hope For Haiti Now" Raises More Than $57 Million - Speakeasy - WSJ:

"Bill Gates’ Sun-Dance?: If you’re following Bill Gates on Twitter, then you know he’s at Sundance to check out “Waiting for Superman,” a film about the education system. “An amazing reception for ‘Waiting for Superman’ here at Sundance. not a dry eye in the house,” he tweeted. The businessman and philanthropist may have also found time to party. Drummer ?uestlove, the hip-hop bandleader for the talk show “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” wrote to Gates on Twitter: “Pleasure meeting you. Who knew you knew how to dance your arse off? lol” [Twitter]"

San Mateo Daily Journal Local named Educator of the Year

San Mateo Daily Journal:

Local named Educator of the Year

"As a child, he taught his sister to read when he was in first grade and she was in kindergarten. Despite that story, Lance was not sure of his career aspirations for some time. Clearly going into teaching was the right choice. Lance, a Hillsdale High School English teacher, was named Educator of the Year from the California League of High Schools for both his region and statewide at the annual conference in Monterey earlier this month.

Don Dawson, a member of the California Teachers’ Association Board of Directors, noting Lance was chosen for a number of reasons including his work in transforming Hillsdale into small learning communities, but also “involvement of the students in exciting projects such as the micro-loans to Guatemalan women and the student-produced video about it.”
Lance humbly points to the supportive nature of Hillsdale faculty that makes any of these projects possible."

West Coast Lessons: Don’t Give Universities Tuition Authority :: Olympia Newswire

West Coast Lessons: Don’t Give Universities Tuition Authority :: Olympia Newswire

After several years of discussion, 2010 might be the year that the legislature finally decides to give its four-year colleges the ability to set its own tuition rates for in-state students. Senators Derek Kilmer and Ken Jacobsen, along with Rep. Reuven Carlyle, all have proposed bills that would enable schools like UW wide latitude to hike tuition. Though the bills differ on the details, including whether the increases can be limited or not, they all share one thing in common: they’ll merely accelerate the decline in affordability and accessibility of Washington’s public university system.

In this case, as with so many other aspects of the state’s budget crisis, a comparative perspective can help Washingtonians understand the options available to deal with the deficit – and the actual consequences of proposed solutions. The experience of California universities suggests that allowing the schools to set their own tuition rates will create a situation in which it is very difficult to hold anyone responsible or accountable for higher education becoming unaffordable.

The University of California system has had the authority to set its own tuition rates for many years. In November 2009, after the state legislature made yet another cut to its already tight budgets, the UC Regents voted to increase student fees by a whopping 32% — bringing the cost of an undergraduate year at a UC school to $10,300 (and that’s before room, board, and books are included). In contrast, when I graduated UC Berkeley in 2000, I paid $4,400 a year.

George Lakoff: Where's The Movement?

George Lakoff: Where's The Movement?

In forming his administration, President Obama abandoned the movement that had begun during his campaign for deal-making and a pragmatism that hasn't worked. That movement is still possible and needed now. Here is look at what is required, and how a version of it is forming in California.

We begin with this week's triple whammy.

Freedom vs. The Public Option

Which would you prefer, consumer choice or freedom? Extended coverage or freedom? Bending the cost curve or freedom?

John Boehner, House Minority Leader, speaking of health care, said recently, "This bill is the greatest threat to freedom that I have seen in the 19 years I have been here in Washington....It's going to lead to a government takeover of our insurance] for you."

This is exactly what Frank Luntz advised conservatives to say. They have repeated it and repeated it. Why has it worked to rally conservative populists against their interests? The most effective framing is more than mere language, more than spin or salesmanship. It has worked because conservatives really believe that the issue is freedom. It fits the conservative moral system. It fits how conservatives see the world.

Student trustee resigns from governor-appointed position Daily Titan

Student trustee resigns from governor-appointed position Daily Titan:

"Former Cal State Fullerton ASI President Curtis Schlaufman resigned from the California State University Board of Trustees January 11.

In November, Cal State Fullerton’s own Curtis Schlaufman was appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to the California State University Board of Trustees as one of only two student trustees.

In a phone call to the governor’s office on Jan. 11, just months after his appointment to the board, Schlaufman confirmed his decision to discontinue his higher education.

“I will no longer have the position because it is a student trustee position. You have to be a student, and since I no longer will be, I had to resign,” Schlaufman said."

Lenny Mendonca: California Needs to Press the Restart Button

Lenny Mendonca: California Needs to Press the Restart Button

A democratic revolution is brewing in California in the form of a Constitutional Convention that reformers are working to put on the ballot for November this year. More citizens every day are realizing that a clean slate - a fundamental break with today's dysfunction - is the only way to fix the messthat California's broken government has inflicted on its people.

The state has fallen far and fast. Our public schools, once the nation's best, are now among the worst. Our crumbling transportation and water systems were the envy of the world just a generation ago. Our business climate is ranked among the worst in the United States. California's prisons are so overcrowded that the state must turn loose tens of thousands of felons into its neighborhoods. Our higher education system - the once proud jewel of our economic success - is witnessing an academic talent flight, slashing the number of students it will accept and socking them with crushing fee increases.

SGA members brainstorm ideas for March 4 “Day of Action to Defend Education” | The Daily Collegian

SGA members brainstorm ideas for March 4 “Day of Action to Defend Education” | The Daily Collegian:

"On Thursday, Jan. 21, members of the University of Massachusetts Student Government Association (SGA) met to decide on a course of action for the “March 4 National Day of Action to Defend Education.”

The National Day of Action to Defend Education is an attempt at a national movement by students to raise awareness of the problems that educational institutions are faced with during the nation’s economic crisis.

Members of the SGA discussed possibilities to aid this national effort such as creating fliers and posters outlining facts and statistics about the University’s budget cuts, working with other registered student organizations to plan awareness events and creating a word-of-mouth campaign.� In order to hear out the views of all those present, the committee sat in a circle and each individual was given the opportunity to speak in a “go around.”"

Telegram.com - A product of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Telegram.com - A product of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has made a habit these last several years of using his annual budgets and state-of-the-state addresses to rail against alleged inequities in how the Golden State is treated by Washington, D.C. His state, Mr. Schwarzenegger complains, receives only 78 cents in federal aid for every dollar it sends to Washington, but gets no relief from federal mandates. The implication is clear: California should get more of its “own” money back to help close its multibillion dollar deficits.

There’s a lesson for other states in Mr. Schwarzenegger’s pique, but it isn’t what you might think. Californians — and other states grappling with deficits — should take a hard look at their own spending habits, rather than lining up at the federal trough and exclaiming, À la Oliver Twist, “Please sir, I want some more!” Massachusetts is also a “donor” state that sends more money to Washington than it gets back, but that fact alone does not prove any inequity exists. Nor would doling out more federal largess to donor states put an end to budgetary problems, in Sacramento, Boston or anyplace else.

The main reason a state becomes a net donor of funds to Uncle Sam is because it has high average incomes relative to the rest of the nation. Individuals and businesses in Massachusetts, California and other wealthy states simply pay more in federal taxes, while government assistance programs and formulas are designed to help those areas most in need — usually concentrated in states with a higher percentage of rural and low-income populations.

The reality, of course, is that Massachusetts is better off with its relatively wealthy and well-educated population, even if that means making do with less from Washington.

Kirschenbaum gets Superintendent of the Year honors from state education group - Whittier Daily News

Kirschenbaum gets Superintendent of the Year honors from state education group - Whittier Daily News:

"WHITTIER - Norm Kirschenbaum began his career in education as a teacher, working his way up to principal and superintendent at several area school districts, including Montebello Unified, Hacienda-La Puente Unified and Charter Oak Unified.

And his colleagues say it's his extensive K-12 experience that makes him so valuable in his current role as superintendent of the Tri-Cities Regional Occupational Program, a public school district that provides career training to students at the El Rancho Unified and Whittier Union High school districts.

'He's a great guy,' said Kathy Tryon, president of the Whittier Area School Administrators, which nominated Kirschenbaum for Superintendent of the Year honors for Region 15 of the"

Stanford receives record number of applications

Stanford receives record number of applications:

"Despite a shaky national economy, Stanford University has received a record number of applications for its fall freshman class."



With foreign applications still trickling in, the university already has topped last year's record of 30,428 applications overall, said Lisa Lapin, a university spokeswoman.
Only about 1,700 spots are available in the freshman class, which means a lot of high school seniors will be disappointed when the acceptance letters go out from the university in late March and early April.
"The number of applicants has been rising in recent years, and Stanford has been getting more and more selective," Lapin said. "Last year we had an acceptance rate of around 7 percent, which was the lowest in our history."
Stanford was the third-most-selective university in the country last year, behind Harvard and Yale. By contrast, the sprawling University of California system typically accepts about three-quarters of its freshman applicants, although that percentage is far lower at its most popular campuses, such as UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC San Diego.
Even Stanford's decision last February to boost the cost of tuition and room and boa


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/25/BAM81BLR9D.DTL#ixzz0ddCUScMl

Censorship settlement thrills speech advocates - SignOnSanDiego.com

Censorship settlement thrills speech advocates - SignOnSanDiego.com

FALLBROOK — Free-speech advocates are seeing a recent settlement of a lawsuit that challenged Fallbrook High School’s censorship of its student newspaper as a triumph that could send ripples throughout the country.

After last month’s settlement, school administrators nationwide will think twice before killing an article in their student paper just because they don’t like it, student-press advocates said.

The Fallbrook Union High School District’s attorneys have long maintained that administrators stepped in when they thought one article contained falsehoods, and when they suspected another article may have been written clandestinely by an adult.

School officials have an obligation to supervise student journalists and exert a certain degree of control over what is printed in student publications, the attorneys have said.

Advocates of student-press freedoms argue that California law is designed specifically to limit that control — even if students rarely challenge administrators who censor them.

“School attorneys are regularly advising their clients to go ahead and censor the newspaper because the risk of adverse consequences is remote,” said Frank LoMonte, executive director of the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Va. “The Fallbrook case is a two-by-four between their eyes, telling them the consequences are potentially great. … The settlement is still very new, but I guarantee you we will be citing this settlement as a cautionary tale to other school districts about the consequences of overreaching.”

Schwarzenegger's budget plan puts unions in the cross-hairs - latimes.com

Schwarzenegger's budget plan puts unions in the cross-hairs - latimes.com

Widespread teacher layoffs, larger class sizes and increased economic hardship for children are among the impacts California's budget crisis and the recession have had on public schools, including those in Monterey County, according to a new report.

Researchers at UCLA's Institute for Democracy, Education and Access interviewed 87 elementary, middle and high principals across California to gauge the impact of the recession and budget cuts on student welfare and school learning environments.

Before the recession began, California K-12 public schools, which were among the nation's best in the 1960s, already ranked near the bottom nationally in many measures of academic achievement and school quality.

The economic downturn and state budget crisis has undermined recent academic gains and widened the disparity between schools in rich and poor communities, said John Rogers, the institute's director.

"It's taken California several steps backward on the road to improvement," Rogers said. "It's also harmed the long-term prospects for California to rebuild a quality education system."

Report: California's public schools reeling from recession | thecalifornian.com | The Salinas Californian

Report: California's public schools reeling from recession | thecalifornian.com | The Salinas Californian

Widespread teacher layoffs, larger class sizes and increased economic hardship for children are among the impacts California's budget crisis and the recession have had on public schools, including those in Monterey County, according to a new report.

Researchers at UCLA's Institute for Democracy, Education and Access interviewed 87 elementary, middle and high principals across California to gauge the impact of the recession and budget cuts on student welfare and school learning environments.

Before the recession began, California K-12 public schools, which were among the nation's best in the 1960s, already ranked near the bottom nationally in many measures of academic achievement and school quality.

The economic downturn and state budget crisis has undermined recent academic gains and widened the disparity between schools in rich and poor communities, said John Rogers, the institute's director.

"It's taken California several steps backward on the road to improvement," Rogers said. "It's also harmed the long-term prospects for California to rebuild a quality education system."

Education is Challenger's challenge - latimes.com

Education is Challenger's challenge - latimes.com

Challenger Memorial Youth Center in Lancaster is both Los Angeles County's largest juvenile detention camp and its greatest failure.

It costs as much as $50,000 a year to house a youth at Challenger -- about the same amount as tuition and room and board at an Ivy League university. But that's where the comparison ends. The facility's school is appalling, with 95% of its students scoring below proficiency on state exams.

Challenger is the target of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into mistreatment and poor supervision of the 650 students housed at the facility's six juvenile camps. It was cited in a 2009 county Probation Commission report as operating a "broken" school system. And this month, our coalition of nonprofit organizations filed a lawsuit asking that the county be ordered to meet at least minimum standards in educating our community's most at-risk youth.

A young man we identify in court papers as Casey A. was kept in custody at Challenger during his high school years and given a high school diploma late last year, despite being unable to read or write. Rather than coming up with a strategy that would teach him to read, a teacher at Challenger appointed a "para-educator" to read assignments out loud to him. Knowing that Casey was illiterate, the staff fed him answers so that he could pass the required state exams. 

Media-Newswire.com - Press Release Distribution - PR Agency

Media-Newswire.com - Press Release Distribution - PR Agency

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (www.ucr.edu) -- Alfredo A. Martinez-Morales has been named managing director of the Southern California Research Initiative for Solar Energy (SC-RISE), a new and innovative collaboration between researchers, industry and government based at UC Riverside's College of Engineering-Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT).

(Media-Newswire.com) - RIVERSIDE, Calif. ( www.ucr.edu ) -- Alfredo A. Martinez-Morales has been named managing director of the Southern California Research Initiative for Solar Energy ( SC-RISE ), a new and innovative collaboration between researchers, industry and government based at UC Riverside's College of Engineering-Center for Environmental Research and Technology ( CE-CERT ). “To fulfill its mission of being a catalyst for the adoption of affordable solar energy, SC-RISE must be about education, applied technology, research and especially connections with those in Southern California who are concerned with sustainable energy,” said Matthew Barth, faculty director for CE-CERT, who announced the appointment. “Alfredo brings us the expertise to move that diverse agenda forward.” As managing director, Martinez-Morales will be responsible for the day-to-day operation of the initiative and moving forward its multiple goals. SC-RISE was created to advance solar energy technologies, train professionals for the industry, nurture new businesses and assist commercial and residential energy users in identifying appropriate applications for solar energy. Martinez-Morales received his Ph.D., M.S. and B.S. degrees in electrical engineering from UCR. He served as laboratory manager for Professor Mihrimah Ozkan’s Biomedical Science and Nanotechnology Laboratory, which focuses on silicon photovoltaics and low-cost, hybrid polymer-carbon nanotube solar devices that can be deposited on flexible or hard surfaces.

Despite problems, laptops boost student test scores

Despite problems, laptops boost student test scores

Despite problems, laptops boost student test scores

By John Timmer | Last updated January 25, 2010 6:30 AM

Flickr user billaday

The past several years have seen laptop prices plunge to commodity levels at the same time that the explosion in WiFi access has made getting them on the 'Net much easier. That's prompted an explosion of one-to-one student:laptop programs, implemented by everything from individual schools to entire states. Hard data on the effectiveness of these programs, however, has been hard to come by. The most recent issue ofThe Journal of Technology, Learning and Assessmentis devoted to looking at these programs, and it includes some hard data suggesting that they just might help students handle standardized tests.

There are six papers, all dedicated to looking at different attempts at 1:1 laptop programs at different levels of primary education in the US. A few of those are focused on self-reported surveys of how teachers and students view the programs, however; there are only two that focus on hard numbers obtained via statewide standardized tests.

Microsoft and the Corporation for National and Community Service Launch New Initiative to Promote Student Leadership... -- WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --

Microsoft and the Corporation for National and Community Service Launch New Initiative to Promote Student Leadership... -- WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --

Six schools highlight how others can connect service and technology to transform learning

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today, Microsoft Corp. and the Corporation for National and Community Service announced six schools -- from California,Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia -- have been selected to participate in the Service & Technology Academic Resource Team (START). The initiative recognizes the leadership shown by students and teachers in schools across America who are working together in meaningful ways to revitalize learning, schools and communities through the use of technology.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000822/MSFTLOGO)

START redefines the role of the student in the classroom and creates a new kind of collaboration between students and teachers through technology-focused service-learning. The goal is to utilize the technology skills of students to partner with teachers and determine where technology best fits into the learning environment. The selected schools will receive grants and serve as national laboratory sites and as examples of how schools can integrate service-learning and technology into the classroom. The schools will present their scalable best practices today for Karen Cator, director of Education Technology for the U.S. Department of Education.

Doyle should copy the Terminator on prisons

Doyle should copy the Terminator on prisons:

"State of the State addresses are, for the most part, desultory speeches that only serve to remind voters of what is not being done -- or, when governors are in promising mode, what will not be done.

It is even worse when the executives peddling the rhetoric are lame-duck governors who are counting down the days to the end of their terms.

That’s the circumstance Gov. Jim Doyle will find himself in this week as he delivers his final State of the State address to Wisconsinites, who polls suggest have soured on his plodding approach to governing.

Doyle does not have to go out as an uninspired manager, however. He has one last chance to be a visionary player in the affairs of a state that he has served for the better part of two decades as attorney general and governor."

Could California School Reforms Eventually Reach N.C.? - State - News : Lincoln Tribune : Instant, reliable and credible local news.

Could California School Reforms Eventually Reach N.C.? - State - News : Lincoln Tribune : Instant, reliable and credible local news.:

"RALEIGH — On Jan. 7, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed sweeping school reform legislation that many observers are heralding as historic and bold, providing parents a greater voice not only in choosing a school that best serves their children but also in petitioning school boards to fix persistently failing schools.

This legislation lets California compete for up to $700 million of the $4.3 billion in competitive grants available to states through the Obama administration’s Race to the Top program. State leaders filed the application in time for the Jan. 19 deadline.

The Race to the Top initiative, authorized by Congress in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, is intended to provide states with incentives for future education improvements and to reward those that have demonstrated a history of improving student academic performance."

California schools angry over even more cuts - San Jose Mercury News

California schools angry over even more cuts - San Jose Mercury News:

"Despite Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proclaiming this month that his proposed budget 'protects education,' school administrators say they will actually lose about $200 per student under Sacramento's version of new math.

Already distraught about having to make significant cuts, largely because of the loss of one-time federal stimulus funds, school administrators are furious about what they see as the governor's false promise.

'His idea of no cuts to education is baloney,' said Superintendent Marc Liebman of the Berryessa Union School District. 'We're looking at deficits of almost $8 million.'

The numbers are similar for other districts dependent on Sacramento for the bulk of their revenue. The Cupertino Union School District faces cutting an estimated $8.8 million, Gilroy Unified $6.3 million and San Jose Unified $10.5 million."

Editorial: Sac City schools ripe for a new era - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial | Sacramento Bee

Editorial: Sac City schools ripe for a new era - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial | Sacramento Bee:

"In just six months, Californians have seen a welcome shift in the public education landscape. President Barack Obama's Race to the Top challenge provided the impetus for California lawmakers, school superintendents and boards, parents, teachers and civic leaders to join forces in new ways to improve public education.

In coming months, a prime area for action at the local level will be getting the right teachers to the right schools and creating schedules that meet the needs of today's students."

That includes getting beyond 19th-century farm economy scheduling to a longer school day and year. It also means challenging everybody to think differently about the role of unions in public education.

As U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a speech last year, teachers unions are at a crossroads. Policies created over the past century, he said, "protect the rights of teachers, but they have produced an industrial factory model of education that treats all teachers like interchangeable widgets."

He's encouraging union-management partnerships "to develop better hiring, compensation, evaluation and turnaround strategies."

Some Foundations, Too, Are Quitting California | California Progress Report

Some Foundations, Too, Are Quitting California | California Progress Report

Gates and Hewlett, two leading foundations that have been generous supporters of major California programs and organizations in education and many other fields are said to be so frustrated by the state’s lack of leadership, its legislative gridlock and the power of public sector unions in blocking reforms that they’re sharply reducing their funding in California.

Although no one will speak on the record, it’s no secret among state education officials and leaders of at least some of the organizations that have been beneficiaries of those foundations that they will probably lose major chunks of their funding. Both foundations, said a Sacramento-based education consultant, “Have in many ways given up on California.”

The two foundations’ current beneficiaries include, among many others, the Public Policy Institute of California, the Bay Area Council, the California Budget Project, the University of California, Stanford, the California Counties Educational Services Association, the Los Angeles Unified School District, EdSource, the Community College Foundation, the City and County of San Francisco, the Butte Community College Foundation, and the New Teacher Center.  How many of them will be affected is anyone’s guess.