Saturday, August 13, 2005

KANSAS: THE DUMBING DOWN YOU HAVE WHEN YOU ARE NOT HAVING DUMBING DOWN

The state should change its accreditation standards for public schools so that all students do not have to be grade-level proficient in math and reading by 2014, Senate Vice President John Vratil and Attorney General Phill Kline said Tuesday. Vratil and Kline told the 10-member State Board of Education, which sets academic standards, that the mandate for 100 percent proficiency in math and reading by 2014 was unrealistic and could be costly to the state. They said the courts could force the state to increase funding to public schools so they can meet the standard. "There's probably not enough money in the state of Kansas to attain 100 percent proficiency," said Vratil, R-Leawood.

The State Board of Education adopted the proficiency mandate as part of its accreditation requirements following the passage of the federal No Child Left Behind law in 2001. Schools are required to make progress each year toward the goal of 100 percent proficiency in reading and math or face sanctions. Vratil insisted he was not trying to "dumb down" education. Rather, he said, he wants the board to be realistic and set goals and standards the state can hope to achieve, including closing the achievement gap between whites and minorities and rich and poor students. "If we're unrealistic, all we do is breed disrespect for the standard," he said. "We're setting ourselves up for failure."

Board Chairman Steve Abrams, of Arkansas City, said it was unclear if the board would act but that members have expressed concerns about the federal mandates. "I've said before that No Child Left Behind is a problem, a disaster waiting to happen," he said.

However, Board member Bill Wagnon, of Topeka, said the state shouldn't weaken the requirements. He said he could provide Vratil and Kline with the names of the state's 450,000 students and they could "identify which ones you want me to leave behind."

Kline expressed concern about what the courts might do if the standards aren't changed. He said that if the proficiency requirement remains intact, courts could end up ruling that the Legislature must spend as much money as is required for schools to reach the goal. Kline said that could mean other needs in education aren't met, and the courts could end up deciding how much the state spends on education and where the money is spent. "The issue is who maintains the authority to set policy and set priorities," he said.

Source




ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THE LEFT TRYING TO GET VIA LAWSUITS WHAT THEY CANNOT GET THROUGH DEMOCRACY

And, judging by places with high per capita spending on public education, this grab will only destroy Califonia education even further if it succeeds

California's largest teachers union and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell announced Tuesday that they have sued Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to seek $3 billion more for public schools. The California Teachers Association and O'Connell, a Democrat elected statewide to his nonpartisan post, say the Republican governor broke his word and violated state law by failing to give K-14 schools (K-12 schools and community colleges) more in his 2005-06 budget. Some California parents also joined as plaintiffs in the lawsuit. "We've exhausted all of our other remedies, and the judicial option is our last remaining option to adequately fund public education," O'Connell said.

Schwarzenegger's budget aides said Tuesday they are confident the lawsuit will not hold up in court and that the governor's budget was approved legally by the state Legislature and sufficiently funds schools. The lawsuit comes after a months-long battle between Schwarzenegger and education advocates over a deal they struck in January 2004. Facing a massive budget shortfall, the new governor persuaded a powerful and vocal education coalition to accept a $2 billion cut to K-12 schools and the suspension of Proposition 98's minimum funding guarantees. In exchange, it was announced, the cut and any resulting lost money from the suspension would be restored in future years when the state's fiscal picture brightened. "Just one year later, however, the governor changed his mind about the funding agreement," states the lawsuit filed late Monday in Sacramento Superior Court.

Schwarzenegger in January announced his second budget would not repay the $2 billion, despite growing revenues, because he said the state needed the money for other priorities such as transportation. The governor's top finance officials at first acknowledged that he was breaking his word to school officials, saying that the state's fiscal situation simply would not allow him to keep it. Schwarzenegger later changed his defense of the matter slightly, however, saying only that he had promised eventually to repay the $2 billion and that he did not think he had broken a commitment. He defends his 2005-06 budget as one that boosts per-pupil spending over last year. His budget also used billions in new revenues to repay a loan to local governments early, fully fund the state's Proposition 42 transportation funding and avoid any significant new borrowing.

But schools advocates say some of that additional revenue should have gone to classrooms under the governor's deal and under state law. They said they are owed more - about $3 billion for the last and current fiscal year - based on a state statute that was passed after the budget deal was made with the governor. The statute, signed as part of the 2004-05 budget, says that schools should receive just $2 billion below the amount that Proposition 98 guaranteed them if it hadn't been suspended. But because revenues were better than expected, the lawsuit argues that schools should have been guaranteed $1.8 billion more for the 2004-05 fiscal year and $1.1 billion this year. Proposition 98 establishes a minimum, or floor, for school spending that is decided by revenue pictures and one of three formulas each year, depending on economic conditions. The Legislature and the governor can agree to suspend Proposition 98.

Dean Vogel, CTA's secretary treasurer, said the organization sought to persuade Schwarzenegger to include the $3 billion in the budget he signed. But when that didn't happen, the group decided to sue.

H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for Schwarzenegger's Department of Finance, said budget officials "don't believe that the suit will stand up in court." He pointed to an analysis by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office last fall that called Schwarzenegger's approach sensible. And he said that Democrats - who control the Legislature - and Republicans voted to send a budget to the governor that contained about the same levels of education spending that he recommended in January. "We believe that the courts will recognize that two branches of state government came to the same conclusion, that this was legal and appropriate," he said.

O'Connell countered that he believes the law is clear. "There's a formula, and the formula needs to be adhered to," he said. "This isn't just the governor's word and the education coalition's word. This is about the law."

Source

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL schools should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the poor and minimal regulation.

The NEA and similar unions worldwide believe that children should be thoroughly indoctrinated with Green/Left, feminist/homosexual ideology but the "3 R's" are something that kids should just be allowed to "discover"


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