Category: Education

Story of alleged sexual abuse disgusting on every level

Posted by dcrim – November 8, 2011

There is nothing more disgusting than bringing harm of any kind to a child. A close second is doing nothing about it — other than “going through the chain of command,” which is political speak for covering your own butt —  when learning about potential harm.

The story about former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, seen above, is revolting in every way. That university personnel did little once allegations of sexual abuse by Sandusky were made nearly a decade ago is equally insidious. It already has cost two Penn State officials their jobs, and they still face perjury charges.

The Pennsylvania attorney general and the state police commissioner excoriated Penn State officials for failing over 15 years to alert the authorities to possible sexual abuse of young boys by Sandusky. The Harrisburg (Pa.) Patriot-News is calling for school President Graham Spanier and head fooball coach Joe Paterno to resign in this editorial.

Michael Tomasky, writing for the Daily Beast, admits that Paterno has been a great man. He is the winningest big-time college football coach in history, and his name is on the school’s library, not an athletic facility. But his failure to bring a rapist to justice has ruined his reputation for good. Click here for the story.

Meanwhile, Frank Bruni of the New York Times says parents should also remain conscious of an additional lesson suggested by the Penn State story because institutions do an awful job of policing themselves. Click here for the column.

The whole thing makes the 2001 book, “Touched: The Jerry Sandusky Story,” a sad, ironic title. Now it seems like Penn State is laying the groundwork for Paterno’s departure.

BTW, nobody cares about Saturday’s game against Nebraska.

Report shows professionals cashing in on tea party push

Posted by dcrim – October 3, 2011

A look at some of todays stories while wondering how the Cardinals overcame a 4-0 deficit against Cliff Lee:

If you’ve got fundraising muscle, it pays to be tea party. That’s the takeaway from recently released financial reports for five of the biggest conservative groups that latched onto the small government movement, according to Politico. The groups – Americans for Prosperity, FreedomWorks, Club for Growth, Leadership Institute and Tea Party Express – raised $79 million last year. That’s a 61-percent increase from their haul in 2009, when the tea party first started gaining traction, and an 88 percent increase over their tally in 2008, according to a POLITICO review of campaign reports and newly released tax filings.

Writes Kenneth P. Vogel:

It’s an entirely different story for the rag-tag local groups that form the heart of the tea party, which struggle to raise cash.

The imbalance is worrisome to some grassroots tea party activists, who warn that the movement is at risk of becoming dependent on the type of centralized, top-down political structure that contributed to tea partiers’ distaste for both political parties, as well as Washington’s conservative establishment.

Former NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton excoriated teachers unions in a Monday Wall Street Journal editorial that envisions what would happen if some of America’s education policies were applied to the football field.

America’s favorite curmudgeon delivered his final rant on Sunday’s ‘60 Minutes’ after 62 years at CBS News. From grumbling over Bill Gates to moaning about his eyebrows and bellyaching over mixed nuts, see Andy Rooney’s best essays.

Area school boards watched Niekamp drama unfold

Posted by dcrim – April 22, 2011

The four-hour, 20-minute Quincy School Board meeting Wednesday night drew interest from other school boards meeting in the region that night. Coverage Tuesday in The Herald-Whig and an analysis by Staff Writer Edward Husar on his “Education Beat” blog on Wednesday alerted readers that the controversy surrounding Board President Melvin “Bud” Niekamp was going to finally be resolved after nearly two years.

Pikeland Superintendent Paula Hawley and Board President David Barton told Staff Writer Deborah Gertz Husar that were getting texts about the Quincy meeting during the Pikeland School Board meeting in Pittsfield. The Pikeland board took a special interest in the Quincy situation because Quincy Superintendent Lonny Lemon previously served as Pittsfield High School principal.

With the Niekamp issue possibly settled, Hawley hopes the Quincy board now can move forward. “Hopefully now they can move on with things,” she said. “The best case scenario is to get this behind you and move on.”

Western Superintendent Rodger Hannel called the situation “the best show in town” but a strike against the Quincy district’s reputation. “Everybody is looking, thinking what in the world is going on, but from what I’m seeing, they did what they had to do,” Hannel said.

Hannel said the situation may just be a sign of the times. “A lot of it is an atmosphere of distrust of government. Easiest to go after is a local political body everybody has access to — the local school board,” he said

The drama unfolding in Quincy did not escape the notice of the Hannibal (Mo.) Board of Education, either. As the board departed a relatively quiet 45-minute open meeting, where the biggest news was the district’s first round of raises in two years, Staff Writer Mary Poletti reports Board President David Jackson joked that things had likely gone much more smoothly in their meeting than in Quincy, to much laughter from the audience.

For crying out loud, don’t tear up in kindergarten

Posted by dcrim – April 5, 2011

There’s probably a good chance that a lot of 6-year-olds away from mom and in school for the first time just might cry. The reasons don’t matter. It just happens. Just don’t do it at this school — it’ll lead to a suspension. Click here for the story on this silly school district.

Drug use and college campuses: Here’s a list of the not-so-top 50

Posted by dcrim – December 15, 2010

The Daily Beast compiles a list of the 50 colleges and universities which it considers the biggest hotbeds for student drug use. Two schools in Illinois and one in Missouri make the list.

Campus drug use has been on the rise for decades, as nearly half of full-time college students binge drink or abuse drugs at least once a month, according to a 2007 study by the national Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse on drugs in American colleges. The percentage of students that smoke marijuana or use other illegal drugs, such as cocaine or heroin, doubled from 1993 to 2005.

America needs hybrid nation-building plan to reverse pessimism

Posted by dcrim – November 29, 2010

Thomas Friedman of the New York Times is disheartened by a poll earlier this month that shows 47 percent of Americans believe the country’s best days are behind us. That sobering assessment doesn’t come from worry about the rising national deficit, which the flood of recent campaign ads suggested, but rather because most people do not see a plan — a hybrid political plan — that would make America great again.

Friedman believes we are facing a really serious moment.

… We have to get this plan for nation-building right because we are driving without a spare tire or a bumper. The bailouts and stimulus that we have administered to ourselves have left us without much cushion. There may be room, and even necessity, for a little more stimulus. But we have to get this moment right. We don’t get a do-over. If we fail to come together and invest, spend and cut really wisely, we’re heading for a fall — and if America becomes weak, your kids won’t just grow up in a different country, they will grow up in a different world.

Teachers union, School Board finally make one-year contract official

Posted by dcrim – November 24, 2010

Representatives of the Quincy Federation of Teachers and the Quincy School Board on Tuesday signed the one-year contract agreement reached last month with teachers and paraeducators, and released it today. Click here to download  the 59-page document. If you’re interested in financial information, skip to page 29. The contract has been advertised as “budget neutral,” reflecting both salary increases and benefit cuts.

Spokesmen for the board and union previously said teachers will receive a step up on the district’s salary schedule averaging out to about $650 per teacher. Paraprofessionals will get a step up, as well, averaging $300 to $350 per employee, plus a one-time stipend of $150. In exchange, health insurance premiums will jump 8 percent and insurance deductibles will increase.



It’s re-run season when it comes to Quincy education saga

Posted by dcrim – September 24, 2010

Below is a repeat of a post from March 26. Unfortunately, much hasn’t changed in six months.

The Quincy Federation of Teachers last week voted down a contract proposal from the Quincy School Board, apparently, in part, because the salary and benefits package being offered wasn’t good enough. We say “apparently” because neither side is releasing any details of the proposal for us to judge. Another round of negotiations has been scheduled for Tuesday.

School Board member Bill Daniels outlined the plight of the district’s self-insurance fund in a story in Thursday’s Herald-Whig. Perhaps the report will silence those who like to stand on their anonymous soapbox on local websites and question where the surpluses went. Perhaps it won’t, given that some never let facts stand in the way of a good rant.

One of the biggest problems facing the Quincy School District — even before economy tanked and the state of Illinois quit paying its bills on time — is $1.84. That’s the education fund tax rate here, the lowest allowable by law. That rate is now in its third decade on the books. Quincy voters continue to elect Melvin “No” Niekamp but won’t budge on the education fund tax rate (which may be the only explanation needed for why we are where we are), and it continues to strangle the district financially.

Name something that hasn’t increased in price or value during that time?

Now name something more important than an education?

The post from March 26:

So here we are. The Quincy School Board has been forced to slash another $4 million from its budget because the state of Illinois cannot pay its bills. For those keeping score at home, that’s more than $8 million in reductions the past three years combined because the folks in Springfield can’t balance a checkbook.

And yet, if you read some of the comments posted on whig.com, it’s not enough that more than 100 full- and part-time employees will be losing their jobs. It’s not enough that schools will be closed. It’s not enough that kids who have trouble learning to read won’t be given the necessary one-on-one instruction so they can have a chance in life.

No, a community that has not supported a referendum to raise the education fund tax rate from the lowest allowable by law in more than three decades would like to see more pain. They remember when schools were built and then closed and sold. They remember when former Superintendent Michael Anderson was paid $190,000 to walk away and not say why. They remember when there were insurance and pension perks not available to most people.

The problem is, that was then and this is now. Mistakes no doubt were made in the past, given that we are an imperfect people living in an imperfect world, but there should be a statute of limitations on sins of the fathers, whatever they were. After all, we’re talking about the education of our children, not Enron.

This School Board, and the ones that immediately preceded it, and this administration have worked to be good stewards of taxpayer money. They have identified problems, such as the financially draining self-insurance fund and the state-sanctioned pension padding, and worked with employees to correct them. They have tried to do more with less — a popular corporate slogan that, by the mere definitions of those words, is impossible to accomplish.

So when is enough enough? What is it going to take for us to believe in people to make the best decisions for our school system and trust their judgment? When are we going to put aside grudges and misconceptions and a little paycheck envy, and realize that our future rests on our children and grandchildren being more successful than we are?

It’s time to put aside differences, quit the finger-pointing and start believing in education again.

Are students paying for education, or college experience?

Posted by dcrim – September 21, 2010

Froma Harrop of the Providence Journal pines for the day when students with modest means will be able to turn to the Internet for a quality, affordable college education. American median income has grown 6.5 times during the past 40 years, Harrop points out, but the cost of attending one’s own state college has ballooned 15 times.

Citing findings by Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus in their book, “Higher Education? How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids and What We Can Do About It,” Harrop makes the following points:

• American universities now rake in $40 billion a year more than they did 30 years ago.

• The number of administrators per student at colleges has about doubled over 30 years.

• Compensation for college presidents has soared to corporate CEO levels.

• Universities are competing to make their on-campus experiences more like a resort than a bookish monastery.

Writes Harrop:

Bill Gates recently predicted: “Five years from now on the Web for free you’ll be able to find the best lectures in the world. It will be better than any single university.” A year at a university costs an average $50,000, the Microsoft founder and Harvard dropout said last month. The Web can deliver the same quality education for $2,000. …

The market will eventually recognize the out-of-whack economics of today’s “place-based colleges” and intervene. Some day soon, Web alternatives will let students of modest means try their hand at a college education. And what a great day that will be.

Future teacher pensions could face steep cuts in Missouri

Posted by dcrim – September 9, 2010

In a sign of the economic times, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Public School Retirement System of Missouri is considering reducing pensions by 15 to 20 percent for teachers hired after June 30, 2013. The stock market meltdown in 2008 wiped out $5.3 billion in assets held by the system, and even though investments rebounded last year, revenue isn’t growing fast enough to cover liabilities.

Pressure has mounted nationwide to reduce public sector pensions since the stock market nosedived. The Missouri Legislature passed a bill this summer requiring future state employees to contribute to their pensions and work longer to draw them.

Missouri teachers have one of the best benefit packages in the country, Teachers pay 14 percent of their salaries to the system and school districts match the money. But the system estimates it has enough money to fund only about 76 percent of its future liabilities.