Just sent this email to the reporters who cover South Florida
education issues, their bosses, and some other interested parties
in the area, including elected officials, other area media folks
and bloggers, some of whom have wondered the same things
I have.
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April 3rd, 2009
re Broward schools named finalist for national award
and Broward school district a finalist for top national
education award
So, do you know the answer?
If Broward County's schools are so awesome, please explain
to me why, FIVE months AFTER the November election
she won, and four-and-a-half months AFTER she was sworn-in,
the geniuses at the Broward School Board STILL haven't gotten
around to placing District 1 School Board member Ann
Murray's office email address on the Member page, like
all of the other members?
That's a lot of weeks for bureaucrats to never get
around to finishing the To-Do list!
Residents of SE Broward like me and my circle of friends
and acquaintances are entitled to the same level of service
as the rest of the county.
Should I really have to contact someone else's Member
in order to find out something?
I don't think so, and I also don't think their being unable
to get on top of this in FIVE MONTHS really says much
about the degree of accountability at the Broward County
School District, much less the level of follow-though on
anything.
Can I really be the only person from this area
of Broward County who thought that in the year
2009, I ought to be able to go to the district's
website and find my member's contact info?
2.) Why are Broward taxpayer's funds expended for
notice ads in both area newspapers advertising area
School Board meetings held at local schools where
the date and the day of the week in the ad are not in
synch?
Does nobody pay attention to anything over
at the School Board?
3.) And why is it that after all that, when you call the
School Board HQ to find out what's going on, they not
only DON'T know anything about the particular
eeting you're calling about, but also can't explain why
the Broward School Board's own website doesn't
have a specific webpage on it listing that very
information, so that parents and the public can
actually find out about them and attend?
That all really happened to me last week for a
school meeting this week in SE Broward.
No, I still tend to think that per my earlier
complaints last Fall and blog post of December
re Broward Superintendent James Notter & Co.
using taxpayer funds for a purpose that taxpayers
clearly don't intend to them to be used for, that is,
political advocacy -referenced below- my
default position will remain that the Broward
school district is assumed to be incompetent
until...
a.) I start seeing some believable stories about
it actually getting easier to fire bad teachers/
administrators and remove continually disruptive
students from the scene.
b.) I start seeing some tangible evidence that
school security actually IS a lot MORE concerned
with preventing weapons from getting onto campuses,
and a lot LESS concerned with covering-up crimes on
campus and preventing the public, thru TV and
print reporters, from finding out the real truth.
H-m-m-m... so where exactly is the evidence
that's happening?
I haven't seen it.
Or even that the Broward School Board is on board
with that sort of common sense change in policy?
Precisely the problem.
Instead, over the past two weeks, I STILL
see/read stories about kids who threaten other
students at school, and the problem kids getting
to return to the same Elementary or Middle School
after a short psychological time-out, as if nothing
has happened.
And the parents of the threatened student get the
same ol' shrugged-shoulders approach we've come
to expect from South Florida's school bureaucracy
when parents or guardians express concerns or
doubts about their kid's safety to district officials
after the returning student comes back.
And good luck in trying to find out what happens
punishment-wise when students show-up to
school with "hit lists" of other students.
I have a friend who told me about a mutual
acquaintance of ours whose kid was named
on such a list, and the student's mother is
naturally quite concerned.
So the school saying that they're "on top of it,"
rather than articulating specific measures
they've taken to deal with the circumstances,
does NOTHING to reassure the mother of
the threatened student, capisce?
Why should the student's mother accept that
when you wouldn't accept that sort of explanation
about a newsroom colleague of yours that
showed up to work with a "hit list" that had your
name on it?
Tell me, do you think those returning problem
kids are thinking about revenge?
Of course they are, they're kids!
Why would you expect something different?
So tell me, when exactly should we expect to see
the stories about how many people from the
Broward and Miami-Dade school districts are going
to the national convention in San Diego this very
weekend?
Or the story about who's going to audit any of
the so-called economic stimulus the school district
-or county- actually receives?
Those are stories I want to see, if only to hear the
pathetic excuses uttered by the Usual Suspects
for why it's so important for school districts like
theirs, which actually repel dynamic
businesses from relocating here, to spend
money to attend the ocean-side festivities.
I suspect that their unbelievable rationales will
sound a lot like the ones we've heard uttered so
frequently the past year by South Florida legislators
from Palm Beach to Miami-Dade County,
on how the FL legislature's schedule is so
gosh-darn unreliable and just can't be reformed...
So what, as a consequence of that continual
mis-management in Tallahassee, it's only natural
that the legislators continue to get away with
paying $600 for a one-way flight to Tallahassee
from Fort Lauderdale, and that we,
as taxpayers, just have to accept it as our due
that we will be socked for that completely
over-the-top expense, as a result of their
own mis-management and inability to have
maintain a schedule that means something,
forever?
Really?
Forever?
To me, those are all stories that write themself.
So why am I not seeing them anywhere?
----------------
New York Post
Editorial
MYSTIFYING SEC'Y DUNCAN
April 3, 2009
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan stopped by The Post yesterday, and he looked mighty perplexed when he learned how De Facto Gov. Sheldon Silver and his partners in perfidy are treating charter schools in New York state. Traditional schools -- that is, teachers-union franchises -- get a half-billion bucks more in the Silver-crafted budget now wending its way through Albany's legislative labyrinth. Charters -- public, non-traditional and largely non-union schools -- are targeted by Silver for slow starvation; they get not a nickel of new money. And Duncan doesn't understand why. "These are our kids," he said. "These are our tax dollars. These are our schools." Well, here's why: Charter schools, generally speaking, are immensely successful undertakings. In Harlem, for example, charter schools are setting performance standards that put the traditional schools -- with their union work-rules and such -- to shame. So the governor-without-portfolio and his fellow legislators - who depend heavily on teachers-union money every election year - have decided that charters must go without this year. That's not how Duncan intends to spend the considerable sum of federal money now at his disposal. "The dollars have to follow the kids," he said. "To be clear, we don't fund a school. We fund kids. Money follows the children." That sounds fair to us. And this simply sounds smart: "I believe in choice. I believe in competition. Give parents and students great options," Duncan said. "When there are waiting lists, do more of those schools. When no one's buying, close them." Words to live by, Mr. Silver. |
|
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The Broward County school district is once again a finalist for a prestigious
national education award, according to the Miami Herald.
It's the second consecutive year Broward is in the running for the Broad Prize
for Urban Education, awarded to urban school systems for improved achievements
among low-income and minority students.
Broward earned its status as a finalist for narrowing the achievement gap
between Hispanic and white students in certain subjects between 2005
and 2008, the Herald reported.
Four other school districts in the United States are also finalists for the
Broad Prize. A winner will be announced in September.
Copyright © 2009, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Reader comments at:http://www.topix.net/forum/source/south-florida-sun-sentinel/T8H9IKPHT8IUNTPVQ
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http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/980711.html
Miami Herald
Broward schools named finalist for national award
By Patricia Mazzei
For the second year in a row, the Broward school district has been named a finalist for a prestigious award dubbed the Nobel Prize in education.The Broad Prize for Urban Education is awarded to large urban school districts that improve achievement among low-income and minority students.
The winning district receives $1 million in scholarships for high school seniors who will graduate in 2010. The four finalists each receive $250,000 in scholarships.
Last year, Broward and Miami-Dade were both up for the prize, which eventually went to a school district in Brownsville, Texas. Miami-Dade, among the finalists three times in the past, did not make the list this year.
School districts cannot apply for the prize.
Broward was chosen in part for narrowing the achievement gap between Hispanic and white students between 2005 and 2008 in elementary, middle and high school math and in middle and high school reading.
Math and reading also improved for African-American students compared to white students and for poor students compared to the state average for more affluent students. The number of African Americans taking the SAT college-entrance exam in the district went up as well.
Broward started outfitting low-income classrooms with new technology like digital video projects and audio amplification systems this school year. The district has also had teams of people who visit low-performing schools regularly to review student progress and suggest changes.
The California-based Broad Foundation, started by former businessman Eli Broad and his wife, Edythe, has recognized school districts with the prize since 2002. The reward is designed for school systems at which improving math and reading skills for poor and minority students is particularly difficult.
Finalists are chosen from the country's 100 largest districts, which educate about a fourth of all U.S. students. Broward is the nation's sixth-largest.
The other four districts in the running for the 2009 prize are:
• Aldine Independent School District, Houston.
• Gwinnett County Public Schools, outside Atlanta.
• Long Beach Unified School District, California.
• Socorro Independent School District, El Paso, Texas.
The winner of the prize will be announced in September in Washington, D.C., after the foundation gathers more data and visits all five districts over the next two months.
Reader comments at: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/980711.html#Comments_Container
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