Archive for the ‘Demographics’ Category

Here is the video explanation of the state’s private school state scholarship by state Rep. David Casas, R-Lilburn. Please look at this to fully understand how this Legislature-approved program — characterized as a way for poor children in persistently failing schools to afford private schools — has become a back door for middle class parents to use tax dollars to pay their private school tuition bills.

Continue reading Here is the video urging private school parents to “scam” state for tuition money »

The investigation in The New York Times about the abuses of the Georgia Private School Tax Credit program has riled up a lot of people. (See earlier blog on this.)

The AJC has also written about this law, noting that the Georgia Legislature has enshrouded this questionable program in so much secrecy that it is near impossible for taxpayers to see where the money is going.

An investigative piece last year by AJC reporters James Salzer and Nancy Badertscher raised questions about the weak public accountability imposed on the program, which was created by the Legislature in 2008. (The bill was part of the general heave-ho given to public education that year.)

Last year, the Legislature made changes this year to the law that make it a crime for state officials to release key information about the program.  In contrast, other states with similar laws have strict public accountability rules including Florida.

Because of the lax language and virtual absence of oversight, a …

Continue reading Some private schools refuse to follow lawmaker’s advice and cheat the state »

A parent raised an issue at the DeKalb school board meeting that merits more discussion here:  Rather than increase class sizes, the parent said the county should cut athletics. “There’s no point in training student athletes when they can’t read or write or get a job,” she said.

As a parent, I have to agree. But I also have two kids who chose sports — tennis and volleyball — that are largely played outside of school in tournaments and club leagues. So, I am already paying for their sports. My older two played only school-based sports, and it was a lot cheaper.

As we have discussed on this blog, Finland, the model du jour for U.S. schools, does not offer school-based sports teams, relying on community programs to provide them. (A reader from Finland wanted me to note, however, that the Finns are very health oriented and their schools offer vigorous PE classes that utilize public parks for running, public ice skating rings for skating and public ball fields for Finnish …

Continue reading Desperate in DeKalb: Should schools drop sports programs? How about band and drama? »

DeKalb is even considering eliminating pre-k to address its $70 million deficit. (AJC file)

More depressing school news today in the AJC about DeKalb’s efforts to address its $70 million deficit:

The DeKalb County School District is facing its worst budget in recent memory, so officials are weighing wholesale elimination of programs, including pre-kindergarten, magnet school transportation and Montessori schools.

“We’re putting everything on the table,” said Jesse “Jay” Cunningham, a school board member who serves on the board’s budget committee. The committee got a long list of possible cuts at a meeting Monday, along with a picture of the potential for new revenue — $29 million — if the board raises the property tax rate by two mills.

Last week, Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson revealed that the school district faces a $73 million deficit. Chief Financial Officer Michael Perrone said about $24 million of it was due to collapsing real estate values, which reduce the …

Continue reading Even magnet school transport and pre-k on chopping block as DeKalb addresses $70 million shortfall »

Many people contend that the private school scholarships approved by the Georgia General Assembly were a back-door voucher and subsidy, that the money would not go to poor students in public schools to move to private schools as promised, but to students already in the private schools.

Reports that parents were making donations to schools that were then repackaged as “scholarships” for their own kids have been made to the Georgia General Assembly, which has ignored multiple reports of abuse and, in fact, enabled even greater abuse of the program.

In the last few years, the General Assembly has adopted a strong anti-public school posture, which remains puzzling given that nine out of 10 Georgia children attend public schools. But these legislators keep getting re-elected, so voters either don’t care or, more likely, don’t know what their lawmakers are doing.

A lengthy new New York Times investigation into these private school scholarships found that it’s no secret that the …

Continue reading Georgia’s private school scholarships: “Neovouchers” »

Too little time or too much?

A judge today sentenced former Rutgers University student Dharun Ravi to 30 days in jail and 300 hours of community service for using a video camera to spy on his gay roommate, Tyler Clementi, during a romantic encounter in the dorm. Clementi later jumped from a bridge to his death.

The sentence didn’t satisfy either side. Ravi’s attorneys argued that he shouldn’t spend any time in jail, while prosecutors pushed for a much longer sentence for the charges, including invasion of privacy, witness tampering, tampering of evidence and a hate crime based on bias intimidation.

Telling the crowded courtroom that Ravi had no prior record, Judge Glenn Berman said, “I do not believe he hated Tyler Clementi … but I do believe he acted out of colossal insensitivity.”

This tragic case mobilized people all over the country to address the frequent bullying of gay teens.

According to the LA Times:

Judge Glenn Berman addressed Ravi before announcing his …

Continue reading Roommate in Rutgers spying/suicide case gets 30 days in jail. Is that fair? »

Given that there are far better and more effective ways to discipline students, why would schools risk lawsuits and criminal charges by striking children?

I still don’t understand how we teach kids not to hit people by hitting them.

Paddlings are often recalled on this blog with wistfulness as if they were a vanishing Southern staple — in the tradition of pickup trucks and pickled okra. It’s time to get rid of paddling in schools. (I would also like to get rid of pickled okra but my husband loves it.)

Schools should not physically discipline children. Suspend them. Call the parents. Send them home. But don’t hit them. It’s wrong. It invites complaints and lawsuits. And it teaches kids to use force to make their points.

Here’s yet another story on yet another spanking incident, this time in a private school where parents apparently have to approve the physical disciplining of their kids:

A family is complaining that their 11-year-old son was paddled excessively as punishment …

Continue reading Can’t we get paddling out of all schools once and for all? »

I have written a lot about the resurgence of segregated schools in the South, not by court order, but by housing choices.

Despite the hopes of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, court-ordered school desegregation never led to full community integration.

“Our nation, I fear, will be ill served by the court’s refusal to remedy separate and unequal education, for unless our children begin to learn together, there is little hope that our people will ever learn to live together, ” wrote Marshall in his dissent of the 1974 Supreme Court decision Milliken v. Bradley.

That decision effectively blocked drawing from heavily white suburbs to integrate city districts with high minority populations. When the Harvard Civil Rights Project looked at race and education 10 years ago, it concluded that metro Atlanta’s suburban residential segregation was the cause of its school resegregation.

School resegregation is occurring at the same time that the United States is …

Continue reading A nation grows more diverse as many of its schools grow less »

The standard college rejection letter announces, “While you are a qualified applicant, we regret to inform you that we are unable to offer you admission.”

However, the rejected student often reads a subtext into the letter: “You are not good enough. You are not getting into this amazing college that would have changed your life.”

Allison Singh, 37, understands that reaction. That is how she felt when Princeton rejected her 20 years ago. She nursed her wounds until she realized that she ultimately benefited from the loss.

So, when a high school friend asked her to help her boss’ daughter deal with a rejection by her dream college, Singh composed a long email that began, “I was crushed when I wasn’t accepted to my first-choice college. I felt like a failure and was angry that all of my hard work hadn’t been enough for admission.”

But Singh ended the email with, “But slowly, I gave my school and my classmates a chance, and gave myself a break…I came out of …

Continue reading Dealing with college rejection: Students can get over not getting in »

A judge has granted an injunction allowing Jake Zimmerman, one of the East Paulding students arrested for a senior prank that escalated to costly vandalism, to attend his graduation ceremony. The judge overruled the school board, which voted last month to bar the student from attending.

Class president, Zimmerman admitted painting a skull and crossbones on the road outside the school, saying it was an annual tradition for seniors. But he said he left the scene before fellow pranksters moved to the school and painted vehicles and buildings, causing $7,500 in damage.

The school system suspended him for the duration of his high school career, banishing him to an alternative school. Unlike most of the teens, he appealed the decision, but the school board denied his appeal last month. Then, a school board member made a motion to heap on more punishment: prohibiting Zimmerman from attending his graduation ceremony. The teen said Wednesday that the board voted 6-1 in favor of …

Continue reading Judge shows more mercy toward accused East Paulding High vandal than school board »