Recently in Education Category

The California Majority Report's Robin Swanson posts a tally of budget cuts to the state's public education system: an astounding $17.4 billion.

We were 47th in the nation in per pupil spending before.

Mark C. Chu-Carroll explains why a widely-circulated chart purporting to show how much value financial firms have lost over the past year is just flat-out misleading.

So what's wrong with it?

Look at the Citigroup circle. In 2007, the total market cap of Citigroup was around $255 billion. Today, it's down to about $19 billion. That's a pretty damned dramatic loss, right? Citigroup is worth less that one tenth of what it was worth just two years ago.

But if you look at that chart, the circles show it as as being worth less that one one hundredth.

See, the idiot who drew the chart apparently doesn't understand the idea that the area of a circle is quadratic. He drew the circles so that the diameter of the circles is proportional to the value - not the area. So if you take a really narrow slice down the center of the circle - so that you wind up with a bar chart - that's the real relationship. But no one who looks at this chart is going to interpret it that way. Because in a chart like this, it's obvious that you're supposed to compare the areas. If they wanted to use a bar chart, they would have used a bar chart, right?

Compare that figure to this bar chart - which correctly represents the values by bars. Pretty dramatic difference, huh? Citigroup still looks piss poor - but they don't look anything like what they did in the original figure.

More political leaders should be inspiring young Americans -- and all Americans -- to seek a cause greater than themselves. Like James Fallows, I was impressed with Sen. Barack Obama's speech yesterday at Wesleyan University.

Each of you will have the chance to make your own discovery in the years to come. And I say “chance” because you won’t have to take it. There’s no community service requirement in the real world; no one forcing you to care. You can take your diploma, walk off this stage, and chase only after the big house and the nice suits and all the other things that our money culture says you should buy. You can choose to narrow your concerns and live your life in a way that tries to keep your story separate from America’s.

But I hope you don’t. Not because you have an obligation to those who are less fortunate, though you do have that obligation. Not because you have a debt to all those who helped you get here, though you do have that debt.

It’s because you have an obligation to yourself. Because our individual salvation depends on collective salvation. Because thinking only about yourself, fulfilling your immediate wants and needs, betrays a poverty of ambition. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential and discover the role you’ll play in writing the next great chapter in America’s story

The Education Sector's Kevin Carey debunks some myths about how immigration is affecting our schools:

But discussions about the education of immigrants are too often boiled down to simplistic narratives alleging that schools are being overwhelmed by a wave of primarily Mexican and often-undocumented immigrants who are difficult to teach because they can't speak English. A 2005 Urban Institute study finds that those ideas are at best over-simplified and at worse incorrect.

• First, most foreign-born students aren't Mexican.
• Second, the large majority of school-age children of immigrants aren't undocumented.
• Third, most children of immigrants are proficient in English.
• Fourth, most Limited English Proficient (LEP) students aren't foreign-born.

Ah, I sure love to see these supposedly small government favoring conservatives in action. From Think Progress:

Conservatives in the Ohio State Senate are considering a bill that would prohibit public and private college professors from introducing �controversial matter� into the classroom and shift oversight of college course content to state governments and courts.

The kicker to this story is that the legislation is based on the advocacy of extreme right-wing activist David Horowitz. As Think Progress notes:

Horowitz, who is the driving force behind the movement for �academic freedom� in Ohio and other states, has a distinguished history of intellectual defamation, historical inaccuracy and political bullying.

Atrios links to a story highlighting another Bush Administration abuse of taxpayer money:

Seeking to build support among black families for its education reform law, the Bush administration paid a prominent black pundit $240,000 to promote the law on his nationally syndicated television show and to urge other black journalists to do the same. The campaign, part of an effort to promote No Child Left Behind (NCLB), required commentator Armstrong Williams "to regularly comment on NCLB during the course of his broadcasts," and to interview Education Secretary Rod Paige for TV and radio spots that aired during the show in 2004.

Williams said Thursday he understands that critics could find the arrangement unethical, but "I wanted to do it because it's something I believe in."

The top Democrat on the House Education Committee, Rep. George Miller of California, called the contract "a very questionable use of taxpayers' money" that is "probably illegal." He said he will ask his Republican counterpart to join him in requesting an investigation.

What this says about Armstrong Williams (and it is not good) is not nearly as important as noting how shabbily the Bush Administration treats your taxpayer dollars.

This is clearly a political activity. No taxpayer money should go for it. President George W. Bush has a proven track record as a fundraiser. For him, $240,000 is just a few phone calls away.

We must not tolerate this abuse of power. I wish Rep. George Miller luck in getting to the bottom of it.

The libraries in Salinas, California, are soon going to close because of a lack of funds. This will make Salinas, a city of 150,000 in Monterey County, the largest in the nation without a public library.

That's not exactly a distinction one would expect for the former home of novelist and Nobel laureate John Steinbeck.

City Manager Dave Mora said Salinas was not equipped to weather the sales tax revenue decline that came with an economic downturn. With a large share of local property tax already funneled to the state, lawmakers decided to hold back a pool of vehicle licensing fees promised to local governments to balance their budget, which is costing Salinas $2.7 million.

Let's be clear on this point. Actually, that lawmaker who decided would be Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. He is the one who decided to cut the vehicle license fee as his first official act following his recall-election win: instantly making the state's budget problem $4 billion worse.

It must be the damn liberal bias that allows a newspaper not to make this point clear.

Anyway, closing libraries is but one of the many consequences of that decision -- and of the Republican Party's refusal to reconsider the more than $9 billion in tax cuts passed in California during the dot-com boom.

But, as we know all too well, only spending shall be reconsidered. Never must we look the tax cuts passed based on the rosy economic projections created during the boom times.

This story should make you angry: Atrios reports that the teacher who last year disciplined a child for explaining to a classmate that his mother is gay...is now suing the parent for defamation.

Thank goodness my children will never go near this school district.

Dave Johnson over at Seeing the Forest is all over the right-wing machine's attempt to spread a lie: that a school has banned the Declaration of Independence.

Check out Johnson's post so you can refute this fantasy if a friend or family member tries to run it past you this holiday season.

Thomas Oliphant talks with two young New Hampshire voters and wonders why our government insists upon putting up so many obstacles on their road to becoming teachers. He writes:

Each also faces the additional obstacles of a political culture that claims to value the teaching of children but belies that claim every day in nonsensical, stingy policies that are major elements of the load these remarkable young people must shoulder.

Sandra Swiechowicz and Allison Cappella remind political wise guys what today's New Hampshire primary is supposed to be about -- voters seeking a president with some awareness of their lives and some ideas that are relevant to them. At their level, the noisy madness of presidential campaigns becomes personal -- as it should be.

Now this story is simply outrageous. The Associated Press' Matt Gouras writes:

The school honor roll, a time-honored system for rewarding A students, has become an apparent source of embarrassment for some underachievers.

As a result, all Nashville schools have stopped posting honor rolls, and some are also considering a ban on hanging good work in the hallways -- on the advice of school lawyers.

After a few parents complained that their children might be ridiculed for not making the list, lawyers for the Nashville school system warned that state privacy laws forbid releasing any academic information, good or bad, without permission.

We need to celebrate academic achievement. We need to provide positive reinforcement like this as an incentive for children to succeed.

And, yes, we should provide our schools all the resources they need to give every child as good an education as they will accept.

The ACLU has posted the disciplinary forms that show what happens to a seven-year-old when he truthfully explains to his peers that his parents are gay.

Marcus McLaurin was waiting in line to go to recess on November 11 at Ernest Gallet Elementary School when a classmate asked him about his mother and father. He responded that he didn�t have a mother and father; instead he has two mothers. When the other child asked why, Marcus told him that it was because his mother is gay. The other child then asked what that meant, and Marcus explained, �Gay is when a girl likes another girl.�

Upon hearing this, Marcus�s teacher scolded him in front of his classmates, telling him that �gay� is a bad word and he should never say it at school, then sent him to the principal�s office instead of letting him go to recess. The following week the school required Marcus to attend a special behavioral clinic at 6:45 in the morning, where he was forced to repeatedly write �I will never use the word �gay� in school again.�

The principal, teachers, and others responsible for this outrage cannot be fired quickly enough.

As CalPundit Kevin Drum explains, President Bush once again lied about his education record. Alas, it fits a larger pattern. As Drum writes:

At long last, the anti-Bush forces seem to have finally settled on a single theme: He lies. His advisors lie. A lot. About everything.

And this is true.

It is interesting how conservative demands for executive branch candor came to an end on January 20, 2001...

E.J. Dionne focuses on the "3-to-6 gap". This gap is the period of time between the end of most school days and the end of parents' work days. Filling this gap should be a national priority.

(Aside: It might be nice to talk about how it makes no sense for a modern industrial economy to continue to insist on a school schedule developed to support the nation's agrarian era. But one step at a time.)

Dionne notes that President Bush supports the idea rhetorically. But, as with much of his "compassionate conservative" agenda, the support does not extend to the Administration's actual budget requests. Dionne explains:

Some politicians understand it, too. "After-school programs keep kids safe, help working families and improve academic achievements," said the most prominent one of them all. "They engage students in service and ensure that youth have access to anti-substance abuse programs. For America's working parents, they provide the confidence that their children are well cared for after the school day ends."

Excellent points. President Bush made them in a letter he wrote on Oct. 4, 2002, to a group called the Afterschool Alliance. So why, exactly, has the president proposed to cut federal spending on after-school care by 40 percent? Under Bush's budget, federal spending on 21st Century Community Learning Centers would drop from $1 billion this year to $600 million next year.

Rep. George Miller, a California Democrat who worked with Bush on the education bill, notes that the program now covers about 1.5 million kids. The program's advocates estimate that at least 500,000 would be affected by the cut.

This cut, alas, perfectly embodies what's wrong with the way this administration is doing business. The dissonance between the president's moderate, compassionate words and his spending priorities is jarring.

Compassionate conservatism sounds good on the stump. Perhaps it is time, however, to hold the president and the Republicans responsible for not governing by their words.

President Bush touts his leadership on education since he fought to pass his No Child Left Behind Act.

Too bad he refuses to fully fund the program. Conservatives were supposed to hate symbolism over substance.

As the Hartford Courant smartly argues:

It is one thing for the federal government to demand accountability and excellence in education. It is quite another to squeeze states by failing to provide the resources.