Dean: can you get people from Turner or the trades or the automobile repair industry to provide statements along the lines of what you write below?

I remember when they closed the automotive repair program at Kennedy HS….which had hundreds of students on the waiting list….so short-sighted.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

INDEX 

Seeing Politics in Plan to Cut Student Transit Aid

New York Times

It was the question on the lips of many New York politicians on Tuesday, but Gov. David A. Paterson may have phrased it best: “Who wants to take MetroCards away from kids?”

The culprit, it appeared, would be the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which is expected to approve an austere budget on Wednesday that would, amid other significant cuts, phase out the free bus and subway rides considered a basic right for half a million students who commute to school in the city. Authority officials say that such a cut would come to save the agency about $170 million a year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/nyregion/16mta.html?ref=nyregion

NYC school kids face paying to ride to school

Associated Press

NEW YORK — The cash-strapped agency that runs New York City subways and buses is considering a proposal to end the more than 60-year-old practice of giving free rides for schoolchildren, a move that could cost half a million students nearly $1,000 per year in transportation fees.

The proposal before the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board to end free rides for schoolchildren has parents wondering how to get their children to school.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jYwaGjpl-SW48qsE-WjNEA6NLz7AD9CK1G1G0

Free and discounted student MetroCards get priority for funding after MTA drops benefit

Daily News

A glimmer of hope emerged Tuesday that city students will get to keep their free and discounted MetroCards - even though the MTA says it can't afford the program.

Gov. Paterson said the benefit - which helps about 585,000 kids get to school every day - would be first in line for money if there's an uptick in state revenue next year.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/12/16/2009-12-16_freebies_for_kids_may_be_in_cards_gov_eyes_cash_to_keep_free_rides_on_track.html

A Coming Diploma Drought?

New York high schools are setting themselves up for plunging graduation rates.

City Journal

Starting this academic year, all graduating high school students in New York are expected to receive a regular “Regents” diploma, which once had the distinction of being the most rigorous diploma that the state conferred. It was generally reserved for college-bound students; those not pursuing higher education received a “general” diploma. Depending on the municipality, and with state approval, commercial and vocational diplomas were also awarded. Schools offered commercial diplomas, for instance, to students interested in secretarial work, bookkeeping, or other trades not necessarily requiring a college education.

http://www.city-journal.org/2009/eon1215me.html

Top school wins 'space' race

New York Post

Parents at a high-performing bilingual Chinese public school have been granted a reprieve from proposals that would have robbed them of scarce classroom space.

The city Department of Education alerted parents at PS 184 on the Lower East Side yesterday that they would not be affected by next year's expansion of Girls Prep Charter School, which is adding a middle school.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/top_school_wins_space_race_0Dt1koxD0X2VwNcbQQqnYN

Gov. Paterson backs doubling state charter schools

Daily News

Gov. Paterson on Tuesday endorsed a change in a state law that caps the number of charter schools, citing the state's need to compete for millions in federal funds. "There is a potential of $400 to $700 million that could come into the state that could help pay some of these bills," said Paterson. "Four to 700 million would be very helpful right now."

His public comments followed Monday's push from the Board of Regents, which endorsed doubling the number of charter schools to 400 from 200 statewide. The Legislature faces a Jan. 19 deadline so the state can win points in its federal "Race to the Top" application. The feds are awarding the grants to states with the strongest education reform agendas.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/12/16/2009-12-16_gov_backs_doubling_state_charter_schools.html

Flip-flop gov is now a 'charter' member

New York Post

Call it the re-education of David Paterson.

In a dramatic reversal, Gov. Paterson yesterday called on state lawmakers to raise the cap on charter schools and implement a host of other education changes needed to compete for a huge pot of federal aid.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/flip_flop_gov_is_now_charter_member_qgqVJI07wSsOGEwaAeO6BN

Gov in $lam at teachers

New York Post

See you in court.

That's the message Gov. Paterson delivered yesterday to the teachers union and other critics threatening to file suit to block his move to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars to schools to keep the cash-starved state afloat.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/gov_in_lam_at_teachers_sDxmsUByBpOsqVxZzTqRBL

Injured gal won't let suit slide

New York Post

A softball player from a Queens high school claims she broke her ankle during practice because she had no idea how to slide -- despite the fact she was on the varsity team, according to a lawsuit her family threw at the city.

Francis Lewis HS sophomore Alina Cerda had to have a plate implanted in her ankle after the May mishap, said her lawyer, Clay Evall.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/queens/injured_gal_won_let_suit_slide_kh2GbefBaaup8Nh5hp6uDO

Teen sues city and Francis Lewis High School softball coach after breaking ankle in slide

Daily News

A Queens softball player is suing the city, claiming she busted her ankle because her high school coach never taught her how to slide.

Alina Cerda, 15, says she's been sidelined for seven months and wants the city Education Department and Francis Lewis High School coach Bryan Brown to pay.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2009/12/16/2009-12-16_teen_plays_hardball_sues_city_hs_softball_coach_after_breaking_ankle_in_slide.html

Gov. Paterson warns of 'real debacle' for museums, education, seniors if budget gap isn't closed

Daily News

ALBANY - New York City's cultural institutions are on red alert in anticipation of cuts in government funding next year.

And that's not all.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/12/16/2009-12-16_dave_warns_of_real_debacle_for_museums_education_seniors_if_budget_gap_isnt_clos.html

New York’s Fiscal Crisis

New York Times Editorial

Gov. David Paterson of New York announced this week that the state will have to delay $750 million in scheduled payments to schools and local governments. It is a drastic step, but the governor, rightly, argues that he had no alternative. It was either that or watch the state slip $1 billion into the red.

Even to borrow that money, the governor and legislative leaders would have to declare a fiscal emergency before they could seek an expensive short-term loan. The Legislature, in denial, is refusing to do the hard work that’s needed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/opinion/16wed1.ready.html?ref=opinion

Pittsburgh Sets Vote on Adding Tax on Tuition

New York Times

The mayor of Pittsburgh calls it the “Fair Share Tax.” But to officials at the city’s 10 colleges and universities and many of their 100,000 students, it is anything but.

On Wednesday, the City Council is expected to give preliminary approval to Mayor Luke Ravenstahl’s proposal for a 1 percent tuition tax on students attending college in Pittsburgh, which he says will raise $16.2 million in annual revenue that is needed to pay pensions for retired city employees. Final Council action will be on Monday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/education/16college.html?_r=1&ref=education

Voice of the People

Daily News Letters to the Editor

East Elmhurst: We constantly hear that the MTA wastes money. Then we hear it has to cut service. How about, before cutting service, making sure that people who ride the buses and subways pay their fares? I've witnessed child after child scooting under turnstiles, and no one says anything. Then, there are the people whose MetroCards are suddenly empty. Rarely have I heard a driver ask them to leave the bus.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/12/16/2009-12-16_riders_take_it_on_the_chin_again.html

Paterson: Education Cuts and Charter School Expansion

WNYC

School districts found out today how much state funding they're losing this month, as Gov. Paterson withholds aid to shore up the budget. The governor's budget office detailed the district by district cuts in December's scheduled school aid payments. They range from a $68 million reduction for New York City schools, to just a $162 cut for the Adirondack town of Newcomb. The governor says he isn't worried about lawsuits from opponents of the cuts because he acted within his constitutional rights to keep New York from insolvency.

http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/146354

Straphangers Protest Student MetroCard Cuts

WNYC

School parents and elected officials are holding rallies across the city today in protest against the MTA's plan to eliminate free student MetroCards. Council member Gale Brewer was at a demonstration on the Upper West Side and says that in addition to burdening parents with the cost of a regular MetroCard, the measure would affect after school activities as well. "Those MetroCards not only pay to go back and forth to school, but they pay for the tutoring, they pay for the karate, they pay for the soccer. They actually enhance that students' education," Brewer says.

http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/146318

Straphangers Troubled By Proposed Cuts to Student Metrocards

WNYC

The MTA is considering service cuts to bridge a nearly $400-million budget gap including a proposal that would eliminate free metro cards for students. And that has some subway and bus riders reacting with disbelief. Brooklyn's Theresa Twum says she dreads having to ask her dad for the fare:

http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/146288

NYS Education Commissioner: Double the Limit on NYC Charters

WNYC

State Education Commissioner David Steiner says it's time for the legislature to raise the limit on charter schools. He suggests the number could double, from 200 to 400.

But United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew says caution is needed, before creating more of the publicly-funded but privately-managed schools.

http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/146289

$25M School-ambulance pact due tainted firm

NEW YORK POST

An ambulance transportation company for disabled students that’s known to have used uncertified drivers – many with criminal convictions ranging all the way up to manslaughter –is poised to receive a $25 million schools contract. . . Department of Education officials said the firm had replaced three top executives, improved its hiring criteria and installed a rigorous vetting process for hires.

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Flu levels off at Pleasant Plains school

City Health Department inspects Pleasant Plains building, principal says

Staten Island Advance

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- It's not often a school is likened to a cruise ship.

But parents and staff of PS 3 in Pleasant Plains have been making that analogy in the past few days, after a stomach flu rapidly spread throughout the school community, sickening dozens and causing fearful parents to keep their children home.

http://www.silive.com/news/advance/index.ssf?/base/news/126094860661820.xml&coll=1

AROUND THE NATION

In New York, a model for how to improve a school cafeteria

USA Today

HARRISON, N.Y. — The cafeteria of Eastchester Middle School had run afoul of the public health code for several years. Between 2006 and 2008, county inspectors found repeated food-safety violations: cold cuts stored at incorrect temperatures, no proper sink for sanitizing kitchenware and employees without required certification.

When some of those "unacceptable" mistakes weren't corrected between inspections, the Westchester County Department of Health took a rare step: After a hearing in May 2008, the county fined cafeteria contractor Aramark $3,450. Aramark, a food services company that manages school and corporate cafeterias across the nation, lost the contract to manage all of Eastchester's schools the following summer to a lower bidder.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-12-15-new-york-schools_N.htm

26,500 school cafeterias lack required inspections

USA Today

The cafeteria worker from Trinity High School in Dickinson, N.D., had spent part of the weekend vomiting and racked with diarrhea. But on Monday, May 2, 2005, she apparently felt well enough to report to work, chopping lettuce that would be served for lunch.

The next day, students began to feel sick, and by that Wednesday, 52 students and eight faculty members had fallen ill with the same symptoms the sick worker had suffered.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-12-15-school-lunches-health-inspections_N.htm

Reassurance Offered on 'Race to Top' Availability

Education Week

Linthicum, Md. - As states consider whether to apply for the first or second round of Race to the Top Fund grants under the economic-stimulus program, the U.S. Department of Education is emphasizing that they shouldn’t worry about being first in line to win a piece of the $4 billion being awarded.

“We promise there will be plenty of money left in phase two,” Joanne Weiss, the department’s Race to the Top director, told states gathered in the Baltimore area for a recent department-sponsored technical seminar on the competitive-grant program.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/12/15/16rttt.h29.html?tkn=QZTFMt7qaxMy8Odnm8NG1hAybtKxkV63kNSF

Congress OKs Budget With Increase for Education

Education Week

Congress last week approved a fiscal year 2010 spending measure that would provide level funding for key education programs, even as lawmakers and the Obama administration weighed the prospect of a jobs package that could include new education aid for cash-strapped states and localities.

A House-Senate conference committee Dec. 8 agreed to a bill that would finance programs in the U.S. Department of Education at about $63.7 billion, a 2 percent increase over fiscal 2009, but a 0.7 percent decrease over the president’s request of $64.2 billion.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/12/15/16budget.h29.html?tkn=LWTFXJqZULvRpNiX%2Fj9VBLYQfmNPAj0dwYEk

Put power over California's schools in hands of parents

They should be able to trigger actual reforms at failing schools, a concept that would help the state compete for federal 'Race to the Top' dollars.

LA Times Op-Ed

Let me tell you about my recent trip to Sacramento. It is a story about why we need a revolution.

Earlier this month, Senate leaders introduced a "parent trigger" into California's "Race to the Top" education reform legislation.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-austin16-2009dec16,0,3809285.story

Sexting hasn't reached most young teens, poll finds

30% of 17-year-olds report getting nude photos on their cells

Washington Post

About one in seven American teens with cellphones say they have received nude or nearly nude photos by text message, according to a survey on the phenomenon known as "sexting."

Helping to define the little-understood trend in teen life, the poll found that 15 percent of adolescents ages 12 to 17 have received sexually suggestive photos or videos on their personal cellphones. Just 4 percent acknowledged sending a naked image.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/15/AR2009121502321.html

Religion and public schools at Christmas time: Can schools include sacred music in holiday programs?

Washington Post Column

“’Twas the nightmare before Christmas late last month for Michael Stratechuk of Maplewood, N.J., when a federal appeals court upheld a local school district policy barring religious music from school events during the holiday season.”

So begins a recent blogpost by Charles C. Haynes, senior scholar at the Washington D.C.-based First Amendment Center, which is an operating program of the Freedom Forum.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/civics-education/religion-and-public-schools-at.html

As schools struggle, California politics slow education reform

Associated Press

SACRAMENTO — To education reformers, a $4.3 billion school funding competition from the Obama administration seemed like just the push California needed to start making long overdue changes to restore academic luster to the state's public schools.

But the drive to dramatically turn around a faltering system that serves more than 6 million children has run into political reality in a Legislature dominated by special interests. The result could leave the state with the nation's largest public school system ill-positioned to compete for the so-called Race to the Top funds.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-12-15-california-schools-reform_N.htm

Seeing Politics in Plan to Cut Student Transit Aid

By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM

New York Times

December 16, 2009

It was the question on the lips of many New York politicians on Tuesday, but Gov. David A. Paterson may have phrased it best: “Who wants to take MetroCards away from kids?”

The culprit, it appeared, would be the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which is expected to approve an austere budget on Wednesday that would, amid other significant cuts, phase out the free bus and subway rides considered a basic right for half a million students who commute to school in the city. Authority officials say that such a cut would come to save the agency about $170 million a year.

But amid the outrage, some transit advocates acknowledged that proposing a cut that would hit riders on an emotional level may be the best chance for the cash-strapped agency, which is facing a nearly $400 million budget shortfall, to eke out additional money from the political powers that often hold it at bay. “Of all the issues that they put on the table, this is the one that may demand that the city and state intervene,” said Neysa C. Pranger, a spokeswoman for the Regional Plan Association, a transportation advocacy group.

The proposal has been seen by some as a negotiating tactic, and some observers argued that the authority was within its rights to stop financing a program whose costs were once shared by the city and the state; in recent years, those government subsidies have flat-lined or disappeared.

“This is something the city and state should pay,” said Nicole Gelinas, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. “It’s education spending, not transit spending. I think it is a pretty clever way to pressure the city and state to stop hiding their own budget problems in the M.T.A.”

The authority argues that state and city lawmakers are squarely to blame for the potential demise of the student discounts. For nearly half a century, schoolchildren’s fares were fully subsidized by Albany and City Hall, until Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani yanked all the city’s funding in 1994.

The result was a standoff between the transit agency and City Hall marked by the same type of blustery language that emerged on Tuesday. Although he raged about the cruelty of eliminating student discounts, Mr. Giuliani eventually gave in, and a last-minute deal was struck to divide the program’s funding equally among the authority, the city and the state, with each paying $45 million a year.

But even as the program has become more expensive, the city kept its contribution the same. The state, meanwhile, slashed its annual subsidy to $6 million from $25 million in November as part of a broader cost-saving plan.

“It is a game of leverage where the students basically are pawns,” said George Arzt, a political consultant and a longtime observer of the municipal arena. Recalling the Giuliani dispute, he said that the issue of student fares could be a potent political tool. “When you think of so many kids affected, and two voting parents in many cases, that is a powerful, powerful electoral bloc.”

Mr. Arzt’s point appeared to be underscored by the anger directed at the authority on Tuesday. “We aren’t going to stand for it,” declared Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, weighing in from Copenhagen. (The mayor has directed his appointees on the authority’s board to vote against the proposal, which must be approved again separately next year.)

Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, denounced the authority’s decision-making as “undemocratic.” And dozens of elected officials gathered in rallies throughout the city to accuse the authority of punishing poorer parents and pushing students toward truancy, turnstile-hopping or worse.

A spokesman for the mayor said that Albany lawmakers had an obligation to restore its subsidy. “We have kept our funding in place, and are going to continue to do so. The state should do the same,” said Marc LaVorgna, the spokesman.

Mr. Paterson, at a press conference, pledged to restore funding to the program if the state received additional revenue next year.

Members of the authority’s board appeared to be divided. On Monday, Norman Seabrook, the labor leader, said the cuts would be nightmarish: “Kids shouldn’t have to jump a turnstile to get to school!”

But Doreen M. Frasca, an appointee of Governor Paterson, said she hoped the plan would put pressure on the city and state to restore some funding.

“If these discussions prompt the city and the state to do the right thing by contributing their fair share, then it’s a discussion worth having,” Ms. Frasca said. “I don’t plan to back down on student fares, I really don’t. As much as I regret it, I hope we can stand our ground on it.”

NYC school kids face paying to ride to school

By KAREN MATTHEWS (AP) – 14 hours ago

Associated Press

December 16, 2009

NEW YORK — The cash-strapped agency that runs New York City subways and buses is considering a proposal to end the more than 60-year-old practice of giving free rides for schoolchildren, a move that could cost half a million students nearly $1,000 per year in transportation fees.

The proposal before the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board to end free rides for schoolchildren has parents wondering how to get their children to school.

"This is a crisis," said Kevin McCall, a neighborhood activist who led a protest against the proposal in front of a Brooklyn high school on Tuesday. "This is totally insane. It would make parents have to choose between food and any other necessity or a Metrocard for their child."

Adam Ufret, a concierge at a Manhattan apartment building whose three daughters use student passes, said, "I would cut my home phone and just use my cell phone, or instead of steak we'd have corned beef."

The MTA board, facing a $383 million budget shortfall, will vote Wednesday on a proposed 2010 budget that would eliminate several bus and subway lines and scale back services for the disabled, as well as phasing out student Metrocards.

Charging students full fare would end a policy of free or discounted rides that has been in place since 1948.

Some 417,243 students now receive free Metrocards and another 167,912 get half-fare cards.

The cards can be used on schooldays between 5:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. and are good for three rides a day — to school, to one after-school activity and then home.

They are distributed, not on need, but based on the distance a student must travel to school. High school students and many middle school students in New York City do not attend the school closest to them but are expected to apply to schools that match their interests and abilities.

Clara Hemphill, a scholar at the New School who founded a school-rating Web site, said New York City high school students typically travel 45 minutes to an hour to get to school.

If forced to pay full fare, Hemphill said, "some parents would swallow hard and pay. Some parents would not or could not. I think you'd see higher levels of truancy."

The single-ride fare is $2.25 and a 30-day unlimited pass is $89 — and the fares are expected to rise in 2011 and again in 2013.

The costs would be significant in a city where 80 percent of public school students have family incomes low enough to qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.

"No one is prepared for this," said City Councilman Charles Barron, who heads the council's education committee. "No one is prepared to pay another thousand dollars for transit fare for their children."

There is no federal mandate that school districts provide free transportation.

In other large U.S. cities where thousands of students ride public transportation, their rides are subsidized.

Frank Shuftan, a spokesman for Chicago Public Schools, said 90,000 Chicago students ride city buses and trains to school at about 85 cents a ride — a steep discount.

Matthew Wilder, a spokesman for Boston Public Schools, said Boston students who live more than two miles from school get free passes and others get half-fare passes.

Under the plan before the MTA board, New York City students who get free rides now would start paying half fare in September 2010 and full fare in September 2011.

The board would hold public hearings and vote again before the fares actually went into effect, leaving an opening for an 11th-hour rescue by the city or the state.

Elected officials last wrestled over the student Metrocards in 1995 and came up with a deal that had New York City and New York State each kicking in $45 million a year and the MTA paying the rest. The city and state contributions remained flat until the state recently cut its contribution to $6 million.

Transit advocate Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign, whose two daughters use student Metrocards, said he hopes someone can save the program once again.

"The mayor and the MTA and the governor have to figure out a way to solve the problem the way they did back in 1995," he said.

Free and discounted student MetroCards get priority for funding after MTA drops benefit

BY Pete Donohue

Daily News

December 16, 2009

A glimmer of hope emerged Tuesday that city students will get to keep their free and discounted MetroCards - even though the MTA says it can't afford the program.

Gov. Paterson said the benefit - which helps about 585,000 kids get to school every day - would be first in line for money if there's an uptick in state revenue next year.

"The first thing I will do with added revenue is target them back to the MTA in order to relieve the young people from losing their MetroCards," Paterson said during an appearance in the Bronx.

A spokesman for state Senate Democrats went further, saying legislators may try to rescue the program by cutting other areas.

"As we work towards 2010-2011 budget, it's conceivable we will take steps to keep the program intact if at all possible," Austin Shafran, spokesman for the Democratic leadership in Senate, told the Daily News.

"Any attempts to restore the program would mean reductions would have to be made in other budgetary areas, and this is something we would certainly like to do," Shafran said.

The cash-strapped Metropolitan Transportation Authority dropped the bomb last week that it planned to end the longtime benefit.

Under a budget plan expected to be adopted by the board today, students would pay half fares in September 2010 and full fares starting September 2011.

Eligibility depends on age and the length of a student's commute, not income.

The MTA would have to hold public hearings next year and take another vote before putting the changes into effect.

Since mid-1990s, the city and state each had contributed $45 million to the program. The MTA estimates it loses another $170 million a year by not charging students to ride buses and subways.

The News reported Monday that Paterson and the Legislature quietly reduced the state's contribution to MetroCard program to just $6 million because the state is running out of money .

Supporters of student MetroCards held rallies in Manhattan yesterday.

"I depend on my MetroCard," said James Polite, 17, a high school senior who lives in East New York, Brooklyn, and goes to school in Chelsea. "$4.50 round trip every day is too much for my parents."

The MTA budget also includes sweeping service reductions starting the middle of next year. They include eliminating 21 local bus routes and the W and Z subway lines. Riders would also wait longer for subway trains.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, other members of the Council and transit advocates like the Straphangers Campaign urged the MTA to consider using some construction and maintenance funds to avoid service cuts.

Bus and subway riders, who have been hit with fare hikes two years in a row, "have every right to be as mad as hell," said Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign.

A Coming Diploma Drought?

New York high schools are setting themselves up for plunging graduation rates.

Marc Epstein

City Journal

December 15, 2009

Starting this academic year, all graduating high school students in New York are expected to receive a regular “Regents” diploma, which once had the distinction of being the most rigorous diploma that the state conferred. It was generally reserved for college-bound students; those not pursuing higher education received a “general” diploma. Depending on the municipality, and with state approval, commercial and vocational diplomas were also awarded. Schools offered commercial diplomas, for instance, to students interested in secretarial work, bookkeeping, or other trades not necessarily requiring a college education.

But responding to criticism, common since the days of the civil rights movement, that directing minority students toward vocations rather than college was racially biased—because all minority students should be expected to do college work—reformers abolished those diploma distinctions and allowed such courses of study, which many minority students took advantage of, to wither away. The state’s new “one size fits all” diploma standard means that special-education students must pass the same English and history Regents as students attending Stuyvesant High. It also means that either the Regents exams have to be altered or the grading requirements adjusted to avoid a huge drop-off in passing scores. And that is precisely what has happened, as I and others have pointed out repeatedly.

Meryl Tisch, the new Regents chancellor, and David Steiner, the state commissioner of education, who has also recently assumed his post, have acknowledged that the state’s testing system needs fixing across the board, from the high school Regents exams to the state’s math and English tests for fourth- and eighth-grade students. If Steiner and Tisch have their way and the state’s Regents tests become more rigorous, they’ll face the likelihood that the state’s graduation rates will drop dramatically, since students won’t graduate unless they pass all five of the Regents exams offered in math, English, science, and social studies (two exams).

They can avoid that scenario by revisiting the state’s destructive “one size fits all” diploma policy and reinstating the old “differential diploma” system. But doing so would require some political courage, a quality always in short supply. Tisch and Steiner would have to challenge the now-conventional bias in favor of routing all kids toward a college diploma of one kind or another.

The dirty word no one wants to utter is “tracking.” Any attempt to steer kids toward a career route that doesn’t award a college degree is still broadly considered racially biased, though several presidents, including the current one, have conceded that college isn’t for everyone. Bill Clinton’s first budget asked Congress to support a national school-to-work transition program, including youth apprenticeships, and his School to Work Opportunities Act passed in 1994 with strong bipartisan support. It provided funding to help states, among other things, “develop a skills certification system for high school graduates.” President Obama has wisely pushed an initiative to increase funding for our community colleges, which have increasingly taken on the task of teaching vocational and technical skills once offered at the high school level. In school systems like New York’s, most course offerings in hands-on shop classes were eliminated over 20 years ago. The shops were torn out and turned into academic classrooms.

There was a time when our teachers believed that being educated included learning manual skills—and that there were many dignified and useful ways of making a living. If Tisch and Steiner have any chance of setting things straight, they will need to address not just the testing regime, but the structure and purpose of diplomas—and that means addressing, in a broader sense, the question of why kids are in school in the first place. Bringing back differential diplomas will stave off a public-relations disaster for school authorities. More importantly, it will serve the needs of New York’s students.

Marc Epstein teaches history at Jamaica High School. He was a contributor to A Consumer’s Guide to High School History Textbooks (Thomas B. Fordham Institute) and reviewed Florida’s social studies standards for the Albert Shanker Institute.

Top school wins 'space' race

By YOAV GONEN

New York Post

December 16, 2009

Parents at a high-performing bilingual Chinese public school have been granted a reprieve from proposals that would have robbed them of scarce classroom space.

The city Department of Education alerted parents at PS 184 on the Lower East Side yesterday that they would not be affected by next year's expansion of Girls Prep Charter School, which is adding a middle school.

While parents at the A-rated elementary school celebrated the news, they said they wouldn't abandon a coalition with three other schools -- PS 20, PS 94 and PS 188 -- that are still at risk under the proposals.

"We enjoyed it for five minutes and then we went right back to work," said PS 184 parent Troy Robinson. "No matter who gets picked or who doesn't get picked [to lose space], it's our job really to go ahead and support them."

City officials said the reprieve was granted based on the enrollment trends at PS 184, but they didn't rule out other space-sharing changes down the road.

They said they would make a final proposal on the expansion of Girls Prep after the local parent council weighs in.

Gov. Paterson backs doubling state charter schools

BY Kate Nocera and Rachel Monahan

Daily News

December 16, 2009

Gov. Paterson on Tuesday endorsed a change in a state law that caps the number of charter schools, citing the state's need to compete for millions in federal funds. "There is a potential of $400 to $700 million that could come into the state that could help pay some of these bills," said Paterson. "Four to 700 million would be very helpful right now."

His public comments followed Monday's push from the Board of Regents, which endorsed doubling the number of charter schools to 400 from 200 statewide. The Legislature faces a Jan. 19 deadline so the state can win points in its federal "Race to the Top" application. The feds are awarding the grants to states with the strongest education reform agendas.

"This is the plan that President Obama and Secretary of Education Duncan put before us. And the question is, 'Do we want to compete? Are we racing to the top or are we racing to the middle?'" Paterson said.

Flip-flop gov is now a 'charter' member

By BRENDAN SCOTT

New York Post

December 16, 2009

Call it the re-education of David Paterson.

In a dramatic reversal, Gov. Paterson yesterday called on state lawmakers to raise the cap on charter schools and implement a host of other education changes needed to compete for a huge pot of federal aid.

The Democratic governor had previously advocated a wait-and-see approach on the $4.4 billion "Race to the Top" program.

And his comments came a day after The Post reported that state Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-Queens) was looking to double the charter school cap.

Paterson said he spoke to President Obama's top education official Nov. 19 about the state's bid to claim up to $700 million from the program.

The program awards more points to states that take charter-friendly steps, like raising the state's nearly maxed-out charter cap.

"I support it," Paterson said. "The question is do we want to compete? Are we racing to the top or are we racing to the middle? Because, if you're in the middle, you're not going to get funding."

Gov in $lam at teachers

By CARL CAMPANILE

New York Post

December 16, 2009

See you in court.

That's the message Gov. Paterson delivered yesterday to the teachers union and other critics threatening to file suit to block his move to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars to schools to keep the cash-starved state afloat.

"I don't have any [concerns]," Paterson said when asked about lawsuits expected to be filed as early as today by the New York State United Teachers.

Paterson said he's confident he'll be upheld in court, and blamed lawmakers and advocates for opposing his initial deficit-reduction plan that would have shielded poor school districts from steep cuts and put state finances on a sounder footing.

Injured gal won't let suit slide

By AMANDA MELILLO and TOM LIDDY

New York Post

December 16, 2009

A softball player from a Queens high school claims she broke her ankle during practice because she had no idea how to slide -- despite the fact she was on the varsity team, according to a lawsuit her family threw at the city.

Francis Lewis HS sophomore Alina Cerda had to have a plate implanted in her ankle after the May mishap, said her lawyer, Clay Evall.

"They were doing a sliding drill without any instruction," he said. "This is not the Marines. These are young girls and you have to give some training."

The city Law Department is reviewing the suit. Bryan Brown, the softball coach, who was also named, did not immediately respond to an e-mail for comment.

Teen sues city and Francis Lewis High School softball coach after breaking ankle in slide

BY Thomas Zambito

Daily News

December 16, 2009

A Queens softball player is suing the city, claiming she busted her ankle because her high school coach never taught her how to slide.

Alina Cerda, 15, says she's been sidelined for seven months and wants the city Education Department and Francis Lewis High School coach Bryan Brown to pay.

The suit filed in Queens Supreme Court says Alina needed six screws and a metal plate to fuse the ankle she broke while sliding on a muddy base path during a May practice.

City lawyers declined to comment, and Brown said he hadn't heard about the suit.

"I can't comment on something I don't know anything about," he said Tuesday night before coaching the Francis Lewis girls varsity basketball team in a game against Bayside High School.

Alina, a sophomore who plays third base for the Fresh Meadows school, said that after the accident, she missed her freshman season.

Meanwhile, the Francis Lewis varsity squad went 14-2, and her teammates made it into the Public School Athletic League playoffs.

"I was kind of sad not being in that [playoff] game," Alina said Tuesday. "I was upset not being able to play."

Alina's lawyer, Clay Evall, says Brown wasn't supervising the sliding drill but had some of the team's veteran players teaching the new girls how to do it.

"He wasn't instructing them whatsoever," Evall said. "He told her to watch the older girls do it."

Alina's ankle twisted when her cleat got caught in the mud. Unable to walk, she called her father to pick her up and drive her home, she said.

Since then, she has been going to physical therapy to regain strength and flexibility so she can play this spring.

A thin red scar trails up the side of her left calf.

"I'm playing right now, practicing, but I can't sprint," said Alina, who has played softball since she was 7.

"If I walk on it a lot, by the end of the day, my leg gets tired and I have to rest."

Earlier this month, Jets coach Rex Ryan had Yankees manager Girardi teach his rookie quarterback, Mark Sanchez, a feetfirst baseball slide so he could avoid punishing tackles.

Gov. Paterson warns of 'real debacle' for museums, education, seniors if budget gap isn't closed

BY Kenneth Lovett

Daily News

December 16, 2009

ALBANY - New York City's cultural institutions are on red alert in anticipation of cuts in government funding next year.

And that's not all.

State officials say that if squabbling lawmakers don't fully close this year's $3.2 billion budget gap - and drastically cut spending next year - New Yorkers also face:

- The loss of after-school services and early childhood education programs.

- Less assistance for state agencies, meaning less money for health care, mental health and housing programs.

- The end of money for nonprofits that serve the young and senior citizens.

"It can turn into a real debacle," Gov. Paterson told the Daily News yesterday.

Paterson's decision to withhold certain payments to schools and local governments to keep the state afloat is seen as a precursor to far more drastic actions.

Harold Holzer, spokesman for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, said that while the state does not directly fund many museums and other cultural institutions, money the state gives to the city is passed through to them.

"The cultural institutions in the city are on alert that state aid, general assistance to the city, could be reduced," Holzer said.

"The concern is with how the state aid to the city rolls out and how it trickles down to institutions in the city."

Paterson has warned that the state could face as much as a $9billion deficit next year. His administration also is preparing for next month's budget submission.

"I can't tell you what we specifically will do," he said. "I haven't gotten to that point yet."

But he warned there have been discussions that weigh options chosen by other struggling states.

California discontinued its domestic violence services, Arizona has sold off state properties, Hawaii shortened its school year and other states have imposed cuts on such programs as libraries.

Schools fear funding reductions would force them to cut teachers and programs.

"All these drastic actions are headed for New York because all of the other states were consistent in taking the same approaches," Paterson said. "We just haven't arrived at the specific ones."

Paterson said he wants to wait for the January revenue forecast before deciding what Draconian measures might be needed.

"I don't want to be an alarmist," he said.

Lawmakers - who came up $500 million short of the $3.2 billion in savings Paterson wanted to close this year's budget gap - have said they recognize major cuts are needed next year.

Still, Paterson ripped into those who say the state's fiscal mess isn't as bad he says it is.

"It's the most dereliction of duty that I have seen in the time I've been in Albany," Paterson said.

"One reason the public is not getting the message is because they can't figure out what the truth is between all the acrimony that has gone on in this process."

Many lawmakers recently refused to go along with the governor's proposed $646 million midyear cuts to schools to help close this year's gap - although they put schools on notice that they better budget for tougher times next year.

New York’s Fiscal Crisis

New York Times Editorial

December 16, 2009

Gov. David Paterson of New York announced this week that the state will have to delay $750 million in scheduled payments to schools and local governments. It is a drastic step, but the governor, rightly, argues that he had no alternative. It was either that or watch the state slip $1 billion into the red.

Even to borrow that money, the governor and legislative leaders would have to declare a fiscal emergency before they could seek an expensive short-term loan. The Legislature, in denial, is refusing to do the hard work that’s needed.

Mr. Paterson has gone for a delay in the hopes that tax revenues next month will be a little higher than projected. There is no guarantee that Wall Street bonuses or first signs of recovery will bring in enough cash to make it through to the end of the fiscal year in March.

Unless there are serious changes in the way New York spends and raises money, the state could be facing a $10 billion deficit next year.

New York is not alone in facing tough times. But for years, New York’s Legislature has been spending beyond its means. The recession has made matters far worse. Mr. Paterson, who took office just as Bear Stearns collapsed in 2008, has been warning of calamity ever since. The Legislature has stubbornly refused to listen.

Last month, the governor called lawmakers back to Albany to fill a $3.2 billion gap in this year’s budget of $132 billion. The governor proposed painful cuts: including $113 million from the New York City-area public transit budget; $686 million in school funds, or about 3 percent per district with even larger cuts for wealthier districts; $470 million from health care spending.

The Democratic-majority Legislature balked. Lawmakers decreed there would be no midyear cuts in school budgets, not even for wealthy districts. Although they did improve the pension structure, legislators protected other programs like health care and shielded state workers from furloughs or layoffs.

They finally made some cuts, including a larger swipe at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, but mostly they drained other savings accounts and used some of the federal stimulus dollars that were supposed to be saved for next year.

Even then, they only came up with $2.7 billion — and were $500 million short. That left Governor Paterson no choice but to delay payments to schools cities and towns. Some of these schools have rainy-day funds, but Mr. Paterson should try to limit cuts for the poorer areas. Communities will have no choice but to pare down spending.

Legislative leaders — from both parties — need to wake up to the harsh reality. When the stimulus money is gone there will be no cushion, and there is no hidden cache of funds about to be discovered.

There is no chance of balancing next year’s budget as required by law unless they are finally willing to make deep cuts, even in favorite programs, personal items to districts and especially those items backed by the state’s most powerful education unions, and health care and business lobbyists. At this point, there is no other choice.

Long Island's Fortress Mentality

There may be some dire situation in which state senators from Long Island will stop insisting that their disproportionate share of state school aid must not be cut, delayed or in any way changed. Don’t count on it.

Despite the serious disaster that has hit the state’s budget, the Long Island delegation has been behaving as it always has. They have opposed Gov. David Paterson’s repeated efforts to get New York’s finances in order, including his latest tactic of delaying $750 million in December payments, including aid to schools, to avoid insolvency this year. The naysayers include the usual Republican bloc, along with two newcomer Democrats with dicey re-election hopes, Craig Johnson and Brian Foley.

Greedy parochialism is old news in Nassau and Suffolk Counties. Turn back to any year — say, 1988, when this page was deploring how “a pork-minded bloc of Republican senators” known as “the Long Island Eight,” led by Ralph J. Marino of Muttontown, was holding a budget hostage over aid to local school districts.

The state’s convoluted school-aid formulas have long favored rich Long Island schools at the expense of those in New York City and other districts where people are poor and needs are great. Long Island has some of the highest-spending districts and best-paid superintendents in the country. It’s home to a district — Roslyn — where administrators, employees and their families stole millions of dollars for years, and nobody noticed.

This is not to say that Long Islanders are not feeling financial pain. They pay some of the highest property taxes in the country, and Mr. Johnson and Mr. Foley have good reason to be afraid of wrathful voters, who just fired the able Nassau County executive, Thomas Suozzi, because they were sick of paying high taxes.

But Long Islanders have proudly embraced their ever-more-expensive schools for years, approving ever-higher budgets and ever-soaring official salaries. For years they have benefited from the powerful bloc voting of their Senate delegation. It’s ridiculous to think their schools can’t possibly tap rainy-day funds or find savings on an island where superintendents routinely make six figures, where some rich villages give students two identical textbooks — one for home and one for school — and where the sports and arts and video and language programs are the envy of the nation.

New York is in dire straits, the governor is trying to cope and Long Island’s schools are touchable.

Pittsburgh Sets Vote on Adding Tax on Tuition

By IAN URBINA

New York Times

December 16, 2009

The mayor of Pittsburgh calls it the “Fair Share Tax.” But to officials at the city’s 10 colleges and universities and many of their 100,000 students, it is anything but.

On Wednesday, the City Council is expected to give preliminary approval to Mayor Luke Ravenstahl’s proposal for a 1 percent tuition tax on students attending college in Pittsburgh, which he says will raise $16.2 million in annual revenue that is needed to pay pensions for retired city employees. Final Council action will be on Monday.

The tax would be the first of its kind in the nation, and other cities are watching closely as they try to find ways to close their own budget gaps.

Students and college officials argue that the tax will drive students away and place an unfair burden on institutions that already contribute substantially to the city. They add that the measure comes at an especially difficult time for colleges, as endowment values have fallen and requests for financial aid have risen.

The tax, which will most likely end up in the courts, represents a turning point for Pittsburgh, which has remade itself after the steel mills shut down, becoming a hub for nonprofit hospitals and universities. Yet it has been unable to draw significant revenue from its new identity.

“It’s really a disappointment that we’re in this situation,” Mayor Ravenstahl said. “Our colleges and universities are giving less and less while they increase tuition and executive pay and expand their campuses, removing high-value land from the tax rolls. The cost to provide public safety and public works services continues to increase, but our revenue continues to decrease.”

The tax, which would take effect as early as July, would range from about $20 a year for students at cheaper schools like the Community College of Allegheny County to just over $400 for students at the city’s priciest university, Carnegie Mellon.

As a town-gown clash, the issue pits local taxpayers against mostly out-of-state students. But it is also a struggle between the old Pittsburgh and the new, as the mayor tries to force the city’s youngest residents to support some of its oldest.

Other cities have considered going this route. This spring, for example, Mayor David N. Cicilline of Providence, R.I., proposed a $150-per-semester tax on students at the city’s four private colleges. The State Legislature, however, did not take it up.

And in Boston, Mayor Thomas M. Menino created a task force in January to explore increasing voluntary payments from the city’s universities and hospitals.

“City officials see this as an untapped revenue source, and if Pittsburgh succeeds, I think you will see a lot of other cities immediately move to do the same,” said Terry Hartle of the American Council on Education, a lobbying group for universities. He added that if the Pittsburgh City Council approves the mayor’s proposal, the matter will surely go to the courts.

Students and university officials are not pleased.

The added cost “could prevent prospective students from coming to Carnegie Mellon, and Pittsburgh would be missing out on some of the best talent from around the world,” said an editorial published this month in The Tartan, the student newspaper at Carnegie Mellon.

Officials at the University of Pittsburgh said they would “vigorously oppose any attempt to impose a service or privilege fee on our undergraduate and graduate students.”

But Mr. Ravenstahl said he was left with no other option.

He said that he asked the universities and other tax-exempt nonprofits to pay $5 million annually to the city, and that in lieu of the tax he would find the other $10 million by dipping into reserves, cutting services and getting Harrisburg to increase the commuter tax rate.

Mr. Ravenstahl said the city currently forgoes about $50 million in real estate taxes from nonprofit institutions.

The universities rejected his request last week.

In a four-page letter, the Pittsburgh Council on Higher Education said it refused to consider payments as long as the mayor continued the threat of a tax that it called divisive, illegal and unenforceable.

The council added that the city’s colleges and universities pay $23 million annually in taxes to the city for payroll, parking, business privileges and any real estate not directly related to their educational missions.

Politically, Mr. Ravenstahl risks few votes in leaning on universities for revenue because college students rarely vote in local elections. And many of the constituencies that supported Mr. Ravenstahl’s re-election in November have been vocally supportive of his tax plan.

“This is a turning point for us,” said Joe King, president of the Pittsburgh firefighters’ union. He said that after Miami-Dade County in Florida, Allegheny County has the second largest number of seniors of any county in the United States and that in his union alone he has 900 retirees and 450 surviving spouses whose pensions need to be financed.

“Without the tax, the fate of those pensions could be in trouble,” he said. “We are not asking young people to carry more than their due. We’re just asking them to pay for what they use.”

But students say they already do.

“We have jobs in Pittsburgh so we pay taxes on that income, we rent apartments so we pay taxes on that, we have cars here, which provide parking taxes,” said David Gau, an undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh, adding that he resented the portrayal of students as freeloaders. “We go to a variety of events like symphony, sports games, plays, concerts, and there are amusement taxes on those that produce even more revenue from us.”

“Why try to divert new people from coming here with a college tax?” added Mr. Gau, 21, who is from Kennett Square, Pa. “It’s the furthest thing from fair.”

Chad Ellis, 28, a graduate student in chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University and a Pittsburgh homeowner, agreed.

“Holding students hostage in negotiations with nonprofits to come up with money to pay for bloated city pension plans is divisive,” he said.

Voice of the People

Daily News Letters to the Editor

December 16, 2009

East Elmhurst: We constantly hear that the MTA wastes money. Then we hear it has to cut service. How about, before cutting service, making sure that people who ride the buses and subways pay their fares? I've witnessed child after child scooting under turnstiles, and no one says anything. Then, there are the people whose MetroCards are suddenly empty. Rarely have I heard a driver ask them to leave the bus.

Irene Goldsmith

Staten Island: Once again, the MTA has announced a budget deficit. Hold on to your wallets, drivers. You'll probably be asked to subsidize the MTA again - and pay for a service you don't use. What a sham.

Robert K. Greco

Brooklyn: The MTA's plan to stop distributing free MetroCards to students is utterly ridiculous. Students need those cards to get to school and receive an education. This is just sad.

Kadeem Lundy

Runaway train

Manhattan: Transit worker raises. Deep service cuts to buses and trains. Elimination of student passes. What's wrong with this picture?

Susan Giniger

Paterson: Education Cuts and Charter School Expansion

WNYC

December 15, 2009

School districts found out today how much state funding they're losing this month, as Gov. Paterson withholds aid to shore up the budget. The governor's budget office detailed the district by district cuts in December's scheduled school aid payments. They range from a $68 million reduction for New York City schools, to just a $162 cut for the Adirondack town of Newcomb. The governor says he isn't worried about lawsuits from opponents of the cuts because he acted within his constitutional rights to keep New York from insolvency.

Paterson says under his original plan, which was rejected by the legislature, poorer schools would have been spared the brunt of the cuts, but now he says he has no choice but to cut ten percent from every school district in the state.

Paterson also says he supports expanding the number of charter schools beyond the current limit of 200. Changing the law, he says, could help the state's chance of winning up to $700 million in additional education funds from the Obama administration's "Race to the Top" fund. This fund was set up to reward states that commit to education reforms including charter schools, and using student test scores in evaluating teachers.

The city's teacher's union opposes more public financing for the privately managed charter schools.

The state legislature does not know if there is enough support to lift the cap on charter schools in time for the January deadline to apply for the federal funds.

Straphangers Protest Student MetroCard Cuts

by Arun Venugopal

WNYC

December 15, 2009

School parents and elected officials are holding rallies across the city today in protest against the MTA's plan to eliminate free student MetroCards. Council member Gale Brewer was at a demonstration on the Upper West Side and says that in addition to burdening parents with the cost of a regular MetroCard, the measure would affect after school activities as well. "Those MetroCards not only pay to go back and forth to school, but they pay for the tutoring, they pay for the karate, they pay for the soccer. They actually enhance that students' education," Brewer says.

More than half a million students use free or discounted MetroCards. The MTA proposed phasing them out between next year and 2011, in order to help plug a $400 million budget gap. The measure is part of a slate of planned service reductions including the elimination of some subway and bus lines.

The full MTA board votes on the cuts tomorrow.

Straphangers Troubled By Proposed Cuts to Student Metrocards

by Kathleen Horan

WNYC

December 15, 2009

The MTA is considering service cuts to bridge a nearly $400-million budget gap including a proposal that would eliminate free metro cards for students. And that has some subway and bus riders reacting with disbelief. Brooklyn's Theresa Twum says she dreads having to ask her dad for the fare:

TWUM: Well since the economy is really bad right now - it's gonna be hard because my dad pays the bills and everything and I don't want to ask him everyday for money to get to school.

REPORTER: Transit advocate Gene Russianoff addressed the MTA Board's Finance Committee meeting yesterday, and said 550,000 students currently get free or discounted Metrocards.

RUSSIANOFF: I am typical of New York City on this. I have two daughters that go to public school and if you make this cut, if you go ahead with this cut, it's $2,000 a year it's going to cost to transport them to school.

REPORTER: Russianoff says it's now up to the governor and Mayor Bloomberg to come up with the needed funding. If approved, the fares for students would go up half-price in the fall, and then to full price in 2011. The full MTA board will vote on the proposed cuts tomorrow.

NYS Education Commissioner: Double the Limit on NYC Charters

by Beth Fertig

WNYC

December 15, 2009

State Education Commissioner David Steiner says it's time for the legislature to raise the limit on charter schools. He suggests the number could double, from 200 to 400.

But United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew says caution is needed, before creating more of the publicly-funded but privately-managed schools.

MULGREW: Because if we're receiving public funding for the schools then the schools have to make sure that we're servicing all of the children of New York City.

REPORTER: Mulgrew claims charters don't take a fair share of non-English-speaking students, and those with disabilities.

The state is competing for federal money from a program called "Race to the Top", which encourages school reforms, including charters. New York is thought to be at a disadvantage because of its cap on the number of charters.

Meanwhile, the Regents are working on other reforms to win federal funds. They include clearer curriculum guides, better teacher training, and guidance to districts on how to turn around or close failing schools.

$25M School-ambulance pact due tainted firm

New York Post

By Yoav Gonen

An ambulance transportation company for disabled students that’s known to have used uncertified drivers – many with criminal convictions ranging all the way up to manslaughter –is poised to receive a $25 million schools contract.

The city’s education-policy panel will vote tomorrow night on whether TransCare New York, which schools investigators recommended in 2004 be barred from bidding on any future Department of Education contracts, should be given the lucrative five-year deal.

The probe found that of the firm’s 360 drivers and paramedics who worked under a similar DOE contract  between Jan. 1 and June 18, 2004, only 13 were certified.

And 25 of the 360 had been convicted on charges that included manslaughter, attempted murder, multiple cases of weapon and drug possession and drunken driving.

Department of Education officials said the firm had replaced three top executives, improved its hiring criteria and installed a rigorous vetting process for hires.

Officials at the firm did not return a call seeking comment.   

Flu levels off at Pleasant Plains school

City Health Department inspects Pleasant Plains building, principal says

By AMISHA PADNANI

Staten Island Advance

December 16, 2009

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- It's not often a school is likened to a cruise ship.

But parents and staff of PS 3 in Pleasant Plains have been making that analogy in the past few days, after a stomach flu rapidly spread throughout the school community, sickening dozens and causing fearful parents to keep their children home.

"We're all close together," said Principal Judith Wilson. "The heat is on all day and we're in close quarters."

Such viruses are known to sicken many people on a cruise ship in a short amount of time because the passengers are spending all of their time together.

Starting on Friday afternoon, dozens of children began vomiting in class after contracting what officials have determined to be the Norovirus, which spreads easily among schoolchildren in the winter. Other symptoms have included fever and diarrhea.

Students and staff are continuing to fall ill, although the spread is slowing down. On Monday, about 50 people went home, while yesterday, about 10 students went home, either because they were sick or because parents were concerned, officials said.

Attendance also continues to decline, with just 69 percent of the student body in attendance yesterday. On Monday, 73 percent of children came to school while last Friday, 95 percent of the students were there.

"[The virus] is pretty wicked on children," said Ms. Wilson, the principal. "It really dehydrates them, and it affects children more than adults."

Still, while she understands parents' fears, she said the school has been taking every precaution and she encourages parents to send their children to school if they're healthy.

"Send your kids back to school," Ms. Wilson said. "Instruction is going on."

The school staff has thoroughly been cleaning the building throughout the day, including wiping down areas like doorknobs, surface areas and bathrooms, she said.

"The Department of Health was here all day long inspecting our kitchen and every crevice of the building," Ms. Wilson said.

She said air samples taken throughout the building came out clean and that the virus should be gone in a matter of days.

Assemblyman Lou Tobacco (R-South Shore) has also been in communication with the Office of School Health and said the virus does not appear to have spread to other schools. Officials from his office said they will continue to check in.

AROUND THE NATION

In New York, a model for how to improve a school cafeteria

By Ernie Garcia and Cathey O'Donnell Special to, USA TODAY

USA Today

December 16, 2009

HARRISON, N.Y. — The cafeteria of Eastchester Middle School had run afoul of the public health code for several years. Between 2006 and 2008, county inspectors found repeated food-safety violations: cold cuts stored at incorrect temperatures, no proper sink for sanitizing kitchenware and employees without required certification.

When some of those "unacceptable" mistakes weren't corrected between inspections, the Westchester County Department of Health took a rare step: After a hearing in May 2008, the county fined cafeteria contractor Aramark $3,450. Aramark, a food services company that manages school and corporate cafeterias across the nation, lost the contract to manage all of Eastchester's schools the following summer to a lower bidder.

The school district itself began to tackle the difficult and expensive task of bringing the middle school's 80-year-old kitchen into compliance with the law. Voters twice had turned down bond issues to upgrade school buildings. But last summer, the Eastchester Union School District spent $102,000 to revamp the school's kitchen. It installed new stainless-steel tables, stoves and refrigerators. It added the required three-bay sink. It hired a new food service director.

The result: Last month, the new kitchen passed inspection without a single violation.

What happened in Eastchester is a textbook example of what members of Congress hoped for when they began requiring two inspections a year for school cafeterias: Problems were identified and resolved before children developed food-borne illnesses.

"I hope more and more when (inspectors) identify a problem, the schools step in and fix it," says Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who pushed for the inspection rule in 2004. "This is about making sure sanitary conditions are good and kids get the food they need to be healthy."

Here in Westchester County, just north of New York City, records obtained by The (Westchester) Journal News show there were dozens of schools — mainly elementary — that were inspected just once in 2008.

The records from 2006 through 2008 also show that 16% of cafeteria inspections yielded unacceptable ratings, indicating a failure to meet Health Department standards in at least one area. Since 2007, unacceptable conditions led to fines for two more districts — Ossining and Pelham – and forced others to retrain kitchen staff, update equipment or hire consultants.

In the Katonah-Lewisboro district, which had nine unacceptable ratings last year, principals were trained to monitor the cafeterias and take temperatures of food to ensure compliance with the code. The effort paid off: The district has received only one unacceptable rating this year.

Inspectors found, however, that other districts keep making the same food-safety mistakes. Tuna salad at 60 degrees Fahrenheit (rather than the maximum 45 degrees) and severely dented cans are among the major violations cited this year.

Affluent schools are as likely as their poorer neighbors to get unacceptable ratings. Pelham, Rye and Scarsdale, all prosperous districts, were cited last year for dented cans in their kitchens, putting kids at risk, albeit slight, of botulism. The Yonkers district, the largest and most racially diverse in the county, did not receive a single unacceptable rating for its 39 schools.

Another district that stands out, Lakeland, hasn't had an unacceptable cafeteria rating in four years. Unlike most local districts, which have companies manage their cafeterias and buy in bulk, Lakeland operates its own lunch program.

Raymond Morningstar, the district's assistant superintendent, credits custodians and maintenance workers who ensure that the cafeterias remain clean and operable. Lakeland also plans ahead. Because of the outbreak of H1N1 flu, the district hired workers to operate salad bars instead of having students serve themselves.

"We really felt that we had no choice," Morningstar said.

26,500 school cafeterias lack required inspections

By Peter Eisler and Blake Morrison, USA TODAY

USA Today

December 16, 2009

The cafeteria worker from Trinity High School in Dickinson, N.D., had spent part of the weekend vomiting and racked with diarrhea. But on Monday, May 2, 2005, she apparently felt well enough to report to work, chopping lettuce that would be served for lunch.

The next day, students began to feel sick, and by that Wednesday, 52 students and eight faculty members had fallen ill with the same symptoms the sick worker had suffered.

When state health officials investigated, they blamed norovirus, which causes symptoms consistent with stomach flu. The lettuce, they determined, apparently was contaminated by the worker, who hadn't worn gloves as she cut it. She likely remained contagious for as many as 48 hours after her symptoms stopped, unwittingly spreading norovirus throughout the school, the investigators said.

No food-borne illness has sickened more schoolkids in the past decade than norovirus, and none is linked as consistently to improper food handling in cafeterias, a USA TODAY investigation found.

Data kept by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that norovirus caused at least one-third of the 23,000 food-borne illness cases reported in schools from 1998 through 2007. The toll: about 7,500 sick children, USA TODAY found. Those figures represent just a fraction of all cases. Investigators suspected but couldn't confirm norovirus in nearly 2,000 additional illnesses in schools during that period, and the CDC says many more cases go unreported.

Although such outbreaks often begin in the cafeteria, more than 8,500 schools failed to have their kitchens inspected at all last year, and another 18,000 fell short of a requirement in the Child Nutrition Act that calls for cafeteria inspections at least twice a year, USA TODAY found. The mandate is part of the National School Lunch Program, which provides food for 31 million schoolchildren across the nation. Almost every school in the United States receives food as part of the program.

The purpose of the inspection requirement is to ensure that the facilities and workers comply with safety and sanitary requirements — from checking food temperatures to wearing gloves.

But the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the school lunch program, acknowledges that the rule is almost impossible to enforce. It is supposed to be a requirement to receive food as part of the lunch program, but the law does not say what will happen to schools that do not get inspected.

Federal data show that more than half the schools in eight states — including California and New York— failed to meet the requirement for two inspections during the 2007-08 school year. In Maine, the state where the fewest schools conformed to the law, fewer than 1% of schools met the requirement that year.

USDA officials, however, do not know which schools have had their kitchens inspected and which ones have not. That's because the USDA requires only that the states provide the number of schools that have been inspected, not the schools' names.

Prevention is key

At Trinity High School in Dickinson, head cook Diane Jilek was off on May 2, 2005. That's why the worker who spread norovirus felt she needed to come in, Jilek says. Since then, she says, the worker has been "very conscientious" about wearing gloves.

She wasn't inexperienced — Jilek says the worker has made food at the school for more than two decades. Even the most experienced workers make mistakes, she says. "We needed to do things to prevent it from happening again," she says. "One of the key things is, if you're ill, call someone. The second thing is, we wear plastic gloves all the time."

In other norovirus cases — including two that occurred during the same week 450 miles apart — investigators could not determine exactly what happened.

During the week of April 9, 2007, 91 people became ill at Central Junior High School in East Peoria, Ill. Officials with the county health department concluded that norovirus in cafeteria food was the likely culprit.

That week at Augusta Middle School in Augusta, Kan., 136 students — about one-third of the school — got sick, also from norovirus in food served at lunch.

"The predominant source of norovirus infections are food handlers," says Michael Doyle, director of the University of Georgia's Center for Food Safety. "If it's a norovirus infection," he says, kitchen workers "are where I'd look first."

Cafeteria inspections are key, Doyle says. The reviews are the school equivalent of restaurant inspections. They are meant to ensure that meat is cooked properly, that cold food is cold enough and hot food is hot enough, that bacteria from raw meat doesn't contaminate countertops.

Such precautions by cafeteria workers are critical to keeping children safe, whether from norovirus or other dangerous pathogens such as salmonella and E. coli O157:H7. When those steps aren't taken, the consequences can be serious.

'Kids were at risk'

At Polk County High School in North Carolina, for instance, 24 students were sickened in September 2006 in a salmonella outbreak traced to sweet tea. Inspectors subsequently directed the school to be more thorough in cleaning the urns used for tea. At least one student was treated at an emergency room.

In another case, 28 students at New Brighton Area Elementary School in Beaver County, Pa., were sickened in a food-borne illness outbreak on Feb. 15, 2005. Officials believe the outbreak might have been caused by accidentally undercooked chicken.

Schools, parents and the health inspectors recognize the risks. They know that schoolchildren, whose immune systems are still developing, are uniquely vulnerable to food-borne illnesses. That's also why Congress added the inspection mandate to the Child Nutrition Act in 2004. It took effect in 2005.

"We had some stunning evidence of terrible sanitary conditions in school cafeterias across America, and that's why I put this provision in to require two inspections a year," says Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. "Kids were at risk."

Five years after the requirement was added to the law, some school districts have had no trouble meeting it. In Indianapolis, public schools food services director Velda Hamman says that Marion County health officials "have been our partners for a long time. They're often in our schools, inspecting and saying 'do this' and 'don't do that.' "

At other schools, that's not the case, USA TODAY found. In the 2007-08 school year, about 26,500 schools — about 28% — failed to get the required two inspections. Still, that was an improvement over previous years. In 2006-07, for instance, 32% failed to meet the requirement.

Despite the improvement, USDA officials say more must be done to keep children safe.

"We are concerned that many schools are still not meeting this requirement," spokesman Caleb Weaver says. This summer, he says, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told officials to "aggressively push state and local health agencies to conduct the two required annual inspections, so that schools are in compliance."

Durbin isn't sure how to spur action, but because so many students rely on the meals, he says, booting schools from the lunch program is not an option. "Fines or lawsuits or penalties ... may be the only way to move some of these districts," he says.

'An unfunded mandate'

LaNae Potter doesn't need coaxing. The food services director for the Garvey School District in Rosemead, Calif., Potter says she has been trying to get Los Angeles County to inspect the district's 12 kitchens for years.

"I write a letter every summer and tell them the addresses of all my schools," Potter says of county health officials. "And they would just never follow through. You don't get a response."

That's why Potter hired a private company to inspect district kitchens, help train her staff and provide cleaning solutions to keep the kitchens sanitary. The cost is about $2,000 per school for nine months — worthwhile, Potter says, considering the dangers children could face. "We're feeding one of the most at-risk populations," she says.

Recently, Potter says, Los Angeles County offered to inspect her kitchens. The cost: $138 per inspection per school. The offer, however, came too late for her to get school board approval. She expects approval next year.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has agreements with 10 local districts and will begin inspections next July, says Angelo Bellomo, director of the department's environmental health division.

For now, area schools must improvise. Managers at each cafeteria in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation's second-largest, essentially inspect themselves. They use a health department checklist to review their operations, and supervisors from the school district visit periodically, says David Binkle, deputy director of food services for the district. Each day, a meal from one of the district's 711 schools is sent to a lab to be tested for contamination, he says.

Those efforts don't come close to meeting inspection requirements but Binkle is unapologetic. The federal rule "is an unfunded mandate," he says. "How are we supposed to do it?"

In Maine, inspectors visit each school cafeteria just once a year and make additional visits only if the first inspection reveals problems, says John Martins, spokesman for the state Department of Health and Human Services. During the 2007-08 school year, for example, 95% of state schools were inspected at least once.

"Our goal," Martins says, "is to do the best we can with the resources we have."

When inspections are done, they sometimes reveal serious problems. USA TODAY reviewed dozens of inspection reports from schools across the country.

Among the problems:

•In Arlington, Va., the person in charge of the Barcroft Elementary School cafeteria during an October inspection "did not demonstrate ... knowledge of the required temperatures and times for the safe refrigerated storage" of food.

•In Philadelphia, an inspector found a live mouse under a table where food is prepared during a June visit to Bartram High School. A month earlier, A.B. Day School was cited for having no hot water in the kitchen sinks used for washing hands.

•In Phoenix, inspectors found old meatloaf and Spanish rice — described in their November 2008 report as "potentially hazardous foods" — in a cooler at Alhambra High School. The inspector watched as workers threw away the food.

"That's why these inspections are so important," says Sarah Klein, staff attorney for the food safety program at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.

Cafeterias and their staffs, Klein says, "are often the only thing standing between a student and a serious food-borne illness."

That's because school food comes from an array of sources — including the government. Often, schools can't say whether the food was handled properly before it got to them.

One problem that inspections cannot prevent: food workers reporting to work sick.

Cafeteria workers tend to earn low wages. Many work part time and may not get sick leave. That makes it a hardship to stay home when they're ill, Klein says. She worries that such problems might worsen as more schools try to save money by hiring food service companies to manage cafeterias. Those companies might not provide the benefits school districts offer, she says.

Inspectors can stress to workers the need to call in sick. Typically, they focus on more tangible problems. Some districts react quickly when their failings are identified; others struggle.

Inspections in the New Rochelle School District in New York last year, for example, revealed problems at several schools — safety issues that should have been "shocking and eye-opening" to parents, says Robert Cox, who has two children attending school in the district At some schools, inspectors found severely dented food cans, a potential botulism risk.

Cox, managing editor of a blog devoted to town news, says the failures worry him. "It's not like we're demanding four-star meals," he says. "Let's just not have botulism."

Such problems aren't tolerated at schools in Kankakee, Ill., says Cathy Breeck, the district's food services director. Just Monday, she rejected dented cans of pineapple sent to a school. Says Breeck: "We want to make sure we're doing everything right."

State by state: Many schools not inspected enough

Since 2005, the National School Lunch Program has required schools to have their cafeteria kitchens inspected at least twice a year by a state or local health agency.

Nearly 30% of schools reporting on their inspections in 2006-07 and 2007-08 did not comply, often because inspectors were unavailable. Among schools that reported, the percentage with fewer than two annual inspections in those two school years:

Reassurance Offered on 'Race to Top' Availability

By Michele McNeil

Education Week

December 15, 2009

Linthicum, Md. - As states consider whether to apply for the first or second round of Race to the Top Fund grants under the economic-stimulus program, the U.S. Department of Education is emphasizing that they shouldn’t worry about being first in line to win a piece of the $4 billion being awarded.

“We promise there will be plenty of money left in phase two,” Joanne Weiss, the department’s Race to the Top director, told states gathered in the Baltimore area for a recent department-sponsored technical seminar on the competitive-grant program.

With the Jan. 19 deadline for the first round of applications just a month away, the Dec. 10 event was part of a stepped-up effort by the department to make sure states understand what is being asked of them—from the broad education improvement ideas they should be advancing to the narrow, technical details of how to fill in the blanks on the application.

So far, 36 states have filed letters with the department indicating they plan to apply in Round 1. To figure out how many peer reviewers will be needed, the department asked states to submit a letter if they intend to apply by the Jan. 19 deadline.

However, that list is just an indication of which states are making an early play for the money made available by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act; it doesn’t mean those states will apply, nor does it preclude states that aren’t on the list from applying.

States that let the Jan. 19 deadline pass without applying—or lose out in the first round—can apply again in the second round, for which applications are due June 1. Winners from Round 1 will be announced in April. Also at that time, losing states will get feedback from the judges on how to make their applications stronger for the second round.

Based on the dozens of questions at the recent seminar, it’s clear that there are many state-specific circumstances for which state teams want answers. (Another technical-assistance seminar was held in early December in Denver.)

A South Dakota official asked if American Indian-chartered schools count as charter schools even though the state doesn’t have a law authorizing such schools.

Hawaii officials had a few questions about how the application applies to them since they have a single, state-run school district.

In the area of common standards, New Hampshire officials wanted to know if that state’s participation in the New England Common Assessments Program, or NECAP, counts as much in earning points toward a grant as the larger Common Core State Standards Initiative. The NECAP consortium involves four states; the Common Core initiative includes 48 states. The Race to the Top competition doesn’t explicitly say that the Common Core effort is the only consortium available, but it is the largest ongoing effort.

States also wanted clarification on seemingly small, yet important, details in the Race to the Top guidelines. For example, the Race to the Top regulations say student growth should be a “significant” factor in teacher and principal evaluation for the maximum possible points (the application is scored on a 500-point scale). A representative from Arkansas asked what is meant by “significant.”

“We mean significant factor. We don’t like magic numbers here,” said Josh Bendor, who works on the department’s Race to the Top team.

There were also a number of questions from states about buy-in from teachers’ unions, with many state representatives making clear that they have concerns about how willing unions will be to support many of their education reform initiatives.

States are also concerned about how difficult it might be to get local school districts on board. Districts must sign up with a state to be entitled to their share of the Race to the Top money; some officials fear that requirement may result in a misguided incentive to see that fewer districts sign up, so the money won’t be spread so thin. (Half of each winning state’s Race to the Top grant will go to school districts based on the Title I formula for aid to disadvantaged students; the other half will be spent entirely at the state’s discretion.)

It’s also clear that some states don’t like the dollar-amount ranges that the Education Department has given as a guide for the Race to the Top competition.

Tennessee Commissioner of Education Timothy Webb said in an interview that his state is going to ignore those estimates, treat them merely as examples, and ask for more money. (Tennessee was in the category in which the maximum award is $150 million.)

“We’re taking that as just an example,” Mr. Webb said.

Congress OKs Budget With Increase for Education

By Alyson Klein

Education Week

December 16, 2009

Congress last week approved a fiscal year 2010 spending measure that would provide level funding for key education programs, even as lawmakers and the Obama administration weighed the prospect of a jobs package that could include new education aid for cash-strapped states and localities.

A House-Senate conference committee Dec. 8 agreed to a bill that would finance programs in the U.S. Department of Education at about $63.7 billion, a 2 percent increase over fiscal 2009, but a 0.7 percent decrease over the president’s request of $64.2 billion.

The House of Representatives voted 221-202 on Dec. 9 to pass the bill. The Senate approved the measure on Dec. 13, 57-35.

Those figures don’t include up to $100 billion in education spending in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the economic-stimulus program, which covers fiscal 2009 and 2010.

The House-Senate compromise includes $14.5 billion for Title I grants to districts to help cover the cost of educating disadvantaged students, about the same level as fiscal 2009.

That’s a shift from both the president’s fiscal 2010 education budget request and the version of the fiscal 2010 spending bill that passed the Senate Appropriations Committee in July. ("Senate Panel Rejects Bid to Further Boost TIF," July 29, 2009.)

President Barack Obama’s budget would have cut Title I grants to districts by $1.5 billion and, instead, steered $1 billion to Title I School Improvement Grants. Those grants are aimed at helping states and districts turn around schools struggling to meet the goals of the No Child Left Behind Act, the 2002 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

But lawmakers rejected that plan. Instead, the Title I grant program, which received $3 billion in fiscal 2010 through the stimulus, would be level-funded in the appropriations bill at $546 million.

“We are definitely excited and appreciative for the restoration of Title I,” said Mary E. Kusler, a lobbyist for the American Association of School Administrators in Arlington, Va.

The conference committee also rejected a Senate proposal to create a $700 million new grant program for school facilities. Instead, lawmakers may use a pending bill that would reshape the federal student-lending system as an opportunity to provide some funding for school facilities. ("Proposed College-Loan Savings Would Aid Early Ed.," Aug. 12, 2009.) Various Programs Among other highlights, the spending measure would:

• Finance Striving Readers, a secondary school literacy program, at $250 million. Instead of just serving adolescents, the program would be comprehensive, covering prekindergarten through 12th grade.

• Allot $11.5 billion for state grants to help states educate students in special education, the same level as in fiscal 2009. The stimulus included $11.3 billion over two years for that program.

• Provide $400 million for the Teacher Incentive Fund, which doles out grants for performance-pay programs. That’s less than the $487 million the administration wanted, but a huge boost over the $97 million the program got last year.

• Put $256 million into charter schools—less than the president’s request of $268 million, but still a $40 million increase over last year—and $50 million for a new initiative to help raise high school graduation rates.

• Direct $10 million to a new Promise Neighborhood initiative to help programs modeled on the Harlem Children’s Zone, which pairs academics with extensive supports, such as health services, prekindergarten, after-school programs, and college counseling.

Finally, the measure would include a technical change sought by the Education Department to widen eligibility for the $650 million Investing in Innovation Fund created under the stimulus program.

Originally, the grants were limited by the economic-stimulus law to those districts that make adequate yearly progress under NCLB for the previous two consecutive years.

Under the change, districts that have demonstrated success in raising student achievement could win a grant.

New Aid Package?

Meanwhile, President Obama’s Dec. 9 speech suggesting that new legislation could provide fresh funding for the nation’s infrastructure has some education advocates hoping that the package could include funding for school facilities.

But it isn’t clear just yet how much, if any, aid in a potential jobs package would be steered toward K-12 education or to avert teacher layoffs.

“States are required to balance their budgets, and may have to lay off public-sector employees,” including teachers, in order to do that without more help from the federal government, said Chad Stone, the chief economist with the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a think tank in Washington.

For now, education organizations are flagging what they want to see in the potential jobs package. For instance, the 3.2 million-member National Education Association sent a Dec. 3 letter to members of the House of Representatives asking that they consider including an education jobs fund in the new legislation.

The union is also seeking money for school facilities or an extension of school construction tax credits, additional Title I grants for districts, and special education money.

Put power over California's schools in hands of parents

They should be able to trigger actual reforms at failing schools, a concept that would help the state compete for federal 'Race to the Top' dollars.

By Ben Austin

LA Times Op-Ed

December 16, 2009

Let me tell you about my recent trip to Sacramento. It is a story about why we need a revolution.

Earlier this month, Senate leaders introduced a "parent trigger" into California's "Race to the Top" education reform legislation.

Under the policy, parents at a systemically failing school could circulate a petition calling for change. If 51% of the parents signed it, the school would be converted to a charter school or reconstituted by the school district, with a new staff and new ways of operating. The concept recognized a truth that school officials often discount: Parents are in the best position to make decisions about what's right for their kids.

Last week, the parent trigger legislation moved to the Assembly Education Committee, chaired by Assemblywoman Julia Brownley (D-Santa Monica). Thousands of parents sent letters, made calls, staged protests and showed up to testify before her committee about the importance of parents taking back power over our schools.

We told the committee about how 50% of kids in L.A. public schools aren't graduating and 90% aren't going to college. We talked about innovative models -- at both charter and traditional public schools -- that apply the same amount of money to the same kind of kids and send them to college instead of prison. We explained that we can't wait any longer for half-measures and pilot programs because our kids need great schools now.

Brownley seemed to agree with parents that they needed real power over the education of their own children, and it felt as if we finally had the momentum to enact meaningful change.

But then, on Thursday, Brownley announced her own version of the parent trigger. The bill she sent to the Assembly floor had been weakened almost beyond recognition from the bill passed by the Senate. Under her bill, more than half the parents at a failing school signing a petition would trigger nothing more than a meaningless and patronizing hearing. She announced the concept with great fanfare, saying she had heard the call of the parents.

But she didn't hear the same parents I heard. If she had, she couldn't advocate a weak reform that contains no specific requirement to fix failing schools. Parents demanded transformation. All they got was the promise of more talk.

I can't imagine how such toothless legislation is supposed to attract competitive federal Race to the Top dollars to California. I've been advocating school reform for years, and I can tell you it doesn't come just by giving parents a hearing.

Brownley got it half right: She wrote a provision that required parental involvement. But she forgot the part where you actually give parents real power. Parents will not be fooled by patronizing measures and token gestures like this any longer. Her provision serves the interests of bureaucrats and special interests, and it is an insult to parents and children in California. It defends the status quo at the expense of children.

Brownley's actions make the case better than we ever could for why we need a parent trigger, and why we need a parent revolution. Too often those in power stand for the interests of grown-ups, not kids.

It's not completely us against them. There are brave reformers on the inside such as Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), Senate President Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, L.A. school board member Yolie Flores and maybe even Assembly Speaker-elect John Perez (D-Los Angeles), who gave a strong speech this week in favor of a real parent trigger.

There are emerging community leaders such as the Rev. K.W. Tulloss, Fernando Espuelas and Teach for America-Los Angeles Executive Director Paul Miller. There are progressive labor unions and teachers unions in California and across the nation standing up for change. There is Education Secretary Arne Duncan, and, of course, there is President Obama, whose presidency is demonstrating that substantive change can come to public education.

And there are parents, the most committed reformers of all, sticking their necks out to ensure better futures for their children.

Brownley's bill, which was passed by the Assembly, now goes to the Senate, where it probably will be heard by the Education Committee in the next day or two. Parents are again pushing for a trigger that would actually trigger reform, and we are hopeful we can get one back into the bill. We need to bring public education back to what it's supposed to be about: our children. And the only way that's going to happen is if parents take power.

Ben Austin is executive director of Parent Revolution, an organization that works with parents who want to take back and transform failing neighborhood schools.

Sexting hasn't reached most young teens, poll finds

30% of 17-year-olds report getting nude photos on their cells

By Donna St. George

Washington Post

December 16, 2009

About one in seven American teens with cellphones say they have received nude or nearly nude photos by text message, according to a survey on the phenomenon known as "sexting."

Helping to define the little-understood trend in teen life, the poll found that 15 percent of adolescents ages 12 to 17 have received sexually suggestive photos or videos on their personal cellphones. Just 4 percent acknowledged sending a naked image.

Older teens were more likely to report sexting, with 30 percent of 17-year-olds saying they had received such pictures, compared with 4 percent of 12-year-olds, according to the report by Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project.

The provocative photos are usually sent as part of a romantic relationship -- or one that is wished-for, the study found. Along with being polled, teens were interviewed in focus groups, with their most sensitive answers given anonymously in writing.

"Most people are too shy to have sex," one young high-schooler wrote. "Sexting is not as bad."

Another noted how a couple's breakup led to a girl's naked image being forwarded to "like everyone at school," which he said "ruined high school" for the girl.

Said a high school girl: "If a guy wants to hook up with you, he'll send you pictures of his private parts or a naked picture. . . . It happens about 10 times a month."

Overall, the portrait of sexting that emerges might remind some parents of other risky adolescent behaviors: Even if only a minority of teens are involved, a lot can be at stake for those who are.

"It's a part of teens' lives. It's something they deal with, they grapple with, they talk about," said Amanda Lenhart, senior research specialist at Pew. "Even though the numbers are quite low, I think it is an important issue to be talking about."

School and safety officials warn that parents should be vigilant monitors of their teens' use of technology, and they note an array of unintended consequences, including legal action in some cases.

Locally, officials say sexting has surfaced as a phenomenon in middle and high schools during the past two years. An overwhelming majority of teens own cellphones.

"The technology is there, and unless the technology is going away, the behavior is not going away," said Sgt. Bill Fulton of the Fairfax County Police Department. Fairfax is now giving presentations on sexting in schools. "It's here to stay," he said. "All we can do is educate."

The Pew research, based on a nationally representative telephone survey of 800 adolescents and 800 parents, did not account for instances in which teens pass cellphones around so friends can see their pictures. It also did not include e-mailed images or those posted on social networking sites.

The poll found no gap between males and females in sexting, only age differences. It makes sense that older teens report more sexting, Lenhart said, because as a group they have had cellphones longer and are more likely to be involved in a sexual relationship.

Looking at parental supervision, the poll did not find any difference in sexting that could be linked to whether or not parents checked the contents of their child's cellphone. But there was a difference when parents limited the number of text messages their teen could send.

Teens with unlimited texting plans were more likely to receive nude photos or videos.

The Pew poll focused on children younger than 18. In the past year, at least three other surveys have explored the phenomenon with slightly older age groups or through online surveys. One of the most recent, by MTV and the Associated Press, found that three in 10 young people were involved in some type of sexting.

Religion and public schools at Christmas time: Can schools include sacred music in holiday programs?

Washington Post Column

December 16, 2009

“’Twas the nightmare before Christmas late last month for Michael Stratechuk of Maplewood, N.J., when a federal appeals court upheld a local school district policy barring religious music from school events during the holiday season.”

So begins a recent blogpost by Charles C. Haynes, senior scholar at the Washington D.C.-based First Amendment Center, which is an operating program of the Freedom Forum.

Haynes is referring to a Nov. 24 decision by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that public schools are not compelled by the Constitution to include religious music in holiday programs.

Stratechuk, a father of two, had sued the South Orange-Maplewood School District, arguing that removing sacred music from holiday programs amounted to discrimination against Christianity which violates the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of religion.

Haynes notes that religious songs in school events have been ruled constitutional by numerous courts--“as long as the program is educational and not devotional or proselytizing.”

So he proposes that those schools that want to include religious music in their holiday events simply make those events educational and balanced.

Many schools have gone the other way--essentially ignoring Christmas or pretending that it is entirely secular. That, Haynes correctly says, “is just plain silly.”

Equally wrong is the misconception by some educators that they can promote Christianity at Christmas as long as they give time to other religions too. The Constitution does not allow the promotion of religion in public schools at Christmas or any other time.

Teachers and administrators planning holiday programs should ask themselves these questions, as presented by the First Amendment Center, and there is a lot more information at the center’s website.

*Do we have a distinct educational purpose in mind? If so, what is it? It should not be the purpose of public schools to celebrate or observe religious holidays.

*If we use holidays as an opportunity to teach about religion, am I balanced and fair in my approach?

*Does the planned activity have the primary effect of advancing or inhibiting religion? Does it, for example, promote one faith over another or even religion in general? The school’s approach should be academic, not devotional. It is never appropriate for public schools to proselytize.

I'm interested in what your school or your child's school does with holiday programs in this regard. Please talk about it in the comments or email me at theanswersheet@....

As schools struggle, California politics slow education reform

By Juliet Williams, The Associated Press

Associated Press

December 16, 2009

SACRAMENTO — To education reformers, a $4.3 billion school funding competition from the Obama administration seemed like just the push California needed to start making long overdue changes to restore academic luster to the state's public schools.

But the drive to dramatically turn around a faltering system that serves more than 6 million children has run into political reality in a Legislature dominated by special interests. The result could leave the state with the nation's largest public school system ill-positioned to compete for the so-called Race to the Top funds.

Lawmakers meeting in a special session on education called by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are considering competing Democratic bills. Both are intended to clear the way for California's federal application and to deal with some of the same issues, such as increasing the number of charter schools, revamping state tests and restructuring the worst-of-the-worst schools.

But how they propose to reach those goals is vastly different, and it's unclear whether the versions can be reconciled in time for the state to meet a Jan. 19 federal application deadline.

A Schwarzenegger-backed bill by state Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, and the state superintendent of public instruction gives parents more say in what happens to failing schools and makes it easier to evaluate teachers and principals based on student achievement. It also would let parents move their children out of failing districts.

After narrowly passing the state Senate in November, with several Democrats opposing it or opting to sit out the vote, that measure is now stalled in an Assembly committee. One of the most powerful and well-funded political interests in the state, the California Teachers Association, is lobbying against it.

The teachers union instead backs different legislation offered by Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, D-Santa Monica.

Reform advocates say that legislative package, which passed the Assembly on Thursday, does not go nearly far enough to fix California schools. Because of that, they say it wouldn't stand a chance in a competition against other large states such as Florida and Texas, which already have made bold school reforms.

Schwarzenegger has supported many of the changes included in the federal guidelines since taking office but has not had the political muscle to get the changes through a Legislature controlled by Democrats, who receive campaign funding from the teachers union.

He said he will veto the Assembly legislation if it reaches his desk, although that is unlikely because the Senate already has passed much tougher reform measures.

"This is a Race to the Top, not a race to mediocrity or the status quo," Schwarzenegger said.

The Republican governor has been blunt about the Assembly's effort, saying its Democratic majority simply wants to water down the tougher Senate legislation. The Assembly bill, he said, won't provide a real shot at the federal money in a state that has sustained billions of dollars in education cuts during the last three fiscal years.

"The kids and education need every single dollar," Schwarzenegger said.

California's education system was once considered a national model that bred a generation of scientists and entrepreneurs, but the state has fallen to near the bottom among states in school funding and academics, earning a D in academic achievement this year from Education Week magazine's annual national schools survey. Students perform below the national average on nearly all measures, with black, Hispanic and poor children faring worst.

Nearly 2,800 of its schools are considered to be failing by federal standards.

The dispute over whether to enter the federal competition and, if so, how strong the reforms should be is dividing Democratic allies and discouraging reformers who had hoped for historic change.

Margaret Fortune, a California State University trustee who once served as an education adviser to Schwarzenegger, said she has become disillusioned. Many lawmakers put partisan interests ahead of reasonable changes in school policy, she said.

"If they were responsible leaders, they would stand up and say, 'You know what? We're leading a broken system, so we need to turn around and fix it, because this is shameful,'" said Fortune, who now runs an independent teacher-training program and has launched several charter schools.

Representatives of the California Teachers Association and other influential education groups, including the California School Boards Association, argue that the state should approach Race to the Top cautiously. They say lawmakers should not rush headlong into major reforms for what amounts to a relatively small pot of one-time federal money.

California, which will spend $50 billion on K-12 education this fiscal year, stands to receive between $300 million and $700 million if its application is successful.

The teachers association opposes provisions in the Senate bill that would allow parents to transfer students in persistently failing schools to other districts, expand the number of charter schools without imposing new restrictions on them and allow parents to lobby for closure or conversion to a charter when schools don't improve.

The union says the Senate legislation lacks legislative oversight in making the changes.

Patricia Rucker, a legislative advocate for the CTA, urged lawmakers during a hearing on both bills to "resist the temptation to simply race for dollars for the prestige of winning an award and a competition and instead (ask) what is the overall goal of education reform in California?"

Many reform advocates say slow progress isn't acceptable in a state where one in five high school students drops out.

"I just don't have the patience for incremental change any more," said Assemblyman Juan Arambula, an independent from Fresno who left the Democratic caucus earlier this year. He sided with Republicans in opposing the Assembly bill and backing the more stringent Senate version.

Some Democratic lawmakers, particularly Hispanics and blacks, are feeling pressure from both sides: the teachers union, which opposes dramatic changes, and community groups that are frustrated by a persistent racial achievement gap.

Alice Huffman, president of the state NAACP and a former political director of the CTA, testified before the Assembly Education Committee that reforming the state's faltering schools is an urgent civil rights issue. She said she has nieces and nephews who have graduated from California schools yet cannot read and write.

"I'm just going to say that if we don't get this done, we have really blown it one more time," she said.

The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office is urging lawmakers to take the Obama administration's education reforms seriously, warning that they are likely to provide the framework for new federal education guidelines, putting at stake billions of dollars in federal money.

Another tainted transportation contract?

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/school_ambulance_pact_due_tainted_kf1oCTi12Qs1A6TIsOdO8J

$25M School-ambulance pact due tainted firm

New York Post

By Yoav Gonen

An ambulance transportation company for disabled students that’s known to have used uncertified drivers – many with criminal convictions ranging all the way up to manslaughter –is poised to receive a $25 million schools contract.

The city’s education-policy panel will vote tomorrow night on whether TransCare New York, which schools investigators recommended in 2004 be barred from bidding on any future Department of Education contracts, should be given the lucrative five-year deal.

The probe found that of the firm’s 360 drivers and paramedics who worked under a similar DOE contract between Jan. 1 and June 18, 2004, only 13 were certified.

And 25 of the 360 had been convicted on charges that included manslaughter, attempted murder, multiple cases of weapon and drug possession and drunken driving.

Department of Education officials said the firm had replaced three top executives, improved its hiring criteria and installed a rigorous vetting process for hires.

Officials at the firm did not return a call seeking comment.