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New law, e-books and rentals may make college textbooks less costly

Posted on August 7, 2010 by

On Friday afternoons between work and rugby practice, Brittany Wolfe would rush to the campus library hoping copies of her advanced algebra textbook had not all been checked out by like-minded classmates. It was part of the math major’s routine last quarter at the University of California , Los Angeles: Stand in line at the reserve desk in the library’s closing hours with the goal of borrowing a copy for the weekend. The alternative was to buy a $120 book and sell it back for far less. If she could sell it back at all. “It’s like this terrible game of catch your books when you can,” said Wolfe, a new graduate who estimates she saved $800 a year using books on reserve and who now shares textbook tips as a counselor to incoming UCLA students. “It’s frustrating when you’re already stressed about school. Being stressed about textbooks doesn’t seem right.” Maybe, just maybe, relief is on the way. A new federal law requires publishers to provide textbook price information to professors and calls on colleges to identify course textbooks during registration, giving students more time to shop around. Experts call it a step in the right direction, but not a game-changer. ‘OLD SCHOOL’: Arizona college cuts book costs the old-fashioned way PROFESSORS: Some stopped from cashing in on textbooks At the same time, a robust online marketplace of used books and recent inroads by textbook rental programs give students more options than ever. The prospect of digital books and slow-but-steady growth in free online “open” content loom as developments that could upend the textbook landscape and alleviate the perennial problem of rising prices. “Change is coming, but it’s not going to happen immediately,” said David Lewis , dean of the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis University Library and assistant vice president for digital scholarly communications at Indiana University. “If you’re in junior high school, you can be sure it’ll be better. If you’re in high school, there’s a shot. If you’re starting college as a freshman, you might see it as a senior. It’s on more and more people’s agenda.” According to a 2005 study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, college textbook prices increased at twice the rate of inflation over the previous two decades, though not as dramatically as tuition. More recent data from the National Association of College Stores show textbooks costs climbed 14% from the 2006-2007 academic year to 2008-2009. A 2010 survey by the group found students spent an average of $667 per year on required course materials including textbooks, although other studies have put the figure at about $900. In 2008, Congress responded by including textbook-affordability provisions in the Higher Education Opportunity Act. Along with the price-disclosure clause meant to push professors toward cheaper options, it requires publishers to offer textbooks separately from extra items like workbooks and CDs. The practice of “bundling” products leads to markups of 10 to 50% and makes books harder to sell, according to the Student Public Interest Research Groups, which pressed for the reforms. “We have more lower cost options than ever before, and professors are going to have more information than ever before,” said Nicole Allen, textbook advocate for the student PIRGs. Like the music and media businesses, the textbook industry has been revolutionized by the Internet. Although used books have long been an option for students, the Web opened up a world of bargain-hunting beyond the campus bookstore. These days, sites such as BIGWORDS and BestBookBuys let students search several online stores at once. The 13th edition of the seminal textbook “Marketing Management,” which lists for $190 new, can be had for as little as $19.99 used. More recently, textbook rental sites such as Chegg, BookRenter and CollegeBookRenter have arrived, offering rentals at roughly half the cost of buying. Their business model — Netflix goes to college — has prompted college bookstores and publishers to play catch up and offer rentals themselves. Textbook publisher Cengage Learning began renting directly to students last spring and has expanded its online rental inventory to 3,000 titles. Campus bookstore operator Follett will introduce rentals at more than 800 bookstores this fall, and Barnes & Noble will do the same on more than 300 campuses. Earlier this summer, BookRenter, which has contracts with Amazon.com and other online booksellers to fill orders, announced that more than 75 campus bookstores would use its platform to rent textbooks. Chegg keeps its own inventory of nearly 5 million books at a warehouse outside Louisville The start-up aspires to forge direct relationships with students, shipping products in their own packaging, offering a liberal return policy and promising to plant a tree for every order, said CEO Dan Rosensweig , a former Yahoo executive. Behind the scenes, publishers get a share of the rental revenue — something they can’t say about used book sales. Open access textbooks pose a bolder challenge to the status quo. The start-up Flat World Knowledge contracts with authors to write new textbooks and publishes them for free under an open content license, allowing professors to edit the raw material and add their own contributions while giving students access to a Web-based HTML book. Last fall, about 480 professors adopted one of the company’s initial 10 business and economics titles, said co-founder Eric Frank. About 1,200 professors are expected to use 22 titles to teach 95,000 students this fall. The company is betting students will pay a reasonable price for greater convenience. Flat World’s revenue comes from selling everything from $30 black-and-white copies of its books to $3 audio chapters, as well as study aids like digital flash cards. About 55% of students are buying something at this point, Frank said. So far, the main drawback to open access is the dearth of titles, said Albert Greco, a professor at Fordham University ‘s Graduate School of Business Administration and an authority on the textbook publishing industry. Greco and others forecast a major shift in the next five years to digital textbooks, which already cost about half as much as new print editions on CourseMart.com, a kind of textbook iTunes launched in 2007 by the major textbook publishers. That would doom the used book and print rental marketplace, Greco said. As for immediate relief from the new price disclosure law, Greco said it won’t do any good for students unlucky enough to have four courses with brand-new books. “Whether it will help students comes down to, ‘It depends,’” he said. Sophie Stanish, a junior at Fordham University in New York, fumes about paying $200 for a new math textbook she couldn’t sell back and a $10 short-story collection that fetched 75 cents at trade-in. She likes the concept of Fordham’s “E-RES” program — short for “electronic reserve” — in which professors scan sections of textbooks to the extent allowed by copyright law and then put the material online for free. But, she said, “I can’t read off a screen and retain the knowledge as well. It’s a personal thing. I like to highlight.” Other colleges seeking to provide relief have adopted textbook loan programs. At City College of San Francisco, Kathy Gill said she misses class to line up early for a popular loan program for students on financial aid. The limit is two loaned books, so the business major still shops online for used and rental options each semester. “You do get a little bit of a break,” Gill said. “Every little thing helps.” Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Continue reading →

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Jobs bill offers teachers relief

Posted on August 6, 2010 by

ATLANTA (AP) — Dave Ebersbach lost his job as a math teacher this summer, and he spends each day hoping that his poverty-stricken school in Ohio will call up and offer him his position back. He and thousands of other teachers around the country could get their jobs back now that the Senate has approved an emergency stimulus package designed to keep educators and other public employees out of the unemployment line. ANALYSIS: Teacher pension funds are short billions SURVEY: Self-evaluation better than parent, student evaluation, teachers say “My biggest thing is I want to go back to the school I was at for the students,” said Ebersbach, 43, one of 14 math teachers in the Toledo school district to receive notice a few weeks ago that their jobs were cut. “We’re in a high-poverty school and one thing the students need more than anything else is consistency. And they’re not going to get that.” The $26 billion measure passed Thursday is less than was initially proposed by Education Secretary Arne Duncan , but will provide $16 billion to help states balance their Medicaid budgets and $10 billion for grants to school districts to forestall layoffs. Republicans strenuously opposed the measure, denouncing it as yet another federal bailout the government cannot afford and calling it a giveaway to public employee unions. For educators across the country, it’s been a bewildering summer as money to save thousands of jobs stalled in Congress and unions and administrators sparred over ways to rehire laid-off teachers. The result has been what is referred to in education circles as the “yo-yo effect.” School budgets, facing severe reductions in state funding, are cut. Layoffs are made. And some or even all of the teachers are hired back over the summer as officials scramble for money. The money coming from Congress could help fill some of that void. But until districts actually have the money in hand, thousands of teachers must wait in limbo not knowing whether they’ll have jobs when school starts in a few weeks. Data provided by the U.S. Department of Education on how many jobs the bill is expected to fund reads like the medical chart of a battered patient: 16,500 in California. In Texas, 14,500. More than 9,000 in Florida. Some 161,000 education jobs across the country in all. “The Senate amendment will go a long way to protecting these jobs and ensuring that America’s educators are working to educate our way to a better economy,” Duncan said. “It’s the right thing to do for America’s students and America’s teachers.” Throughout the summer, many districts had despaired that Congress would deliver any money, and scrambled to find other ways to bring back the teachers, offering early-retirement incentives and negotiating furlough days. In Iowa, where 1,500 layoffs were announced earlier this year, the Des Moines district has called back all but 30 of the 173 teachers who were laid off. Twyla Woods, the district’s chief of staff, said they opened an early retirement option and hope to have enough attrition overall to bring back the remaining teachers. In Santa Cruz, Calif., 82 teachers were laid-off this spring and rehired again this summer, also largely due to a negotiated retirement incentive that 41 workers opted into. Teachers also agreed to take furlough days. The entry level salary in the district is $40,000. The efforts all saved jobs, but are not considered long-term solutions. In other districts, no solution was reached at all, leaving hundreds unemployed and hoping for federal money. Gretchen Marfisi in Florida was laid off in each of the last two summers, only to be rehired by the Broward County School District. This year she canceled her family vacation and put her life on hold before being called back Thursday. “Why are they firing all of us?” Marfisi said, her voice ringing with frustration. “Besides giving us all more gray hair and wrinkles, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of logic involved.” Marfisi is now preparing to unpack all her boxes of teaching materials once again. “It’s a relief to get a paycheck,” Marfisi said. “It’s just very weird and bizarre emotionally. It just in the process makes you feel like garbage.” Mike Langyel, president of the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association, worries about the long-term effects these series of layoffs will have on the teaching career. “We don’t need to turn this into a Wal-Mart employment where you’re in for a while and you’re out,” Langyel said. Teachers say the effect on morale has been overwhelming. “Somebody said to me, ‘Teacher: I thought that was one field that was recession-proof,’” Ebersbach said. “I’m at a 50-50 shot.” Turner reported from Atlanta. Armario reported from Miami. Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Continue reading →

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Duncan: Congress needs to act now on school funding

Posted on July 13, 2010 by

DES MOINES, Wash. (AP) — U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is urging Congress to act soon to increase education funding because cash-strapped states can’t wait until the fall to determine if they must lay off thousands of teachers. Duncan made his remarks Friday at a forum on innovation in education at Aviation High School in Des Moines, a small college prep school that focuses on science, technology and mathematics. At the forum, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray said she hopes fellow lawmakers spent their Fourth of July break hearing from parents and teachers, like she did. Murray said if they got the message about how urgent the school budget crisis is, they will return to Washington, D.C ., with the drive to find more money for schools. OUTRAGE: Is 2010 the year of the education documentary? A proposal to send billions more to the states has hit a number of roadblocks. The U.S. House has proposed cutting money from Race to the Top and other Duncan initiatives in order to send $10 billion to the states to keep 140,000 teachers in the classroom, and about $5 billion to shore up the Pell Grant program, which helps low-income students pay for college. Murray and Duncan both said many different proposals to pay for the emergency dollars are on the table. “He and I have to go back to Washington and make this work,” the senator said. Several dozen teachers and others held signs and chanted outside the school to protest Race to the Top and demand changes in the upcoming overhaul of the No Child Left Behind act. Some people inside the auditorium also expressed skepticism about education reform. “I’m very concerned. We have a lot of kids who don’t know how to engage with schools like this,” said Don Rivers, a Seattle man who works for an organization that monitors school improvement. Rivers is also a candidate for Congress in Washington’s 7th district. Students packed the non-air conditioned auditorium on a steamy summer afternoon for a chance to meet Duncan and show off their school, which is one of the state’s most unique. They spoke of the way their teachers taught them to not be afraid of trying new things and skills they picked up while believing they were just building rockets or doing chemistry experiments. “The only way to learn is by failing,” said Navid Shafa, whose remark inspired adults on the stage and in the audience to talk about education innovation and the need for experimentation and potential failure. Duncan said he was impressed by students and teachers at Aviation High School and would like to see a hundred more schools like it across the country. “This is a model for the country, absolutely,” he said, adding that the administration is interested in both charter schools and other innovative approaches. State education officials see the school as an example of what they hope to accomplish if the state wins a grant from the competitive Race to the Top program. Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire said that if Duncan sees how innovative some of Washington’s public schools are, he’ll recognize that creativity can live outside of charter schools. Washington state voters have voted repeatedly against charter schools. Gregoire was at the National Governors Association meeting on Friday so U.S. Sen. Patty Murray brought Duncan to the south Seattle high school. Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Continue reading →

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Government eyes for-profit colleges

Posted on June 11, 2010 by rohit

LAS VEGAS — The annual convention of the Career College Association was just gearing up for the day Thursday when word started circulating that the U.S. Senate’s education committee planned to start this month a series of hearings on the increasing flow of federal student aid money to for-profit higher education . It was a stark reminder — in case anyone here really needed it — that the rapidly growing college sector faces a level of federal scrutiny probably unmatched since the early 1990s, when Congress approved a set of changes to the Higher Education Act aimed at reining in perceived abuses of the financial aid programs by what were commonly referred to as “fly-by-night trade schools.” Just how much today’s environment felt like d?j? vu from 20 years ago depended on whom you talked to here. To many financial analysts, investor types and others who focus on stock prices or otherwise take a short-term view, the mood was one of steady-state alarm, focused on the cloud of intensified federal regulation that has loomed over colleges for the last year. Those in this group believe that the for-profit sector has a target on its back, with a coalition of consumer advocates, short-selling investors (who profit if stock prices fall), and ideological government bureaucrats pushing an aggressive, activist agenda. To some observers who’ve worked in and around the industry longer, though, the current round of federal scrutiny (in the form of potentially tough new rules) — while unfair in their eyes — is a far cry from the ’90s, for a few reasons. First, they argue, for-profit colleges are too embedded in the fabric of higher education, and too essential to meeting President Obama’s goals for increasing the country’s college completion rates, to be dealt with in a way that would seriously damage their ability to contribute to that effort. FOR-PROFIT: Sector leads way in e-textbook use COLLEGE BLOG: New student group support for for-profit association Second, during the purge of the early 1990s, for-profit colleges were singled out for scrutiny, with policies put in place that focused specifically on reining them in. This time around, while some federal policymakers clearly have special concerns about for-profit colleges, higher education leaders in all sectors are feeling (and in many cases bristling at) heightened scrutiny from federal, state and other policymakers who see higher education as underperforming and costing students and taxpayers alike too much. “I don’t know anybody in our sector who doesn’t think that the ’92 amendments, and all the trauma they brought about, ultimately had a positive outcome and changed the nature of quality assurance in this sector for the better — though it was clearly something we resisted at the time,” said Elise Scanlon, a Washington lawyer who spent nearly 20 years as an accreditor of for-profit colleges. “Right now it’s hard to see what could come out of this round that would make things better for us, but it is clearly part of a push for better information about quality in all of higher education, at a time of increasingly scarce resources.” Mood of the meeting By many measures, the advocates for for-profit (or “private sector,” as they prefer to call it) higher education who gathered here for the annual meeting of the sector’s main advocacy group could be feeling good. Enrollments in the institutions have grown to nearly 10% of all postsecondary students, and the economic downturn of the last year has enrollments booming. The exhibit hall at the meeting here was bristling with companies of all sorts seeking to sell their services to the institutions, a reflection of their steady and sturdy growth. Bottom line (as it were), business is booming. And yet, that very same enrollment growth — and the fact that it is driven in significant part with Pell Grants and federal student loans — has given new and added urgency to consumer advocates, federal regulators, and others who believe that the for-profit institutions are charging students too much for an education of inferior quality. (A series of critical news media stories have focused on dubious practices.) Those concerns have been at the forefront of the Education Department’s push since last winter to consider a new mechanism for ensuring that vocational programs are helping their graduates find “gainful employment,” among other rules aimed at bolstering the “integrity” of the federal financial aid programs. The department’s favored approach, which would judge programs based on a ratio comparing the incomes of graduates to their monthly payments on their student loan debt, has been vehemently opposed by many career college officials, who say that instituting such a policy could force the closure of many programs and potentially cut off access to college for tens if not hundreds of thousands of students. Lobbyists for and leaders of the colleges have been feverishly opposing the gainful employment regulation (as well as some of the department’s other expected rules), arguing that department officials do not have sufficient evidence and/or justification to support the approach, urging the Obama administration to reconsider. COLLEGE: What if higher ed just isn’t for everyone? OBAMA GOALS: Community colleges like new attention They appear to have made at least minor advances in slowing down the department’s progress in recent days. On Friday, the Office of Management and Budget placed a cryptic note in the Federal Register concluding that the department’s proposed program integrity rules could have a major economic impact, a designation that requires the Education Department to strengthen the evidence it must provide to justify the need for the regulation. In announcing a June 24 hearing (and “a series” of others to follow) by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), the panel’s chairman and long a critic of corporate higher education, cited on Thursday the rapid expansion of for-profit colleges and of the federal student aid funds flowing to them. “Students at for-profit institutions are borrowing more, and more frequently, than their peers at nonprofit schools, and according to the Department of Education, one in five students who left a for-profit college in 2007 defaulted on their loan within three years,” the committee’s news release said. “We need to ensure for-profit colleges are working well to meet the needs of students and not just shareholders,” said Harkin. “We owe it to students and taxpayers to make sure these dollars are being well spent.” For-profit college leaders said they welcomed the chance to tell their story. “Nontraditional students are the new tradition in higher education, and federal student aid is helping millions of working adults get the skills and abilities they need to compete in a global workforce,” Harris Miller , president of the Career College Association, said in a statement. “For these students to be successful, however, change is needed. Private sector institutions are bringing important innovations to postsecondary education, and we welcome the opportunity for a full and open exchange with the committee. These hearings will give our inclusive educational institutions an opportunity to address myths with facts and figures.” To critics of the colleges who see them as under siege from federal policymakers and others, that may sound like bravado. But it’s a view shared by some others who’ve seen for-profit higher education survive previous tough scrutiny, as in 1992. “Back then, lots of people said, ‘Oh my god, the world’s going to end, it’s going to put us all out of business,’” Nancy Broff, a Washington lawyer and former general counsel of the Career College Association, said of the 1992 renewal of the Higher Education Act. “The reality is that this is a very adaptable and resilient group of people and institutions, and they have learned to adapt. And they will this time, too.” Leaders in the sector express confidence that even as federal policymakers seek greater oversight of the institutions, they will avoid steps that could severely impair the colleges’ ability to meet Americans’ demand for higher education, especially at a time when many public institutions are cutting their enrollments because of budget gaps. The country cannot come close to President Obama’s college completion goal without help from the private sector colleges, they say. “The long-term trend is that we need more [higher education] capacity,” said Daniel Hamburger, president and chief executive officer of Devry, Inc. “In the end, I’m confident that smart people will generally find solutions that are in students’ best interests.” Continue reading →

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Major cuts: High schools face hard economic lessons

Posted on June 6, 2010 by rohit

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Students graduating from high school this spring may be collecting their diplomas just in time, leaving institutions that are being badly weakened by the nation’s economic downturn. Across the country, mass layoffs of teachers, counselors and other staff members — caused in part by the drying up of federal stimulus dollars — are leading to larger classes and reductions in everything that is not a core subject, including music, art, clubs, sports and other after-school activities. VIDEO: More deep cuts looming for public schools VIDEO: Hard times for even richest districts Educators and others worry the cuts could lead to higher dropout rates and lower college attendance as students receive less guidance and become less engaged in school. They fear a generation of young people could be left behind. “It’s going to be harder for everybody to get an opportunity to get into college,” said Chelsea Braza, a 16-year-old sophomore at Silver Creek High School in San Jose . “People wouldn’t be as motivated to do anything in school because there’s no activities and there’s no involvement.” The library at Silver Creek High is open for only an hour a day. The career center is closed. There is no more summer school. And student athletes must pay $200 each. State budget cuts will make things even worse next year. The school will probably have five fewer classroom days and lose three of its four guidance counselors and three of its four custodians, as well as its health aide, mental health coordinator and student activities director. The future of student government, clubs, pep rallies, homecoming and prom is in doubt. The federal government’s $787 billion economic stimulus package saved an estimated 300,000 education jobs for this year, but many of those positions are once again in jeopardy as that money dries up. “Literally tens of millions of students will experience these budget cuts in one way or another,” said Education Secretary Arne Duncan , who is urging Congress to provide another round of emergency funding for schools. “If we do not help avert this state and local budget crisis, we could impede reform and fail another generation of children.” Sen. Tom Harkin , D-Iowa, has introduced legislation that would create a $23 billion fund to help schools retain teachers, principals and other staff members. The fate of the bill is uncertain. The American Association of School Administrators estimates that 275,000 education jobs will be cut in the coming school year, based on an April survey. Other AASA surveys found that 52% of administrators plan to cut extracurricular activities, and 51% are reducing elective courses not required for graduation. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system in North Carolina, which cut $90 million last school year, plans to slice off an additional $78 million and eliminate more than 1,000 positions, including almost 650 teachers. The district will cut its middle school sports teams next year, and schools are cutting electives such as German and creative writing, Superintendent Peter Gorman said. “I’m very concerned when we can’t offer those courses which hook an individual student to pursue their passion, or what could be their life’s vocation,” Gorman said. In the Tupper Lake Central Schools in New York , the rural district in the Adirondacks will lose 25% of its instructional staff in the upcoming school year, which will probably result in bigger classes and the elimination of electives such as photography, modern art and ceramics, said Superintendent Seth McGowan. “It seriously compromises the depth of the education our students will be receiving,” he said. In Illinois, more than 20,000 jobs in schools — including an estimated 12,600 teachers and administrators — will be lost next school year, said Brent Clark, executive director of the Illinois Association of School Administrators. South Florida’s Broward County, the nation’s sixth-largest school district, could lay off 800 to 1,000 teachers because of a $130 million budget shortfall. Officials are trying to figure out how to save sports and electives, considering options like sharing an art teacher between schools. California’s relentless budget crisis is taking its toll on schools like Silver Creek High, part of San Jose’s East Side Union High School District, which is seeking to slash an additional 10% from its $200 million budget. Over the past two years, the district, which has 12 campuses and 25,000 students, has eliminated more than 450 full-time positions, including nearly 200 teachers and certified staff, said Assistant Superintendent Cathy Giammona. Class sizes have swelled to an average of 35 students, with more than 40 crammed into AP Calculus sections. And schools in the district won’t offer any courses unless they are fully enrolled, leading to cuts in electives such as photography, business, woodworking and Japanese. Silver Creek High senior Anthony Chavez, who credits his counselors with helping him win a scholarship to the University of California at Berkeley, said he worries that students won’t get the same opportunities with just one counselor for more than 2,400 students. “Through my four years here my counselors helped me with everything. I’m the first generation in my family to go to college,” he said. “I didn’t even know what SATs were.” Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Continue reading →

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Union, Megan Fox want funds to stop mass teacher layoffs

Posted on May 7, 2010 by

WASHINGTON — Facing a recession and the coming end of billions of dollars in federal stimulus funding, school districts nationwide are handing teachers pink slips for the upcoming school year. The Obama administration estimates that as many as 300,000 teachers could lose their jobs unless Congress steps in with emergency money. The cuts may ultimately be milder than the dire predictions — and critics are already joking that school advocates should soften the “teacherpocalypse” rhetoric. But the grim predictions have already generated protests. Teachers in several states have rallied to keep school funding, and across the USA, teachers today will wear pink hearts as part of a national “Pink Hearts, Not Pink Slips” campaign organized by the American Federation of Teachers , the nation’s second-largest teachers union. A Los Angeles-area PTA even persuaded actress Megan Fox to film a comedy short dramatizing the effects of school budget cuts — and mocking California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ‘s tough-guy image. The film, viewed nearly 1 million times on the Funny Or Die website, closes with Fox urging viewers to “call, write and annoy the governor until he cries for his mommy.” California hit hard U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Monday that the situation was serious. “I’m very, very concerned,” he said in an interview. “I can’t say that strongly enough.” Although most of the pink slips are conditional on final budget calculations — and in many cases warnings are required by teacher contracts — the teachers federation says there’s little good budget news in most of the hardest-hit states, which include California (36,000 pink slips), Illinois (20,000 jobs threatened), Michigan (4,000) and cities such as New York (8,500). ANALYSIS: Pension funds for teachers are short billions REVERSAL: Teacher shortage gives way to teacher glut FIRING TEACHERS: Useless or 1st step to reform? The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said in March that state deficits “of a very large magnitude are likely to persist for another two or three years,” and that despite improvements in the economy, state budget pictures in 2011 and 2012 “look as bad, or nearly as bad, as those for 2009 and 2010.” It estimates that states will face total deficits as large as $260 billion beyond what the stimulus can provide. Sen. Tom Harkin , D-Iowa, has proposed $23 billion to help schools keep hundreds of thousands of teachers. Duncan hasn’t endorsed the bill but says Congress should act soon. “There are pink slips being sent out as we speak,” Duncan said, “so unless something changes, those are layoffs that are going to happen.” A few critics have pointed out that virtually all of the pink slips are based on preliminary budget estimates and that real job losses could be smaller. “This is a slightly larger than normal version of the nearly annual phenomenon in which school districts and teachers unions use the media to try and scare parents to scare lawmakers into funding education,” says education blogger Alexander Russo. The short Fox film dramatizes the effects of budget cuts on an L.A.-area elementary school. It was sponsored by the Wonderland Avenue Elementary School PTA in Laurel Canyon. Principal Don Wilson, who appears briefly in the film, says the project began as a letter-writing campaign for kids, but the PTA expanded it and asked Fox’s boyfriend, Brian Austin Green , a Wonderland Avenue parent, to pitch in. The duo and production staff worked free. Cuts are real for one principal Response to the film, Wilson says, has been “overwhelmingly positive.” Among other things, it earned the PTA president a trip to Sacramento to talk with Schwarzenegger’s staff. Wilson says most of the cuts at his school are real — since last May he has lost an assistant principal and special-education teacher; his nurse now shows up just once a week. This year, three of 21 teachers have been pink-slipped — he believes that two of the jobs will be saved. In one of the film’s more jarring moments, Fox looks on as a fifth-grader complains about school conditions — in Korean. No one can translate. Wilson says the exchange is fairly typical. Though most of the Korean-American children at Wonderland Avenue speak English, few Korean parents do. He has been trying to get a translator on staff “for years,” he says: “Almost half of our school is Korean, and nobody speaks Korean.” Continue reading →

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