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News Clips –
STATE Interim state school chief: Reworked board focused on
goals
By ADRIANA COLINDRES,
State Capitol Bureau, In his first month and
a half on the job, interim state school superintendent Randy Dunn has
begun working with the revamped State Board of Education to achieve
goals outlined by Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The Democratic governor,
who blasted the agency as a "Soviet-style bureaucracy" earlier
this year, gained more control over the nine-member board this summer
under a law that let him appoint seven new people. When Blagojevich
made the appointments in September, he said he wanted the reworked board
to focus on three tasks: reduce a backlog in teacher certification,
reduce the number of rules and regulations for local school districts
and develop one "major idea" for a policy initiative to pursue
next year. One of the new board's
first moves was to hire Dunn on an interim basis for a salary of $115,000
and to get rid of the previous superintendent, Robert Schiller. Dunn, 46, has rented
a During an interview
Thursday, Dunn discussed a number of topics, including the agency's
plans and his thoughts on the state's school funding problems. He also revealed that
the agency last month canceled a controversial lobbying contract with
Barbour, Griffith & Rogers Inc., a step that will result in an estimated
savings of $40,000. Shortly after being sworn in as governor in 2003,
Blagojevich sent a letter to then-ISBE Chairman Ronald Gidwitz, urging
the board to end the contract. But that did not happen. "Now that the ISBE
is not an island unto itself and not kind of working out there on a
freelance basis, but now is rather part of a unified leadership structure
from the governor's office, it begs the question of whether we need
to be in this business of executing independent lobby contracts as a
state agency," Dunn said. Here are other portions
of the interview, conducted in Dunn's office at the Illinois State Board
of Education in On what he'd like to
say to begin the conversation: "We're trying to
make ... good effort on meeting the governor's charges that he's laid
out for the agency. Along that line, we've worked very hard. Cleared
out the backlog of (teacher) certification applications for "(We've) worked
with the board to put together a process for our rules review, and that's
going to be getting under way very soon. Certainly, we're working with
the agency internally to look at what's hampering their work with school
systems, their ability to provide good service. "We're working
on wraparound services, interagency collaboration, so for instance,
with (the Illinois Department of) Public Aid ... we're trying to do
something where we can use free-lunch application eligibility as a means
to make sure we're also getting kids in KidCare for health care services
and not having kids fall through the cracks in that regard. "We are also trying
to (get) some sort of accountability program put together. We could
really look at some significant cost savings within the agency." - On his goals for the
agency: "I think really
the goals that are going to drive us are the ones that were part of
the governor's charge to us. Clearly, there was a vision for what the
potential of this agency could be. "These are great,
good ideas that ultimately are going to have a payoff in classrooms,
and I'm in full agreement with them. I think that's kind of what creates
the game plan for us, from here going forward, and certainly the board
is also mindful of those same things. They're also pushing on the same
things, having this notion of kind of a unified team or alignment. Everybody's
kind of working toward this same goal." - On his assessment
of the State Board of Education since he began work there: "One thing that
comes to mind is that there really are just a great number of very good
and competent people working for the State Board, and they have passion
about what they do. I think, to some degree, the agency had been constrained
by maybe not as much attentiveness to the management function that could
have been. And I don't mean this as a slam to (former) Supt. (Robert)
Schiller or anyone individual." - On the question of
whether the new law that allowed the agency's restructuring also threatens
its independence: "No. You really
have to look at what came out of that legislation. The State Board,
as an agency, still exists. My contract is with the State Board. I really
... think it is kind of the best of all worlds, from the standpoint
that there now is this alignment with the rest of state government that
we haven't had. "Ultimately, education
is one of the key, if not the key, function of state government around
the nation. To have it be the situation that the governor is certainly
being held responsible for it at the polling place, without having the
ability to kind of provide leadership and direction and set an agenda
is just, really, kind of difficult to fathom." - On how the average
Illinoisan should view the agency and its work, and why the average
Illinoisan should care: "In all of the
things that we're doing ... while we clearly have these program areas
and focuses that we're trying to address, what drives all of this is
to do everything possible to allow teachers to do the best work they
can in classrooms. "I think it's also
the case that we can point to the fact that what we're trying to build
here is a more cost-efficient agency, one that's more responsive to
the citizens of the state of - On the status of the
yearly school report cards, which will be issued late because incorrect
data is being fixed: "The report cards
are getting close. ... We are doing everything to deal with (data problems
on the report cards), to prevent that from happening. We don't want
to go through this again. ... Now, I'm not going to bet the farm to
say there will be no glitches next year, but we'd be crazy not to try
to take advantage of what we're learning here and making sure it doesn't
happen again going forward." - On House Bill 750,
proposed legislation that calls for increasing income taxes to fund
education: "I'm not here to
take a position at odds with the governor, and the governor's been clear
that he'll veto House Bill 750. I'm certainly not at odds with that
or think that's an incorrect approach to take. There are problems with
that bill. I think it's the case that people understand that funding
is an issue of concern in "I'm not a political
expert, and if the votes are there, I guess it takes place. But to think
this is the salvation of funding or the answer to the problems in - On fixing the school
funding problem in "I am of the mind
of the governor, that until we can show that all the costs have been
wrung out of the system, that we've made the education machine as lean
and efficient as possible in the state, I think it's a very difficult
thing ... to go out and try to advocate for a tax increase." Bill
would change school funding by raising income tax Lawmakers say measure
likely won't be voted on Karen McDonald, Area school officials
are keeping their fingers crossed that a bill to increase income taxes
to fund education comes up for a vote in this week's veto session of
the state's General Assembly. But legislators say
that's not likely. House Bill 750 and its
accompanying Senate amendments, would change the way public schools
are funded by increasing income taxes from the current 3 percent to
5 percent. One percent of the increase would help fund schools and 1
percent would be used to reduce property taxes, according to the Center
for Tax and Budget Accountability. "This bill deals
with three big problems facing Neither of the bill's
amendments, which are the meat of the bill, have been adopted. Although
discussion on the bill may come up, it will not be voted on, said co-sponsor
Sen. Miguel del Valle, D-Chicago. "We have a serious,
serious, problem. That's why superintendents from throughout the state are wanting us
to consider the content of House Bill 750, because everyone's hurting.
There seems to be no
movement on the part of the General Assembly to consider this problem,"
said del Valle, who also chairs the Senate Education Committee. Sen. Bill Brady, R-Bloomington,
also reported it is "doubtful" the bill will move during the
veto session. About 80 percent of
state schools are deficit spending. To make up the difference in state
funding, schools are relying more upon property tax owners to foot the
bill, which creates inequities in the amount spent per student in poorer
districts. "We are overly
reliant on property tax in Del Valle said forcing
the bill isn't the answer. "I think it is
so big - it's monumental. It's tax reform. It's dealing with deficits.
We can't rush something like that through in six days," del Valle
said, adding he hopes it will be voted on in the spring session. No tax increase Gov. Rod Blagojevich
has said he would not increase taxes, so if the bill is going to survive
an eventual veto, it would have to pass the General Assembly by a three-fifths
majority. However, the bill is only required to pass each chamber merely
on a majority vote to go before the governor. "We would have
to pass a veto-proof bill. This bill is the answer, but we have a governor
who has said no," del Valle said. If approved, the state
would assume 51 percent of the cost of education funding ( Even with an income
tax increase, The bill also would
expand the sales tax base, but not the rate, to include personal and
consumer services such as home cleaning and entertainment. Superintendents from
Pekin Grade School District 108, McLean County District 5 and Peoria
District 150 all have publicly supported the bill, to name a few. "The system is
broken. The easiest thing for a politician to do is point their finger
at the school district. The hardest thing is to look at the number and
ways to address them. We continue to duck the issue," del Valle
said. Another public hearing
on the issue likely will be scheduled in December. Going,
going, gone: Public schools find auctions raise cash Alexa Aguilar, The anticipation at
the community center in O'Fallon, "Can I have $1,000?"
the auctioneer yodeled. A bidder's number went
up. "$1,050?"
Another bidder joined the fray. Back and forth, the
two bidders battled until finally the bid rested at $1,800. "Sold!" the
auctioneer exclaimed. It wasn't a week in
the "My daughter wanted
it; she told me she didn't care what it cost," said winner Michelle
Wallace, who earlier had purchased front-row seats to the fourth-grade
musical for $600. Those are the kind of
coveted items you get at a school auction. Across the area, groups of
PTO moms and dads work day and night for months to plan one-night events
they hope will raise a year's worth of money for their schools. Private schools have
had auctions for years, and in most cases, have it down to a science.
Some private schools in "It's just grown;
it's taken on a life of its own," said Jeff Scott, the highly organized
dad who volunteered this year to head the Moye school's second attempt
at a dinner auction. "We're in a town
that has voted down several referendums," he said. "If you
can't get the children the things they need through tax dollars, you
have to do what else you can." Moye Elementary was
brand new last year, and a core group of parent volunteers decided to
try their hand at sponsoring a dinner auction to buy items that state
and local dollars couldn't provide. In 90 days, they rushed around town,
solicited donations and threw it together as quickly as they could.
When they raised $33,000,
they knew they were onto something. Last year's auction
proceeds bought Moye children playground equipment, science kits and
library books to stock their new library. This year, meetings
started in earnest over the summer, but really, planning had started
before the final gavel fell last year, Scott said. More than 60 parents
signed up, many of them eager to get fund raising out of the way in
one fell swoop, instead of endlessly begging their neighbors and co-workers
to buy wrapping paper, candy bars and magazines. "You can only have
so much wrapping paper," one mother said. For months, Scott's
in-box was flooded with e-mails until he opened an account just for
auction-related e-mails. He didn't show up to a meeting without his
5-inch binder bulging with pie charts, graphs and lists of every item
solicited. He works out of his home, and that allowed him the flexibility
to be at school during the day and to work his "day job" at
night. It was an endless to-do
list, the group said. They rented the They joked that the
event was their baby, and it was almost born. Friday and Saturday
brought a marathon setup: hauling donations to the site, putting them
on display, decorating the room. The parents then rushed home to shower
and dress, then hurried back to keep the evening moving. A month earlier, two
empty classrooms at Moye held no fewer than eight parent volunteers
at One enthusiastic mother,
Kelly Cooper, was in charge of class projects: items each class of students
created to put up for sale. As she showed off the ceramic candlesticks
one class had decorated and another's Christmas tree skirt created with
handprints, she jumped up and down with excitement. "They're just so
great," she said, clapping. Her work paid off. The
class projects were big sellers. A classroom quilt sold for $600, a
chess board with pieces students had decorated went for $500. "Oh, yeah, in elementary
school, those types of things are golden," said Cathy Naunheim
of It's practically been
her full-time job. At Priory, as at some private schools, the development
office helps organize the annual auction. But as auction chairwoman,
Naunheim worked a 9-to-5 day nearly every day. "I don't know what
I'm going to do when he graduates," Naunheim joked. When it comes to fund
raising, there's no better event than an auction to build a sense of
community among volunteers, she said. Moye Principal Paulette
Burns echoed that sentiment. She doesn't want her students peddling
items from door to door, and the auction helped form solidarity among
parents at the new school. And because an auction needs so many different
talents, parents who aren't PTO regulars still can help, such as the
mom who can't make it to meetings but is able to design the event's
program on her home computer. Scott said his committee was determined
that the event not be a highbrow affair, inaccessible to families with
average incomes. For every quilt that
sold for $600 or the $700 mayor for a day, there were silent auction
items for $25 or $50. "Parochial schools
are used to doing this; they know it can work," said O'Fallon Mayor
Gary Graham, who bought a huge wooden American flag with preschool handprints
as the stripes. It will hang on a city building's wall. "These
people you see here are middle class who are coming out because they
don't think that teachers should have to spend $300 out of their pockets
to buy construction paper," Graham said. But not all schools
are sold on auctions. "It just ended
up being such a huge amount of work, it was a pain in the neck,"
he said. They would put one together every three years and raise about
$40,000 for the district, but "it was burning people out."
The family trivia nights
build a sense of community, raise about the same amount of money and
don't force parents to devote months of their lives to the event, he
said. But parents at Moye
seemed pleased with their efforts late Saturday as they put away tables
and counted their profit: about $41,000. "My feet are throbbing,"
said mother Lois Brasel at Taxpayers
aren't gift horses; stop looking in their wallets The defeat of referendums
in the Byron and Schools should channel
their energy into changing Voters last week handed
In Byron, voters also
refused, by a similar margin, to provide relief. The district already
faces a $3 million deficit. The money troubles will get worse when the
assessment for the Exelon nuclear power plant is reduced. The plant
provides 80 percent of the Their plights may sound
dire enough, but voters are saying: Yada yada yada. Only eight of 45 school
proposals on Don Schlomann, superintendent
in Schlomann sees a success
in neighboring Huntley, also a growing community, and says that communicating
with the public is key. We wouldn't be so sure.
For the last several
years, voters have been sending an increasingly loud message to the
schools: Do with what you have, or do without. In a weak economy, when
people have been outsourced, when they have to work two and three jobs
to make ends meet, the simple argument of "do it for the kids"
doesn't resonate. Take After a referendum for
the We repeat: Are over.
School officials can
do somersaults trying to prove their district is different. They even
may have a good case. But the real solution
rests in Instead of going back
to the well -- again and again -- and coming up dry, school officials
need to take their buckets to the Statehouse. Bang on them, in unison.
Repeat after us. Fix school funding now. Charter high school opens its doors today in Venice By Alexa Aguilar of
the Post-Dispatch, Today is not only the
first day of school for many Thirty-three students
have signed up to attend With the school year
well under way, Those students begin
today at the town's former vocational school, which is cleaned and ready
for 30 students - the minimum number the regional office of education
said was needed to open the school's doors. The Madison County Regional
Office of Education has been working for months on the charter since
area schools refused to take the roughly 55 students left when the high
school closed. The regional office
will operate the charter school - a public school that is exempt from
many of the mandates that govern traditional public schools. There won't be freshman,
sophomore, junior or senior classes. There won't be electives - such
as theater or broadcasting - that other area high schools offer. It's
not clear whether there will be any athletic teams. With only 30 students,
there's only so much that can be offered - the same predicament school
leaders had at tiny Venice High. But what there will
be are three teachers who are determined to teach these students the
core subjects - language arts, math and science - and bring the students
up to state standards. And because charter schools don't have to follow
every state rule, administrators can get creative, said Cullen Cullen,
assistant regional superintendent. Cullen said he had trouble
sleeping Sunday night because of the "nerve-racking" task
of opening a school they've practically had to build from scratch. Cullen had thought the
charter proposal was dead until next year, until a shake-up at the State
Board of Education revived the idea. It's been a flurry of
activity the last few weeks, as they hired a principal and teachers,
set up the rooms and prepared the schedules. On Monday, dozens of
students turned up to take a test assessing their current class level.
Teachers Ann Hagen-Rapsilber and Rick Huddleston worked Monday to separate
the 33 into three groups that will rotate among the three teachers each
day. Huddleston has worked
in alternative schools before, and Hagen-Rapsilber has experience teaching
remedial reading. They know this year
will be challenging, but their plan is to provide as much coordination
among subjects as possible and give the students plenty of individualized
attention. "My plan is to
take them on their level, whatever that level that is, and take them
as far as they can go," said Hagen-Rapsilber. School board prioritizes student safety Mike Neumann, Northern
Star Staff Reporter, Members of the Illinois
State Board of Education, as well as the Office of the Illinois State
Fire Marshal and the Illinois Terrorism Task Force, have been selected
as part of Blagojevich’s state-wide attempt to improve safety standards
in “What the governor
has called for is a comprehensive plan for all After a plan is finalized,
it will go through a pilot testing phase, she said. In the “Safety is always
a primary concern with every school district. The “Our administrative
team met recently to discuss safety-related issues and to identify areas
where additional support might be necessary,” MeriAnn Besonen, assistant
superintendent for business and finance, also said the district has
recently met to discuss safety issues. She said there are procedures
in place to ensure safety. “We do have specific
safety plans in place, such as lock-down procedures and evacuations,”
Besonen said. “We heard about [Blagojevich’s plan] and we
decided it was about time to review [our procedures] as well.”
There are still questions
over who will pay for Blagojevich’s new school safety improvements.
If the improvements
are state-mandated without federal or state assistance, local school
districts could be expected to pick up the tab. “We’ll just
have to wait and see,” Besonen said. “It could be [our responsibility].
If it’s state-mandated, we’ll just have to make the changes.”
Dist.
204 will oppose state education funding bill Beth Sneller, Daily
Herald At least one area school
district plans to lobby against a proposed state school funding law
some administrators have dubbed the "Robin Hood" bill. Indian Prairie Unit
District 204 school board members voted this week to recommend the Illinois
Association of School Boards oppose House Bill 750. The bill proposes to
increase state income taxes by $7 billion and expand the sales tax on
everyday services, such as haircuts and auto repairs. In turn, the state would
funnel some of that money toward schools to reduce the property tax
burden on homeowners. District 204 school
board member Mark Metzger, however, said the legislation would benefit
lower-income districts but not schools in the collar counties. "For the average
taxpayer in Indian Prairie, this is a bad, bad deal," he said. Under the legislation,
only 40 percent of taxpayers - those with the highest incomes - would
see their state income tax rate rise from 3 percent to 5 percent. That includes many taxpayers
in District 204 and Naperville Unit District 203. In the first year of
the law, the state would issue a rebate for 25 percent of the school
portion of property taxes. But that property tax
break wouldn't make up for the increase in income taxes in District
204, Metzger said. And there's no guarantee
the state will continue that rebate in future years, he said. Though the District
203 school board hasn't yet voted on the matter, board member Gerry
Cassioppi said he, like Metzger, thinks the bill would be bad for "There's more money
going out than coming in," he said. Next weekend, Cassioppi
and Metzger will vote on the issue as delegates at the associaton's
annual meeting in They figure there will
be many more delegates who share their feelings. "It's a control
issue," Cassioppi said. "I'd rather see the process kept the
way it is, where the local districts are responsible for managing their
own operations and raising their own funds." Gang
fears spur white T-shirt ban Joilet school cites
concern for safety Jo Napolitano, The plain, white T-shirt,
an innocuous garment found in dresser drawers throughout the nation,
was banned from one Some students say the
shirt has simply become a fashion mainstay because it is versatile,
inexpensive and easily replaceable. Embraced by the hip-hop world in
rap songs and music videos, the white T-shirt moved from underwear to
outerwear, becoming part of an unofficial uniform for the young and
hip. "Some people can't
afford regular clothes, so they buy packages of white T-shirts,"
said Jillian Glasgow, a 17-year-old junior at The notion that the
bland, seemingly harmless T-shirt could represent trendiness and danger
may puzzle a large segment of the population. Jake Van Wyk, marketing
director for Hanes, said company research shows nine of 10 men in Made popular by James
Dean in the cinema and "The Fonz" on the TV show "Happy
Days," Van Wyk said the white T-shirt is an icon that has been
inextricably linked to American pop culture for at least 100 years. "It keeps coming
back in slightly different forms," he said. "Now, we're seeing
the hip-hop culture picking it up with their oversized, men's T-shirts.
It's just another way of wearing a great staple." As for the ban, Van
Wyk thought it odd. "If it is gang-related,
then nine out of 10 men in But officials at the
school say there is legitimate cause for concern. The school, which
serves students who have behavioral or emotional problems, has had issues
with gangs and violence in the past. As a result, the school does not
tolerate anything that might be construed as a gang symbol. Francis Ruettiger, a
"The only kids
who wore them are the ones that I had identified as members of a certain
gang," he said, adding he noticed the trend on the first day of
school. "One kid brought 10 of them under his arm. I asked him
why he was bringing them in, and he said they were `for his boys.'" Ruettiger said he believed
white had become an adopted color for one of The trend, school officials
said, was fueled by a rap group called Dem Franchize Boyz and their
hit, "White Tee." According to the song, the rappers do just
about everything--go to the mall, go to clubs, impress girls--in their
crisp, clean, white T-shirts. The song became popular this summer. Irving Spergel, a sociology
professor at the "It's a little
unusual but possible," he said. Karen Rebhan-Csuk, the
school's principal, said students were given three days to comply with
the new rule and most did. Those who chose to flout the policy were
called into her office and their parents were phoned to bring in an
alternative shirt. "We just want to
keep this place neutral and safe so that everybody who walks in here
feels safe and wants to learn," she said, adding that most parents
have been very supportive. One woman brought in
her son's entire T-shirt collection so that she could learn what was
appropriate and what wasn't, the principal said. In addition to the shirts,
the school has banned other items for similar reasons. The school outlawed
the elaborately airbrushed, rest-in-peace shirts and dog tags students
would wear after a friend or fellow gang member was killed. The alternate
school, which installed metal detectors three years ago, banned certain
colors of shoelaces because they also were suspected to be gang-related. "I can't control
what they do outside the school, but once they are inside they are going
to follow the rules because I'm going to keep it as safe as I can for
the staff and students," Ruettiger said. Edwin Yohnka, a spokesman
with the ACLU of Illinois, said state code gives public schools wide
latitude in determining what is and is not appropriate attire. Still,
he said, schools should use that power carefully. "While there are
certain items of clothing or other things that a school might wish to
ban for legitimate security reasons, it ought to have a good reason
before it does that," he said. "Young people expressing themselves
and engaging in the fashion trends of the day ought not to be confused
with being a security threat." A spokesman for the
Chicago Public Schools said individual schools have prohibited certain
suspected gang colors in the past, but none has barred white, to his
knowledge. Some Meanwhile, white T-shirts
have been one of the hot items at the Foot Locker in Westfield Shoppingtown
Louis Joliet. Store manager Al Williams said he sells three to four
times as many white T-shirts a day as any other color. "They're cheap,"
he said. "You don't have to spend $25 just to get one shirt. You
can spend $20 and get five shirts." Students agree with
his assessment. Terrell Hunter, a freshman at House bill would change school funding Tax shifting: Plan would
increase income taxes, decrease property taxes By Justina Wang, Beacon
News Staff Writer, How How What percent of school
funding the state assumes: 36. When all the numbers
are added up, Martire said Thursday night at a town meeting at "What we do in
Illinois is overtax the lower- and middle-income families, and then
turn around and underfund their schools," said Martire, executive
director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, a bipartisan
think thank that's written a reform bill to change public school funding
in Illinois. The forum was one in
a series of presentations throughout the state on the detriments of
the current method of school funding — and more specifically, in
support of the House bill. House Bill 750 hopes
to shift the burden of funding public schools away from property taxes
— a system Martire says punishes students from poorer areas. Instead,
revenue would rely more heavily on personal and corporate income taxes
and be redistributed through state aid. Under the bill, the
state would increase its contribution to school districts from 30 to
50 percent. East and To fund this boost in
school money, personal income taxes would increase from 3 to 5 percent,
and corporate income taxes would grow from 4.8 to 8 percent. Seniors
with adjusted gross incomes of more than $75,000 each year also would
pay taxes on their retirement money. Martha Price, a former
"We all support
reform, but this one little aspect will ironically hurt the people that
taught education," she said. In addition, the bill
proposes expanding the sales tax base to include other currently non-taxed
services, such as haircuts and house cleaning. However, Martire said
a $900 million tax refund would be given to the bottom 60 percent of
all taxpayers in order to counteract these additional taxes. Also, Alisa Koch, an "It's a much fairer
system," she said. "My taxes are going to go up, but I'm for
it. It certainly seems tailor-made to so many different needs that ( School officials from
several local districts, including "This may be the
closest thing we've seen over the last several years in real reform
for how schools are funded," said Plano Superintendent Bill Woody. Still, residents raised
concerns about the likelihood of passing the bill. Some audience members
speculated that many legislators would be afraid of passing a bill that
would raise income taxes. Martire said he understood
that "the dirtiest word in the English language is tax," but
that voters and legislators would appreciate the fairness of the system.
Plus, he added, certain taxes would be raised, but lower- and middle-income
families would really save money from the tax refund and property tax
decrease. He believes that more than 2/3 of "Absolutely every
region in this state would see an increase in school funding and property
tax relief," he said. "That's never happened before. We need
to do this in House Bill 750 remains
in a General Assembly committee. Martire said the bill may be voted
on as early as next spring. For more information
on House Bill 750, visit the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability's
Web site at www.ctbaonline.org. Schools pass, but law fails districts More than half the state's
systems could face sanctions, such as losing tutoring programs, under
changes related to No Child Left Behind Act By Stephanie Banchero
and Darnell Little, Tribune staff reporters, By most measures, Roughly 70 percent of
its students passed state achievement exams last year. All four of its
schools met--and in most cases overwhelmingly surpassed--the testing
standards of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Its class sizes are
smaller than average. But the 1,300-pupil
system suddenly finds itself in a peculiar and unenviable position,
labeled as a troubled district by the federal government. And if things
did not improve on the most recent round of state testing, high-flying
Since the No Child Left
Behind reform was passed two years ago, the focus has been mainly on
individual schools. But this year, for the first time, the state has
made public a list of districts that are failing. According to data recently
released, more than half of the state's districts--454 out of 891--failed
to measure up last year and will face sanctions if test results do not
improve on the soon-to-be released state report card. The list includes such
perennial all-stars as New Trier High School District 203, Many districts, including
Franklin Park District 84, were tripped up by the performance of special
education students. About 180 districts
are in the same boat as The story is much the
same across the nation, where some of the best-regarded school districts
are being tripped up by nuances of the complicated and controversial
federal education reform. Their inclusion on the list of troubled districts
is inflaming the debate already raging over the law, which some educators
and lawmakers argue is deeply flawed and focuses too much on testing. In "I don't know if
this will be the tipping point, but it presents a strong argument that
the law must be reviewed and changed," Jack Jennings, director
of the Center for Education Policy, a Chicago Public Schools
chief Arne Duncan already has drawn his line. He has threatened to defy
the portion of the law that bars troubled districts like his from overseeing
federally mandated tutoring programs for children in low-performing
schools. "It infuriates
me when bureaucrats in Doug Mesecar, deputy
chief of staff for policy at the U.S. Department of Education, argues
that the law is working exactly as intended. "The whole idea
of the law is that no child is left behind," Mesecar said. "For
decades, you've had a lot of kids who were shuffled through the system,
their scores hidden in group averages. Now we are insisting that someone
be held accountable for every student, whether it's the school or the
district." The sweeping No Child
Left Behind law requires states to track separately how well minority,
low-income, limited-English and special education students perform on
state achievement exams. Each subgroup must meet state standards in
math and reading, and 95 percent of students in each subgroup must be
tested. The law lays out a series
of escalating sanctions for schools that fail to measure up, beginning
with a requirement that they allow students to transfer to better schools
and ending with possible closure. Although every school
in Each state is allowed
to decide how large a subgroup must be before it is counted as such.
Some states have set the number as low as 20 students, others as high
as 100. In So far, the tough standard
has been applied only to individual schools across Now, however, districts
are being held to those same standards, and the expansion of the subgroup
rule is snaring many of the state's best. Take the But adding the special
education students across the district brings the total to 52, qualifying
them as a subgroup within the district. In 2002-03, about 12
percent of If the scores did not
improve on the 2003-04 tests, the results of which are expected to be
released within the next month or so, Franklin Park Supt.
David Nemec said he was surprised when state officials told him in August
that his district had run afoul of the law. "Mathematically
I can see how this would occur, but realistically I am puzzled that
they would put our district on a list of districts that are in trouble,"
Nemec said. "This is going to confuse parents, and I'm not sure
that putting us on a list of districts that are in trouble gives a true
picture of how well our schools are doing." A Tribune analysis
of the state data shows that the biggest stumbling block for districts
was the performance of special education students. Of the 400 districts
that had enough special education students to total a subgroup, nearly
three-quarters of them failed to meet the state testing standards in
special education reading. Howard Butters, superintendent
of "For students to
receive special education services, they have to at least be performing
two years below grade level," Butters said. "And then to expect
that those children are going to be able to perform on the state's assessment
at grade level, I just find that ludicrous." Though the federal sanctions
apply only to districts that receive federal poverty money, the state
has companion rules that basically mirror the federal ones. A district that fails
to meet standards two years in a row must create an improvement plan
laying out how the district will fix the problems that led to the student
failure. Districts that get federal poverty money--about 90 percent
of Most troubling to some
subpar districts, however, is the provision that bars them from overseeing
tutoring programs in failing schools. No Child Left Behind
requires districts to offer free tutoring to students who attend schools
that repeatedly fail. By law, parents can opt for private tutoring at
the expense of the district. But many districts, including Chicago and
Cicero, set up tutoring programs last year after the private companies
could not handle the flow of students. Now, officials with
the U.S. Department of Education are warning that these districts will
have to dismantle their tutoring programs if the upcoming test scores
do not show marked improvement. "If that's what
they plan to do then I say, `Fine, give me a better alternative,'"
said Edward Aksamit, superintendent of the "Either we provide
this tutoring or no one provides it. If the federal government thinks
it's better to have no tutoring, then I think it's another example of
how ridiculous this law can be." Angela Frangias, who
tutors 2nd graders at "We have a lot
of special education students, and a lot of students who are simply
having a hard time, who really benefit from this extra help," said
Frangias, who tutors 13 students. "If they close us down, I'm afraid
that these kids won't get the help they need." Many Illinois schools remain open on Veterans Day AP, A growing number of
Schools across the state
have invited veterans to join students in flag-raising ceremonies, question-and-answer
sessions, the singing of patriotic songs and other activities. "(Children will)
understand it's more than just getting a day off and prancing around,"
said Wayne Miller, commander of the VFW Post in This year, 235 of the
state's 881 districts sought to waive the federal holiday, compared
with about 175 districts five years ago. Illinois State Board of Education
officials attributed the shift to district scheduling preferences and
educational opportunities. "It serves as a
learning experience for the students," board spokeswoman Becky
Watts said. "They're learning aspects of history." Several veterans groups
said they were thrilled with the chance to give students firsthand accounts
of their experiences, especially at a time when soldiers are deployed
in conflicts in "We want the students
to have a well-rounded education and to understand what the veterans
go through, especially the ones who are at war right now," Miller
said. Some schools invited
speakers because the presentations also enhance the lives of veterans,
officials said. "When we came back,
everybody was happy for us, but after a while it died down. So, it's
flattering for people to make a big deal," she said. For By Ryan Pagelow, News
Sun Staff Writer, "The committee
has a lot of questions and few answers," said Chuck Clement, a
member of the panel who spoke at the Waukegan School Board meeting on
Tuesday. He said the panel is
looking at a multi-track plan where students would go to school for
45 days and then have 15 days of intercession, which would be repeated
four times over a year. The 15-day intercession could be used to tutor
kids who need extra help, taking the place of summer school. "It would give
students an opportunity to get help right away instead of waiting until
June," Clement said. A school building that
currently serves 702 students could serve 936 students under the panel's
multi-track model. Tiffany Myers, a school
psychologist, presented the pros and cons of year-round education to
the board, noting research is inconclusive about the effects of year-round
education. "One argument for
year-round schools is that students tend to forget a lot over the summer.
Other research shows students are going to forget whether out for three
weeks or three months. Teachers will have to review four times a year
instead of one," Myers said. She also said year-round
education could require air conditioning over the summer months and
there's only one building in the district with air conditioning throughout
the school. Other concerns were
summer employment for students and staff, day care concerns and how
the custodial and maintenance services which are usually done during
the summer would be accomplished with students in classrooms all year. "There are a lot
of hidden costs if you make this kind of education," Myers said.
"The year-round schools that we've talked to, they've all had to
renegotiate contracts." 300 school jobs to be filled in '05 By CARRIE WATTERS, ROCKFORD -- The School officials are
stepping up recruitment efforts as the district plans to hire 300 teachers
and administrators next school year, compared with about 20 new teachers
this year. The hiring spree, at
a time of high unemployment, is the result of 245 teachers and administrators
opting for a retirement incentive at the end of this school year. The
retirements represent the loss of 12 percent of the district's 2,055
teachers, administrators and certified support personnel like guidance
counselors. "It's just a lot
of people to leave at one time," said Assistant Superintendent
of Human Resources Mary Ann Gemmill, whose department is swinging into
action. A district recruiter
is at Southern Illinois University this week. Gemmill and others will
crisscross the state and country in coming months to encourage college
graduates to come to Alternative paths Locally, officials are
asking folks to consider the classroom. The district hopes next
fall to bring 30 people into hard-to-fill specialties like bilingual,
math and science. Rockford Superintendent
Dennis Thompson praised the experience nontraditional teachers can offer
students. As a retired Army officer who entered education as a counselor,
then administrator, Thompson is among them. "I know it's possible
to do this," he said. The partnership was
supposed to kick off last spring, but the district backed down on hiring
30 teachers because it was in the midst of laying off teachers. The retention rate for
nontraditional teachers through the program stands at about 85 percent,
according to Gregory Shrader, a former teacher and president of NTEC.
As part of the partnership,
the district will hire 15 people with a bachelor's in math or science,
who have worked in their field a minimum of five years. The district
and college hope to recruit another 15 people, also with bachelor's
degrees, as elementary bilingual teachers. The 30 candidates will
start studying two months this spring and spend two weeks in the classroom.
They must pass a test to earn a provisional teaching certificate. When fall rolls around,
candidates will have their own classroom. Starting salary is $28,188.
They will take about
12 night classes throughout the school year and spend two hours each
week with a teaching coach in their classroom. At the end of the school
year, they earn an initial teaching certificate. Mayor Doug Scott was
at Thursday's news conference at Scott encouraged people
to consider a career change. "What better way to give back than
to impart your knowledge," he said. 'On the trail' The alternative program
will provide only a handful of the teachers the district will need.
"Beginning this month, we're out on the trail," Gemmill said.
She has increased the
number of recruiters in the district from one to four, including herself
and human resources Director Jim Feldhaber. They have a reputation to
dispel that Many districts lay off
teachers in the spring because state law requires notification by April
if teachers can't expect a job in the next school year. For boards,
the timing is off because they usually don't know the next school year's
funding levels. In This year, recruiters
offer promissory notes to candidates. The district can't guarantee specific
jobs in specific schools because seniority teachers have first dibs.
But the district can guarantee that with all the retirements, there
will be jobs. Recruiters are hitting
colleges and job fairs and scouring the substitute and student teachers
already in the district. Gemmill said emphasis is placed on recruiting
minority teachers. Only one in 10 Gemmill gave a dry laugh
when asked how soon her job would be complete. "Hopefully, by late
August," she said. =========================================================================== NATIONAL Former Austin High bookkeeper charged with stealing school
funds Police say she embezzled
more than $100,000 By Steven Kreytak, Austin
American-Statesman Staff, A former Angela Cobble, 34, was
released Thursday from the Travis County Jail after posting a $20,000
bond. The Round Rock resident
is charged with theft by a public servant greater than $100,000 but
less than $200,000, a first-degree felony punishable by five years to
life in prison. She did not return calls
for comment. Cobble started working
at the school in October 2002 and resigned Sept. 10. After Cobble left,
school district auditors checked the books she was in charge of keeping,
a standard procedure. When they saw apparent financial irregularities,
they turned the case over to district police. According to a probable
cause affidavit, investigators found that Cobble had skimmed more than
$60,000 from the cash receipts from athletic ticket sales and student
fund-raisers. Cobble also wrote checks
for more than $40,000 to herself from school funds, the affidavit stated.
Cobble forged the signature of Principal Barbara Spelman on the checks,
according to the affidavit. Spelman called the theft
"shocking and hurtful" in a letter mailed to students' parents
on Wednesday. She also wrote that a district insurance policy would
cover 95 percent of any unrecovered loss. School district Sgt.
J.J. Schmidt would not say whether investigators know where the money
is or for what it was used. The embezzlement began Official objects to 'asexual stealth phrases' School board member
wants clear wording on marriage AP, 11/5/04 AUSTIN, Republican Terri Leo
said certain books attempt to nullify a Texas law banning the recognition
of same-sex civil unions by using "asexual stealth phrases"
such as "individuals who marry" instead of husbands and wives. "I want the reader,
the child to know that marriage is between a man and a woman,"
Leo said in a written statement released during a board meeting Thursday. The 15-member board
is scheduled to vote Friday on whether to approve the books for middle
and high schools. The decision could affect dozens of states because
books sold in Democratic board member
Mary Helen Berlanga noted that one textbook showed a picture of a mother
and a father and a young girl and her brother. "We cannot start
censoring books because we do not like the terminology," Berlanga
said. "I don't see two males or two females holding hands." The elected board, which
has 10 Republicans and five Democrats, is allowed to reject books only
because of factual errors or failure to follow state-mandated curriculum. A spokesman for one
of the publishers, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, said it will come up
with something it believes is appropriate and bring it to the board
Friday. Randall Ellis, executive
director of the Lesbian/Gay Rights Lobby of Texas, said Leo was asserting
a religious right agenda into students' textbooks. "My bottom line
opinion is it's irresponsible," Ellis said. "There comes a
time when you need to put your own agenda aside and do what's best for
youth." AP, GRANTSBURG, Wisconsin
-- School officials have revised the science curriculum to allow the
teaching of creationism, prompting an outcry from more than 300 educators
who urged that the decision be reversed. Members of Grantsburg's
school board believed that a state law governing the teaching of evolution
was too restrictive. The science curriculum "should not be totally
inclusive of just one scientific theory," said Joni Burgin, superintendent
of the district of 1,000 students in northwest Last month, when the
board examined its science curriculum, language was added calling for
"various models/theories" of origin to be incorporated. The decision provoked
more than 300 biology and religious studies faculty members to write
a letter last week urging the Grantsburg board to reverse the policy.
It follows a letter sent previously by 43 deans at "Insisting that
teachers teach alternative theories of origin in biology classes takes
time away from real learning, confuses some students and is a misuse
of limited class time and public funds," said Don Waller, a botanist
at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. There have been scattered
efforts around the nation for other school boards to adopt similar measures.
Last month the Dover Area School Board in The state education
board in In March, the Ohio Board
of Education narrowly approved a lesson plan that some critics contended
opens the door to teaching creationism. Teachers Try an Array
of Techniques to Combat Germy Students By Susan Carolyn Callaghan has
four boxes of tissues in her classroom -- one within easy reach of any
sneezy, germy student out there -- and a fifth box on her desk that
she doesn't let anyone else touch. She cleans the doorknobs,
washes her hands constantly and occasionally walks through her classroom
handing out paper towels, squirting the students' desks with disinfectant
and cheering the kids on as they rub the gook away. Teachers such as Callaghan,
whose students at the private School administrators
across the region also are bracing for the coming winter. They wonder
if it will be a bad season for flu, and if so, will they have enough
substitute teachers? If only they could get kids to stop sneezing on
each other. In No luck. The clinics
he had organized with a medical provider, which drew more than 1,000
teachers last year, had to be canceled. As in many school systems,
Howard officials launched an information campaign instead, sending teachers
e-mails and fliers with prevention tips. In St. Mary's County,
administrators asked the maintenance staff to make an extra effort to
keep bathrooms and water fountains clean. In In Everywhere, people are
reminding one another to use soap. "I've got the phone
away from my ear," said Denise Malinow, the registered nurse at
Some teachers were anxious
when they heard about the vaccine shortage. "I've worried about
it because I'm used to getting the flu shot every year," said Monica
Piern, a first-grade teacher at But she, like most teachers,
understood that the vaccine had to be limited this year. "I'd rather
people that are older and high risk get the flu shots [rather] than
me," she said. "Our school nurse talked with the staff about
how to stay healthy -- taking extra vitamin C, getting good rest and
eating healthy as well." An illness coming into
a school can ripple from desk to desk. "My husband used to say,
'You don't get sick -- but I think you carry it home,' " said Robin
Read, a teacher in Read said she doesn't
worry for herself. "My immune system is hard as a rock," she
said, "after being around all the kids for so many years."
Callaghan was not so
lucky. She used to get the
flu all the time. It would knock her back for a week, keeping her home
from her job as a Spanish teacher with a fever, a runny nose, the works.
"It was miserable,"
she said. Then she started getting
shots, about 10 years ago, and she stopped getting the flu. She has been teaching
for 32 years, and several years ago she developed diabetes. Last year,
she had a stroke. So she worried when she heard about the vaccine shortage
and that only certain groups of people, such as the elderly and those
who work directly with sick patients, could get the vaccine. Her husband tried a
homeopathic remedy, hoping it would keep him well. She and other teachers
talked about it at lunch one day, debating whether it would work. But then the school
nurse told Callaghan that with her health risks and at her age, 60,
she probably would qualify to get a shot. Callaghan was delighted
and got one straightaway. Now, feeling shielded
from influenza, she worries only about all the other germs swarming
around in her classroom. On Friday morning, she
saw a student in the nurse's office who had just thrown up. "I'm
thinking, 'Oh, gosh. I'm glad he wasn't in my classroom yet.' "
She went straight to
his desk, spritzed disinfectant and scoured the whole area. School district to pay $140,000 to boy who was teased
by other kids AP, 11/8/04 The A Brenda Neal said her
son, who is now 15, was teased repeatedly by other students after his
records, including data about his IQ, family circumstances and special-education
information, were discovered on the playground at Bob Hajek, Neal's attorney,
said the jury found the school system failed to protect student information. "Basically, the
jury determined this was a wholesale failure by the Allen Giles, general
counsel for the Associated Press State education officials develop common curriculum AP, The common curriculum
won't mean that each school has to use the same textbooks, but will
spell out what students need to know. A common curriculum
may help address the problem of mobility, one of the most difficult
issues facing urban districts. More than 15 percent
of all public school students change schools during the year, and that
number is much higher in city schools, according to The Providence Journal. The new state curriculum
will not be mandatory, but union leaders and state educators expect
that most districts will embrace it. That, they say, is because
school leaders need help meeting the standards on which students are
now tested. "The districts
actually came to us," said Colleen Callahan, a member of the Board
of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education and the The American Federation
of Teachers sponsored the bill to create a statewide curriculum, which
the General Assembly approved and Gov. Don Carcieri signed into law
this summer. One of the prime movers
behind the bill was the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which requires
states to test students yearly and to create uniform grade-level expectations
or standards. The measure is strictly
voluntary because, according to "I'm looking for
something where everyone opens their book and says, 'Here we all are,'"
said regent Mario Mancieri, a retired superintendent from Candy creates confusion in AP, 11/8/04 LITTLE ROCK, The But state Education
Department director Ken James said no such directive has been approved
by the state Board of Education. "We need to be
conscious of what we are doing in terms of sugar content, but we have
not dictated to schools that they cannot use those as rewards,"
James said. As a result, the district
told teachers last week that they could resume handing out candy. The
directive was based on a misunderstanding of a new law, officials said. The law requires schools
to calculate the body mass index for each student and bars access to
vending machines for elementary school students Duke Helfand and Joel
Rubin, More than 1 million
students in the nation's largest urban school districts have remained
at poor-performing campuses despite a federal law that allows them a
chance to escape to better schools. The offer extended by
the No Child Left Behind education law is intended to expand school
choices for children in low-income communities. But in In And in A lack of interest on
the part of parents and a shortage of available seats in good schools
have combined to weaken the impact of the law. Still, the Bush administration
argues that its signature domestic policy strengthens local campuses
by introducing competitive marketplace forces into public school districts. Administration officials
also say they judge the success of the law by whether schools improve,
not by the numbers of transfers. "This is a real
culture shift," said Eugene Hickok, deputy secretary in the U.S.
Department of Education. "For years, the system did what was best
for the system. Now we are arguing that [schools] have to find ways
to respond to the needs of their customers. That's what choice is about." The Bush administration
is expected to expand the reforms of No Child Left Behind as the president
enters his second term, possibly extending the law's testing requirements
from elementary and middle schools into high schools. That could increase
the number of failing campuses — and thus the pool of students
eligible for transfers — as more schools struggle to meet the measure's
demanding expectations. Critics say the low
numbers of students taking advantage of the offer, however, reveal a
significant flaw in the law: Policymakers misunderstand the importance
of neighborhood schools to parents. "The law does give
real power to parents. It's just not a power they are willing to use
very often," said Tom Loveless, director of the Even if children leave
their local campuses, some district leaders say they cannot accommodate
more transfers because their best campuses already are strapped for
space. And school districts
must use valuable federal funds to bus students to schools of their
choice, siphoning money away from low-performing campuses. "In Some districts have
set limits on the numbers of transfers for fear of swamping high-performing
campuses. And in Last year, the district
set aside 1,097 seats for 18,000 students who expressed interested. The district holds a
lottery for the available transfer slots. "I'm not going
to put 40 kids in a classroom," said Arne Duncan, Chicago Public
Schools' chief executive. "I'm not going to change the fundamental
nature of what has made a school successful." Schools are labeled
failures under the federal law if they do not meet strict targets for
improving test scores each year; campuses earn no credit for partial
gains. Schools in low-income
communities that fail to meet their targets two years in a row are required
to offer transfers to their students. Many districts reluctantly
notify parents of their right to better schools as required by No Child
Left Behind, even as they promote the benefits of campuses on the federal
watch list. In the "When parents call,
we explain that the programs and the training for teachers is the same
at every school," said Ruben Barron, "It is not about
dissuading them — they have a right to transfer if they want —
but it is about making an informed decision. We do tell them what their
school is doing right," he said. Last year, 4,439 students
at five None of the 600 students
at Abraham Lincoln Elementary transferred last year. Principal Victoria Knaack
interpreted the lack of interest in switching schools as a vote of confidence
even as her campus struggled to meet expectations of No Child Left Behind. "When they don't
move, it means we're doing something right," she said. "It's
an affirmation for us." Parents say "It wouldn't matter
if they told me another school was 100 times better, it wouldn't do
as much for [my son] as he gets here," Angela Vela, whose first-grader
attends Federal education officials
say more parents don't take advantage of the option to move because
they aren't notified until after the start of the school year. Leaders in several school
districts acknowledged the problem but said it was not their fault.
State education departments, they said, release the lists of failing
campuses only days or weeks before school starts, leaving districts
little time to inform parents. The But parents cite reasons
other than timing in their decisions to have their children stay put.
They say federal policymakers fail to appreciate the social and communal
roles that schools play in low-income and immigrant neighborhoods. At
many campuses, parents get a chance to serve on school committees and
take evening classes. "Here, we are family,"
said Rosa Villafana, 47, who turned down the chance for her daughter
to transfer out of Loreto Street Elementary in the "The state and
the federal government don't see the sentimental value of a school,"
Villafana added. "If I thought my child was failing, I would change.
But I'm happy." Daniel and Dinora Sanchez
jumped at the chance to move their 9-year-old son, Christian, to a better
school outside their east Christian now attends
Germain Street Elementary in the northwest Valley community of Chatsworth. The Sanchez family liked
the idea of Christian attending a diverse school with more high-achieving
students, something they didn't feel he had at their local school, San
Fernando Elementary. That campus, where 99% of the students are Latino,
rates a 2 on the state's school rankings, which go from 1 to 10. Germain
rates a 9. "I wanted him to
interact with different types of students," said Dinora Sanchez,
who teaches second grade in Christian said he was
sad to leave his old school but now feels more challenged. "I kind of felt
like I was the smartest kid in the class" at The Like L.A. Unified, districts
elsewhere must devote up to 20% of their federal poverty funds to pay
for transfers and after-school tutoring at campuses identified as failing.
Although district leaders see value in the tutoring, they object to
the added costs of the transfers. The Leaders in "It's money spent
for the wrong purpose," said Agustin Orci, deputy superintendent
of the Evolution disclaimers in science books challenged in
court ATLANTA, The case is one of several
battles that have been waged in recent years in the Bible Belt over
what role evolution should play in science books. Cobb County schools
put the disclaimers in biology texts two years ago after more than 2,000
parents complained the books presented evolution as fact without mentioning
rival ideas about the origin of life, namely creationism. A group of parents and
the American Civil Liberties Union then filed a federal lawsuit. The sticker reads, "This
textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not
a fact, regarding the origin of living things." A lawyer for the school
district, Linwood Gunn, said the sticker was meant to "encourage
critical thinking." School bus drivers protest GPS plan Call 'spy' proposal
a ploy to cut pay By Heather Allen, School bus drivers yesterday
attacked a proposal to install GPS tracking equipment on buses, accusing
city officials of promoting ''Big Brother" tactics and threatening
to reject a labor union contract if the proposal moves forward. At a heated City Council
hearing punctuated by tense exchanges and shouting matches, members
of the school bus drivers union said satellite tracking devices would
be tools for spying and a means of reducing pay for drivers. ''You are trying to
champion safety by imposing spy devices over real safety devices,"
said Steve Gillis, president of the bus drivers union. ''These devices
are antilabor and have nothing to do with safety." The proposed law, introduced
in September by Councilor John M. Tobin Jr., would require the city's
720 privately contracted school buses to be fitted with GPS devices.
School administrators and the city's bus contractor, First Student Inc.,
say the system has helped other districts reduce delays and more effectively
deal with problems such as missing children and buses that have broken
down. At yesterday's hearing,
emotions overflowed as bus drivers, who are in the midst of contract
negotiations, angrily told the council's Education Committee that satellite
tracking has few purposes other than scrutinizing drivers' whereabouts.
At one point, City Hall security guards were summoned to break up a
heated exchange between a union official and Councilor Maureen Feeney. ''There are obviously
some bad feelings," said Tobin, who chairs the committee. Testifying in favor
of the law, School Department officials said that without a more precise
means of locating buses, administrators are often vexed by scheduling
problems caused by traffic or breakdowns. ''From an operational
and safety standpoint it would be advantageous for us to have it,"
Jonathan Palumbo, spokesman for the Boston Public Schools, testified.
''It would be nice to be able to track them all, both from the perspective
of running on time and answering parent questions. We would have better
and quicker information on breakdowns and be able to scoot there with
a replacement." The mother of a 6-year-old
who was missing for several hours this fall testified that GPS could
have saved her and authorities a lot of heartache. Susie Reed of Mattapan
said a bus driver missed her son's stop and told him it was too late
to go back. When the driver finished the route, he asked the child how
to get to his house, but the boy didn't know. Meanwhile, authorities
tried in vain to radio the driver for several hours. The boy was finally
found on the bus at about ''That was my son's
first time in his life on a bus," said Reed, holding back tears.
''That was the worst day of my life. He was scared to death." Union members testified
that GPS tracking could be used to decrease pay to drivers, who are
paid for time on the road. Drivers suspected of taking longer routes
than necessary could be unfairly docked because the system doesn't account
for judgments, such as taking alternate routes to avoid traffic, they
said. Union members also said
that contract negotiations had briefly included language requiring the
installation of GPS systems, but that it was pulled. They accused Tobin and
the city of trying to inject the requirement now that a tentative contract
has been reached and said that if the City Council votes in favor of
GPS systems, the union will reject the contract and refuse further talks. The union argued yesterday
that the two-way radios currently used on the buses are sufficient.
By Jay Mathews, Aaron Starke was a 28-year-old
assistant principal at a High school students
demonstrated against the plan. Teachers union leaders predicted that
the approach -- alternately known as a "partnership management
model" or "diverse provider model" -- would lead to more
disappointment. But Starke, hired by
At Kenderton, where
Edison's program of intensive reading instruction and computerized checks
of student progress has been implemented, the portion of students scoring
proficient or above on a state test has increased 15 percentage points
in reading and 25 percentage points in mathematics in the past year.
Although pleased by
the gains, Starke pointed out that most of his students still lag. Only
17 percent have reached proficiency in reading and 37 percent in math.
"That has to change," he said. Overall, Starke said Other schools managed
by what James E. Nevels, chairman
of the Philadelphia School Reform Commission, said this "underscores
the promise of the partnership management model, which only two years
ago was viewed as controversial and potentially volatile." But experts say it is
far too soon to declare the experiment a success. Betsey Useem, senior
research consultant at the Philadelphia-based Research for Action, a
nonprofit organization, said regular Philadelphia public schools also
made gains last year, and the private groups might have succeeded in
part because the school system "has created one office . . . that
clears away the obstacles and bureaucratic barriers" that stymie
such efforts. Gerald W. Bracey, an
educational psychologist at In the "diverse
provider" model, the independent groups take over existing schools
with students already in place. This differs from the charter school
approach, in which independent groups create schools. The diverse provider
model has the advantage of giving the private groups in Several other cities,
including Whittle said the Edison
schools in Philadelphia have benefited greatly from the backing of the
city schools' chief executive, Paul Vallas, and his school board, after
weathering the initial opposition from teacher and community groups
who opposed having a profit-making company run public schools. Leaders of other outside
groups running Nancy W. Streim, associate
dean for educational practice at the Paul Hill, a But Michael Casserly,
executive director of the Council of Great City Schools, a coalition
of the nation's large urban school systems, said he thinks a key ingredient
in Philadelphia is that both the school district and the outside groups
adopted effective curriculums, though they differ in many respects.
"It seems more
likely that scores went up across the board because everybody . . .
[was] doing a better job teaching the city's children," he said.
Opponents call it an
overreaction to stricter standards As John Zammito III
hopscotched down the hallway after school yesterday, the kindergartner
chatted excitedly to his parents about what he learned in science: how
to make ''wood" out of sawdust. To the 5-year-old and his classmates
at Richard J. Murphy K-8 School in But come December, the
Boston Public Schools will issue report cards on kindergartners for
the first time, evaluating pupils on how well they write, count, and
follow directions. The children will be
scored on a scale of 1 to 4 in three dozen categories, from whether
they can recognize the rhyme and rhythms in poems, chants, songs, and
nursery rhymes to how well they combine two-dimensional shapes to make
other two-dimensional shapes. The report cards, to
be issued three times a year, will help ensure that kindergartners are
on pace with academic standards and update parents on their child's
progress, Superintendent Thomas W. Payzant said yesterday. As academic
standards become more rigorous and schools are held accountable for
achievement, evaluating kindergartners makes sense, he said. ''We have not always
done a good job in communication with parents on what the expectations
are in school," Payzant said. ''Kindergarten should be preparing
them to be 5-year-olds in the real world. We want children to be able
to listen to stories that are read to them, to be able to talk about
the stories they heard. They need to know their numbers, their letters,
their shapes. It's recognizing that readiness in what you do in early-childhood
education can make a huge difference with respect to children learning
to read successfully." But few school systems
nationwide are using such detailed report cards, education specialists
say. ''Yes, we need to stress
academics, but I think in kindergarten especially it should be an opportunity
for creativity and self-expression, not to get all stressed out about
grades," said Ann Fonte-Abbott, whose daughter, Kendra, is a kindergartner
at Mission Hill K-8 School in Roxbury. ''There is already too much pressure
on children to perform for scores. The MCAS [Massachusetts Comprehensive
Assessment System exam] will get crammed down their throats soon enough." Kindergartners should
be learning basic social and organizational skills, how to solve puzzles,
hold scissors, and stay in line, said Carol Pacheco, the Boston Teachers
Union's elementary field representative. But ''the superintendent wants
them to be doing reading and writing and math, like everybody else,"
she said. Officials and union
leaders began discussing kindergarten report cards more than three years
ago, Pacheco said, but did not agree on a format until last week. ''I think we finally
gave up and just said, 'Fine,' " Pacheco said. ''That is what people
are teaching, and parents are looking for it." Murphy parent Walter
Parrish said kindergarten is the right time to start issuing report
cards. ''You want to ingrain them in academia, rather than the traditional
kindergarten fare: milk and cookies, taking naps, reading stories,"
he said. ''I want to know how my son is progressing. I want him to get
off on the right start, give him the mind-set to get into first grade." School officials have
not determined how the report cards will be distributed, whether at
parent-teacher conferences, through the mail, or by sending them home
with the children. Mary Jo Barry, a kindergarten
teacher at Murphy, said she has reservations about the formality of
the report cards, but she plans to give them to parents during conferences
starting Dec. 9 and supplement the marks with a portfolio of the children's
work and the results of their diagnostic tests in reading and math. More than 10 years ago
Barry and other kindergarten teachers issued progress reports, short
narratives of how individual students were performing, which she said
she prefers. Parents of low-scoring
pupils should not panic, Barry said. ''It's the beginning of the year.
Parents should tell these students: 'It's OK you don't know all these
skills. If you did, Mrs. Barry wouldn't be here to teach you.' " John Zammito's father,
John Zammito Jr., said he looks forward to receiving his son's first
report card. ''We ask him every day on the way home: 'How do you like
school? What did you do in school?' " he said. ''This way we have
it right from the teacher." The kindergartner, himself,
is unfazed. ''They're like a reward for being good," he said. Elise Henricks -- whose
son, Max, is a Murphy kindergartner -- says report cards are not a big
deal. ''I don't think this is going to affect whether he goes to Harvard,"
she said. ''It's just a good way for me to get a sense of how he's doing." The practice is growing
more popular because of stricter standards under the federal No Child
Left Behind Act. The lengthy report cards
help make sure that schools are held accountable for their pupils' progress,
and it also lets families know where their children stand academically,
said Amy Wilkins, principal partner at The Education Trust, a nonprofit
research group in Washington, D.C. ''It is early for parents
to be worried about how their children stack up against other children,"
said Kathleen McCartney, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School
of Education. ''But I think the framework is very useful." Bush’s School Agenda Will Get a 2nd Term President to Push for
Expanded Accountability in High School By Erik W. Robelen and
Michelle R. Davis, Education Week, 11/10/04 President Bush will
enter his second term with a range of campaign plans on education, from
expanded testing demands to new cash awards for effective teachers,
only some of which are likely to become law. But one thing is clear:
The controversial No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, his signature initiative
for schools, is here to stay. After winning a tight
election race with 51 percent of the popular vote, compared with 48
percent for his Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry of “We must continue
the work of education reform, to bring high standards and accountability
not just to our elementary and secondary schools, but to our high schools,
as well,” he said. Mr. Bush put noticeably
less emphasis on education during his second campaign for the White
House, which came against a backdrop of concerns about terrorism and
the war in Nonetheless, Mr. Bush
invoked the bipartisan No Child Left Behind law often, as he did during
several campaign stops the day before the election. “We passed education
reforms, good solid education reforms to bring high standards to our
classrooms,” he said in the clincher battleground state of The federal law has
stirred up a lot of passions, from those such as the president who vigorously
defend it, to those who believe it needs substantial changes or should
be undone altogether. But love it or hate it, no one disputes that the
law’s essence will remain with President Bush retaining the White
House, and with Republicans enlarging their slim margins of control
in the House and the Senate. Rep. Michael N. Castle,
the Delaware Republican who chairs the House Education Reform Subcommittee,
said he would not rule out some congressional tinkering with the law
next year—as many analysts have predicted—but he said any
such changes would not be as much as the law’s critics would wish
for. “There might be
things that are done,” Mr. Castle said in an interview on Nov.
3. “But if anyone believes that No Child Left Behind is going to
be swept away, or changed significantly, they’re wrong.” “The next four
years are Bush holding tight to No Child Left Behind,” said Jack
Jennings, the director of the Center on Education Policy, a It remains unclear whether
Secretary of Education Rod Paige will stay on in the president’s
next term. Mr. Bush said last week that there would be changes in his
Cabinet, but he offered no specifics. A ‘Blank Canvas’
The future of the federal
K-12 law wasn’t always so clear. Signed by President Bush in January
2002, the No Child Left Behind Act reauthorized—and significantly
overhauled—the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that was
first passed in 1965 at the urging of President Lyndon B. Johnson. In the heat of the presidential-primary
season, the measure—which imposes stiff demands on states and school
districts to improve student achievement and upgrade the quality of
teachers—became something of a punching bag for the crowded field
of Democratic hopefuls. Former Gov. Howard Dean of During a candidates’
debate in January, Sen. Edwards said his 2001 vote in favor of the law
was a mistake. Sen. Kerry called the law, which he also voted for, a
“one size fits all” approach and vowed to rewrite its accountability
measures. ("'No Child' Law Faulted In Democratic Race," But the Kerry campaign’s
rhetoric on the No Child Left Behind Act shifted considerably after
the Exactly what he meant,
however, was subject to much interpretation, and perhaps wishful thinking,
by some Kerry backers. “A presidential
candidate is frequently a blank canvas upon which everybody paints their
hopes and dreams,” said Andrew J. Rotherham, the director of education
policy at the Progressive Policy Institute, a But Mr. Rotherham said
he believes that those who were hoping Mr. Kerry might make fundamental
changes to the law would have been disappointed. “A Kerry win would
not have meant a wild deviation [on education],” he said. “The
two campaigns were operating within a fairly narrow bandwidth.”
At the same time, given
the strong backing that Sen. Kerry won from the two national teachers’
unions—both of which have been sharply critical of the federal
law—he presumably would have faced far more political pressure
than President Bush to rethink some of the law’s requirements.
The Bush administration
has so far resisted calls to amend the federal statute. The law will
come up for reauthorization in 2007, well into his second term. “It’s as if
a tree has been planted that really needs at least another four years
of nurture to be secure,” said Sandy Kress, who helped craft the
law as a White House education adviser to President Bush and informally
advised the re-election campaign. “What No Child Left Behind represents
will be continued, will live, will be nurtured, and will be given a
chance to make a real difference in the way education works.” Mr. Kress added: “That’s
not to say that administratively and legislatively, there won’t
be opportunities to improve and strengthen and make things work smarter
and better.” Reg Weaver, the president
of the 2.7 million-member National Education Association, which endorsed
Sen. Kerry, said he believes the No Child Left Behind law will see some
changes during the next Congress. “I think the question
is no longer shall the law be changed,” Mr. Weaver said last week.
“I think the question is how it should be changed. … I do
believe there are Republicans and Democrats who see that.” ‘Props for the
Campaign’ Meanwhile, President
Bush has a set of new plans for education, some of which he says are
intended to build upon the No Child Left Behind Act. For one, he would require
more high school testing, with assessments in reading and mathematics
each year in grades 9-11. Under the current federal law, high schools
must test students only once. Mr. Bush also has proposed creating a
program to help struggling middle and high school readers. In addition, the president
has said that he wants to establish a new, $200 million pot of money
to encourage schools to use 8th grade test data to devise individual
performance plans for entering high schoolers. Furthermore, he has
put forward a plan—similar to one proposed by the Kerry campaign—to
set up a $500 million Teacher Incentive Fund for states and districts
that reward “effective” teachers. The fund would provide cash
awards of as much as $5,000 each to 100,000 teachers a year. Mr. Jennings of the
Center on Education Policy called the president’s proposals “campaign
rhetoric just to say he had a program.” He said he believed few,
if any, would actually be enacted. “Those things were
just props for the campaign,” Mr. Jennings maintained. If Mr. Bush, however,
makes these initiatives a political priority, his stronger majorities
in the House and especially the Senate may well help ensure their passage.
The party has added four seats to their majority in the Senate and at
least four in the House, with one still undecided late last week. ("Congress'
Shift to Right May Be Felt in Schools," this issue.) During his press conference
last week, Mr. Bush cited education as one of the areas where he expected
to see action. “I’ve earned
[political] capital in this election, and I’m going to spend it,”
he said. “You’ve heard the agenda: Social Security and tax
reform, moving this economy forward, education, fighting and winning
the war on terror.” But Kathleen Porter-Magee,
the associate research director at the Washington-based Thomas B. Fordham
Foundation, which is generally supportive of the administration’s
education agenda, said she thought it would be more difficult for the
president to push through some of his new ideas with the kind of strong
backing he saw with the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act. “There is more
resistance than there was then,” she said. “There was broad
bipartisan support, but now when it comes to education, things are a
little more polarized.” Especially as Election
Day approached, partisan tensions in Leading Democrats have
long contended that President Bush broke his “promise” on
adequate funding for education, a point he strongly disputes but one
that has caused continuing friction. Democrats have also complained
about some of the administration’s decisions in implementing the
No Child Left Behind law. But last week, Sen.
Edward M. Kennedy of “Obviously, the
results are disappointing,” he said in a Nov. 3 statement. “But
I’m very hopeful that we can work together with President Bush
to heal the divisions in President Bush, in his
Nov. 3 victory speech to supporters after Sen. Kerry conceded defeat,
said, “[T]oday I want to speak to every person who voted for my
opponent: To make this nation stronger and better I will need your support,
and I will work to earn it. I will do all I can do to deserve your trust.
A new term is a new opportunity to reach out to the whole nation.”
Some analysts expect
Mr. Bush and Republicans in Congress to press hard to expand federal
support for private school vouchers over the next four years. The first
such federal program, a pilot plan in the The president for three
consecutive years now has proposed a $50 million program for vouchers
and other school choice pilot programs across the country, but Congress
has never provided money for it. Another contentious
issue in President Bush’s second term will likely be setting federal
spending levels for education. A Responsibility to
Govern During the campaign,
Sen. Kerry repeatedly argued that the president was shortchanging the
federal education budget. Sen. Kerry had promised
to spend an additional $200 billion over 10 years on education programs.
And while that figure may have been overambitious, it seems likely that
the Democrat would have pressed for higher levels of spending on education
than President Bush has. Federal education aid
has grown dramatically since President Bush entered the White House
in 2001, in part because each year Congress has provided more than Mr.
Bush’s request. If the president’s
most recent budget request is any indication, he’s hoping to slow
the growth rate. His Department of Education budget plan for fiscal
2005, which began Oct. 1, would provide an increase of $1.7 billion,
or 3 percent, to a total of $57.3 billion in discretionary spending.
Congress has not yet completed work on a 2005 appropriation for education.
Ultimately, when it
comes to debates on the budget, education policy, and other matters,
the election results—with Mr. Bush’s popular-vote as well
as electoral-vote majority and the GOP gains in Congress—handed
Republicans both a real opportunity and a heavy responsibility. “I think that we
as a party have a responsibility to govern,” Rep. Castle said.
“If things don’t happen now, it’s going to be the fault
of Republicans. Our leadership … needs to get together and have
an agenda that’s meaningful and is going to help the people.”
“If not,”
Mr. Castle said, in coming elections “there’s going to be
the normal retribution.” Voters Largely Reject Funding, Policy Shifts By David J. Hoff and
Andrew Trotter, Education Week, 11/10/04 Voters showed caution
about sending more money to public schools or dramatically changing
course on education policy, as they decided school-related questions
on state ballots last week. In Voters in The tax initiative that
“It was a bad day
for education,” said John G. Matsusaka, the president of the Initiative
and Referendum Institute at the The education measures
that succeeded featured ways to raise money without reaching directly
into voters’ pocketbooks, according to another expert on the initiative
process. “It requires creative
thinking,” said Jennifer D. Bowser, a policy analyst for the National
Conference of State Legislatures, based in For example, the ballot
question approved in In Again, No to Charters
Residents of The 58 percent to 42
percent rejection of the charter school law, which the legislature had
enacted last spring, is the third rebuff of the independent public schools
by The charter school law
became subject to a referendum because the Washington Education Association,
the state’s largest teachers’ union, challenged the legislation
with a petition drive. The WEA and its supporters argued the case to
parents that charter schools would take money away from school districts.
Union officials said
that campaigning helped turn the tide on the charter school repeal,
which had initially seemed headed for failure. “We found a big
change among parents of school-aged children—those were people
our members were talking to on a regular basis,” Charles Hasse,
the president of the 77,000-member WEA, said after its victory last
week. Some prominent charter
supporters said that voters often hesitate to make major policy changes
through the ballot. “Once again, Americans
show they are uncomfortable voting directly on any issue that would
dramatically change the way schools do business,” Jeanne Allen,
the president of the Center for Education Reform, a Washington, D.C.-based
research and advocacy group, wrote in her analysis of Election Day results.
When it comes to adoption
of state charter laws, “I think the legislative strategy has historically
been a more successful route,” added Howard L. Fuller, the chairman
of the Charter School Leadership Council, also based in the nation’s
capital. News of the closing
this past summer of a large chain of charter schools in Observers inside and
outside the state downplayed the national significance of the vote.
That hadn’t stopped money from pouring in, however, on both sides
of the charter school campaign. Pro-charter forces raised some $4 million
for their side, including $1 million from Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill
Gates. The National Education Association gave $500,000 to the $1 million
drive against the charter law. “I would have loved
to have won,” said Jim Spady, the president of the The state’s high
dropout rate signals “a crisis that needs to be addressed,”
Mr. Spady said. “We just don’t agree on the solution.”
Sales-Tax Hike Scuttled Washington state’s
school aid measure, which lost by 61 percent to 39 percent, may have
been doomed by its funding vehicle—a hike in the sales tax, which
already is at 8 percent in some cities. “I have to think
the revenue source is a problem,” said Lisa McFarlane, the president
of the League of Education Voters, which led the campaign for the proposed
education trust fund. “I think the [funding]
initiative was viewed as a sales-tax increase rather than money for
education ... in tough economic times,” said Jennifer Vranek, the
executive director of Partnerships for Learning, a nonpartisan business
group in the state. Anti-tax conservatives
were joined by liberals who criticized the sales tax as disproportionately
burdensome to the poor, Ms. Vranek said. The anti-tax sentiment
may not be the only reason the initiative failed, said Ms. Bowser of
the National Conference of State Legislatures. Another factor that
may have worked against the Such confusion often
makes undecided voters reluctant to vote yes, Ms. Bowser said. “Voters
who don’t understand it or are confused tend to vote no, because
that’s the safe vote,” she said. More uncertainty may
have been sown by the proposed trust fund’s broad range of beneficiaries—including
preschools, public K-12 schools, and community colleges—as well
as the fact that two of its purposes, to lower class sizes and raise
teacher salaries, were also the goals of initiatives that were passed
in 2000 but that subsequently were not funded by the legislature. Segregation Language
In But opponents campaigned
against the proposed amendment because it would remove a passage saying,
in part, that nothing in the state constitution creates “any right
to education or training at public expense.” That deletion might
make the state vulnerable to a school finance lawsuit, the foes said.
“When you swing
that door open, there is unlimited opportunity for mischief,” John
Giles, the president of the Christian Coalition of “This was a symbolic
vote,” said Mark Berte, the project director for the constitution-reform
education campaign at the Greater Birmingham Ministries, an interfaith
group. The segregation language, he noted, “has already been rendered
moot by federal courts.” Of the nearly 1.4 million
votes counted on Election Day, 690,155 were against the proposed change
and 687,594 were in favor—close enough to trigger an automatic
recount under state law, said Judy Wagnon, a staff member in the The state was scheduled
to count provisional and absentee ballots this week. It will conduct
a recount if the difference remains less than half of 1 percent of the
total, Ms. Wagnon said. Ups and Downs for Funding
Voters in In addition to creating
the lottery, “The initiatives
certainly won’t address all of our funding challenges, but they
are a great step forward,” Gov. Brad Henry of In But voters in other
states took significant action that could limit school funding. In “On the heels of
three bad budget years and billions of dollars in painful cuts,”
the union’s president, Greg Jung, said in a statement, “passage
of Amendment 3 will deal a devastating blow.” School unit mandates 'intelligent design' By Martha Raffaele,
Associated Press Writer, November 12, 2004 DOVER, Critics call the change
in the ninth-grade biology curriculum a veiled attempt to require public
schoolchildren to learn creationism, a biblical-based view that credits
the origin of species to God. Schools typically teach evolution, the
theory that Earth is billions of years old and that life forms developed
over millions of years. The state American Civil
Liberties Union chapter is reviewing the "What The district enrolls
about 2,800 students. It encompasses the small, rural community of The revision was spearheaded
by school board member William Buckingham, who heads the board's curriculum
committee. "I think it's a
downright fraud to perpetrate on the students of this district, to portray
one theory over and over," said Buckingham. "What we wanted
was a balanced presentation." Buckingham wanted the
board to adopt an intelligent-design textbook, "Of Pandas and People:
The Central Question of Biological Origins," as a supplement to
the traditional biology book, but no vote was ever taken. A few weeks
before the new science curriculum was approved, 50 copies were anonymously
donated to the high school. Although Buckingham
describes himself as a born-again Christian and believes in creationism,
"This is not an attempt to impose my views on anyone else,"
he said. Two of the dissenting
board members, Carol Brown and her husband, Jeff, were so upset that
they resigned after the 6-3 vote on Oct. 18. "We have a vocal
group within the community who feel very strongly in an evangelical
Christian way that there is no separation of church and state,"
Carol Brown said. "Our responsibility to is to represent the viewpoints
of all members of the community." Statewide science-curriculum
standards approved by When the standards were
revised three years ago, the board considered language that would have
required students to consider evidence that did not support evolution,
but the board dropped the idea after critics alleged it would have led
to the widespread teaching of creationism in public schools. Critics of intelligent
design contend it is creationism repackaged in more secular-sounding
language. "Creationism in
a cheap tuxedo," said Nicholas Matzke, project information specialist
for the Even the Seattle-based
Discovery Institute, which supports scientists studying intelligent-design
theory, opposes mandating it in schools because it is a relatively new
concept, said John West, associate director of the institute's Center
for Science and Culture. "We're completely
against anyone who says you should downgrade or limit the teaching of
evolution," West said. "If you put the
words 'intelligent design' into my curriculum, then I have to teach
it," said Miller, a 12-year veteran. "I'm not sure what that
means as to how in-depth we have to go. ... I'm looking for more direction
from the school board." Neither Assistant Superintendent
Michael Baksa, who oversees the district's curriculum, nor Superintendent
Richard Nilsen responded to telephone calls and e-mail messages. Jonathan Tome, whose
three sons attend "You can't be hypocritical
with these kids, teaching them one thing but not another," said
Tome, 43. But sophomore Courtney
Lawton said she didn't have a problem learning only about evolution
in biology class last year. "I just think they
should keep it the way it is, and they shouldn't add anything about
a higher power," said High school political debate leads to assault AP, "It's a good thing
to see young people interested and excited about politics," said
Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom. "It's obviously very disturbing
to see this kind of violence over it." The 17-year-old was
assaulted last Thursday in the high school parking lot following a class
discussion about the election, authorities said. He was treated for
cuts and bruises and released. The alleged assailants
have all been charged: one with felony assault -- because he allegedly
went to his car to get a bat during the assault, prosecutors said --
one with misdemeanor assault and one with disorderly conduct. By Mary Ann Zehr, Education
Week, 11/11/04 The Montana Supreme
Court has ruled that In a unanimous decision
on Nov. 9, The supreme court gave
the The decision marked
the second time the state's funding formula has been struck down since
1989. Following the latest
ruling, Montanans need to take a much closer look at the needs and true
cost of public schooling, said Jack Copps, the executive director of
the Helena-based Montana Quality Education Coalition, which filed the
lawsuit in 2002. "We've only speculated in He noted, for instance,
that But Brian Morris, the
state solicitor who defended Low Teacher Salaries Linda H. McCulloch,
Both Republicans and
Democrats who served on the state Senate's education committee in the
most recent legislative session surmised that revamping the public funding
system to meet the demands of the court would mean coming up with more
dollars for schools. "It probably will
cost more money," said state Sen. William E. Glaser, a Republican
who is the chairman of the Senate education committee. "That doesn't
necessarily mean that on a given piece of property the taxes will go
up. We've actually done quite well in our economy, when everyone else
was struggling." "I'd be surprised
if everyone isn't resigned to the fact that we'll have to put more money
into education," added state Sen. Mike Cooney, a Democrat on the
same committee. The difficulty of resolving the issue, he said, will
be agreeing on what level of funding is appropriate. Robert R. Story Jr.,
a Republican member of the Senate education committee, said the state's
formula for funding public schools is based on the number of pupils
in a school, and places caps on what local school districts can spend
in addition to what they receive from the state. The system reflects
revisions made more than a decade ago in response to a court ruling
that the system wasn't equitable, he noted. Mr. Story said the existing
system worked adequately when student enrollment was growing. But now
that it has been declining, he said, school districts haven't been able
to keep up with their fixed costs. Joyce Silverthorne,
the head of the tribal education department for the Salish/Kootenai
tribes of
Illinois State Board of Education |
