What You Can Do To Fight The Budget Blues

I loved this anonymous comment from the other day:

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around ANY cuts, seeing as the state's School Aid Fund is actually quite flush, and could fund an INCREASE in per pupil funding if it weren't being pillaged for other uses. This budget "crisis" is totally voluntary, created by Snyder and the legislature. They control expenses and revenue, and if they need to collect more revenue in order to adequately fund basic services, then that's what they need to do. That's their job.

That's right! Let the legislature know that it is unacceptable to cut K-12 education in order to fund higher education or anything else--there is a reason for a dedicated School Aid Fund. 

Get information about how to contact your state senator or representative right here. 

I mentioned the other day that there is a rally going on April 30th to protest these cuts. The rally is in Ann Arbor. I didn't put together the reason for the rally, though, which is that Governor Snyder is the UM Commencement Speaker. He's coming to "our" backyard, and one of our public schools is right across the street, so let's explain to him why education needs protection, not cuts; and why good schools are important for everyone, not just those wealthy enough to afford private school educations. The facebook event page for this rally is: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=202014289818189

On May 3d, there is a Special Education millage. PLEASE remember to vote. PLEASE vote yes on the millage. This is a renewal millage, but if it doesn't pass, every county district will need to make cuts in addition to the cuts that are expected to come from the School Aid Fund.


Because special education services are mandated, for the most part they will be protected even if the millage fails--which means that the cuts will then come out of the funding for general education. More information is available at washtenawfriends.org.


All of that means that the best way to protect BOTH special education and general education is to vote yes on the millage on May 3d.

So...three things you can do to fight the budget blues.

1. Let Rick Snyder and the legislature know that you don't want the School Aid Fund poached--you want the money spent on the needs of K-12 students.
UPDATE 4/25/11: Michigan Parents for Schools has an easy way to send a personalized alert to the governor and legislators all at once. You will find it here. (Link fixed on 4/28/11.)

2. Vote yes on the May 3d special education millage.
3. Educate yourself. Ann Arbor's budget forums are coming this week; other budget forums are coming up too! (Related note: State Senator Rebekah Warren will be at the 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 26 Ypsilanti school board meeting, room 138 located in the lower level of Ypsilanti High School.)


The community's children thank you.

Local Budget Blues

Someone asked me what I thought of the proposed budget cuts to the Ann Arbor Public Schools, and obviously I haven't yet seen the full proposal, so this is just my first impressions based on what I've read.

And Budget Forums, coming next week, are for our edification!
Ann Arbor Public Schools Budget Forums:
Monday, April 25 at Pioneer High School - Cafeteria Annex, 6:30 p.m.
and
Thursday, April 28 at Skyline High School-Commons area, 6:30 p.m.

Also, it is worth noting that the proposed budget cuts are BEFORE any cuts that might occur if the special education renewal millage doesn't pass. Please vote for that county-wide millage on May 3d.


So, anyway, from what I have read there are three large pieces to the budget cuts: cut teaching staff, share principals, and cut high school transportation. The district is estimating a need to cut $15 million.

As far as cuts to teachers go, I think that is no surprise at all. If you have a program that has, as its largest share of expenses, staffing; and if, as in the case of the schools, the largest share of staffing is teachers, then of course teacher cuts will naturally follow major budget reductions. Either that, or teachers will have to volunteer to take cuts. Personally, I think that the cuts in teaching staff and the resulting larger classes are more likely to get parents and others upset sooner, and perhaps advocate for some change at the state level. Also, if I were part of the teachers' union, I wouldn't be in a big hurry to give concessions when a) the teachers gave them last year and b) the new Superintendent is coming in making a whole lotta money.

The second piece, cutting high school transportation, raises a lot of questions--both practical and philosophical. It's true that a lot of high school students don't take the public school buses. So does that make it okay to cut? Philosophical: on the other hand, are we trying to serve the kids who have cars or parents available to drive them, or the have nots? What would it mean if a child literally couldn't get to school? Practical: because my daughter has been taking a Community Resource class after school, she takes one less class during the school day. We live about a ten-minute walk from a public bus stop, and we tried to get her to take the public bus. Day, after day, after day, that bus was 15 minutes late. The idea of taking the public bus system ended up being more idealistic than ideal, and now most days she gets a ride. But we have flexible schedules...

Third--Cutting out principals by having four schools share two principals. I guess that I would ask that question in reverse. If that is a good idea, why don't we do it with all of the schools?! Hmmm. Maybe because it is not such a good idea? Those combined schools are bigger than some of the middle schools, all of which, right now, have a principal and a superintendent an assistant principal... In fact, those schools are some of the districts' larger schools. Can we look at making different types of cuts among administrators? Cutting assistant principals at the middle schools? Cutting staff in the administrative offices?

Another alternative--The Interim Superintendent went on record in saying that the district couldn't consider closing a school because it would require redistricting.  Hmmm. In some cases, that could be true. In others, it wouldn't be. Here are two school closing options to consider that would not require any redistricting at all:

A. Close Stone School, and move that into a wing of another school (say, into Pioneer or Huron). That is an alternative program that could be housed anywhere.

B. Close Mitchell School and merge Mitchell School into Scarlett Middle School. This would make sense to me because the district is already trying to start a K-8 Lab School with those two schools together, and Scarlett actually does have room to house all of the Mitchell kids, because Mitchell is one of the smallest schools in the district and Scarlett is the smallest middle school! I also like the idea of having an east side K-8 program; Ann Arbor Open's K-8 program has proven to be very popular.


Come to the forums. Find out more, share your opinions. Share your opinions with the school board as well.

State Budget Blues

Here in Ann Arbor, where we have largely escaped unscathed from the past 15 or so years of budget cuts, we are just now starting to feel the pain that districts like Ypsilanti and Willow Run have felt.

In order to understand the problem,  first lets take a look at the state scene:

Governor Snyder is trying to poach from the School Aid Fund to give to higher education. Now, I want us to support higher education, but not from the School Aid Fund. There's a reason it's never been done before (it is, by the way, legal and so technically not poaching)--it's a bad idea. K-12 education is mandated, and higher education is not. If Governor Snyder didn't take money away from K-12 education, then the cuts wouldn't be nearly so bad. I understood this much more clearly from a report that Michigan Radio did.

In an excellent, excellent piece, "Shifting Money away from Schools," they explain,

The School Aid Fund is one of the main sources of money for K-12 public schools. Since it was established by the 1908 Michigan Constitution and even though in the 1963 Constitution “higher education” was added, the money in the School Aid Fund only has been used to pay for educating public school children. That is, until this year. 

Also, today, Michigan Radio reports that the Senate Appropriations Committee voted today on party lines regarding education funding, and that what passed was a $340 per student cut, and not the $740 per student cut that Governor Snyder wants.

 So obviously, if you believe this fund shouldn't be cut, you might want to become active in influencing your state legislature. I received this note today from a school parent:

Dear Parents & Teachers,

Your kids need your help. I am calling on all parents, teachers, friends & neighbors to join the protest demonstration on April 30th @ 10 am on the corner of Stadium and Main to protest the over 1 billion dollar cut in Kindergarten to College (K-20) education.  One third of budget deficit will be "fixed" by cutting education which is wildly disproportionate and only affects the kids of the working class.
If you think that:
1) Cutting education to feed corporate tax cuts unfairly burdens the middle class and working poor...
2) A good education is NOT just for the rich...
3) Education should NOT become a for-profit business... (our kids are not commodities...)
4) Your child's education is worth you taking 2 hours of your time to stand up and be counted
Then join us. Tell your friends. Pass it on. Your kids have no voice - but YOU do!

For more information, contact Mary Krasan, mskrasan@yahoo.com

Pedagogy of the Oppressed: Why?

Several years ago, we asked friends and family coming to our house for the holiday to each focus on a particular section of the Passover Seder. Seder means "Order" in Hebrew, and at Passover, Jews tell the story of the Exodus from Egypt at a Seder, using a Haggadah, a book that means "Telling," and that has a certain order to it. One of the sections of the Haggadah is called Maggid, loosely translated as the Story. In other words, it's the narrative.

So, my friend brings this question about the Maggid section:
This is the Story part of the Haggadah, but there is no story here--at least, no story about the Exodus. Instead, there is a description of four kinds of children (wise, wicked, simple, and one who doesn't know how to ask)--and a suggestion as to how to answer their questions.
There are songs and activities.
There is a place where the youngest person at the table asks four questions about the Seder's symbols.
There are obscure references to historical occurrences that on the surface don't seem to have anything to do with the story of the Exodus from Egypt.


Why is there no story in the Story?
Is this really the Socratic Method? Depending on who you talk to, the Socratic Method means slightly different things, all involving questions and answers. Rick Garlikov describes the Socratic Method as "Teaching by Asking Instead of Telling." According to Wikipedia,

The Socratic method (also known as method of elenchus, Socratic irony, or Socratic debate), named after the classical Greek philosopher Socrates, is a form of inquiry and debate between individuals with opposing viewpoints based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to illuminate ideas.^[1]

No, this is not the Socratic method. But the Seder uses outstanding educational techniques--requiring interaction between members of the group; hands-on activities; thought-provoking questions; and even some performance (traditionally, the youngest person in the room masters and chants four questions). And the result? The seder is probably the most observed Jewish practice in the world.

*   *    *    *    *    *
Pedagogy of the Oppressed is the most well-known book of Paolo Freire, and it is a book that, I confess, I have not been able to read all the way through (dense!)--but the essence is this:

In the book Freire calls traditional pedagogy the "banking model" because it treats the student as an empty vessel to be filled with knowledge, like a piggybank. However, he argues for pedagogy to treat the learner as a co-creator of knowledge. (Wikipedia)

[Note: Freire is referring to "traditional pedagogy" as the pedagogy common in Europe and the Americas in the 1800s and 1900s.]

Ultimately, the Haggadah is at least a thousand years old in one form or another, and the story of the Exodus from Egypt is even older. Since it is a story of slaves throwing off the shackles of slavery, so I will close with a few quotes from Paolo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed:

"Looking at the past must only be a means of understanding more clearly what and who they are so that they can more wisely build the future."

"The greatest humanistic and historical task of the oppressed: to liberate themselves..." 

 "… Without a sense of identity, there can be no real struggle…" 

"No one is born fully-formed: it is through self-experience in the world that we become what we are."  

"Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other." 

Spy High: Tweeting the Night Away

Well, this is my first experiment with tweeting a meeting. I was at the Skyline High School PTSO meeting and I tweeted the meeting. (You can follow me at twitter.com/schoolsmuse if you like.)
What I've decided to do is paste in my tweets here, and then add some more commentary.

Skyline PTSO meeting starts with a unanimous endorsement of the special ed. millage. Yes!
If you want more information, visit this web site: washtenawfriends.org

Now Sulura Jackson is giving a pitch for security cameras. Says there are fewer community assts. and more students.
If I wondered if this would be a neutral proposal, the answer is now clear--no, it's not.

Says students are in the building after 5 with no adults.
The custodians are there, but of course their job is not student supervision. Students are there, generally, related to after school programs (athletics, theater, robotics...).

Says she read my blog! And wants to address idea of misuse. "Typically" videos are not monitored. (Of course they could be-are pub. record.)
Of course she reads my blog! Doesn't everybody? (Just kidding!) Here she is referring to my comment, in my last post, that in other districts, video cameras have been misused--to "out" kids regarding whom they are kissing; to stalk attractive students; to monitor the actions of racial minorities. So, first of all, I don't find "that will never happen here" to be very convincing, and second of all, the videos are public record. They are FOIA-able.

Says of course we will still have problems.
In other words, they're not going to solve everything. But you already knew that.

Sulura Jackson summarizes it as safe vs. Sorry. I would characterize it as waste of $ and civil rights violation.
In other words, she thinks this will make students and staff safe. I disagree. I think it will give the illusion of safety, but it won't create safety.

Walking a fine line between saying school is safe vs. not safe. Wants to say it is safe now but that it won't be.
Here Ms. Jackson is trying to say that it's safe now, but of course if it is safe now, why do you need surveillance? So then she wants to say that it is unsafe, but wait, she doesn't quite want to say that.

Says school board is the ultimate decider.
I wasn't at the last PTSO meeting, but my friend says she said there that it wouldn't go forward without the support of the PTSO. Now it seems maybe it will go forward in any case? The room seems split.

Funding not in the budget yet and doesn't have an estimate. Doesn't know how much crime went down after Pi/Huron cameras installed.
Here she says the funding is not in the budget. Later she says the funding would come from a "different source," not the general fund. I assume that she means it would come from the building bonds. That might convince me not to vote for those next time. Anyway, if there's building bond money to spend on Skyline, I've got my own wish list. How about removing the banisters from the middle of the stairs so kids can get up and down in time for class? Those were crowded when there were just freshmen in the school! How about getting some BOOKS in the library?! I think there are about 100. (OK, a few more than that, but not many. Try to find a memoir for a class assignment, and good luck with that.)

Parent says at Pioneer crime stayed the same but big fights went down.
This was in response to the question, how did crime change at Pioneer before and after the cameras were put in. This question was first put to Ms. Jackson, who didn't know the answer. Actually, I'm not sure if it was a parent, or the school's police officer, who answered this question.

Wiring at Skyline is already in place.
Presumably this means it would cost less to install the cameras than at Pioneer or Huron. But I'm just guessing there. The square footage might be different.

There is no proposal yet. No policies on how long they last.
Listening to this presentation, I'm having a hard time believing that no proposal has been batted around. The "No policies on how long they last" refers to a question a parent asked as to what the policy would be for how long the video would be kept, and what the policies are at Huron and Pioneer. Ms. Jackson said there was no proposal yet, and she didn't know the policies in the other schools.

Security cameras have not been discussed at a full teacher meeting. Dislikes the term crimes and prefers to call them "code violations."
This was in response to a question about what teachers think. Everyone is using the term crime and Sulura says she dislikes the term.

Wait-we're discussing violating civil rights for "code violations?!" Parent says, are they or aren't they crimes? Ms. Jackson says code viol(ations)--my tweeting characters ran out!
Here is an example of why we "need" security cameras. A student switched the signs of the men's and women's restrooms, causing confusion and in at least one case, embarrassment. This is not a crime, this is a code violation.

Discussing the idea of putting security cameras at Skyline at the PTSO meeting.
I'm getting tweet-happy here, the way radio stations give their call letters.

Parent. If we're talking abt code violations, need to teach students to be citizens. Jackson; doesn't want to be reactive.
Here the parent's point is that if it's not about crime, and it is about "code violations," then this is not about safety, it's about civics. Jackson doesn't want to be reactive.

Student describing gay harrassment. Believes cameras would help but not solve the problem completely.
Now a student is talking about being harrassed because he is gay. This upsets me (and a lot of other people there too!) because I've heard some other stories about LGBT kids being harrassed at Skyline--in fact, that it is the least LGBT-friendly school in the district. I don't know that the school has done a good job bringing in really good speakers and programming on this issue.
However, based on his accounts, I think this harrassment would just move off-camera, if there were cameras. That commonly happens at other schools.

Another tweeter asks me about ethernet in the school and about the foia coordinator for the video footabe.
Liz Margolis is foia coordinator. Question came up of how long video footage is kept. The school is already wired.
(I think she's the foia coordinator. She's the communications director.)

Passionate students. If we react to video isn't that reactive? Students are req'd to be in schools. Crime rate (data provided) very low.
I thought this student had a great point--if you are responding to video, you are still being reactive. Prevention is proactive. The ACLU FOIA'd data about crime rates. They are really low. (No wonder they want to call the issue "code violations!") I'm going to try to figure out if I can upload the data, if I can I'll point you to the right place here.

Parent summarizes statement of Mike Steinberg of @ACLUofMichigan who says it is a civil rights violation.
That is, that putting in surveillance cameras would be a civil rights violation.

Officer Morales, cameras everywhere. It is a tool to investigate. We don't have time to review & misuse cameras.
Officer Morales is saying that in the greater world, cameras are everywhere, and that he just sees them as a useful tool. He doesn't believe they will be misused because "we don't have time."

Parent: Cameras everywhere, it is reality. Thinks it will help with harassment.
This parent is pro-surveillance cameras.

Ath. Director: he and custodians only one in building here late. Thinks it would help w/ security.
That is the Athletic Director. Goes into the "if it were my child here I'd want cameras here." Honestly, I find that a little patronizing. I have a child here, and I don't want cameras. But I think he might have a child here, and he does! Call it a draw--just don't tell me what I should think. I think most people like to think for themselves.

Jackson: staffing mtg abt more comm assts; funding diff set of funds (I guess bonds); wants to form a committee; if get CAs won't go 4 cams
Ms. Jackson says there is another staffing meeting about adding community assistants--they are the people who patrol the halls. She believes that Skyline will not get additional community assistants even though the school is growing, due to the budget cuts. She sort of implies that if she got the community assistants she wouldn't feel the need to go after the cameras, but another parent (later) told me he got the impression she would go after the surveillance cameras anyway, so I might have mis-tweeted. Anyway she does want to form a committee--apparently of teachers, administrators, students-and then she does add parents after someone asks. She also says she's going to have a "debate" with the students.
I don't actually think she's at all interested in what the parents or students have to say, she's made up her mind. But of course she can't say that.

Refers to Chelsea murder of Piasecki as reason for cameras. That would not have been prevented with cameras!
She says that "all" the comprehensive high schools in the county have cameras except Skyline. (I wonder--is that true?) She says, "Of course" Chelsea has cameras "after what happened." People want to know what happened. She suggests people google it(!). What happened is that the Superintendent was killed, and the principal and the union representative were also shot, by a disgruntled teacher who had been fired (or was being fired?). You can read more about it here. It was tragic, but surveillance cameras wouldn't have made any difference. As she pointed out in the beginning, they're not typically monitored. As a student pointed out, they're typically reactive. There was no question of the identity of the killer, and the killer went to prison. 

Jackson is planning on moving forward with the proposal for video cameras at Skyline.

Just one more addendum--Jackson said that she "couldn't" get the costs without an RFP. That is not true, and what we've seen from our City Council is that RFPs take a whole lot of staff time and pull you very far down a path that you may not want to go down. Sure, if the school board wants to go down that path they can put out an RFP, but way before that some companies could give some ballpark estimates. I think when people see the cost, they might be unhappy.

They should be. Have you seen the interim Superintendent's budget presentation? Find it here. 

Heck, I'm unhappy already. You can contact the school board at boe@aaps.k12.mi.us

I Spy: More Than a Game at Sky High

Hot off the presses:

This coming Monday, April 11th, at 6:30 p.m, the next Skyline PTSO meeting will be held in the Media Center.  This month's agenda will include a discussion of the possibility of installing video surveillance cameras in the parking lot and some public areas in the building (hallways, commons).

Please come.
Come if you are a current parent, student, teacher.
Come if you are a prospective parent, student, teacher--this decision will affect prospective students, parents and teachers for years to come.

I think this is a terrible idea, and I'm opposing it because:

• Haven't we been talking about MILLIONS of dollars in budget cuts in the district? How inappropriate to waste our money on this stuff. And if you tell me the money is coming from the bond that pays for construction, then let me say that I think there are plenty of better things to spend that money on. NOT a PENNY should be spent on surveillance cameras. Let's spend our money to limit the damage caused by the cutbacks.
• I'm opposed to surveillance cameras downtown too. But at least I have a choice of whether or not I want to go downtown. Do students have a choice about going to school? Not really. We should not be teaching students to believe it is normal for the government to be monitoring their every move. Schools are supposed to use their precious resources to teach students to appreciate the freedom and privacy we have in this country, not create a police state atmosphere.
•  Surveillance cameras have the potential for misuse. In other school districts they have been used to "out" kids about who they are dating or what kind of political advocacy students are doing. They've been used to stalk attractive students and monitor the actions of racial minorities. Sure, I know that's illegal but that doesn't mean it wouldn't happen here too. 
• Most thefts that happen at Skyline High School are minor thefts that occur in locker rooms, classrooms, and other areas where there would be no cameras. In other districts, surveillance cameras haven't stopped bullying, they've just moved it into off-camera areas. 
• We don't need cameras. It's a waste of money and creates a host of potential civil liberties problems. We are already paying for a police officer in the school! Let's teach students, parents, and teachers how to keep track of and lock up their stuff; report problems when they see them happening; and encourage pride in the Skyline community.

Be there! Monday, April 11th, 6:30 p.m., Skyline High School Media Center

If you can't come, feel free to share your opinions with
Sulura Jackson, Principal, jacksons@aaps.k12.mi.us and
Brian Mielewski, PTSO President, brianmgoblue@yahoo.com

Extra Bonus! Come to the meeting and learn some more about the Special Education Millage too.

Some Charter Schools "Outsource" Management

I am preparing a series on charter schools in Washtenaw County, and I've decided I'm going to start alphabetically. (I know, you're wondering when? Hey, I've got another life besides blogging! Plus other interesting stories keep coming up!)

But this came across my twitter feed (Hat Tip to twitter.com/mipfs_org), and I thought it might interest people to know that some charter schools are actually managed by for-profit companies. Heritage Academies, which runs at least one charter school in Washtenaw County, is referenced in this article.

Charter Schools Outsource Education to Management Firms, With Mixed Results 

So one thing to keep an eye on when we discuss charter schools is whether or not they retain local control. Who is on their board? Who runs the school?

You might be wondering why a charter school would outsource anything, and basically, it's because running a school can be pretty complicated.  According to the article, 

About half of charter schools with for-profit management companies met their adequate yearly progress targets, according to the National Education Policy Center’s report, which used the most recently available information. By comparison, 63 percent of charter schools overall and 67 percent of regular public schools met the benchmark in 2009, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, an industry group. (Emphasis added.)

 In any case, this article is part of a series by propublica.org.  According to their web site, ProPublica is "an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. Our work focuses exclusively on truly important stories, stories with 'moral force.'"
And guess what? You can donate to them, if you think their work is important, right here.

New School Lunch Standards Coming Soon!

Thanks to the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been developing new standards for school meals. They are designed to increase fruit and vegetable consumption, decrease sodium content, cut saturated fat, increase whole grains consumption, combat childhood obesity, and more. In the proposed rules, starchy vegetables like potatoes cannot only be served in limited quantities. The standards are largely based on Institute of Medicine guidelines.

The nutrition standards for school meals would change dramatically under the new Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. Among the proposed changes:

 ALL MEALS

• Milk: One-cup servings of unflavored milk must be 1 percent milk-fat or fat-free, and one-cup servings of flavored milk must be fat-free.
• Bread products served must be made with 50 percent whole grains. Two years after the USDA implements the nutrition regulations, all breads served must be made entirely of whole grain.

BREAKFAST

• Students must be offered one full cup of fruit at breakfast. Only half a cup could be juice, and that would have to be 100 percent fruit juice. Fruit could be replaced with vegetables.
• A meat or meat alternative, such as eggs, yogurt, or cheese, would have to be served every day. Tofu is not an approved meat alternative.
• The calorie range is 350 to 500 for elementary students, 400 to 550 for middle schoolers, and 450 to 600 for high schoolers.
• No starchy vegetables—potatoes, corn, peas, or lima beans—are allowed.
• Over the course of 10 years, schools must reduce sodium to 430 milligrams or less per breakfast for elementary students, 470 milligrams or less for middle schoolers, and 500 milligrams or less for high schoolers.

LUNCH

• Elementary and middle students must be offered a one-half cup serving of fruit every day. High school students must be offered a cup every day.
• The calorie range is 550 to 650 in elementary school, 600 to 700 in the middle grades, and 750 to 850 in high school.
• Elementary and middle school students must be offered at least one ¾-cup serving of vegetables every day; one cup for high school students.
• Starchy vegetables must be limited to a one-cup serving a week.
• A one-half-cup serving of dark-green vegetables must be offered at least once a week.
• A one-half-cup serving of orange vegetables must be offered at least once a week.
• A one-half-cup serving of legumes—black beans, black-eyed peas, garbanzo beans, green peas, kidney beans, lentils, lima beans, soy beans, split peas, and white beans—must be served once a week.
• Over 10 years, schools must reduce sodium to 430 milligrams or less per lunch in elementary school, 470 milligrams or less in middle school, and 500 milligrams or less in high school.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Agriculture; excerpted from Education Week

The proposed rules were put out in January and you have until April 13th to send in your comments. It is spectacularly easy to send in your comments. Just click on this link, type in your name and your comments, and press send.

According to this article in Education Week, school districts are worried about the cost (what's new!) and they are also worried about whether kids will actually eat whole grains or fruits and vegetables. Predictably, nutrition groups are all for it.

Why does it matter? A lot of schools serve many, many subsidized meals to kids who get free and reduced price meals, and in addition (alert: fun factoid coming!) some students may get half their calories at school.

Mapping the Charter Schools

Hey, it's my first foray into making a map on Google Maps! Here is a map of the current Washtenaw County Public School Academies, a.k.a. Charter Schools, as of March 2011. Are you surprised by where they are located? Oh--and by the way, if you click on one of the markers, you can pull up reviews of the schools too.

View Washtenaw County Charter Schools (2011) in a larger map

If you want to see their addresses in a list, you can find them here (scroll down).

Asking the Right Questions

Rick Garlikov describes the Socratic Method as "Teaching by Asking Instead of Telling."

He has an extremely interesting experiment teaching third graders binary numbers* and writes,  

This was to be the Socratic method in what I consider its purest form, where questions (and only questions) are used to arouse curiosity and at the same time serve as a logical, incremental, step-wise guide that enables students to figure out about a complex topic or issue with their own thinking and insights. 

You will find the experiment here. (Read it! It is fascinating.) 


*By the way, it's okay if you don't know what a binary number is. First of all, if you read about the experiment, you will understand what they are by the end of the article. Second of all, the experiment is not about binary numbers, but it is about asking questions and using the Socratic method.


Memory: When I was in high school, I had a biology teacher who wrote many outlines on the board. Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. . . all nicely outlined in copperplate handwriting. (Yes, she had been raised in Catholic schools and like so many of my public school teachers, I believe she had been a nun.) All of that outlining explained the "what," which we dutifully copied. But it didn't explain the "why." I was always asking "why," and one day, my teacher asked me if there was trouble at my home. (No! Why was she asking? Clearly the line between having an inquisitive mind and being trouble for her was a fine one.) I realize now that she probably did not have a strong biology background, and she knew the basics--but she found questions that she did not know the answer to, to be threatening.

Of course, the great irony of this is that good scientists are not driven by answers--they are driven by questions, and their favorite kinds of questions are the ones that cannot be immediately answered.

Progressive Education in the 1940s

This is a really wonderful little clip about Progressive Education in the 1940s, and so many of the themes are still relevant today!

There's Lots Going On Locally

Ann Arbor Public Schools are deciding if they should be open for schools of choice. Here's the proposal, the decision comes next week. [Don't get too excited, it would only be for K-6 students.]

Meanwhile, Saline has schools of choice for the high school. [Updated: See the comment that explains this is only true for the alternative high school, which I did not realize. I wonder if there are concerns about "who" would opt in to Saline and if that is really code for concerns about African-American students from Ypsilanti coming in to largely white Saline?] Saline is now considering extending it to the middle school.  The Saline Superintendent described the motivation as "largely financial." I think that's true for every district in the county!

Student applications are still being accepted for the Washtenaw International High School (the new International Baccalaureate program which will be located in Ypsilanti at the former East Middle School). It is open only to 9th graders. There is another parent information session scheduled for March 28th at 7 p.m. (but the web site doesn't say where!). The following districts are in the consortium, which means students from those districts can apply: Ann Arbor, Lincoln, Milan, Saline, Whitmore Lake, Willow Run, Ypsilanti.

Look for Dexter to set up its own IB setup next year, and it won't surprise me if the districts on the west side of the county (Chelsea and Manchester) work out some agreement with Dexter. It is, after all, a pretty far drive from Manchester to Ypsilanti.

Washtenaw Community College has reopened the search for a new president.

The Washtenaw Intermediate School District board continues to interview candidates for superintendent. One candidate, however, Thomas Langdon, has removed his name from consideration because he took another position. And then there were five...

There's a big College and Career Fair next Wednesday March 30th at Pioneer High School from 6-8 p.m. There will be lots of colleges and businesses attending. See the list here.

And according to Annarbor.com, the Scarlett-Mitchell Lab School is still planning a fall 2011 opening. Parents in the area have until Friday to take a survey. I wish they would ask the rest of us to take a (possibly different) survey, and I really hope they don't move forward until they answer these questions:

1. Can people opt out of the school if they prefer a different school?
2. Can people opt in if they are at a different school but want the lab school?
3. How is this going to be paid for? I'd like to know about both the short-term funding and the long-term funding. We've had lots of trials that haven't lasted, and in this financial environment I'm feeling rather nervous. . . especially about the idea of "intersession" being paid for by grants. . . did we notice the report that Ann Arbor Public Schools are expecting a $15 million dollar deficit next year?

The district is already saying that the budget cuts will affect class size, mostly at the high school level. Well, at this point 4/5 of my daughter's high school classes have 32 students or more. So. . . let's have that conversation too. How big were you thinking?

And on May 3d, we will have the opportunity to vote on a special education millage. I'll write about that another day, but if you want to start reading up on it now, try here and here.

Open Classroom Conference This Weekend

The conference starts Friday night, and goes all day Saturday.
It's titled:

Get Up, Stand Up; Democratic Education as a Right

There's lots of good stuff, including:

Deborah Meier and Jane Andrias, talking about progressive education.

Review and discuss the education reform issues brought up in the film Waiting for Superman. Brit Satchwell, Ann Arbor Education Association president (that's the teacher's union) will help the group develop "talking points" in reponse to the film. [I think this is a really great idea. I haven't seen the film because I thought it would upset me; the idea of developing talking points in response to it sounds like an excellent plan.]

There will also be small group discussions led by Chris Curtis (current Slauson principal), Stewart Wood, and Irene Allen.

The conference is at Camp Ohiyesa, which is about a 40-minute drive from Ann Arbor.

Find out more and get a registration form here.

Supply. . . And Demand

Recent discussions around teachers' pay (is it too much? I don't think so) and merit pay (does it work?), are closely related to issues of student achievement and how much testing is too much testing. As Diane Ravitch points out very cogently, you shouldn't place all the credit--or all the blame--for school achievement on teachers because student achievement is affected by much more--families, poverty, the societal environment.

But I haven't heard discussion about one area that I think underlies much of this discussion: we are training too many teachers! If you are like me, you know lots of people who have been certified as teachers and are not teaching. Some of them are not teaching because they decided they didn't like it, but many, many more are not teaching because they can't find jobs.

And whom should we blame for training too many teachers? No, don't blame Teach For America. Blame your local universities. 

Within about an hour's drive of Ann Arbor, the following schools are teacher education institutions:

Concordia University
Madonna University
Rochester College
University of Detroit-Mercy
Wayne State University
Adrian College
Marygrove College
Oakland University
University of Michigan--Ann Arbor
Albion College
Eastern Michigan University
Michigan State University
Siena Heights University
Spring Arbor University
University of Michigan--Dearborn
University of Michigan--Flint

Eastern Michigan University is the #1 graduator of certified teachers, but Western Michigan and Central Michigan are close behind.

And the reason all these schools have teacher education programs? Sure, they believe in good teacher education, yada yada yada. In fact, I believe that many of them provide very good teacher education--and what's more, Michigan State University has been nationally ranked as having the #1 programs in elementary and secondary education in the country for several years.

But the real reason that these schools all have teacher education programs is that they are a cash cow. Teachers often need enough subject area credits that they have full, or almost full, majors in two subjects, and then they need the required education courses. And then they need to come back for masters' programs to keep up their certification and be eligible for a higher salary. And compared to a program that requires a lot of instrumentation and materials (say, for example, nursing, dentistry, engineering), teacher education programs are a relatively inexpensive investment for an institution of higher learning.

In fact, according to this report to the state Board of Education, over three years nearly 43,000 would-be teachers took certification tests in the state (and about 90% of them passed). And that doesn't include all the people who started the program, and before they got all the way through dropped out. Do you think Michigan schools have hired anywhere near 40,000 teachers over the past three years? Did you know that studies have shown that many teachers choose teaching so they can stay within an hour of where they grew up?

(And sure, there are some shortages. Over that three-year period, only 10 teachers got certified for the visually impaired, and only 20 got certified for Physical and Other Health Impairments. BUT--2,576 people got certified in English, and 9,184 in Elementary Education.)

Need to understand how education is valued? Look no further than student teaching. Typically, education students who are doing student teaching "get" to pay a full semester's worth of credits (often needing to quit other jobs) while they work full-time for free in a school district. Yes, they get supervision (for which the supervising teachers get a measly stipend of something like $100), but in other college programs, where there are not a surfeit of applicants (take, for instance, many psychology or public health programs), people in training often get paid for their internships, and/or don't need to pay to be enrolled at the same time.

Back in the day when many of these teacher education programs began--back when my mother-in-law became a teacher--it was common for teachers to leave (as she did) when they got married or had children. So, many teachers didn't stay that long.

It's true that a lot of teachers try teaching for 2, 3, 4 years and decide it's not for them. Even accounting for that, we still have too many teachers, many of whom had to find other jobs. And although lots of them aren't teaching, if there were suddenly more openings, I think many of those not-currently-teaching teachers would jump back into the job pool. How many certified teachers do you know who are currently waitressing, working in a small business, working as a teacher's aide or afterschool supervisor, working in an administrative position, or unemployed?

The only reason that people can assert that teachers get paid too much is because there is an ample supply of available teachers to fill in the ranks, at low salaries. (In Willow Run, for example, a new teacher with a B.A. is starting out at about $33,000/year--or approximately $16.50 an hour.)

There is a solution for this: teacher education programs should restrict the number of people they admit to their programs for the next ten years. It's Economics 101: as the supply goes down to the level that matches the demand, the pay that teachers get will seem like a bargain.  Honestly, I think it would be a discussion-changer.

WISD Superintendent Search

I'm reproducing this WISD press release in its entirety.

My Summary: There are six interviews of finalist candidates for the WISD superintendent position. Interviews begin today. All meetings are open to the public and will be held at the WISD, 1819 S. Wagner Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48103. The Superintendent will have a lot of control over many of the consolidation initiatives that are ongoing, and that will affect every public school in the county. So yes, it's an important position.

Ann Arbor, MI— At a special meeting on March 15, 2011, the Washtenaw Intermediate Board of Education selected six candidates to interview for the position of superintendent. The candidates are:

Christine Beardsley
Ms. Beardsley is in her tenth year as Superintendent of the Oscoda Area Schools. She received her bachelor’s degree from Ferris State University in business administration, her master’s degree in educational administration from Central Michigan University and is scheduled to receive her doctorate in educational leadership in May, also from Central Michigan.
David J. Campbell
Mr. Campbell is in his eleventh year as Superintendent of the Olivet Community Schools. He received his undergraduate degree in education at the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater and his master’s degree in educational administration at Illinois State University.
Thomas L. Goodney
Dr. Goodney is in his sixth year as Deputy Superintendent and Chief of Staff at the Educational Service Center of Central Ohio (Columbus, OH). He received his bachelor’s degree in mass communications at Northern Michigan University, his master’s degree in speech at Miami University (Oxford, OH) and his doctorate in educational leadership, also at Miami University.
Beverly A. Knox-Pipes
Ms. Knox-Pipes is in her ninth year as Assistant Superintendent for Technology and Media Services at the Genesee Intermediate School District. She received her undergraduate degree in elementary education at the University of Texas at El Paso, her master’s degree at Lesley College (Cambridge, MA) focusing on computers in education and is currently completing requirements for her doctorate in instructional technology and distance education from Nova Southeastern University (Miami, FL).
Thomas M. Langdon
Dr. Langdon is in his seventh year as Superintendent of the Big Rapids Public Schools. He received a bachelor’s degree from Cornerstone University in biology and physical science and a second bachelor’s degree from Calvin College in education. His master’s in educational leadership is from Western Michigan University and his doctorate in educational leadership is from Central Michigan University.
Scott A. Menzel
Mr. Menzel is in his fourth year as Superintendent of the Livingston Educational Service Agency. He received his bachelor’s degree in religion from Vanguard University (Costa Mesa, CA), his master’s degree in philosophy and social policy from the American University (Washington, D.C.) and is completing work on his doctorate from Eastern Michigan University.

The interview schedule is as follows:
Monday, March 21, 2011
6:30 p.m.    Scott Menzel
8:00 p.m.    Beverly Knox-Pipes
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
6:30 p.m.    David Campbell
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
6:30 p.m.    Thomas Langdon
8:00 p.m.    Christine Beardsley
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
6:30 p.m.    Thomas Goodney

All interviews will be held at the Washtenaw Intermediate School District, 1819 S. Wagner Rd, Ann Arbor MI and are open to the public.
The Board is selecting a new superintendent to succeed Dr. William C. Miller who retired in December of 2010 after more than 22 years of service to the district, 12 of them as superintendent. Dr. Michael Emlaw, Superintendent Search Consultant for the Michigan Association of School Boards, is assisting the WISD Board with its search. He can be reached at (734) 657.2425 or emlaw@comcast.net.

Congratulations! (I'm Not Mocking It)

Congratulations to the Ypsilanti High School and Community High School Mock Trial Teams that have advanced to the State competition. Last year, I believe they both advanced and Community went to the nationals. This time, Ypsilanti came in first and Community came in third in the regionals. The state competition is coming up--read more here.

And both teams had a major "trial." Both teams sent an "A" team and a "B" team, and in both cases, in the third round, the Ypsilanti A team and B team had to face off, as did the Community High A team and B team. [The implication is this: it's possible for both an A and a B team to advance to the states, but not if they face each other in the third round...And it can be tough to face your schoolmates!]

Rallies!

Ann Arbor Education Association Rally, Open to the Public,
Forsythe Middle School, Ann Arbor, 4:30-6 p.m. Tuesday March 15th
From Brit Satchwell, AAEA President:

Thousands from Michigan are going to Madison on Saturday. Over 100,000 are expected. I've heard that many of you plan to drive, and I wish those travelers well. My thanks to them all for standing up for all of us.

For those who cannot go to Madison, AAEA has reserved the Forsythe Middle School Auditorium for a large public-invited ...union meeting on Tuesday, March 15, 4:30 p.m. I've invited the mayor, city council, our AAPS trustees, every teacher in the surrounding districts, our local parents, a few of our heroic legislators.
This is about Synder's budget, its effect on the elderly and the poor, his plan to remove our elected official as he sees fit, the rights of public sector workers to bargain, the plans Michigan is hatching for education and educators. In a nutshell, it's about our democracy, one of hundreds of local rallies taking place next Tuesday around Michigan. We need to pack da joint. Please be there - about one hour - and pass this invitation along to your friends.

There are also rallies at the Capitol in Lansing coming up--
Tuesday (tomorrow) from AARP, from 11-1 p.m.,
Wednesday 3/16/2011 from Working Families Protest at noon,
and Thursday 3/24/2011, a Higher Education rally organized by students, also at noon.
Find more information on all of those here.

So I think we've got the bigger issues covered--pensions, earned income tax credit, K-12 school funding cuts, higher education funding cuts...I'm not opposed to taxing pensions if the lower-income pension-holders are protected. Especially if that saves the Earned Income Tax Credit. Poverty is a major driver of poor educational achievement.

We Deserve Better: Or Go Pack, Go!

By now you've probably heard about the layoffs at annarbor.com. If you haven't, well--there were layoffs. They cut their lead blogger (so much for engaging with the web), they cut their entertainment staff, they cut general reporting...you get the idea. (And they appear not to be able to report on themselves, someone else had to do it for them. But at the link above at least Tony Dearing reacts.)

Right now, they don't even have a higher education reporter, and wait a minute...isn't this a company town? How could you not have a higher education reporter with UM and EMU in your front yard and back yard respectively? That tells you how thin the reporting staff is right now.

And honestly, when it comes to news reporting, I feel that we the people of Washtenaw County deserve better. Annarbor.com cannot cut its way into prosperity when what it needs is more reporters. Sure there are Heritage Newspapers, which is set up with a small-town model and might be all that Milan or Manchester can sustain, but it's not sufficient for Ann Arbor or Ypsilanti. I love the Ann Arbor Chronicle, but they will be the first to admit that their focus is limited, and they are not trying to run a full service newspaper or news site. [If they did, though, I'm sure it would be high quality.] It's unfair to the people of Ypsilanti to have to rely on Mark Maynard's blog to report on the grapevine.

Yesterday, twitter was abuzz with news of the layoffs. (Digression: I find I really like twitter. I can follow breaking news about Madison, WI and Japan and Libya simultaneously! Follow me as schoolsmuse.)

Anyway, someone on twitter asked me what I was looking for. I said, "The New York Times, only local." What???? No, seriously, I mean that. There are still, excellent and viable local papers--and if you lived in New York, you would know that the New York Times really is also a local paper. Anyway--he said he didn't think Ann Arbor could support that. I think he's wrong. In part I am making the same argument that annarbor.com tried to make, "We're such an educated community." Exactly--so people want their news. But we're not dumb, either. We don't want dumb news, we want smart news.

On the other hand, he might be right that there is not a good for-profit model for this right now. I started thinking about nonprofit models--after all, that's basically the world I come from. I don't know that your classic 501(c)3 is the right model either.

But then, I started thinking about the most recent Superbowl. Now, I'm not really a football fan (although I do always read the sports pages), but this Superbowl attracted my attention. In it, we had two small-market teams--Pittsburgh and Green Bay--make it to the top.
Although the greater Pittsburgh area has about a million people, Pittsburgh itself has only around 300,000 (yes, you say, that's the size of Washtenaw County). But they've got major league football, baseball, ice hockey and even soccer. And Green Bay? It's slightly smaller than Ann Arbor, but it's got a professional football team.

So how, you might wonder, does Green Bay survive in the big bad world of the NFL? Well, their fans have faith. But also--they have the right type of organization. Their greatest fans are their shareholders. They are non-profit and community-owned.

According to the Packers web site:

Shareholders

Green Bay Packers, Inc., has been a publicly owned, nonprofit corporation since Aug. 18, 1923, when original articles of incorporation were filed with Wisconsin’s secretary of state. A total of 4,750,937 shares is owned by 112,158 stockholders —none of whom receives any dividend on the initial investment. The corporation is governed by a board of directors and a seven member executive committee.

One of the more  remarkable business stories in American history, the team is kept viable by its shareholders — its unselfish fans. Even more incredible, the Packers have survived during the current era, permeated by free agency and the NFL salary cap. And, thanks in large part to Brown County’s passage of the 2000 Lambeau Field referendum, the club will remain solvent and highly competitive well into the future due to its redeveloped stadium. Fans have come to the team’s financial rescue on several occasions, including four previous stock sales: 1923, 1935, 1950 and 1997.
To protect against someone taking control of the team, the articles of incorporation prohibit any person from owning more than 200,000 shares. 

Whether this is the exactly right model, I'm not positive. There are several slightly different model of cooperatives too. But there is a lot of flexibility in the way cooperatives work, and cooperatives have a long history in Wisconsin and Michigan. We've got credit unions. We've got food co-ops. We've got housing co-ops. Why not a news cooperative?  

The time for planning is now.
It's our county, let's act like it.


And in the meantime? Go, Pack, Go!

When NYC Was A Union Town

Check out this blog post from Mark Naison of Fordham University:

Things We Had When New York Was A Union Town.

I thought this was a really interesting blog post, not least because my parents--who came from working-class families--hugely benefited from policy #6, the free college educations that they got at Queens College and City College. I attribute the life I have today in large part to the opportunities they had then.

As Naison writes:

Let me leave you with some numbers. In the early 1950's when 35% of the American work force was unionized, the United States had the smallest wealth gap (between the top and bottom 20 percent of its population) of any advanced nation in the world. Now, when 11.9% of our workforce is unionized, we have the largest.

The Warmth of Other Suns

For my book group I'm reading Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns. It's the story of the Great Migration of black families north in the middle of the 1900s, as told through the eyes of three families. The title, The Warmth of Other Suns, comes from a Richard Wright poem, which says in part,

I was taking a part of the South
To transplant in alien soil...
Respond to the warmth of other suns
And, perhaps, to bloom. 

I am only a short way into the book, but I caught this description of the author's mother, as seen in a photo:

The one in the pearls used to greet the train when she was little and dream of going with it. She would become a teacher and, years later, my mother (p. 12, emphasis added).

Which made me stop and think. I already wrote, in the comments of this post, about how 60% of public sector workers are women. But also, it's well documented that both public sector workplaces and unionized workplaces have been more likely to hire people of color.  (According to the AFL-CIO, public sector workplaces are the leading employer of black men, and the second leading employer of black women.) And my friends tell me that in the black community, public sector jobs are seen as a source of stability and equality--and that the crown of public sector jobs is the job of a teacher.

So--is what is going on in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan, to name a few places--simply an attack on unions and collective bargaining, a promotion of private enterprise? Or is it, ultimately, an attack on women that goes along with a "women belong in the home" mentality? Is it a racially-motivated attack? I don't say that lightly, but I also think that it has to be part of the question.

Is it an Emergency?

I don't think people have really understood the emergency financial management bill that has passed the House and Senate and is winding its way to Gov. Snyder's desk. It's not exactly clear under what circumstances a city, county, or school district can be thrown under emergency financial management, but it's pretty clear to me that with revenue sharing cuts, school aid fund cuts, and more, there is a lot of potential for many communities  to be put under emergency financial management...and not necessarily by a person, but potentially by a corporation.

Or, as a friend of mine wrote recently,

These bills will allow someone appointed by the Governor to arrive in a community, strip the locally elected school board or city council of their power, throw out contracts and not be challenged by the people, the elected officials or the courts. Governor Snyder has repeatedly said he supports collective bargaining rights, yet he will sign these bills. He also said he wants to invest in early childhood education, but his budget offered nothing. He offers us a budget of “shared sacrifice” but cuts taxes on corporations and increases taxes on senior citizens and low income working families.

So now, it seems, EVERY state--including Michigan--is Wisconsin. Governor Snyder can "say" that he is not going to mess with collective bargaining, but really, we all know that actions speak louder than words. Look no further than the emergency manager's bill.

You might be interested in Brian Robb's analysis of how all the cuts will affect Ypsilanti. 

You might be interested in the Detroit News' analysis of how the budget bills would affect eight sample taxpayers.

And here is Rachel Maddow's take on both Wisconsin and Michigan.

And in breaking news from Rachel Maddow's web site:

NBC News reports that the Wisconsin Senate has passed a bill stripping unionized state workers of collective bargaining rights without any Democrats present. It went 18-1 -- Republican Senator Dale Schultz was the lone nay. The Assembly looks likely to vote tomorrow morning. Democrats say the rushed proceedings violate the state's open meetings law and that they'll be asking the State Attorney General to intervene.

Citizens, it's time for us to find our voice. Which might be hard, because every day I find myself more and more speechless.

Good Luck With That, And More

Good Luck With That
The Ann Arbor school board has chosen Patricia Green to be the new superintendent. From what I read, both finalists seemed qualified. She is going to come in on a BIG new salary (comparable to what they are paying the New York City chancellor of schools, I understand). And then she gets to ask everybody to take pay cuts--when last year or the year before that they already gave concessions. Well, I say, good luck with that...

Trademarks
I was very happy to read this article about Ann Arbor trademarking high school logos. Faithful readers of this blog (the few, the proud!) may remember that last year I wrote a blog post titled Varsity Bear.  At a pharmacy I had found this very, very cute Pioneer bear and I had to take a picture of it. The bear on the left also has a purple P.

Liz Margolis, the district's Communications Director, wrote at the time,
"This is troubling for us in the district and especially at the high schools. The schools see no revenue from these sales. We are working to issue letters to these stores asking for voluntary percentage returns to the schools on all sales. The logos and names are "owned" by the district so the district can seek this return."

So, I'm glad to see some resolution for this issue--not just because it brings the district some revenue, but also because it's not always so easy to buy the perfect River Rat jersey. And I hope that Ann Arbor will SHARE its expertise with other districts in the county. After all, Chelsea and Manchester might want to trademark their logos too. I also hope that we can add the Community High School logo, and the middle school logos. I mean, who wouldn't want a

Rainbow Zebra sweatshirt (Community) or a

Golden Bear hat (Slauson) or a

super cute Scarlett Roadrunner!

Diane Ravitch
She's on fire! So is Jon Stewart. If you missed the pieces on his show last week--one an interview with Diane Ravitch, the other some discussion by Jon about "greedy" teachers, you can find them right here at Assorted Stuff's blog. (I was going to post them myself, but I'm feeling lazy.)

I'll tell you what I really respect about Diane Ravitch--she has shown that she has the capacity to change her mind, and admit--out loud--that she made mistakes. The rest of us (and I freely include myself) could learn a lot from her.


Mike Thompson: Those Durn Public Sector Unions
I always enjoy Mike Thompson's cartoons (he's the Free Press cartoonist) and this one seems particularly appropriate. Click on the link, you won't be sorry you did. (But my friend tells me the comments are vicious--I haven't read them.)

Ask and Tell, Please

I just noticed that tomorrow night, Thursday March 3d, there is a special forum

Do Ask, Do Tell
at the Neutral Zone, 310 E. Washington, Ann Arbor,
from 7-10 p.m.
Riot Youth presents a Free, community event- Do Ask, Do Tell to have a conversation with LGBTQQA youth activists. Be inspired to help them create positive community change. The evening includes community building, poetry, theater performances and conversation. For more information, click here http://www.neutral-zone.org/events/891/do-ask-do-tell

Now, because of a conversation I had with another parent earlier today, this is my question for you (and please, do tell us)--in the comments section:

1. If your child's school has, you believe, an environment that is friendly to LGBT youth, what is it about the school that makes it friendly?


2. If your child's school has, you believe, an environment that is not friendly to LGBT youth, what is it about the school that makes it unfriendly?

(No need to give the school's names--I'm interested in the characteristics.)

Thanks,

Ruth

So Good: Stewart Gets It Right

Here's what Jon Stewart has to say about teachers and their unions (Hat Tip to Assorted Stuff):

Superintendent Search, And More

I got this in my inbox from the Ann Arbor Public Schools today about the AAPS superintendent search:

A questions and answer session with the candidates and the community will be held on Friday, March 4th from 6:00 - 8:30 p.m. in Pioneer High School's cafeteria annex. 
You are welcome to attend the Board's final interview with the candidates on Saturday, March 5th beginning at 9:30 a.m. in the Balas Main Conference Room, located at 2555 S. State Street in Ann Arbor.
Please contact the board office at 994-2232 or visit the website at www.a2schools.org for  more information.

If you want to read about the finalists, the Ann Arbor Chronicle has a nice summary/profile of them.

Update 3/1/2011: And then there were two--finalist Shelley Redinger has accepted another job.

Apparently, the site visits to the finalists' home districts had to be cancelled because of the weather last week. They have not been rescheduled and there are no plans to do so. I find this troubling--if it was important before, isn't it important now?

In other AAPS news, the Ann Arbor Public Schools finally have a new revised web site. You can find it at a2schools.org. And I'm curious, what do you think of it so far? Feel free to comment on it below!

Public Workers Are...

...the people in your neighborhood!

I made plans a couple of months ago to come to Madison, Wisconsin for a bar mitzvah, never expecting to be caught up in some amazing, peaceful protests at the Capitol. These photos don't really do the event justice, but it was amazing. There were TONS of teachers there. I don't know if the teachers' union (WEAC) or AFSCME (the main public workers' union in the state) is bigger, but both were well-represented. The night before the bar mitzvah, at the out-of-towners' Shabbat dinner, there were 12 adults. Over half of them were public workers: a city attorney, a reading teacher, a county employee, two state employees, two federal employees. All have advanced degrees.

It made me wonder: do you know who the public workers in your neighborhood are?

It's not about the money. The Wisconsin bill is an anti-union bill that would strip workers of collective bargaining rights, and he tried to push this through in less than a week--I guess he thought, "Why use democratic process if you don't have to?" The great irony to me is that speakers were holding up Michigan's Republican governor as a model of a governor who wasn't taking on the unions.Yet what does Gov. Snyder's budget proposal actually mean? Nothing good for public workers, civil servants, that's for sure.

This is a view of the Firefighters for Labor marching through the inside of the Capitol. It's significant because Gov. Walker proposed to exempt firefighters and police officers from the collective bargaining provisions of the law. Apparently, WEAC opposed Scott Walker in the election. The police and firefighters unions didn't. But the police and firefighters are supportive of the activists at the Capitol--and the activists were very appreciative of their presence. (You can't hear the cheering in the photo.)  Right now there's only ONE Republican Senator in the Wisconsin Senate who is willing to say, out loud, that he believes in collective bargaining. Do they know who their public workers are?

My friend said to me, "My kids' schools have been closed for three days. But the kids have been down at the Capitol and it's been a great civics lesson."

Which brings us back to Michigan.
Mark Maynard has a lovely post on the impact of Rick Snyder's budget on Ypsilanti and cities like it.

Here's what Glen S. has to say in that post:

Rick Snyder really IS a political genius, I suddenly realized yesterday.

Unlike Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker — who has ignited a national firestorm over his strident and quite overt efforts to bust unions, slash pensions and other benefits, and generally dismantle what’s left of any opportunity for Wisconsin’s public sector workers to enjoy a modest, middle-class lifestyle — Snyder has a smarter, but much more insidious plan.
By dramatically slashing revenue-sharing, per-pupil student aid, and other forms of basic support for Michigan’s struggling cities, school districts, etc., to such a degree that unprecedented restructuring clearly will be necessary, Snyder is, in effect, “outsourcing” the dirty work of breaking unions, reneging on promised pension benefits, etc., to locally-elected city councils, school boards, county commissions, etc.
This way, over the next two years — while hundreds of individual Michigan cities, townships, counties and school districts are all busy fighting their own individual battles with their own individual workers and unions — Snyder will appear to be keeping his hands clean from all of the local budget “unpleasantness,” — while he continues to promote himself as as a genial, and business-minded “one tough nerd,” whose only agenda is promoting “shared sacrifice.”

The Object Lesson for me is that the real enemy of the public worker is not any particular governor. The real enemy is Apathy. How many public, unionized workers, voted for anti-union candidates? How many failed to vote? How many workers--private or public--don't realize that their weekends off, their 40-hour workweek, their environmental safeguards--are due to unions?

This is the civics lesson that we need.

Results

Community High's lottery results have been posted. It's a game of chance.

Reports are that tomorrow morning (2/16) at 11 a.m., when Gov. Snyder unveils his budget, he'll be unveiling 4% cuts in public school per-pupil funding. Is that a game of chance? I don't think so, but there sure will be losers. It's bad news for struggling schools and let's face it, all schools will be struggling. When your school's classes have 38 students in a class, and the rooms are too crowded to fit all the desks, you will know why.

Which brings me to the P-16 question. You know, should we be funding preschool through college? Because I've also heard that part of the proposal is taking money for community colleges from the School Aid Fun. And my answer is: yes, we should fund P-16, but not at the expense of the mandated K-12 education.

After school break, I'm hoping to get to the subject I know you've been waiting for: evaluating our local charter schools. So let me say this--I don't have any direct experience with any of the charters--although I do have indirect experiences with some of them (in other words, some of my friends have used them). If you want to send me a summary of some of your direct experiences with local (county) charter schools, to share, let me know.

Sports News

The Dexter school district fires their athletic director and football coach.

The ACLU of Michigan is warning the Downriver League that women's and men's basketball need to treated equally (remember: Title IX).

If you're interested, I wrote about Title IX, and how the Michigan High School Athletic Association had to be forced to abide by it, here.

Oh, and Skyline varsity boys' basketball beat Pioneer at the buzzer. I guess the Skyline students are growing up...

Betting (on the Superintendent Choice)

My friend sent me an email, asking me to "handicap" the AAPS Superintendent interviews based only on their names and school districts:

William DeFrance (Eaton Rapids Public Schools, Michigan); Patricia Green (North Allegheny School District, Pennsylvania.); Paul Long (Pennsbury School District, Pennsylvania); Michael Munoz (Des Moines Public Schools, Iowa); Shelley Redinger (Oregon Trail School District, Oregon); and Manuel Rodriguez (Baltimore County Public Schools, Maryland).

Really, I said? I don't know anything about them.

No, he said--blind speculation is more fun.

So--based solely on their school district locations, I chose as finalists the candidates from Eaton Rapids and Des Moines. ("Oh," my friend said. "Home court advantage." Well, yeah, kind of.)

But it's a good thing there's going to be some more due diligence about them.

Read about the candidates here. I've got to say that after reading about them, they don't seem worthy of the big jump in pay that the board voted to give them in order to get AAPS the very best candidates. But see what you think for yourself.

Better yet, if you have the (substantial amount of) time required to go to the interviews this Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, that is fabulous. (Feel free to share your comments after the interviews here.) The schedule for the interviews can be found here. All interviews will be held at the Courtyard Marriott, 3205 Boardwalk Drive. 

Finalists will be brought back the week of February 28th, and the public will get to ask questions then.