Considering our focus on economics for this week, I thought it would be prudent to take a look a the budget President Obama has laid out for the United States. The section on education could be used in our classes to discuss the impact it will have students.
Hearing things like this makes me aware of how important it can be to follow local politics. I don't know enough about DC, but I do find it surprising that 900 teachers were hired over the summer and not there will be layoffs.
The DC school system is being forced to layoff teachers and consolidate some classes because of budget problems. This comes as a surprise after 900 teachers were hired this summer.
But such cuts have dismayed and frustrated some educators and parents, who say
that children need more, not fewer, foreign language skills to compete in a
global marketplace.
Maybe it allows students to learn at their own pace, but I feel that having a teacher present would encourage more interaction and allow teachers to quickly pick up on areas of struggle.
As more and more schools and districts are faced with smaller budgets, some schools are phasing out foreign languags or turning to interactive technology programs to save money.
When I was there on Wednesday, the firings were supposed to happen. I can't even imagine what the last two days were like, waiting and waiting. No matter what you feel about the firings, the way in which they were done, were completely inappropriate and there was far more disruption than needed to happen. I hope my teacher is still there this week.
In what seems to be a never-ending debate in NYC about budgets and union jobs, etc., an agreement has been reached that will permit principals to hire school aides with funds that were raised by parent groups. It is a one-year agreement that aims to allow teachers to focus on teaching while aides help support them in a non-teaching capacity.
Until now, the results of educational neglect have been gradual — a slow-motion erosion of America’s relative position. But things are about to get much worse, as the economic crisis — its effects exacerbated by the penny-wise, pound-foolish behavior that passes for “fiscal responsibility” in Washington — deals a severe blow to education across the board.
The gradual decline of funding priority for education may not be immediately felt but I think the effects later down the road could be bad. I think we take education very much for granted.
But these days young Americans are considerably less likely than young people in many other countries to graduate from college. In fact, we have a college graduation rate that’s slightly below the average across all advanced economies.
I wonder who he is talking about specifically with this statement? European countries? I wonder how much of an impact in that is because many of them have free higher education, or at least highly subsidized. But then again their tax rates are outrageous. The great thing about our system is that we have a lot of choices, so it's hard to compare in many ways too.
For example, the Chronicle of Higher Education recently reported on the plight of California’s community college students. For generations, talented students from less affluent families have used those colleges as a stepping stone to the state’s public universities. But in the face of the state’s budget crisis those universities have been forced to slam the door on this year’s potential transfer students. One result, almost surely, will be lifetime damage to many students’ prospects — and a large, gratuitous waste of human potential.
Beyond that, we need to wake up and realize that one of the keys to our nation’s historic success is now a wasting asset. Education made America great; neglect of education can reverse the process.
"Not a wasting asset" is so on point. I think it is hard for policy makers to realize that results are not instant. It is a hard balance, to look like you are making gains quickly or willing to wait for systematic change.
California spends $35.7 billion, or about 30 percent of its budget, on its 10,000 public K-12 schools
California has trailed national per-pupil spending since 1979, and now the gap is $1,700 per student
Since 1979, cases have been brought in about 30 other states. But while 14 resulted in court-ordered funding increases, cases decided in the past four years have tended to favor the states
I may be wrong, and I don't know how feasible it is, but it would seem to me a better solution would be to redistribute property tax revenue, as opposed to putting burdens on the state government to come up with additional funding for the educational system.
But Michael Rebell, executive director of the Campaign for Educational Equity, which successfully sued to win more money for New York City schools, said that achievement has improved dramatically, especially among minority and low-income students, after lawsuits in New Jersey, Massachusetts and Vermont.
This is an important point; the very size of California's population and economy has always made it a key influence on national trends.
Without reform, Hanushek said, because the state is so big — it educates one of every eight children in the nation — and because its schools perform so poorly, "California is dragging down the nation
As those of you in my EDU 522 class know, we have spent quite a while on the issue of unequal school funding. The Kozol video we watched in class raised the question of how each state pays for its public schooling, and as a result I have been trying to determine which states still use local property taxes (thus perpetuating the inequality of schools within the state) and which have instituted reforms to equalize funding. The problem is, none of this information is compiled in a concise manner. This is a recent article discussing this issue; I am still trying to find others.
Just because you have a large family or find yourself on a budget, doesn't mean you have to stay at home and pout. The good news is that there are numerous cultural, historic, kitschy, and fun landmarks right here in this beautiful country of ours. So what are you waiting for?
I thought the idea of borrowing the packets for $10 for three weeks is an interesting copy. This might be useful for schools without the budgets to purchase more expensive packets of materials.
Education in America from the Colonial Period to 1850
Winterthur (in Delaware) is the former country estate of Henry Francis duPont. He was one of the first avid collectors of American fine and decorative arts and the museum (aside from being a beautiful place to visit) is now a leading center for scholarship in the field.
The museum has created packets of primary-source materials that can be used in classrooms if a field trip is not possible.
District law allows Rhee to make reductions in the teaching force without regard
to seniority or other factors. She said that the first few weeks of the term
have allowed principals to see their new instructors in action and that all
personnel would be evaluated on the basis of performance and the needs of their
schools.
Rhee said that principals will have had the first few weeks of the school year to evaluate their new hires in action. This leads me to believe that the teacher reductions will take place during the academic year. In addition to worries about larger class sizes, I wonder what the impact could be to the children of changing teachers during the year? I feel that aside from upsetting established routines, it could, in some cases, lead to feelings of abandonment and mistrust.