Monday, February 16, 2009 - President's Day

Stimulus Package Still Heads News

President Obama will sign the economic stimulus package in Denver, Colorado, on Tuesday, according to multiple sources.

• Obama plans to sign stimulus measure Tuesday
• Obama plans to head west to sign stimulus bill

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has an excellent article on the importance of the education components of the package in Our Greatest National Shame. Nanette Asimov has an article in the San Francisco Chronicle that is typical of other articles appearing around the nation, Stimulus aid coming for poor, disabled students. She discusses the impact of the stimulus package on California students.

Space News

The launch of the space shuttle Discovery on mission STS-119 has been again pushed back, this time to "no earlier than February 27, pending the completion of ongoing fuel valve tests."

It would appear that the remains of at least part of the two satellites that crashed in space last week may be re-entering Earth's atmosphere.

• Texans report fireball in sky, sonic booms
• Debris From Satellite Crash Possibly Fell Over Kentucky, Texas

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Wednesday, February 18, 2009

The Stimulus is Law: Now What?

With the signing yesterday of President Obama's economic stimulus package, the question for educators now becomes, "What will it mean to me?"

The Associated Press's Libby Quaid takes that question on in Obama wants stimulus to transform federal role in education. She writes, "President Barack Obama wants to do more than save teachers’ jobs or renovate classrooms with his economic recovery bill. He wants to transform the federal government’s role in education." Quaid also quotes Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, as saying, "It’s also an opportunity to redefine the federal role in education, something we’re thinking a whole lot about. How can we move from being about compliance with bureaucracy to really the engine of innovation and change?"

Sam Dillon, writing in the New York Times, tells about the power and decisions facing Arne Duncan in For Education, Stimulus Means Dollars and Risk. He writes that "Most of Mr. Duncan’s unusual power would come in disbursing a $54 billion stabilization fund intended to prevent public sector layoffs, mostly in schools." But like most education writers, he also notes that Duncan has a $5 billion war chest to distribute "to reward states, districts and schools for setting high standards and narrowing achievement gaps between poor and affluent students." The unprecedented sums for for an Education Secretary and the wide latitude in dispersing the funds could mean significant change in the federal role in education. Hmm, guess that was the idea all along.

eSchool News has a related posting in Duncan wants stimulus to transform schools.

CNN published President Obama's remarks at the signing ceremony: Obama's remarks on signing the stimulus plan. On education, the President said:

Because we know America can't outcompete the world tomorrow if our children are being outeducated today, we are making the largest investment in education in our nation's history. It's an investment that will create jobs building 21st-century classrooms, libraries and labs for millions of children across America. It will provide funds to train a new generation of math and science teachers while giving aid to states and school districts to stop teachers from being laid off and education programs from being cut.

In New York City alone, 14,000 teachers who were set to be let go may now be able to continue pursuing their critical mission. It's an investment that will create a new $2,500 annual tax credit to put the dream of a college degree within reach for middle class families and make college affordable for seven million students, helping more of our sons and daughters aim higher, reach farther and fulfill their God-given potential.

Stimulus Comes Too Late for Terre Haute Libraries

As I walked back to the house yesterday morning from getting the morning paper from the box, I was appalled by the headline, Vigo Library to close 3 branches. Terre Haute Tribune-Star writer Sue Loughlin began, "The Meadows, Southland and North branches of the Vigo County Public Library will close under a budget reduction plan approved by the library board on Monday." What she didn't say was that the closures and budget deficits around the state of Indiana were caused mainly by Governor Mitch Daniels "property tax relief" program. Cities and other governmental units around the state have been told to become "more efficient" by the state, as the property tax reductions shave their funding. Already this year, schools have cut teachers, roads go uncleared in icy and snowy weather, and other services are downsized or eliminated. And the property tax caps are just phasing in this year, before taking a bigger bite out of school and local government budgets next year when the full reduction occurs.

While Indiana expects to receive about $6 billion in stimulus funds that is estimated to save approximately 600 teaching jobs across the state, the money will come too late to save the Terre Haute libraries. It's another example of Governor Daniels conservative "starve the beast" philosophy.

• Lafayette Courier & Journal: Stimulus bill to send billions to Indiana
• Louisville Journal-Courier: Indiana schools to get $426 million

Odds 'n' Ends

Jay Mathews has an interesting article this week in Boosting Schools' Value Without Spending a Dime.

Annie has me busy washing walls and cabinets this week, so I didn't get to do a posting yesterday. I really feel in a rut on Educators' News right now, as most of the news is about the stimulus package. I'd love to be writing about some new software or educational web site.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Department of Education on Twitter and YouTube

I'm not sure it's the promised change we can believe in, but the U.S. Department of Education today announced it will employ postings on both Twitter and YouTube.

I'd posted a link last month to David Pogue's Twittering Tips for Beginners, but suspect it might be appropriate with the news above to repost the link today. Pogue wrote of Twitter, "As a tech columnist, I’m supposed to be on top of what’s new in tech, but there’s just too much, too fast; it’s like drinking from a fire hose. I can only imagine how hopeless a task it must be for everyone else." I think educators sometimes feel the same way about technology. So Pogue's primer on how to use Twitter is timely.

Odds 'n' Ends

Washington Post columnist Jay Mathews shares some illuminating reader views in his Extra Credit: Are Older Teachers Too Jaded to Be Effective? A letter from Barbara Bancroft Stein challenges the idea allegedly advanced by Michelle Rhee and others that some teachers were "too old to be of any use to students and the instructional process." She adds, "I found the best schools were those where the staffs were made up of a wide variety of ages, styles, personalities and backgrounds."

Having taught for a time in a building where almost all the "old folks" cleared out, I can agree with Rhee and others about the enthusiasm younger teachers bring to the job, but also saw how the lack of balance of a diverse staff can cause major problems. It's good someone is speaking out for us old folks.

Dr. Tony Phillips has a good posting on Science@NASA about the upcoming "quadruple transit of Saturn's moons" in Spectacular Photo-op on Saturn. Unfortunately, the event will occur after sunrise Tuesday morning (February 24) in the eastern part of the nation.

And as always, when you're planning to look at the night sky, let me recommend the free, open source Stellarium application. I missed the version 10.1 update earlier this month. For Mac users, it replaces the somewhat troubled 10.0 version that required a 10.0a replacement.

The Long Beach Uptown Gazette has a good editorial about how property tax relief has hurt California schools in Free Public Education Keeps Rising In Price. It's the same story many states have, with property taxes being replaced by state aid to redistribute funding "inequity between the haves and have-nots," and then the states leaving schools "to the vagaries and misfortunes of our fearless leaders in Sacramento." Enter your own city or school system for "Sacramento" in the previous sentence.

Friday, February 20 , 2009

On Science@NASA

Dr. Tony Phillips has two postings today on his excellent Science@NASA site. The site is unique in providing high interest stories about astronomy in language that most middle and high school students can easily understand. Audio and Spanish language versions are also available. Kepler Mission to Hunt for Earth-like Planets Extreme Gamma-ray Burst

Odds 'n' Ends

Washington Post staff writer Daniel de Vise has one of those columns today that most school superintendents would rather not see. In D.C. Area Schools Chiefs' Perk That Refreshes: Travel, he tracks the extra travel days, on top of school holidays, that D.C. area superintendents spend away from their school systems. One super managed to travel to "Hartford, Conn., and Minneapolis in summer; Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Rome and Madrid in fall; Tampa in winter; and Los Angeles again and Beijing in spring" in just one school year!

And just in case you were wondering: Why the Tractor Supply ads, along with a host of other garden related ads on an education site?

Educators' News shares its affiliated advertisers with another of my online endeavours, Senior Gardening. We're currently adding several new garden related advertisers, and I have featured some of their ads here on my Educators' News daily postings to give them a bit more exposure. Teachers garden too, don't they?

Have a great weekend!

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