President Obama Corrects GOP, Money For Education Is Not A Waste

For too long our public education has been beaten down by conservatives, whether it be on cable news programs, opinion pages or by cutting funding for our schools. Well, Barack Obama has a word or two for critics of the stimulus bill who think that investing in our kids is a bad idea.

Funding Education Is An Economic Stimulant

Center for American Progress' Raegen Miller tells us why funding for education is such an important part of an economic stimulus. It shouldn't take a rocket scientist to realize that teaching the next generation skills for the 21st century is a good idea, but apparently a lot of people in Washington need to be reminded.

Education Budget Gets Hit Hard By Paterson

Now that the Governor's officially proposed budget is out, we can see many different taxes and plenty of budget cuts. Besides health care, no sector is being hurt the most than our public education system. University students are being smacked with large tuition increases instead of having the CUNY and SUNY budgets slashed but the kids that are in grades K-12 are going to have their school's budgets cut to the tune of $206 million in NYC alone.

From The NY Daily News:

Gov. Paterson is expected to unveil a doom-and-gloom $121 billion spending plan Tuesday that slices $206 million from New York City schools.

In addition to the 3.3% school aid cut, Paterson will look to slash local aid funding to the city by $244 million, a source said.

The nearly half a billion dollars in city cuts do not take into consideration other planned reductions for the city or the Medicaid cuts city hospitals are facing.

Everyone is going to be hurting from the next budget, at least as it stands now. If the Legislature would stand up and demand that the rich take some responsibility for what is going on with a millionaire's tax or a more progressively scaled income tax that could help the majority of taxpayers. Of course I won't be holding my breath, no matter how much the WFP and the majority of New York wants to see tax increases for the wealthy coupled with budget cuts. Funding education is essential to our economic growth in the future, denying them a quality schooling will cost far more in the long run than hacking off a small slice of wealth at the very top.

Teacher In The Audience Owns McCain

Clearly, this anonymous (to the viewer) teacher decimated McCain at his latest public appearance:

Bloomberg's Republican Donation Excuse Denied!

You would think when you lie to cover your tracks, that in politics the lie will eventually be sniffed out and exposed. Apparently our Mayor Michael Bloomberg isn't that good of a politician. When the story came out that "Mr. Independent" donated half a million dollars to re-elect Republican state Senators in order to hold their slim majority, Democrats were pissed off and many wondered just how independent Bloomberg really is. Well his excuse was that a divided government was better and more so that Senate Republicans were better at funding the priorities of New York City and especially on education.

Well now we know that is complete bullshit:

Last year Democratic Senator David Valesky from Oneida introduced a bill that would amend the New York State constitution to prohibit unfunded mandates. The Senate bill is S.2201 CONCURRENT RESOLUTION OF THE SENATE AND ASSEMBLY proposing amendments to article 9 of the constitution, in relation to prohibiting unfunded mandates. The bill went through all the hoops but was being stalled in committee by the Republican majority until February when the Senate Democrats filed a Notice of Motion to Petition which would pull the bill out of committee and have a floor debate. The Democrats did the same thing last year and lost. Yesterday the vote was straight down party lines again with the republicans once again playing petty politics with an important piece of legislation. Instead of voting to make sure that schools are fully funded by the state for mandates forced on the districts by the State, Fuschillo, Skelos, Marcellino and Hannon voted for the status quo of high taxes. Nassau's lone Democrat in the Senate Craig Johnson was a co-sponsor of the bill.

It is a testament to the Nassau republican delegations inability to do what is right instead of what is politicially expedient. The change to the State constitution would be a step in the right direction for school aid across the state. I personally do not believe that many of the state education mandates are needed to begin with but as long as they are there, they must be fully funded. This bill cannot change the fact that No Child Left Behind is a huge under-funded Federal mandate by about $955million. That is something the NY Congressional Delegation must deal with. The best thing to do is repeal NCLB because we will never see it fully funded and in my opinion it hurts students more than helps.

Basically what that is saying, and the summary of the bill below it in the link is that the New York state Republican delegation in the Senate does not give a rat's ass about education in New York City or the state. The state will now abandon their duty to finance our schools. So what do you have to say about this Mr. Independent Republican-backing Mayor?

Congratulations Florida!

I'd like to personally welcome the state of Florida back to the reality-based community...at least for the sake of their science classes. After a long time of dodging the question, a slight majority on the board of education allowed the "E" word make it into the textbooks. Of course, it didn't happen without a fight from the religious freaks who do not believe in the separation of church and state.

From RawStory:

Florida's public school science standards for the first time will use the word "evolution," although the biological concept already was being taught under code words such as "change over time."

The standards state that evolution is "the fundamental concept underlying all of biology and is supported by multiple forms of scientific evidence." That statement rankled opponents, some of whom had urged the board to add an academic freedom provision that would have allowed teachers to "engage students in a critical analysis of that evidence."

Evolution supporters, including mainstream scientists and clergy, told the board the academic freedom proposal was a wedge designed to open the door for injecting religious arguments into science studies.

Of course the creationists opposed the legislation, they do want God in the classroom, as much as they publicly deny it. They know that by allowing teachers to teach science rather than religion, they will lose the battle that faith be taught as fact in our public schools, those schools that funded by the taxes paid by people of many different faiths or no faith at all.

More Balanced Funding For NYC Schools

A brand new system of allocating New York City's public education dollars was introduced by Schools Chancellor Joel Klein today. The per-pupil system streamlines an older complicated method that over-funded some schools and left others short-changed. Thanks to a billion dollar boost in the budget provided for by Albany, the transition should be a smooth one.

From The New York Times:

The new budget system, a core component of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s effort to revamp the nation’s largest school system, ties $5.3 billion of the city’s $16.9 billion schools budget to individual students, allotting a fixed amount per child and extra dollars based on particular needs.

It directs relatively more new spending to middle and elementary schools and less to high schools. The city, however, is using an overall $1 billion increase in education spending by the state, city and federal governments to ensure that no school loses money next year, absent a drop in enrollment or other factors like the loss of federal grants.

“Because we are committed to success for all students,” Mr. Klein said at a news conference yesterday at his office, “we are sending new funds to students who have the greatest needs, such as middle schoolers, students who are scoring at the lowest levels on math and English exams, English-language learners and special education students.”

The new system will have its share of critics complaining of a whole assortment of issues. Yet Klein and the other architect of the plan, Robert Gordon have been preparing for them. The weighted system gives the most to middle school students and helps out more for students needing bilingual education. The schools that have been more well-off will not feel a pinch yet, as Bloomberg has given them a two year leeway.

The public is also invited to take a look at the minutia on their website. I am glad to see that the city's school system is being reformed in such a way. Being open, accountable and providing for a more balanced system is what all school districts should be aspiring for.