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Monday, November 09, 2009
Strings attached to stimulus dollars for schools
By LIBBY QUAID
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The Obama administration is ready to hand out more stimulus dollars for schools, but this time, strings are attached.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said another $11.5 billion is available to states, which have already received more than $67 billion.

Duncan said the administration wanted to distribute most of the money quickly to bolster state budgets that have been ravaged by the recession.

Now Duncan is making it tougher to get the rest of the dollars because the administration wants states to adopt President Barack Obama's vision of reform.

States will have to fill out a far more detailed application that demands information on Obama's broad goals _ tougher academic standards, better ways to recruit and keep effective teachers, a method of tracking student performance and a plan of action to turn around failing schools.

For example, states will be required to identify their lowest-achieving schools by name and tell the department how, or whether, officials have tried to turn the schools around.

States will also be pressed on how many core classes in poorer and wealthier schools are taught by "highly qualified" teachers. This is an effort to make states do a better job of educating poor and minority kids, who are far less likely to have effective teachers.

But a children's advocacy group, the Education Trust, said the administration fell short of its goal. Nearly every teacher in the U.S. is deemed "highly qualified," because while federal law says teachers in core subjects must be "highly qualified," states were allowed to come up with their own definitions.

"Poor kids and kids of color always get the short end of the stick," said Amy Wilkins, lobbyist for the group, said. "The department managed to use the one metric that obscures the difference."

A spokeswoman for the department, Sandra Abrevaya, said states are also being pressed on the steps they are taking to make sure disadvantaged kids get effective teachers.

Similar strings are attached to a separate $5 million competitive grant program in the stimulus, nicknamed the "Race to the Top" fund, that Obama was promoting in Wisconsin last week.

Obama has already coaxed several states to rewrite education laws and cut deals with unions as they compete for the grants. And states can't even apply for them yet; those applications are expected later this week.

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John

For that matter, show me ONE public school in a Liberal city that is up to any standards, mine or Obama's
------
Some Urban schools in Liberal Cities in the Top 200.

Northside College Prep Chicago Ill.
Lincoln Park Chicago Il
Wootton Rockville Md.
Walnut Hills Cincinnati Ohio
George Mason Falls Church Va. Washington-Lee Arlington Va.
Lowell San Francisco Calif.
W. T. Woodson Fairfax Va.
Westlake Austin Texas
YES Prep Southeast Houston Tx
MATCH Charter Boston Mass.
KIPP Houston Houston Tx Westwood Austin Tx Yorktown Arlington Va.
Liberal Arts and Science Academy Austin Texas
Benjamin Franklin New Orleans La.
Masterman Lab/Demonstration Phil. Pa.
Bronx Engineering and Technology Academy Bronx N.Y.
HS of American Studies at Lehman College Bronx N.Y.

Educators know this is a crock
"Poor kids and kids of color always get the short end of the stick," said Amy Wilkins

The Grad Ed dept at Harvard has an entire program dedicated to the hundreds of studies which constitute the current, massive research on the Achievement Gap.

With only minor cultural variations across the nation, this research is pointing to the same conclusion: "There are strong achievement gaps that exist prior to entry into school that have important relationships with later development"

In dollars and sense, IT'S THE PARENT!!! NOT THE BUDGET!!

Stop funding stupidity and hold the parents
accountable for school readiness. Acknowledge that parental supervision and on-going support of education is an important part of each student's continued achievement.

Money from Washington can't solve what is wrong with underperformance, the attitude toward education in the home.

"It's not my fault little Tommy is failing".

Actually, Mom and Dad, it is. Sadly, it is.
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