Investment in Education: What's it worth to My Kids?

A parent listening to the public debate over whether, and how much the state should invest in education, might be tempted to ask, What's in it for me? ...or, in this case, my kids.

In his 11th edition of American Education, Joel Spring gives us an idea.

According to 2004 NCES data, the median income for men (and women) was $37,669 ($25,809)Most men who earn that amount have graduated high school and have some college. Men with advanced degrees can expect to earn about $58,362 ($39,330) compared to high school dropouts who tend to earn about $22,255 ($13,951).

Estimated Lifetime earnings for a man with a professional degree comes in at $4.8 million compared to a low of $1.1 million for the dropout. Professional women only come in at $2.9 million and $700,000 lifetime earnings for women who do not graduate high school.

Substantial investments in education benefits the individual who receives the education. But that's not why we should support it. An educated citizenry benefits the entire economy and makes Kentucky a better place to live. Schools educate future workers. Better workers increase productivity and may even create new opportunities. Economic growth pays for future investment in education while employed workers reduce the burden on the state's health care expenses.

Gunman Was Once ‘Revered’ on Campus

A day after a lecture hall was attacked at Northern Illinois University, the gunman emerged in two portraits not easily reconciled.

In recent weeks, Steve Kazmierczak, turned erratic after suspending an unidentified medication. He gathered the tools for a slaughter, and carried it out quickly, silently and without emotion.

But that person bore no resemblance to the 27-year-old man who Donald Grady, the chief of the college’s department of public safety, said “was revered by the faculty and staff and students alike” and was completely unknown to police.

“There were no red flags,” Mr. Grady said. Later, he told The Chicago Sun-Times, “It’s unlikely that anyone would ever have the ability to stop an incident like this from beginning.” ...

This from the New York Times, (Audio, Map, Victim Profiles) Photo by Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press.

Court Orders Reconsideration in Case on Shock Therapy

A federal appeals court has ordered a lower court to reconsider its issuance of a preliminary injunction that barred the New York state education department from enforcing an emergency regulation against the use of "aversive interventions" for children with disabilities.

The aversive therapies at the school at the center of the case include "skin shocks, 'contingent' food programs, and physical restraints," says the opinion by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, in New York City.

The Judge Rotenberg Educational Center (Backstory.) is in Canton, Mass., but it has served hundreds of students from New York state who have been referred there as part of their individualized education programs under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, court papers say...

...The New York State Education Department issued a report in 2006 that was critical of the school, and it issued its emergency regulation barring their use, evidently with respect to students from New York state....

This from the School Law Blog.

Special Education Law Must ‘Give Way’ to NCLB, Court Says

...A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, in Chicago, ruled unanimously on Feb. 11 that even if the NCLB law was at odds with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the special education law “must give way” because NCLB is the newer statute...

...The suit said that the IDEA’s requirement that each special education student have an individualized education program is contrary to the requirement under the No Child Left Behind law that special education students count as a distinct subgroup whose test results help determine whether a school makes adequate yearly progress, the key NCLB measure for holding schools accountable. The two districts missed making adequate yearly progress in the year before the suit was filed solely because their subgroups of students with disabilities missed their AYP targets, court papers say...

This from Education Week (subscription).

C-J says Beshear's Budget Accepts failure

Accepting Failure

What's so discouraging about Gov. Steve Beshear's budget, and now his six-year road plan, is that they concede defeat. They capitulate to the disastrous financial situation his administration inherited. He proposes to do nothing about it except cut, at least until the General Assembly comes up with what's expected to be a paltry increase in the state cigarette tax, or until revenues from his heavily resisted casino gambling plan begin to arrive.

Meanwhile, schools and students suffer, basic human needs aren't met by social service providers, the prison cycle worsens and, in the absence of a gasoline tax increase, there's not nearly enough money in the Road Fund to even begin doing right by Kentucky's highway infrastructure...

This from C-J.

What fresh hell is this? ...CATS Now Penalizing Students for Following Test Directions?

Educators complain of lost time

and bad information from KDE

Some Kentucky teachers are mad.

Not your run-of-the-mill kind of mad, but the kind that comes from feelings of betrayal; like when you boss gives you bad information that only serves to keep you from reaching your goals - the goals your boss will later blame you for missing.

Some think KDE has withheld vital information on the CATS assessment - information about questionable assessment practices. Others have welcomed the news, as though they just received insider information that might give them a competitive edge against other schools.

Kentucky School News and Commentary started hearing concerns from teachers yesterday that the scoring directions being provided to the schools by KDE is in error; and following KDE's directions would prevent students from receiving high scores on their open response questions (ORQ).

As one Kentucky principal explained it,

"...Here is what KDE is not telling you... we sent a team straight to the testing source (Measured Progress) and found out that the way we have been told to do ORQs by KDE will get us no higher than a 2 with this new company. To get higher -- students MUST make connections, inferences, and extensions."

And, the spectre of ethical concerns was raised by the approach being used by Measured Progress. Some Grant County teachers learned that,

"The question does not always mean what it says. There is hidden meaning in some of the questions...List does not just mean list. The hidden meaning is list and explain or list and describe."

This means that Kentucky students (some as young as 9-years old) will be asked to do one thing...but will be assessed on something else - some secret rubric. How is a student to know which questions have a secret rubric, and which do not? What are the ethics of penalizing students for following instructions?

Measured Progress told the Grant Countians that,

"We must coach the students up on this. As a matter of routine, students must do more than what is asked of them by the question prompt."

So, they ask the kids a question, and if a compliant student answers precisely as instructed, they get a weaker score.

This is NOT how Kentucky teachers have been instructed to prepare students or score ORQs. KDE's Tips for designing Open Response Questions directs teachers to,

"specify exactly what you want students to answer... as opposed to ambiguous terms ... Use simple and direct language. You are evaluating what students know rather than attempting to determine if they can decipher the question."

Measured Progress not only requires students to decipher the questions, but to divine them.

This is lousy enough. But if that's the way its going to be, why didn't Kentucky teachers learn about it much earlier, and from KDE?

The National Council on Measurement in Education's Code of Professional Responsibilities in Educational Measurement says,

"Those who prepare individuals to take assessments and those who are directly or indirectly involved in the administration ... including teachers, administrators, and assessment personnel, have an important role in making sure that the assessments are administered in a fair and accurate manner. Persons who prepare others for, and those who administer, assessments have a professional responsibility to...inform the examinees about the assessment prior to its administration, including ...how the assessment information will be judged or scored..."

Well, it's now mid February (weeks away from the CATS testing window) and Kentucky teachers are just now learning how they must prepare their students to score well - and not from KDE.

NCME's ethical code also states,

"Persons who educate or inform others about assessment have a professional responsibility to...remain competent and current in the areas in which they teach and reflect that in their instruction..."

"provide reasonable opportunities for individuals to ask questions about the assessment procedures or directions prior to and at prescribed times during the administration of the assessment." ...

Kentucky teachers have apparently had some opportunity to ask questions, but have been given wrong answers by the folks in charge.

Did KDE know about this...but not say?

Or, did KDE not know what Measured Progress was up to?

Sexton Slams Beshear's Education Budget

This from Robert F. Sexton, Executive Director

Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence

"Recipe for Disaster: Continued Cuts in Education"

It isn’t fair to blame Gov. Steve Beshear for the financial situation he inherited, but it is certain that the budget he has proposed without new revenue is a disaster for Kentucky. And that disaster will extend to education, although there is a lot of confusion about exactly what the budget’s impact would be on schools.

Major news stories reported that the Governor’s budget proposals spared K-12 education by not cutting the SEEK (Support Education Excellence in Kentucky) formula, the core funding stream for school districts as he did other areas such as postsecondary education.

But dozens of local newspapers are delivering a different message:

· In Ashland: "Finances Get Tighter on Educators" headlines a story about $400,000 in cuts that are expected because of 4.1% inflation and automatic step increases for teachers. "No increase in the SEEK formula should be considered a decrease," says the school financial manager. The district may cut after-school programs, professional development, textbooks and school safety.

· A Rowan County headline: "$400,000 School Cut."

· "Fort Thomas Schools Face Budget Cuts" says a headline from Northern Kentucky. Initial plans call for fewer guidance counselors and larger class sizes.

· Barren County: "Tough budget ahead" is predicted as officials expect about $670,000 in cuts.

Why the contradiction between the state and local accounts? Because of the relationship between state and local school funding.

The Governor’s budget continues to guarantee $3,822 in base SEEK funding per pupil. But the state doesn’t pay that whole amount; districts pay part of it based on local taxes. For 2007-08, the local district share of the $3,822 averaged $1,341, leaving $2,481 paid by the state. For 2008-09, there will be $39 less per student from the state, $39 more from the districts.

It is important for taxpayers and parents to understand that when SEEK is described as being "flat," it means state funding goes down and local taxes make up the difference. Since local dollars make up the decrease in state dollars, it is unlikely that anything will be left for new initiatives or teacher raises.

And then there’s inflation, at 4.1 percent – its highest rate since 1990. To have the same buying power for teachers, library books, laboratory supplies, buses, heating and other essentials, SEEK base funding should provide school districts with about $160 more per student. But they won’t get that next year from the state, and that’s a de facto cut.

The budget also cuts $92 million from targeted programs over the two years. There will be less money to buy new textbooks and to pay for tutoring, extra time for struggling students, alternative school, and helping teachers learn new methods. The state has paid a large share of these costs for many years. Now districts need to either cut them or pay for them with local dollars. And many of those local dollars are already financing programs like all-day kindergarten, which is also put at risk by this funding crisis.

This state-to-local shift in responsibility for funding schools continues an established trend. Since 1990, local districts’ share of school funding increased from 27 percent to 35 percent while the state’s portion dropped from 62 percent to 52 percent.

This situation on its own would be alarming. But the main reason the proposed budget would be such a disaster is the fact that it comes after 15 years of inadequate investments in education. We were digging a hole; now we’ve fallen in. Since about 1992 the legislature has barely kept up with inflation in school funding (except for employee benefits). Not counting health insurance and retirement cost increases, the total growth in education funding since 1992 has been just 2 percent.

Remember that Kentucky’s goal for 18 years has been to reach each and every child with the opportunity to learn at higher levels. Our educators are held accountable for reaching that goal by 2014.

But Kentucky teachers have been expected to do more with less since the early 1990s. As our educators try to overcome the educational failures of past generations, they are forced to do so with about $2,000 less than what the average state invests per student. (Kentucky invests about 79 percent of the national average in its schools.)

There’s another important story here. Cuts in spending for education programs are largely the result of increasing costs of health insurance for educators. Over the two-year budget, $92 million will come out of those targeted programs to support student learning, but $145 million more will go to pay the higher health insurance premiums. If insurance costs weren’t increasing so fast, as they have been for over 10 years, the other cuts would not have been necessary.

The result is that we have cut or eliminated initiatives that increase student learning while covering a cost that doesn’t provide teachers with better health insurance. A friend says it’s like filling your gas tank at $3 a gallon knowing that you can’t drive any farther than you could on $2 gasoline.

So what’s the result?

State-financed salary increases are out of the question and, since local dollars are needed to pay the SEEK guarantee, raises from local funds are also unlikely. There aren’t even pennies available for the governor’s top campaign pledge—expanding pre-k education for the youngest Kentuckians—the smartest investment in the future that a state can make.

And then, as noted above, there will be cuts to programs that help kids learn.

The bottom line is that K-12 education really will be losing ground under the proposed budget.

As we close the gap with other states on achievement, we’re widening it on school funding.

The local headlines are right: our schools and our students will be hurt by this disastrous budget.

Kentucky will take a giant step backward unless legislators find another way to address the needs of our public schools.

Other revenue sources must be identified or we will continue this downward spiral. As University of Tennessee economist William Fox noted in a 2002 report to the Kentucky General Assembly: Continuation of the very slow revenue growth through 2010 means "a huge decline in the Commonwealth’s ability to finance education and infrastructure investments in its future. By 2010, revenues would be more than 2.3 billion short of the demand for public services."

We simply can’t afford to wait any longer.

SOURCE: Prichard Committee Communication

See Also:

Local superintendents: "Schools will suffer from proposed budget cuts" from the Commonwealth Journal

"Carroll County Schools proceeds with caution planning next year's budget" from the Madison Courier.

Panel OKs bill to toughen laws against online child predators

This from the Herald-Leader:

McCracken County Sheriff Jon Hayden ... joined Attorney General Jack Conway, prosecutors and other law enforcement officers Wednesday in promoting a bill to strengthen the fight against online predators. The measure later cleared its first hurdle by winning approval from the House Judiciary Committee.

...The bill would allow law enforcement to use specially trained decoys for online stings. It would make it a crime to solicit anyone who the person believes is a minor.

Another provision would prohibit registered sex offenders from using social-networking Web sites such as MySpace and Facebook. The bill also would require sex offenders to notify the sex offender registry whenever they change their e-mail addresses.

The bill also amends the state's stalking statute to include cyberstalking.

It also would allow police to seize personal property such as a computer or car that was used in committing online sexual offenses against children...

In Kenton County: Developer to pay schools

Board brought suit over tax incentive

CRESCENT SPRINGS -- Crescent Springs Council on Thursday unanimously passed an ordinance that requires Bear Creek Capital, the Cincinnati-based developer of the $56 million Buttermilk Towne Center, to pay Kenton County School District about $500,000.

"It's a win-win for everybody," said Mayor Jim Collett. "The school board gets some revenue and Bear Creek gets some tax incentives that may not be as great as originally anticipated but helps them keep everything moving forward."

The ordinance comes after a November agreement between the city, the school district and Bear Creek, which opened the shopping center in 2006.

The agreement states that in lieu of taxes, Bear Creek will make a payment to the school district of $367,878 for the years 2005, 2006 and 2007, plus $144,403 for 2008...

This from the Cincinnati Enquirer.

A brief response to Mike Rebell in Education Week

Today's Education Week has an article from Mike Rebell titled "Sleepless after Seattle" where a connection is made between recent state "adequacy" lawsuits and the US Supreme Court decision in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 and Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education. (Online yesterday here: subscription req'd) (I had written to Rebell on this issue several months ago but did not hear back.)

In the article, Rebell proposes the Adequate Education Remedial Oversight model. The model argues an approach that "adopts and regularizes the best practices" that state courts have used. He suggests that following his model will "promote effective cooperation among the three branches of government."

Wouldn't that be great?

Rebell suggests 5 planks to the model: Challenging standards, Adequate funding, Effective program implementation and accountability systems, A supportive political culture, and Improved student performance - all good stuff.

I resisted the temptation to assert that with a supportive political culture the rest of the problems can be quickly resolved. But I did not resist a response on the one piece of advice that appeared to be - at least for Kentucky - bad advice. Rebell's model states,

Courts must order states to, first, undertake detailed costing-out studies of the resources required to provide all students the opportunity to meet state standards, and, second, revise the state’s education finance system to ensure that this amount is actually made available to all school districts.

I posted the following retort:

I love Mike Rebell's ideas on adequate funding. I wish they all worked.

If state courts continue to be where the action is, then the language of each state's constitution will make it difficult to develop one model that will serve all states well.

For example, in Kentucky - a state whose constitution contains relatively strong separation of powers language - one of Rebell's suggestions actually got a case thrown out of court. The summary judgment in Young v Wiilliams (2007) underscores the state court's own doubt that it can direct the legislature to do much of anything.

In the Kentucky landmark case Rose v Council for Better Education (1989) plaintiff's counsel Bert Combs was careful to seek only a declaratory judgment. Once that opinion was handed down the political culture and other factors kicked in. As Rebell correctly asserts, Kentucky children benefitted greatly.

Of course, trusting the General Assembly is disquieting for action-oriented plaintiffs who have witnessed years of legislative neglect. But there seems to be little alternative.

Perhaps in other states the court is on firm ground and can tell the legislature how much revenue to raise for education. But that sure doesn't seem to be the case in the Bluegrass state.

One plan does not fit all.

History strongly suggests that left to its own devises, the Kentucky legislature will not adequately fund the schools. Even when, as defendants, legislative leaders were aware that the schools were underfunded, the constitutional mandate was unpersuasive. Absent a public outcry for school support, the General Assembly will happily content itself with the status quo - and call it a victory because it isn't worse.

If the Council for Better Education turned around and sued the state again today, it would not be too soon in my opinion. They are right on the facts. But they need a new legal approach; one that differs from Rebell's model in that it seeks no specific remedy.

But still burned from their summary smackdown at the hands of Judge Thomas Wingate, I'm sure the CBE is giving the new Democratic majority some time to make things right - without litigation.

How's that looking by the way?

The Rosenwald Schools: a little history lesson from C-J

At the start of the twentieth century, schools for white pupils in Kentucky were poor and less than half of the children received a formal education.

The quality of the schools for black pupils were worse. Materials for blacks were essentially leftovers from white classrooms. There were no serious attempts to fund the schools equitably and the 1904 Day Law made it illegal to educate whites and blacks together in Kentucky.

But, black schools were a vital part of the African-American community life. And since the teachers in black schools had often found their choice of occupation limited by segregation, some of the best and brightest went into education, a highly honored profession among blacks.

The state’s 714 black public high school students and 93 graduates in 1900 led the segregated South. In fact by 1907, a higher percentage of black youths in Kentucky attended school daily than did whites.

But things were changing.

State Superintendent John Grant Crabbe commenced the Whilrwind Campaigns joining forces with the Kentucky Federation of Women's Clubs to visit every community in the state; a "bombardment against Illiteracy and ignorance."

The public response prompted the legislature to pass The Sullivan Bill (sometimes called the County School District Law or the County Administration Law) the most sweeping legisaltion to date. A high school in every county; More money to Kentucky colleges; Enhanced teacher preparations; The creation of EKU, WKU and the renamed K State; Compulsory attendance; and a new set of School laws were the result.

After Crabbe’s reforms Kentucky schools stood 4th in the South.

But then, as happens in Kentucky, the lack of continued support allowed Kentucky to fall to 11th by 1920.

Around this time Julius Rosenwald began a program of school construction aimed at increasing opportunities for blackz in the south. Rosenwald rose to President of the Sears & Roebuck Company following a business innovation that brought city goods to the country - the Sears Catalogue.)

He grew up around the corner from Abraham Lincoln, in Springfield Illinois. Friends with Booker T. Washington, Henry Goldman, Henry Morgenthau and Frank Lloyd Wright, Rosenwald's philanthropic efforts resulted in 4,977 public schools, 163 shop schools and 217 teacher’s homes built in 883 counties in 15 southern states, The effort generated over $28 million for schools built by the African American communities from 1906-1932. The Rosenwald schools educated more than 500,000 students.

This from the Courier-Journal: Photo in C-J courtesy of George Kolbenschlag.

Rosenwald schools improved education for blacks in South

The first time Sylvia White ever heard of Black History Month was in Mrs. Wilda Brown's fourth-grade classroom at the Rosenwald-Jackman School in Columbia, Ky., during the early 1950s. Yet she and her teacher each were helping write a significant chapter in black history that day simply by their presence in the Adair County black school.

The Rosenwald School program was begun in 1912 by Booker T. Washington, the president of Alabama's Tuskegee Institute, and his friend and benefactor, Julius Rosenwald, a chairman of Sears Roebuck & Co.

The aim was to improve the quality of education for black children in the segregated South.

Initially, Washington guided the building of six schools for black children in rural Alabama, using money donated to Tuskegee by Rosenwald. The pilot program was so successful that Rosenwald and other philanthropists increased funding. By 1928, about one of every five black schools in the rural South was a Rosenwald School.

Adair County's Rosenwald-Jackman School, co-named in honor of ex-slave and Civil War soldier Parker Hiram Jackman, was among 155 Rosenwald Schools in Kentucky and 4,977 in 15 states from Texas to Florida to Maryland. "It was the center of the community," White recalled.

"Anything social went on there at the school. It was like four rooms, divided, and was probably the only building besides the church available to black people."

Brown began teaching at the Rosenwald-Jackman School in Columbia during the 1940s. When the school burned in 1953, she continued teaching for about two years in makeshift schools in churches and homes in the community. Adair County schools were integrated in 1956, and soon the old Rosenwald Schools became relics of yesteryear.

Brown retired from teaching in Louisville, where she still lives, but returned to Columbia last summer for the dedication of a marker at the site of the former school, which still holds for her many warm memories. "Some of the parents would fix my lunch and send it to me," said Brown.

"And you had respect from children in these small towns, because the parents would come and say, 'My child is here to learn something. I want you to teach them.' "

White remembers numerous inequities between Rosenwald-Jackman and local white schools of the day, but her best memories are of good teachers and school plays which involved many children. Home economics teachers and high school girls often designed and sewed the costumes, using crepe paper. "I remember being Little Red Riding Hood in one play … and a lightning bug in one play," said White. "Somehow we had those little-bitty flashlights tied around our waists and hanging in the back. We thought there was just nothing like it."

Another teacher, Mrs. Edna Crowe, spent six years in her first teaching job as a home economics teacher at the Rosenwald-Jackman School in Columbia. She retired from teaching in Louisville in 1986.

Last summer, local historian Yvonne Kolbenschlag, with help from the Center for Rural Development, obtained a grant to place a marker at the site of the former Rosenwald-Jackman School. She was joined by White and other former students Terry Bradshaw and Donna Frazier in organizing a ceremony honoring Brown and Crowe at the marker's dedication. Adair County once had five Rosenwald Schools, but today only one building is still standing, a former one-room school in the community of Flatwoods a few miles south of Columbia. The building is now owned by the congregation of Santa Fee Baptist Church, which uses it for social gatherings.

"Ham"ing it up on both sides of the big pond

I skipped this story when I first saw it.

The creation museum's founder, Ken Ham, imagines his own truth. So what?

"What Darwinian evolution did I would say is provide what people thought was a scientific justification for separation of races," Ham said in an interview...Stalin, Hitler and Mao were responsible for the deaths of tens of millions - and it can be shown they did this because of the influence of Darwinian naturalism.

In the process, he seems to have conveniently forgotten Hitler's religiously justified genocidal obsessions. Hitler was actually screwed up on both fronts - science and religion.

Then, I saw a story in Education Week (subscription) that credits Ham with fomenting recent flareups in Europe. Ham is also the founder of Answers in Genesis, a Kentucky-based organization that is spreading its creationist theory to Britain and the rest of Europe.

"In October, the 47-nation Council of Europe, a human rights watchdog, condemned all attempts to bring creationism into Europe's schools. Bible-based theories and "religious dogma" threaten to undercut sound educational practices, it charged."

The focus of Ham's effort? School children.

Out of the Office and into the Classroom

This from the Wallace Foundation:

An initiative to help principals focus on instruction

In Penny Cecil’s first year as principal of Hodgenville Elementary School, management tasks dominated the agenda. School bus problems, testing schedules, personnel changes, discipline issues, building maintenance, phone calls from parents, and endless stacks of paperwork consumed her 12-hour days.

"I was always trying to triage," Cecil said, describing a job that was "driven by interruptions."
The next year, Cecil changed focus. With a trained School Administration Manager (SAM) hired to handle the organizational overflow, the principal achieved her goal of getting into every classroom at least once a week to observe teachers and interact with students. Within a few months, Cecil was spending an average of 70 percent of her time on instruction and learning, up from 40 percent at the start of the term.

She exceeded that pace going into the current school year. By the second week of the new term, Cecil had observed every teacher, knew most of the 589 students by name, and was such a regular presence in classrooms that teachers and students barely noticed when she entered or exited.

"Penny is so much more accessible," said Cherie Altman, who teaches 3rd and 4th graders.

"She’ll get on the floor with kids. She’ll talk to you about what you’re doing. She used to be a teacher, and she can share so much with us."

Teresa Fightmaster recalled the day Cecil taught a model lesson on memoir writing to her 3rd and 4th grade students. The principal brought in a suitcase from home and unpacked items that she could use to trigger descriptive details of her life.

"I welcome her into the classroom," Fightmaster said. "I need the feedback, as a new teacher. That way I know what I need to do to be better."

Hodgenville is the hub of LaRue County, KY, an agricultural region an hour south of Louisville and the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln. More recently, it also has become part of a rapidly expanding national model for school-level leadership. Designed to free principals from the tasks distracting them from teaching and learning while ensuring the smooth operation of their schools, the SAM initiative offers a way out of the daily time-crunch dilemma.

...it calls attention to a commonly acknowledged but rarely resolved obstacle to education reform: Principals can’t and shouldn’t do it all...

Catholic School Closures Linked to Growth of City Charters in DC

This from Education Week (subscription):

Planned White House ‘summit’ raises enrollment-trend issues.

Whether the proliferation of charter schools in urban areas is fueling the demise of inner-city Roman Catholic schools is not a new question. But it came into sharp focus following last month’s State of the Union address, in which President Bush said faith-based schools “are disappearing at an alarming rate in many of America’s inner cities.” In his speech to Congress, the president called for a White House “summit” meeting on inner-city children and religious schools. Ironically, some analysts say, charter schools, which the Bush administration has strongly supported, may have effectively helped undermine Catholic schools—the nation’s largest provider of faith-based education. Among those listening to the speech from the House galleries was the Rev. Ronald J. Nuzzi, the director of the Alliance for Catholic Education leadership program at the University of Notre Dame, who has called charters “one of the biggest threats to Catholic schools in the inner city, hands down.”

I won !!!! Thanks to Page One Kentucky

The guys over at PageOneKentucky had a little contest recently and my name was plucked from the hat.

Accordingly, I am to receive an autographed copy of Bryan Bush's soon-to-be-released book, Butcher Burbridge from Acclaim Press. Thanks to Jacob Payne and the folks at PageOne.

In recent years I have read a lot of Kentucky history, albeit, largely education history. I was always taken by John Ed Pierce's assertion that Kentucky, neutral during the Civil War, joined the losers after the loss. This curious circumstance was in reaction to the hardships borne during reconstruction in the state. I suspect this dumfounding notion may become clearer to me through Bush's work.

General Stephen Burbridge is associated with the despised "Order 59" which ordered the death of four Confederates for every Yankee killed in the state at the hands of southern guerillas. Bush recounts Burbridge's confiscation of property, and the suspension of Constitutional rights and habes corpus during his reign of terror over Kentucky.

I'm looking forward to the read.

Supporting the Troops ...or, Sustaining a Warrior-class?

This from the Boston Globe:

GI Bill falling short of college tuition costs
Pentagon resists boost in benefits

WASHINGTON - Halsey Bernard made it through a tour in Iraq as a machine gunner. The question for him now is will he make it through the University of Massachusetts.

It isn't a question of academics for the 24-year-old Boston resident.

It's about money - and about the obligation of a nation to its fighting men and women. Bernard, who served with the Second Battalion Eighth Marines in Nasariyah, Iraq, in 2003, is one of thousands of veterans who have returned from combat service only to find that their GI Bill college benefits fall far short of actual costs.

"What they tell you on TV and what the recruiters tell you when you go to sign up is: 'Don't worry. College is taken care of.' And it is not true," said Bernard. "Today it is a serious financial struggle and bureaucratic struggle and personal struggle to try to go to college after serving in combat."

The original GI Bill provided full tuition, housing, and living costs for some 8 million veterans; for many, it was the engine of opportunity in the postwar years. But, in the mid 1980s, the program was scaled back to a peacetime program that pays a flat sum. Today the most a veteran can receive is approximately $9,600 a year for four years - no matter what college costs.

Now, five years into the Iraq conflict, a movement is gathering steam in Washington to boost the payout of the GI Bill, to provide a true war-time benefit for war- time service. But the effort has run headlong into another reality of an unpopular war: the struggle to sustain an all-volunteer force.

The Pentagon and White House have so far resisted a new GI Bill out of fear that too many will use it - choosing to shed the uniform in favor of school and civilian life.

"The incentive to serve and leave," said Robert Clarke, assistant director of accessions policy at the Department of Defense, may "outweigh the incentive to have them stay." ...

...That promise of an education in return for serving the country is one of the most frequently cited reasons that young men and women join the military, and it is plastered all over recruitment banners and television advertisements.

The limited return on the promise is one of the most common sources of bitterness and frustration that emerge in interviews with Iraq and Afghanistan veterans...

...Whatever compromise emerges in Washington - if any does - it will do little for veterans like Todd Bowers, 28, who dreamed of attending an elite private college after returning, after being shot in the face, from his second combat tour...

..."You end up feeling that the military thinks that all you deserve is a community college. It's pretty disgraceful. I think I can do better, and I think anyone who served the country in combat deserves better," he said.

College Opportunity and Affordability Act Would Specify State Higher Ed Spending

This from Stateline.org:

New legislation being considered by Congress would force states to spend a minimum amount on higher education based on their past spending — or lose some federal funds. The provision is being called a “dangerous precedent” by critics, but is seen by supporters as a stopgap for rising tuition at public institutions.

“One of the biggest factors driving tuition increases at public colleges and universities is states’ cutbacks in higher education funding,” said Rachel Racusen, a spokeswoman for House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.), the bill’s primary sponsor.

“With the federal government putting money in at the top, it’s important that states not take money out at the bottom,” she wrote in an e-mail.

The provision, part of the College Opportunity and Affordability Act, would require each state’s higher education funding to be at or above the average it spent over the last five years. If states don’t commit that amount, they could lose their share of federal money from the $65 million Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnership grant program to help low-income students.

The act, which moved one step closer to giving higher education its most significant overhaul in a decade when the U.S. House passed it on a 354-58 vote Thursday (Feb. 7), boosts grant money for college students and aims to hold down the cost of tuition.

The bill is a reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965 — last renewed in 1998 — and would increase the maximum Pell Grant, a need-based award for college students, from $5,800 to $9,000; bar lenders from giving perks to colleges to get on a “preferred lender” list; create a “higher education price index” to allow students to see how much tuition has increased over time; and place colleges that radically increase tuition on a “watch list.” ...

Principal flight on the rise in the age of accountability

This from the Austin Statesman.

Central Texas school districts losing principals to students' peril.

Geneva Oliva estimates conservatively that she saw seven principals come and go while her children attended Johnston High School in East Austin from 1994 to 2003. The faces changed with such regularity that she says she didn't recognize the principal from year to year.

"Every time a new principal came in, they'd come up with a new program," she says, "but the new program was never completed because the principals left. What good is it to have good ideas if they aren't there to finish it off?"

School districts nationwide are finding it harder to hold on to principals as standards get tougher and the list of demands from the state and federal governments gets longer...

...When the principalship is a revolving door at a school, experts say, it trickles down to teacher retention efforts and school reform initiatives...

..Education experts, principals and parents say the challenges of urban schools, combined with high-stakes testing demands, are driving the trend...

More pressure

The accountability system has changed expectations.

"While principals put stress on teachers to improve outcomes, teachers often do not lose their jobs over low accountability ratings," said [Ed Fuller, associate director of the University Council for Educational Administration at the University of Texas], who has analyzed cumulative state turnover rates. " Principals do."

It's not always clear when principals leave whether they chose to walk out or were forced out, but what is certain is that in high-pressure situations at low-performing schools, they often don't last...

Jefferson County Desegregation Plan

This from Marc Murphy in The Courier-Journal.

Louisville School Board will Consider Single-sex Institutions

This from Toni Konz at the Courier-Journal:

Under proposal, 2 middle schools would reorganize

Jefferson County's first all-boy and all-girl public schools in decades would open their doors this fall -- and any middle-schooler in the district would be eligible to attend, under a new proposal before the school board tonight.

When the 2008-09 school year begins, Southern Leadership Academy and Iroquois Middle School will essentially become one school -- with two single-sex campuses: boys will attend Southern and girls will go to Iroquois.

Superintendent Sheldon Berman is asking the Jefferson County school board to designate both schools as magnet programs, meaning they will be open to students from across the district.

"We decided that as we move forward with this concept and make a commitment to it, we should open it up to parents from all over the county," Berman said.