Education
UTAH VOTE NOTES 2006
GOP Candidates Remain Vague When it Comes to School VouchersWhy don't Utah's GOP candidates want to talk about private school vouchers? It could have something to do with the money many have received from a group, fascinatingly called Parents for Choice…in Education.
While some candidates have openly endorsed the voucher program, most are trying to keep their position strictly on the down low. But, any political wonk worth their salt knows that private school vouchers are unpopular with voters and there are plenty of polling results to back that notion…however, candidates must be careful not to bite the hand that feeds them.
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Commentary - Idaho Proposition 1
What Are We Saying to Idaho’s Kids?
It’s awfully hard to be anti-park.
Who could be against setting aside land for people to play in the natural world alongside elk, deer, raccoon, fox, snakes, bald eagles and other assorted critters?
How could anyone object to a black-cottonwood wetland on the Snake River between Firth and Blackfoot as the site for a proposed new state park in eastern Idaho? Or second-guess the obvious hard work of the Idaho Parks and Recreation Board, who narrowed down locations until they settled on this one?
Surely there's nothing wrong with preserving the forest and the wildlife in it as the main objective of the park.
In former Gov. Dirk Kempthorne's "Experience Idaho" parks initiative, proposed in his State of the State address this year, he asked for a total of $33 million to spend on the state park system. The legislature didn't allocate that much, to his disappointment. But they did budget $1 million to begin work on locating and designing a new state park within 60 miles of Idaho Falls.
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NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND?
Utah Schools Fall Below the Mark According to NCLB and U-PASS ReportsThe grades are in and things don’t look so good for Utah schools. According to Adequate Yearly Progress reports generated under the federal No Child Left Behind law, 18 percent of Utah’s schools failed to meet NCLB testing and attendance standards and 9 schools could face federal sanctions. In addition, Utah’s own U-PASS report offers only slightly better news.
NCLB laws, put in place by the Bush administration in 2001 are meant to keep schools in check and ensure that all students are excelling, with tests highlighting schools that aren’t quite up to par. The federally mandated tests which focus on Math and Reading are given to students each year, with the median score raised every two years, the intent of which is to improve the academic proficiency of all students by the year 2014. While NCLB was intended to safeguard education standards for all students, it’s not without its critics.
Educators and state legislators have long been critical of NCLB asserting that the law is too narrow in its focus on “Math and Reading.” Some suggest that while students in more affluent schools would still receive a well-rounded set of courses (art, science and social studies), others would be relegated to a second-class program and therefore miss out on a more complete education. With the pressure placed on schools to produce test results educators find themselves in the unenviable position of educating some children just enough to pass federal standardized tests.
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ALL WE ARE SAYING, IS GIVE SCHOOL A CHANCE
School Impact Fees Could Create New Cash for Schools, But Pro-Development Groups Say, “No Way.”Utah public schools are in trouble, boasting the lowest per-pupil spending in the country and class sizes fit to burst. With that in mind and a $76 million missed opportunity looming large educators and some state officials are looking to a new solution: impact fees.
The hope is that impact fees, placed on new homes sold in the valley would provide an extra pool of money for Utah schools. Sounds great, but the plan has drawn furious criticism from some Utah developers and real estate agents who claim the fees place an unfair burden on new homebuyers.
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BUENOS DIAS NINOS
Spanish-Only Preschools Create Bilingual Option in BoiseIdaho’s population is diversifying, as a growing percentage of residents are Hispanic. And out of that trend comes the opening of two new preschools that focus on helping young children become bilingual.
The Associated Press a few weeks ago reported that Idaho’s Hispanic population has climbed to 9.1 percent, or about 130,000 of the state’s 1.4 million residents. Census numbers also show that the Hispanic population increased 4.8 percent over last year, twice the rate of growth of the state’s overall population increase.
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Something's a little fishy
Kids Gear Up for Idaho Salmon and Steelhead DaysSchool begins today in Boise. And with the start of the school year comes a slew of activities about which to be excited, and I’m not talking back to school shopping.
I’m talking about the first holiday of the school year, Labor Day weekend! Just kidding. As much fun as no school is, there is more fun for Idaho fifth graders in the days following the holiday. Idaho Salmon and Steelhead Days is a special annual event at Idaho Fish and Game headquarters in Boise.
This year is the 10th anniversary of Salmon and Steelhead Days, and about 2,500 fifth graders will celebrate the uniqueness of salmon and steelhead with slimy, squiggly hands-on activities.
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POWERING EDUCATION
Getting Wyoming’s Energy School Turned OnWyoming is taking a fairly unprecedented approach to investing its energy profits and ensuring its resurgent energy industry continues in a sustained way well into the future. It’s starting an energy school, aimed at bringing the brightest and best in the field to teach and conduct research in Wyoming.
State lawmakers approved the idea in the spring of last year, challenging the state’s school board to develop a plan that would outline how such an institution would work with the rest of the university system to address the energy issues facing the state. A plan was approved last September, and since then, the state has been doling out money and appointing leaders to carry out the school’s creation.
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NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND
Feds Ask Utah To Open Books On Teacher StandardsStates face a major deadline in the federal education law passed in 2002 meant to bring the nation’s public schools up to snuff.
As part of the No Child Left Behind Act, all public schools are required to prove all teachers for core classes, such as reading, writing and math, are highly qualified to teach those core classes. States have until the end of the 2006-2007 school year to provide federal education officials with data confirming that all teachers meet these federal guidelines.
The Albuquerque Journalreported today that New Mexico’s plan to have highly qualified teachers in place across the state was one of nine deemed to be adequate by the U.S. Department of Education.
Utah reported an entirely different outcome. Beehive State officials have always had a bee in their bonnet about what they view as unnecessary federal oversight of education, an issue they believe rests solely with the states.
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SCHOOLS' LONG ROAD
Colorado Charter Schools Keep Kids Off The BusColorado’s charter-school law, now 13 years old, has led to the creation of more than 130 charter schools. Some have specific students in mind, i.e., pregnant students, those who want to focus on science and math, and even schools that divide classrooms along gender lines.
But 10 of those schools are focused more on distance learning – that is, the schools were created to end the hours-long bus rides students had been taking to classrooms miles and mountain passes away from their homes.
The Denver Post reports on the unique challenges facing some of the remote charter schools. For nine years, after the West Valley School District closed its school in the former mining town of Paradox, students rode buses an hour and a half each way to schools in Nucla or Naturita. Seven years ago, parents put together a charter school to serve Paradox students. The school opened in 1999 with a student population of 19 who learned from 20-year-old textbooks. Things are better now, with 42 students and more up-to-date textbooks.
But that rural school, and other charter schools in similarly remote locations, has other obstacles. Recruiting teachers to rural areas can be difficult, and finding space for students — even schools with only a couple dozen students — is hard.
And with school budgets barely breaking into six digits, administrators are often faced with tough choices, such as do you hire a teacher or a speech therapist, because the budget won’t support both.
The schools offer no sports programs, or dances – although since the schools are for grades kindergarten through eighth grade, most students are too young to miss the social advantages of such programs.
What the charter schools do offer, other than respite from hours each day spent on the bus, is a social hub for the community. In Marble, where the 27-student charter school shares space with the town's history museum, community members often volunteer their time at the school, and last year the school hosted a fashion show.
More rural communities may begin to examine their charter options, as rising fuel prices will have undoubtedly have school districts in Colorado and other states examining ways to combine schools to save money.
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Innocent Fun or Sinister Misogyny?
CU Coach to Lead “Football 101 for Women”
Tomorrow, CU football coach Dan Hawkins will be leading a program called Football 101 for Women, designed to teach " the essential elements of football like recruiting, what players wear on game day and the X’s and O’s of offense, defense and special teams," according to the CU website. But although Hawkins is a new coach who should be free of the taint of the scandals that marred Gary Barnett's tenure, leave it to a local journalist to find something sinister in this two-hour clinic. In Sunday's Denver Post, columnist Diane Carman wrote an oddly vituperative and vaguely satirical attack of this class, even before it had actually been held. Okay, the title Football 101 for Women might be a wee bit condescending, but the content of the class seems like a fun idea, and the fact that Hawkins is personally teaching it bodes well for the football program's development of a better relationship with CU's general student body. [more]
