I remember how it was -- JR
NYC public schools set to lose $215M from budget cuts, hurting hope for smaller class sizes
New York City principals and advocates fear that school budget cuts to the tune of $215 million will make it impossible to afford smaller class sizes next year — just as a bill in Albany has made that reform a priority.
Slashed public school budgets have raised worries about how to pay for new teachers — and even retain current staff — in order to comply with class size caps recently passed by the state legislature.
“Class sizes will inevitably increase if these devastating cuts are enacted,” said Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters.
The shrunken allocations tie school budgets across the city to enrollment for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Public schools have lost an estimated 120,000 students over the last five years — and have also seen average class sizes reduced as a result during that same period.
But Haimson predicted next school year’s budgets would reverse that trend.
“It will be impossible for the DOE to comply with the new state law. In fact, these cuts are like the Mayor and the Chancellor thumbing their nose at the State Legislature,” she said.
Haimson also noted that the city foresees a loss of about 1,500 teaching positions next year, and more than 3,000 after that.
Overall city funding for schools has been reduced primarily due to lower enrollment, a spokesperson for City Hall told The Post.
Kindergarten through third grade classes have averaged around 21.2 students this school year, compared to 23.8 students before the pandemic, according to data compiled by Haimson’s advocacy group. The averages in grades four through eight have also fallen to 23.8 in 2021-22 from 26.5 in 2019-20; and 24.7 in high school from 26.4 students.
A principal in Brooklyn told The Post that his school will have to reduce staff by at least one or two teachers, in responding to the budget.
“Also I don’t know if I’m going to have any money for supplies throughout the year or for students to go on trips,” said the administrator, who added the DOE is encouraging more field trips.
The initial cuts total $375 million, but to soften the shock to city schools this budget season, some of that loss was backfilled with $160 million in federal stimulus funds, The Post has reported.
The stimulus funds that are partially filling in the budget gaps are slated to expire within the next couple of years.
“Educators and parents fought for federal funds to stabilize schools as we moved through the pandemic,” Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, said in a statement. “This additional funding was supposed to hold schools harmless.”
Education officials have warned that enrollment declines can also lead to service and program cuts, testifying at City Council budget hearings to that effect.
City Hall spent much of last week warning of the fiscal impact of the class size bill on other education programs, from school safety measures to dyslexia screenings.
On Friday, Mayor Eric Adams changed his tone, saying that he was “optimistic” about a shared goal of smaller class sizes.
https://nypost.com/2022/06/07/nyc-public-schools-set-to-lose-215-million-from-budget-cuts/
*********************************************Two Georgia preschool teachers arrested after classroom video captures alleged abuse
A Muslim and an Hispanic
Two Georgia preschool teachers were arrested Monday after parents watched a classroom surveillance video allegedly showing the teachers abusing children.
Police began investigating the alleged abuse June 3 after a parent reached out to the Roswell Police Department to voice her concern about her child's safety at the school.
The parent reportedly logged onto the school's camera system and saw "physical contact" in the two teachers' interactions with several students in the classroom, according to a press release from Roswell Police Department.
After further investigation, authorities obtained the video and arrested both teachers based on the actions of the two teachers. Zeina Alostwani, 40, and Soriana Briceno, 19, were charged with first-degree cruelty to children.
Gloria Barghi, a mother to one of the students, said she had a "weird" feeling she needed to check on her son.
"I just told my husband, I said, 'Call it mother's intuition.' I just want to see if he's OK,'" Barghi told WSB-TV. "I pulled up the app. I picked it up right when the lead teacher was assaulting the first victim. It was intentional. It was thought out. It was malicious … these are defenseless little kids.
"They had no policies in place. There was no, 'If this happens, these are the procedures we go by,' to the point that I had to demand that the teachers were removed from the classroom.
"And we would not leave until they were removed. The director even looked at me and questioned, 'So you want me to remove them?' And I said, 'You better believe it. Remove them now.’"
Alostwani and Briceno were booked into the Fulton County Jail Monday
https://www.foxnews.com/us/georgia-teachers-arrested-classroom-abuse-students
*******************************************************Australian universities have held their position in world rankings through the pandemic with seven institutions in the latest global top 100 list released by higher education analyst firm QS
At 30th, the Australian National University retains its position as the best ranked local institution in the 2023 QS World University Rankings, down three places from 27th last year.
Second is the University of Melbourne at 33rd, followed by the University of Sydney at 41st.
Also in the top 100 are UNSW (45th), the University of Queensland (50th), Monash University (57th) and the University of Western Australia (90th).
Among other Australian universities, La Trobe stood out, rising 46 places to 316th in the latest ranking list. QS said the improvement was mainly due to a rise in the number of citations per research paper published by La Trobe academics.
La Trobe has also increased its output of research papers, up by 37 per cent since 2016, nearly three times higher than the 13 per cent average growth in research output over that period.
QS senior vice-president Ben Sowter said although Australian universities had suffered from international isolation during the pandemic, their rankings had stagnated rather than declined.
“There are as many universities rising as falling,” he said. “Australia continues to shine for research excellence, but its recognition among the global academic community and employers has taken a hit, connected with the reduced international engagement during the pandemic.”
Mr Sowter said if the number of international students in Australia took a long time to recover, it would “jeopardise the intellectual diversity and exchange that are causing Australia’s institutions to thrive”.
Because of two years of closed borders during the pandemic, Australian universities also went backwards in the reputation surveys that account for half of the QS ranking. Of the 38 ranked Australian universities, 37 declined in the academic reputation survey of more than 150,000 academics globally, which makes up 40 per cent of the QS ranking.
And all 38 ranked universities declined in the employer reputation survey (which samples nearly 100,000 employers globally), which makes up 10 per cent of the ranking.
However, Australian universities did well on the research measure, which counts the number of research citations per academic, and makes up 20 per cent of the ranking score. Thirteen Australian universities are in the world’s top 100 on the research measure.
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My other blogs: Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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