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Leader: Taylor Strubinger
Category: Activities (Page 27 of 32)
Activities are gatherings that occur on a regular schedule, usually weekly, to enjoy a specific pastime.
HIKING BABCOCK PRESERVE in GREENWICH, CT
Reschedule from FRIDAY MAY 26, 2017 due to weather.
Our last hike of the season will be on Tuesday, May 30, 2017. We will be hiking the Babcock Preserve which is a 300 acre tract of forested land in Greenwich, north of the Merritt. It is the largest park in Greenwich and consists of several hiking trails over a relatively easy terrain. It was acquired by the Town of Greenwich in 1972, partially by gift and partially by purchase from the Babcock Family.
At this time of the year the park is a particularly pretty lush green with its tranquillity interrupted only by the chirping of birds. We plan to hike about 3.5 miles and be done by 12.30pm. Half this trail is relatively flat with the balance consisting of a not too strenuous gentle slope.
As usual wives and significant others are welcome.
After the hike we will have lunch (optional) at the Asiana Bistro, a fusion Asian restaurant located at 844 High Ridge Road in Stamford.
DIRECTIONS
From the south-bound Merritt Parkway take Exit 31 (North St). At the top of the exit ramp make a left turn on to North St-north. About half a mile down the road on the left will be the clearly marked entrance to Babcock Preserve. There is ample parking. Meet there at 10.00am on 5/26/17.
Contact: Sunil Saksena. ssaksena44@gmail.com, 203-561-8601
Award-winning screenwriter Malla Nunn delivers a stunning and darkly romantic crime novel set in 1950s apartheid South Africa, featuring Detective Emmanuel Cooper — a man caught up in a time and place where racial tensions and the raw hunger for power make life very dangerous indeed.
In a morally complex tale rich with authenticity, Nunn takes readers to Jacob’s Rest, a tiny town on the border between South Africa and Mozambique. It is 1952, and new apartheid laws have recently gone into effect, dividing a nation into black and white while supposedly healing the political rifts between the Afrikaners and the English. Tensions simmer as the fault line between the oppressed and the oppressors cuts deeper, but it’s not until an Afrikaner police officer is found dead that emotions more dangerous than anyone thought possible boil to the surface.
When Detective Emmanuel Cooper, an Englishman, begins investigating the murder, his mission is preempted by the powerful police Security Branch, who are dedicated to their campaign to flush out black communist radicals. But Detective Cooper isn’t interested in political expediency and has never been one for making friends. He may be modest, but he radiates intelligence and certainly won’t be getting on his knees before those in power. Instead, he strikes out on his own, following a trail of clues that lead him to uncover a shocking forbidden love and the imperfect life of Captain Pretorius, a man whose relationships with the black and coloured residents of the town he ruled were more complicated and more human than anyone could have imagined.
The first in her Detective Emmanuel Cooper series, A Beautiful Place to Die marks the debut of a talented writer who reads like a brilliant combination of Raymond Chandler and Graham Greene. It is a tale of murder, passion, corruption, and the corrosive double standard that defined an apartheid nation.
Recommended by Jan Selkowitz
Side read: Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
Looking for a challenging game of chess?
The DMA Chess Club welcomes players of all levels.
We meet Mondays, 12:30-3:00 at the Mather Center.
For more information contact Tony Kwedar
Mianus River Park Hike
scheduled for Friday April 28, 2017 at 10am
Merriebrook Lane, Stamford
The 400 acre Mianus River Park straddles the towns of Stamford and Greenwich and is owned jointly by them. Its dramatic landscape includes the Mianus River and its tributary streams, a hilly terrain, hiking trails, rock formations and plentiful widflowers. We have hiked here before but this time we will be trying a new, more interesting trail.This trail starts with climbing a hill followed by the slope easing off into a comfortable hike.
More about the park can be found at:
Mianus River Park
We will hike approximately 3.5 miles and, starting at 10am, be done by about 12.30 pm.
As usual, participation from spouses, significant others and friends is welcome.
The hike will be followed by lunch(optional) at the Mackenzie Bar and Grill located at 970 High Ridge Road, Stamford.
Date & Time : Friday, April 28, 2017 at 10 am
Meeting Point: Parking lot at the Stamford entrance of the Mianus River Park on Merriebrook Lane, off Westover Road
Parking. : lower level, just below the large red cabin on the right side of Merriebrook
Directions: . Search for Merriebrook Lane in Stamford on google maps or follow these
directions:
Heading south towards NYC on the Merritt take exit 33 on to Den Road . Then take the first left on to Bangall Road and a left again on to Riverbank Rd. This turns slightly right and becomes Westover Road. After 1.2 miles, make a right on to Merriebrook Lane( careful, it’s easy to miss this turn). The park entrance and parking lot is ¼ mile down the hill on Merriebrook.
Contact. : Sunil Saksena.
ssaksena44@gmail.com
203-561-8601 cell
When the Nazi Blitzkrieg subjugated Europe in World War II, London became the safe haven for the leaders of seven occupied countries–France, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Norway, Czechoslovakia and Poland–who fled there to avoid imprisonment and set upgovernments in exile to commandeer their resistance efforts. The lone hold-out against Hitler’s offensive, Britain became a beacon of hope to the rest of Europe, as prominent European leaders like French general Charles De Gaulle, Queen Wilhelmina of Holland, and King Haakon of Norway competed for Winston Churchill’s attention while trying to rule their embattled countries from the precarious safety of ‘Last Hope Island'”
Review from the NYT’s: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/05/books/review/last-hope-island-lynne-olson.html
Companion book: “Avenue of Spies” by Alex Kershaw. There is one paper copy and 2 audio copies in the Library. Recommended by Taylor Strubinger.
How a Nobel Prize–winning theory of the mind altered our perception of reality. Forty years ago, Israeli psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky wrote a series of breathtakingly original studies undoing our assumptions about the decision-making process. Their papers showed the ways in which the human mind erred, systematically, when forced to make judgments in uncertain situations. Their work created the field of behavioral economics, revolutionized Big Data studies, advanced evidence-based medicine, led to a new approach to government regulation, and made much of Michael Lewis’s own work possible. Kahneman and Tversky are more responsible than anybody for the powerful trend to mistrust human intuition and defer to algorithms.
The Undoing Project is about a compelling collaboration between two men who have the dimensions of great literary figures. They became heroes in the university and on the battlefield—both had important careers in the Israeli military—and their research was deeply linked to their extraordinary life experiences. Amos Tversky was a brilliant, self-confident warrior and extrovert, the center of rapt attention in any room; Kahneman, a fugitive from the Nazis in his childhood, was an introvert whose questing self-doubt was the seedbed of his ideas. They became one of the greatest partnerships in the history of science, working together so closely that they couldn’t remember whose brain originated which ideas, or who should claim credit. They flipped a coin to decide the lead authorship on the first paper they wrote, and simply alternated thereafter. This story about the workings of the human mind is explored through the personalities of two fascinating individuals so fundamentally different from each other that they seem unlikely friends or colleagues. In the process they may well have changed, for good, mankind’s view of its own mind.
Discussion Leader: Harris Hester
The Library has 4 copies of a shorter book, Think Twice by Michael Mauboussin, that addresses the subject. He lives in the area and has spoken at the Library. He’s Managing Director, Global Strategies, Credit Suisse. Gary Banks
Hiking Pomerance Park,
Greenwich Connecticut
We will be hiking Pomerance Park, located at 101 Orchard Street, Greenwich on Thursday
March 30, 2017 at 10 am
This 100 acre property is now owned by the Town of Greenwich, but was at one time the estate
of a Mr Wertheim, a New York investment banker. The property is of interest because the
mansion that sits atop a small hill was home to Barbara Tuchman, the noted historian, who was
Mr Wertheim’s daughter and who wrote her Pulitzer prize- winning book “The Guns of August”
while secluded in a small cabin on the property. The mansion itself fell into disrepair and was
demolished by the Town , but its skeleton was preserved for its historical interest.
Except for a couple of gentle slopes, the hiking trails on this property are fairly flat and suitable
for almost anyone who is interested in hiking. Its a very pretty property, rustic and wooded and
you will marvel that so much open space has been preserved in the middle of a residential area.
We expect to hike about 2-21/2 hours followed by lunch, which is optional will be at the Little
Pub at 531 East Putnam Ave Greenwich at about 12.30pm
Directions: On Google Maps mark your destination as Pomerance Park, Greenwich or 101
Orchard Street, Greenwich.
Take I-95 South towards Greenwich and get off at Exit 5. Off the Exit ramp make a left turn
onto Route 1 South ( also called East Putnam Ave).. Proceed just over a mile and then make a
sharp right turn onto Orchard Street(there is a Gulf station at the corner). Drive up Orchard
Street about 0.75 miles and you will see Pomerance Park on your right. Pull into the parking lot
where we will meet at 10.00am
Contact :Sunil Saksena ssaksena44@gmail.com
203-561-8601
Discussion leader: Gary Banks
President Trump and Mexican leaders have been disagreeing since the first moments of Trump’s presidential campaign, when Trump accused Mexico of using the United States as a dumping ground for criminals; he went on to campaign on building a wall, imposing a tariff, and revising NAFTA.
But beneath the heated rhetoric is a complex and largely beneficial relationship. Mexico is the United States’ third-largest trading partner, with $531 billion in two-way trade in 2015. More than 35 million Americans have Mexican roots. While U.S. companies’ investments in Mexico get more attention, Mexican companies employ more than 123,000 people in the U.S.
Our discussion will examine this issue from several vantages. What makes this interesting, and challenging, is the fact that every action will have a reaction and, in turn, a counter reaction. As in any complex adaptive system, you can’t do just one thing. There is plenty of news from a US perspective. Here, we’ll also explore how Mexico and its people see the relationship and what actions and reactions they may take.
Summit in Mexico from the Yale School of Management.
http://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/what-s-the-future-of-us-mexico-relations
Mexico’s Revenge
By antagonizing the U.S.’s neighbor to the south, Donald Trump has made the classic bully’s error: He has underestimated his victim. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/05/mexicos-revenge/521451/
Nafta has made Mexico a better place, writes @MaryAnastasiaOG from Harris
https://www.wsj.com/articles/nafta-has-made-mexico-a-better-place-1489957421
Here is an example of how difficult trade negotiation are. One industry, in this case sugar growers in Florida want to restrict imports from Mexico. (The Florida sugar industry in known for sleazy politics and environmental damage.) But the sugar refining industry wants inexpensive raw sugar. But wait! The Iowa corn farmers want to sell high fructose corn syrup to Mexico and that market might be jeopardized. Now the sugar buyers, such as candy makers threaten to move their manufacturing off shore to get access to raw materials. Not simple – everything is connected. Like ecology, you can’t do just one thing. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/04/world/americas/mexico-nafta-north-american-free-trade-agreement-sugar-subsidies.html?ref=business&_r=0
Not mentioned is both corn and sugar cane can make ethanol. Sugar cane as biomass makes more sense as the stalks are waste, corn is a crop. Brazil is a leader in cane ethanol but there is an import duty to the US to protect domestic growers. But there is no import duty on oil –
even from unsavory countries. The impoverished Caribbean could grow sugar cane and the have refineries but they are blocked.
George Friedman, Stratfor, has some provocative perspectives. Namely, the US-Mexico relationship goes back to their defeat in the Mexican-American war. That the US Southwest is occupied Mexican territory. And with the rapid growth of the Latino population in those states soon to determine their politics,the area could become some sort of semi-autonomous zone between the two countries. This is outlined in his book “The Next 100 years”.
http://www.mauldineconomics.com/this-week-in-geopolitics/mexico-as-a-major-power#
How Mexico’s President Laid the Foundation for a Wall
Enrique Peña Nieto helped put Trump in the White House. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/01/trumps-accomplice-in-mexico/514430/
Nearly 5 Million U.S. Jobs Depend on Trade With Mexico
Arguments that policies such as NAFTA have killed American manufacturing jobs often ignore the many other American jobs that such deals create and support. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/12/mexico-nafta-trade/510008/
America Is Already Paying for the Wall With Mexico
How Trump made an enemy. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/01/america-is-already-paying-for-the-wall-with-mexico/514658/
Now that you have done your reading, there is a test of how much you know about Mexico courtesy of the Christian Science Monitor. http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2012/0701/How-much-do-you-know-about-Mexico-Take-our-quiz/What-does-the-5th-of-May-commemorate-in-Mexico How did you do?
Discussion leader: John Bartlett
Key questions:
1. Is it a problem that due to deficit spending our national debt has doubled in the past ten years and now stands at 77% of gross domestic product – the highest since World War II?
2. Why do politicians not discuss this issue?
3. Should the deficit be reduced by using the principals of the 2013 Budget Sequestration involving across the board spending cuts?
This discussion is to look at the magnitude of the Federal debt and discuss possible solutions looking at prior plans such as Simpson Bowles and the the 2013 Sequester and see if we can find a way that the government could find a way to accomplish the goal of reducing the ballooning federal debt. The first part of the discussion would be to look at the CBO numbers and the second to see if we can think of a process by which a “top down” approach could be agreed to.
This is a basic, sensible introduction to trade deficits from the Peterson Institute.
Is the US Trade Deficit a Problem?
National Commission of Fical Responsibility
Go to GAO.gov and in the search area enter the following: Financial Audit: Bureau of the Fiscal Service’s Fiscal Years 2016 and 2015 Schedules of Federal Debt.
CBO 2017 Long-Term Budget Outlook
CBO 2017 Long Term Deficits
United_ States_budget_sequestration_in_2013
“The Education of David Stockman” is a classic on how the Federal Budget is actually constructed. It was published in the Atlantic in 1981 and was expanded into his book, “Triumph of Politics.” It isn’t pretty. Recall that Stockman was Reagan’s first term budget director. No one, including Reagan, comes off well. This article was off the record – until it wasn’t. It lead to Stockman’s famous trip to the woodshed. (Full disclosure – I worked for David for 6 years. Gary)
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1981/12/the-education-of-david-stockman/305760/
This is the link to Steve Balmer’s new website. He’s done a 10K for the government.
USA Facts
“Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter.” Dick Cheney
Deficit as a % of GDP St. Louis Fed
Bill Bradley had a good article in the 4/30/17 NYT’s on the process of writing the Tax Reform Act of 1986. It seems positively enlightened and unimaginable in today’s political environment. Click here:
When Congress Made Taxes Fairer
www.nytimes.com/2017/05/01/opinion/trumps-tax-cuts-may-be-more-damaging-than-reagans.html?emc=eta1
This is an article about the choices and context of the next budget from the Brookings Institute. It was written Jan 24th, 2017 – unfortunately it’s not the way things turned out.
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2017/01/24/trump-mulvaney-and-managing-federal-government/
A Brooking op-ed on Trump’s tax proposal. https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/trumps-tax-plan-amateur-hour-at-the-treasury-department/
There’s a new book “A Fine Mess” by T.R. Reid. It’s in the library. Here is an interview of the author on NPR.
http://www.npr.org/2017/04/03/522424621/fine-mess-you-can-learn-a-lot-about-a-country-by-its-taxes It is a comparative look at our tax code.
From New York Times bestselling author of Destiny of the Republic and The River of Doubt, a thrilling narrative of Winston Churchill’s extraordinary and little-known exploits during the Boer War.
At age twenty-four, Winston Churchill was utterly convinced it was his destiny to become prime minister of England one day, despite the fact he had just lost his first election campaign for Parliament. He believed that to achieve his goal he must do something spectacular on the battlefield. Despite deliberately putting himself in extreme danger as a British Army officer in colonial wars in India and Sudan, and as a journalist covering a Cuban uprising against the Spanish, glory and fame had eluded him.
Churchill arrived in South Africa in 1899, valet and crates of vintage wine in tow, there to cover the brutal colonial war the British were fighting with Boer rebels. But just two weeks after his arrival, the soldiers he was accompanying on an armored train were ambushed, and Churchill was taken prisoner. Remarkably, he pulled off a daring escape–but then had to traverse hundreds of miles of enemy territory, alone, with nothing but a crumpled wad of cash, four slabs of chocolate, and his wits to guide him.
The story of his escape is incredible enough, but then Churchill enlisted, returned to South Africa, fought in several battles, and ultimately liberated the men with whom he had been imprisoned. Churchill would later remark that this period, “could I have seen my future, was to lay the foundations of my later life.”
Millard spins an epic story of bravery, savagery, and chance encounters with a cast of historical characters—including Rudyard Kipling, Lord Kitchener, and Mohandas Gandhi—with whom he would later share the world stage. But Hero of the Empire is more than an adventure story, for the lessons Churchill took from the Boer War would profoundly affect 20th century history.
Discussion leader: Chris Filmer
Charter Schools: Pros & Cons
Discussion leader: David Mace
Discussion Questions:
Our discussion on Charter schools will begin with a brief understanding of what is a charter school.
Who attends charter schools?
Who pays for charter schools?
Why do some charter schools succeed and others fail?
What is the impetus behind wanting to give children more school choices?
We will discuss the impact on the public school systems when local taxpayer dollars are redirected to support charter schools.
Do we think it is wise to direct more federal funding for education toward charter schools?
Should charter school teachers have to pass the same qualification exams as public school teachers or should we treat charter school teachers more like a private schools where teacher qualification is established by each school?
Is it appropriate for profit making corporations to manage and benefit financially from charter schools?
Finally, should we be lobbying the Department of Education in Washington to create more charter schools or should we be pushing back on this effort which Betsy DeVos says she wants to pursue?
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Paper by Beverly Miyares, the Director of Education Policy for the Massachusetts Teachers Association.
Click here: Beverly Miyares
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Resources:
Charter Schools In Perspective: A Guide to the Research
http://www.in-perspective.org/files/CharterSchoolsInPerspective_GuidetoResearch.pdf
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A GROWING MOVEMENT: AMERICA’S LARGEST CHARTER PUBLIC SCHOOL COMMUNITIES AND THEIR IMPACT ON STUDENT OUTCOMES
This provides good, current data on enrollment trends. I would not focus on the outcomes section of this report, as it is biased.
https://www.charterschoolcenter.org/sites/default/files/files/field_publication_attachment/enrollment-share-web1128.pdf
This is from the Intelligence squared debates – topic “Charter Schools Are Overrated” Yes or No?.
http://www.intelligencesquaredus.org/debates/charter-schools-are-overrated
Are Charter Schools Making a Difference: A Study of Student Outcomes in Eight States.
This small piece summarizes RAND’s 2009 study of charter schools. It’s dated, but gives a good perspective.
http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9433.html
A twisted interpretation of historically black colleges paves the way for a failed market-driven education policy. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/01/opinion/ms-devoss-fake-history-about-school-choice.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share
Here’s a late entry. (It is 10:20PM and I am cramming for the discussion.)
http://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/educating-the-disadvantaged#.WPgPphjGKmd.email
NYTimes: Have We Lost Sight of the Promise of Public Schools?
The arguments over the confirmation of the new secretary of education were about something bigger: which government institutions benefit which citizens.
https://urbancharters.stanford.edu/
The new studies come at an interesting moment, with a proponent of vouchers newly in charge of the Education Department.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/23/upshot/dismal-results-from-vouchers-surprise-researchers-as-devos-era-begins.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share
Charter Schools in Connecticut
Basic FAQ’s from the state.
http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/lib/sde/pdf/equity/charter/FAQs.pdf
Charter schools in CT:
http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/cwp/view.asp?a=2681&q=335076
http://ctviewpoints.org/2017/02/13/opinion-james-mulholland-2/
Achievement First is a high performing charter high school in Hartford. AF Hartford High School students outperformed the state average on the SAT, as well as earned the highest average SAT scores among low-income students in the state. On the 2015 Connecticut state SBAC exam, students achievement scores surpassed those of neighboring West Hartford. Watch the video.
http://www.achievementfirst.org/schools/connecticut-schools/achievement-first-hartford-high-school/about/
From: “Miyares, Beverly”
Subject: RE: Charter Schools
Date: April 10, 2017 at 11:50:36 PM EDT
To: David Mace
Sorry again to take so long to reply. Here are my thoughts on your questions:
A. Why would the MA State Board of Education disallow a superintendent or school board from expressing an opinion on the establishment of a particular charter school? Whose interest is being served by this posture?
The MA Board of Education has always interpreted MA statues re: charter school approvals as prohibiting them from taking community opinion on the establishment of the charter school into consideration. The Board’s understanding is that they can consider only the merits of the charter application and not the impact on the traditional public schools. Many members have expressed frustration with that interpretation but it has not ever been challenged.
I am not exactly sure where this understanding comes from. I believe the Board can establish the criteria for approving a charter application. The regulations governing this process, in my view, do not clearly exclude consideration of community impact. However, it is the principle on which the Board operates. I will need to research this point further.
As to whose interests it serves, it serves the interests of charter school advocates. Given the funding mechanism, it is almost always going to be the case that the traditional public school will oppose the charter school. Prohibiting the decision makers from taking the funding loss into consideration is an advantage for the applicant.
For most of the charter school era, MA has had a governor who supported charter schools. The MA Board of Education has been much more conservative than the state as a whole given that the governor appoints the Board members. The Democratic dominance of the state legislature provides a veto-proof majority; and, in my opinion, a Republican governor leaves the legislature with more power than if there were a Democratic governor. The legislature has typically put the limitations on charter schools; left to its own devices, the Board would likely approve many more charters.
B. My impression is that a large part of the support for charter schools is to get the teachers unions off their back. Is this a fair statement? For example, some I have spoken with say it is very difficult (not impossible) to remove a teacher from a public school. Like the medical profession where doctors protect their own, teachers come to the support of teachers even when it is not warranted. I am asking my question this way purposely to anticipate those in our group who will support charters in all events. Your comment please.
Unions are required to enforce the contract and represent teachers when there is a question of whether the contract has been violated – they have no choice. Unions do not make the decision to hire a teacher; they do not make the decision to give them job protection rights – called Professional Teacher Status in MA; tenure in other states – and they do not evaluate them. Management does. When management has gone through all those steps – hired, awarded tenure and evaluated an person, it should have to follow the agreed upon process when a person who was once good enough to be hired, given tenure and received good evaluations no longer meets the standard of performance. Unions defend the process; not the person. In MA, management has a three year probation period before a teacher earns professional teacher status. During that time, there are very few requirement a district needs to follow in order to non-renew a teacher. Three years should be enough.
The term, “union contract” is a misnomer; a contract is agreed upon by both parties and, hence, is called a collective bargaining agreement. Both parties agree to follow the rules specified in the agreement. If the rules are too difficult, then management should bargain about changing those rules when the agreement expires. Typically they do not. And, often, management has not followed the agreed upon process in an instance when a teacher should no longer be employed.
I don’t believe it is a case of “teachers protecting their own.” No teacher wants to teach next door to someone who is not able to do their job; nor does any teacher want to receive students from a teacher who has not taught children adequately. However, the agreed upon process must be followed. Historically, bargaining over dismissal processes comes from an era when patronage was an issue or discrimination on the basis of race and gender was common in employment practices.
C. Would you agree that some charter schools are exceptional because they have an outstanding principal and a strong board. If that is the case, then the strengthening of public schools can be achieved by having better principals and stronger school boards.
I am always in favor of good principals and I wish there were more concern about the quality of principals in our schools. We hear much about the “bad teacher” and not much about the “bad principal.” We have an extreme shortage of quality principals; teachers are not interested in the job even when they have the credential. In MA, we have thousands of teachers with principal licenses, but a shortage of candidates for principal positions. In MA, principals cannot be union members; they have a difficult job, often asked to be change agents and have no job protection. In fact, federal policy required that principals be replaced for low performing schools to receive federal school improvement funds- regardless of whether anyone thought the principal needed to be replaced.
I do not know of any research that finds that charter schools have better principals as a group. Research does show that charter principals have a higher turnover rate than do principals in traditional public schools. As I have described, the working conditions in charter schools are not sustainable over time; people with families and other demands cannot sustain what charter schools typically require of its staff members, including principals.
I would agree that many schools, not just charters, are exceptional because they have an outstanding principal and staff. Staff likes to work for an outstanding principal; they do not like to work for a poor principal. There is clear research that supportive leadership is more important than compensation when a teacher makes a decision about whether to work in a particular school.
D. My impression is that public schools are the responsibility of local cities and towns, not the Federal government. If so, how much influence can Betsy DeVos have in pushing for more charter schools at the expense of public schools? How much damage can she do?
What Betsy has an influence on is the federal funding specified in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the successor legislation to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, more recently known as the No Child Left Behind Act. This federal law covers a large number of federal funding programs, the largest of which is Title 1 that provides funding for low income students. MA receives about $250 million in Title 1 each year; most schools receive some Title 1 funds, but the bulk of it goes to large urban districts where a high percentage of low income students reside.
The US Education Department can set conditions on receiving this grant money through regulations and guidance. In the Obama administration, states were allowed to waive particular requirements of the federal law, but had to agree to other requirements, for example, regarding how teachers were evaluated. These “waiver” requirements were much more specific than federal programs had ever included.
Congress has now rescinded regulations for some of the programs included in ESSA; it is not clear at all how Betsy may advance a charter/choice/religious school agenda through requirements around eligibility for federal programs or perhaps through revisions in federal tax policy. Much more to come.
Hope this is helpful. Sorry to take so long – lots going on here. Feel free to send along any more questions – I am enjoying having to put my charter thoughts together!
Beverly Miyares
Massachusetts Teachers Association
Center for Education Policy + Practice
2 Heritage Drive, 8th Floor
Quincy, MA 02171-2119
617-878-8340
This is from the CT Mirror. It highlights proposed change to the education funding formula. I is complicated to figure out if Charters are a bargain or a drain.
School choice
Even more controversial is Duff and Rojas’s proposal for funding charter and magnet schools and other choice programs. Currently, separate funding formulas or set amounts written into state law govern funding for various school choice programs.
Duff and Rojas want to end that and instead have all schools funded under the same formula used for traditional neighborhood schools.
However, there is one exception — and that’s where the controversy is rooted.
Since charter, magnet and other choice schools don’t have a local tax base and are primarily supported by state funding, Duff and Rojas propose the state calculate how much each local district spends to educate a student on average and then withhold one-quarter of that amount for each student who leaves for a magnet or charter school. The withheld funding would be sent to the school the child actually attends.
Currently districts do not get funding for students who leave for charter schools. However, districts still get state funding for students who leave for magnet schools, which is somewhat offset by tuition that magnets charge the sending districts.
The changes that Duff and Rojas propose would drive huge funding increases for several charter schools — including about $1,800 more per student for Achievement First Hartford Academy and $1,700 for Stamford Academy, according to a preliminary run done by the School Finance Project. Four of the state’s 22 charter schools would lose funding, with the largest being Explorations Academy, which would lose $475 per student.
The network of regional magnet schools opened in the Hartford region in an effort to comply with a Connecticut Supreme Court order to desegregate Hartford schools would be hit hard by the changes, with a loss of $3,569 per student.
Rojas and Duff said more money should leave than currently does when a student leaves to attend a charter or magnet school — but others see this as an effort to drain more money that would have gone to neighborhood schools.
“It’s a public school voucher plan. This is the Michigan model,” said Waxenberg, referring to the controversial approach Betsy DeVos successfully got into place in Michigan before becoming the U.S. education secretary.
Duff denies it’s a voucher plan.
“That’s not true at all. That’s over-the-top rhetoric that’s trying to fan the flames of fear rather than what this bill actually does,” he said, pointing out that no state funding will go to private schools. “For some reason opponents are hanging their hat on that instead of focusing on the fact that 550,000 public school students would be better served by this new funding formula. I would rather focus on those public school students.”