A Southern California school district spent $105 million on a new state-of-the-art high school, but after three years of funding cuts doesn’t have the money to operate it, reports the Associated Press. The Alvord Unified School District in Riverside was supposed to open the new Hillcrest High School in September to relieve overcrowding at another high school. But the district can’t afford to hire staff and pay the costs to open it, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.
…Read MorePodcast Series: Innovations in Education
Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.
Virtual schools in a fight for adequate funding
Heart-wrenching decisions made by state bureaucrats that affect the pursuit of a child’s dream might sound like the makings of a Hollywood movie, but for virtual schools in Georgia and elsewhere, these are par for the course.
Two proposed virtual schools in Georgia got the OK to open this fall, but with very limited funding. Their plans are now on hold while they appeal the state’s decision, which supporters of online instruction say was based on politics and not a careful analysis of the costs necessary to operate a high-quality virtual school. What’s more, virtual school advocates say Georgia is not alone in funding virtual schools at a level that is dramatically lower than what traditional schools receive per pupil.
The two Georgia virtual schools, Kaplan Academy of Georgia and Provost Academy Georgia, were approved in June by the Georgia Charter Schools Commission (GCSC), which also decides how much funding each school should receive.…Read More
Obama: Money alone can’t solve school predicament
President Barack Obama started the school week Sept. 27 with a call for a longer school year, and he said the worst-performing teachers have “got to go” if they don’t improve quickly, reports the Associated Press. Bemoaning America’s decreasing global educational competitiveness, Obama sought in a nationally broadcast interview to reinvigorate his education agenda. At the same time, the president acknowledged that many poor schools don’t have the money they need, and he defended federal aid for them. But Obama also said that money alone won’t fix the problems in public schools, saying higher standards must be set and achieved by students and teachers alike. Asked in an interview if he supported a year-round school year, Obama said: “The idea of a longer school year, I think, makes sense.” He did not specify how long that school year should be but said U.S. students attend classes, on average, about a month less than children in most other advanced countries. The president admitted that his own daughters, Malia and Sasha, couldn’t get the same quality education at a Washington, D.C., public school that they currently get at their private school. The Obama girls attend Sidwell Friends School, an elite private school in the Washington area. “The DC public schools systems are struggling,” Obama said, though he added that the school district has “made some important strides over the last several years to move in the direction of reform.” Separately on Sept. 27, Obama announced a goal of recruiting 10,000 teachers who work in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math over the next two years. In a statement, Obama said such education is vital to allowing students to compete against their peers in today’s economy…
…Read MorePublic schools face lawsuit over fees
Public schools across the nation, many facing budget shortfalls, have been charging students fees to use textbooks or to take required tests or courses. Now, a civil liberties group is suing California over those proliferating fees, arguing that the state has failed to protect the right to a free public education, reports the New York Times. Experts said it was the first case of its kind, and could tempt parents in other states to file similar suits. In the suit, the American Civil Liberties Union names 35 school districts across California that list on their web sites the fees their schools charge for courses including art, home economics, and music, for AP tests, and for materials including gym uniforms. “We found that the charging of fees for required academic courses is rampant,” said Mark Rosenbaum, the ACLU’s legal director in Southern California. The suit names two anonymous plaintiffs, both students attending high schools in Orange County; their parents also declined to be identified. But other parents have been speaking out about the fees. Sally Smith, who has put three children through public schools in San Diego, including a daughter who is a high school senior there, said she has watched fees for uniforms and to participate in team sports rise for years. “All these fees were really taking a bite out of our budget, and our children lost the opportunity to participate in a lot of activities because we couldn’t afford them,” Smith said…
…Read MoreMicrosoft sends Bing back to school
Microsoft on Sept. 8 is launching Redu, a Bing-powered web site that aims to act as a “homeroom” for people interested in learning more about the state of American schools, CNET reports. The site, to which Microsoft plans to link from Bing.com, aspires to be an online hub for those looking to donate to schools, volunteer locally, or work in education. “This new site is a great way to galvanize interest and focus on public education,” said Pamela Passman, vice president of corporate affairs at Microsoft. Among its features is a Bing Map that shows available job openings in the education field, along with articles and links to adopt-a-school opportunities. Passman noted that the effort comes as the documentary “Waiting for Superman” is close to opening, a movie by the director of “An Inconvenient Truth” that Passman said hopefully will draw further attention to the challenges facing American schools. “People expect that to create a national conversation on public education,” she said. “This will be a huge asset for people to be part of that conversation.”
…Read MoreWhat’s more important: School buildings or the teachers who fill them?
A new public school building in Los Angeles that cost more than $500 million to build–at a time when the city has laid off more than 3,000 teachers and cut several academic programs–has raised eyebrows across the country, adding fuel to a national debate about how important one’s environment is to learning and how best to spend limited educational resources.
Next month’s opening of the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools will be auspicious for a reason other than its both storied and infamous history as the former Ambassador Hotel, where the Democratic presidential contender was assassinated in 1968. With an eye-popping price tag of $578 million, it will mark the inauguration of the nation’s most expensive public school ever.
The K-12 complex to house 4,200 students has drawn national attention as the creme de la creme of “Taj Mahal” schools, $100 million-plus campuses boasting both architectural panache and deluxe amenities.…Read More
Advance planning is the single biggest key to grant-seeking success
About eight years ago, I wrote a column that described what I considered to be the top 10 grant-writing mistakes. I recently read the list again, and it seems like the mistakes are pretty much the same, even after all these years! However, as I read over them, what I realized was that many of the mistakes probably occur when someone is rushed to put together a grant application and submit it by the deadline.
Those of you who apply for federal grants might have observed that the application window appears to be shrinking. Whereas before it was customary to receive six to eight weeks of notice before the deadline, now the Requests for Proposals typically go out about a month before the proposals are due. As a colleague of mine and I were recently discussing, with only a month’s notice, it’s almost impossible to develop a project idea, develop a budget, develop objectives, secure letters of commitment, and write a proposal narrative and budget narrative in such a short period of time.
With only four weeks, it seems like there is just enough time to put the finishing touches on a project and budget narrative that have been sketched out beforehand, and to make sure you’ve included all the information that the guidance says must be found in the application package before you send it in.…Read More
Law allows ads on school web sites, but few districts selling space
Arizona school districts can offer bus and web site space for advertising, but it appears few in the East Valley are seeing a big impact from the state’s law, reports the East Valley Tribune. Lawmakers changed Arizona’s statute in the last two years to allow districts to sell the advertising space. The Chandler Unified School District is looking into it “a little bit,” spokesman Terry Locke said. But instead of outside companies’ messages on buses to be seen as they make their daily rounds, Locke said the district has used buses to advertise the district’s own message. “If this is a prime location for advertising, why are we surrendering it?” Locke said. Instead, the district may post information about the number of “A-plus” schools it has, the number of scholarships earned, top graduate numbers, and more. The district has not broached web-based advertising yet. “It’s something we’re looking into, and we’re going to see what response other districts who are ahead of the game … what type of revenue it generates,” Locke said. One school district testing it is Gilbert Unified. In the spring, the district piloted a program to see how it would work with outside vendors on its web site. Two vendors participated: Chandler Healthcare West’s Mercy Gilbert Medical Center and an insurance broker. At this point, the district does not have plans to expand the program but is “seeking our next options,” spokeswoman Dianne Bowers said. Besides the logistics to make advertising happen on buses or web sites, there’s also the perception issue, Locke said. Some might look unfavorably on the ads or be concerned about what message may be seen by students…
…Read MoreN.J. court orders schools to use $475M of reserves
Reuters reports that New Jersey’s schools must spend $475 million of their reserves instead of getting that money from the state, an appeals court ordered on June 14, handing Republican Governor Chris Christie a victory. Christie froze $475 million in state school aid after being confronted with a $2.2 billion deficit in the current budget in February. The Perth Amboy Board of Education sued, arguing that Christie had violated the constitutional separation of powers because the legislature had directed that a school spend its surplus cash in later years…
…Read MoreEducation groups rally support for EETT
Alarmed at what they see as a potential setback in federal support for education technology, several dozen state and national education groups and high-tech companies have sent letters to House and Senate lawmakers, urging them to continue funding the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) block-grant program in fiscal 2011.
The letters expressed concerns about President Obama’s budget proposal, which would fold EETT—the largest single source of federal funding for school technology equipment, support, and professional development—into a new competitive grant program that aims to promote effective teaching and learning.
According to federal officials, this new initiative would “include a focus on integrating technology into instruction and using technology to drive improvements in teaching and learning” throughout all subject areas. (Read “Nation’s ed-tech chief reacts to budget concerns”)…Read More