Half the story from Oprah

[hay rick]

From an article by Newark Star Ledger columnist Bob Braun:

Yes, Oprah viewers, although she used the show to slam Newark’s educational record — with the help of Gov. Chris Christie, Mayor Cory Booker, and billionaire Californian Mark Zuckerberg — she could have just as easily used it to praise both Canada and this state and its largest city.

This is what the Schott Foundation reported days before Canada — the hero of the anti-public school movie “Waiting for Superman” — had to say about both his efforts and those of our state: “Geoffrey Canada’s Harlem Children’s Zone proves that we can create community systems where all students have the supports needed to have a substantive opportunity to learn. New Jersey’s commitment to implement its Abbott plan and ensure equitable resources to all students proves that it can be done at the state level—as New Jersey is the only state with a significant black male population with a greater than 65 percent high school graduation rate.”

The foundation report, entitled “Yes We Can,” then goes on to report that Newark — yes, Newark — had the highest graduation rate for black males of any major city in the country. Far better than that of Washington, D.C., a system headed by Michelle Rhee, whom Winfrey not so subtly suggested should become the next superintendent of Newark’s schools.

While all this Newark and New Jersey bashing went on, Canada remained silent. That was odd, too, considering he wrote the forward to “Yes We Can,” a report that, using federal school data, declared:

“The New Jersey graduation statistics show the progress in closing the achievement gap that can be made if black male students have an equal opportunity to learn. For example, the increased resources from Abbott vs. Burke funding in New Jersey, which became effective in 2003, have allowed the much-maligned Newark school district to nearly close the gap for Black males with national white male graduation rates. Unfortunately, states like New Jersey … are still the exceptions.”
<snip>

It's a shame to see Oprah allowing her show to host a one-sided forum for public school-bashing before she rides off into the sunset.

Full article here: http://blog.nj.com/njv_bob_braun/2010/09/bob_braun_report_used_to_slam.html

For those who are not familiar with New Jersey's battles over education funding, Abbott vs. Burke was a 1981 State Supreme Court decision which determined that the state was failing to provide a "thorough and efficient" education, as mandated by the state constitution, in certain poor, mostly urban, districts. This decision led to a series of legislative remedies which greatly increased state aid to 30+ "Abbott" school districts. This funding has been controversial since its inception.

On the same day, the Star Ledger printed an article in the business section that touched on the not unrelated subject of the state's fiscal woes. Link here: http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2010/09/nj_fiscal_health_dire_report_f.html

From the article:

Troubled state budgets may be steering the nation into its next financial crisis — and New Jersey is leading the pack, according to a new report by influential financial analyst Meredith Whitney.

Whitney, who famously predicted the credit crisis of 2008 before it hit, released a 600-page report this week evaluating the financial health of the 15 largest states, measured by gross domestic product. The study, entitled the “Tragedy of the Commons,” examined each state’s economy, fiscal health, housing and taxes.

The findings: New Jersey ranked second to last, trailing California, and tying with Illinois and Ohio...
<snip>

“This state situation reminded me so much of the banks, pre-crisis,” Whitney said Tuesday, during a televised interview with CNBC. “We looked around and there was nothing to tell us about the process of state budgeting, how monies are transferred. We couldn’t find anything that was transparent.”

All told, the states have a $192 billion gap between their spending and tax revenues, which means municipalities may soon start defaulting on their bonds as states withhold money to resolve their own budget woes, she said. It’s a worsening situation that could make local governments the target of the “next near-trillion-dollar bailout,” she said.
<snip>

The connection between the two stories: states are in deep fiscal trouble and to get out of the mess, one of three things has to happen: 1) the economy has to take off like a rocket ship, supplying the needed revenue without changing tax rates; 2) taxes need to be increased on a population which is currently experiencing declining median incomes; or 3) large cuts need to be made in expenditures. The first is a pipe dream and the second is a political non-starter, which leaves...

Education is the largest item in the state budget and the Abbott spending is the most unpopular part of that budget. Also, the long-term deficit projections for the state are driven in large part by under-funded teacher pensions and health care costs for current and retired teachers. For those with strong stomachs, a link to the obscene story of New Jersey's underfunded pensions: http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/12/news/economy/benner_pension.fortune/index.htm

Maybe I'm just a cynic, but to me the driving force behind the spectacular recent upsurge in favorable media attention devoted to charter schools and Race to the Top isn't really about providing a better education for the kids so much as it's about paving the way for spending less money on education.

[mediaman007]

1. Thus the attack on teacher unions!

Item: Tony Danza visited the Today Show this week. He taught English in Philadelphia for the last school year. He talked about how hard the job was. The Today Show was more interested in teachers' unions. Danza refused to take the bait. He said that he cried every night, just a matter of how much. He lamented squandering his school years.

Item: The Today show visited a middle school and its principal. She selected most of her staff. The school has had great success. The Today Show asked if she could fire underperforming teachers. She told them directly: I can and I have! To paraphrase, she said she works with the teachers and if they don't make progress, she replaces them. She said you have to document the process. The Today Show could care less. She didn't take the bait.

[RandomThoughts]

2. Race to the top, that is a catchy saying.

LOL, It is funny. I do wonder if they are trying to use it in an Orwellian method. Also heard it was only the urban schools that were being reformed, and not schools in the suburbs, that says something also.

If they are really working for better education, that would make sense, if they are trying to establish control, that would be a different issue.

If they have a problem with teachers protected by unions, they should be able to negotiate what they think is wrong with that with the unions, then if the teachers agreed with there formulas for evaluation, that union would work with the issue. But they know the teachers would not agree, because the breaking of unions for teachers is more for concepts of control by class warfare.



On the topic of 'race to the top' that is a label. May it carry with it just payment for actions done.






Side note, O'Donnel is talking about some person not supporting minimum wage workers.

As he has Bloomberg on that wants to remove earned income credit, and does not agree with the concepts of progressive taxation.

If a person does support lower wage employees, then let them form bargaining units to leverage their ability to fight for wages. Or create a system that increases employment so people can get better wages as the pool of workers compared to work needed creates a supply and demand situation where workers can bargain for better conditions.

But for many, it has nothing to do with wages, or conditions, but about people doing what they can get away with. Law of the jungle.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Phil Donohue never would have had a show like that.