Education News: July 21, 2006

Following are some of the top headlines from the world of education for the week ending July 21, 2006.

E. D. Spending Would Drop Again Under Senate Panel’s plan
(Source: EdWeek, 07/21/06) The education bill for the 2007 fiscal year ran a cool $142.8 billion, down from 2005 spending for the second year in a row. While the bill trimmed funding from different areas, it supplied more funding than the bill that President Bush wanted passed. $100 million of the funding is supposed to go to schools having trouble meeting the standards of the No Child Left Behind Act. The Senate also seeks to increase spending on AP classes by $8 million. The bill totals $1.5 billion more than the amount the president had requested.

Schools Juggle Holidays for Muslims; Other Faiths
(Source: CNN, 07/21/06) School districts are increasingly balking at the prospect of granting time off for religious holidays for students. The Sycamore Community school district in Ohio provides an interesting case study. When Jewish families complained that Christians get Good Friday off from school, the school district made High Holy Days into holidays as well. The American Civil Liberties Union sued the school district on behalf of Muslim and Hindu students and, in the end, the district stopped having High Holy Days as holidays. The increasing complexity of deciding which holidays to grant has school district officials wringing their hands. Some districts, in an attempt to compromise, have instituted a “rolling holiday” basis where each student may take off days which are important to them.

High Ranking Education Department Official to Step Down
(Source: EdWeek, 07/20/06) Mr. Thomas W. Luce III is stepping down from his position as the assistant secretary for the office of planning, evaluation, and policy development at the education department this month. This comes on the heels of another exit, that of Kevin F. Sullivan from the position of assistant secretary for the office of communications and outreach. The education department is still recovering from a recent scandal in which they were found guilty of promoting propaganda. The press secretary for the education department assured reporters that Mr. Luce will retain close advisory ties to the head of the department.

New Orleans Schools Are Righting Financial Ship
(Source: The Times-Picayune, 07/19/06) The Alvarez-Marsal consulting firm swept into New Orleans shortly before Hurricane Katrina and started shaking up the records of New Orleans public schools by calling everything to account. In the process, they ran into high amounts of corruption and shaky record-keeping. With a payroll error of 20% and a slew of former employees continuing to receive checks, Alvarez-Marsal has been doing a clean-up effort in an attempt to turn around the budget of the New Orleans school district. Having been compensated with $18.5 million, which many people resent, Alvarez-Marsal is slowly phasing out of the New Orleans school district so that other will be ready to take over their work when the project is completed on December 31st, 2006.

School Security Remains Questionable
(Source: The Washington Times, 07/18/06) Although security in D. C. public schools has been privatized and is now overseen by the Washington police department, parents and students are still concerned about the amount of security and protection being offered. Parents fear that security officials are becoming too friendly with students and failing to do their jobs. Security officials maintain that they must maintain cordial relationships with the students. Another parental concern is that schools remain unprotected after regular school-day hours. School officials are asking the government for funds earmarked for homeland security to supplement the amount they have to dedicate to school security.

New Permanent State Student ID Number to Track Pupils K-12
(Source: The Mercury News, 07/17/06) Beginning the 2006-2007 school year, every student in public school in Alabama will receive a unique 12-digit number that will be used to track them through their primary and secondary education levels. Minimizing errors, this system will make the transfer of information that accompanies transferring schools much simpler. Schools will have access to a student’s demographic information (although only individual schools will have access to a student’s grades). Although this system of keeping track of people has existed before, this is the first time that it will be implemented at a statewide level.