Virginia lawmakers approve 150 minutes for PE

MoonHowler

All that’s needed is a governor’s signature and Virginia will have yet another unfunded mandate.  Starting in 2014, all elementary and middle schools must provide 150 minutes of PE per week for students.  Half-day kindergarten students would be exempt.  This change would be most significant in elementary schools where only 10% of schools meet the state standard.  Recess would not be allowed to substitute for PE.

Not everyone likes the new law.  The VEA opposes the bill.  Several school systems oppose it also.  According to the Washington Post:

But some school district officials oppose the looming requirement – to be implemented in 2014 – saying it could extend the school day, lead to cuts in arts and music classes, or increase costs because additional teachers would be needed.

“Schools can’t be expected to solve all of society’s problems,” said Fairfax Superintendent Jack D. Dale, who lobbied against the legislation.

Naturally, educators are concerned about PE cutting in to instructional time for academics. One of the biggest problems is where to hold PE classes during inclement weather.  Many elementary schools simply lack facilities to have phyical activities going on inside the building.  Most schools do not have gyms and often use the cafeteria when lunch isn’t being served.  That’s going to be a problem. 

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Family Life Education Bill passes out of committee–heads to full Senate vote

MoonHowler

On Thursday, members of the Senate Education and Health committee voted to report SB 967: Family Life Education Standards of Learning by a vote of 11-4. This was a huge victory but the first step of many to getting this common-sense legislation signed into law.

On Monday, the entire Senate will vote on this legislation.

Family life education. Requires each school division to implement the standards of learning for the family life education program promulgated by the Board of Education, or a family life education program consistent with the guidelines developed by the Board, which shall have the goals of reducing the incidence of pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, and substance abuse among teenagers. Any curricula or materials used must be evidence-based and supported by peer reviewed medical research.

As I understand it, this legislation would do away with schools being coerced into using bogus materials that present voodoo pseudo science as medical evidence. I once sat through several classes of abstinence education.  It was foolish and the kids all laughed at it.  There were virginity pledges, rings, and other gimmicks that really didn’t address sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy, and the responsibilities involved in becoming sexually active at an early age.  Those types of ‘classes’ are better for church groups and within the family.  They are not appropriate for public education.  This bill protects our children from pseudo science being presented as fact.

Please write to your state senator and encourage him or her to support SB 967.  Accurate information never hurt anyone.

Senator Colgan’s email:

[email protected]

 

Low Hanging Fruit

MoonHowler

The other day, I got an email from Delegate Jackson Miller, trumpeting all the work he is doing to stop illegal immigration.  I expected to read that he had taken up personal vigil down on the border considering all the fanfare.  Such was not the case.  In part, his email stated:

 

During the 2011 Virginia General Assembly Session, we will be debating many issues that are important to the Commonwealth, but one issue of particular significance to me is illegal immigration.  As a former police officer with almost two decades of experience, I have seen firsthand the effect that illegal immigration can have on a community.  As your Delegate, I am working hard to find solutions to the many issues and challenges that illegal immigration has presented in our communities and in our Commonwealth.  

 Recently, I appeared on Fox News Channel’s morning program, Fox & Friends, to defend a bill on which I am a co-patron.  This bill, HB1465,   (click for full text)  stipulates that illegal aliens will not be eligible for admission to Virginia’s colleges and universities.  Higher education is a privilege, not a right, and placement in Virginia’s colleges and universities has become increasingly difficult for legal residents of our state to obtain.  This bill will require that all prospective students submit appropriate documentation showing proof of citizenship or a student visa for eligibility for enrollment. 

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Mississippi Coach Beats Students for Blowing Basketball Plays

MoonHowler

Basketball Coach Marlon Dorsey  of Murra High School in Jackson, Mississippi has been temporarily suspended from his job for beating students with a 5 pound weight belt when they failed to run basketball plays to his satisfaction.  Nearly all the students have been beaten at one time or another.  One student received belt beatings almost daily.

The students did not rat out the coach for fear of being benched or removed from the team.  The team discipline was discovered by a parent (seen in the video) who stopped by the gym to watch practice.  The father was outraged.

Coach Dorsey has submitted a written explanation, but not an apology.  According to the Washington Post:

“I took it upon myself to save these young men from the destruction of self and what society has accepted and become silent to the issues our students are facing on a daily basis. I am deeply remorseful of my actions to help our students.”

 

Would apologizing really even help? Three of the sets of parents have filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of their sons. Other parents have defended the coach and are working to help retain his job:

“He has made them go to study hall, makes them turn in their homework and makes them give weekly reports of their school work,” Gary Love, whose son plays for Dorsey, told the paper. “It’s been all positive with one bad incident. He made a huge mistake, but he is human.

“It was poor judgment, but he is an outstanding person, determined and driven to make those kids better. I think we all need to step back and give him his job back”

Poor judgement?  Were Coach Dorsey coaching in this area, he would be a goner and would probably have had criminal charges filed against him by now. Should he lose his job, even if he were trying to ‘help’ the boys?

 

 

 

 

 

School Board Passes Resolution Asking for Federal Funds

MoonHowler

The Prince William County School Board has passed a resolution asking the BOCS for permission to apply for federal Education Jobs Fund  money to hire teachers in the current school year.  The county school system ended up with an additional 807 students for the current school year which made the current teacher shortage even more severe.  The cost for this many students is just under $8.7 million, or just under $11,000 per pupil. 

According to News and Messenger:

Prince William County Public Schools has been allocated about $17 million through the Federal Education Jobs Fund Program, but the school division can’t use that money unless the county approves it.

The School Board voted 7 to 1 Wednesday to ask the Board of County Supervisors to allocate $5.8 million of the federal money to the school division in the current school year to help pay the costs for the additional students who enrolled. The other $2.9 million needed would come from state funding.

Neabsco District representative Lisa Bell cast the dissenting vote.

The School Board’s resolution also proposes discussing what to do with the remaining $11.2 million in federal money during its budget process for fiscal 2012.

In August, the Board of County Supervisors passed a resolution stating that they would not address the federal education jobs fund money until the fiscal 2012 budget process.

The School Board is hoping they will change their mind.

One has to question Ms. Bell.  What plan does she have to pay for educating over 800 more students?  Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see what the current BOCS does in response to the School Board resolution.   Last August the BOCS got hysterical because they thought Superintendent Walts was issuing contracts to teachers without permission from them to take stimulus money.  They called an emergency meeting even though Corey Stewart, Maureen Caddigan and John Jenkins were out of town. 

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Virginia spends millions on college dropouts, study finds

MoonHowler

Virginia has spent millions on college drop outs.  According to the Richmond Times Dispatch:

Richmond, Va. —

Virginia taxpayers spent $177.7 million over five years on 35,461 college students who dropped out after their first year, according to a national study on the cost of attrition.

Federal grants to those students totaled an additional $33.7 million, the American Institutes for Research says in a report being released today that looked at freshmen who didn’t return to four-year schools during the 2003 to 2008 academic years.

Nationally, those costs exceed $9 billion, said the report, which is intended to focus attention on institutional accountability at a time when the state and federal governments are seeking to increase the numbers of students who earn degrees.

“If you don’t finish the first lap, you can’t cross the finish line,” said Mark Schneider, the American Institutes for Research vice president and a former U.S. commissioner of education statistics.

Why are we spending this kind of money?  When do we decide WHO CARES?  If we are going to cut back on spending, here would be a great place to start. 

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Michelle Rhee to Resign Today

MoonHowler

Michelle Rhee will announce her resignation today.  The resignation will take place at the end of the month.  According to the Washington Post:

D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee will announce Wednesday that she is resigning at the end of this month, bringing an abrupt end to a tenure that drew national acclaim but that also became a central issue in an election that sent her patron, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, to defeat.

Rhee survived three contentious years that made her a superstar of the education reform movement and one of the longest-serving school leaders in the city in two decades. Student test scores rose, and the teachers union accepted a contract that gave the chancellor sweeping powers to fire the lowest-performing among them.

But Rhee will leave with considerable unfinished business in her quest to improve teaching, close the worst schools and infuse a culture of excellence in a system that has been one of the nation’s least effective at educating students.

She will be replaced until at least the end of the school year by Deputy Chancellor Kaya Henderson, a close associate.

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“Old Dead White Men”

MoonHowler

Fox News reports that some folks are up in arms over a rap song being used in some schools called “Old Dead White Men.”  The rap song teaches about Monroe and Andrew Jackson.  The rap music is being used with at-risk kids in Oklahoma City Public Schools and is a product of an educational company called Flocabulary. 

In particular, the song lyrics include the following about Jackson:

“Andrew Jackson thinks he’s a tough guy. Killing more Indians than there are stars in the sky. Evil wars of Florida killing the Seminoles. Saying hello, putting Creek in the hell holes. Like Adolf Hitler he had the final solution. ‘No, Indians, I don’t want you to live here anymore.”

Sooooo…what here is inaccurate?  It appears that the accuracy isn’t in question, just the wisdom of using such inflammatory language around already troubled youths. 

 

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School Board Dissatisfied with the 4 Horsemen of the BOCS

MoonHowler
Anything to get re-elected
Anything to get re-elected

Many years ago, in Prince William County, there was a gang on either the BOCS or the appointed school board who were not-so-affectionately named the 4 horsemen. They were seen as enemies of the school system. It seems that the 4 horsemen have been reincarnated, after several decades, on our board of supervisors. I am trying to remember . Why they were named that?   Was it a nice way of speaking of the educational Apocalypse on the horizon or was it short for horse body parts? Perhaps those  readers  who have been around PWC for a while will remember.

But I digress….

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I Guess They Showed Him

MoonHowler

I guess the BOCS showed Dr. Walts. Apparently many of them think he is getting too big for his britches.

From the Washington Post:

The Prince William Board of County Supervisors postponed accepting and budgeting federal stimulus funds for school jobs Tuesday, halting Superintendent Steven L. Walts’s effort to hire 180 more teachers by next month.

“We always respect and honor the decisions of our governing bodies,” Walts said in an e-mail. “While our preference is to have the new teachers in place for this year in order to positively affect our students’ learning as soon as possible, we will postpone our plans. . . . For the thousands of students who will not have the additional teachers this year, I am extremely disappointed.”

Class size will continue to be a problem as long as the budget is tight. The BOCS, however, hit a double. They got to show Walts who is boss, or in their case, who ultimately holds the purse strings. In addition, they all got to show that they wanted to ‘cut spending,’ even though counties run by smarter leaders will get the money.

Class sizes and the organization of special ed classes will continue to keep PWC Schools from being a world class school system. Walts was hired to create the best learning environment for the children of Prince William County. It seems that he walked on other people’s turf while attempting to do what he was hired to do.

The children of PWC will be in overcrowded classes while Walts gets taught a lesson and the BOCS can crow to their constituents that they voted down spending.  And whoever gets the money that would have gone to PWC Schools is laughing all the way to the bank while they use our stimulus money to pay salaries, benefits (including VRS) for additional teachers. 

Prince Billy Bob strikes again. 

Full Story from the Washington Post

No Stimulus Funds for PWC Schools — Too bad, kids! Squeeze in!

MoonHowler

Hats off to Frank Principi who tried to postpone a decision regarding the federal stimulus money until the next regularly scheduled BOCS meeting on September 14. That sounds like the right thing to do. However, that was not to be. As it stands now, pressed on by the urgings of CXO Melissa Peacor, stimulus funds will be considered during the next fiscal year.

In the first place, this was a mighty important decision to be decided on such short notice. 3 board members were absent: Caddigan, Jenkins and Stewart. The time line is fuzzy. Superintendent Walts wanted to begin hiring up to 180 new teachers. That’s understandable. He has a school system to run and that school system starts up Monday, August 30 with kids coming in the Tuesday after Labor Day. Walts doesn’t have time for the BOCS to grand stand and posture for their upcoming elections in 2011.

If there are strings attached to the stimulus money, then naturally the BOCS needs to be aware. If 3 of them aren’t there….there is a problem right from the git-go. It seems to me that the stimulus fund issue ought to be discussed during the Sept. 14 regular BOCS meeting. The School Board and the Board of Supervisors need to find a more effective way to communicate.

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Why Little Johnny Can’t go to U.VA or Wm and Mary

MoonHowler

How come Johnny who had a straight A average in high school can’t get in to William and Mary or U.VA, Virginia’s two Ivy League-like premier universities?  Northern Virginia students are hit especially hard with this reality, since regardless of what is said, there is a quota.  If there weren’t, the premium northern Virginia schools would take up all the slots and the rest of the state would be out in the cold. 

Part of the problem has always been that out-of-state students take up slots that Virginia students would like to have.  Why are these spots give to out-of-staters?  MONEY.  The out-of-state students pay higher tuition.  The ratio of  out-of-state students to Virginia students crawls upward during hard times, like the ones we are in now.  According to the Richmond Times Dispatch:

Richmond, Va. —

The University of Virginia expects 3,246 first-year students to move in Saturday, among them 1,035 who are from out of state.

Of 1,404 freshmen who will arrive Aug. 25 at the College of William and Mary, 522 are non-Virginians.

Like their in-state peers, they’ll feel the impact of rising tuition costs — and then some.

The two schools more than comply with a state law that requires public colleges and universities to charge out-of-state students the full cost of their education.

U.Va. charges nonresidents 173 percent of the average per-student cost, while W&M charges 154 percent, according to a report last month by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.

All the state’s public schools exceed the per-student cost by a statewide average of 151 percent, the report found.

But it’s the in-state, out-of-state numbers at Virginia’s two “public ivies” that draw the most attention.

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Upcoming VCU rap concert raises some eyebrows

MoonHowler

From the Richmond Times Dispatch:

Richmond, Va. —
Rap artist Asher Roth loves college, but it’s the reasons why that are causing controversy ahead of his performance at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Welcome Week for incoming freshmen.

Along with fellow hip-hop artist B.o.B., Roth — whose hit single “I Love College” was all the rage last year — is set to perform at a Back to School Jam concert Aug. 28 at the Siegel Center.

In keeping with the themes of Roth’s other work, “I Love College” extols certain nonacademic portions of the collegiate experience, such as excessive beer consumption, marijuana use and casual sex. At one point, the song devolves into the chanting of the words “chug” and “freshmen.”

Event price tag: $100,000, to be paid for through student activity fees from Monroe Park Campus students.

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Virginia schools fall short of new benchmarks, but scores rise slightly

MoonHowler

They (test scores) rose slightly, yet they still failed. I am somewhat amused. Firebrands like Ken Cuccinelli went nuclear on the new health care plan because Virginians might be forced to buy a product. Yet, at the same time, no one has even raised an eyebrow over the federal government usurping the state’s power over education and mandating a dramatic educational overhaul that is costing localities literally millions of dollars.

From the Washington Post:

Average scores on Virginia’s Standards of Learning math exams rose slightly and reading performance remained static in the 2009-10 school year, but the vast majority of public schools across the state failed to meet new performance benchmarks for graduation rates and for students with disabilities, according to results released Thursday by the state Department of Education.

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“Shcool” Days, “Shcool” Days, Dear old Golden Rule Days

MoonHowler

shcool_1695090c

Hopefully the sign painters near Guilford, NC have gotten this tiny little spelling error fixed by now. Students are returning to class very soon. There really isn’t much to say. Go to school and learn to spell it. And if you learn to spell it, thank a teacher, even if Sarah Palin rolls her eyes at you.

I should not be surprised. Across the nation, it has suddenly become popular to disparage teachers in one way or another. Teaching is no longer considered an honorable profession, apparently. Last spring people cheered as all the teachers were fired from a Rhode Island school that was struggling with a high drop out rate. Governor Christie of New Jersey is a new folk hero after telling a teacher to get a different job if she doesn’t like the new way things are being run. Americans are moaning and groaning nationwide because of a jobs bill passed this week to help states with schools struggling to prevent teacher layoffs.

One can hear more signs of teacher disparity as pensions are discussed. Teachers make up a large part of many public employee pension funds. While fire fighters and cops are catching a little of the flack, teacher are certainly on the front lines. Those who criticize, including the NJ governor, seem to forget that very often teachers get pension benefits in the form of deferred compensation. I know this is true in the case of Virginia teachers and other public employees in the state who were given paid pension contributions rather than raises for several years back in the 80s.

In another era, in another time, teachers, firefighters and police officers were held in much higher esteem. Now a former governor of the last outpost state rolls her eyes over the profession. How sad. I guess there will be a fire sale for those signs that read:

Shoot, I can’t even find a bumper sticket to cut and paste here.

thank a teacher

So this is what it has all come down to.