New Haven Independent

posted by: asdf on February 4, 2010  1:55pm

I think the following quotes from the article sums it up:

“I still don’t understand what school reform is,” Ranelli said.

“There is not a 500-page plan” delineating how the reforms will unfold.

All I’ve heard from Mayo is a list of broad goals and objectives—and little detail about how to get there.  There seems to be little tangible here other than the dividing of schools into tiers.  I’m a little perplexed at the intense focus on the role of the parents, when it isn’t clear what anyone’s role is.

Another quote I love from Mayo here:

“We need to communicate better,” he said, “but we also need to work through the ideas” in settings like this one.

“And listen a lot more than we have,” added Mayo.

It means absolutely nothing.

posted by: City Hall Watch on February 4, 2010  2:20pm

The reason why you are still in the dark is because they are selling school reform like door to door salesman. They are not interested in you doing any more than you have ever done - be involved in the education of your children, your school, get others involved in your school and pressure state officials to give them more money. The details of reform are being hatched behind closed doors and are being kept secret until they are made public at a school board meeting at some point in the future. When they release it, then they’re going to want you to embrace and sell that plan.

Maybe Harries can explain what other financial resources the public schools need - we are spending something approaching $20K per student per year now. DeStefano keeps talking about resources which makes me very nervous.

posted by: JB on February 4, 2010  3:28pm

I decided to check out the public schools for the upcoming academic and discovered the alarming fact that even the best schools allow 26 kids per Kindergarten class.  Many new beautiful school buildings created and no room left to open additional classroom in order to reduce class size at the Kindy level. 

In case the planners of school reform are looking for direction: suburban schools have class limits for Kindy in the 18-20 range.

Reducing lass size in the early grades is a fundamental, well researched and documented step in improving the educational system.  How can that be ignored in any reform plan? 

Frankly, IS there a reform plan written down beyond generalities?

posted by: JB on February 4, 2010  3:36pm

Apologies for the poor grammar.

posted by: Kevin Buterbaugh on February 4, 2010  4:01pm

How are parents picked by the School Administration representatives of parents?  This may be one of the reasons that parents do not know what to do about school reform - they have not been given a chance to pick people that represent them.  We live in a democratic country - is it not strange that on an issue as important as this that parents were not given a chance as a group to pick people to represent them?  If a process could not be easily created - elections from PTOs could have at least been held.  Hand picking people leads to suspicion.  Why were these parents picked and not others - could it be that they were the parents the administration knew would not criticize or stand in the way of what it wanted?

posted by: Threefifths on February 4, 2010  4:44pm

As the school reform road show hit East Rock, two of the most active parents in town said they still don�t get what their role is in the change campaign.

�I don�t understand what you want us to do,� Kendra Ranelli, president of the Hooker School PTA, told Mayor John DeStefano

Wake up they don’t want you to do anything. The parents were never part of this Ponzi Scheme. What you should do is demand a Elected school board,This way you will know what to do.
Let me show you how this is going to play out.

        1. Dr.Mayo retires
        2. School reform czar Garth Harries
          Takes over.
        3. Garth Harries brings in the
          New York Corporatist crew.
        4. They start closing schools.
        5. They than bring in the for profit
        corporatist run charter schools
        6. The mayor doesn’t run again and
        and get’s a good job with these
        corporate vampires.
        7.Parents will still be asking
        Where Do We Start?
  Parents wakeup,Taxpayers wakeup. As I have said this is nothing more than a Ponzi Scheme/THREE CARD MONTE. Rember in THREE CARD MONTE always follow the ace.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caz9hel_Q1I

posted by: FIX THE SCHOOLS on February 4, 2010  5:05pm

Wrong JB.

Class size is not a significant variable when compared to the most important determinant - instructional quality.  This is the reason that they are spending so much time and effort on HUMAN CAPITAL. 

The KEY is in establishing a system in which we recruit, orient, develop, measure, reward, and retain talented teaching professionals.  This is the crux of the reform and this is why we are hearing so much about The New Teacher Project and the celebrated labor contract.

Why is this such a big deal?  Because no urban school district has ever done this before!!  The public education system has NEVER been about professional excellence. To be fair, these systems were never designed to be about excellence.  They were built to develop (to an extent) an industrial workforce.  And over time these systems became a massive employment agencies for the adults and massive educational prisons for poor families.  Consequently the myth that teachers couldn’t make up for their students family deficits became “reality”.  The mayor, and supt. now know that this is patently FALSE.

Back to the class size thing: As a parent, you would rather have your child in a class of 30 with an excellent instructor than in a class of 15 with a poor one.  ITS ALL ABOUT THE INSTRUCTION!

I think what contributes to the confusion in a neighborhood like East Rock, is that this reform plan is largely directed at bringing up the performance of the lowest performing students in the district.  The targeted students are disproportionately poor and minority.  While there are some pockets of at-need students, in general East Rock neighborhood is neither. 

What the administration has to do is to keep communicating that the goal of the initiative is to create college-readiness for lots more (thousands) more children in New Haven.

Closing the achievement gap, even reducing the drop-out rate are powerful and understandable goals.  But they need to go even further and tie together the economy (jobs) with college matriculation.  The mayor has spoken about this (as he did powerfully last night).  During their road shows, which ought to continue for the next several years and not just at the intro stage, they should think about using slides and graphics to hammer home these points:

Really drive home the power of a college education in economic and health terms;

The FACT that all kids despite background and home circumstances can and DO (in some places)learn at high levels;

And what a rise in education level can mean for our city (ALL neighborhoods would benefit from higher skilled citizens, less dependence on state and city human services, less crime, lower insurance; etc.

posted by: JB on February 4, 2010  6:50pm

Fix the Schools, I’m not wrong about class size having to do with student success.  There are many (recent) studies that indicate just that.  Class size alone does not equal success, however, I’ll give you that.  Instructional quality is crucial too.  I would hope that both smaller class size AND better teaching would be a goal in any sensible and far reaching reform movement.  I was disappointed to learn that new buildings were built without the goal of adding extra classrooms to accomdate smaller teaching groups, especially at the lower grade levels.

I did a little research, and New Haven’s student to teacher ratio is one of the highest in the country.  I’m skeptical if you’re asserting that the ratio has nothing to do with the failure of the school system.

Suburban kids are likely to be experiencing both high instructional quality and smaller classrooms.  That’s quite an advantage.  If I were a talented teacher and New Haven were trying to hire me, where would I want to teach?

Where’s the grandness of the reform?  Without an actual plan to look at, I don’t know.

posted by: Threefifths on February 4, 2010  8:29pm

FIX THE SCHOOLS

The FACT that all kids despite background and home circumstances can and DO (in some places)learn at high levels;

And what a rise in education level can mean for our city (ALL neighborhoods would benefit from higher skilled citizens, less dependence on state and city human services, less crime, lower insurance; etc.
 
Wrong Fix

If what you say is true explain this.

College grads upended by unemployment
By: Leah Fabel
Examiner Staff Writer
July 9, 2009

The job market for recent college graduates is the bleakest it’s been since 1983, forcing a generation that has basked in possibilities to contend with dwindling prospects.

And that’s only when they’re trying to avoid mowing Mom and Dad’s lawn.

“I’ve taken on the role of a teenager again,” said Jeremy Kelly, jobless despite a successful background in doctoral-level HIV/AIDS research at George Mason University. “I’m not paying rent, but it’s funny being told to mow the lawn at 28 years old.”

Eric Donahue, 21, just graduated from the University of Maryland with an undergraduate degree in economics.

“I’ve gotten a lot of replies from employers saying I’m not qualified, but even more disconcerting is when they don’t send anything back at all,” he said.

Donahue moved home to southern Maryland and spends time applying for jobs and practicing with his band. And mowing the lawn.

“I just told him to cut the grass, as a matter of fact,” said Donahue’s father, Bryan.

“I really love him and we like having him around,” he said, but added that he worries about the job market and has been encouraging his son to apply to graduate school. He joked that someone should check back with him in six months to see whether his son’s stay was still welcome.

“I really love him and we like having him around,” he said, but added that he worries about the job market and has been encouraging his son to apply to graduate school. He joked that someone should check back with him in six months to see whether his son’s stay was still welcome.

Kelly and Donahue are hardly alone. The most recent unemployment rate was nearly 6 percent for people 27 years and younger with a bachelor’s degree or higher, or nearly double the rate of just two years ago, according to an analysis by the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute. And according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, an organization of career counselors, employers say they will hire 22 percent fewer college graduates than last year.

While 6 percent unemployment for recent graduates still beats the 9.5 percent unemployment rate for all workers, it’s significantly higher than the rate for college graduates of all ages.

“It’s been pretty easy for this generation, so they’ve let their guard down a bit,” said Linda LeNoir, assistant director and 27-year counselor at the University of Maryland’s career center. “For them it’s been about the click of a button, but finding a job in this economy is going to take more than the click of a button.”

Amy Suddarth graduated in the spring with a biology degree from Virginia’s Christopher Newport University and now spends time every day or so checking around on job sites like Monster.com, but so far without luck.

“I told a friend the other day, ‘I cracked. I’ve applied to restaurants,’ ” Suddarth said.

Meanwhile Kelly tries to downplay his Ph.D. candidacy on applications to places like Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Target, the local movie theater, Arby’s and Panera Bread, he said. But even so, he hasn’t heard back and suspects it may have to do with his upward mobility.

“This is the first time a degree has worked against me,” he said.

LeNoir said that Kelly, Donahue, Suddarth and thousands like them will do best to go back to the job-search basics of personal networking and getting a foot in the door, even if it’s not a dream job.

“This generation was raised with things not as tough—they’re not used to tough,” she said. “Maybe this is their reality check.”

Unemployment level of college grads surpasses that of high-school dropouts.

Unemployment level of college grads surpasses that of high-school dropouts
The recent job market has been particularly tough for those workers with college degrees.  In fact, as Figure 1 reveals, the number of unemployed college graduates surpassed that of high-school dropouts a few months ago (all data are for persons 25 years and older).  From its low point of about 600,000 at the end of 2000, the number of unemployed college grads doubled across the recession of 2001 and the weak jobs recovery that followed.  Unemployment also rose, of course, among those adults with less than a high-school degree, but by a far smaller percentage (about 60%).

There are, however, far more college graduates than high-school dropouts in our current labor force.  Last month, for example, there were 12.5 million high-school dropouts in the labor force, compared to 39.9 million college grads.  Thus, as shown in Figure 2, the unemployment rate for those with a college degree�i.e., the number unemployed divided by the number in the labor force�is much lower than the unemployment rate for high-school dropouts.  Nevertheless, even in Figure 2 the sharp and sustained rise in the rate of unemployment among college grads is evident.

Such a large and enduring increase in unemployment among those with college degrees is unusual, even in a recession.  One reason for the increase is the lasting impact of the bursting bubble in the information technology and financial services sectors.  This cyclical effect will ultimately fade as demand returns in these industries and absorbs excess capacity built up over the last boom.  But a new structural problem�the offshoring of white-collar jobs in services�may also help explain the fact that unemployment in this recession and weak jobs recovery has crept so far up the education ladder.

Source: Author’s analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Don’t forget the Hb1 visa that the corporatist use to keep american workers out of the work force.

http://brightfuturejobs.com/

Unemployment Rate For Veterans Skyrocketing

Dana Kozlov CHICAGO (CBS) Veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan attend a job fair. The unemployment rate for veterans is 2 percent higher than the national unemployment rate.

They serve on the front lines only to come home to the unemployment line. National statistics show the jobless rate for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans is skyrocketing. CBS 2’s Dana Kozlov reports with what’s being done to change them.

A few hundred veterans showed up to a “Recruit Military” job fair at The University of Illinois Chicago Thursday.

Those just returning from war were especially appreciative.

“It’s difficult. I’m married. I have two kids,” said 23-year-old Marine Reservist Corporal James Dillingham.

Afghanistan veteran Javier Sandoval, 22, says it’s difficult to go from having a steady job to having none at all.

Both say they have skills and are willing to learn almost any job. But they recognize to some potential employers, they may be lacking certain qualifications.

According to the U.S. Labor Department, there’s reason to have veterans-only job fairs like these. Numbers show the unemployment rate for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans is about 2 percent higher than the national average.

About 185,000 veterans of those wars are unemployed, just a few thousand less than the numbers currently deployed to those countries overseas.

But some companies, like AAR CORP. in Wood Dale, have long made it a priority to hire veterans.

Chairman and CEO David Storch says 18 percent of its workforce is comprised of veterans. He says they have important skills, like discipline and teamwork, that make veterans valuable employees.

And AAR CORP. Vice-President Andrew Milani, a retired U.S. Army Special Operations Chief, believes veterans are not intentionally being overlooked.

“People, if they knew that the veterans were out there and they were hurting, and looking for work, I think they would come forward and offer jobs, and there would be zero percent unemployment,” Milani said.

Experts don’t know why veterans’ unemployment rate is higher. But many who work with veterans believe the government should do more to help them with job-hunting skills and other relevant tools as they transition out of the military

posted by: anon on February 4, 2010  9:08pm

School reform won’t go anywhere - at all -  without massive changes to the socioeconomic and environmental context of our city.

Spending more money on schools—without addressing the underlying causes of school success and the achievement gap—may in fact be counterproductive.

You can spend as much time and money as you want on K-12 schools, but if you continue to have unhealthy, stressful environments and disadvantaged families, you will go absolutely nowhere.  School success is heavily, if not exclusively, determined well before students enter Kindergarten, and by the family economic environment during the time a child is 0-6 years of age.

If our city invested 1/2 as much into job creation, maternal counseling and health, poverty reduction, public safety, transportation, street trees/parks, pollution/stress/noise reduction, housing quality, code enforcement and child care as it currently invests into K-12 schools, our neighborhoods would all see rapid and fundamental change and student success would follow. 

An additional consideration is that students who APPEAR (key word) to benefit from K-12 investments/changes generally come from relatively stronger family environments to begin with. Many of them will leave the city upon graduation. This isn’t entirely negative: we need to support our upper 1/3rd of most talented students and encourage our “families who have a choice” to keep their kids within the public school system.  However, just because some short-term successes are measured, doesn’t mean that we have promoted the achievement of our next generation of young people, the ones under 5 or not born yet.

Let’s keep an eye on long-term goals, not short-term gratification.  Raising taxes and/or pouring money into the K-12 system—with no change to our city environment and economy— will not produce any results for our city.

It sounds good on paper or in a speech, and maybe is easier than addressing noise, violence and enormous racial disparities in unemployment, but doesn’t move our city forward.

The results will be the same, reform or no reform, since almost all of the overall variation in achievement is determined by factors outside the schools, in particular by our children’s early childhood experiences.

In other words, the city’s claim that they can solve every problem and eliminate the achievement gap within 5 years—solely by focusing on schools—is highly unlikely, if not absurd. 

It would be nice to see the city be more honest and upfront, especially for an issue so important to our city’s low-income residents, and less focused on sound bites tailored to the elitist news media.

posted by: anon on February 4, 2010  9:44pm

Interesting to see the contrast between this meeting versus the Whitney Avenue visioning meeting that the East Rock Neighborhood held last year.

East Rock School Reform meeting:
- 30 residents
- Organized and paid for using taxpayer funds
- The city’s 3 top-paid (or close to it) officials: Mayo, DeStefano and Harries.
- Meeting led and directed by bureaucrats.
- No clear plan. Folks sent home wondering.
- City following up and planning to have numerous more meetings as well as proposing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars.

East Rock Neighborhood meeting:
- 80 residents
- No budget, but large amounts of food and supplies donated by local businesses
- One or two city officials. No Mayor, nobody from the Transportation Department.
- Meeting led and directed by Aldermen and local activists, with residents heavily engaged in confirming actual plans.
- Very clear plan from everyone in attendance about what to do with every single intersection and aspect of Whalley Avenue.  It was clear from the residents that changes were desperately needed, and that they should happen immediately.
- No follow up by the city on making any of the recommended changes, despite repeated attempts to follow up on the part of the neighborhood residents and Aldermen.

Just saying. Where are City Hall’s priorities?

posted by: RC Teacher on February 4, 2010  11:27pm

When will the “reform committee” take a close look at Mayo and determine if he is an effective leader?  How can an committee realistically evaluate school administrators, teachers, and students and not consider the “superintendent?” If the NHPS has failed students Mayo should also be held accountable.

It is also critical that the committee take a close look at schools like Roberto Clemente. Clemente has an amazing staff turn over rate. Students go through Clemente with a “new” first year teacher for each grade. What is Dr. Williams doing to support and retain staff, What type of leadership qualities does he have that he has remained at the helm of “failing school” for so long?

3/5s you don’t need the weatherman to tell ya which way the wind blows…your on point!

posted by: Tom Burns on February 5, 2010  2:36am

Hi all,
I am the VP of the teachers union and a while back I invited parents to get involved and gave out my phone number—-we (teachers, parents, administrators) have been meeting nearly every day to work on reform—-the Union established working groups that also meet frequently——-I would like to invite any parents that would like to get involved to give me a call at 860-227-6668 and I will tell you when our next meeting is—we really value your thoughts and opinions——look forward to meeting you—Tom

posted by: C'MON Wool over eyes on February 5, 2010  9:18am

In the 80’s when i went to new haven public schools i went home with school issued work books to do my home work with a hard cover book that stayed in school and that was only elementary my son is taking home single sheets of homework from an online teachers helper website. Look in most of these kids book bags there is’nt even books. These administrators talk about closing the achievement gap when i can recall at sept 2008 board of ed meeting that had hired these corporate interest to study the chance of successful reform. In the same meeting it was said that 95% of children in the new haven public school system would not be prepared in ten years for the job market based on currently taught curriculum and what the job market will require in the coming years in new haven area children’s education outsourced, and when they graduate because there not educated on what they need there job will be outsourced. School Reform is a joke.

posted by: JB on February 5, 2010  9:31am

“we need to support our upper 1/3rd of most talented students and encourage our �families who have a choice� to keep their kids within the public school system.” 

^^I completely agree with that statement.  I have dim hope that this “reform” also includes a plan to attract far more to the top students (those prepared for Kindergarten and have supportive parents) in the public school system.  Students at the bottom of the heap would benefit by having that type of classmate and it would change the class environment.  It’s a win for everyone.

I grew up in the midwest where everyone attends public school.  I was taken aback that in NH private schools dominate, and they aren’t just for the wealthy.  You’ve got a strong Catholic school system full of low and moderate income kids from NH avoiding public schools (and the population of Catholic students in these schools can be quite low). I write this because it’s easy to say that wealthy people are the ones who search out school alternatives, but that’s simply not true.  Then, there’s the ever popular choice of moving.  It’s all a bit depressing.

Where IS that written reform plan?

posted by: Threefifths on February 5, 2010  11:05am

JB
I write this because it�s easy to say that wealthy people are the ones who search out school alternatives, but that�s simply not true.  Then, there�s the ever popular choice of moving.  It�s all a bit depressing.

Where IS that written reform plan?
You are right in fact wealthy people are going back to the public school system.

About His Deposit ...
By JAN HOFFMAN
Published: February 27, 2009

CAROLINE HALL was supposed to sign the contract a month ago guaranteeing a kindergarten spot for her son at an Upper East Side private school. He had already spent two happy years attending its early-childhood program.
But Ms. Hall, a corporate counsel, began ducking the school�s calls. Where was her deposit toward the $22,000 tuition? The school had an eager waiting list.

Her son, 4, knew the answer: �I can�t go here next year because Mommy didn�t get a big enough bonus.�

An annual rite is well under way, as families around the country receive their private-school renewal contracts or acceptance letters. In conventional years, grumbling over tuition aside, their outgoing mail would include signed forms and a registration fee.

This year�s hand-wringing over tuition might be dismissed as the latest hardship for the patrician class, which, like everyone else, can simply educate its young in the public system. But of the more than three million families with at least one child in private school, according to the 2005 census, almost two million of them have a household income of less than $100,000. According to a Department of Education survey, in 2003-4, the median annual tuition of nonsectarian schools was $8,200; for Catholic schools, $3,000.

So for every family that pays $30,000 and up to attend elite schools in Manhattan, thousands more will pay tuitions closer to $2,700 � next year�s cost for St. Agnes Catholic School in Roeland Park, Kan.

To many parents who step outside the public system, an independent or parochial school is not a luxury but a near necessity, the school itself a marker of educational values, religious identity, social standing or class aspirations. Whether tuition payments to the country�s 29,000 private schools are made easily or with sacrifice, many parents see the writing of those checks as a bedrock definition of doing the best by their children.

But this year, even as realistic qualms about employment, savings accounts and tuition increases stay their check-writing hand, parents across the economic spectrum feel guilty about somehow failing their children. Which priorities should shift?

�We�re finding that people are setting a higher bar for private schools this year,� said Roxana Reid of Smart City Kids, an admissions consulting firm in New York City. �In the past, any school would do as long as it was private. But now they�re saying, �Let me take a second and third look at my local public school options.� �

How many private-school students will make the switch to public school will not be known for months. In past recessions, enrollments in independent schools remained stable, according to the National Association of Independent Schools, which represents 1,400 institutions with a median first-grade tuition last year of $14,640. But it may be different this year. Smart Tuition, a New York-based firm that handles payments for some 2,000 private schools across the country, said that by mid school year, 7 percent of families had already dropped out, double from last year. And administrators, financial aid counselors and parents themselves say many families have been questioning for the first time their ability to pay for private school � and what to do if they cannot.

Ms. Hall, the lawyer, and her husband, who is an owner of a bar, thought they had those priorities figured out. To afford their son�s tuition, the couple eschewed a new car, a nice vacation. �Elementary school is where you establish a love of learning: you grab �em or you don�t,� Ms. Hall said. �So we put our eggs in his education basket.�

But, she said, �If I lose my job or my husband�s bar goes under, I have to have a slush fund. Still, the realization that we can�t send him back has been devastating.�

What next? Unknown.

Uncertainty about next year dogs schools as well as parents, said Andrew Goldberger, chief executive of Smart Tuition.

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�The average parent with a high-interest credit-card bill, a mortgage payment that just increased, decreased revenue and bills piling up will pay the school last,� he said. �That�s because most people know the local person who runs the school or go to church with that person, and they�ll ask to pay it late.�

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Marcie Daniels, the bookkeeper at Holy Trinity Regional School, in Deptford Township, N.J., has been fielding more of those calls lately. So far this year, 15 parents at the parish school, ironworkers and insurance executives among them, have lost their jobs.

Her son-in-law, a mechanic for a bus company, was laid off that morning. �My granddaughter won�t be coming here for kindergarten next year,� Mrs. Daniels said. �I feel horrible.�

She can�t help with next year�s $3,450 tuition; she is worried about her job.

Catholic parents are scarcely the only ones facing a quandary over religion, education and tuition.

Jason Ross, a modern Orthodox Jew from Cedarhurst, N.Y., has sent his two children to a school where they learn secular and religious subjects, follow a religious calendar and keep kosher. But Mr. Ross, a pharmaceutical salesman, was laid off earlier this month. He is now thinking about the unthinkable: public school.

�I graduated from a yeshiva,� he said. �So did my wife. But it would be $28,000 for two kids this year.� His voice trailed off. �Sometimes I joke with the kids: �The bus will come a little later in the morning, you�ll be home by two, and you won�t have as much homework. It will be good!� �

While many parents choose private schools because that is where they were taught, for others, raised in the public system, private education represents a leap up for their children. A Manhattan psychologist, who, like her husband, is the child of immigrants and attended public schools, thought they could just manage the $35,000 cost and applied to one of the city�s most sought-after schools. A few weeks ago, their daughter was accepted for sixth grade.

�I�ve been amazed at my level of indecision,� said the mother, who requested anonymity so that her patients would not know about her personal life.

Since September, the family�s financial profile has melted. Her husband is self-employed in a construction-related field. Many of her patients are cutting back visits. Their college savings have disappeared. And they have a younger child as well.

The therapist believed that especially in the tween years, her bright, sensitive daughter would need the attention that this private school offered. And yet.

�At 6 a.m. today, I decided I wasn�t going to do it,� said the therapist two days before the $3,400 deposit was due. �I don�t do well when I worry about money, and that�s not good for our family as a whole. But at 8:30, we were in an elevator and a mom said: �I hope you come. It�s the best thing for our daughter. It�s so rich emotionally.� And I thought, �Oh, God!� and I started the obsessive reverie again.�

Later, in an e-mail message, the therapist wrote that the family had decided to, as she put it, �commit financial suicide.�

Ms. Reid, the admissions consultant, said that families were re-evaluating the benefit of a private education.

�Some are reorganizing their financial lives, thinking that everything must go except for private education,� she said. �Others are considering paying tutors instead, to supplement public education.�

The National Association of Independent Schools administers a financial aid program to 2,400 private schools. Applications for the 2007-8 year rose 4.3 percent from the previous year. But many other schools operate at the margins and have limited ability to reduce tuition for their families.

Tuition next year at Grace Church School in Manhattan, which gives aid to 19 percent of its 417 students, will be $31,000. The school will give more aid next year: So far, about a dozen more families hit by the economy have asked for help. A few just need some unaccustomed advice about how to put their houses in order � or on the market, if it�s a second or third home.

�We�ll say, �You can�t really go to Vail this year and ask for financial aid,� � said George Davison, the head of Grace Church. �And they look surprised and say, �But we already paid for the tickets!� �

Sarah B. Adler, the school�s director of financial aid, said: �The hardest thing we�ve seen is the family that has been O.K. and now all of a sudden has to ask for aid. That�s where you have to be the most understanding. They�re uncomfortable. They�re embarrassed. It�s about learning it�s not two vacations a year anymore. The middle class in particular is being squeezed.�

As Ms. Adler well knows. Her family temporarily moved in with her mother on Long Island 18 months ago when city life became prohibitively expensive. Her husband found a job at a private school there, which had allowed the boys to attend virtually tuition-free. But this fall, the family must start paying more. Public school? In which district? She doesn�t know yet.

Parents are weighing options for September 2009. Some conclude that one child may benefit from private school but not the other. Or that they�ll pay for private elementary school and then enter the public system. Or the reverse.

Ms. Hall, the lawyer who must withdraw her son from his private school, is waiting for results of a lottery that will determine which of six public schools her child may attend. She has considered moving to New Jersey. But even though real estate prices there are down, property taxes are not, and she worries about selling their Manhattan apartment.

Recently she attended a contentious meeting about overcrowded public schools in her Upper East Side neighborhood. �It was filled with people like me, desperate to get their kids educated,� Ms. Hall said. �And parents whose primary goal is to keep my kid out of their school.�

You see as anon said School reform won�t go anywhere - at all -  without massive changes to the socioeconomic and environmental context of our city. This is across the country. This is why you must keep the public school system.

posted by: Seth P. on February 5, 2010  3:10pm

3/5’s has a very keen eye on the situation.  We will see sweeping reform and mass retirement.  In 5 years, no one is going to want to take responsibility for the mess made.

posted by: FIX THE SCHOOLS on February 5, 2010  4:12pm

Its ok to be sceptical and critical.  But I challenge all folks who are non-believers of the reform initiative to also put forth your own idea(s) about what should be done to help our young people become college ready.

If not a massive overhaul of the system, what then?

Its pretty easy to criticize this idea for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it hasn’t been done anywhere.  But then again, the existing track record that we have in this country in educating low income children in our public schools can be broken donw into two major categories: “Failure” and “Miserable Failure”.

Time for big ideas.  So what would you do?

posted by: Threefifths on February 5, 2010  6:34pm

FIX THE SCHOOLS

Its ok to be sceptical and critical.  But I challenge all folks who are non-believers of the reform initiative to also put forth your own idea(s) about what should be done to help our young people become college ready.

I am not sceptical.I see the handwriting on the wall.College is not for everyone.I tell young people to apply for goverment,City and state jobs. In fact I run a program that help’s
young people comming out of high school to get into these jobs. Did you know fix that in the next five years that the Bachelor degree will be the same as a high school Diploma and the Master degree in the next ten years due to the fact that there are to many people that have them. That’s why if you read what I wrote about
College grads upended by unemployment you will see it in front of you.

If not a massive overhaul of the system, what then?

Do what my good friend and buddy who run for mayor in new york wolud have done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbuKXqIQgKE&feature=player_embedded

One fund it school system,Not two!!!!

Its pretty easy to criticize this idea for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it hasn�t been done anywhere.  But then again, the existing track record that we have in this country in educating low income children in our public schools can be broken donw into two major categories: �Failure� and �Miserable Failure�.

First when you say that the existing track record that we have in this country in educating low income children in our public schools which children are you talking about cause we have a new breed of low income children from the once high up middleclass.I like you term Failure� and �Miserable Failure�.
M y question to you is that if education is the key,Then why is the country which is run by the educate elite in the mess that it is in?

Time for big ideas.  So what would you do?

1.Elected school board so parents have more input.

2.Get rid of the corporatist and Lawyers who are give education waviers to come in and run the school system. Check out you man Garth Harries.

Garth Harries Leaves New York City,
and This is a Good Thing.

With everything else that is wrong with the current New York City public school system, Garth Harries’ (pictured above outside of Tweed, NYC BOE headquarters, in the Stanford Law School alumni newspaper) inappropriate approach to public school education may seem miniscule, but he wielded great power while he was at Tweed. I certainly hope that the New Haven school system can survive his appointment as Assistant Superintendent for Portfolio and Performance Management. Somebody tell the parents to call for an audit of his expense account.
Check out the rest here.

http://nycrubberroomreporter.blogspot.com/2009/06/garth-harries-leaves-new-york-city-and.html

3.Give the teachers what they need

http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/education-reforms-rule-number-one-blame-teachers

4. Give all of the student the same funding

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXKW8Za0hYw&feature=player_embedded

Last let me ask you something fix are you againist teachers union’s or all jobs having union’s.

posted by: notty on February 6, 2010  2:10pm

To 3/5s I agree with an elected board and I for one have been talking to Aldermen about that for quite some time. I believe people can be held more accountable if elected as oppose to appointments by the Mayor. There is one commissioner on the BOE of education who was appointed by the Mayor and have to my knowledge only lived in the city for 5 years. ...How do the Mayor appoint a parent over the thousands of parents, who kids not only attend New Haven Schools, but went to New Haven Schools themselves. That is why Mayoral appoints dont work. I am also advocating that the School curriculum include Anger Management, Conflict resolution and Mediation as a part of the curriculum. This is my opinion will help combat the violence occuring the city amongst the youth. What is your opinion on that thought. I like your keen sense of knowledge on not just this issue but many others.

posted by: streever on February 6, 2010  9:01pm

I can’t speak to the wide variety of opinions/commentary below, but I do think I understand what the city & BOE is looking for.

Children do better when their parents are involved in school: either coming to Parent-Teacher Night, calling the teacher once a month to discuss their child if they can’t make it to p-t night, or coming in and volunteering once in a while with a class. All of these things show students that parents care & are engaged.

I understand that they didn’t articulate this clearly—they themselves may not have a good idea of this—but someone at NHPS does, and they’d like to see parental involvement in their children’s education. It’s smart & necessary.

I’m not trying to get involved in any of the debates about this—simply sharing what I think is the answer to the question this article asks.

posted by: FIX THE SCHOOLS on February 7, 2010  4:26pm

3/5,

Thanks for posting the youtube on this guy Tony Avello.  I had never heard of him before seeing this video, but he has made quite an impression.

Folks, link to the youtube video, and see what is in my mind about the best example of what NOT to do in our schools. 

And 3/5, if you think everyone should get a government job, who will work in the private sector and pay all the taxes?

posted by: Threefifths on February 7, 2010  8:07pm

notty

Iam also advocating that the School curriculum include Anger Management, Conflict resolution and Mediation as a part of the curriculum. This is my opinion will help combat the violence occuring the city amongst the youth. What is your opinion on that thought. I like your keen sense of knowledge on not just this issue but many others

Check out you man Bloomberg.Look what he said.

A tough sell? Bloomberg says bonuses fat-cat bankers create more money for everyone

I agree with you.But The system will tell you that there is no money. But there will put money into to doing dumb things like this.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2010/02/05/2010-02-05_cuffed_for_doodling_on_a_desk.html

FIX THE SCHOOLS

3/5,

Thanks for posting the youtube on this guy Tony Avello.  I had never heard of him before seeing this video, but he has made quite an impression

You know who he is,Cause I posted this youtube on him before and you said he was a nut job. But tell me this you said he 3/5,

Thanks for posting the youtube on this guy Tony Avello.  I had never heard of him before seeing this video, but he has made quite an impression. so what did you like about his what he said. I agree with him all the way.

Folks, link to the youtube video, and see what is in my mind about the best example of what NOT to do in our schools. 

I think we already know what is on your mind and that is No elected school board, No teachers union’s. By the way I saw Alderman Carl Goldfield in the edge of the woods today, I ask him about a elected school board.He is not for it.I
then I ask about charter school, He said he likes them,plus his wife woks for one he told me. ThenI ask him about term limits and He said no,Let the people vote. It fuuny that he is not for a elected school board,But he is against term limits. No I say let the people vote if they want a Elected School board.

And 3/5, if you think everyone should get a government job, who will work in the private sector and pay all the taxes?

And with the rise of unemployment in this country growing and most of the job loss are in the private sector,How are the taxes being paid now? Fix wake up the private sector are now in the busness of out source. Look at waht they try to do at Pratt & Whitney. Sad thing is the corporatist will wait for the contract to end and then lay them off. Check out what the private sector is doing now fix.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU&feature=player_embedded

They are also bring back retires to replace fulltimewokers. Again with high unemployment
growing,I tell young people to seek out civil service jobs.

Check out what you man Bloomberg said.

A tough sell? Bloomberg says bonuses fat-cat bankers create more money for everyone

BY Kathleen Lucadamo AND Adam Lisberg
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU

Friday, February 5th 2010, 1:55 PM

workers should march on Washington to demand bigger bonuses for fat-cat bankers, Mayor Bloomberg said Friday - because that’s where the city gets its money.

“If you don’t pay bonuses, we can’t tax it,” he said on his WOR-AM radio show.

“Cops, firefighters, teachers, all municipal workers should be down there screaming, ‘Pay Wall Street people more!’ That’s where their salaries come from.”

It was a brash way for the mayor to make the unpopular case against President Obama’s proposed curbs on Wall Street bonuses - but Bloomberg, himself worth an estimated $17.5 billion, is unafraid to try.

Last year, he gave headaches to his re-election advisers when he said politicians shouldn’t balance their budgets with new taxes on the wealthy.

“We want rich from around this country to move here. We love the rich people,” Bloomberg said in March.

“A very small percentage of people do account for a big part of our income.”

Just 1% of New Yorkers make $500,000 a year or more - but they pay half the city’s income taxes.

Bloomberg is counting on New Yorkers to pay $7.3 billion worth of income taxes next year to balance the budget, up $503 million from this year.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, however, defended Obama’s plan and said Bloomberg’s pro-Wall Street cheerleading was misplaced.

“I understand the mayor’s concern about revenues,” Gillibrand said at an event where she was endorsed by Public Advocate Bill de Blasio.

“But what we’re trying to do in Washington is protect the country, protect New York, from another implosion of the financial services industry.”

Spoke like a true corporatist.

Again you didn’t answer my question.

Fix are you againist teachers union�s or all jobs having union�s

posted by: angelo on February 8, 2010  7:13pm

is this the NHI or the Threefifths Weekly.  Really, this kind of use turns the column into a joke.

posted by: Threefifths on February 9, 2010  10:47am

angelo

is this the NHI or the Threefifths Weekly.  Really, this kind of use turns the column into a joke.

If the column is a joke then why do you read it. Also read rules of the road,Show me were we are limit to the number of post.

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