Moscow Education (Idaho)

The following article by Steve McClure appeared in today's edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News. This is the consensus of the Daily News editorial board.

Longtime opponents of Washington's controversial student assessment program have to be scratching their heads a bit.

The Washington D.C.-based Center on Education Policy has kicked out a study that indicates the Washington Assessment of Student Learning had a significant effect on what is being taught in the state's classrooms.

Of course it did.

The test was held over the heads of Washington school children like a hammer for years. It was an expensive, high-stakes test that took too long to grade and raised as many questions as it did answers.

That's why new schools Superintendent Randy Dorn has run into very little opposition when he announced plans to do away with the test.

Yes, there were problems with the implementing the WASL.

But what really bugged the educational-industrial complex in Washington was that the WASL accurately reflected the lack of learning by the students. That they couldn’t put up with.

I’m reposting this article from 9 Jan 2008.

Declining enrollment has been predicted for years.

MSD will pretend that this is a surprise to everyone — or blame it on those wicked, evil charter schools.

But this is simple math: there are fewer student in Kindergarten than in 12 grade.

How’s that for sustainability?

Region's schools face declining enrollment

Recall yesterday that Dr. Donicht claimed that the Fall 2007 enrollment was a “trend” in increased enrollment?

The following article in today’s Lewiston Tribune says that there’s more there than meets the eye.

Nearly every school in the region will graduate more students in the spring than they have in kindergarten.

While enrollment trends show variations between districts ranging from some growth to significant loss, most share the reality of smaller elementary classes.

"We have been watching that for quite a while," said Dale Durkee, superintendent of the Orofino School District.

Orofino reported 79 seniors this fall and 53 kindergarten students.

"The trend has been downward with a few bumps here and there," Durkee said.

Even schools like Moscow that showed 2.5 percent growth this year reported 74 fewer kindergarten students than seniors.

I’m reposting an article from 8 Jan 2008: School enrollment numbers all over map

Note to Candis Donicht: “a single data point does not a trend make.”

Also, unless you plan on the UI hiring 60 new faculty members every year, where are your kids going to come from?

The following article ran in today’s Lewiston Tribune.

Fall enrollment in area school districts is all over the board, numbers from the State Board of Education show.

…

The outlook is brighter on the Palouse where Moscow led the way with 2.5 percent growth, or 60 students.

"The trend has reversed," said Superintendent Candis Donicht. The district has suffered from gradual decline in the past. This is the first year in a while, she said, fall enrollment figures are not only higher than a year ago, but there hasn't been a decline after school started.

December graduation at the University of Idaho usually starts the downward trend that continues through the spring.

She said the UI hiring 60 new faculty in the last year was also a factor.

"Trying to figure out trends in a town with a university is something of a challenge."

No matter the reason, the Palouse schools are seeing growth. Troy is up 1.3 percent and White Pine, headquartered at Deary, is up 1.1 percent.

Farther north, the trend hits again with Potlatch showing a 10.8 percent decline.

"The major reason is people were moving out of the district, either for employment or housing," Superintendent Joseph Kren said.

The district graduated 50 seniors last spring and brought in 39 kindergarten students this fall.

"That, compounded with the moves over the summer, contributed," he said.

Kren said the decline could cause the school board to make budgetary adjustments in the upcoming budget cycle.

"The board is aware of it and they are very concerned about it."

Potlatch should do what MSD has been doing for years — just acknowledge the decreasing enrollment and say that entitles you to more money.

It’s not great logic; but it works in Moscow.

Then again, Potlatch doesn’t have as many PhDs out there…

Clearly they need to have a bond levy to raise income with the decreasing student enrollment.

As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Enrollment in the Moscow School District is looking down this year.

Superintendent Candis Donicht told school board members Tuesday evening that she predicts an enrollment drop of up to 125 students this fall.

WHAT HAPPENED: The Moscow School Board discussed pessimistic enrollment projections for this fall.

WHAT IT MEANS: The district is looking at a drop of up to 125 students.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT: School officials will eye fall enrollment numbers.

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: State funding for schools is determined by average daily attendance. An enrollment drop could hurt the district in 2011.

"We have a lot of variables this year," Donicht said. "We have economic conditions, we have ... staff reductions at both Washington State (University) and the University of Idaho. Those tend to have an impact on our enrollment."

Donicht said she believes enrollment will land somewhere between 2,275 and 2,300 students for kindergarten through 12th grade.

The district's July 2008 prediction was 2,400 students, a number that held steady from the previous year.

Donicht said families moving away from the area and the opening of a new charter school also had an effect on enrollment predictions.

Board member Margaret Dibble said she anticipates the lower number to hold steady over the next few years, but that she expects less dramatic fluctuations.

The district will feel a one-time hit of up to 70 students when the Palouse Prairie School of Expeditionary Learning opens this fall.

Funding for Idaho schools is based on average daily attendance, so enrollment plays a big part in securing state dollars.

"We're protected at 99 percent of our funding (for the first year after an enrollment drop), but you've got to cut in advance of that," Dibble said.

Board chairwoman Dawn Fazio said district officials anticipated the enrollment drop early on and headed off the financial strain by leaving some district positions unfilled.

"I guess we saw it coming," she said.

Here’s an idea: have all the private school educators join a union so that all of the educators in the US are pushed into mediocrity. Yea, there’s the ticket!

From EIA:

At the 2008 NEA Representative Assembly, delegates approved New Business Item 79, which directed the union to "study the potential impact of opening Active membership to private school educators." A special committee examined the issue and presented its findings to the 2009 RA delegates.

The report deals mostly with internal issues and contains no recommendations for a policy change, but it does have a couple of interesting paragraphs worth passing along:

• "Although the size of the K-12 private school employee workforce is at the present time relatively small, that may not be the case in the future. Because of advances in technology, alternative financing arrangements, and other innovations, the way in which the nation's children are being educated is changing, and the line between the public sector and the private sector is becoming increasingly blurred. The emergence of 'virtual' elementary/secondary schools in some states, and the nationwide push for more charter schools (which the United State Department of Labor has asserted - incorrectly, we believe - are private sector entities for purposes of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act), are illustrative. Allowing K-12 private school employees to become NEA Active members would provide the flexibility necessary for NEA to deal with the foregoing situations and other situations that cannot now be fully anticipated."
• "A desire to avoid LMRDA coverage is at least one of the reasons why some forty state affiliates do not at the present time seek to organize and represent any private sector education employees - even those who currently are eligible for NEA Active membership."

From The Education Intelligence Agency.

As reported in today's edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

The Moscow School District facility planning committee will seek cost estimates for 13 options being considered to either renovate or replace Moscow High School.

Hard to believe it was 5 years ago that right-minded Moscowans were saying that we didn’t need a new high school built.

It’s been 5 years now. All I can guess is that the recession is the only thing preventing MSD from floating that idea by yet again.  

For example:

• 75% of physicians surveyed are not members of the AMA.
• 89% of physicians claim, "The AMA does not speak for me."
• 91% of physicians surveyed do not believe the AMA accurately reflects their opinion as physicians.

Check out Sermo.

HT: Ashley L.

Via The Northwest Teacher's Choice for Professionalism and Protection.

At the recent NEA convention, NEA General Counsel Robert Chanin called those who oppose NEA politics “right-wing bastards.”  Listen to Chanin’s speech at www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqn1rvv7Fis beginning around minute 16:00.  

 

After hearing Chanin’s speech, public school teacher and radio talk show host Peter Heck wrote a column urging Christian teachers to flee the NEA.  Read his column at the links below.    

• Idaho educators, see: www.nwpe.org/PDF/Christian_Teachers_Flee_NEA_ID.pdf.
• Washington and Oregon educators, see: www.nwpe.org/PDF/Christian_Teachers_Flee_NEA_WA_OR.pdf. 

As always: Teachers’ Unions win. Kids lose.

From the Baltimore Sun:

Baltimore's most successful middle school is laying off staff and shortening its school day to meet demands of a teachers union contract ...

The Baltimore Teachers Union told the [KIPP] charter school earlier this year that it must pay its teachers 33 percent more than other city school teachers because they were working [longer.]

KIPP has been paying its teachers 18 percent above the salary scale, but could not afford to increase all teachers' salaries by 33 percent,... So it decided to ... cut back on the hours students are in school .

...

Saturday classes have been canceled. 

Ah, the government-union monopoly at work. Serving the needs of their union-dues paying members at the expense of the children.

From CT:

The Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI), which has more than 38,000 member schools worldwide, normally averages 150 school closures each year. It has already had more than 200 schools close in 2009, according to spokesperson Janet Stump.

The recession has hit struggling schools hard, and widespread unemployment has made it difficult for many families to keep paying private tuition rates.

"We believe that many families will not return," Stump said. "For many, it will take years to recover from the financial stress."

Schools in California, Florida, New England, and the upper Midwest have been hit the hardest, she said.

Enrollment in Southern California's ACSI schools dropped more than 9 percent in 2009 to the lowest that regional director Jerry Haddock has seen in his 22 years with the accrediting body.

"School closures happen every year, but declining enrollment doesn't," Haddock said. Enrollment in ACSI schools is down 5 percent nationwide, he said.

A smaller population of elementary-age children and the increasing popularity of charter schools—public-school alternatives that don't charge tuition—also have lowered enrollment in private Christian schools, he said.

The doors to many of the region's ACSI schools remain open for now, but school officials are waiting to see their final enrollment numbers for the 2009-10 school year before making further decisions. Ironically, the soft enrollment numbers come at a time when Haddock's schools no longer face teacher shortages—a silver lining to California laying off thousands of public school teachers.

While the economy has affected enrollment in schools of all denominations, Edward Gamble, executive director of the 720-member Southern Baptist Association of Christian Schools, is optimistic that enrollment numbers will improve with the economy. "The schools that are started properly and rooted in biblical philosophies and Christian moral views are the schools that have stayed," he said.

Flip:

”I hope you’re as outraged as I am when our critics say that unions are part of the problem, not the solution; that we are only in it for ourselves; that we represent adults against kids; and that we are a selfish special interest set against the public interest.”

—American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten at the recent AFT meeting

Flop:

“NEA and affiliates must never lose sight of the fact that they are unions, and unions first and foremost represent their members.”

—Outgoing National Education Association General Counsel Bob Chanin at the recent NEA meeting

And, of course, my favorite:

"When school children start paying union dues, that 's when I'll start representing the interests of school children."
—The late Albert Shanker, the AFT's longtime president, famously remarked in 1985

Nah! The rise of the teachers unions (and their representing their own paying members over and against the children) has had nothing to do with rapid failure of government education.

From the Christian Science Monitor:

The University of Oregon (UO), where I study journalism, invested millions annually in a diversity program that explicitly included "political affiliation" as a component. Yet, out of the 111 registered Oregon voters in the departments of journalism, law, political science, economics, and sociology, there were only two registered Republicans.

A number of conservative students told me they felt Republican ideas were frequently caricatured and rarely presented fairly. Did the dearth of conservative professors on campus and apparent marginalization of ideas on the right belie the university's commitment to providing a marketplace of ideas?

In my column, published in the campus newspaper The Oregon Daily Emerald June 1, I suggested that such a disparity hurt UO. I argued that the lifeblood of higher education was subjecting students to diverse viewpoints and the university needed to work on attracting more conservative professors.

I also suggested that students working on right-leaning ideas may have difficulty finding faculty mentors. I couldn't imagine, for instance, that journalism that supported the Iraq war or gun rights would be met with much enthusiasm.

What I didn't realize is that journalism that examined the dominance of liberal ideas on campus would be addressed with hostility.

Not a problem if you are a progressive liberal.

The following is from the National Education Association’s Article 18, Section 14

Nothing contained in this Article shall be construed to prevent NEA from placing a minority-group employee or a female employee in any position for which he/she is qualified, provided that this does not result in the displacement of another employee with greater seniority. No minority-group employee or female employee who is qualified to fill any authorized bargaining-unit position in his/her Job Category shall be laid off unless the percentage of minority-group employees or female employees, as the case may be, in the Professional Job Category thereafter would be at least equal to the presence of the group in the national labor pool, and, in the other job categories, equal to the presence in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area labor pool. For purpose of this Section, minority-group employees and female employees each shall constitute a separate seniority group, and among the employees in each such group seniority shall prevail.

From The Education Intelligence Agency.

Anne Wortham is Associate Professor of Sociology at Illinois State University and continuing Visiting Scholar at Stanford University 's Hoover Institution. She is a member of the American Sociological Association and the American Philosophical Association.

She has been a John M. Olin Foundation Faculty Fellow, and honored as a Distinguished Alumni of the Year by the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education.

In fall 1988 she was one of a select group of intellectuals who were featured in Bill Moyer's television series, "A World of Ideas." The transcript of her conversation with Moyers has been published in his book, A World of Ideas.

Dr. Wortham is author of "The Other Side of Racism: A Philosophical Study of Black Race Consciousness" which analyzes how race consciousness is transformed into political strategies and policy issues.

She has published numerous articles on the implications of individual rights for civil rights policy, and is currently writing a book on theories of social and cultural marginality.

Recently, she has published articles on the significance of multiculturalism and Afrocentricism in education, the politics of victimization and the social and political impact of political correctness. Shortly after an interview in 2004, she was awarded tenure.

This article by her is something.

Fellow Americans,

Please know: I am Black; I grew up in the segregated South. I did not vote for Barack Obama; I wrote in Ron Paul's name as my choice for president. Most importantly, I am not race conscious. I do not require a Black president to know that I am a person of worth, and that life is worth living. I do not require a Black president to love the ideal of America 

I cannot join you in your celebration. I feel no elation. There is no smile on my face. I am not jumping with joy. There are no tears of triumph in my eyes. For such emotions and behavior to come from me, I would have to deny all that I know about the requirements of human flourishing and survival - all that I know about the history of the United States of America , all that I know about American race relations, and all that I know about Barack Obama as a politician. I would have to deny the nature of the "change" that Obama asserts has come to America

Most importantly, I would have to abnegate my certain understanding that you have chosen to sprint down the road to serfdom that we have been on for over a century. I would have to pretend that individual liberty has no value for the success of a human life. I would have to evade your rejection of the slender reed of capitalism on which your success and mine depend. I would have to think it somehow rational that 94 percent of the 12 million Blacks in this country voted for a man because he looks like them (that Blacks are permitted to play the race card), and that they were joined by self-declared "progressive" whites who voted for him because he doesn't look like them.

I would have to wipe my mind clean of all that I know about the kind of people who have advised and taught Barack Obama and will fill posts in his administration - political intellectuals like my former colleagues at the Harvard University 's Kennedy School of Government..

I would have to believe that "fairness" is equivalent of justice. I would have to believe that man who asks me to "go forward in a new spirit of service, in a new service of sacrifice" is speaking in my interest.. I would have to accept the premise of a man that economic prosperity comes from the "bottom up," and who arrogantly believes that he can will it into existence by the use of government force. I would have to admire a man who thinks the standard of living of the masses can be improved by destroying the most productive and the generators of wealth.

Finally, Americans, I would have to erase from my consciousness the scene of 125,000 screaming, crying, cheering people in Grant Park, Chicago irrationally chanting "Yes We Can!" Finally, I would have to wipe all memory of all the times I have heard politicians, pundits, journalists, editorialists, bloggers and intellectuals declare that capitalism is dead - and no one, including especially Alan Greenspan, objected to their assumption that the particular version of the anti-capitalistic mentality that they want to replace with their own version of anti-capitalism is anything remotely equivalent to capitalism.

So you have made history, Americans. You and your children have elected a Black man to the office of the president of the United States , the wounded giant of the world. The battle between John Wayne and Jane Fonda is over - and that Fonda won. Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern must be very happy men. Jimmie Carter, too. And the Kennedy's have at last gotten their Kennedy look-a-like. The self-righteous welfare statists in the suburbs can feel warm moments of satisfaction for having elected a Black person.

So, toast yourselves: 60s countercultural radicals, 80s yuppies and 90s bourgeois bohemians. Toast yourselves, Black America . Shout your glee Harvard, Princeton , Yale, Duke, Stanford, and Berkeley. You have elected not an individual who is qualified to be president, but a Black man who, like the pragmatist Franklin Roosevelt, promises to - Do Something! You now have someone who has picked up the baton of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. But you have also foolishly traded your freedom and mine - what little there is left - for the chance to feel good.

There is nothing in me that can share your happy obliviousness.

Via Ashley L.

From the Wall Street Journal:

How states like Illinois rig school tests to hype phony achievement

When President Obama chose Arne Duncan to lead the Education Department, he cited Mr. Duncan's success as head of Chicago's public school system from 2001 to 2008. But a new education study suggests that those academic gains aren't what they seemed. The study also helps explain why big-city education reform is unlikely to occur without school choice.

Mr. Obama noted in December that "in just seven years, Arne's boosted elementary test scores here in Chicago from 38% of students meeting the standard to 67%" and that "the dropout rate has gone down every year he's been in charge." But according to "Still Left Behind," a report by the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, a majority of Chicago public school students still drop out or fail to graduate with their class. Moreover, "recent dramatic gains in the reported number of CPS elementary students who meet standards on state assessments appear to be due to changes in the tests . . . rather than real improvements in student learning."

The same thing happened when they made the SAT easier. The scores went up, and the academicians trumpeted how well education was going in the US.

Our point here isn't to pick on Mr. Duncan, but to illuminate the ease with which tests can give the illusion of achievement. Under the 2001 No Child Left Behind law, states must test annually in grades 3 through 8 and achieve 100% proficiency by 2014. But the law gives states wide latitude to craft their own exams and to define math and reading proficiency. So state tests vary widely in rigor, and some have lowered passing scores and made other changes that give a false impression of academic success.

The new Chicago report explains that most of the improvement in elementary test scores came after the Illinois Standards Achievement Test was altered in 2006 to comply with NCLB. "State and local school officials knew that the new test and procedures made it easier for students throughout the state -- and throughout Chicago -- to obtain higher marks," says the report.

Chicago students fared much worse on national exams that weren't designed by state officials. On the 2007 state test, for example, 71% of Chicago's 8th graders met or exceeded state standards in math, up from 32% in 2005. But results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress exam, a federal standardized test sponsored by the Department of Education, show that only 13% of the city's 8th graders were proficient in math in 2007. While that was better than 11% in 2005, it wasn't close to the 39 percentage-point increase reflected on the Illinois state exam.

In Mr. Duncan's defense, he wasn't responsible for the new lower standards, which were authorized by state education officials. In 2006, he responded to a Chicago Tribune editorial headlined, "An 'A' for Everybody!" by noting (correctly) that "this is the test the state provided; this is the state standard our students were asked to meet." But this doesn't change the fact that by defining proficiency downward, states are setting up children to fail in high school and college. We should add that we've praised New York City test results that the Thomas B. Fordham Institute also claims are inflated, but we still favor mayoral control of New York's schools as a way to break through the bureaucracy and drive more charter schools.

And speaking of charters, the Chicago study says they "provide one bright spot in the generally disappointing performance of Chicago's public schools." The city has 30 charters with 67 campuses serving 30,000 students out of a total public school population of 408,000. Another 13,000 kids are on wait lists because the charters are at capacity, and it's no mystery why. Last year 91% of charter elementary schools and 88% of charter high schools had a higher percentage of students meeting or exceeding state standards than the neighborhood schools that the students otherwise would have attended.

What? With no teacher union oversight? Better education for half the price? How can that be?

Similar results have been observed from Los Angeles to Houston to Harlem. The same kids with the same backgrounds tend to do better in charter schools, though they typically receive less per-pupil funding than traditional public schools. In May, the state legislature voted to increase the cap on Chicago charter schools to 70 from 30, though Illinois Governor Pat Quinn has yet to sign the bill.

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley deserves credit for hiring Mr. Duncan, a charter proponent. But in deference to teachers unions that oppose school choice, Mr. Daley stayed mostly silent during the debate over the charter cap. That's regrettable, because it's becoming clear that Chicago's claim of reform success among noncharter schools is phony.

HT: Asley L.

Ashley L. writes:

We people see how successful the power of personal choice is, they embrace it.  Why select government run programs?  Government is a hopeless institution for creating value, efficiency and any type of good result.  And, education is such an important area for value-it should not continue to be left up to government to foul things up.

If you want to see how bad things are in the U.S., compared to other countries in the world, the OECD will show you that the U.S. ranks (in science and math) below the average OECD country.  This information can be obtained from OECD and, otherwise is summarized in the pdf file available below.

http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2008/2008016.pdf

From the Wall Street Journal:

D.C. Council Wants Vouchers

It would rather help poor children than unions.

The life and death saga of the D.C. voucher program for low-income families continues. A majority of the members of the D.C. Council recently sent a letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan expressing solid support for continuing the program. "We strongly urge you to stand with us in supporting these children and continuing the District's Opportunity Scholarship Program," says the letter. "We believe we simply cannot turn our backs on these families because doing so will deny their children the quality education they deserve."

Earlier this year Illinois Senator Dick Durbin added language to a spending bill that phases out the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program after next year. The program provides 1,700 kids $7,500 per year to use toward tuition at a private school of their parents' choosing. Mr. Durbin's amendment says no federal money can be spent on the program beyond 2010 unless Congress reauthorizes it and the D.C. Council approves.

The D.C. Council's letter shows that support for these vouchers is real at the local level and that the opposition exists mainly at the level of the national Democratic Party. Mr. Durbin has suggested that he included the D.C. Council provision in deference to local control. "The government of Washington, D.C., should decide whether they want it in their school district," he said in March. Well now we know where D.C. stands. We will now see if the national party stands for putting union power and money above the future of poor children.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Some cash-strapped states and school districts are signaling a major expansion of charter schools to tap $5 billion in federal stimulus funds, despite strong opposition from some teachers unions.

Charter schools are typically non-unionized, publicly funded alternative schools that have been widely promoted by conservatives as a needed dose of competition in public education.

Last month, the Louisiana legislature voted to eliminate that state's cap on new charter schools. The Tennessee legislature recently passed a bill expanding charter schools after U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan personally lobbied Democrats who had been blocking it. And the Rhode Island legislature reversed a plan to eliminate funding for new charters after Mr. Duncan warned such a move could hurt the state's chances for grant money.

The most striking example may be in Massachusetts. Gov. Deval Patrick and Boston Mayor Tom Menino -- both Democrats with histories of strong labor support -- are proposing new state laws that would give them broader power to overhaul troubled schools, open more charter schools and revamp collective-bargaining agreements.

Gov. Patrick Thursday proposed increasing the number of available slots for students in state-sponsored charter schools to 37,000, from 10,000. He also wants to give state officials the explicit power to appoint outside receivers to run chronically underperforming schools. Mr. Duncan came to Boston to join Gov. Patrick and the mayor as they detailed their plans.

Charter schools receive public money but are free from many of the rules and restrictions that govern traditional public schools.

Mr. Menino, who oversees the Boston schools, wants Massachusetts communities to be able to transform traditional public schools into district-controlled charter schools and link teachers' pay to performance.

Formerly a charter-school critic, Mr. Menino said he is fed up with opposition from the Boston Teachers Union. "I'm just tired of it," he said. "We're losing kids."

But it’s never really been about the kids. It’s about the status quo and increasing labor union power and union worker mediocrity — at the expense of the children.

"When school children start paying union dues, that 's when I'll start representing the interests of school children."
—The late Albert Shanker, the AFT's longtime president, famously remarked in 1985

HT: Ashley L.

As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

University of Idaho administrators are preparing themselves for more program cuts and potential job cuts this year.

Two weeks into the new fiscal year, deans and other administrators are busy reviewing what worked and what didn't work in this past year's "program prioritization process."

The first round of program cuts emphasized the need for the UI to be strategic about its scope, but administrators say the next round will be linked to cutting budgets.

"I think this next round we're going to look hard at cost-savings, or revenue-enhancement too," Provost Doug Baker said. "So it's not just about cutting, it's about reshaping."

How essential are UI athletic programs (e.g., football program) to offering a quality education? Does UI focus more on recreation than education?

A press release from Bob Hieronymus, Executive Vice President of Administration and Advancement at New Saint Andrews College:

The New Saint Andrews Celebratio - the College's newest fall event - celebrates "the student in all of us." That's the way College officials are billing the four-day festival which is expected to draw families locally and from throughout the Pacific Northwest September 10-13.

The Celebratio event schedule features Dr. James Jordan's Calvin Lecture Series presentation on "Calvin and Music." In addition to conference-style lectures by Dr. Jordan and other members of the College's faculty, the taste of college and community life will include activities like The Canon Press Reader's Theater, workshops on classical education, a theology roundtable discussion, a science day-camp, the Fall Jolly, the Farmer's Market, softball games, ball-style dancing, Sunday morning worship at area churches, the Nuart Block Party outdoor concert, and more.

The NSA Celebratio is free, but attendees are asked to register in advance at www.nsa.edu. Some events not sponsored by the College may have an admission fee or suggested donation. For more information, e-mail info@nsa.edu or call (208) 882-1566.

From Reason’s Hit and Run:

President Barack Obama has declared that his administration aims to make college affordable to everyone by greatly expanding government aid to middle class families. The Washington Post says that Obama's higher education proposals, which include creating a brand new Pell Grant entitlement, "could transform the financial aid landscape for millions of students while expanding federal authority to a degree that even Democrats concede is controversial."

But what if President Obama has it backwards? What if America is sending too many people to college?

A recent study found that "Nationally, four-year colleges graduated an average of just 53% of entering students within six years." If 40 percent of students who enter college drop out before graduation and over 50 percent of students take six years to graduate, perhaps Obama is focusing on the wrong issue. 

Reason.tv's Michael C. Moynihan sat down with Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and the American Enterprise Institute's Charles Murray, author of the recent book Real Education, to analyze how Obama's higher-education plans will impact the economic and cultural future of the United States.

As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Nine teachers from Nevada's Grace Christian Academy spent 17 hours in two vans to be in Moscow this week for Logos School's 15th annual summer teacher training.

Grace Christian teacher Marla Churchill has been to the summer training before, and said the visit was the push she and others needed to get their school off the ground.

"We came up to see if it was really something we wanted to do, and we came back and said, 'Wow, we really want to do this,' " Churchill said Tuesday. "Because they were like the founding school, this is kind of where the (start of) classical Christian education took place."

Grace Christian is entering its fifth year as classical Christian school, and its teachers are back to learn more.

"For us it's just the God-centeredeness and the high academic standards. Kids could be that orderly and disciplined. Not just outwardly, but really focusing on their hearts as well," Churchill said.

The Grace Christian teachers are among more than 100 teachers from Christian schools around the United States and world who have descended upon Moscow for three-and-a-half days of training.

"We're not teaching them what to teach, we're teaching them how to teach," Logos superintendent Tom Garfield said.

Logos School opened in 1981 and in the 1990s helped establish the Association of Classical Christian Schools. Garfield said the school generated so much interest after a 1991 book published by Christ Church Pastor Doug Wilson that Logos held its first summer training in 1995.

"People wanted more practical, hands-on, how do we do this kind of thing," Garfield said.

Logos Press also provides many of the materials used by teachers in other classical Christian schools.

"We began making and selling these items with the rise of people wanting more stuff," Garfield said. "It's like you have a really old recipe and even the ingredients are lost."

This week's program includes workshops for administrators and school board members, elementary school teachers and secondary school teachers.

Grace Christian Academy teacher Sarah Rhodes said she was particularly excited about the daily sessions because many of them are led by authors she looks up to.

Authors and speakers include Wilson and Logos principal Matt Whitling, among others.

"This is my first time so it's pretty exciting," Rhodes said. "I've heard a lot about it."

Garfield said many of the attendees tend to be young and new teachers from Logos's sister schools.

Logos School and University of Idaho graduate Colleen McGarry has taught at a classical Christian school in Northern Iraq for the past three years.

She returns to Moscow each summer to visit her family and attend the teacher training.

"When I first thought (about it), I thought I'd only go for a year," McGarry said Tuesday. "But three years later and I'm still there."

McGarry said she attends workshops about subjects she doesn't teach, so she can bring the information back to some of the Kurdish teachers.

Most education in Iraq tends to have a heavy focus on memorization, while the classical Christian approach focuses more on connecting thoughts and ideas," she said.

"It's fun opening the teachers' minds and the kids' minds," she said.

As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

A decades-old fight for school facilities funding in Idaho will resurface this year as educators renew their efforts to change the way bond elections are run.

Idaho Superintendent of Schools Tom Luna said changing the state Constitution to eliminate the two-thirds "supermajority" requirement for bond elections will be the first piece of legislation education officials will propose in January.

Education officials admit a Constitutional amendment will be a long, uphill battle, but it's a necessary step to fund school facilities.

"For 20 years we've been trying to get something done," Genesee Superintendent Dave Neumann said. "We know the process doesn't work, and certainly the supermajority is the biggest impediment."

Educators dislike the supermajority rule because it allows as few as 35 percent of voters to decide an election.

"The reason it takes two-thirds to pass anyway is that people who own property don't want to pay more taxes. It's a minority that controls that situation," Neumann said. "I would certainly support reducing the supermajority. It's never made sense to me. It's a democracy - majority rules, right?" 

Someone needs to tutor the Genesee Superintendent in US civics. We’re not a democracy, never have been. And the Founding Fathers were rightly worried about a democracy’s “tyranny of the majority.”

Perhaps some historical research into the constitutional reason for the supermajority would prove helpful.

From the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice:

Indiana lawmakers today approved a $2.5 million scholarship tax credit program in the home state of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice. The new scholarship program was inserted into the state’s budget and won approval in the late hours of the special legislative session. The bill, which passed the Senate 34-16 and the House 61-36, now goes to the governor who is anticipated to sign it in the coming days.

This despite the teachers unions vocal opposition.

By the end of my life, I may actually see educational choice in the US.

Arizona-based Goldwater Institute released a study on the civics knowledge of that state’s high school students.

This is the same trivial test that is given to immigrants applying for citizenship.

Legend has it that a woman asked Benjamin Franklin, leaving the Constitutional Convention, what sort of government had been created. “A Republic, if you can keep it,” Franklin replied. A major justification for supporting a system of public schools has long been the promotion of a general civic knowledge necessary for a well informed citizenry. This study demonstrates that schools in Arizona are failing in this core mission.

To determine students’ level of basic civic knowledge, we surveyed Arizona high school students with questions drawn from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) item bank, which consists of 100 questions given to candidates for United States citizenship. The longstanding practice has been for candidates to take a test on 10 of these items. A minimum of six correct answers is required to pass. The service recently reported a first-try passing rate of 92.4 percent.

The Goldwater Institute survey, conducted by a private survey firm, gave each student 10 items from the USCIS item bank. We grouped results according to the type of school students attend—public, charter, or private. Questions included

1. Who was the first president of the United States?
2. Who wrote the Declaration of Independence? and
3. What ocean is located on the East Coast of the United States?

No trick questions here. They were looking for George Washington, not John Hanson.

All three groups of Arizona high school students scored alarmingly low on the test. Only 3.5 percent of Arizona high school students attending public schools passed the citizenship test. The passing rate for charter school students was about twice as high as for public school students. Private school students passed at a rate almost four times higher than public school students.

Still abysmal for charters and private schools.

This study details the results of the civic knowledge survey and sounds an alarm. Our recommendation is to require public school students to pass the same test required for applicants for citizenship as a condition for receiving a diploma. Further, we recommend that Arizona’s public universities require proof of passing such an exam as a condition of admission.

Why would the government want to do that? They have a full stake in the American voters being ignorant and easily lead about by a leash. Having stupid high school graduates ensures that the government can continue to abuse its power.

HT: Andrew J. Coulson, Cato