Education

This video is making the circles among social science teachers and I thought it was worth sharing.  Click here to see it on YouTube.

At a White House spoken word event, Lin-Manuel Miranda performs a hip hop tune about Alexander Hamilton, the first U.S. Secretary of Treasury.  Hamilton was shot and killed in a well-known duel with Aaron Burr in 1804.

Enjoy!

Michelle

A tiff occurred at the end of last week over The Bee's attendance at the Modesto City Schools' budget advisory committee meetings.  I ended up going to the meeting, and you can read the story here.

This group of about 25 people will dissect the district's budget and make recommendations for cuts to the district's cabinet -- the superintendent, deputy superintendent, associate superintendents and two directors of business.  The board of education will make the final decision.

The state's largest teachers union is deciding whether or not to go for two proposed ballot initiatives that would raise billions of dollars for schools from large businesses.

Both measures would alter Proposition 13 to funnel money from large businesses to schools.  One of the initiatives would impose an additional half-percent ad valorem tax on commercial property, the other would loosen Proposition 13 restrictions by assessing such property at current market rates.  They could be on the November 2010 ballot, but CTA officials will make a final decision in January about whether to move forward.

Each of the CTA initiatives promise a tax break for homeowners and for small businesses.

CTA officials said many large businesses use loopholes to pay less than their fair share of taxes.  CTA officials said they would favor closing those loopholes over tax hikes since increasing taxes isn't the most popular idea for voters.

Enrollment at California’s 110 community colleges is up 3 percent, or 56,000 students, this year compared to last year despite cuts to education spending.

The increase in students is occurring mainly in career training areas for nursing, electrician, printer and mechanic jobs, according to California Community College Chancellor Jack Scott.

On a conference call today, Scott outlined steps colleges are taking to cope with the budget shortfall. Scott said he’s urging colleges to reduce class offerings that are outside campuses’ core goals of job training and student transfers to four-year universities. Community education classes will most likely be reduced further in the next few years -- courses like aerobics or choir.  Look for similar actions at Modesto Junior College and Columbia College.

Officials want to see students transferring to universities more quickly and remediation education more intense and less time consuming.

In case you missed the forecast from the Legislative Analyst's Office this morning, you can find it as a pdf here or visit the LAO's Web site here.

It's not good news.

The state will have annual $20 billion shortfalls even if state employees receive no salary increases through 2014-15, according to the report.  The office recommends making more spending cuts for the current fiscal year and looking at tax hikes.

With the University of California system today considering raising tuition fees 32 percent for next year, the impact of the state's financial woes might have drastic impacts on education for years to come.

Michelle

Once again, or chump and chief proves that he does not place America, and Americans,  first. He seems to be campaigning for "World's Chief and Chump."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/17/pruden-obama-bows-the-nation-cringes/