Category: Ericka Crouse
Hearing on No Child Left Behind Concentrates on How Law Can Be Improved
WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 – The Department of Education is considering granting states more flexibility in testing under the No Child Left Behind act, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings told a House panel Thursday.
Testifying in front of the House education committee, Spellings said the department is working with states who want to create different testing standards for students with disabilities – for instance, giving them more time to complete the tests.
The secretary also said that school districts that have taken in displaced students from the Gulf Coast will be allowed to report evaluations of those students separately from their main body of students.
The No Child Left Behind law, passed in 2002, requires that states test students annually and meet federally-mandated progress standards.
Committee members expressed concern that allowing different testing standards for students with disabilities might cause them to be left out of the process all together.
The department also is considering a system where schools will be given credit for improvement over time, even if their improvement in a given year isn’t sufficient to remove the school’s ‘needs improvement’ designation, Spellings said.
While she spoke of the importance of greater flexibility in the way the law is implemented, Spellings defended the law’s core goals. She reiterated her commitment to the goal of 100 percent proficiency by 2014.
“That really is not too much to ask of our country and our children,” Spellings said.
She said schools have seen a more dramatic improvement in the last five years than they did over the previous 30, especially for minority students.
“We have created an appetite for results,” she said.
Lawmakers also expressed concerns about the state of America’s high schools. While Spellings said that there has been rapid improvement in schools since the law was implemented, she acknowledged that improvement has occurred mainly at the elementary education level.
Spellings said one of the problems is that the data on what needs improvement in high schools isn’t available. “We’re doing a lot of guessing about what’s wrong in high school,” she said.
She also said she was concerned about the number of high-school drop-outs, estimating that there are one million every year. It costs the country money in lost taxes and, “it also represents the American Dream denied for many people,” she said.
Committee Chairman John Boehner (R-Ohio) said that the dropouts are the symptom of earlier problems. “We don’t lose them in high school,” he said. “We lose them in grades one through three when the fire of learning is not lit.”
####
Local Schools to Take Advantage of Katrina Relief Bill Aimed at Students
WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 - Local colleges that have taken in students displaced by the hurricanes in the Gulf Coast region may be eligible for more federal aid.
A bill the House passed Tuesday would allow the Secretary of Education to reallocate unused federal education funds for use by students displaced by the hurricanes.
Eligible schools - those in the Gulf region or those that have enrolled students from schools unable to operate because of the storms - also could apply for aid under this bill and would not have to match the federal funds, as they would under the current law. The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.
Several school representatives around the North Shore area expressed willingness to accept students affected by the hurricanes and a few schools already have such students enrolled.
Nancy Sabin, the assistant dean of enrollment services at Northern Essex Community College, said there are already several students from the hurricane-affected areas enrolled in online courses at the school, and a potential student will be visiting the campus this week.
Sabin said she thought that more federal aid for the displaced students was a good idea.
"They're not residents of the states they're attending, which makes their bill considerably higher," she said.
Tina Lemoi, the director of e-learning at North Shore Community College, said her school has 10 students enrolled in its distance learning program. The college has an agreement with the Sloan Consortium, which is offering free online courses for those displaced by Katrina.
"The [Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is picking up the tab except for their books and materials," said Lemoi, adding that the college will be paying for what the Sloan Consortium does not cover.
"We already had these online courses in place. We're just opening up more sections," specifically for the hurricane victims, she said.
Northern Essex Community College's online courses also are offered through the Sloan Consortium, Sabin said.
Salem State College has enrolled one graduate student from Tulane University, and two other students from the Gulf region are interested, according to Jim Glynn, assistant director of media relations at the college.
Sylvio Vazquez, vice president for enrollment and marketing at Gordon College in Wenham, said that "unfortunately" they don't have any students currently enrolled from the Gulf Coast areas affected by the hurricanes. He said the school is still accepting applications from those students and that those students would be able to start at the second "quad" of the year - halfway through the first semester.
Vazquez said a Framingham native who had been attending school in the affected region is interested in Gordon College.
"I don't assume that we would be applying for any federal aid ourselves," Vazquez said, but he added that while the school would provide free tuition for displaced students, room and board would probably have to be covered by financial aid.
Vazquez said he could understand why there weren't a large number of students relocating to Massachusetts from the areas affected by the hurricanes. "That's quite a considerable geographic gap - and cultural gap, too," he said.
###
Local Cape Anners March for Peace
WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 - At 8:35 a.m., protesters are already beginning to gather in downtown Washington. At the mouth of the Federal Triangle Metro stop, senior citizens are consulting maps and schedules, sporting protest T-Shirts and buttons and carrying signs. Two adults and a middle-school-age girl stand by a directory of the area. The girl adjusts some buttons she has pinned to the knee of her blue jeans. One with the letter W crossed out is readable, even at a distance.
On the other side of the courtyard, Sally Takekawa of Gloucester and Nina Samolioff of Rockport are making their plans for the day. Takekawa says they did manage to sleep "somewhat" on the bus. Now, in search of breakfast, they decide to follow the flow of people on the street.
On the way, they discuss other protests they have known. Samolioff talks about coming down to protest the second inauguration of President George W. Bush.
"There were security checkpoints everywhere," she says. She adds that she was forbidden to take in a button she brought, because security wouldn't allow her to bring anything with a pin near the parade route. People also were not allowed to have fruit to eat.
"I think they were afraid we would throw it," Samolioff said.
Over breakfast, the two women talk about politics, fuel efficient cars and Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show". Takekawa also tells the story of her life as a military family member. Her first husband was in the military and she had to be very careful, she says, with any activism.
"If I ever wrote letters to the editor, I had to leave my husband's name out of it, and just write for myself," she says. Takekawa added that she is glad to see groups like Military Families Speak Out, because she believes it's a change in the culture of silence that she observed on bases.
Takekawa has two sons, one of whom, Peter Johnson, is in the army in Iraq. He is a black-hawk mechanic stationed in an airbase in Balad, which is north of Baghdad. Near the end of his second three-year hitch in the Army - he had been to Kosovo - Johnson thought that because he had already served in a war zone he wouldn't get called to go to Iraq.
However, Takekawa's son got called to Iraq on the stop-loss program, which allows the Army to send soldiers who have more than 90 days left to serve to anywhere they might be needed for a year.
"This make me very angry at the people who say, 'You know, there's not a draft. These people signed up - they get what they get,'" Takekawa says.
Her son left for Iraq during what Takekawa describes as "the year from hell." Her husband was seriously ill, then she herself was diagnosed with breast cancer.
"Halfway through my chemo, they sent my son to Iraq. Actually, It wasn't even halfway through. I had just started." Soon after, Takekawa's father passed away. Johnson was not allowed to come home for the funeral.
"That was so distressing," she says.
She also talks about the worry that comes with her position.
"Every morning I wake up with that feeling in my stomach, you know?," she says. She reads everything she can find about the war and the war zone - torn between wanting to know and worrying about what she might find out, she says.
Takekawa says she is frustrated by the war and the reasons it is being fought - angered by the government's insistence that weapons of mass destruction was the reason, when they turned out not to exist.
"I wonder why more people don't feel betrayed, why they don't feel like they've been tricked," she says.
After breakfast, Takekawa and Samolioff join the stream of people flowing towards the mall. Samolioff says, "Where's Cindy?" referring to activist Cindy Sheehan and her "Bring them home now tour" which traveled cross-country from Texas to Washington in buses for this demonstration.
Sheehan's people have set up crosses and stars of David in rows in the shadow of the Washington Monument. Nearby, the Veterans for Peace have set up a tent with information. People are roaming the mall with signs, stickers, petitions and musical instruments.
Samolioff notes that there are fresh roses on many of the crosses. "That took time and money to set up," she says.
The women head to the right of the monument, towards the area south of theWhite House. Samolioff picks up a pre-made sign comparing the victims of the Iraq war and the victims of Katrina. It exhorts the nation to "stop the war on the poor". Takekawa picks up a pre-made sign from United for Peace and Justice, but she has brought her own small sign, as well, which she tapes to the back.
Her sign has a picture of her sons Peter and Ken. Written on it in black magic marker are the words, "Bring Pete home, his brother misses him, AND SO DO I!"
The rally hasn't started yet when they get to the Ellipse. Occasionally, someone on the stage tries to get people to chant something, but the crowd quickly loses interest. People keep streaming into the area around the stage. Takekawa frequently darts off to take pictures of people who have particularly clever signs. She takes one picture of a girl from California whose sign says, "I am 13, I paid my own way here, and I hold Bush personally responsible for the deaths in Iraq."
By the time the speakers start at 11:30, the lawn is packed. The emcee says people are still coming in and that "there are buses that haven't arrived yet, from New York."
Speaker after speaker, including Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.), the Rev. Jesse Jackson and, of course, Cindy Sheehan say the same things - war should end, Bush should be held responsible, corporate interests are driving the war in the first place, and the troops should come home now.
Some of the speakers are not nationally known - there are some who speak of the soldiers as family - brothers, sons, husbands. These seem to move Takekawa and Samolioff the most.
The rally runs over the time appointed. By 1 pm., the crowd is clearly restless. Some of them are shouting "march!" and screaming, "no!" whenever a new speaker is brought to the stage.
Eventually, Samolioff and Takekawa decide to join the growing tide of people heading to march in spite of the organizers' wishes. Just as they are about to leave the stage area, Takekawa notices a group of people all wearing T-shirts that have pictures of a young man, a name and two dates. She speaks to one of them, an older woman, and asks if it is her son.
"She said it was her brother's son," says Takekawa later, "She just hugged me and said, 'I hope your son comes home.'"
She is subdued by this encounter. As she goes off to march she says, "Seeing a group like that with the T-shirts is a little scary - more than a little scary. I think how lucky I am that my son is all right."
Takekawa says one of the things that moved her the most during the rally was a speaker who mentioned a story she had already read about. A young serviceman who came home later hung himself because he was haunted by what he had to do.
"I think about all these people who are going to have nightmares and images - and how do you fix that?" she says. "There's isn't any government programming that's going to make that better."
She and Samolioff say they are impressed by the sheer number of people who came out. Moving slowly forward in the march route, Samolioff observes, "Wow. It's huge!"
In spite of the emotional impact of the day, both women are glad they came. Says Takekawa, "I wouldn't have missed it for anything."
As she said earlier in the day, "[Our troops] are still in the military to protect our right to do what we're doing today."
####
Organizers Hope March Will “Energize and Expand” War Opposition
WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 -- More than 100,000 people are expected to gather Saturday on the Mall alongside the White House for a rally and a march that organizers say they hope will make the government more aware of growing anger over the war in Iraq.
An umbrella group called United for Peace and Justice, representing more than 1,300 groups nationwide, organized the weekend's events. Bill Dobbs, the group's media coordinator, said the goal of the march is to "raise a loud cry in front of the White House and to Congress: 'End the war in Iraq, bring the troops home now.' "
Dobbs said he also hopes the protest will "galvanize, energize and expand opposition to the war, so people will go back home and work harder to end it."
The rally and march on Saturday will be the most visible event in a weekend of activism and training for antiwar advocates from all over the country. The rally, which will feature numerous speakers, will begin at 11:30 on Saturday, followed by a march around streets near the White House at 12:30. Later in the afternoon, there will be a concert that will include musicians Steve Earle and Joan Baez and activist Cindy Sheehan.
Sunday will consist of training in nonviolent resistance, organizing and lobbying, in preparation for demonstrations and meetings on Monday. Dobbs said 500 activists will meet with about 300 members of Congress from 39 states to lobby them to do what they can to stop the war.
"Congress is very important because they gave Bush the money to wage this war," Dobbs said, "We have to hold them accountable."
"In the aftermath of Katrina, even more people are wondering why we continue to spend money and lives on a senseless war," he said.
###
Head Start Reauthorized in House
WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 - The U.S. House of Representatives Thursday passed legislation that would allow faith-based program providers receiving federal funds for low income preschoolers to discriminate on the basis of religion in hiring.
The move came as the House reapproved the Head Start program for another five years. While the bill was expected to pass easily, the amendment, passed on a predominately party-line vote, drew opposition to the bill.
Nancy Topping-Tailby, executive director of the Massachusetts Head Start Association called the amendment "troubling."
"It's just not consistent with the Head Start philosophy," she said.
The Senate approved its version of the Head Start reauthorization bill on May 25. It has similar provisions to the House version but has no provision for religious discriminatory hiring.
If the religious amendment is in the final reconciled version of the bill it would not have a great effect on the commonwealth as there is only one center run by a faith-based organization, according to Topping-Tailby.
The Head Start program provides a number of services for children from low income families up to age five, including programs for their education, health, and nutrition.
The House-passed version of the legislation includes provisions designed to increase transparency in accounting practices and new criteria by which Head Start centers will be judged. If a center falls short in any one of several fields - including education level of teachers, compliance with state standards, cooperation with state agencies and teaching performance - it will be open to competition from other providers when its grant comes up for renewal.
Officials at Gloucester's local Head Start center expressed concern about the requirement that at least 50 percent of a center's staff must have an associate's degree, a two-year degree from a community college, or higher.
"Our salaries are so low, we have difficulty attracting and retaining people," said Caroline Haines, chief operating officer at Pathways for Children, which operates Head Start centers in Gloucester, Rockport, Ipswich and Essex.
Out of nine lead teachers in their centers, she said, two have bachelor's degrees and maybe two have associate's degrees. Haines said her staff makes $10-$12 an hour.
"We're having trouble finding any people to do this work," Haines said. "We're having trouble finding people who meet the minimum state qualifications. And our staff turnover is high."
Haines also expressed concern about current testing measures, which she said have been classified as "invalid and unreliable" by the Government Accountability Office. There are provisions in the House bill that require the National Academy of Sciences to examine the current testing, but Haines believes the current test should be suspended while they're developing a new standard.
Topping-Tailby said she isn't concerned about most of the criteria for judging centers, because, "we're a strong region." However, she agreed that it's difficult to find qualified people.
"It's very hard to do with the current revenues we get, in terms of the salaries we can offer," she said.
"Programs should be monitored, they should get their results," she added, saying that programs that don't measure up should be given a period of time to fix the areas where they fall short. "The House, unfortunately, is taking an approach where we feel that more programs will get pulled into recompetition than necessary," she said.
Rep. John Tierney, D-Salem, who was on the committee that considered the bill, said that he shared concern over the ability to retain skilled teachers. "We're not compensating people enough," he said.
He worked to get education loan forgiveness for early childhood teachers built into the higher education reauthorization bill, and got $5,000 per teacher.
"It's not enough, but it's a start," said Tierney, who added that it was a struggle simply to get enough money in the Head Start bill to fund the program, even though Republicans praise it. "We can't get them to put the money behind it," he said.
Tierney, who supported the bill when it came out of committee, ultimately voted against the amended version.
Bipartisan Bill Introduced to Ensure Reconstruction Funds are Spent Wisely
WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 -- A bipartisan pair of congressmen is determined to ensure that the convoy of ice-laden trucks intended for the stricken Gulf Coast region that rolled into Gloucester Monday is an aberration, not the norm.
Reps. John Tierney (D-Salem) and Jim Leach (R-Iowa) introduced legislation last week to ensure that "the people who are in need get what's needed," Tierney said.
The legislation would establish a select House committee made up of eight Republicans and seven Democrats to study the Federal Emergency Management Agency's spending - and ensure that there are no more wayward supplies.
The committee's goal would be to keep the public aware of how their tax dollars are being spent and to expose irregularities and bad decision-making before they can grow into the kind of problem Gloucester saw on Monday.
"It's the kind of mismanagement that is intolerable and unnecessary," Tierney said of the convoy gone astray. He added that it is "absurd" that FEMA's national office is not communicating with its local people or its regional divisions.
Several congressional committees have had or are planning hearings looking at the failures that led up to the Gulf Coast disaster. Congressional GOP leaders had hoped to establish a joint House-Senate probe to investigate the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, but that idea died in the face of Democratic refusal to participate because they would not have had equal representation on the committee.
The Tierney-Leach effort would differ because its mission is to oversee relief and reconstruction, not to determine what went wrong.. Tierney said that the bipartisan nature of the committee is important because of the public's increasing distrust of the government.
"I think it's essential that people understand this is not about politics," he said. "It's about helping people get what they need.
He added that it will not be the job of the committee to place blame, but that blame would be placed "automatically" as the facts become apparent.
The committee is modeled on the successful oversight committee headed by then-Sen. Harry Truman to investigate the awarding and management of defense contracts in World War II.
FEMA staff did not respond to a request for comment for this article.
###
As Energy Costs Soar, Congress Pushes for More Low-Income Energy Assistance
WASHINGTON, Sept. 14-- With energy prices remaining stratospheric as another New England winter approaches, some members of Congress are urging an increase in federal assistance for home heating.
Representative John F. Tierney, Democrat of Salem, joined 77 other members of the House Wednesday in urging a 45 percent increase in the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) in 2006. The legislation before the House and Senate Appropriations Committees includes $2.18 billion.
"No one should ever be forced to make a choice between heat and food, or heat and housing, or heat and health care," Tierney said in a press release. "That is why we are pushing for more LIHEAP funding so that states can help low-income, elderly and disabled people keep warm in their homes this winter."
Nine Republicans and 69 Democrats signed the letter, sent to Sen. Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, and Rep. Ralph Regula, Republican of Ohio, the chairmen of the appropriations subcommittees that handle the program, and called for $4 billion for it next year.
"As the nation faces an unprecedented and unexpected surge in home energy prices due in part to the devastating tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, it is critical that the level of funding provided for this program be revisited in light of the new circumstances," they wrote.
The program provides help with heating and cooling costs for eligible low-income families. In part due to Hurricane Katrina, this winter's oil costs are expected to rise 32 percent over last winter, and natural gas prices are expected to be 43 percent higher than last winter according to projections by the Energy Information Administration.
A similar effort by 39 senators in March failed to produce an increase, but Rep. Tierney believes that this letter has a better chance of succeeding. "The intervening facts have increased people's awareness," he said.
Tierney said getting adequate funds for energy assistance has always been a fight under the Bush administration - first to get enough in the initial appropriation and second to get the administration to release additional emergency funds when it becomes necessary. And, in light of rising energy costs and the small percentage of eligible families who currently use the program's funds, he doubts, he said, whether even $4 billion is enough. "We'd much prefer that we have over $5 billion," he said, but $4 billion is what the legislators believe they can get under current circumstances.
Eliot Jacobsen, the head of the energy assistance program at Action Inc., the local distributor of these federal funds, was in Washington Wednesday because, he said, "we are panicking about the energy crisis." Jacobsen said that his organization's level of spending is expected to stay the same or even decrease, while the costs of energy assistance programs will increase by 40 or 50 percent.
"If you go back three years, energy assistance used to be able to buy three tanks of oil per client, now we're able to buy about one tank," Jacobsen said. "One tank will get you through to about Christmas. So we will have hundreds of clients in trouble in Massachusetts in about December."
###
Congress Approves Proposal for Coast Guard Appropriation
WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 - The House of Representatives unanimously approved $8.7 billion for the Coast Guard's 2006 budget on Thursday, including $1.6 billion for new ships and communications equipment and $700.4 million for search and rescue operations.
The measure passed by a vote of 415 to zero, with 20 members not voting.
The figure represents a $1.4 billion increase from the current budget.
The vote in the House, which is only a preliminary step in the budget process, came amid bipartisan praise for the Coast Guard's heroism and dedication in Hurricane Katrina rescue efforts and discussion of their need for more modern equipment.
Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., said the Coast Guard operates "the second oldest naval fleet in the world." He added the "ships and planes are so old they are euphemistically described as 'legacy assets.' Many of these legacy assets are riddled with structural defects, putting Coast Guard personnel - and the people who call on them for help - at risk."
"We keep adding responsibilities to the Coast Guard and we don't provide them with adequate equipment, funding and personnel," said Rep. James Oberstar, Democrat from Minnesota and ranking member of the transportation committee, which made the $8.7 billion proposal.
Before the floor debate began, Delahunt joined Reps. Alcee L. Hastings, D-Fla., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., in praising the Coast Guard for their heroism and dedication in Hurricane Katrina rescue operations.
The proposal is $550 million more than the Coast Guard originally requested, largely in an effort to speed the Coast Guard's implementation of the Integrated Deepwater System, their main modernization effort, which includes replacing ships and installing an integrated communications network. The effort began in June of 2002.
"They're all getting towards the end of their service life," said Chief Scott Carr of the Coast Guard's Boston public affairs office.
"There's a lot of new electronics out there that will help with our communications," Carr said. "It's going to make the Coast Guard a more effective military agency all around."
Three cutters in Boston and one in Kittery, Maine, have been upgraded, but not yet replaced, and the Coast Guard is in the process of upgrading two more in Maine.
The Gloucester station, which has saved the lives of 14 people so far this year, and which has helped an average of 354 people a year since 2001, is not part of the effort, because they only have smaller boats. But they will still be part of the overall modernization of Coast Guard electronics. "Overall, the communications are being upgraded throughout," Carr said.
