Education Department changing eligibility for hundreds of rural school districts receiving aid: report
More than 800 schools receiving federal funds under the Rural and Low-Income School Program could become ineligible due to a sudden change in bookkeeping, The New York Times reported Friday.
The funding helps sustain schools in geographically isolated areas with fewer local funding opportunities. The change was reportedly announced through letters to education leaders from the Education Department.
According to the Times, the letter said an audit of the program showed that districts had “erroneously” received funding when they had not met eligibility requirements outlined in the federal education law since 2002.
The Education Department argued that schools were not using the Census Bureau’s Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates to determine if at least 20 percent of the students at their schools were below the poverty line.
Instead, schools used a percentage of students who qualified for subsidized school lunches, which the Times noted follows the same guidelines for determining if a student is living under the poverty line, and is better than the Census at ensuring each student attending the district is counted.
The Education Department has allowed this form of reporting in the past 17 years since the laws governing who qualifies for these funds were created.
The Department of Education did not immediately respond to an inquiry from The Hill.
Liz Hill, an Education Department spokeswoman, told the Times the department is working on a legislative remedy that would create a “free-and-reduced-lunch funding formula.”
“When you discover you’re not following the law Congress wrote, you don’t double down; you fix it,” Hill told the Times. “If that’s what Congress wants, Congress should pass it, and the Education Department will happily implement it. We will also continue to look for ways to help ensure students are not unnecessarily harmed.”
An official for the Senate Health, Education and Labor Committee told the Times that Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Tenn.) is working quickly to “solve this problem for hundreds of rural schools around the country.”
The change comes less than a month after the Department of Education cut funding for the Rural Education Achievement Program, a fund created by Congress to assist rural schools.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) wrote a letter to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos earlier this month opposing the change, which would cut $1.2 million from schools in her state.
“If this decision is not reversed,” Collins wrote, “the department risks denying thousands of students living in rural Maine the chance to reach their full potentials.”
What did Collins do? Wag her finger in disappointment again? Everyone knows she’s gonna fall in line like all the other times.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
Shifting course for just a moment, I just want to say that no schools are underfunded and have worse conditions than our rural schools. It's a travesty!
Socialism is evil though so....dunno what to tell you. People try to help, but the government is evil and all that so....oh well. Rural people heavily lean conservative and love people like DaVos.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
Throwing money at a problem does not solve the problem. Getting rid of the problem (teachers union) would be much more effective.
You know............I am going to be nice........but, damn man, it's sometimes hard to read things that are based on ignorance and not say a damn word in response.
Most know I am a retired teacher. I worked in high income districts, low income districts, and even an alternative school w/armed guards, metal detectors, and drug-detecting dogs.
My daughter's fiances father is a principal in rural SC. The demographics say that his school is 89 percent black. He has been trying to talk me out of retirement to help him out. Their numbers suck and they are facing being taken over by the government.
Bottom line..........they are a victim of generational poverty and they do not receive as much funding as urban schools.
Compare that to Columbia, SC..........which is about 40 miles north of this particular school. In the deepest of the 'hood, they have the most state-of-the-art schools. They just built a new Elementary school off of Two Notch Road that is as good as it gets. It's primarily black, too.
I wanted to point that out to clarify my earlier point about rural schools being underfunded and neglected. I wasn't saying that as a race issue. I was saying that as a location issue.
I want y'all to consider the importance of location and voice that each geographic location might possibly have, either from their own mouths or from advocates.......and then think of why the discrepancy might occur?
And look, dawgs........it really angers me that some folks don't believe that investing time and money into properly supporting our children. Our children and our future, which our children are a huge part of, need to be of the utmost priority.
I agree wholeheartedly and would add that these Devos style private voucher charter schools are nothing short of a money grab, modern segregation, and a way to fund politicized religion IMHO. This is the next phase of dumbing down America on a vast industrialized scale. Just look at this Vice News report.
Charter Schools May Be the Future of Public Education | VICE on HBO
This crap is no answer! The government needs to invest in public education like they do military spending! It's obvious that 20 years in we still have a population that is not ready to compete in the 21st century! Ignoring and under funding education is going to kill american innovation and competitiveness in the world economy. We need an educated workforce to do that. Lack of quality education creates dependency on entitlement programs, crime, drug addiction, mental health issues, homelessness, and a subpar workforce.
I never understood the school grading system and better scores get better funding, that seems completely opposite of what should be.
Or better yet, just give every school the same amount per student with a cost-of-living for the region multiplier. Giving a school that is a struggling less money will do nothing but make them struggle behind further.
We don't have to agree with each other, to respect each others opinion.
I never understood the school grading system and better scores get better funding,
Where did you hear that?
Btw.......I apologize for my poorly written post last night. We had people over for most of the day and I was obviously feeling the effects of that. LOL
I never understood the school grading system and better scores get better funding,
Where did you hear that?
Btw.......I apologize for my poorly written post last night. We had people over for most of the day and I was obviously feeling the effects of that. LOL
I'm referring to the standardized testing, and maybe I am wrong on how it truly works.
[edit] Found this, this is what I was referring to.
While schools don't have to administer annual achievement tests, they'll lose funding if they don't. Local school districts determine test content, but with the recent push toward meeting Common Core standards, states' tests are becoming more standardized. A school that consistently fails to meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP; measures the amount of academic growth per school) standards may not be able to access some grants and other forms of funding. After five years of failure to meet AYP standards, a school can be closed altogether.
Last edited by FloridaFan; 03/02/2008:57 AM.
We don't have to agree with each other, to respect each others opinion.
As I noted earlier, I have worked in various schools w/very different demographics. Test scores are important. It's how schools are judged. Testing is typically despised by most teachers and students. Teachers in the Columbia, SC area went to the state house en force to address the issue of over-testing. Districts had to close the schools that day.
However, it is my experience that the schools receive more funding from the government if they have a large population of families below the poverty level. It's fairly involved, but those who qualify for free/reduced lunch is a significant factor. Districts work very hard to help schools who have low test scores. Schools in higher income areas get the standard amount of money from the government, but are often supplemented by the work of the parents through donations, fund-raisers, partnerships, etc.
The crazy thing to me is that a lot of things seem to be tossed out the window when it comes to funding for rural schools.
Again, I want to be clear. This is not a black/white issue. It's a location issue. A lot of folks think of poor whites when they see the term rural area. However, especially in places like the south, there are many rural areas where the majority of the population is black.
I think there is a political reason for why rural schools are underfunded, but that is a discussion for another day.
I agree wholeheartedly and would add that these Devos style private voucher charter schools are nothing short of a money grab, modern segregation, and a way to fund politicized religion IMHO. This is the next phase of dumbing down America on a vast industrialized scale. Just look at this Vice News report.
Charter Schools May Be the Future of Public Education | VICE on HBO
This crap is no answer! The government needs to invest in public education like they do military spending! It's obvious that 20 years in we still have a population that is not ready to compete in the 21st century! Ignoring and under funding education is going to kill american innovation and competitiveness in the world economy. We need an educated workforce to do that. Lack of quality education creates dependency on entitlement programs, crime, drug addiction, mental health issues, homelessness, and a subpar workforce.
Government run education is not the answer. Charter schools produce much better results than public education as a whole for all students including students of color.
man yall want to privatize everything in this freaking country. im so sick of this crap. might as well privatize the police force and fire department while we're at it.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
man yall want to privatize everything in this freaking country. im so sick of this crap. might as well privatize the police force and fire department while we're at it.
You sure do like paying taxes. I think I can make better decisions with my money than the government.
"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples' money." Margarat Thatcher
man yall want to privatize everything in this freaking country. im so sick of this crap. might as well privatize the police force and fire department while we're at it.
You sure do like paying taxes. I think I can make better decisions with my money than the government.
so do you. you just paid 28 billion to farmers for something your president started. you pay farmers to NOT grow crops.
i like paying taxes so that our future generations are properly educated. sorry if i actually give a damn about our fellow americans.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
man yall want to privatize everything in this freaking country. im so sick of this crap. might as well privatize the police force and fire department while we're at it.
Interesting you say that. Some time ago, I'm thinking it was probably 20 years ago now? The town I live in privatize the fire department.
All Baltimore Colts style, literally told the fire fighters one day they were no longer needed, effective immediately.
You can guess how long it took for the people to find out.
Here's a excerpt from their website
Troubled Times Slow growth continued and by the mid-1990s Estero Fire and Rescue employed 11 full-time firefighters, a training officer, a secretary and a new Fire Chief. Although the entire operation still worked out of a single building on US41, the building had expanded from a 2-bay garage to a 5-bay complex, housing two fire engines, a brush truck and a few support vehicles.
But there was trouble brewing in the day-to-day operations of Estero Fire and Rescue. Jimmy Wright, the new Fire Chief, was having relationship issues with the union firefighters. Still, the firefighters were shocked one evening in January, 1997, when they came back from a training exercise and discovered they had all been fired! Chief Wright had convinced the Board to bring in Wackenhut, a private company, to staff Estero Fire and Rescue, on the grounds that it would save the District money.
The incident became front page news in Southwest Florida. Firefighters came from around the state to picket in front of the fire station. Board members were charged with violations of the Sunshine Law, and several resigned. Tragedy struck on Tuesday, July 15th, 1997 when a Wackenhut firefighter was killed fighting a brush fire. Several weeks later, the Fire Chief was arrested for stealing the picket signs of the protesting union firefighters. Estero Fire and Rescue had reached a low point in its 23 year existence.
The old adage says that it is often darkest just before the dawn, and so it was with Estero Fire and Rescue. In August, 1997, the remaining 3 board members, Tim Higgins, Connie Kelley and Josephine Bigelow, voted to dismiss Wackenhut and reinstate the firefighters. Josephine Bigelow resigned from the Board at that time and Dick Schweers was appointed to the Board by Governor Chiles a few days later, just to keep a quorum. In October, Larry Westin and Gayle Sassano were added to fill the Board. The five commissioners had a daunting task. They needed to find a new Fire Chief, deal with a sizeable debt and rebuild a department in shambles. San Carlos Fire Chief Nat Ippolito and Assistant Chief Ray Delo oversaw the day-to-day operations of the District for 6 months, while the Board looked for solutions.
We don't have to agree with each other, to respect each others opinion.
man yall want to privatize everything in this freaking country. im so sick of this crap. might as well privatize the police force and fire department while we're at it.
You sure do like paying taxes. I think I can make better decisions with my money than the government.
so do you. you just paid 28 billion to farmers for something your president started. you pay farmers to NOT grow crops.
i like paying taxes so that our future generations are properly educated. sorry if i actually give a damn about our fellow americans.
Why should all americns pay for public education when they may not have any children? I think private schools and tuition would be a better program than our failed public education system.
"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples' money." Margarat Thatcher
There are many different evaluations of Charter Schools. This one is a long read, but I think it's an honest evaluation compared to some of the more slanted articles that are out there, whether they be in favor or against Charter schools.
The goal should be to find the truth rather than win an argument. Here's the paper.
man yall want to privatize everything in this freaking country. im so sick of this crap. might as well privatize the police force and fire department while we're at it.
You sure do like paying taxes. I think I can make better decisions with my money than the government.
so do you. you just paid 28 billion to farmers for something your president started. you pay farmers to NOT grow crops.
i like paying taxes so that our future generations are properly educated. sorry if i actually give a damn about our fellow americans.
Why should all americns pay for public education when they may not have any children? I think private schools and tuition would be a better program than our failed public education system.
by that logic, why should americans pay for the defense budget if a lot of them hate the military and wars? why should we pay for the presidents salary if half the country hates his ass?
thats a rabbit hole you dont want to go down.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
man yall want to privatize everything in this freaking country. im so sick of this crap. might as well privatize the police force and fire department while we're at it.
You sure do like paying taxes. I think I can make better decisions with my money than the government.
so do you. you just paid 28 billion to farmers for something your president started. you pay farmers to NOT grow crops.
i like paying taxes so that our future generations are properly educated. sorry if i actually give a damn about our fellow americans.
Why should all americns pay for public education when they may not have any children? I think private schools and tuition would be a better program than our failed public education system.
Because an educated society has a better chance of taking care of itself, rather than relying on the government or generosity of others to survive?
We don't have to agree with each other, to respect each others opinion.
With all of the attacks on public education recently, I wanted to know what our founding fathers thought about education.
I found that our founders believed education was critical for democracy and avoiding an "aristocracy of wealth," that it should be available to all, that is should be free from religion and ideology, that it should be equal for all citizens, that it should be public, and that the investment was worth the cost.
I thought it might be useful to post some of their quotes and talk about what we believe when it comes to public education.
1. Education is critical for democracy
Thomas Jefferson in a letter to George Wythe, 1786:
I think by far the most important bill in our whole code is that for the diffusion of knowlege among the people. No other sure foundation can be devised for the preservation of freedom, and happiness.
1. Education is critical for democracy (continued)
Samuel Adams in a letter to James Warren, 1779:
If Virtue & Knowledge are diffused among the People, they will never be enslav'd. This will be their great Security.
Thomas Jefferson in a letter to William Jarvis, 1820:
I know no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.
2. Education prevents aristocracy and leads to a meritocracy
Jefferson was almost prescient in his belief that societies tend to move toward concentrated wealth. He believed public education would create a meritocracy rather than an aristocracy.
Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson, 1821:
Instead of an aristocracy of wealth, of more harm and danger than benefit to society, to make an opening for the aristocracy of virtue and talent, which nature has wisely provided for the direction of the interests of society and scattered with equal hand through all its conditions, was deemed essential to a well-ordered republic.
Thomas Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, 1782:
By that part of our plan which prescribes the selection of the youths of genius from among the classes of the poor, we hope to avail the state of those talents which nature has sown as liberally among the poor as the rich, but which perish without use, if not sought for and cultivated.
3. Education should be available to everyone
Thomas Jefferson in a letter to M. Correa de Serra, 1817:
The object [of my education bill was] to bring into action that mass of talents which lies buried in poverty in every country for want of the means of development, and thus give activity to a mass of mind which in proportion to our population shall be the double or treble of what it is in most countries.
4. Education should be free from religion and ideology
Thomas Jefferson in a Report to the President and Directors of the Literary Fund, 1822:
The want of instruction in the various creeds of religious faith existing among our citizens presents... a chasm in a general institution of the useful sciences. But it was thought that this want, and the entrustment to each society of instruction in its own doctrine, were evils of less danger than a permission to the public authorities to dictate modes or principles of religious instruction, or than opportunities furnished them by giving countenance or ascendancy to any one sect over another.
Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 1822:
After stating the constitutional reasons against a public establishment of any religious instruction, we suggest the expediency of encouraging the different religious sects to establish, each for itself, a professorship of their own tenets on the confines of the university, so near as that their students may attend the lectures there and have the free use of our library and every other accommodation we can give them; preserving, however, their independence of us and of each other. This fills the chasm objected to ours, as a defect in an institution professing to give instruction in all useful sciences... And by bringing the sects together, and mixing them with the mass of other students, we shall soften their asperities, liberalize and neutralize their prejudices, and make the general religion a religion of peace, reason, and morality.
5. Education should be equal for all citizens
This is a particularly critical belief supporting public schools. Markets lead towards "pay to play" - tiered levels of service based on what people can afford.
Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Joseph C. Cabell, 1818:
A system of general instruction, which shall reach every description of our citizens, from the richest to the poorest, as it was the earliest, so will it be the latest, of all the public concerns in which I shall permit myself to take an interest.
Thomas Jefferson in a reply to the American Philosophical Society, 1808:
I feel ... an ardent desire to see knowledge so disseminated through the mass of mankind that it may, at length, reach even the extremes of society: beggars and kings.
6. Education should be public
Thomas Jefferson in his 6th Annual Message:
Education is here placed among the articles of public care, not that it would be proposed to take its ordinary branches out of the hands of private enterprise, which manages so much better all the concerns to which it is equal; but a public institution can alone supply those sciences which, though rarely called for, are yet necessary to complete the circle, all the parts of which contribute to the improvement of the country, and some of them to its preservation.
Thomas Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, 1782:
An amendment of our constitution must here come in aid of the public education. The influence over government must be shared among all the people. If every individual which composes their mass participates of the ultimate authority, the government will be safe; because the corrupting the whole mass will exceed any private resources of wealth: and public ones cannot be provided but by levies on the people. In this case every man would have to pay his own price. The government of Great-Britain has been corrupted, because but one man in ten has a right to vote for members of parliament. The sellers of the government therefore get nine-tenths of their price clear. It has been thought that corruption is restrained by confining the right of suffrage to a few of the wealthier of the people: but it would be more effectually restrained by an extension of that right to such numbers as would bid defiance to the means of corruption.
7. Public investment in education is worth the cost
photo Franklin_zps9751632d.jpg
Ben Franklin, as quoted in Exercises in English Grammar (1909) by M. A. Morse:
If a man empties his purse into his head no man can take it from him. An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.
John Adams from his 1776 Papers:
Laws for the liberal education of youth, especially of the lower class of people, are so extremely wise and useful, that, to a humane and generous mind, no expense for this purpose would be thought extravagant.
John Adams in The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations, 1854:
The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people and be willing to bear the expenses of it. There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves.
photo john-adams-older_zps6b894084.jpg
What should education consist of?
Noah Webster in On the Education of Youth in America:
It is an object of vast magnitude that systems of education should be adopted and pursued which may not only diffuse a knowledge of the sciences but may implant in the minds of the American youth the principles of virtue and of liberty and inspire them with just and liberal ideas of government and with an inviolable attachment to their own country.
photo noah_webster_sm_zpse0642e63.jpg
Thomas Jefferson in a letter to J. Bannister, Jr., 1785:
What are the objects of an useful American [college] education? Classical knowledge, modern languages, chiefly French, Spanish, and Italian; Mathematics, Natural philosophy, Natural history, Civil history, and Ethics. In Natural philosophy, I mean to include Chemistry and Agriculture, and in Natural history, to include Botany, as well as the other branches of those departments.
man yall want to privatize everything in this freaking country. im so sick of this crap. might as well privatize the police force and fire department while we're at it.
You sure do like paying taxes. I think I can make better decisions with my money than the government.
so do you. you just paid 28 billion to farmers for something your president started. you pay farmers to NOT grow crops.
i like paying taxes so that our future generations are properly educated. sorry if i actually give a damn about our fellow americans.
Why should all americns pay for public education when they may not have any children? I think private schools and tuition would be a better program than our failed public education system.
It's called making sacrifices for your community and country. Who do you think footed the bill for your public education?
man yall want to privatize everything in this freaking country. im so sick of this crap. might as well privatize the police force and fire department while we're at it.
You sure do like paying taxes. I think I can make better decisions with my money than the government.
so do you. you just paid 28 billion to farmers for something your president started. you pay farmers to NOT grow crops.
i like paying taxes so that our future generations are properly educated. sorry if i actually give a damn about our fellow americans.
Why should all americns pay for public education when they may not have any children? I think private schools and tuition would be a better program than our failed public education system.
Because an educated society has a better chance of taking care of itself, rather than relying on the government or generosity of others to survive?
It can be done and done properly without being government run. That is the issue. The government and the ETA is the reason why our education system is failing. Private schools/Charter schools, and home schooling is a much more effective education environment.
"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples' money." Margarat Thatcher
man yall want to privatize everything in this freaking country. im so sick of this crap. might as well privatize the police force and fire department while we're at it.
You sure do like paying taxes. I think I can make better decisions with my money than the government.
so do you. you just paid 28 billion to farmers for something your president started. you pay farmers to NOT grow crops.
i like paying taxes so that our future generations are properly educated. sorry if i actually give a damn about our fellow americans.
Why should all americns pay for public education when they may not have any children? I think private schools and tuition would be a better program than our failed public education system.
Because an educated society has a better chance of taking care of itself, rather than relying on the government or generosity of others to survive?
It can be done and done properly without being government run. That is the issue. The government and the ETA is the reason why our education system is failing. Private schools/Charter schools, and home schooling is a much more effective education environment.
Who's going to pay for it though? Probably less than 20% of the kids in public school could afford private school or charter school. And homeschooling makes the assumption that a parent is educated properly themselves, and has the proper skills and disposition to teach.
We don't have to agree with each other, to respect each others opinion.
Charter schools do not outperform Public Schools. There are many different reports out there and some conflict. The problem is evaluation criteria and what Charter Schools release to be examined. They vary from state to state and school to school. That is why I posted that long article because it wasn't trying to prove anything. It just addressed the situation.
One thing that seems fairly certain is that Charter Schools typically lag behind Public schools in both Reading and Math.
Some of y’all are about to most selfish people I’ve ever come across in my life.
Good lord this board sucks.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
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