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1) Border Fence Proposed for Wrong Border. I
don't have strong opinions either way about the immigration issue. On the
one hand, the need for secure borders is even more important these days than
ever. On the other hand, I have been to Naples, Italy, and I now understand
entirely what induced my grandfather to sail to America without a dime. I
thank God every day that he took the risk.
My own ambivalence hasn't deterred me from noticing
some major inconsistencies regarding the issue when it comes to America's
public schools. They were illustrated last week in two stories. The first
was a positive profile by the New York Times' Samuel G. Freedman of
Yvonne Watterson, a high school principal in Phoenix. Headlined "Principal
Sees Injustice, and Picks a Fight With It," the story details Ms.
Watterson's problems with a state law that denies in-state tuition to
illegal immigrants:
"Ms. Watterson knew her students could not afford to
pay the out-of-state rate, generally $280 a credit. And without the college
classes, there would be less reason to stay in school. So she made the list
and sent letters home and began to call in the affected students one by one
to tell them that their tuition was no longer subsidized. A girl named Karla
crumpled to her knees in the principal's office, and said, 'But I'm a good
person.' A few weeks later, Ms. Watterson heard, Karla was riding a bus back
to Mexico."
It's a heart-rending story. Stories like it were part
of the inspiration for a
115-mile march along the Rio Grande, organized by Texas schoolteachers
from border schools. "The border is a region, rather than a line and,
culturally, there are more similarities between Brownsville and Matamoros,
than Brownsville and Dallas," said John Moore, an 8th-grade English teacher
in Brownsville.
So there's a lot of sympathy for a Matamoros student
who crosses an international border to attend a Brownsville public school.
How about a Milford, Connecticut, student who crosses district boundaries to
attend school in Norwalk? Not so much.
Norwalk spends $40,000 annually to keep those students out. "It is a
process that is conducted with a good deal of discretion," says the
superintendent. "We don't want people to know we are conducting
surveillance."
This is hardly an unusual practice. I have reported on
similar incidents many times in the past, dubbing them the
school choice black market.
I wait patiently for the
22-mile protest march along I-95 from Milford to Norwalk.
2) Teacher Shortage Touters Never Say Die.
"Declining enrollment will likely have little impact on the overall teacher
shortage in California, since huge numbers of baby boomers are retiring and
turnover among new teachers will likely continue." – February 2008
California Educator, organ of the California Teachers Association.
"Everyone is laying off teachers right now. I think I
can bring a lot to any school… but it's a tough market. I really never
thought it would come to this." – Adrian Wong, fifth-grade teacher in the
Rialto Unified School District, in the March 16
Los Angeles Times.
3) There Are Always Strings. Bad news if you
were hoping to fill a teaching slot at The Equity Project Charter School at
$125,000 (see
Item #2 here). Founder
Zeke M. Vanderhoek told the New York Times that applicants "have
to submit multiple examples of their students' achievements and of their own
teaching innovations, and must have scored in the 90th percentile
in the verbal section of the GRE, GMAT or similar tests."
Doesn't Vanderhoek know that "standardized
testing damages education?"
4) Can You Hear Me Now? Last week I noted a
study claiming 28 percent of all high-schoolers fall asleep in school (see
Item #4 here). Soon after, the consequences of this problem became
crystal clear.
High school student Vinicios Robacher plans to sue the
town of Danbury, Connecticut, after teacher Melissa Nadeau awakened him in
class by
slamming her hand down on his desk. Robacher claims he suffered "very
severe injuries to his left eardrum."
The New York Times reports that some school
districts are
wiring teachers with microphones and speakers due to "an era of chronic
ear infections, widespread iPod use and rampant attention-deficit
disorders."
It's so quiet they fall asleep and so noisy they
can't hear?
5) Press-Telegram Plaudits. It can't be
an easy decision for a large daily newspaper to assign a reporter to
comprehensively cover the local teachers' union, so let's send a hearty
"well done!" to the editors of the Long Beach Press-Telegram and
reporter Kevin Butler for a dozen or so stories in recent months on the
Teachers Association of Long Beach (TALB).
From
internal protests to the establishment of a California Teachers
Association administratorship over the local to details of an
audit of the union's finances, Butler and the Press-Telegram have
covered TALB like the political power-broker it is. I doubt it's bringing
the paper much love, but it should.
6) Last Week's Intercepts. EIA's blog,
Intercepts, covered these topics from March 10-17:
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Two Americas. Red state vs. blue state.
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Fighting the Man. Edu-stunts.
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What'll You Do When You Get Lonely? Let's make the best of the
situation.
7)
Quote of the Week.
"I believe we must send a clear message that there are rules in this society
that dictate that if you intended to get a job in a professional
environment, you will not get that job with your underwear hanging over your
trousers." – Florida State Senator Larcenia Bullard (D-Miami), co-sponsor of
a bill that mandates specific penalties for students who wear sagging pants.
(March 14
Miami Herald) |
