Here is further proof Pres. Obama's Stimulus plan didn't work as well as he proclaims.
Last year after Pres. Obama signed the Recovery Act into law he dished out $8.1B to North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue (Democrat).
What did Gov. Perdue do with her state's share?
Due to North Carolina's $4B plus deficit caused by previous Wasteful Democrat Spending and Corruption, she appears to have helped balance the state's budget.
Where's the rest of it? North Carolina citizens have no idea.
Just like we don't know where hundreds of millions in N.C. Education Lottery money is. (We guess it just disappeared into thin air.)
Instead of saving Teacher Jobs she ordered North Carolina Public School Superintendents to slash millions in Educational funding, not excluding Teachers. Especially Teachers working in Low Income schools.
The result?
Thousands of North Carolina Teachers lost their jobs.
Most of them were Fired ILLEGALLY and appealed to get their jobs back.
(Evidence and Data to substantiate this post can be obtained from CMS, N.C. Dept of Ed., U.S. Dept of Ed., etc., via the Freedom of Information Act.)
What did the Obama Administration do about it?
NOTHING!
Why?
He obviously hopes to win North Carolina again in 2012, so he is basically selling out North Carolina Teachers and Minority Students for Political Gain.
Did the Mainstream Media report it?
NO!
They refused to because they didn't want to make Pres. Obama look bad.
Please know those Teachers were NOT laid-off for Poor Performance reasons.
To the contrary, they were all Certified and most possessed Master Degrees.
In addition about 97% of them received Excellent Evaluations.
They were laid-off because Gov. Bev Perdue used that Stimulus money like she wanted to and due to obvious Racism (just review her past & present policies), it doesn't matter if Minority students fail.
The more Minority Students drop out of school and commit crimes, the more Minority citizens she can help put in North Carolina Prisons and keep them there for LIFE!
Even if they commit Non-Homicidal, Non Drug Related Crimes.
Well this year Gov. Bev Perdue is planning to do the exact, same thing.
Thousands more North Carolina Teachers are expected to lose their jobs before August 2010.
Does anyone care?
It doesn't look like it.
In fact here's another prime example revealing how Stimulus isn't working well in North Carolina and how N.C. Politicians and Education Officials are using this Recession as an excuse NOT to educate Minority Students in this state:
Ever since Dr. Peter Gorman was hired in 2006 to become Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' Superintendent, he has worked diligently to Segregate Charlotte's Public School system.
All of the De-Segregation efforts established by previous CMS Superintendents (Dr. Elmer Garinger , Dr. A. Craig Phillips, Dr. William Self, Dr. Rolland Jones, Dr. Jay Robinson, Dr. Peter Relic, Dr. John Murphy, Dr. Eric Smith, Dr. James L. Pughsley, Dr. Frances Haithcock) to ensure that ALL of Charlotte's students receive an Equal Education, have been destroyed by Gorman's "Mad Scientist" Racist regime.
Surprisingly Dr. Peter Gorman is the same man Arne Duncan wanted to hire to help improve Public Schools nationwide. Can you believe it?)
What's even more disheartening is how the local NAACP, Charlotte Meck. School Board, Charlotte Meck. County Board of Commissioners, Charlotte City Council Members and Black Leaders have assisted Dr. Gorman in his deviant quest to further disadvantage Charlotte's Minority Students.
Who's mission is Dr. Peter Gorman carrying out in order to remain employed and continue in his role?
Jennifer Roberts (Democrat) and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners!
That's right because they hold Charlotte's purse strings.
Since Jennifer Roberts is the Chairperson, she along with Gov. Bev Perdue (her political "partner in crime") are both Guilty of disenfranchising Charlotte's Minority Students as it relates to them receiving an Equal Education.
Jennifer Roberts may attempt to spin a fake story about "Budget Cuts" to cover up her race-based malfeasance but don't believe her.
She allowed the Charlotte-Meck. County Manager (Harry Jones) to create a job (during a Hiring Freeze) for his fellow Church Member and the wife of our current Mayor Anthony Foxx.
This woman was paid a salary of $100,000 and worked on this job for little over a entire year.
If Charlotte was hurting for money than why did Jennifer Roberts allow this unnecessary job to be created?
As you can see Jennifer appears to have no problem using Federal and Taxpayer Dollars to cut Education funding from Minority Students for Political Favors.
Here's how Gorman's Charlotte-Meck. Public Schools Re-Segregation Plan works:
1) Eliminate School Choice thus only allowing Low Income Minority Students to attend Failing/ Low Performing schools in their communities. This includes eliminating ALL Magnet School Transportation.
2) Place the least experienced Teachers in those Failing Schools.
3) Keep Minority Students (mainly African-Americans) out of Gifted and AP programs. Also cut funding for Fine Arts courses from Failing/ Low Performing schools.
4) Put Pre-School and Kindergarten level Malfunctioning Software in the Technology Labs of Failing/ Low Performing Schools so Minority Students won't become Computer Literate or master Technology Skills
5) Encourage Principals and Staff to INTENTIONALLY keep as many Minority Students (mainly African-Americans) below Grade level as possible in order to continue receiving Federal Title 1 money.
6) If a Principal in an Failing/ Low Performing School is doing "too good" of a job educating those Minority Students, move that Principal out and put in someone with much Lower Standards for Minority Students.
7) Steal Money from Charlotte's Charter Schools and against Charter Schools.
8) Use the Federal Title 1 Funding and stolen from Charlotte Charter Schools money to invest in Public schools located within Wealthy, Pre-dominantly White Communities.
9) Assign the Most Experienced, Brightest Teachers to schools located in Wealthy, Pre-dominantly White Communities.
10) Illegally Fire Teachers from Failing/ Low Performing Schools (Title 1) in order to save and secure funding for Teachers assigned to CMS Schools in Wealthy, Pre-dominantly White Communities.
(Reminder: Evidence and Data to substantiate this post can be obtained from CMS, N.C. Dept of Ed., U.S. Dept of Ed., etc., via the Freedom of Information Act.)
Will the Obama Administration and Mainstream Media continue to ignore this crisis?
How many more Minority Students in North Carolina must suffer while N.C. Politicians and Educators waste Federal Funds or use Federal Funds to ONLY Educate White Students?
Inquiring minds would like to know!
Check out the articles and videos below which helps to support my commentary.
Dr. Peter Gorman: Up To 600 Charlotte-Meck. Teacher Jobs In Low Income Schools Could Go
Up to 880 Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools employees, including 658 teachers, could lose their jobs under budget scenarios Superintendent Peter Gorman presented to the school board Wednesday.
Gorman and board members say they'll also consider more drastic measures, such as closing underfilled schools and eliminating busing for magnet schools. Gorman said the anticipated 2010-11 cuts will be especially damaging because they're piled onto layoffs and other cuts made this year.
"The thought of a strategic cut so it won't impact kids is not possible at this point," Gorman said. "I can't go back to principals and say 'No excuses.'"
The best-case scenario would cut 124 jobs, most in central offices, transportation and building maintenance. The worst-case plan would cut 880 jobs, including 658 teachers.
CMS is one of Mecklenburg County's largest employees, with almost 18,900 employees and 9,000 teachers.
Gorman and Chief Financial Officer Sheila Shirley said they're looking at closing schools, delaying the opening of two new high schools, trimming money to hire teachers for high-poverty schools and eliminating magnet busing.
One of the scenarios includes eliminating middle-school sports, an option the board shot down last year.
Gorman plans to present a budget plan to the board March 9. Between now and then, he and board members will have private discussions. Meanwhile, officials will start planning for layoffs. On March 23, the board could be asked to OK a teacher layoff plan, as required by CMS policy.
Mary McCray, president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Association of Educators, said she was prepared for the bad news. Teachers plan to attend county commissioners' meetings and lobby legislators to avoid job cuts, she said.
CMS lacks taxing authority, so the district must work with what comes from state, county and federal governments. Gorman and board members Trent Merchant and Tim Morgan said CMS needs to emphasize the district's academic gains and benefits to the county.
"We've been playing defense for a long time," Morgan said. "It's time to change that mode and get more aggressive."
Gorman said he plans to ask county commissioners for about $19 million to cover the cost of opening Hough and Rocky River high schools and dealing with a small increase in enrollment. But even if commissioners agree to add that to the $317 million they provided this year, the first round of cuts will be needed to deal with a state cut and to pay for new initiatives, he said.
There was no clear consensus from board members Wednesday, and some sharp differences on how much extra money CMS should keep spending on schools with large concentrations of impoverished students.
Some of the proposed teacher cuts would land hardest on those schools. A proposal to save money by requiring magnet students to go to "shuttle stops" could be hard on students whose parents can't drive them there. And any schools targeted for closing would probably be high-poverty center-city schools.
"We have to be cognizant of the fact that one particular group does not bear all these burdens," said board member Joyce Waddell.
But board member Rhonda Lennon said closing underfilled schools could be prudent, and Kaye McGarry urged Gorman to move immediately to create magnet shuttle stops.
McGarry also urged Gorman to reconsider the six regional administrative offices he created in 2007. Gorman noted that he's calling for a "central office reorganization" that would save more than $2 million.
Cutting middle-school sports would save a relatively small $1.3 million, but the proposal generated lots of discussion. Several board members said they'd like to look at new ways to keep that program alive, such as adding $1 to high-school sports tickets or charging admission for middle-school sports.
Charlotte Schools Planning More Teacher Lay-Offs
Another round of Teacher Lay-offs looms as Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools heads into a bleak budget year, a consultant told the school board Tuesday night.
Much remains unclear about the district's 2010-11 budget, but Superintendent Peter Gorman said he could summarize the prospects in three words: "It isn't pretty."
The board, which includes five new members, kicked off budget talks Tuesday. Jonathan Travers, a consultant working with CMS on ways to boost achievement while the budget shrinks, outlined two prospects: increasing class size and eliminating sparsely attended high school electives.
Both mean eliminating teachers, he told the board. He recommended that CMS start early working with principals to identify the least effective teachers, who would be cut when class sizes increase.
CMS has about 19,000 employees, including more than 9,000 teachers. State and county money make up most of its $1 billion-plus budget.
Governor Bev Perdue has asked state agencies to outline budget scenarios for a 3 percent increase and cuts of 3, 5 and 7 percent. Gorman and Chief Financial Officer Sheila Shirley said that means the odds are that CMS will face a cut. Seven percent would mean losing $45million, Shirley said.
She said the county is unlikely to be able to cover the additional $15 million to $20 million that CMS will need to pay for growth, new schools and rising costs of current services.
Travers, director of the nonprofit Education Resource Strategies, outlined three scenarios for small increases in class sizes. The most dramatic would cut 197 teachers and save almost $10 million. The smallest would cut 101 and save about $5 million. He said national research shows small changes in class sizes don't affect student performance.
His other recommendation involves eliminating advanced and specialized electives that draw very small classes. Vocational/career courses, arts and music, ROTC and advanced foreign language tend to have small enrollment and high per-pupil costs. Smaller high schools, such as Harding and Waddell, have higher concentrations of those "expensive" courses, Travers said.
Eliminating those classes would mean getting rid of some specialty teachers who would be unlikely to find other jobs in CMS, he said.
Last year, as the recession hit home, Gorman laid off hundreds of teachers and other employees. Many were rehired when the state approved a tax hike and federal stimulus money arrived. Travers acknowledged that another year of layoffs would be tough on morale.
Travers said some cost-cutting measures he has recommended to other districts - such as cutting teacher pay and benefits or shrinking central-office staff - don't make sense for CMS. CMS is already lean on central administration, compared with other districts he's studied, he said.
He noted that CMS will be figuring out a new approach to teacher pay, based on performance, as part of Gorman's five-year plan, and said CMS has little control over the cost of benefits.
The board will hold a special work session Jan. 25 to talk more about the budget. Gorman expects to present a plan in March.
Laid Off Teachers Facing Tough Job Hunt
Less than a year after Kelly Berg moved to Charlotte for a teaching position at Myers Park High School, she is out of a job and planning her next career move.
Berg, who holds a master's degree in history education, is one of several hundred Charlotte-Mecklenburg teachers that have been laid off as N.C. school districts cope with unprecedented budget cuts.
"It's not like you can just go to another employer," Berg told NewsChannel 36. "This is my employer and this employer is laying off."
The 1,300 employees axed from the CMS payroll have plenty of company in the region.
Gaston, Union, and Cabarrus county schools are also bracing for hundreds of potential layoffs.
Schools in Lincoln County are planning for the loss of 63 teaching positions, according to the district's website.
About 70 teaching assistant jobs may be eliminated in Iredell County, a spokesperson told NewsChannel 36.
Catawba County school officials meet Thursday to discuss potential layoffs.
"You have to have a paycheck, you have to have a job," said Dot Cromwell, an educator with 36 years of experience and past-president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Association of Educators. "There's a lot of people in that situation."
Teachers were also required to give up 0.5% of their salary, a payment deducted from their most recent paycheck, after N.C. Governor Bev Perdue ordered all state workers to help close a $4 billion budget deficit.
"It's just sad that we're treated this way," Cromwell said.
Berg, a first-year CMS teacher with three years of previous teaching experience in New York City's public schools, said she is facing the possibility of not having an education job next school year.
She recently posted an ad on the website Craigslist, offering to do landscaping jobs or work as a farmhand, using her experience from a summer position at a farm in Waxhaw.
Schools which lose teachers are likely to see more crowded classrooms in the fall, Berg said.
"I hope that they're able to hire back teachers, because I think that the people who really suffer in this situation are the kids," she said.
$44 Billion in Stimulus Funds Available to Drive Education Reforms and Save Teaching Jobs
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today announced that $44 billion for states and schools is now available under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. This funding will lay the foundation for a generation of education reform and help save hundreds of thousands of teaching jobs at risk of state and local budget cuts.
"Given our economic circumstances, it's critical that money go out quickly but it's even more important that it be spent wisely," said Duncan. "The first step toward real and lasting reform that will ensure our students' competitiveness begins with absolute transparency and accountability in how we invest our dollars, educate our children, evaluate our teachers, and measure our success. We must be much more open and honest about what works in the classroom and what doesn't."
Duncan made his announcement at Doswell Brooks Elementary School in Capitol Heights, Md. He was joined by Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, Congresswoman Donna Edwards (D-Md.), Maryland State School Superintendent Nancy Grasmick, Interim Superintendent of Prince George's County Public Schools, William Hite, Jr., County Executive Jack B. Johnson, Maryland State Teachers Association President Clara Floyd and Prince George's County Education Association President Donald Briscoe.
The Prince George's County School District is facing a $155 million budget gap for next year. School officials estimate the district will receive at least $142 million from the stimulus package over the next two years.
Governor O'Malley saluted the administration for the reform elements of the package saying, "President Obama and Secretary Duncan have put a bold education reform plan in place that will invest in our schools, our students and our teachers. But each State must play their part to show how these dollars will be spent, and to move forward on a path to progress in our schools."
Today's announcement includes the application and guidelines for $32.6 billion under the State Stabilization Fund, representing two-thirds of the total dollars in the Fund. This includes $26.6 billion to save jobs and improve K-12 and higher education and a separate $6 billion in a Government Services Fund to pay for education, public safety or other government services.
Funds in the first round will be released within two weeks of an application's approval. A second round of stabilization funds will be released later in the year. A third round of funding, the Race to the Top competitive grant program will reward states that have made the most progress on reforms.
The guidelines released today promote comprehensive education reform by receiving commitments from states that they will collect, publish, analyze and act on basic information regarding the quality of classroom teachers, annual student improvements, college readiness, the effectiveness of state standards and assessments, progress on removing charter caps, and interventions in turning around underperforming schools. Specifically, the law requires states to show:
* Improvements in teacher effectiveness and commitments that all schools have highly qualified teachers;
* Progress toward college and career-ready standards and rigorous assessments that will improve both teaching and learning;
* Improvements in achievement in low-performing schools, by providing intensive support and effective interventions in those schools.
* That they can gather information to improve student learning, teacher performance, and college and career-readiness through enhanced data systems that track progress.
In a letter to Governors, Secretary Duncan outlines a set of proposed measurements that states would report on their progress toward the education reforms spelled out in the law. The Department will release these metrics for public comment in the Federal Register in April and then issue a final version.
The guidelines also require states to report the number of jobs saved through Recovery Act funding, the amount of state and local tax increases averted, and how funds are used. It further requires that the bulk of the federal dollars be spent on education.
Part 2 of the State Stabilization Fund Application, available later this year, will allow states to apply for the last third of the stabilization funds, which includes $13.1 billion for education and $2.9 billion designated for the Government Services Fund. Guidelines for Part 2 require states to submit the required data or provide an explanation of why the data is currently unavailable and a plan for collecting the data by 2011.
Finally, $5 billion in competitive grants, the "Race to the Top" fund, will be awarded to states that are most aggressively pursuing reforms. In order to ensure that Recovery Act funds are driving classroom improvements, states competing for Race to the Top funds will be judged on how well they are using the first round of stabilization and Title I funds to advance education reforms.
"Every dollar we spend must advance reforms and improve learning. We are putting real money on the line to challenge every state to push harder and do more for its children," Duncan said.
In addition to the stabilization funds, $11.4 billion is available immediately under the Title I, IDEA, Vocational Rehabilitation and Independent Living programs. Title I programs serve schools with large concentrations of low-income students. IDEA funds serve students with disabilities. A second round of Title I and IDEA funds will be available later in the year.
To receive State Stabilization Funds, states must also meet maintenance-of-effort (MOE) requirements of the law by showing that 2009 state education budgets at least meet 2006 state education budget levels. If they cannot meet the maintenance of effort requirements, states can receive a waiver if they can show that their education budgets are not being disproportionally reduced.
"Under the law passed by Congress, the top priority for these dollars is to do right by our schools and our kids. If states play games with these funds, the second round of stabilization funds could be in jeopardy and they could eliminate their state from competitive grant money. This money must be spent in the best interests of children," Duncan said.
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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, NY Times, Charlotte Observer, WCNC, U.S. Dept of Education, Democracy Now, Whitehouse.gov, Recovery.gov. John Locke Foundation, Meck Deck Blog, Youtube, Google Maps
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