US House Passes Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Bill (HR 3221)

(Yes! The "Education for All" dream has been restored! Congress votes to remove the "middle man" from America's Student Loan process, making it easier for everyone seeking to earn a college degree(s).)

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

(US Rep. Tim Bishop (NY) explains his reasons for supporting H.R. 3221 - The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009.)




Statement from U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on House Passage of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (HR 3221)

“Today, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to give America's college students the biggest increase in financial aid since the GI Bill. The bill will guarantee increases for the Pell Grant program for the 2010-11 year and beyond. It will overhaul Federal student loans to make them more efficient while saving taxpayers billions of dollars over the next decade. A share of the savings will also help reduce the deficit and promote high quality early childhood programs. It will support Historically Black Colleges and Universities, ensuring that these critically important institutions are integral to institutional improvement efforts at both the national and state levels.

“The bill will help restore America's global leadership in higher education, paving the way for a stronger economy. The bill ensures that more students who are willing to take responsibility for their education can go to college and earn a degree. I am especially grateful to Chairman George Miller for his leadership in sponsoring this important legislation and for his commitment to quality and affordable higher education for all Americans.”




View Larger Map

Sources: US Dept of Ed., MSNBC, House.gov, Youtube, Google Maps

Charlotte-Meck. Segregated Schools Crisis Breeds Apathy & Huge Student Achievement Gap...Where's Arne Duncan?

Charlotte Observer----


10 years after Potter, Charlotte-Meck. Schools need our help


(President Obama gives remarks at the US Department of Education on "Race to the Top", a competition to get states to implement school reforms that produce real results. The $4.35 billion fund will reward eligible states for their accomplishments, and create incentives for future improvements. July 24, 2009.)




Today marks the 10th year since federal judge Robert Potter ruled Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools had to end its desegregation policies, moving the school board to institute a policy that assigns most students to a school near their home.

Some in this community will mark the occasion with celebration: Many parents got what they had publicly clamored for – nearby or neighborhood schools and more stability in school assignments.

But a decade – and four school superintendents – later, that ruling has left Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools with a dire challenge experts had predicted: A high and growing percentage of schools are resegregated. Far too many are high-poverty and low-performing.

It is the same fate that has met every school system across the nation that has dismantled its desegregation policies. A report last year said the trend was so stark that if left unaddressed, the level of resegregation would resemble the segregated schooling of the South in the 1950s.

Many in Charlotte-Mecklenburg pledged not to allow that to happen here. They said they would commit the “substantial” resources experts said would be required to boost performance at schools with high concentrations of poor students who often struggle academically.

But it didn't take long for some to renege on that vow. In the fall of 2002, county commissioners froze the county's school funding level for the next two years. Efforts to fix dilapidated, ill-equipped inner-city schools met a buzz-saw of lobbying for new schools to relieve overcrowding in the suburbs – overcrowding exacerbated by students flocking to home schools after the Potter ruling.

County leaders did provide a challenge grant to boost performance at some of CMS's lowest performing schools, and the school system has now developed an Achievement Zone to identify and give intensive help to struggling schools. Some have shown progress. But the challenges of many of these schools continue to outstrip the commitment.

These problems don't matter to some, as long as their children get to go to a school close to home. But they should. It doesn't just cost a lot more to educate students in high-poverty, high-minority schools. Experts say all students learn better in diverse schools – benefitting from differing ideas and getting more quality time from teachers. Further, students develop tolerance and respect for people unlike them – values badly needed in today's hyper-partisan environment.

In July, the federal government recognized the problems inherent in racial isolation and resegregated schools. The Education Department offered 10 discretionary grants to help school systems train staff and devise student assignment plans to help avoid concentrated poverty and resegregated schools.

But communities like ours must do more. Diversity in our schools is now married to diversity in our neighborhoods. We must advocate for and demand housing policies that can encourage that outcome. We must also advocate for and demand resources to enable poor and other disadvantaged children to come to school ready to learn – whether that means providing tutoring, meals or shelter.

Our continued prosperity depends on every child getting a real chance to succeed in school. It's time to truly commit to giving them that chance.



Schools ruling led to a decade of change

Ten years ago, a Federal judge struck down race-based assignment in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, a decision that changed schools and communities and poses challenges for the years ahead.

An appeals court eventually overturned the part of U.S. District Judge Robert Potter's ruling that ordered CMS to ignore race, but agreed that it was time to lift three decades of court-ordered desegregation. Leaders moved ahead with a race-neutral plan that linked public schools more closely to their neighborhoods.

In the ensuing decade, suburban schools became more numerous, more crowded and generally remained high-performing. Last year about two-thirds of CMS's white students attended majority-white schools in the suburbs.

Center-city schools, including many magnets, have seen white and middle-class students dwindle. About two-thirds of the black and Hispanic students who make up CMS's majority attended schools where less than 25 percent of students are white.

The merits of those changes still spark fiery debate.

Some of Charlotte's political leaders keep framed copies of the Observer's Sept. 11 front page on their walls.

“I de-fanged the tiger back on Sept 10, 1999,” says school board member Larry Gauvreau, one of the white parents who sued and prevailed.

Others believe that decision launched a decade of neglect for the city's neediest children.

“You know as well as I do we have resegregated the school district,” says County commissioner Vilma Leake, a retired teacher who served on the school board when it fought for race-based assignment.

In November, voters will choose a school board with a lot of new faces. Many say that board's mission must include crafting a clearer vision for deciding where kids go to school.

One of the toughest questions: Should CMS draw boundaries to promote diversity? Or should it strengthen ties between schools and communities, even if that means locking in differences?

“I view the anniversary of Judge Potter's decision with mixed emotions,” says UNC Charlotte history professor David Goldfield. “On the one hand, it would be great to think that we've gotten beyond race, that a black child doesn't need to sit next to a white child to excel. But, on the other hand, realistically, all or mostly black and low-income schools will, inherently, be failing schools.”

Decisions about public schools affect not just families with school-age kids, but everything from property values to business recruitment. For 10 years, leaders have wrangled over a path to lead Charlotte away from the destiny of such cities as Chicago and Atlanta, where large swaths of schools have been abandoned by all but the poor.

Last school year, for the first time, CMS's poverty level topped 50 percent. That tally is expected to rise this year.

Good old days?

Tom Hanchett, a historian for the Levine Museum of the New South, remembers watching Charlotte's 1999 Christmas parade and marveling at the racially mixed marching bands that strode by, a sharp contrast to other Southern cities.

“You go the Christmas parade now,” he says, “and basically a black school marches down the street, a white school marches down the street.”

Hanchett believes that resegregation – not just by race but by income – has weakened commitment to schools across the county: “People feel powerless to fight this pervasive trend that you buy in the neighborhood that's going to have good schools and let the devil take the hindmost.”

But others say people like Hanchett view the past through a rosy lens. They argue that CMS masked problems by shuffling students, and note that academic performance for minority and low-income students districtwide didn't deteriorate when CMS scrapped its race-based plan.

Giving neighborhoods a strong, stable tie to public schools keeps families engaged and lets CMS focus on the real academic needs, they say.

“It is up to the next generation of parents in Charlotte-Mecklenburg to be vigilant and to push to insure neighborhood schools stays a reality and not a footnote in some history book,” County Commissioner Bill James wrote in a recent e-mail extolling the anniversary of Potter's ruling.

Poverty as proxy

Questions of race, family background and educational opportunity continue to permeate CMS's thorniest issues.

Black, Hispanic and low-income students continue to underperform white and middle-class peers on virtually every measure of academic achievement, in CMS and nationwide. Those gaps can be particularly glaring in schools where such students are concentrated. This year 58 of CMS's 176 schools are expected to top 75 percent poverty, up from 35 the previous year.

The surge in high-poverty schools was anticipated. As the end of the court battle loomed, county and CMS officials pledged extra support for those schools. Leake argues that leaders have reneged, cutting back when money got tight and failing to put top-notch teachers and principals into the weakest schools.

Superintendent Peter Gorman has moved principals and offered bonuses to entice good teachers to such schools. But the school board shot down his repeated requests to follow existing policies and transfer teachers against their will.

Gauvreau, who is wrapping up eight years on the school board, says CMS has not done enough to build a race-blind neighborhood school system.

“There's little difference after the court case, except that we now have more buses, not less; more magnet schools, not less; more assignment/facility schemes, not less; … more white flight, not less. I could go on and on,” Gauvreau said in an e-mail Wednesday.

Gauvreau says CMS uses poverty, as measured by eligibility for federal lunch aid, as “a proxy for race.” He sees that as a problem; others see it as a potential solution.

Board member Tom Tate, has called for CMS to draw boundaries to balance poverty levels, similar to what Wake County does.

Wake's system outperforms CMS on many academic measures. But a chorus of suburban Wake critics, frustrated with frequent reassignments, want a system more like Charlotte's.

Goldfield, the UNCC professor, says diversifying schools is “a common-sense intervention,” but not enough to close academic gaps.

“African Americans need to focus more on changing a culture of failure with respect to education,” Goldfield, who is white, wrote in an e-mail.

“In 1900, out of all the different ethnic and racial groups in the NYC public school system, for example, African Americans had the highest attendance rate, higher than Italian and Jewish students, ethnic groups often used as examples of how education can improve one's standing in society. That same love of learning and sense of education as a fundamental value need to be rekindled among African Americans.”


Champion of Diverse Wake schools speaks

RALEIGH -- Gerald Grant's message to America is clear -- emulate Wake County's school diversity policy or risk turning your back on poor and minority students.

Grant is spreading his provocative message in his new book "Hope and Despair in the American City: Why There Are No Bad Schools in Raleigh." Grant's book tour comes to Raleigh tonight, and he is likely to be faced by supporters and critics of Wake's diversity efforts.

"What Raleigh has done is reinvent the ideal of the common school providing educational opportunities for all children that our Founding Fathers envisioned," said Grant, a professor at Syracuse University, in an interview. "They've reinvented it for the 21st Century."

Critics are dismissive of Grant's contentions, arguing that the claims about Wake's academic success are overstated.

"He's a modern day snake oil salesman who thinks he's found the remedy for all our ills," said Terry Stoops, education policy analyst for the John Locke Foundation, a conservative Raleigh think tank that has questioned Wake's academic gains.

Grant argues that the major reason for the economic success of the Raleigh area has been the creation of a diverse school system from the 1976 merger of the increasingly black Raleigh city schools and the largely white Wake County schools. He said that using magnet schools to lure suburban students to inner-city Raleigh classrooms and balancing the percentages of low-income students at individual schools have helped create a climate where no schools are bad.

"Teachers in Raleigh feel they're going to a good school," Grant said. "They have a chance to win. In many other districts they wake up dreading to going to school."

Grant, whose grandchildren attend schools in Raleigh, also praises Wake for reducing the racial achievement gap. He calls it "one of the most inspiring stories in public education" how Wake got 91 percent of students passing state exams in 2003 after having set a goal in 1998 of reaching 95 percent.

Stoops questions the validity of the results because they've dropped sharply in recent years since the state changed the exams. Wake's passing rate on those exams was 71 percent this past school year.

Grant attributes the drop in scores to factors such as the growing percentage of Latino students, many of whom hadn't learned to read in their native language. He notes how Wake still has a high average SAT score.

Grant contrasts Wake's experiences with those of Syracuse, which he says is suffering in large part from the decision in the 1970s not to merge with the suburban districts or to bus black students there. Pumping more money into "segregated institutions for the poor" isn't the answer, he said, noting how much more money Syracuse spends per student than Wake. Syracuse is spending $17,723 per student, Wake $7,821.

When critics assail his conclusions, Grant argues that they are a vocal minority. He points to how supporters of Wake's diversity policy have continued to be a majority on the school board.

But that majority may be challenged in school board elections this fall. Four of the nine school board seats are on the ballot Oct.6. Groups such as Wake Schools Community Alliance that favor neighborhood schools hope to elect a new board majority.

"This book is yet another example of admiring the appearance of the Wake County school system from afar rather than discussing the detailed reality of it," said Allison Backhouse, a member of the steering committee of Wake Schools Community Alliance.

Grant said it would be a "tragic decision" for Wake to back away from its diversity efforts.



View Larger Map


Sources: Charlotte Observer, CMS, Whitehouse.gov, US Dept of Ed., News & Observer, Segregated Schools, Creepygif.com, Youtube, Google Maps

Pres. Obama's Ed. Speech Text & Video...Wakefield's Successfully Diverse Student Population

The President's Speech To Students

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama
Back to School Event

Arlington, Virginia
September 8, 2009

The President: Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.

I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.
I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning.

Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, "This is no picnic for me either, buster."
So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.

Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.

I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.

I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.

I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.
Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.

Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.

And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.

And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.

You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.

We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.
Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.
I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.

So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.

But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.

Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.

That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.
Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.

I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer – hundreds of extra hours – to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall.

And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.
Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.

That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education – and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.

Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.

I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.

But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.

That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, "I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.
No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.

And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.
The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.

It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.

So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?

Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.



Obama to Students: "No excuse for not trying"

In a pep talk that kept clear of politics, President Barack Obama on Tuesday challenged the nation's students to take pride and ownership in their education — and stick with it even if they don't like every class or must overcome tough circumstances at home.

"Every single one of you has something that you're good at. Every single one of you has something to offer," Obama told students at Wakefield High School in Washington and children watching his speech on television in schools across the country. "And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is."

Presidents often visit schools, and Obama was not the first one to offer a back-to-school address aimed at millions of students in every grade. Yet this speech came with a dose of controversy, as several conservative organizations and many concerned parents warned Obama was trying to sell his political agenda. That concern was caused in part by an accompanying administration lesson plan encouraging students to "help the president," which the White House later revised.

Obama preceded his broad-scale talk with a meeting with Wakefield students, where at one point he advised them to "be careful what you post on Facebook. Whatever you do, it will be pulled up later in your life."

Obama, accompanied by Education Secretary Arne Duncan, met with some 40 students gathered in a school library before the speech carried on ESPN and on the White House Web site.

"When I was your age," Obama said, "I was a little bit of a goof-off. My main goal was to get on the varsity basketball team and have fun."

The uproar over his speech followed him across the Potomac River, as his motorcade was greeted by a small band of protesters. One carried a sign exclaiming: "Mr. President, stay away from our kids."

During his meeting inside, one young person asked why the country doesn't have universal health insurance. "I think we need it. I think we can do it," Obama replied. The president said the country can afford to insure all Americans and that doing so will save money in the long run.

Obama is not the first president to give such a school-opening talk, but his plans seemed to almost immediately get plunged in controversy. Critics accused him of overstepping his authority, and school districts in some areas decided not to provide their students access to his midday speech.

Duncan acknowledged Tuesday that some of the prepared guidance for school officials included a suggestion that students could compose essays stating how they could help support Obama — an idea the education secretary acknowledged was wrongheaded.

In his conversation with the Wakefield students, Obama said that not having a father at home "forced me to grow up faster."

One young person asked the president whom he would choose to dine with if he could make only one such selection.

"Gandhi," Obama replied. "He's somebody I find a lot of inspiration in. He inspired Dr. (Martin Luther) King" with his message of nonviolence.

"He ended up doing so much and changed the world just by the power of his ethics," Obama said of the inspirational leader Mahatma Ghandi. At another point, Obama told the students that "a lot of people are counting on me."

Obama proceeded later with the speech the White House had released a day early, virtually unchanged. The school he chose as the setting for his talk — Wakefield — is the most economically and racially diverse school in Arlington County, according to the Department of Education. Nearly 40 percent of graduating seniors pass an Advanced Placement test. That's more than twice the national average.

"There is no excuse for not trying" he said in the speech. He said students must be individually responsible for their education, and that it's important to work hard, pay attention in school and complete assignments.

"Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it," Obama said. "The truth is, being successful is hard. You won't love every subject that you study. You won't click with every teacher that you have."

"At the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents and the best schools in the world, and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities," the president said.



View Larger Map

Sources: Whitehouse.gov, MSNBC, US Dept of Ed

Pres. Obama's School Speech Offers Students Hope, Encourages More Responsibility...Text

MSNBC----


(President Obama is set to address the nation’s schools today as he steps up pressure on critics of his health care reform plan. NBC’s Savannah Guthrie reports.)

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Obama exhorts kids to pay attention in School

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

(Kid Reporter: Pres. Obama's School Speech will help motivate students.)

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

(The White House has released the text of President Obama's speech to school children, which includes encouragement to listen to parents and teachers.)

In a speech that drew fire even before he delivered it, President Barack Obama is telling the nation's schoolchildren he "expects great things from each of you."

"At the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world," Obama said. "And none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities."

The White House posted Obama's remarks on its Web site at midday Monday. He's scheduled to deliver the talk from a school in suburban Arlington, Virginia, on Tuesday.

Pres. Obama's planned talk has proven controversial, with several conservative organizations and individuals accusing him of trying to pitch his arguments too aggressively in a local-education setting. White House officials, including US Education Secretary Arne Duncan, have said the allegations are silly.

Some conservatives have urged schools and parents to boycott the address. They say Pres. Obama is using the opportunity to promote a political agenda.

Proposed lesson plans under fire

Schools don't have to show the speech. And some districts have decided not to, partly in response to concerns from parents.

Duncan's department has also taken heat for proposed lesson plans distributed to accompany the speech.

On Sunday, the secretary acknowledged that a section about writing to the president on how students can help him meet education goals was poorly worded. It has been changed.

"We just clarified that to say write a letter about your own goals and what you're going to do to achieve those goals," Duncan said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

Former Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush delivered similar speeches to students, the White House has said.

In the remarks set for Tuesday, Obama tells young people that all the work of parents, educators and others won't matter "unless you show up for those schools, pay attention to those teachers."

Obama made no reference in his prepared remarks to the uproar surrounding his speech. He used the talk to tell kids about his at-times clumsy ways as a child and to urge them to identify an area of interest, set goals and work hard to achieve them.

It's hard to be Successful

The president acknowledged that "it's hard to be successful," but told the students the country badly needs their best effort to cope in an increasingly competitive global economy.

"What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country," Obama says. "What you're learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future."

Obama noted that he was raised by a single mother, who made him buckle down and work harder at times. He said he's glad she did.

The president also warned students that if they quit on school, "you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country."


Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama
Back to School Event

Arlington, Virginia
September 8, 2009

The President:

Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.

I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.
I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning.

Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, "This is no picnic for me either, buster."
So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.

Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.

I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.

I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.

I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.
Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.

Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.

And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.

And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.

You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.

We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.

Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.
I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.

So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.

But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.

Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.

That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.
Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.

I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer – hundreds of extra hours – to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this Fall.

And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.
Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.

That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education – and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.

Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.

I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.

But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.

That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, "I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.
No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.
And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.

The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.

It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.

So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?

Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.



CMS readies for Obama address

President Barack Obama's speech to the nation's schoolchildren, seen by some as an effort to “indoctrinate” young people, calls on students to take personal responsibility for their educational success.

In it, the president cites the early struggles of popular writer J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter novels, and basketball champion Michael Jordan as examples of why students should be persistent in their studies.

“We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems,” he says in a prepared text of the speech. “If you don't do that – if you quit on school – you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country.”

The White House agreed to post the speech early after a barrage of criticism from Republicans, conservative talk-show hosts and others who called it an attempt to force Obama's views on a captive audience of schoolchildren. Some critics noted accompanying lesson plans the U.S. Department of Education produced that encouraged students to write letters about what they could do to help the president.

The language was later changed to ask students to write letters about how they could reach their goals.

Read the text at www.whitehouse.gov.

The speech, which Obama will give at a high school in Arlington, Va., will air at noon Tuesday on C-span and on the Internet at www.whitehouse.gov/live.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools will show the live speech at all schools, but the district lets parents request that their children do an alternative activity during that time. Several nearby districts have left it up to schools to decide whether and how to show the speech, and the N.C. Department of Public Instruction released a statement Friday saying the speech is “an optional educational enrichment activity.”

Also on Friday, the Diocese of Charlotte notified parents that Catholic schools will not show the speech during class time. “We encourage all parents, as the first educators of your children, to make the decision on how to discuss the President's challenge with your own children,” said a letter from Superintendent Linda Cherry.



View Larger Map

Sources: MSNBC, Whitehouse.gov, US Dept of Ed., Charlotte Observer, CMS, Google Maps

Arne Duncan Calls Unnecessary Angst Over Pres. Obama's Ed. Speech "Silly"....He's Right!

Huffington Post-----

Education Secretary: Furor Over Obama Speech "Silly"




US Education Secretary Arne Duncan says the furor surrounding President Barack Obama's speech this week to the nation's school children is "silly."

Duncan's department is taking heat for proposed lesson plans distributed to accompany Tuesday's speech. Duncan acknowledges that a section about writing to the president on how students can help him meet education goals was poorly written and has been changed.

Duncan says viewing the speech is "purely voluntary." And he says the hubbub is something "I frankly don't pay any attention to."

He says he's is focused "laser-like" on the big problems in the country's education system.



View Larger Map

Sources: Huffington Post, CBS News, US Dept of Education, Youtube, Google Maps

Is Obama School Speech Ire Sign Of Beginning Racial Backlash Over His Presidency?

Critics take aim at Obama’s Speech to kids

(MSNBC's Shuster on reaction to Obama school speech: "Some sort of Bigotry" may be involved".)




(G.O.P. upset over President Obama's School Speech and Education.)

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

(Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter talks about the pleas from some members of the GOP to keep children home from school on the day President Barack Obama gives a speech. Has the rhetoric gone beyond paranoia and become detrimental to education?)

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

(Many parents are in an uproar over Pres. Obama's upcoming school speech to America's students, however none of them have said a word about America's failing public schools or our country's high drop-out rate.)

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

President Barack Obama's back-to-school address next week was supposed to be a feel-good story for an administration battered over its health care agenda. Now Republican critics are calling it an effort to foist a political agenda on children, creating yet another confrontation with the White House.

Obama plans to speak directly to students Tuesday about the need to work hard and stay in school. His address will be shown live on the White House Web site and on C-SPAN at noon EDT, a time when classrooms across the country will be able to tune in.

Schools don't have to show it. But districts across the country have been inundated with phone calls from parents and are struggling to address the controversy that broke out after US Education Secretary Arne Duncan sent a letter to principals urging schools to watch.

Districts in states including Texas, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Virginia, Wisconsin have decided not to show the speech to students. Others are still thinking it over or are letting parents have their kids opt out.

Some conservatives, driven by Radio Pundits and Bloggers, are urging schools and parents to boycott the address. They say Obama is using the opportunity to promote a political agenda and is overstepping the boundaries of Federal involvement in schools.

"As far as I am concerned, this is not civics education — it gives the appearance of creating a cult of personality," said Oklahoma state Sen. Steve Russell. "This is something you'd expect to see in North Korea or in Saddam Hussein's Iraq."

Arizona state schools superintendent Tom Horne, a Republican, said lesson plans for teachers created by Obama's Education Department "call for a worshipful rather than critical approach."

The White House plans to release the speech online Monday so parents can read it. He will deliver the speech at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va.

The White House on Friday dismissed the criticism as pointless the furor.

"I think we've reached a little bit of the silly season when the president of the United States can't tell kids in school to study hard and stay in school," presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters. "I think both political parties agree that the dropout rate is something that threatens our long-term economic success."

Critics are particularly upset about lesson plans the administration created to accompany the speech. The lesson plans, available online, originally recommended having students "write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president."

The White House revised the plans Wednesday to say students could "write letters to themselves about how they can achieve their short-term and long-term education goals."

"That was inartfully worded, and we corrected it," Higginbottom said.

In the Dallas suburb of Plano, Texas, the 54,000-student school district is not showing the 15- to 20-minute address but will make the video available later.

PTA council president Cara Mendelsohn said Obama is "cutting out the parent" by speaking to kids during school hours.

"Why can't a parent be watching this with their kid in the evening?" Mendelsohn said. "Because that's what makes a powerful statement, when a parent is sitting there saying, 'This is what I dream for you. This is what I want you to achieve.'"

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, said in an interview with the AP that he's "certainly not going to advise anybody not to send their kids to school that day."

"Hearing the president speak is always a memorable moment," he said.

But he also said he understood where the criticism was coming from.

"Nobody seems to know what he's going to be talking about," Perry said. "Why didn't he spend more time talking to the local districts and superintendents, at least give them a heads-up about it?"

Several other Texas districts have decided not to show the speech, although the district in Houston is leaving the decision up to individual school principals. In suburban Houston, the Cypress-Fairbanks district planned to show the address and has had its social studies teachers assemble a curriculum and activities for students.

"If someone objected, we would not force them to listen to the speech," spokeswoman Kelli Durham said.

In Wisconsin, the Green Bay school district decided not to show the speech live and to let teachers decide individually whether to show it later.

In Florida, GOP chairman Jim Greer released a statement that he was "absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama's socialist ideology."

Despite his rhetoric, two of the larger Florida districts, Miami-Dade and Hillsborough, plan to have classes watch the speech. Students whose parents object will not have to watch.

"We're extending the same courtesy to the president as we do with any elected official that wants to enter our schools," said Linda Cobbe, a Hillsborough schools spokeswoman. Cobbe said the district, which includes Tampa, has gotten calls from upset parents but said officials don't think the White House is trying to force politics on kids.

The Minnesota Association of School Administrators is recommending against disrupting the first day of school to show the speech, but Minnesota's biggest teachers' union is urging schools to show it.

Quincy, Ill., schools decided Thursday not to show the speech. Superintendent Lonny Lemon said phone calls "hit like a load of bricks" on Wednesday.

One Idaho school superintendent, Murray Dalgleish of Council, urged people not to rush to judgment.

"Is the president dictating to these kids? I don't think so," Dalgleish said. "He's trying to get out the same message we're trying to get out, which is, `You are in charge of your education.'"



Ire, accolades precede speech to kids

A Presidential speech urging students to take responsibility for their own academic success is turning into a political flashpoint in Charlotte and the nation.

At issue: President Obama's 15-minute address to students at noon next Tuesday – and the U.S. Department of Education's detailed instructions on how to prepare students for it.

Some see it as an attempt to force government in general and Obama's beliefs in particular into the minds of kids. They're especially outraged by activity guides that suggest students discuss such questions as “What is President Obama inspiring you to do?”

“I am simply basing my opinion on what Pres. Obama has done thus far in his presidency, appointing czars with communist and socialist ties and speaking out against America and our founding fathers,” Hildi Chinigo of

Matthews wrote in an e-mail to the Observer.

Others see something to celebrate: “I think it is wonderful that the President is going to speak to schoolchildren,” wrote Maddy Baer of Charlotte. “Whether or not you voted for him or support particular policies, he is a role model of achievement for all young people.”

And still others are aghast at how much adult political bitterness is spilling onto a classroom event.

“Gracious, how deeply can this culture divide itself and still hold as a nation?” wrote Tish Signet of Mooresville.

As national bloggers and talk shows urged parents to keep their kids out of school, school districts around the region reassured families that no student would be forced to watch the speech.

All Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools will show it, but parents can request that their kids not participate, said spokeswoman LaTarzja Henry, who said central offices have been bombarded with calls and e-mails.

“This is more of an opt-out thing. We're encouraging participation,” she said.

Officials in Cabarrus, Union and York County, S.C., also said student participation is optional and teachers have discretion about how to work it into lessons.

Some districts say no

Faced with criticism from GOP lawmakers and regular citizens, districts in states including Texas, Illinois, Virginia and Wisconsin have decided not to show the speech to students.

White House officials agreed Thursday to post the speech online Monday so teachers and parents can be prepared. They also revised study guides that were “inartfully worded” – rewriting, for example, a line that suggested students “write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president.”

But White House deputy policy director Heather Higginbottom stood by the overall approach: “It's simply a plea to students to really take their learning seriously. Find out what they're good at. Set goals. And take the school year seriously.”

She noted that President George H.W. Bush made a similar address to schools in 1991. Like Obama, Bush drew criticism, with Democrats accusing the Republican president of making the event into a campaign commercial.

At South Charlotte Middle, Principal Christine Waggoner said she's trying to avoid letting political conflict create student drama. She notified parents in her electronic newsletter that students who want to opt out should privately tell their homeroom teacher. Those students will go somewhere else during the speech. For instance, she said, eighth-graders will watch in the cafeteria during their normal lunch time; students who aren't watching can eat in the courtyard.

She said teachers have the Department of Education activity sheets, but it's up to them to create lessons. For instance, a weekly career-education class will probably focus on goal-setting. “Everybody can set goals,” Waggoner said. “I don't think they need to listen to a speech.”

Politics and the Classroom

Obama will speak at a high school in Arlington, Va., on a day that's the first day of school in some states (Carolinas kids started last month). The speech will air live on C-SPAN and videostream on the White House Web site.

As the White House site describes it, “the President will talk directly to students across the country on the importance of taking responsibility for their education, challenging them to set goals and do everything they can to succeed.” White House officials said Thursday they'll post the remarks Monday at www.white house.gov , allowing schools and parents to be prepared.

Bloggers, politicians and talk-show hosts seized on the speech and the Education Department's push to get schools to participate, getting the word out even before education officials had sent out news releases.

Florida's Republican Party chair, Jim Greer, issued a statement saying “President Obama has turned to American's children to spread his liberal lies, indoctrinating American's youngest children before they have a chance to decide for themselves.”

N.C. GOP chair Tom Fetzer joined in with a different tack: “This speech is clearly political in nature and has no place in the classroom. Our focus should be improving our students' test scores, not the President's approval rating.”

Tammy Bruce, a Los Angeles-based conservative talk-show host, posted on Twitter that Sept. 8 should be “skip day,” adding that “parents are the moral tutors of their children, not a lawyer from Chicago sitting in the WH.”

In Charlotte, talk show host Tara Servatius brought up the topic on WBT radio, complete with an online poll on whether listeners would let their kids participate.

A Moment for Teaching

Ken Gjertsen, a school board member and CMS parent, said he had several e-mails from upset parents Wednesday. He said he understands concerns about whether the speech will be political and disrupt classroom time, but he won't keep his children away.

“It's a president of the United States who is deserving of respect, and if we can instill that in our schoolkids, that's a good thing,” Gjertsen said. But he added that it might have been smarter to schedule the speech in the evening, when children and parents could watch and discuss it together.

Amy Farrell, executive director of Kids Voting, applauded the chance for students to hear the president speak in language aimed at them, in a classroom setting.

“I would like to see this become an annual trend. It would be a neat thing for students to look forward to,” she said.

Farrell, whose nonprofit group promotes civic education, urged parents to seize the moment for a lesson: “Part of civic dialogue is there are going to be people you don't agree with. We need to teach students not to just yell at them or not go to school.”



View Larger Map


Sources: MSNBC, Whitehouse.gov, Politico, Huffington Post, Charlotte Observer,
News & Observer, AJC.com, Media Matters, WRAL, Creepygif.com, Google Maps

2 NC Public Schools Could Receive Federal "Persistently Dangerous" Label...Student Assignment, Equal Education Watch

News & Observer, Charlotte Observer----

Incidents may lead to Federal label of "Persistently Dangerous" for 2 NC Schools


Assaults at two NC schools for Special-Education students, Longview in Raleigh and Metro in Charlotte, have put the schools at risk of being labeled "Persistently Dangerous."

Longview, a school with about 100 students of middle- and high-school age, reported a sexual assault in the past school year. The year before, the school had an assault resulting in serious injury and an assault involving a weapon.

Pamela Jerro, the school's principal, said the assaults involved a student touching a faculty member's breast, a student running into an adult while trying to escape a resource officer, and a student holding a drill bit to another student's face. None of the incidents resulted in criminal charges, she said.

Under Federal Law, a school can be labeled "Persistently Dangerous" if it has too many violent incidents during a two-year period. North Carolina has no schools with the designation. Under the law, students at a persistently dangerous school must be allowed to transfer.

Nearly 80 percent of Longview's students are emotionally disabled, Charlotte Hughes, an administrator with the state Department of Public Instruction, told state education board members Wednesday.

The school has security cameras, small classes, and has adults escort students to the bathroom individually, according to a written report to the board.

Jerro said the school had a good safety record.

"We do everything we can to keep staff and students safe here at Longview," she said in a telephone interview. "I think we do a pretty good job with the population we have."

Metro in Charlotte serves about 200 special-education students. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools officials declined to comment until the state board's official ruling.

State board member John Tate III said at a committee meeting Wednesday that Charlotte-Mecklenburg Superintendent Peter Gorman was unhappy that the "persistently dangerous" label could be attached to Metro.

"He's very prideful of the work staff is doing for special populations," Tate said. "This population really needs a lot of TLC."

Department staff recommended that the state board put the schools on probation and have state administrators monitor them this year. But the board will consider exempting Longview, Metro and other small schools for special-education students from the persistently dangerous designation.

"It's unfair that they get on the list," said board Chairman William Harrison.

The states set out the criteria, and in North Carolina a school that has five serious incidents such as murder, rape, or assault per 1,000 students in two consecutive years lands it on an at-risk list. It's up to the state board to decide whether it will call that school persistently dangerous.

Because Longview and Metro are small, one or two reportable incidents can get them flagged, Harrison said. It's important to emphasize safety, Harrison said, but the board needs to find another way to consider the records of special-education schools.


Maryland names "Persistently Dangerous" Schools

Members of the Maryland State Board of Education didn't speak the words "persistently dangerous" at the most recent meeting, but they quietly voted to give the designation to seven more Baltimore City schools. Of the seven, many are being closed.

The schools to get the designation are Canton Middle, Garrison Middle, Hamilton Middle, Dunbar Middle, Samuel L. Banks High, Thurgood Marshall High, and Institute of Business and Entrepreneurship.

Last year, the board agreed that the designation uses criteria that are more stringent than most across the country. For several years, no schools were designated as persistently in many major urban areas in America that have larger school populations that Baltimore.

So this year, the board took action to fullfill its obligation under NCLB but is clearly trying to downplay the action.

The question remains whether the board will have to change its criteria if NCLB is not reworked in the next year or two.



View Larger Map


Sources: News & Observer, Charlotte Observer, Baltimore Sun, US Dept of Ed., Google Maps