| Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. |
|
|
Snap Schott:
Department of Education Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Request |
Department of Education Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Request
President Obama's fiscal year 2010 request for the Department of Education will build on the historic investment in education provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to leverage significant improvements in early childhood education, more effective reform of elementary and secondary education, and expanded opportunities for students to enter and complete a college education. The request is focused on the following areas: Early Childhood Programs The 2010 request will provide additional resources, on top of those provided in the Recovery Act, to help States build high-quality "Zero to Five" early childhood programs. These resources will leverage state and local investment in early childhood education, support coordination at all levels of government to ensure seamless delivery of services, and help give parents the information they need to choose a high-quality program that meets the needs of their children. Stronger Standards and Assessments The department's 2010 budget also will help states develop and implement rigorous, college-ready academic achievement standards along with improved assessments, including assessments for students with disabilities and English language learners, to accurately measure students' knowledge and skills. More Effective Teaching and School Leadership The 2010 request will support a wide range of efforts to strengthen the education workforce, including greater accountability for teacher and principal preparation programs; improved systems and strategies for recruiting, evaluating, and supporting teachers; and incentives for rewarding effective teachers and encouraging them to teach where they are most needed. Scaling Up Success The department will continue to use the Innovation Fund to identify and replicate successful models and strategies that raise student achievement, including comprehensive approaches such as Promise Neighborhoods that aim to improve college-going rates by combining a rigorous K 12 education with a full network of neighborhood-based social services. In addition, the 2010 budget will help turn around high-need, low-performing schools by giving states additional resources to diagnose and address the root causes of low performance. A Stronger, More Reliable Pell Grant Program For decades, the Pell Grant program, the foundation of federal postsecondary financial assistance for students from low-income families, has failed to keep pace with the rising costs of a college education. Moreover, the program has been plagued by funding shortfalls that complicate the federal appropriations process and threaten the funding of other federal education programs. To address these problems once and for all, the 2010 request not only would increase the maximum Pell Grant award to $5,550, but also would index the Pell Grant maximum award to the Consumer Price Index plus 1 percent and eliminate discretionary shortfalls by moving Pell Grants to the mandatory side of the budget. A Less Costly, More Reliable Student Loan Program The department's guaranteed student loan program (Federal Family Education Loans) includes subsidies for private lenders that have needlessly cost taxpayers billions of dollars over the past 30 years, while also subjecting students and families to uncertainty because of turmoil in the financial markets. The 2010 request would stabilize the postsecondary student loan programs and save taxpayers $4 billion annually by originating all new loans in the direct lending program (Direct Loans). Helping More Students Enter and Complete College The administration also will simplify the student aid application process, but it is not enough to simply enroll more students in college; we must do a better job of giving all students, especially students from low-income families, the support they need to complete school. This is why the 2010 request includes a new, five-year $2.5 billion Access and Completion Incentive Fund that will support innovative State efforts to improve college completion rates for low- income students.
Obama's stimulus to inject $4.7 billion into New York's education system says Schumer
BY ELIZABETH LAZAROWITZ Washington's hefty stimulus plan will mean more cash for the city's poor and special needs students and could prevent teacher layoffs, Sen. Chuck Schumer said Thursday. The bill will inject about $4.7 billion into New York State's education system over two years. It includes about $1 billion that will go directly to the city's schools through Title I grants to low-income schools and special education funding. "We could not afford to risk the quality of education New York students receive by laying off teachers and slashing academic programs," Schumer said. "This funding will make sure New York schools have the resources they need to continue to make the grade." He said the $787 billion stimulus bill will bring $335 million in federal special education funds and $711 million Title 1 money straight to the city.
Auditors Peer Into Finances of New York Schools Statewide
By WINNIE HU State auditors found that the Niagara Falls, N.Y., school district overpaid 272 employees by more than $500,000 in 2006, apparently incorrectly sending out an extra paycheck to each of them. Separately, they discovered that a laptop computer assigned to a school administrator in Vestal, west of Binghamton, had been used to visit Internet sites for pornography. And they determined that districts in Mount Vernon, Newburgh, North Syracuse, Schenectady and Williamsville could have saved a total of $212,000 on electricity if they had shut off computers at night and used power-save settings. Under a mandate to audit all 840 of New York’s school districts, charter schools and regional education agencies by March 2010, Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli has dispatched hundreds of number-crunchers who have churned out multipage reports — more than 550 so far — that provide a revealing look at the day-to-day operations and finances of the state’s public education system. The audits are the first such routine checks of school district finances in decades, and they were prompted by a scandal in which half a dozen people, including the former superintendent, were convicted of stealing as much as $11.2 million from the Roslyn district on Long Island. “If it could happen in Roslyn, it certainly could happen in any district,” said Mr. DiNapoli, who sponsored the legislation while a state assemblyman from a district including Roslyn. “You really have to be sure that money is not being used in a wasteful way, because for many of the communities, school district spending is such a large part of the property tax burden, which is the most onerous tax for people to pay.” Superintendents and school board members at several local districts said that the audits had tightened financial controls and had made employees at every level more careful about spending taxpayer money, but that they also took up a lot of time and resources. Some also complained that the audits could be too focused on relatively minor infractions and accusatory in tone. “For the most part it was helpful, but in some areas we felt that they took gratuitous shots at the district in a way that was self-serving for the comptroller’s office,” said Alan B. Groveman, superintendent of the Connetquot district on Long Island. The audit cited Connetquot’s multimillion-dollar surplus as evidence of lax budget oversight, but Dr. Groveman said the district had been purposely trying to build up reserves. “Our explanations were ignored,” he said. “They said it was poor budget planning, and we said it was intentional. It would be dumb and inappropriate to spend every dollar we budgeted just because it’s budgeted.” Complicating the audit process is a lawsuit by the state’s charter schools, which are publicly financed but independently operated, arguing that the state comptroller lacks the authority to investigate them. An appellate court ruled in favor of the state last month, but the charters are appealing the case. Mr. DiNapoli has suspended audits of charter schools until the case is resolved. The state comptroller routinely audited school districts until the 1970s, when budget cuts led the office to limit them to a handful a year. The new law, passed in 2005, came with $5.4 million to hire 90 new auditors, and two years later, another $2.4 million for 45 more. In addition, nearly every district is required to submit an independent audit, using local funds, to both the comptroller and the state’s Education Department.
Mayor Bloomberg and Joel Klein determined to keep parents seen, not heard
By Juan Gonzalez Public school parents in this town should be seen and not heard - no matter what state law says. All across the city, parents who serve on local Community Education Councils are furious. The CECs replaced the old community school boards after the Legislature eliminated the Board of Education in 2003 and gave Bloomberg greater control of the schools. Several provisions of that law were intended to assure parents had some oversight over the mayor's new powers. Klein and his aides have repeatedly flouted those provisions, CEC leaders say. The most recent example is a spate of school closings and Klein's creation of dozens of new small schools, all without bothering to consult CECs in the affected districts. Take Public School 241 in West Harlem. The Department of Education announced last fall it was phasing out the school because of poor performance. That will leave the neighborhood with no regular elementary school for its zone, except for the Moskowitz charter school. John White, head of portfolio management for Klein, defended the decision. "Most parents in the northern part of District 3 are already choosing not to attend their zoned school," because of its poor record, White said. In effect, White and Klein have rezoned a neighborhood school. State education law requires that the local CEC approve any such zoning change. "This is a significant change that has been made without any consultation with us," said Lisa Donlan, president of the District 3 CEC. Then there's the new 300-student high school for educationally troubled youngsters that the DOE was planning to put into PS 173 in Washington Heights, a thriving school lucky enough to boast a dance studio, a huge science lab and full-size art room. When they learned the educrats at Tweed were moving forward with the plan, PS 173 parents and local political leaders organized a protest three weeks ago. Now the people at Tweed are having second thoughts. "It became apparent that the parents [at PS 173] are concerned," White said. Putting the new high school there is now "one possibility of several scenarios," he said. In East New York, Brooklyn, parents at PS 72 were suddenly informed that their failing school will be phased out and replaced by two new schools. "They don't have a decent library, no computers, no science lab and the new principal has been there only one year," Barron said. "They never had any discussion with the CEC," said Virginia Carlton, a parent at the school. By June, lawmakers in Albany will have to decide whether to reauthorize mayoral control of city schools. The way Klein and Bloomberg keep abusing the law, the Legislature needs to put some stronger safeguards against a complete dictatorship.
Held Back:Will Bloomberg dump Joel Klein?
By Jacob Gershman Earlier this month, New York Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, once a star White House litigator, thought he had presented a solid case before the State Legislature. He pointed to small gains in graduation rates, a spike in fourth- and eighth-grade math proficiency, and signs of a narrowing gap in achievement among the races. Then he said, “There is a lot more work to do.” But he may not be the one to do it. The seven-year “experiment” in mayoral control of the schools comes up for renewal this June, and legislative approval of its continuation might come at the price of the chancellor’s job. The day of the hearing, the lawmakers let their feelings toward Klein be known in no uncertain terms. (“Hogwash! … Your superintendents control nothing,” declared one assemblyman. “We have no choices. We’re overcrowded,” said another. “You’re violating the law,” squawked a third.) After the hearing, Bloomberg’s lobbyists were overheard bemoaning “how much the legislators hate Klein,” says a City Council member. Klein later dialed lawmakers one by one to calm them down. “There was a feeling it was too little, too late,” says an Assembly source. Which means Klein’s days as education-reform bad cop might soon be over. Dennis Walcott, the deputy mayor for education, says, “There’s no space between the mayor and chancellor. There’s total alignment. They have honest direct interaction with each other and they will continue to form that strong partnership into the third term, if there is one.” But others aren’t so sure. “There’s no question [the mayor’s] going to get rid of him,” says a City Council member. Bloomberg’s “more convinced than ever that he’s_ created so many enemies.” Klein, even more than his aloof boss, was never a particularly charismatic technocrat. He grew up in public housing in Queens, and comes off as a street-tough nerd, with a blunt style and a way of speaking that makes him sound angry even when he’s not. Both he and Bloomberg are self-made sons of bookkeepers, tenacious, restless, corporate-minded, and distrustful of ideology and public-education orthodoxy. Over the years, Klein has also been helpful to the mayor as a target for lawmakers, parents, and teachers. Bloomberg bought peace with the teachers union by increasing teacher pay by more than 30 percent and conveniently left Klein in charge of the bloodier battles over spending, restructuring, teacher firings, and teaching to the standardized tests. Which means that the problem for Klein is not so much in the data (though critics have accused him of juicing the numbers) but himself. This is a big problem for Bloomberg’s dreams of a third term as “education mayor.” He can’t pay off the United Federation of Teachers, which sat on the sidelines last election, with a better contract this time. “If the UFT decides, based on Klein, to oppose Bloomberg, you’re talking about a lot of troops on the ground,” says labor activist Jonathan Tasini. Knowing this, the union is said to be pushing the mayor to sacrifice Klein. While lawmakers have piled on the chancellor, UFT head Randi Weingarten has restrained her attacks in recent weeks, stirring speculation of a pact with Bloomberg.Walcott says, “The mayor is not one to make deals for anything that sacrifices individuals.” But on the question of Klein’s fate, Weingarten answers gamely: “I’ve found the mayor easier to deal with and more responsive than the chancellor.”
Class Size in New York City Schools Rises, but the Impact Is Debated
In many circles, class size is considered as fundamental to education as the three R’s, with numbers watched so carefully that even a tiny increase can provoke outrage among parents, teachers and political leaders. Alarms went off in New York and California last week, as officials on both coasts warned that yawning budget gaps could soon mean more children in each classroom. But while state legislatures for decades have passed laws — and provided millions of dollars — to cap the size of classes, some academic researchers and education leaders say that small reductions in the number of students in a room often have little effect on their performance. At recent legislative hearings on whether to renew mayoral control of the New York City schools, lawmakers and parents alike have asked, again and again, why Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel I. Klein have not done more to reduce class size. On Tuesday, the Education Department issued a report that found the average number of children per class increased in nearly every grade this school year. “If you’re going to spend an extra dollar, personally, I would always rather spend it on the people that deliver the service,” Mr. Bloomberg said when asked about the report on Thursday, calling class size “an interesting number.” “It’s the teacher looking a child in the eye, and teachers can look lots of children in the eye,” he added. “If you have to have smaller class size or better teachers, go with the better teachers every time.” But Assemblywoman Catherine T. Nolan, a Queens Democrat who is chairwoman of the Education Committee, said that she routinely hears from middle-class parents who say they are leaving the city in search of intimate classroom environments where teachers can pay more attention to each student. The teachers’ union estimates that New York City’s classes have 10 percent to 60 percent more students than those in neighboring suburbs, and the highest average size of any school district in the state. “I always thought more money and the mayor controlling the schools would give us smaller classes,” said Ms. Nolan, who has a son in public school. “I just don’t understand it, but they seem to be nostalgic for a time of larger classes.” The debate has continued for decades, with some consensus forming that class size matters most in the youngest grades, and that the effects are most profound when there are fewer than 20 students in a class. Dan Goldhaber, an education professor at the University of Washington, said the obsession with class size stemmed from a desire for “something that people can grasp easily — you walk into a class and you see exactly how many kids are there.” “Whether or not it translates into an additional advantage doesn’t necessarily matter,” Professor Goldhaber said. “We know that teachers are the most important thing, but teacher quality is not stamped on someone’s forehead.” A Tennessee study in the late 1980s, widely regarded as the most influential study on class size, found that in kindergarten through third grade, students in classes of 13 to 17, particularly poor and minority students, performed better than those in classes of 22 to 25. In some cases, the benefits extended through high school. But since then, as many states and school districts have rushed to reduce class sizes, usually to the low 20s, student achievement has not consistently improved markedly. In California, a 1996 law provided schools with an extra $1,000 in state money for every student in the earliest grades whose classes had 20 or fewer students. The state quickly hired 28,000 new teachers, but many of them lacked experience or education credentials; a 2002 study by the Public Policy Institute of California found that the best-qualified teachers fled poorer urban schools as the extra funds created jobs in wealthier areas, and that children who were in smaller third-grade classes did not have higher scores on fifth-grade tests. In New York City, an Education Department comparison over the last two years between school report-card grades and average class size has found little correlation; in many cases, schools with better grades have bigger classes. Still, some researchers argue that reducing class size is a concrete and worthy goal. “We can say we just want more good teachers, which would be great, but that’s a policy that we just don’t know how to do yet,” said Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, an education policy professor at the University of Chicago. “The nice thing about reducing class size is that it makes teachers happy in their own right and it’s the one thing that we know how to do.” In New York, class sizes increased despite an infusion of $150 million in state funds last year earmarked specifically to reduce the numbers of children in each room. Chancellor Klein initially bristled at the restrictions state officials put on the money, but Albany would not release the funds until the city submitted a plan to bring class sizes down further. Last week, the city said it might have to adjust that plan to “reflect the worsening economic climate.” Christopher Cerf, the deputy chancellor in charge of human resources, said the increase in class sizes this school year could be attributed to principals who determined that their money was better spent elsewhere and that the focus on class size was wrongheaded. “People think that this is the keys to the education reform kingdom here, but that is simply not the case,” he said. Garth Harries, who oversees class size for the city, said that better schools often end up with larger classes as more and more parents want to send their children to places with successful track records. “It’s a complicated trade-off,” he said. “Would you end up giving fewer families access to those schools?” But Leonie Haimson, the executive director of an advocacy group, Class Size Matters, and a frequent critic of the administration, scoffed at the suggestion that parents were happy with larger classes, saying, “The department is just trying to escape accountability.” “Most of our elementary schools are zoned for a neighborhood, and to blame it on parents is absurd,” she noted. “You have more than 40 percent of students attending schools that are overcrowded. That’s not something they choose.”
New school zone plan could hurt poorest neighborhoods
Families in some of Boston's poorest neighborhoods would have the worst odds of getting into a good-quality school under a new assignment plan unveiled this month by School Superintendent Carol R. Johnson. The plan, which aims to save millions of dollars in fuel costs by shortening bus routes, would scrap the system's three sprawling school assignment zones, in favor of five smaller ones. But a Globe review of state test scores and compliance with federal standards has found that the plan would create a less equitable distribution of potentially failing schools. In two zones, which encompass some of the poorest neighborhoods in Roxbury and Dorchester, state officials consider just under 60 percent of the schools to be in need of major overhauls. By contrast, only one of the six schools in the newly established Allston-Brighton zone would require such drastic restructuring. Potentially failing schools in the other two zones account for 46 percent and 48 percent of the choices. "This is a very worrisome finding," said John Mudd, senior project director of Massachusetts Advocates for Children, a nonprofit that works on behalf of the city's disadvantaged students. "There are not enough quality schools in the city." The dichotomy reveals a city haunted by the inequity that led to desegregation efforts more than three decades ago: The predominantly white neighborhoods of the early 1970s, now much more diverse, still largely have better schools, as the cluster of good-quality schools in Allston and Brighton seems to indicate. Conversely, many schools in the city's poorest neighborhoods have languished, prompting parents there to bus their children to other neighborhoods, sometimes several miles away. It's an option that could diminish under the proposed map. "I don't believe in my heart of hearts that it has to be this way," Nora Toney, president of the Black Educators Alliance of Massachusetts and principal of the Catherine Ellison-Rosa Parks Early Education School in Mattapan. "If people have the will to make schools quality, it can happen." In an interview, Johnson acknowledged the need to improve schools so all children have equal access to a good-quality education. But she defended the proposed boundaries, which she said reflect parents' recent tendency to choose schools closer to home, and an unmet appetite among some parents for more neighborhood schools. For instance, she said, placing Allston and Brighton into their own zone would help the district win back families in those neighborhoods who have left for private schools. However, as the School Committee weighs the proposal, Johnson said she expects adjustments will be made to the map, although she offered no specifics. "We are looking to improving those schools," said Johnson. "This is our first pass. This looked like a match based on student enrollment and facilities." The Globe based its analysis on the percentage of so-called Commonwealth Priority schools in a given zone. The state considers these schools most in need of improvement because overall MCAS scores in English or math have fallen short of state standards for at least four years. The findings highlight the difficult position Johnson is in as she attempts to cut transportation costs, which at $76 million consumes about 9 percent of the school budget as many buses arrive at school each morning half empty. Critics of the empty buses, as well as parents who want a broad array of choices, believe that school zone boundaries can be redrawn to save on fuel costs while ensuring an equitable distribution of good-quality schools. But they emphasize the changes will have to be made with considerable thought and open communication with the public. The department has released only scant information, but the superintendent is expected to present more details at tonight's School Committee meeting. The Rev. Gregory Groover, the School Committee chairman, said he thought the proposal was a good starting point for a debate on rezoning the city, although he emphasized the plan needs to be tweaked. He said committee members not only have concern about an uneven distribution of good-quality schools but the availability of other desirable programs, such as dual-language schools and advanced classes for academically gifted students. "I don't believe it is at a place where the School Committee would feel comfortable adopting it," Groover said. "We still need to hear from the community." The department created the three-zone system two decades ago as a way to divide the schools serving students in preschool through Grade 8. (All high schools are open to students from across the city). Students were allowed to apply to attend any school within the zone. The idea was to expand into nine zones as schools improved, providing students with good-quality classrooms closer to home, but that never happened. Five years ago, the School Committee weighed several options to expand the number of zones, but abandoned them after many parents and advocates for disadvantaged children said too many poor neighborhoods would be stuck with substandard schools. However, escalating transportation costs are making it difficult for the school system to sustain the three-zone model as school leaders confront a projected budget shortfall of more than $100 million next year. The three-zone map offered an unequal division of underperforming schools, as well. But any changes, school observers say, should achieve greater equity, not widen the gaps. Of particular concern are two zones that contain the poorest neighborhoods in Roxbury and Dorchester, where access to good-quality schools has been a concern for more than three decades. Even when families in those neighborhoods have access to a good school nearby, some do not feel comfortable letting their children walk there because they are located in dangerous areas. Instead, they prefer putting their children on a bus destined for safer parts of the city. Under the current system, families in some of those neighborhoods have the option of sending their children to Allston or Brighton, while families in other parts can choose schools in West Roxbury. Not all poor neighborhoods would lose out under the plan. Mattapan, for instance, would be paired with Hyde Park and West Roxbury, where there are several schools that parents consider highly desirable. Data also indicate that Charlestown and East Boston, which would have their own zone, would have more good schools than bad ones. It remains unclear when the changes would go into effect if approved by the School Committee. Johnson said some changes could be made for this fall, but others not until fall 2010. It is also not known if students would have to change schools if they no longer lived in the correct zone or if the new borders would apply to only new students. "Parents are not necessarily against analyzing and changing the current assignment system, as long as ... choice and access to quality schools is protected in that process," said Myriam Ortiz, the group's interim director. She later added, "The School Committee is talking about how much is too much choice. There's no such thing if you are not offering what parents want for their kids."
School districts to study regionalization
Financially-strapped communities from Cape Cod to the Berkshires will receive state grants to study the possibility of regionalizing their school districts, which state education leaders say could lead to greater cost efficiencies. At a press conference this morning at the public high school in Greenfield, state Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Mitchell Chester announced that that city's schools along with other districts around the state would receive the first batch of grants from a new state program that is urging regionalization. Each grant ranges between $15,000 and $25,000. "This funding is meant to jumpstart a movement across the state to find ways for our smaller communities to work together, learn from one another and share expenses in a manner that makes sense fiscally and educationally," Chester said in a statement. "I am pleased that in a year when money is so tight we have (been) able to maintain this effort as a priority." Greenfield, located in the western part of the state, is looking to merge its 1,500 students and eight schools with the neighboring Gill-Montague Regional School District, which has 1,000 students and five schools. Both districts have fallen upon tough financial times. Merging the state's smallest school districts into larger entities is one of the many initiatives Governor Deval Patrick laid out in his sweeping state education overhaul effort known as the Readiness Project. The proposal calls for "dramatically reducing the number of school districts in the state" so less money is spent on administrative services and more can be spent in classrooms. All but 41 of the state's nearly 400 school districts serve fewer than 5,000 students. Districts do not need to fully consolidate with a neighbor to yield savings. Districts could maintain independence while forming partnerships to run school buses, lunch programs, or special education services. The districts could even share superintendents and other central administrators, while keeping their districts as seprate entities. In addition to Greenfield, districts receiving grants include: Ayer, Berkshire Hills Regional, Frontier Regional, Hadley, Harwich, Holland, Mahar Regional, Mohawk Regional, Nauset Regional, Westfield, and Boxford.
NEW YORK CITY - See below for rally locations across the state - The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2007 which President Obama signed into law on February 17th includes massive aid for states, municipalities and schools. The stimulus is an enormously important move in the right direction, but the fight to make up the multi-billion dollar shortfalls in the New York state and city budgets isn’t over.
|
||||||
|
The Snap Schott is distributed by the Schott Foundation for Public Education. For more information, please visit www.schottfoundation.org. |
|||||||
