Budget Ideologies

Geroge Cunningham makes a lot of sense.

With few exceptions, the options proposed by the Legislature, pundits, business groups, think tanks, lobbyists and others to address the $3.5 billion annual budget deficit fall into one of two categories: (1) cut spending, resulting in service levels below taxpayers' expectations, or (2) increase revenue (taxes), resulting in funding-service levels that meet or exceed taxpayers' expectations.

Unfortunately, the options presented are more likely to be based upon the person's or entity's ideological notion of government's role in our society rather than upon sound economic and public-finance policies.

Be sure to read his lists of statistics about the budget. Arizona is a low-tax state. That is in large part why we are in our current crisis.

Student Loans to Become 'Cleaner'

President Obama and Congress are making some changes to student loans and Pell Grants.

Every year, taxpayers subsidize student loans to the tune of $9 billion. Banks service these loans, collect the debt, keep the interest, and turn a profit. When borrowers default on their loans, taxpayers foot the bill, and banks still reap the interest.

It's a great deal for banks and a terrible one for taxpayers.

John Wright Discusses Investing in Education Reform

This is from a longer segment which aired on PBS Horizon last Thursday (02.18.2010).

Watch how Mathew Ladner from the Goldwater Institute wants to talk a lot about the high expectations of increased student achievement, but does NOT want to talk about the investment of dollars it will take to reach those lofty goals.

Modern Disaster Drill

Vouchers

The so-called Institute for Justice is asking the US Supreme Court to reverse a ruling which questions the religious ties to voucher/tax credit programs in Arizona.

60,000 Unemployed Teachers

Most estimates for 2010-2011 see this number increasing significantly.

I wonder if we can do anything to change this forecast.

Gilbert Legislator Pushes to End Career Ladder

Rep Lauren Hendrix (R-Gilbert) is pushing a new bill which will end Career Ladder.

This comes on the heels of an Arizona Superior Court decision which declared the program unconstitutional citing the "fair and uniform" clause in the AZ Constitution regarding public schools.

There is Opportunity in Every Crisis

Those that hate everything public are now attacking tenure full throttle.

If New York City is forced to lay off some of the more than 30,000 new teachers it has hired in the past five years, it is "going to be catastrophic," said Joel Klein, chancellor of the city's school system. "We're going to be losing a lot of great new teachers that we hired" in recent years, the chancellor said.

Mr. Klein added that another problem with "last in, first out" was that because newer teachers earn less than veterans, more teachers will end up losing their jobs.

What Mr. Klein "is really trying to say is, 'I would like to churn the work force by keeping cheaper teachers on the payroll,' " said Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, the teachers union in New York. "If we can do our work in a constructive and collaborative way, we can avoid the layoffs. That's where we should be focusing our energy."

Why Stop With Just Ads On School Buses?

Indeed. If Scottsdale is expecting upwards of $1 million dollars from stamping ads on the sides of their school buses, why not adopt full corporate sponsorship?

Do Rural Students Count in the Budget?

Does the legislature pay attention to statistics? They and the governor are proposing major cuts to education. Career and Technical Education (CTE) finds itself on the cutting board this go 'round. That is not sitting well with the editorial board of the Willcox Range News

In St. David, of 123 high school students, 119 are enrolled in CTE. In Benson, 332 of the 341 students, or a whopping 97.4 percent are in these classes. That is overwhelming support from students and parents.

School is more than readin' writin' and 'rithmetic. For many students who won't go on to college, some kind of vocational education is key to their being able to support themselves. But for all students, education should include enrichment beyond the basics that will get them a good score on the AIMS test.

Smoke and Mirrors on Pensions

Watch closely the discussion on our public pensions. They have been targeted for years by the for-profit investment industry. They would love us to all have 401K's instead of our solid, tested-and-true defined benefits plans. Those industries are using the current crisis to push for dissolving public pensions.

In this news story, many public pensions are grouped together so they can write about a "trillion dollar gap." That's silly. The pensions are not funded together. Why report on them like it was a collective debt unless you wanted to make the situation appear more dire than it is?

Two things have caused pensions to be devalued, but I rarely see anyone addressing them.

First, many states can and do borrow money from their state pension, as if it doubled as a "rainy day" fund. In the same way Congress has repeatedly spent the Social Security surpluses, this leaves the remaining funds inadequate to cover known costs.

Second, all of the poisonous and deceptive stock market trading over the past two years found their way into pensions. Much of the bad mortgages and loans were packaged and put out on the market with unrealistic projections. The public pensions, which have an obligation to purchase bonds, futures, etc with the highest yields, unknowingly took on these risks.

Here is the data presented in the study. It is from 2008.

Peoria Forum on Ed Budget

March 4th activities in Peoria will include speakers addressing the budget issues facing the local schools on the west side.

What are you doing on March 4th?

Touching the Untouchable: Sports

Budget cuts have forced Yuma to tread on sacred ground: high school athletics. Due to high transportation costs, Yuma will no longer travel to sporting events... except for state tournaments.

Of course.

Parents Claim School Spying on Student via Laptop

I doubt anyone involved thought this might happen when the school in this well-to-do community offered laptops for students to use to study.

Move On When Ready

Arizona is looking at this.

Dozens of public high schools in eight states will introduce a program next year allowing 10th graders who pass a battery of tests to get a diploma two years early and immediately enroll in community college.

Judge Says OK for Students to Facebook Teachers

This one could have some interesting ramifications.

While a senior at Pembroke Pines Charter School, Evans created a Facebook page entitled “Ms. Sarah Phelps is the worst teacher I’ve ever had” from her home computer and invited other students to voice their dislike of her teacher. After several students’ postings defended the teacher and berated Evans for her opinion, Evans took the page down.

The principal and teacher only became aware of the posting after it had been taken down, and never even saw it. Nevertheless, Evans was suspended for three days and removed from Advanced Placement classes as a punishment for her Internet posting. Evans sued Bayer for injunctive relief, seeking to clear her record, and nominal damages. The Principal moved to dismiss the case.

The Court’s ruling recognizes that Evans’ off-campus Facebook posting of her opinion about a teacher “falls under the wide umbrella of protected speech. It was a student’s opinion about a teacher, which was published off campus, did not cause any disruption on campus, and was not lewd, vulgar, threatening, or advocating illegal or dangerous behavior.”

Bad Math

The 65% Deception is back.

The basic idea is that schools should spend 65% of every dollar inside the classroom. The downside is that the heat and cooling of the classroom is not considered inside the classroom... nor are librarians, counselors, security guards, or even instructional aides.

Bad idea.

Retired Teacher Backs Payson Override

Retired and on a fixed income, he lays out his support for supporting his local school district:

The children in this community did not cause the recession. Nor did they vote for a state Legislature, which appears to be unwilling or unable to adequately provide funding or academic oversight for public education.

Seriously?

From the Payson Roundup Editor:

It cost Arizona $143,000 per year for each juvenile held in a detention center.

If that is true, it is only 15 times what we spend on educating that same child in public school.

Rep Steve Farley Gives Insider Report on Voucher Expansion

It's a bit biased, but does offer some good information.

Meanwhile, all Arizona kids are gearing up for more cuts to our public schools. What are Republicans doing about that? Apparently their solution is to dramatically increase the private school voucher program that has been providing huge tax breaks for rich families to send their kids to private schools on the public dime.

He goes on to tell how one major School Tuition Organization (STO) is against some of the voucher expansions-- but no one will listen.