Financial turmoil casts pall on school openings across nation

[Nottingham]

Financial turmoil casts pall on school openings across nation
By SAM DILLON
New York Times
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Dozens of schools here are reeling from the financial turmoil that forced the closing of seven schools and the dismissal of 600 teachers at the end of the last school year.
As children return to classrooms, many of the nation's 90,000 public schools are, as in Oklahoma City, battered and worn down. Most states have reacted to declining tax revenues by trimming education spending, setting the stage for one of the most austere school years in memory.

In Alabama, where a budget crisis has left 38 of the state's 129 school systems on the verge of bankruptcy, Birmingham closed nine schools before the fall term began last month. Boston closed five schools and eliminated 1,000 jobs, including 400 teaching positions. Teachers lost jobs in cities such as Toledo, Ohio; Norwich, Conn.; and Vista, Calif.

If austerity is challenging parents and educators at schools across America, the new term also appears likely to pose a critical test for the education law, called No Child Left Behind, which President Bush has made a centerpiece of his domestic agenda. Bush developed its central concept -- using standardized tests to hold schools accountable for student achievement -- as governor of Texas in the 1990s, when the economy was booming. Flush with tax revenues, Texas sent squads of experts to schools labeled as failing to help them sort out their educational program.

But the education law, which seeks to replicate Bush's Texas experiment nationally, is taking force in an economic downturn, and a fierce debate is under way about whether the federal government will provide enough help to schools the law identifies as failing, or simply pass the costs of the law on to the states.


More....

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2084621


Now I ask you could we use that 87 million for our children!

:bounce:

[qanda]

1. I believe that's $87 billion with a "b" and

Yes we could use every single penny of it! I wonder when people are going to wake up and realize that while we are offering all types of services to the Iraqi people our country is going down the tubes.

[Nottingham]

2. Yes its Billion! I still have a Hard time Saying it 87 Bbbbbillon

OMG!! All for Iraq! :bounce:

[JohnyCanuck]

3. Obvious answer is to emigrate to Iraq

I hear they're gonna have billions for new schools over there.

[Nottingham]

4. And Free Healthcare & Jobs

:bounce:

[Dudley_DUright]

5. Considering the federal share of K-12 education is about $20 billion/year

I would say that $87 billion would go a long way in helping to improve public education in the US.

[Nottingham]

6. Watch Congress will cut Education for Our kids to PAY for the

87 Bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbillion for Iraq

:bounce:

[Rose Siding]

7. Larry King had several legislators on his show

The repubs all saying how we needed to make these sacrifices and I wanted to CALL- HEY, are you in the same Congress that turned DOWN the bare bones *six* bil for education this past week???

Almost lost another tv set.

[Nottingham]

8. Party Line didn't ya want to Scream! YOU JERKS!

Ya what about OUR CHILDREN's EDUCATION! George sitting down reading his book upside down to the kiddies isn't helping us out here!

:bounce: