| ||||||||
| ||||||||
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Chris Owens Statement on Proposed Charter School in P.S. 9 - Hon. Chris Owens - NY State Democratic Committee, 52nd AD
Schools Proposed for Closing Compared With Other City Schools
NOTE: Lynne Winderbaum
The motive for destruction has been apparent for a long time and now is crystal clear. As Garth Harries declared two years ago, large high schools provide the real estate for the placement of new lite schools.
Once great schools must be dismantled, discredited, destroyed. Add Kennedy to the tragic list.
More to say at PEP Feb 3.
http://www.riverdalepress.com/
NEW FROM IBO
The motive for destruction has been apparent for a long time and now is crystal clear. As Garth Harries declared two years ago, large high schools provide the real estate for the placement of new lite schools.
Once great schools must be dismantled, discredited, destroyed. Add Kennedy to the tragic list.
More to say at PEP Feb 3.
http://www.riverdalepress.com/
NEW FROM IBO
IBO has compared the 25 schools slated for closing with other schools across the city. The comparisons include demographic, performance, and resource measures. The main report presents summary statistics and a Web supplement provides data on each of the schools proposed for closing. The Panel for Education Policy is scheduled to vote on the proposed closings next week.
This report is available on IBO's Web site at: http://bit.ly/h3j3bg For a free, printed versions of this or any other IBO publication, e-mail us at iboenews@ibo.nyc.ny.us or call 212-442-0632. IBO also encourages you to forward this e-mail to friends or colleagues who may be interested in its contents.
IBO welcomes your comments and questions about this report. To send us your thoughts, simply click "reply" on this e-mail or send a new e-mail to us at iboenews@ibo.nyc.ny.us.
Doug Turetsky
Chief of Staff/Communications Director
NYC Independent Budget Office
110 William Street, New York, NY 10038
Phone: 212-442-0629/Cell: 917-513-7488
Fax: 212-442-0350
Chief of Staff/Communications Director
NYC Independent Budget Office
110 William Street, New York, NY 10038
Phone: 212-442-0629/Cell: 917-513-7488
Fax: 212-442-0350
Receive IBO's free reports by e-mail
Monday, January 24, 2011
Battle of Brooklyn
Michael Galinsky is the father of two girls in a local elementary school and the co-director of a documentary about the Atlantic Yards development, “Battle of Brooklyn.”
Fiona Galinsky
If you have been to a protest in the last 10 years, you’ve likely heard the chant, “The people, united, will never be defeated.” The corollary is true as well. When the government pits community against community, as it is now doing by promoting charter schools designed to compete with community schools, the people, divided, will always lose.
Fiona GalinskyFor the past seven years, my partner and I have worked ona film about the Atlantic Yards project. As we finish the editing of this film, we are starkly aware of the painful parallels between that story and the way that the battle over our schools is playing out. Top-down decision-making fails to take into account the situation on the ground, which leaves those most affected by the arrangements feeling powerless, divided and battling their neighbors for resources.
Many of the wealthiest and most powerful people and foundations in America — including Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, President Barack Obama, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation — have put their support behind the concepts of school choice, competition for funding, accountability, and data-based decision-making. Programs such as the federal “Race to the Top” initiative, which financially rewards states for enacting educational reform along these lines, treat schools much like businesses, and families like consumers. In its promotion of charter and unzoned specialized schools, this approach directs resources towards creating new schools, while diverting them from the ones that exist.
This has begun to have powerful consequences in District 13. When The Urban Assembly Academy of Arts and Letters sought an expansion in the building it shares with P.S. 20, local elected officials expressed a desire to slow down the process to get more community input, and many in an increasingly active P.S. 20 parent community came out strongly against the expansion — but the Department of Education’s Panel for Education Policy still approved it. Only a month later, the community at P.S. 9 is waging a fierce campaign against the insertion of a new charter in their school.
Instead of consulting with the communities in these schools, DOE officials make determinations based on data about how many students are in the buildings. This data set does not take into account the fact that these schools have shown increasing parent involvement, test scores and enrollment. In the case of P.S. 9, enrollment is growing at such a strong rate that it will be bursting at the seams in a few short years. If the DOE inserts a charter school, P.S. 9’s energy and enrollment will be stifled as the schools within the building are forced to compete for space and resources. In both the cases of P.S. 20 and P.S. 9, the communities in these schools have expressed the sense that no one in a decision-making position is listening to them or supporting them.
Instead of consulting with the communities in these schools, DOE officials make determinations based on data about how many students are in the buildings. This data set does not take into account the fact that these schools have shown increasing parent involvement, test scores and enrollment. In the case of P.S. 9, enrollment is growing at such a strong rate that it will be bursting at the seams in a few short years. If the DOE inserts a charter school, P.S. 9’s energy and enrollment will be stifled as the schools within the building are forced to compete for space and resources. In both the cases of P.S. 20 and P.S. 9, the communities in these schools have expressed the sense that no one in a decision-making position is listening to them or supporting them.
Despite its massive public cost and impacts, the public also had no formal way to exert influence on the Atlantic Yards project. When it was announced, an architecture critic for The New York Times praised the project as “A Garden of Eden,” and necessary to make Brooklyn a “well-equipped urban paradise.” In order to build support for the project, the public relations machine pushed the mantra, “jobs, housing, hoops.” Who wouldn’t want jobs, housing, and hoops?
Just like school choice and educational accountability, it sounded great on paper, but things were more complex in reality. Over the previous decade, hundreds of people had moved into the southwest corner of Prospect Heights, which had formerly been anchored by industries like newspaper printing. Along with the long-term residents, they had contributed to the area’s resurgence. Unfortunately, no one bothered to tell the community anything about the plans that would eliminate their neighborhood before the the project was announced as a done deal.
The nationwide campaign to promote accountability-based educational reform dwarfs that of this giant development project. In her bestselling book, “The Death and Life of the Great American School System,”Brooklyn-based education scholar Diane Ravitch points out that the billionaire supporters of charters and accountabilitybelieve that if schools are forced to compete with each other for students and resources, then market forces will improve education. Ms. Ravitch, who was originally a supporter of these ideas, looked at data tracking the results of these methods, and concluded that they were not achieving the desired outcomes. In fact, she found that the only reliable indicator of a student’s success or failure was their relative prosperity, or lack thereof. She points out that the data shows that poverty is the problem, and not the schools.
One problem with the accountability model is that it gives teachers and schools incentives to teach kids how to take tests, and it gives communities an incentive to fight over resources rather than reasons to collaborate. It also ignores the complexities of how communities operate. As Diane Ravitch discovered, local schools often serves as anchors for their communities, and when they are penalized or closed, rather than supported, the social fabric of these communities is left in tatters. The accountability model might lead to more efficient production of inanimate products, but it doesn’t lead to harmonious communities.
After a seven-year community fight, an arena is now being built in Prospect Heights. Homes, businesses, and city streets were seized for the project, yet few of the promised benefits which served to divide the community are coming to pass. Only 100 of the expected 17,000 year-long construction jobs existed as of October, the Daily News reported. Thousands of affordable units of housing were promised, but concrete plans for residential development have not yet materialized. No local elected officials had a vote on the project, so there was no way for the community to have any meaningful influence on how the project might look. When people have no say about decisions regarding their community, they feel hopeless.
At the beginning of our film, City Council member Letitia James has the following to say at an early-stage community meeting about the project: “Frank Gehry, the architect, said he wanted to build a community from scratch. Well, I wanted to tell him that a community already exists there. What we need to do is develop it, but not destroy it.”
When it comes to our local schools, we need to take a step back and ask ourselves how we, that existing community, can work together, neighbor with neighbor, to support all of our children in the broadest way possible.
Comments leave chancellor Black and blue
Leonie Haimson says:
I think the analysis below is wrong – it’s not that Klein had a better “brand” when he came in, or that over time, his attitude to parents were any more acceptable. I know parents who say that he made the same comment about “birth control” as Black did.
I think the analysis below is wrong – it’s not that Klein had a better “brand” when he came in, or that over time, his attitude to parents were any more acceptable. I know parents who say that he made the same comment about “birth control” as Black did.
It was that he was given the benefit of the doubt at first; but after 9 years of arrogant, dismissive and destructive policies, Cathie Black didn’t get a honeymoon….she was thrown into the tiger pit immediately.
Lisa Donlan says:
I largely agree with Leonie here, but would take it a step further- not only has the collective good will worn out eons ago, not only have we seen the tone-deaf administration's policies flip and flop and fail at every turn for the last 9 years, not only has the pace of "reform' accelerated wildly as the race to the end of the Mayor's final stolen term draws near, but I must acknowledge that Ms. Black comes to the arena with some serious deficiencies in training and experience that dwarf those of her lawyer predecessors Klein and Levy.
Lisa
Lisa Donlan says:
I largely agree with Leonie here, but would take it a step further- not only has the collective good will worn out eons ago, not only have we seen the tone-deaf administration's policies flip and flop and fail at every turn for the last 9 years, not only has the pace of "reform' accelerated wildly as the race to the end of the Mayor's final stolen term draws near, but I must acknowledge that Ms. Black comes to the arena with some serious deficiencies in training and experience that dwarf those of her lawyer predecessors Klein and Levy.
She simply has NO higher education beyond her BA (and you'll recall those grades were kept hidden, indicating something to hide?); she has no background in public service of any kind as a framework; she has no construct or category
By choosing a tabula rasa to be his spokesperson, the Mayor left out an essential ingredient- the ability to spin and spout rhetoric, or even lies, depends on a certain level of passion and belief.
Many have debated over the years whether or not Joel Klein actually believed
Many believed that he believed, which for PR purposes is as good as his actually believing.
I personally always thought the guy was too smart and too intellectually honest to believe all the flip flop rhetoric based on nothing more than cooked data at best.
For me the litmus test was that he and his minions always refused to allow District One to maintain our controlled choice admissions plan designed to increase diversity and equity of access in our local schools.
A true believer of civil rights would have worked with an impassioned community to maintain this system, but he never even bothered to look underneath the hood, while all the central-borne policies he championed stratified, segregated and chipped away at our community schools.
When the talk does not walk, you know what you've got- a sham.
When the scripted talk is unconvincing and the unscripted talk is insensitive, off the mark and inflammatory, you've got something else- a disaster!
Comments leave chancellor Black and blue
Schools Chancellor Cathie Black and Mayor Mike Bloomberg's announcement this week that they would devote funding to help students who flunked the recalibrated state tests was not sufficient to repair Black's image, according to experts in political communications and marketing. They said Black is in danger of being identified by two unscripted comments—her joking request for birth control to help reduce school overcrowding and a remark that budget cuts are “Sophie's choices,” a reference to a film where a mother must choose which of her children will die in a Nazi concentration camp.
“She needs a makeover,” said one consultant with experience in crisis management. “It's more than one quip that went flat. It suggests a nervousness and a lack of comfort in dealing with media scrutiny of this kind, and a bit of tone deafness for the electorate.”
The comments seemed to legitimize a criticism of Black that went beyond her lack of education credentials—namely, that she has “such a corporate mentality” and would struggle with public discourse, the expert said.
Another political consultant said, “She needs to positively distinguish herself with something, or she'll wind up on the discount rack very quickly.” Unlike her predecessor, Joel Klein, the lead prosecutor in the Microsoft anti-trust case, Black did not enter the job with her own brand because the general public was unfamiliar with her career in magazine publishing, the consultant said. Rather, she was introduced by the media as someone who is “under the Bloomberg marquee and throws good parties.”
“She was a public relations disaster from day one,” a third consultant said. “The only bright side of the birth control comment is that it distracts from the fact that she has no ties to the school system. However, it reinforces a perception that she is an out-of-touch dilettante.”
In a Crain's online poll this week asking if people had a right to be upset by Black's comments, 70% said yes.
STOP THE SQUEEZE! RALLY TO SUPPORT UPPER WEST SIDE AND HARLEM DISTRICT 3 SCHOOLS AND TO REJECT SUCCESS CHARTER CO-LOCATIONS IN PUBLIC SCHOOL SPACE
For Immediate Release Contact: Noah E Gotbaum–Community District Education Council 3 917 658 3213 (ngotbaum@cec3.org)
January 24, 2011
Eva Moscowitz’s Success Charter Network co-locations have been squeezing public school kids out of their buildings at PS149, PS241, PS123 and across the City. Now she and the DOE are targeting to co-locate their new Upper West Success Elementary School at the Brandeis High School Complex, and Harlem Success 1 Middle School at PS 149 and Wadleigh Secondary. Elected officials, parents, students, educators, and community leaders from throughout District 3 and the City will stage a rally to support District 3 schools and to oppose the proposed expansion of charter schools in desperately needed public school space.
This rally will take place immediately preceding DOE’s public hearing on the proposed co-location of the Upper West Success Academy Charter School at the Brandeis High School Complex.
WHEN: 5:00pm, Tuesday January 25, 2011
WHERE: Brandeis High School, 145 West 84th Street (between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues)
January 24, 2011
*** MEDIA ADVISORY ***
STOP THE SQUEEZE! RALLY TO SUPPORT UPPER WEST SIDE AND HARLEM DISTRICT 3 SCHOOLS AND TO REJECT SUCCESS CHARTER CO-LOCATIONS IN PUBLIC SCHOOL SPACE
This rally will take place immediately preceding DOE’s public hearing on the proposed co-location of the Upper West Success Academy Charter School at the Brandeis High School Complex.
WHAT: Rally to support District 3 public schools, to keep Brandeis Complex for high school students, and to allow PS149, FDA II and Wadleigh to grow and to continue to educate all of our community’s students
WHO: Elected officials, parents, students, educators, community groups and leaders
WHEN: 5:00pm, Tuesday January 25, 2011
WHERE: Brandeis High School, 145 West 84th Street (between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues)
###
Sunday, January 23, 2011
« Back to Search Results Archive Report spam Delete Move to Inbox Labels More actions 1 of 3 Older › Plutocracy comes out from the shadows, shows its fangs in Illinois legislative fights
1/22/11
Norm:
Below is the lead of a story I'll be putting up at substancenews.net tomorrow and then expanding on through various investigations over the next months. In my opinion, it's the most important investigative story I've ever done.
I think a similar story is probably in front of you in New York, but based on our experience here, we have to do this story ourselves, since our corporate media won't touch it or anything near it.
George Schmidt
Two of the world's wealthiest families, both from Chicago (the Crowns and the Pritzkers), and several of Chicago's wealthiest individuals (including Kenneth Griffin and Sam Zell), poured more than $3.4 million into the newest Political Action Campaign (PAC) fund in Illinois during the last months of 2010. Most of the money was contributed during December 2010. The result was that "Stand for Children Illinois" — which didn't exist four months earlier and only opened its Illinois offices in Chicago in December 2010 — had nearly $3.5 million in its PAC at the end of 2010. Stand for Children Illinois opened its first office in Illinois (at 300 W. Adams St.) in December 2010. The office was finally opened two months after Stand for Children began operations in Springfield with huge contributions to several Illinois politicians during the month prior to the November 2, 2010 election.
The pre-election campaign contributions totaled more than $600,000. They are in addition to the money now in the Stand for Children PAC and came through the Oregon headquarters of the group.
Stand for Children — along with the Illinois Business Roundtable, Advance Illinois, and the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago — sponsored and lobbied for the controversial legislations called "Performance Counts" during the lame duck session of the 2010 Illinois General Assembly. "Performance Counts" was defeated despite intense lobbying by the four powerful business groups in December and January 2010 - 2011 by a coalition of unions and community organizations committed to improving the public schools. Public school improvement in Illinois and elsewhere is now in stark distinction to corporate "school reform" of the type promoted by Stand for Children, a distinction that will become more clear during the years ahead. Stand for Children and its four allies have vowed to bring "Performance Counts" back, whole and in its parts, for 2011.
Nearly identical bills have been introduced in other states.
The contributors to the Stand for Children PAC in December 2010 are two of the world's wealthiest families, both of which are based in Chicago (and the Chicago suburbs), the Crowns and the Pritzkers. Others who added their wealth to the Stand for Children PAC during December 2010 include Sam Zell, the real estate speculator who bankrupted the Chicago Tribune Corporation, and several private equity chiefs. The private equity and hedge fund millionaires who put their money into Stand for Children include John Canning and Paul Finnegan (Madison Dearborn Partners), Kenneth Brody (DRW trading group), Kenneth Griffin (Citadel Group), and Matthew Hulsizer (PEAK6 Investments).
The amounts given by the individuals who were organized to finance the Stand for Children PAC in December 2010 are far beyond what any teacher or typical citizen could afford, leading to the observation that the Plutocracy (a government by the richest people) is trying to bash Illinois public schools and teacher unions behind a smokescreen of disinterested "school reform" groups. Stand for Children was based in Oregon at the time it made its initial contributions to Illinois politicians during the month before the November 2, 2010 election and finally opened a Chicago office in December 2010. One of the unanswered questions is how a group of the wealthiest people in Chicago and the suburbs learned about Stand for Children and decided to donate huge sums of money to it.
The amounts, as reported to the State of Illinois(the D-2 annual reports) are as follows (in alphabetical order):
Brody, Kenneth (Manager, DRW Trading Group). $100,000 (on December 23, 2010).
Canning, John (Chairman, Dearborn Partners). $250,000 (on December 8, 2010).
Crown, Arie (Partner, Henry Crown & Co.). $100,000 on December 29, 2010.
Crown, Elizabeth (Homemaker). $50,000 on December 10, 2010.
Crown, James (President, Henry Crown and Company). $150,000 on December 10, 2010.
Crown, James (President, Henry Crown and Company). $50,000 on September 27, 2010.
Crown, Nancy (Homemaker, self employed). $100,000 on December 29, 2010.
Crown, Patricia (Psychotherapist, Self Employed). $50,000 on December 29, 2010.
Finnegan, Paul (Co-CEO, Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC). $200,000 on September 29, 2010.
Finnegan, Paul (Co-CEO, Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC). $300,000 on December 2, 2010.
Griffin, Kenneth (Founder, CEO, Citadel Group). $500,000 on December 15, 2010.
Hulsizer, Matthew (Co-Founder, CEO, PEAK6 Investments). $374,000 on December 8, 2010.
Hulsizer, Matthew (Co-Founder, CEO, PEAK6 Investments). $100,000 on September 27, 2010.
Merrick Ventures LLC (No individual listed). $100,000 on December 9, 2010.
Pritzker, Margot (Homemaker, Self Employed). $50,000 on December 29, 2010.
Pritzker, Penny (Chairman and CEO, Pritzker Realy Group). $50,000 on December 29, 2010.
Pritzker, Thomas (Chairman & CEO, Hyatt Hotels Corporation). $50,000 on December 29, 2010.
Pritzker - Pucker, Gigi (CEO, Odd Lot Entertainment). $50,000 on December 29, 2010.
Pucker, Michael (Attorney, Latham & Watkins LLP), $50,000 on December 29, 2010.
Ruhana, George (Partner/CEO, Options House LLC). $26,000 on September 27, 2010.
Saltzman, Bettylu (Homemaker). $1,000 on November 1, 2010.
Simmons, Brian (Partner, Code Hennessy & Simmons LLC). $100,000 on December 30, 2010.
Smith, Leo (Teacher, Perspectives/ITT Math & Science Academy). $25,000 on October 12, 2010.
Stand for Children, Inc. (Portland, OR). $210,000 on October 6, 2010.
Stand for Children, Inc. (Portland, OR). $50,000 on October 7, 2010.
Traubert, Bryan (Opthamologist, Eye Physicians of Chicago). $50,000 on December 29, 2010.
Wilson, Donald (CEO, DRW Trading Group). $250,000 on December 22, 2010.
Zell, Samuel (Chairman, Equity Group Investments). $100,000 on December 20, 2010.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Another Eva Moskowitz Expansion at PS 123 in Harlem - Jan. 27
Corporate America is pushing hard to destroy public education and public housing so that they can pocket public money and resources. The gentrification of Harlem and other inner city areas is part of the plan to disperse us, weaken us and further control real estate in this country. A jobless recovery only means everything for Corporate America and nothing for us. The attacks on unions (seniority, tenure, pay, pension, etc.) is also another way for Corporate America to consolidate its power in this country. Stand up, fight back and join us in Harlem as we mobilize parents, students, staff and community folk to take back our public schools, public housing and our community!
(PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE ATTACHED FLYER)
Stand Up, Speak Out, Fight Back in Harlem!!!
Take Back PS 123's School Building!!!
WEAR RED!!!
Thursday January 27, 2011
Rally starts at 5pm
Hearing starts at 6pm
at PS 123
(Mahalia Jackson School)
301 W. 140th Street
(Corner of W. 140th Street and Frederick Douglass Blvd)
Harlem, NY 10030
Contact: Ernestine Augustus at (646) 262-9052 or email: queenteenie45@aol.com .
Transportation: Take A,C, or D trains to 145th Street or use www.hopstop.com .
Mark A. Torres
People Power Movement
peoplepower@live.com
(212) 348-5732
Professor Honored at PS 257K
Fordham Professor Honored at Brooklyn Public School
Mark Naison (center, wearing all black) with P.S. 257's drum line.
The school's principal, Brian DeVale, is to Naison's right.
(Photo courtesy of Mark Naison)
The school's principal, Brian DeVale, is to Naison's right.
(Photo courtesy of Mark Naison)
Mark Naison, Ph.D., professor of African and African-American studies, was an honored guest at P.S. 257 in Bushwick, Brooklyn, on Jan. 20.
“I was deeply moved by the hospitality shown by Principal Brian DeVale and his staff and tremendously impressed by the dedication and talent of the teachers at the school,” said Naison, who was invited to visit to school as a result of an article he wrote, “In Defense of Public School Teachers."
During his visit, Naison visited several classes and ate lunch with the School Leadership Team. He also attended a ballroom dancing class and a performance by the school's drum line.
“It was incredible,” he said. “The students made a tremendous impression on me. The school resembled many of the wonderful schools in the Bronx I visited when I was doing Oral History training for teachers. The children were happy, energetic, intellectually curious and quite astonished to see an old white man rap!”
Yes, Naison’s hip-hop alter ego, the Notorious Ph.D. gave a performance.
“What a great day this was,” he said. “It reinforced my determination to speak out on behalf of some of the most talented and dedicated public servants in our nation—our public school teachers.”
Friday, January 21, 2011
Attack on Current Pensioners Coming Through State Bankruptcy Laws
Path Is Sought for States to Escape Debt Burdens
By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/business/economy/21bankruptcy.html?_r=2&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2&pagewanted=print
Policy makers are working behind the scenes to come up with a way to let states declare bankruptcy and get out from under crushing debts, including the pensions they have promised to retired public workers.
Unlike cities, the states are barred from seeking protection in federal bankruptcy court. Any effort to change that status would have to clear high constitutional hurdles because the states are considered sovereign.
But proponents say some states are so burdened that the only feasible way out may be bankruptcy, giving Illinois, for example, the opportunity to do what General Motors did with the federal government’s aid.
Beyond their short-term budget gaps, some states have deep structural problems, like insolvent pension funds, that are diverting money from essential public services like education and health care. Some members of Congress fear that it is just a matter of time before a state seeks a bailout, say bankruptcy lawyers who have been consulted by Congressional aides.
Bankruptcy could permit a state to alter its contractual promises to retirees, which are often protected by state constitutions, and it could provide an alternative to a no-strings bailout. Along with retirees, however, investors in a state’s bonds could suffer, possibly ending up at the back of the line as unsecured creditors.
“All of a sudden, there’s a whole new risk factor,” said Paul S. Maco, a partner at the firm Vinson & Elkins who was head of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Municipal Securities during the Clinton administration.
For now, the fear of destabilizing the municipal bond market with the words “state bankruptcy” has proponents in Congress going about their work on tiptoe. No draft bill is in circulation yet, and no member of Congress has come forward as a sponsor, although Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, asked the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, about the possiblity in a hearing this month.
House Republicans, and Senators from both parties, have taken an interest in the issue, with nudging from bankruptcy lawyers and a former House speaker, Newt Gingrich, who could be a Republican presidential candidate. It would be difficult to get a bill through Congress, not only because of the constitutional questions and the complexities of bankruptcy law, but also because of fears that even talk of such a law could make the states’ problems worse.
Lawmakers might decide to stop short of a full-blown bankruptcy proposal and establish instead some sort of oversight panel for distressed states, akin to the Municipal Assistance Corporation, which helped New York City during its fiscal crisis of 1975.
Still, discussions about something as far-reaching as bankruptcy could give governors and others more leverage in bargaining with unionized public workers.
“They are readying a massive assault on us,” said Charles M. Loveless, legislative director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. “We’re taking this very seriously.”
Mr. Loveless said he was meeting with potential allies on Capitol Hill, making the point that certain states might indeed have financial problems, but public employees and their benefits were not the cause. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released a report on Thursday warning against a tendency to confuse the states’ immediate budget gaps with their long-term structural deficits.
“States have adequate tools and means to meet their obligations,” the report stated.
No state is known to want to declare bankruptcy, and some question the wisdom of offering them the ability to do so now, given the jitters in the normally staid municipal bond market.
Slightly more than $25 billion has flowed out of mutual funds that invest in muni bonds in the last two months, according to the Investment Company Institute. Many analysts say they consider a bond default by any state extremely unlikely, but they also say that when politicians take an interest in the bond market, surprises are apt to follow.
Mr. Maco said the mere introduction of a state bankruptcy bill could lead to “some kind of market penalty,” even if it never passed. That “penalty” might be higher borrowing costs for a state and downward pressure on the value of its bonds. Individual bondholders would not realize any losses unless they sold.
But institutional investors in municipal bonds, like insurance companies, are required to keep certain levels of capital. And they might retreat from additional investments. A deeply troubled state could eventually be priced out of the capital markets.
“The precipitating event at G.M. was they were out of cash and had no ability to raise the capital they needed,” said Harry J. Wilson, the lone Republican on President Obama’s special auto task force, which led G.M. and Chrysler through an unusual restructuring in bankruptcy, financed by the federal government.
Mr. Wilson, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for New York State comptroller last year, has said he believes that New York and some other states need some type of a financial restructuring.
He noted that G.M. was salvaged only through an administration-led effort that Congress initially resisted, with legislators voting against financial assistance to G.M. in late 2008.
“Now Congress is much more conservative,” he said. “A state shows up and wants cash, Congress says no, and it will probably be at the last minute and it’s a real problem. That’s what I’m concerned about.”
Discussion of a new bankruptcy option for the states appears to have taken off in November, after Mr. Gingrich gave a speech about the country’s big challenges, including government debt and an uncompetitive labor market.
“We just have to be honest and clear about this, and I also hope the House Republicans are going to move a bill in the first month or so of their tenure to create a venue for state bankruptcy,” he said.
A few weeks later, David A. Skeel, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, published an article, “Give States a Way to Go Bankrupt,” in The Weekly Standard. It said thorny constitutional questions were “easily addressed” by making sure states could not be forced into bankruptcy or that federal judges could usurp states’ lawmaking powers.
“I have never had anything I’ve written get as much attention as that piece,” said Mr. Skeel, who said he had since been contacted by Republicans and Democrats whom he declined to name.
Mr. Skeel said it was possible to envision how bankruptcy for states might work by looking at the existing law for local governments. Called Chapter 9, it gives distressed municipalities a period of debt-collection relief, which they can use to restructure their obligations with the help of a bankruptcy judge.
Unfunded pensions become unsecured debts in municipal bankruptcy and may be reduced. And the law makes it easier for a bankrupt city to tear up its labor contracts than for a bankrupt company, said James E. Spiotto, head of the bankruptcy practice at Chapman & Cutler in Chicago.
The biggest surprise may await the holders of a state’s general obligation bonds. Though widely considered the strongest credit of any government, they can be treated as unsecured credits, subject to reduction, under Chapter 9.
Mr. Spiotto said he thought bankruptcy court was not a good avenue for troubled states, and he has designed an alternative called the Public Pension Funding Authority. It would have mandatory jurisdiction over states that failed to provide sufficient funding to their workers’ pensions or that were diverting money from essential public services.
“I’ve talked to some people from Congress, and I’m going to talk to some more,” he said. “This effort to talk about Chapter 9, I’m worried about it. I don’t want the states to have to pay higher borrowing costs because of a panic that they might go bankrupt. I don’t think it’s the right thing at all. But it’s the beginning of a dialog.”
Unlike cities, the states are barred from seeking protection in federal bankruptcy court. Any effort to change that status would have to clear high constitutional hurdles because the states are considered sovereign.
But proponents say some states are so burdened that the only feasible way out may be bankruptcy, giving Illinois, for example, the opportunity to do what General Motors did with the federal government’s aid.
Beyond their short-term budget gaps, some states have deep structural problems, like insolvent pension funds, that are diverting money from essential public services like education and health care. Some members of Congress fear that it is just a matter of time before a state seeks a bailout, say bankruptcy lawyers who have been consulted by Congressional aides.
Bankruptcy could permit a state to alter its contractual promises to retirees, which are often protected by state constitutions, and it could provide an alternative to a no-strings bailout. Along with retirees, however, investors in a state’s bonds could suffer, possibly ending up at the back of the line as unsecured creditors.
“All of a sudden, there’s a whole new risk factor,” said Paul S. Maco, a partner at the firm Vinson & Elkins who was head of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Municipal Securities during the Clinton administration.
For now, the fear of destabilizing the municipal bond market with the words “state bankruptcy” has proponents in Congress going about their work on tiptoe. No draft bill is in circulation yet, and no member of Congress has come forward as a sponsor, although Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, asked the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, about the possiblity in a hearing this month.
House Republicans, and Senators from both parties, have taken an interest in the issue, with nudging from bankruptcy lawyers and a former House speaker, Newt Gingrich, who could be a Republican presidential candidate. It would be difficult to get a bill through Congress, not only because of the constitutional questions and the complexities of bankruptcy law, but also because of fears that even talk of such a law could make the states’ problems worse.
Lawmakers might decide to stop short of a full-blown bankruptcy proposal and establish instead some sort of oversight panel for distressed states, akin to the Municipal Assistance Corporation, which helped New York City during its fiscal crisis of 1975.
Still, discussions about something as far-reaching as bankruptcy could give governors and others more leverage in bargaining with unionized public workers.
“They are readying a massive assault on us,” said Charles M. Loveless, legislative director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. “We’re taking this very seriously.”
Mr. Loveless said he was meeting with potential allies on Capitol Hill, making the point that certain states might indeed have financial problems, but public employees and their benefits were not the cause. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released a report on Thursday warning against a tendency to confuse the states’ immediate budget gaps with their long-term structural deficits.
“States have adequate tools and means to meet their obligations,” the report stated.
No state is known to want to declare bankruptcy, and some question the wisdom of offering them the ability to do so now, given the jitters in the normally staid municipal bond market.
Slightly more than $25 billion has flowed out of mutual funds that invest in muni bonds in the last two months, according to the Investment Company Institute. Many analysts say they consider a bond default by any state extremely unlikely, but they also say that when politicians take an interest in the bond market, surprises are apt to follow.
Mr. Maco said the mere introduction of a state bankruptcy bill could lead to “some kind of market penalty,” even if it never passed. That “penalty” might be higher borrowing costs for a state and downward pressure on the value of its bonds. Individual bondholders would not realize any losses unless they sold.
But institutional investors in municipal bonds, like insurance companies, are required to keep certain levels of capital. And they might retreat from additional investments. A deeply troubled state could eventually be priced out of the capital markets.
“The precipitating event at G.M. was they were out of cash and had no ability to raise the capital they needed,” said Harry J. Wilson, the lone Republican on President Obama’s special auto task force, which led G.M. and Chrysler through an unusual restructuring in bankruptcy, financed by the federal government.
Mr. Wilson, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for New York State comptroller last year, has said he believes that New York and some other states need some type of a financial restructuring.
He noted that G.M. was salvaged only through an administration-led effort that Congress initially resisted, with legislators voting against financial assistance to G.M. in late 2008.
“Now Congress is much more conservative,” he said. “A state shows up and wants cash, Congress says no, and it will probably be at the last minute and it’s a real problem. That’s what I’m concerned about.”
Discussion of a new bankruptcy option for the states appears to have taken off in November, after Mr. Gingrich gave a speech about the country’s big challenges, including government debt and an uncompetitive labor market.
“We just have to be honest and clear about this, and I also hope the House Republicans are going to move a bill in the first month or so of their tenure to create a venue for state bankruptcy,” he said.
A few weeks later, David A. Skeel, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, published an article, “Give States a Way to Go Bankrupt,” in The Weekly Standard. It said thorny constitutional questions were “easily addressed” by making sure states could not be forced into bankruptcy or that federal judges could usurp states’ lawmaking powers.
“I have never had anything I’ve written get as much attention as that piece,” said Mr. Skeel, who said he had since been contacted by Republicans and Democrats whom he declined to name.
Mr. Skeel said it was possible to envision how bankruptcy for states might work by looking at the existing law for local governments. Called Chapter 9, it gives distressed municipalities a period of debt-collection relief, which they can use to restructure their obligations with the help of a bankruptcy judge.
Unfunded pensions become unsecured debts in municipal bankruptcy and may be reduced. And the law makes it easier for a bankrupt city to tear up its labor contracts than for a bankrupt company, said James E. Spiotto, head of the bankruptcy practice at Chapman & Cutler in Chicago.
The biggest surprise may await the holders of a state’s general obligation bonds. Though widely considered the strongest credit of any government, they can be treated as unsecured credits, subject to reduction, under Chapter 9.
Mr. Spiotto said he thought bankruptcy court was not a good avenue for troubled states, and he has designed an alternative called the Public Pension Funding Authority. It would have mandatory jurisdiction over states that failed to provide sufficient funding to their workers’ pensions or that were diverting money from essential public services.
“I’ve talked to some people from Congress, and I’m going to talk to some more,” he said. “This effort to talk about Chapter 9, I’m worried about it. I don’t want the states to have to pay higher borrowing costs because of a panic that they might go bankrupt. I don’t think it’s the right thing at all. But it’s the beginning of a dialog.”
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
The Insidious Education-Industrial Complex - And How It May Ruin Your School
| |||
| |
Monday, January 17, 2011
"The way our state is dealing with class size is nearly criminal"
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/
January 17, 2011
Florida Has Classes Without Teachers
By LAURA HERRERA
MIAMI — On the first day of her senior year at North Miami Beach Senior High School, Naomi Baptiste expected to be greeted by a teacher when she walked into her precalculus class.
"All there were were computers in the class," said Naomi, who walked into a room of confused students. "We found out that over the summer they signed us up for these courses."
Naomi is one of over 7,000 students in Miami-Dade County Public Schools enrolled in a program in which core subjects are taken using computers in a classroom with no teacher. A "facilitator" is in the room to make sure students progress. That person also deals with any technical problems.
These virtual classrooms, called e-learning labs, were put in place last August as a result of Florida's Class Size Reduction Amendment, passed in 2002. The amendment limits the number of students allowed in classrooms, but not in virtual labs.
While most schools held an orientation about the program, some students and parents said they were not informed of the new class structure. Others said they were not given the option to choose whether they wanted this type of instruction, and they voiced concern over the program's effectiveness.
The online courses are provided by Florida Virtual School, which has been an option in the state's public schools. The virtual school has provided online classes for home-schooled and traditional students who want to take extra courses. Students log on to a Web site to gain access to lessons, which consist mostly of text with some graphics, and they can call, e-mail or text online instructors for help.
The 54 participating schools in the Miami-Dade County system's e-learning lab program integrate the online classes differently. A representative from the district said in an e-mail that the system "provided lab facilitators, training for those facilitators and coordination" between the district schools and the virtual school.
Theresa Sutter, a member of the Parent Teacher Student Association at Miami Beach Senior High School, said she thought her daughter, Kelly, was done with virtual classes after she finished Spanish the previous year at home.
When Kelly said that she had been placed in a virtual lab, Ms. Sutter recalled her "jaws dropped." Neither of them had been told that Kelly would be in one.
"It's totally different from what classroom teaching is like, so it's a completely different animal," Ms. Sutter said.
Under the state's class-reduction amendment, high school classrooms cannot surpass a 25-student limit in core subjects, like English or math. Fourth- through eighth-grade classrooms can have no more than 22 students, and prekindergarten through third grade can have no more than 18.
Alix Braun, 15, a sophomore at Miami Beach High, takes Advanced Placement macroeconomics in an e-learning lab with 35 to 40 other students. There are 445 students enrolled in the online courses at her school, and while Alix chose to be placed in the lab, she said most of her lab mates did not.
"None of them want to be there," Alix said, "and for virtual education you have to be really self-motivated. This was not something they chose to do, and it's a really bad situation to be put in because it is not your choice."
School administrators said that they had to find a way to meet class-size limits. Jodi Robins, the assistant principal of curriculum at Miami Beach High, said that even if students struggled in certain subjects, the virtual labs were necessary because "there's no way to beat the class-size mandate without it."
In response to parental confusion about virtual classes, the Miami Beach High parent-teacher association created a committee on virtual labs. The panel works with the school toward "getting issues on the table and working proactively," said Patricia Kaine, the association's president.
Some teachers are skeptical of how well the program can help students learn.
"The way our state is dealing with class size is nearly criminal," said Chris Kirchner, an English teacher at Coral Reef Senior High School in Miami. "They're standardizing in the worst possible way, which is evident in virtual classes."
While Ms. Kirchner questions the instructional effectiveness of online courses, she said there was a place for them at some level.
"I think there should be learning on the computer," Ms. Kirchner said. "That part is from 2:30 p.m. on. The first part of the day should be for learning with people."
But Michael G. Moore, a professor of education at Pennsylvania State University, said programs that combine virtual education and face-to-face instruction could be effective. This is called the "blended learning concept."
"There is no doubt that blended learning can be as effective and often more effective than a classroom," said Mr. Moore, who is also editor of The American Journal of Distance Education. He said, however, that research and his experiences had shown that proper design and teacher instruction within the classroom were necessary. A facilitator who only monitors student progress and technical issues within virtual labs would not be categorized as part of a blended-learning model, he said. Other variables include "the maturity and sophistication of the student," he said.
Despite some complaints about the virtual teaching method, administrators said e-learning labs were here to stay. And nationally, blending learning has already caught on in some areas.
In Chicago Public Schools, high schools have "credit recovery" programs that let students take online classes they previously failed so they can graduate. Omaha Public Schools also have similar programs that require physical attendance at certain locations.
Julie Durrand, manager of the e-learning lab program, said the virtual school planned to work more closely with district schools to ensure success. She said virtual school officials wanted orientations to be mandatory in schools with labs. Ms. Durrand also predicted that labs would expand to middle schools and would include more grade levels in schools that currently limited the labs to juniors and seniors.
There are six middle and K-8 schools using virtual labs in Miami, including Cutler Ridge Middle School and Frank C. Martin K-8 Center.
"I truly believe this will be an option for many districts across the state," Ms. Durrand said. "I think we just hit the tip of the iceberg."
January 17, 2011
Florida Has Classes Without Teachers
By LAURA HERRERA
MIAMI — On the first day of her senior year at North Miami Beach Senior High School, Naomi Baptiste expected to be greeted by a teacher when she walked into her precalculus class.
"All there were were computers in the class," said Naomi, who walked into a room of confused students. "We found out that over the summer they signed us up for these courses."
Naomi is one of over 7,000 students in Miami-Dade County Public Schools enrolled in a program in which core subjects are taken using computers in a classroom with no teacher. A "facilitator" is in the room to make sure students progress. That person also deals with any technical problems.
These virtual classrooms, called e-learning labs, were put in place last August as a result of Florida's Class Size Reduction Amendment, passed in 2002. The amendment limits the number of students allowed in classrooms, but not in virtual labs.
While most schools held an orientation about the program, some students and parents said they were not informed of the new class structure. Others said they were not given the option to choose whether they wanted this type of instruction, and they voiced concern over the program's effectiveness.
The online courses are provided by Florida Virtual School, which has been an option in the state's public schools. The virtual school has provided online classes for home-schooled and traditional students who want to take extra courses. Students log on to a Web site to gain access to lessons, which consist mostly of text with some graphics, and they can call, e-mail or text online instructors for help.
The 54 participating schools in the Miami-Dade County system's e-learning lab program integrate the online classes differently. A representative from the district said in an e-mail that the system "provided lab facilitators, training for those facilitators and coordination" between the district schools and the virtual school.
Theresa Sutter, a member of the Parent Teacher Student Association at Miami Beach Senior High School, said she thought her daughter, Kelly, was done with virtual classes after she finished Spanish the previous year at home.
When Kelly said that she had been placed in a virtual lab, Ms. Sutter recalled her "jaws dropped." Neither of them had been told that Kelly would be in one.
"It's totally different from what classroom teaching is like, so it's a completely different animal," Ms. Sutter said.
Under the state's class-reduction amendment, high school classrooms cannot surpass a 25-student limit in core subjects, like English or math. Fourth- through eighth-grade classrooms can have no more than 22 students, and prekindergarten through third grade can have no more than 18.
Alix Braun, 15, a sophomore at Miami Beach High, takes Advanced Placement macroeconomics in an e-learning lab with 35 to 40 other students. There are 445 students enrolled in the online courses at her school, and while Alix chose to be placed in the lab, she said most of her lab mates did not.
"None of them want to be there," Alix said, "and for virtual education you have to be really self-motivated. This was not something they chose to do, and it's a really bad situation to be put in because it is not your choice."
School administrators said that they had to find a way to meet class-size limits. Jodi Robins, the assistant principal of curriculum at Miami Beach High, said that even if students struggled in certain subjects, the virtual labs were necessary because "there's no way to beat the class-size mandate without it."
In response to parental confusion about virtual classes, the Miami Beach High parent-teacher association created a committee on virtual labs. The panel works with the school toward "getting issues on the table and working proactively," said Patricia Kaine, the association's president.
Some teachers are skeptical of how well the program can help students learn.
"The way our state is dealing with class size is nearly criminal," said Chris Kirchner, an English teacher at Coral Reef Senior High School in Miami. "They're standardizing in the worst possible way, which is evident in virtual classes."
While Ms. Kirchner questions the instructional effectiveness of online courses, she said there was a place for them at some level.
"I think there should be learning on the computer," Ms. Kirchner said. "That part is from 2:30 p.m. on. The first part of the day should be for learning with people."
But Michael G. Moore, a professor of education at Pennsylvania State University, said programs that combine virtual education and face-to-face instruction could be effective. This is called the "blended learning concept."
"There is no doubt that blended learning can be as effective and often more effective than a classroom," said Mr. Moore, who is also editor of The American Journal of Distance Education. He said, however, that research and his experiences had shown that proper design and teacher instruction within the classroom were necessary. A facilitator who only monitors student progress and technical issues within virtual labs would not be categorized as part of a blended-learning model, he said. Other variables include "the maturity and sophistication of the student," he said.
Despite some complaints about the virtual teaching method, administrators said e-learning labs were here to stay. And nationally, blending learning has already caught on in some areas.
In Chicago Public Schools, high schools have "credit recovery" programs that let students take online classes they previously failed so they can graduate. Omaha Public Schools also have similar programs that require physical attendance at certain locations.
Julie Durrand, manager of the e-learning lab program, said the virtual school planned to work more closely with district schools to ensure success. She said virtual school officials wanted orientations to be mandatory in schools with labs. Ms. Durrand also predicted that labs would expand to middle schools and would include more grade levels in schools that currently limited the labs to juniors and seniors.
There are six middle and K-8 schools using virtual labs in Miami, including Cutler Ridge Middle School and Frank C. Martin K-8 Center.
"I truly believe this will be an option for many districts across the state," Ms. Durrand said. "I think we just hit the tip of the iceberg."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)