On Sun, Mar 09, 2003 at 09:13:35PM -0600, Ronn!Blankenship wrote:
> Where else is the additional money that many people (not necessarily > on this list) are saying is necessary to come from?
Do you read the messages in a thread before you reply to them?
Yes.
Sometimes I also read the news and listen to friends/relatives/students who are in education.
> What kind of Federal programs do you have in mind? Particularly ones > which will not raise taxes or add more bureaucracy?
Merit-based awards to teachers; standards, training, and curriculum development for special-ed programs; devlopment of curricula and software for math, science, and programming classes including standardization on various types of free software (possibly writing or modifying to suit); perhaps some sort of "Voice of America"-driven specialized set of articles and discussions for teachers to choose from to help bring current events into the classroom; creation of forums and newsgroups for various educational disciplines, for students and teachers, to discuss their classes with others
That's off the top of my head, I'm sure there are some problems with those, but hopefully you see the general idea. There are surely some things that can benefit from economies of scale and diversity that can be better achieved at the Federal level. Some things are better done locally, too, but not everything.
Those ideas are all well and good. However, they don't do much good when the district has to cut $30 million immediately because of, among other things, apparent misuse of funds by former administrators, while the superintendent is paid nearly $200K/year.
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More From Today's Birmingham News
Cuts to city schools get state OK; up to Birmingham board
03/07/03 CHARLES J. DEAN News staff writer
MONTGOMERY State school officials Thursday approved interim Superintendent Wayman Shiver's plan to cut $30 million and 555 jobs from the Birmingham system's budget.
The pressure is now on the nine-member Birmingham Board of Education which is scheduled to vote on the plan Tuesday. Riding on the outcome of that vote is whether the board retains control of its purse strings.
State Superintendent Ed Richardson said that if the Birmingham board rejects Shiver's plan, he then will have no choice but to seek authorization next week from the Alabama Board of Education to take financial control of Birmingham schools.
"The plan does meet the requirement of cutting $30 million and does it in a sound fashion," Richardson said after meeting with Shiver on Thursday afternoon. "If the board votes to implement this plan, then that will remove any need for the state to intervene and take over control of finances."
Shiver showed the plan to the Birmingham board Wednesday. Indications at that meeting were that a majority of the board will support the plan.
The plan would eliminate 555 jobs. Included in that cut would be 176 teachers, 110 senior administrators and 200 classified workers, mostly janitors, school secretaries and aides. In addition, 69 mostly assistant principals and a handful of school counselors and librarians would be eliminated.
The other major part of the plan is the proposed closing of nine schools and the reorganization of eight others. Most of the reorganized schools would see their grade structure change from elementary schools with grades kindergarten through fifth to kindergarten through eighth. Hayes Middle School would be revamped and become the city's 10th high school.
[snip]
�2003 al.com.
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-- Ronn in Birmingham, AL :)
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