Friday, April 2, 2010

Could Parcel Tax Save SD Schools? | KPBS.org

More and more school districts in California are turning to a parcel tax -- a flat fee for every parcel of land owned by a resident regardless of worth -- which would go directly to the school district, not to Sacramento. San Francisco is the largest school district to have passed one so far. Would San Diegans support such a tax?

BY PAT FINN, TOM FUDGE

April 1, 2010

Enlarge this image

Photo by Ana Tintocalis

Above: Danielle Zdunich, a teacher at McKinley Elementary School, reads a book to her students, March 2010.

SAN DIEGO — TOM FUDGE (Host): I’m Tom Fudge, and you’re listening to These Days on KPBS. Maintaining the quality of public education takes money. And money for schools has been short in California ever since the passage of Prop 13. Things have only gotten worst in our current recession. And yet, there is a way to raise more money for schools: passing a parcel tax. San Francisco passed one, and now the San Diego Unified School District is weighing the possibility of doing the same. Like all local tax increases in California, this would require voter approval. Joining me to talk about parcel taxes, and what are the chances we may actually get one in San Diego, is Ana Tintocalis. And Ana Tintocalis is the KPBS News education

This Week In Education DUI: Drunk Driving Infractions By School Leaders

This Week In Education

DUI: Drunk Driving Infractions By School Leaders

by Alexander Russo

Washington State superintendent of schools Randy Dorn apologized last week for driving while intoxicated. It happened after a community crab feed. It sounds like he might have had his family in the car with him. But it took a lot of effort from beat reporters to get the documents that forced the apology, according to the paper that broke the story. And it's not the first time it's happened to a state education chief or other education muckety-muck. And sometimes it ends tragically.

Other incidents:

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee's 10-county school system got his SECOND DUI in the fall, according to this

Competition Will Be Fierce for 'i3' Grants - Politics K-12 - Education Week

Competition Will Be Fierce for 'i3' Grants

By Michele McNeil on April 2, 2010 12:23 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

About 2,490 districts and nonprofits have indicated they are going to throw their hats into the ring in hopes of nabbing part of the $650 million Investing in Innovation grant program.

That is going to require a lot of peer reviewers.

Yesterday was the deadline for applicants interested in the i3 program to file an optional notice of intent to apply with the U.S. Department of Education. This wasn't required, nor is filing a notice binding. An applicant can later decide not to apply, and those who didn't notify the department can still apply (think Michigan and Race to the Top.)

That count is very unofficial, as the U.S. Department of Education hasn't yet

Westboro Baptist Church to be Rejected by Protesting Students - National Student News Service

Westboro Baptist Church to be Rejected by Protesting Students

Date: 4/2/2010 11:06 am

Members of the Student Government Association at Virginia Tech are collaborating with members of the Blacksburg community to counteract a protest by the Westboro Baptist Church in downtown Blacksburg. The church has become controversial for running the site godhatesfags.com, among other things. Church members plan to conclude their protest in front of the Virginia Tech Hillel chapter at the Jewish Community Center in Blacksburg.

The independent Baptist church, founded by Fred Phelps in Topeka, Kansas, is widely considered to be a hate group, known for protesting at military funerals and for their use of strong anti-Semitic, anti-gay rhetoric, according to the Collegiate Times.

Church officials said that they were protesting over the shooting death of Virginia Tech senior Morgan Harrington, who went missing after attending a Metallica concert in October 2009 and whose body was found last month. Outside reports of the planned protest claimed that the church’s protests were related to the April 2007 shootings on the Tech

L.A. Unified manager indicted for alleged conflict of interest - latimes.com

L.A. Unified manager indicted for alleged conflict of interest

A grand jury says subcontractor Bassam Raslan steered business from the huge school-building effort to a firm he co-owned. The district is criticized for failing to step in.

A grand jury has indicted a top Los Angeles Unified School District manager for allegedly funneling business from the district's massive school-building effort to a company he co-owned, highlighting possible flaws in the way one of the nation's largest public-works projects has been overseen.

The indictment charges Bassam Raslan with nine counts, accusing him of conflict of interest. But it also takes the school district to task for failing to prevent the alleged crime even though it knew of his interest in the company.

"LAUSD management knew of this but did not direct Mr. Raslan's supervisors to take action or implement specific policies to prevent" the conflict, the grand jury said. "LAUSD senior management did not implement any effective means of preventing conflict of interest other than relying on those committing the crime to self report."

The indictment comes three years after a Times investigation raised questions about the ability of Raslan's company to win lucrative school district contracts while he worked as a regional director of construction.

Details about the contracts, including how much money was involved, remained under seal Thursday, and prosecutors said they could not provide more information because state law prevents them from discussing secret grand jury testimony.

L.A. Unified hired Raslan, 52, to help oversee its $20-billion school construction effort. He worked as subcontactor rather than adistrict employee. The district has relied heavily on contractors to supervise construction, defending the practice as a way to attract higher-quality employees while providing the flexibility to quickly increase or reduce their numbers as needed.

The indictment is the latest black eye for L.A. Unified's building program. An internal audit completed last year found that consultants working for the program cost taxpayers 70% more than if

Our Kitchen Table The Women's Conference

Our Kitchen Table

The Women's Conference

We explore timely issues that shape our own lives and connect with people who are changing the lives of others. Feel it. Use it. Pass it on. Then join us on our Community Forum. Tell us what you’re thinking.

Architects of Change

The Educated Reporter: Tuition Free?

Tuition Free?

by Charles Lussier

OK, Pet Peeve Time, readers of The Educated Reporter. Why is that so many charter schools in their promotional messages describe themselves as "tuition free"? I understand that people often are confused about what charter schools are or are not, but they are emphatically public schools, not private schools.

At a recent meeting I attended where a new Baton Rouge charter school was selling itself, the school's director used this "tuition free" phrase. He said he'd worked at private schools and public schools and that charter schools were in the middle, "the best of both worlds." Now, I understand a bit of what he's saying -- they are open to everyone, but have more freedom than traditional public schools -- but come on! These are public schools, no question. Yes, some raise private money on the side to supplement their budgets, but so do many

State names second virtual charter school | Indianapolis Business Journal | IBJ.com

State names second virtual charter school

The Indiana Department of Education announced today it has tapped a western Indiana charter school to create the second publicly supported online school in the state.

Rural Community Academy in Sullivan, south of Terre Haute, can enroll as many as 280 students in grades 1-8 for the 2010-11 academic year. Those students would do most of their work from home, accessing lectures and school materials via the Internet.

As a charter school, Rural Community will receive state funds for each student it enrolls.

The state’s only existing online charter school, the Hoosier Academy Virtual Pilot School, started last fall. It is operated by Hoosier Academies, which also runs two brick-and-mortar charter schools in Indianapolis and Muncie.

The virtual Hoosier Academy can enroll as many as 220 students in grades 1-6.

Virtual charter schools have been controversial in Indiana. In 2007, two virtual charter schools started signing up students, but then the Indiana State Teachers Association and many legislators objected. They questioned the quality of online education and said it was unclear whether virtual charter schools should receive as much per-student funding as other state-supported schools do.

In 2009, the legislature approved a two-year pilot program for virtual charters, promising to pay 80 percent of tuition for as many as 500

Education Week American Education News Site of Record

TOP STORIES — NOW FREE | MORE Free Content

$3.4 Billion Is Left in Race to Top Aid

Federal grants to Delaware and Tennessee set the dynamic for the next round of funding decisions.

• Race to Top Win Poses $100 Million Test for Delaware
• Tennessee Targets Teaching With Race to Top Winnings
• Complete coverage: Schools and the Stimulus

(April 2, 2010)

College Said to Enrich Disadvantaged Students Most

A study finds that teenagers who are least likely to attend college reap the greatest financial returns from earning their degrees. (April 1, 2010) | Comments (2)

Busing Fight Highlights Struggles With Diversity

A North Carolina school board's decision to stop busing to achieve socioeconomic diversity comes as districts elsewhere adjust to a changed legal landscape. (April 1, 2010)

It’s Time for Policies to Match Family Needs

It’s Time for Policies to Match Modern Family Needs

New Polling Data Shows Widespread Support for an Agenda to Address Work-Family Conflict

SOURCE: AP/David Zalubowski

Kristie McNealy works on her laptop computer while her children join her at the dining room table in the family's home in Aurora, Colorado.

By Heather Boushey | March 29, 2010

PRINT
EMAIL
TEXT-SIZE: A A A
SHARE:

Download this memo (pdf)

Men and women have a strong appetite for businesses and the government to implement policies to address work-family conflict. And it’s not only progressives who want change. These issues have strong resonance across a wide range of demographic groups. People agree across ideology, class, and family type that government and businesses need to do more to adapt to the new ways we work and live. This includes increased access to workplace flexibility, more funding for child care, and paid family and medical leave.

The findings summarized here come from a poll conducted with The Rockefeller Foundation and TIME during early September 2009. The poll interviewed more than 3,400 adults across the country about how changes in the economy are influencing attitudes about gender relations, family, and the workplace.

The poll confirmed that overwhelming majorities of both men and women believe that government and businesses need to adapt and that businesses that do not change will be left behind. The only issues that reveal ideological differences involve government-funded childcare and, to a lesser extent, requiring businesses to provide employees with more flexibility in hours or schedules. Yet even in these cases a majority of even conservative respondents agree that policies need to change.

This new poll data shows that policies to address work-family conflict carry out the message quite well and resonate with the American public. Families have for too long struggled to make their jobs fit their family life as the institutions around them continue to assume that the typical worker has a stay-at-home spouse and that the typical caregiver has a full-time breadwinner for income support. The public is hungry for change.

The poll findings confirm that as the day-to-day reality of how families work and live has changed, the public’s perception of the role of institutions has kept pace. The key transformation over the past half century in daily family life is that women now make up

Nation, State Mourn Passing Of Jaime Escalante California Progress Report

California Progress Report

Nation, State Mourn Passing Of Jaime Escalante: ‘He Opened The Doors Of Success For His Students’

By Dan Aiello
California Progress Report

The extraordinary California math teacher who ignored the stereotypes of inner city youth attending a tough East Los Angeles high school and inspired the movie, "Stand and Deliver," died Tuesday evening. He was 79.

Family friend Keith Miller says Jaime Escalante died at Washoe County Medical Center in Reno, Nevada, where he was undergoing treatment for bladder cancer. Mr. Escalante had been staying at his family home in Roseville, California, a Sacramento suburb.

An immigrant from Bolivia, he transformed L.A.’s Garfield High School by motivating struggling students to tackle and excel at advanced calculus and science. The school had more Advanced Placement calculus students than all but three other public high schools in the country, a result so improbable it was initially rejected, requiring his students to retake the exam.

ShareThis

Wasting Tax Dollars: Public Relations and the California Youth Corrections System

By Daniel Macallair

After nearly 25 years in the criminal justice field, I never cease to be shocked at the volume of misinformation spewed by some correctional bureaucracies to hype their performance or justify their existence. Nowhere is this more evident than here in California, where our highly dysfunctional youth corrections system, the Division of Juvenile Justice, – formally known as the California Youth Authority – has launched a tax-payer funded campaign to polish its tarnished image.

Latest News and Comment from Education