Yesterday Michigan lawmakers passed a school aid budget that slashes per pupil spending by $165, or about 2.3% from last year. That amounts to $2.6 million dollars for a school district like Warren Consolidated Schools. It is going to be devastating- that is a lot of money that school districts are going to be losing.
And yet, have school districts really been good stewards of the money they have already received from the state to teach students? Warren Consolidated Schools last year spent thousands of dollars that they are now desperate to have building a wind turbine for their magnet school in order to better indoctrinate students about green energy.
That's right ladies and gentlemen- even as a teacher it is hard to have sympathy for school districts that are facing horrible cuts to staff and programs when school districts around the state are blowing their money on projects like the Warren Consolidated Schools wind turbine.
And this turbine is not being built to provide cheaper cleaner power to the schools- at the cost of millions it will not even be able to power one single school in the district. Nope, this wasted spending is supposed to help the district with its plans to develop a curriculum on renewable energy for all grade levels starting next school year- and to make room for this curriculum, they have to cut from something- perhaps less science and math.
That's the full picture of what is going on in this nation now- the government kills all other industry in Michigan with high taxes, sends that money to school districts to build wind turbines, shoves environmental mythology down students minds, cuts teachers and programs, cries about having no money, and then tries to raise taxes even more.
Additional information may be obtained by contacting Mr. David Walsh, Administrative Consultant of Special Programs for Warren Consolidated Schools, at 586-698-4124.
Warren Schools Blows Money on Wind Turbines While Teachers and Programs Are Cut
South Africa’s Obsession With Trivia
Rejoice Ngwenya in African Liberty:
South Africans are a strange lot with a knack for trivia even when confronted with life-threatening tragedies. One would have thought they have learnt a lesson after the blistering criticism for the unforgivable xenophobic attacks on fellow African aliens last year. But now, even where the FIFA World Cup 2010 clock is ticking dangerously towards the goal line, the ‘rainbow nation’ is engrossed in the cameo tale of a disgraced sporting cheat, choosing to downplay the trinity of evil personified by crime, HIV/Aids and poverty.More here
DC Parents Task Force Invites Parents To A City-Wide Meeting
Save The Children
All wards and all schools are invited to attend a DC parent task force meeting tonight. DC Parents are coming together due to their concerns about public education.
Location:
1251 Saratogoa Ave NE
Washington, DC (Rhode Island metro & plenty of parking)
Time: 6:30-8:30 p.m.
contact information: 202-903-6197 or 202-669-7006
PTA and LSRT members will be in attendance.
A Dark Day In Public Education: DC Teachers Slam Rhee
"D.C. Council members on Friday voiced their frustrations with recent firings by schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, which she has blamed in part on school budget cuts by the council. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray denied that he and other members were responsible for the Oct. 2 layoffs of nearly 400 school employees, saying he suspects they were an intended consequence of overhiring earlier this year by the school system.
"So much of this makes absolutely no sense," Mr. Gray said during a hearing, which drew more than 150 public witnesses. "This is about getting rid of people they wanted to get rid of." Mr. Gray questioned why the school system hired more than 900 teachers earlier this year, only to cut teachers six weeks into the school year. No one from the mayor's office testified Friday, but Ms. Rhee is scheduled to appear at a hearing on Oct. 29. Friday's hearing was the second of three hearings on the subject, the first of which was held Oct. 10 and heard testimony from D.C. schools students. Schools spokeswoman Jennifer Calloway said the school system would not comment before the next hearing and referred The Washington Times to an online fact sheet about the reduction in force.
More than 260 teachers, counselors, custodians and librarians, many of whom were escorted out of schools by police, were given notice of layoff. The document blamed the layoffs on a $42.9 million budget shortfall for this fiscal year. It attributed the shortfall to $20.5 million in budget cuts by the council, a $20.5 million reorganization of the school system's administrative budget, and $3 million in leave and severance pay to school system employees.
Washington Teachers' Union President George Parker voiced concerns similar to Mr. Gray's and also noted that grievances by teachers have doubled since Ms. Rhee took over. Mr. Parker said preliminary numbers seem to indicate the school system was targeting teachers 40 and older. The numbers could not be immediately verified.
Testifying teachers agreed that many of the firings appeared to be motivated by age, but some said they also thought Ms. Rhee was targeting outspoken teachers. Willie Brewer, a teacher for 25 years and a member of the union's executive board, said he thinks he was terminated from McKinley Technology High School for both reasons. "[I have] gray hair, and I'm getting old, and I'm an advocate for the union," Mr. Brewer, 53, said. "Today you cannot raise your hand and ask questions. You're setting yourself up for termination."
Agnes Dyson, who taught special education at H.D. Woodson Senior High School, said she doesn't know why she was terminated but thinks her opposition to one of Ms. Rhee's compensation policies for teachers may have been a factor. "I was outspoken against the red tier and green tier," Miss Dyson, 40, said, referring to the plan that would allow teachers to choose a standard pay schedule or a performance-based pay system with bigger potential payoffs. "I stand for what's right for teachers."
Council member Kwame Brown, at-large Democrat, said the elimination of teachers is another example of a pattern of callous behavior on the part of the mayor. "There's no good way to get rid of people, but I can't understand why they always pick the bad way," Mr. Brown said.
Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO President Joslyn Williams said Ms. Rhee should be fired, claiming unionized school workers have lost faith in her ability to cooperate with stakeholders. "I don't think there's hope for change with this chancellor," Mr. Williams said outside the hearing. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's administration "gave her a blank check. She went out, and she wreaked havoc on our system." Mr. Gray said he has concerns about the chancellor's ability to work effectively with parents, teachers and others and does not expect to get many answers at the next hearing. "I guess I can remain hopeful, but if history is any guide, I am not very optimistic, to tell you the truth," Mr. Gray said."
Posted by The Washington Teacher, featuring Candi Peterson- blogger in residence, story courtesy of The Wash. Times, graphics courtesy of Celeste Jones
Quick Hits
Reforming health care in Nigeria-Oxford Journal
The Invisible Children campaign about war affected children.
Can India ( and or Africa) afford its villages-Atanu Dey & Reuben Abraham
From Inventors to Innovators: An investigation into individual inventors in Tanzania via ATPS
Obama's Debt Is Going to Destroy Our Nation
As of Sept. 30, 2009, the national debt was almost $12 trillion and interest on that debt was $383 billion for the year, according to the Treasury Department's Bureau of the Public Debt. The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) estimated total government revenues at about $2 trillion, of which $904 billion is from individual income taxes.
That means that 42% of the tax money that you send to Washington is simply being used to cover the interest on the debt. The other 58% of the tax money that you work so hard to send to Washington is being used to provide more and more and more government services and to issue more and more government promises that are going to lead to to more and more debt. The principle on the balance is not being paid back, and there is no intention for it to ever be paid back.
In the first year of Obama's administration, the debt grew at a record pace. The Congressional Budget Office on Oct. 7 estimated the 2009 budget deficit to be almost $1.4 trillion- that is a stunning amount of debt to add, especially when our nation did not have to deal with a hurricane or terrorist attack or war- the only disaster that hit our nation in 2009 was Barack Obama being elected President.
I know my math is probably too simplistic- someone with an economics degree needs to correct it- but if $12 trillion in debt= 383 billion in interest, that is $32 billion in interest per trillion. Obama intends to add to the national debt over the next 10 years another 9.7 trillion (his own spending plans called for another 11.1, and he's already dropped 1.4, so that equals 9.7). That will mean another $310 in interest. If the economy does not recover and tax receipts do not surge (in fact, they shrank this year), then that means that the government will pay $694 in interest alone, while only collecting $904 from taxes.
If we continue Obama's policies for another 16 years, our nation will be in debt $29 trillion dollars and owe $907 per year in interest. We will owe more in interest than we bring in in taxes. If we continue Obama's economic policies another 20 years, the interest we owe on our debt will be greater than all revenues combined. America will be destroyed.
The numbers are sobering, even if my math is wrong. Obama's policies are going to economically destroy our nation in a fire of debt and interest. Anyone who supports his policies or his Democratic allies's are destroying the hopes and future of your children and grandchildren, who will have to live in a country that is bankrupt beyond any hope of ever emerging.
Obama's policies are going to send our entire nation to a debtors prison from which we may never again emerge.
Another New DC Principal Bites The Dust !
Mr. William P. Lee who just started in summer 2009 resigned last week as the new principal of Patterson elementary school which is located at 4399 So. Capitol Terrace SW. It is reported that Mr. Lee lacked experience as a principal and worked last in a non-management capacity in Montgomery Co. , Maryland. As a new principal, Lee reportedly had strained relationships with parents in his school community and would frequently deny them entrance to the school. Teachers have reported that this school year alone Mr. Lee made multiple changes to their grade level assignments which resulted in students being confused about who their teacher actually was . Mr. Lee reportedly removed new playground equipment from the modernized school despite the chagrin of parents, teachers and the community.