Jerry Large | What kids in poverty really need | Seattle Times Newspaper

Jerry Large | What kids in poverty really need | Seattle Times Newspaper

What kids in poverty really need

People who wind up in Washington's child- welfare system are often beset by "profound deprivation."

Jerry Large

Seattle Times staff columnist

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People who wind up in Washington's child- welfare system are often beset by "profound deprivation."

Mark Courtney, whose organization conducted a study of the system, told me the depth of poverty has been a surprise even to people who regularly deal with child welfare.

Data from a new study shows half of those families had problems securing housing, some were homeless, and two-thirds were so broke they needed food stamps.

The study is part of an effort to transform the way this state helps its most endangered children, and it underscores the need to address poverty as a core part of that effort.

The study was done for the Department of Health and Human Services, which usually makes news only when something has gone terribly wrong and the lawyers are circling.

But the people it serves and the rest of us desperately need for it to work well. That is especially true when children's futures and even their lives are at stake.

That is why the agency is in the midst of a transformation in its approach to the deep problems we ask it to solve.

I actually feel upbeat about the prospects after a conversation with Courtney, who holds the Ballmer Endowed

Students say assault report is lacking | Philadelphia Inquirer | 03/14/2010

Students say assault report is lacking | Philadelphia Inquirer | 03/14/2010

Students say assault report is lacking

By Jeff Gammage and Kristen A. Graham

Inquirer Staff Writers

Duyngoc Truong is a lithe, 16-year-old junior who stands 5-foot-3 and weighs 108 pounds.

At dismissal Dec. 3, she was chased through the streets outside South Philadelphia High School until she ran out of room to run, pinned against a brick wall of the St. Agnes Continuing Care Center by a mob of a hundred, and pummeled about the face and head.

"I thought, 'Oh, my God, maybe I'm going to die,' " she said.

She told her story to an investigator who helped compile the official school-district report on the Dec. 3 violence. But in an interview, Truong disputed how the report describes a key part of the assault.

Interviews with six Asian students and a legal complaint obtained by the newspaper show:

The students say investigators ignored crucial portions of their accounts of the violence.

Youths insist that interviewers cut off their attempts to place the Dec. 3 violence in the context of years of assaults against Asian students.

At least 26 separate assaults against Asian students occurred during the 2008-09 school year alone, the complaint says.

Retired federal judge James Giles, who conducted the inquiry at the request of Superintendent Arlene Ackerman, said his report was objective, balanced, and aimed at discovering the truth.

Neither he nor his staff blocked any student's attempt to describe earlier incidents at the school, he said, and all of the interviewed students were afforded full opportunity to tell all that they knew.

"The first question," Giles said, "was what do you know of your own personal knowledge? What have you heard, if anything, and is there anything that you'd like to say that we haven't asked you about?"

Anyone with additional information should report it to the district, he said. In fact, "if the school district wants me to do a further investigation, I'd be happy to," he said.

Among the incidents recounted in the Feb. 23 Giles report is the horrific dismissal-time attack on 10 Vietnamese students outside the school. The report says the students were assaulted after "something" - unknown and unidentified - caused them to run from their adult escorts and into danger.

Activists criticize Mass. anti-bullying bill :: EDGE Boston

Activists criticize Mass. anti-bullying bill :: EDGE Boston

Activists criticize Mass. anti-bullying bill
by Peter Cassels
EDGE Contributor
Monday Mar 15, 2010

Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover hanged himself last April after classmates harassed him because they thought he was gay. His death was one of two that motivated lawmakers to strengthen the Commonwealth’s anti-bullying law. Email Print Share

Activists continue to lament the fact Massachusetts legislators have not included LGBT-specific language in a bill that would strengthen a law against bullying and harassment in the classroom.

Activists lobbying to include what they call enumerative language to cover sexual orientation and gender identity and expression attribute the omission to the "Scott Brown effect" and the anti-incumbency mood among voters. Massachusetts voters elected Brown to succeed the late U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy in January, but activists maintain lawmakers don’t want to give conservatives ammunition that would jeopardize their re-election chances in November.

The state Senate unanimously approved the anti-bullying bill on Thursday, March 11. It now moves to the House of Representatives, where it is expected to pass. Governor Deval Patrick, a Democrat running for re-election in what recent polls show is a close race, has said he will sign it into law.

Activists maintain the overwhelmingly Democratic Legislature is leery of giving opponents ammunition by conferring what conservatives call "special rights" for LGBTs.

"You have a toxic environment in both the Senate and the House in view of anti-incumbent, anti-legislative sentiment in the populace at the moment," Dee Dee Edmondson, political director for MassEquality, told EDGE in an interview before the Senate passed the proposed legislation. "Obviously that was shown in the Brown election. People are very nervous."

She explained not including enumerative language is part of a trickle-down effect.

'T' is for 'Texas Textbooks' - Page 1 - The Daily Beast

'T' is for 'Texas Textbooks' - Page 1 - The Daily Beast

'T' is for 'Texas Textbooks'

by Diane Ravitch

The Lone Star State mandates the teaching of patriotism—and promotes ignorance in the process.

Here is a newsflash from Texas: The conservative majority of the Texas State Board of Education adopted new guidelines for social-studies textbooks that reflect their conservative political views. The new guidelines will emphasize the Christian beliefs of the Founding Fathers. Students in Texas will be expected to learn about the emergence of the conservative movement in the 1980s and 1990s. The new textbooks are supposed to promote patriotism and respect for the “free-enterprise system.”

“Having a public agency decide which textbooks are right and what facts should be added or deleted is nonsensical. It is equivalent to having a public agency review movies and tell us which we will be allowed to see at taxpayer expense.”

No surprise here. For many years, the Texas state board has been telling textbook publishers what should appear in the books that the state will buy for its students. Nineteen other states decide which textbooks will qualify for “adoption” in their public schools. Books that are not approved by the state board cannot be purchased with state funds. This is a very powerful lever to bring about revisions in the textbooks. The two most consequential of the so-called adoption states are Texas and California, because they have the largest number of students and therefore the most clout with publishers. When Texas or California speak, publishers listen and change their textbooks to comply.

Typically, the Texas board demands that the textbooks, especially in history and science, toe the conservative line, while California insists that the textbooks it buys for grades K-8 comply with its “social content” guidelines, which require positive representations of all groups in society. Unlike California, which buys textbooks statewide for grades K-8, Texas buys textbooks en masse for all grades, so it has a lot of influence on high-school textbooks.

Given the strong conservative hold on the elected state board in Texas, it is not surprising that the board demands that its textbooks are patriotic and respectful of religion. Given the strong liberal character of California politics, it is not surprising that its state guidelines demand equal time and respectful representation of gender groups, ethnic and racial groups, and all minorities.

In 2003, I described the absurdities of the textbook adoption process in a book titledThe Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Children Learn. I showed how all sorts of groups from different ends of the political spectrum have used the textbook adoptions to impose their agenda. Feminists went before state boards to demand the excision of all words, phrases, and images that were offensive to them; consequently, textbook publishers gathered long lists of words that were banned from textbooks (and tests, as well). Thus, children are spared ever having to see the

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

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

UC Berkeley professor to speak on public university funding crisis

Ananya Roy, a University of California at Berkeley professor who has worked to fight higher education budget cuts in her state, will speak at 4 p.m. Friday, March 26, at the University of Iowa Main Library's Shambaugh Auditorium. (Media-Newswire.com) - Ananya Roy, a University of California at Berkeley professor who has worked to fight higher education budget cuts in her state, will speak at 4 p.m. Friday, March 26, at the University of Iowa Main Library's Shambaugh Auditorium. The University Lecture Committee is presenting the lecture, "The Crisis of the Public Universities: Old and New Struggles and Solidarities." It is free and open to the public. Roy is a member of SAVE the University, a faculty group formed at UC Berkeley in response to the budget cuts and fee hikes, and of Solidarity Alliance, a collaboration between the faculty, student and worker movements at UC Berkeley. She will be speaking about the current plight of the public university given the present economic climate. Roy teaches at UC Berkeley, which is in a sense the front line in the battle to keep public universities intact, said Lecture Committee member Kathryn Lavezzo, associate professor in the UI Department of English in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Roy is a professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley, where she teaches in the fields of comparative urban studies and international development. She also serves as education director of the Blum Center for Developing Economies and as co-director of the Global Metropolitan Studies Center. In 2006, Roy was awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award, the highest teaching honor UC Berkeley bestows on its faculty. Also in 2006, Roy was awarded the Distinguished Faculty Mentors award, a recognition bestowed by the Graduate Assembly of UC Berkeley. In 2008, Roy was the recipient of the Golden Apple Teaching award, the only teaching award given by the student body. Most recently, Roy was named 2009 California Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie

News: The Shrunken Student Aid Bill - Inside Higher Ed

News: The Shrunken Student Aid Bill - Inside Higher Ed

The Shrunken Student Aid Bill

March 15, 2010

WASHINGTON -- As Congressional Democrats and the White House begin a last-ditch push to pass legislation to overhaul health care this week, it remains far from certain that a plan to revamp the student loan programs will be merged into the health legislation. While the odds of that happening are better than not, it is still possible that Democrat leaders will decide to ditch or postpone action on the student aid measure if they conclude that it could discourage even a few key lawmakers from supporting the health care bill.

But after several intense days of behind-the-scenes negotiations, a few things have become clear(er) about the stripped-down student aid bill that Congress may consider in the coming days:

• The measure will fall well short of the Obama administration's original proposal to transform the student aid programs, giving President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan few of the policy changes and accountability tools they'd hoped for.
• Pell Grants would remain the legislation's top priority, although because of the program's rapidly escalating costs, the value of the maximum grant would rise less than originally planned.
• Community colleges will get little or none of nearly $10 billion they'd been slated to receive.
• Historically black, Hispanic and other colleges could benefit because Democratic leaders are afraid of angering small but powerful blocs of minority members of Congress.
• Some of the savings from the loan overhaul may be used to help pay for health care reform.

As of late Sunday, the situation surrounding the health/financial aid

Higher ed cuts the true madness of this March | OregonLive.com

Higher ed cuts the true madness of this March | OregonLive.com

Higher ed cuts the true madness of this March

By David Sarasohn, The Oregonian

March 14, 2010, 1:43PM

This week marks the kickoff of the NCAA college basketball playoffs, perhaps the last remaining occasion when Americans use "college" and "revenue increase" in the same sentence. But this month, higher education started March Madness a little early.Higher ed

March 4, college students demonstrated in Oregon and throughout the country to point out they're being charged considerably more and getting less and less, and that the basic quality of the country's higher education system is starting to wobble.

"It's addressing a growing trend and an economic crisis facing students across the nation," explained Stephanie Rio Collier, a Portland State junior and part of a demonstration by several hundred PSU students. They were especially concerned, said Collier, about possible Oregon University System reorganizations that might produce sharply higher tuition and even more student debt.

There are two clear points to make about this:

1. The PSU students, and the ones across the country, are absolutely right.

2. They haven't seen anything yet.

The next legislative sessions around the country, when state budgets will be far from recovering and when federal stimulus money will be gone --at this point, states will be mostly on their own facing combined deficits that could top $200 billion --could be the worst moment for higher education since the end of mandatory Latin.

Warned state Rep. Chip Limehouse, chairman of the higher education subcommittee in the South Carolina House of Representatives, "Next year is going to be an iceberg looming for higher education."

Number of illegal immigrants getting in-state tuition for Texas colleges rises | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Latest News

Number of illegal immigrants getting in-state tuition for Texas colleges rises | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News| Latest News

Number of illegal immigrants getting in-state tuition for Texas colleges rises

12:17 AM CDT on Monday, March 15, 2010

By KATHERINE LEAL UNMUTH / The Dallas Morning News
kunmuth@dallasnews.com

The number of illegal immigrant college students paying in-state tuition and receiving financial aid at Texas' public colleges and universities continues to climb, according to state higher education records.

During the fall semester, 12,138 students – about 1 percent of all Texascollege students – benefited from the state law granting in-state tuition, according to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Most of the immigrants among those students are illegal, and some others are not legal permanent residents or U.S. citizens.

Texas awarded about $33.6 million in state and institutional financial aid to those students between fall 2004 and summer 2008.

In 2001, Texas became the first state in the country to pass an in-state tuition law. The law created a national movement. Many private universities also now award aid to illegal immigrant students.

Now some of the students are graduating but unable to work legally as professionals. Julie, 29, who moved from Mexico to Austin at age 12, earned a degree in nursing from the University of Texas. She is unable to work, so instead she volunteers in Dallas.

"You have people here, and they're trained," said Julie, who did not want her last name used because of her immigration status. "The state has invested in us, so why not let us be contributing members of society and our community?"

But immigration reform has stalled. Congress has repeatedly failed to pass the Dream Act, a proposal that would put the students on a path to citizenship.

Critics question how much tuition discounts and state financial aid cost

A District at Risk The Desert Independent

The Desert Independent

A District at Risk By ROBERT E. JENSEN The Desert Independent March 14, 2010 BLYTHE, Calif – Back in 1983, the Department of Education under then-Secretary Terrell H. Bell published a study of the educational morass in the United States entitled “A Nation at Risk.” Its headline-grabbing prologue stated that: If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. As it stands, we have allowed this to happen to ourselves. We have even squandered the gains in student achievement made in the wake of the Sputnik challenge. Moreover, we have dismantled essential support systems which helped make those gains possible. We have, in effect, been committing an act of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament. Couple this observation from 27 years ago with the current state of education in California and, especially, in the Palo Verde Unified School District and read on. The (Riverside) Press-Enterprise printed an article on Saturday in which it declared numerous schools in the Inland Empire to be among the “worst in California.” To wit: Sixteen Inland schools made a list of the lowest performing campuses in the state, but officials said Monday they are working to reverse the trends. The schools are on the preliminary list of the bottom 5 percent in academic performance. The California Department of Education released the first-ever list on Monday. Each campus must choose one of four school improvement models required by state and federal law. Most of the schools are listed because of low test scores, but five were identified for low graduation rates. These schools were mainly located in San Bernardino with mentions of Alvord, Coachella, Moreno Valley and Perris as far as Riverside County goes, but there was no mention of the Palo Verde Unified School District. To read the entire article, click HERE. Why no mention of the schools in PVUSD? Well, as observers of this newspaper would report, over the past 15 years the Press-Enterprise has concluded that Blythe is apparently not located in

The Daily Aztec - FREEDOM HAWK: Protesters do not recognize fiscal reality

The Daily Aztec - FREEDOM HAWK: Protesters do not recognize fiscal reality

FREEDOM HAWK: Protesters do not recognize fiscal reality

By Patrick Walsh, Staff Columnist

|

Published: Sunday, March 14, 2010

Updated: Monday, March 15, 2010

Last week many students, faculty and staff from the 10 campuses in the University of California system walked out of class for a demonstration billed “Day of Action to Defend Education.” The march was in protest of the so-called “tax” — as professors and members of the UC and California State University system have labeled it — according towww.wsj.com. This was quite odd; during most large and unfair tax increases in our state, you generally don’t see an uproar from America’s most progressive public university system. But this tuition increase, which has been presented by the UC system as a $662 tax hike for college students according to www.wsj.com, has gotten their attention.

Apparently professors and students can’t understand the difference between a reduction in a state subsidy and an increase in taxes. Our state’s school system is one of the most heavily tax-payer funded systems in America. To put it another way, the tax-paying residents of California pay more for our public education than the residents of any other state.

When speaking about the university budget shortfalls, UC president Mark Yudof said, “You can protest. You can put up signs – at Berkeley they like to occupy the trees and run nude – but the answer is ‘I still don’t have the money,’” according to www.wsj.com.

This is a fair assessment by Yudof, who has tried to push the protest attention off himself and project it on the state legislature. But in reality, Sacramento doesn’t have the money either. Our state is facing a $20 billion budget shortfall. Unlike the federal government, which can keep printing more and more money as the value of the dollar continues to crumble, states must work with the budgets they have, or face cuts.

I do think there is something for UC and CSU students to learn from this; it might be what President Barack Obama

Obama Wants 'No Child Left Behind' Law Overhauled : NPR

Obama Wants 'No Child Left Behind' Law Overhauled : NPR

Obama Wants 'No Child Left Behind' Law Overhauled

by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

text sizeAAA

March 14, 2010

President Barack Obama is promising parents and their kids that with his administration's help they will have better teachers in improved schools so U.S. students can make up for academic ground lost against youngsters in other countries.

Related NPR Stories

Proposed Set Of U.S. Academic Standards UnveiledMarch 10, 2010

March 13, 2010

Education Secretary Addresses Rising College Costs

[7 min 15 sec]

A plan to overhaul the 2002 education law championed by President George W. Bush was unveiled by the Obama administration Saturday in hopes of replacing a system that in the last decade has tagged more than a third of schools as failing and created a hodgepodge of sometimes weak academic standards among states.

"Unless we take action — unless we step up — there are countless children who will never realize their full talent and potential," Obama said during a video address on Saturday. "I don't accept that future for them. And I don't accept that future for the United States of America."

In the proposed dismantling of the No Child Left Behind law, education officials would move away from punishing schools that don't meet benchmarks and focus on rewarding schools for progress, particularly with poor and minority students. Obama intends to send a rewrite to Congress on Monday of the law.

Unless we take action -- unless we step up -- there are countless children who will never realize their full talent and potential.

- President Obama

The proposed changes call for states to adopt standards that ensure students are ready for college or a career rather than grade-level proficiency — the focus of the current law.

The blueprint also would allow states to use subjects other than reading and mathematics as part of their measurements for meeting federal goals, pleasing many education groups that have said No Child Left Behind encouraged teachers not to focus on history, art, science, social studies and other important subjects.

And, for the first time in 45 years, the White House is proposing a $4 billion increase in federal education spending, most of which would go to increase the competition among states for grant money and move away from formula-based funding.

Education: The Travesty of Education Budget Cuts | Psychology Today

Education: The Travesty of Education Budget Cuts | Psychology Today

Education: The Travesty of Education Budget Cuts

Are public education budget cuts a travesty?

Published on March 14, 2010

I've been hearing so much about budget cuts to public education in the news lately. Last week, there were demonstrations all over the Bay Area protesting the massive budget cuts to public colleges, and secondary and elementary schools throughout California. And these protests weren't just on the college campuses of Berkeley, Santa Cruz, and Davis, but also at elementary and high schools with kids and parents expressing their outrage. It's particularly unsettling for me because our eldest daughter will be going to kindergarten next year and we've been touring the local schools. The constant drumbeat we hear from administrators, teachers, and parents is how painful it is to have to fire teachers, reduce or eliminate teachers' aides and specialists, scrap arts, language, and physical education programs, and increase class sizes.

Public education used to be the foundation of our country and a model for education all over the world. It was responsible for upward mobility, the establishment of the middle class, and the basis for financial security for the vast majority of our citizens. It was also the springboard to higher education, providing students with the information and skill sets they needed to succeed in college and beyond. In other words, it was the basis for the American Dream.

The dreaded March 15 puts teachers on notice

The dreaded March 15 puts teachers on notice

The dreaded March 15 puts teachers on notice

“The Ides of March is the name of March 15 in the Roman calendar. The term ides was used for the 15^th day of the months of March, May, July and October. The Ides of March was a festive day dedicated to the god Mars and a military parade was usually held. In modern times, the term Ides of March is best known as the date that Julius Caesar was killed.”

Caesar was famously warned in William Shakespeare’s play to “beware the Ides of March.”

Two thousand years later, the 15^th of March has similar connotations for modern-day teachers who dread the day for its association with layoff notices, a death of sorts – an annual exercise that saps enthusiasm, kills motivation and inspires dread and gloom.

Certainly the Roman God of War, Mars, is an apt symbol for the date, with picketing protesters and chanting demonstrators substituting for military parades.

With California’s education budget in tatters, it is any wonder that a nearly visible pall hangs over schools these days? You can feel the despair in the air if you visit classrooms, talk to educators or listen to administrators.

San Diego Unified school board member Katherine Nakamura painted the picture vividly when she told me the need for funding is so desperate that she feels like she’s standing on a street corner rattling a tin cup, begging for money for kids any way she can.

The deplorable state of the education budget has extended all the way through college, affecting higher education as well as students in kindergarten through 12^th grade, the public has been led to believe.

But despite the attention on University of California and California State University funding woes – underscored by all the reports of demonstrating college students opposing tuition hikes – the numbers tell a different story.

Read more: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2010-03-15/blog/teachable-moments/the-dreaded-march-15-puts-teachers-on-notice#ixzz0iFL5aILJ