- House Appropriations Committee Passes D.C. Funding Bill, but with Abortion Rider
- Gallup Poll: Confidence in America’s Public Schools Hits Record Low
- Kevin P. Chavous: Why Are Prisons More of a Priority than Schools?
House Appropriations Committee Passes D.C. Funding Bill, but with Abortion Rider
DCist
By Benjamin R. Reed
June 20, 2012
The House Appropriations Committee approved today a spending bill covering, among other things, federal funding for the District of Columbia for the next fiscal year. The bill includes money for several District priorities, including the redevelopment of the St. Elizabeths East campus, treatment and prevention of AIDS and HIV and tuition assistance grants for college students.
But the bill also includes the controversial rider barring D.C. from using its own funds to subsidize abortion services for low-income women.
Not surprisingly, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), while pleased with the funding of many District programs, blasted the inclusion of the anti-abortion language. "The intrusion into the lives of the city’s low-income women deprives them of constitutional rights all other women in every district in the United States exercise with impunity,” Norton said in a press release.
During the panel's deliberations before the vote, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) introduced an amendment that would have removed the rider, but it fell on a 21-26 vote. The Senate version of the bill does not contain the abortion policy.
The bill, which now goes to the full House, includes $30 million for the college assistance grants, $5.1 million less than requested in the White House's budget for fiscal 2013. It also includes $24.7 million for emergency planning, $9.8 million of which would cover the cost of next January's presidential inauguration; $20 million each for D.C.'s public and charter school systems; $9.8 million for St. Elizabeths; and $5 million for HIV/AIDS services. Earlier this week, President Obama agreed to restore funding to a school voucher program that is unpopular with local officials but something of a political token for Congressional Republicans.
As for the abortion rider, which continues a policy that has been imposed by Congress for more than a decade save 2010 when Democrats controlled the House, Norton said in the press release that she plans to work with her fellow Democratic members as well as a coalition of pro-choice groups in an attempt to remove the policy from the final bill. That's shaping up to be a tough fight, though. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.), chairwoman of the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee, told the Post that it is unlikely that the GOP-dominated House will pass a spending bill for D.C. that does not include the abortion prohibition.
Gallup Poll: Confidence in America’s Public Schools Hits Record Low
The Huffington Post
June 20, 2012
Confidence in America’s public schools has hit a record low, with only 29 percent of respondents expressing “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in them, according to results from a recent Gallup poll.
The number is down 5 percentage points from last year, and represents a 4 percent decrease from the previous low of 33 percent in 2007 and 2008.
Public schools rank eighth -- tied with the criminal justice system -- among 16 confidence categories that Gallup studies. Its position is unchanged from last year, and once again follows the presidency and U.S. Supreme Court, and ranks ahead of newspapers.
Out of all the categories, the sharpest declines were for public schools, television news and organized religion. All three are at least 10 points lower than their historical average ratings, which are based on all measurements of each institution since 1973.
Confidence in public schools remained fairly consistent across gender and age group, according to Gallup's data. Twenty-six percent of white respondents indicated that they had a “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the institution, compared to 36 percent of non-whites.
Those surveyed who graduated college were as confident in the public school system as those with a high school diploma or less. Respondents who possessed some college education but did not earn a degree were about 10 points less optimistic.
Of those who self-identified as Democrats, 36 percent expressed confidence in America’s school system, while only 21 percent of Republicans did so.
Gallup surveyed a random sample of 1,004 adults aged 18 and older representing all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
This faltering confidence in America’s public school system follows a year of budget cuts across the country that have forced the elimination of jobs in the education sector, student transportation and after-school programs. Parents nationwide have also been vocal in expressing their frustration with excessive standardized testing and “teaching to the test.”
Kevin P. Chavous: Why Are Prisons More of a Priority than Schools?
The Huffington Post
By Kevin P. Chavous
June 20, 2012
Earlier this month, a DC teacher was talking with a fourth grade student who told the teacher he would be dead or in jail by the time he was 20. Forget a job or career, the boy had no concept of growing old. When the teacher started to show the boy the true life expectancy statistics, he was in shock. Just 10 years old, a life past 20 was a reality he had never imagined.
For years, folks have been circulating a bad rumor that states and prison management companies look at fourth grade test scores to determine their prison growth needs in the future. Is it true? Not sure. But without question, there is a direct correlation between education and incarceration.
According to the National Dropout Prevention Center, 82% of the inmates currently housed in our federal prisons are high school dropouts. The average cost to care for those inmates is $55,000.00 per inmate. In contrast, we spend on average approximately $10,500 per student in our K-12 education system. And, as our prisons are consistently overcrowded, far too many of our public school districts have schools that are barely half full.
While whether or not prison management companies use a jurisdiction's fourth grade test scores to predict areas of future growth is important. Even more important is the fact that our schools are in such dire straits that it's even feasible that prison management companies are in fact using student test scores to determine growth opportunities.
Isn't it sad that this obvious connection between prisons and schools hasn't jump started more of a sense of urgency among our leaders? Instead, policymakers are promoting modest reform proposals designed to 'kick in' some years later. Folks, our kids can't afford to wait years for the school system to reform.
Tragically, children from our most challenged neighborhoods know they aren't a priority and, as a result, like that 10 year-old boy, don't expect much from themselves. There's a lot to be said when these very kids have friends in prison who are receiving a far better education than they are outside of prison. What messages are we sending when we spend more money on educating kids in prison than on our kids struggling on the outside?
So how do we change this misplaced focus within our government, which now spends more to incarcerate its citizens than it does to educate them?
In my view, the first step is in making the education of our children the top priority of our nation and our leadership. Priority that goes beyond platitudes and soundbites. We need to develop a countrywide obsession with ensuring that all children reach their maximum educational potential.
Second, state and government leaders need to force better integration of social services with educational offerings. Many charter school community hubs do this well. The best example is Geoffrey Canada's Harlem Children's Zone where all families and mothers-to-be receive an assortment of family social services in addition to quality education options. Good schools work in challenged neighborhoods because they understand how to integrate all of these services together.
Finally, we need to be bold. Let's enthusiastically embrace any and everything that will help a child learn, without equivocation. Let's also aggressively fight to keep all those negative influences out of a child's life -- particularly in publicly funded institutions. And as it relates to schools, we should unapologetically reward our good teachers and ferret out the bad ones.
While I don't purport to have all the answers, I do know that we must reassess our priorities so that our kids have access to a quality education that can dramatically improve their life trajectory.
It may take time, but the culture can change can occur quicker than we think. But we must start now. No 10 year-old in this nation should feel as though they are more likely to live a life in prison than a life filled with possibilities that only a high quality education can bring.