| Newspapers; 11/15/06 | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Nov 15 2006, 07:24 AM (141 Views) | |
| NFarquharson | Nov 15 2006, 07:24 AM Post #1 |
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From the Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...09/1026/SCHOOLS Wednesday, November 15, 2006 Legislators must solve rising school costs Proposal 5 -- rejected by 62 percent of Michigan voters -- should serve as a wake-up call for all of us in education. Clearly, we cannot make the case for increased educational investments without tackling the rising cost of school employee health benefits. Help is already on the way. Senate Bills 895-898 would introduce meaningful competition and allow schools to more easily form self-insured pools. The AFT-Michigan teachers union estimates these bills will save Michigan schools $573 million in just three years. That's $573 million more to hire new teachers, reduce class sizes, improve technology and buy more textbooks. This common-sense legislation could save Michigan's public schools up to 17 percent on health care costs -- because where competition exists, prices decline. No one wants to see teachers lose benefits. After all, high-quality teachers are the key to our students' futures. But teachers' benefits won't mean much if schools can't afford to hire them. Moreover, research has shown that the market can provide similar benefits at a lower cost. Just as Michigan's auto industry is facing up to economic realities, the education community must roll up its sleeves and refuse to allow classroom dollars to be diverted to high-cost benefits when less expensive, but high-quality insurance alternatives are available. William H. Mayes Executive Director Michigan Association ofSchool Administrators Justin P. King Executive Director Michigan Association of School Boards Lansing _______________________________________________ http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...35/1026/SCHOOLS Wednesday, November 15, 2006 A music class uses the stage next to the cafeteria at Tyler Elementary. Some parents are upset that their children will have to move to different schools next year. District will shift its students around Van Buren Twp. will balance enrollment Karen Bouffard / The Detroit News David Coates / The Detroit News Kindergartners use the music room at Tyler Elementary School in Van Buren Township. Overcrowding at some schools has prompted the district to plan to shift some students to other schools next year. See full image What's next Van Buren Public Schools is hosting meetings to discuss changes at schools from 7-9 p.m. at the cafeteria of Belleville High School, 501 W. Columbia, on these days: Dec. 4: North and South middle schools Feb. 5: Elwell and Savage elementary schools March 5: Rawsonville and Haggerty elementary schools April 2: Draft of changes May 7: Board of Education could vote on plan. VAN BUREN TOWNSHIP -- Some children in Van Buren Public Schools would be moved to other schools next year under a controversial plan to cope with geographic shifts among families in the 74-square-mile district. Every elementary and both middle schools would be affected by the plan, which shifts students from overcrowded facilities on the north end of the township to those on the south side that have room to spare, district officials said. The 6,200-student district includes Van Buren Township, Belleville, some of Romulus and parts of Sumpter, Ypsilanti and Canton townships. District spokesman Paul Henning said the plan is prompted by new development near the northern border that caused enrollment to swell at schools such as Tyler Elementary. Space is so tight there the music room is used as a kindergarten class, while music classes meet on the cafeteria stage. Fewer than 3 percent of the district enrollment, about 160 students, would start next year in an unfamiliar building, but many parents are upset because the changes would affect all six elementary and both middle schools. "The parents of children who are being moved are being quite emotional," Henning said. "It's a completely understandable thing to be emotionally attached to a school. The prospect of moving to a completely different school is not appealing." Administrators are rolling out the plan in public hearings. Their final recommendation will be presented to the Board of Education on May 7. The plan now calls for moving some students out of Tyler, Savage, Edgemont and Haggerty elementaries into the now-underutilized Elwell and Rawsonville schools. Students also would be moved from North Middle to South Middle. None of the children would have a longer bus ride to school, and some could end up with a slightly shorter one, Henning said. Rose-Marie Walker, president of the PTO at Tyler, said her third-grade son isn't among the students who would be moved. But the upheaval concerns most parents, she said. "Just about everybody was worried that their child would be moved," Walker said. The Tyler group has been working with school officials to ease the impact of overcrowding, Walker added. "The consensus is that we have to do something for the music teacher, like maybe putting up a sound barrier," Walker said. Denise Ochs said she's glad students would be added to 300-student Elwell Elementary, where her two children are enrolled. "More kids, more friends," Ochs said. "This redistricting should have happened a long time ago." You can reach Karen Bouffard at (734) 462-2206 or kbouffard@detnews.com. |
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| Want2move | Nov 15 2006, 08:33 AM Post #2 |
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AP Interview: Bill Gates says U.S. education system needs work By DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP (Associated Press Writer) From Associated Press November 13, 2006 6:52 PM EST SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said Monday that the U.S. higher education system is the envy of the world but primary and secondary schools are failing to adequately prepare students for college. In an interview with The Associated Press, Gates said the experience of being a parent of three kids - ages 10, 7 and 4 - has led him to spend more time thinking about schools. Specifically, he said the U.S. education system needs higher standards, clear accountability, flexible personnel practices and innovation. Gates, whose children are in private schools, said every U.S. state should require students to take three or four years of math and science to graduate from high school - 25 states currently have such requirements. He wants states to have the power to intervene at low-performing schools. "Real accountability means more than having goals; it also means having clear consequences for not meeting the goals," he said in a speech earlier Monday to Washington state educators who came to hear the results of an education task force. Gates said schools should also be able to pay the best teachers better and offer incentives to attract people with rare abilities. "It's astonishing to me to have a system that doesn't allow us to pay more for someone with scarce abilities, that doesn't allow us to pay more to reward strong performance," he said. "That is tantamount to saying teacher talent and performance don't matter and that's basically saying students don't matter." He also spoke of some creative school programs - particularly charter schools run by private companies - that should be a model for innovation in the nation's schools. "This nation has to do something very challenging, which is to provide a strong education to almost every student," he said. Gates will start working full-time in mid-2008 at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which seeks cures for the world's diseases and to improve American education. He said his role at the foundation isn't going to change that much, because he won't be running it. He said the foundation, which received a $1.5 billion (?1.17 billion) donation from fellow multibillionaire Warren Buffet in June, was discussing ways it could accept donations but that it was not actively seeking them. |
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