Moscow Education (Idaho)

Here’s a snippet from Inside Higher Education. Conta to Moscow’s Intolerista Professors, NSA is listed in Inside Higher Education as a “strong academic institution.”

Q: You note the strong academics at the institutions you study, and the strong commitment of the colleges to personal development of students. Yet as you note, many academics are unaware of these successes. Why is that?

A: I don't think there is a single clear explanation for the lack of knowledge (and sometimes overt hostility) on the part of many academics at public and non-religious private colleges and universities to their counterparts in the world of faith-based higher learning. (Of course, in many ways each segment of academe tends to have blind spots about the others – public institutions often give short shrift to private ones; colleges on the East coast seem sometimes unaware of those in the Midwest or Rocky Mountain region, etc.) In some cases, legitimate or perceived intellectual differences are significant. For example, at some Christian colleges Darwinian evolution is taught alongside conflicting theories of human development (e.g., Oral Roberts University) and at some it is explicitly rejected in favor of creationist explanations (e.g., New St. Andrews College). And at some Christian colleges, though – e.g., Calvin College – Darwinian evolution is exclusively taught. Many academics chafe at some of the restrictions, on student life and on faculty practice, which are common at evangelical Protestant colleges. All member institutions of the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities, the largest consortium of evangelical schools, for example, are committed to a full-time faculty which is exclusively Christian. Many insist that their regular faculty be active within their churches. Many academics (me included) are uncomfortable with such regulations. Too, as many private institutions have grown away from their founding religions, faith-based higher learning has come to seem less and less relevant to those who reside in either public or secularized private institutions. Whatever the causes, though, it is quite remarkable how many of my colleagues outside the faith-based schools know very little or nothing at all about this important segment of our higher education community.

You can read most of the NSA chapter over at Amazon's "look inside" feature.

There's a new book due out in January from Johns Hopkins University Press that gives NSA an entire chapter and a very favorable review.

You can read most of the NSA chapter via the search function of Amazon's "look inside" feature.

Here's the advance product overview:

Samuel Schuman examines the place of religious colleges and universities, particularly evangelical Protestant institutions, in contemporary American higher education.

Many faith-based schools are flourishing. They have rigorous academic standards, impressive student recruitment, ambitious philanthropic goals, and well-maintained campuses and facilities. Yet much of the U.S.
higher education community ignores them or accords them little respect.
Seeing the Light considers, instead, what can be learned from the viability of these institutions.

The book begins with a history of post-secondary U.S. education from the perspective of the religious traditions from which it arose. Focusing briefly on non-evangelical institutions, Schuman next looks at three Roman Catholic institutions -- the College of New Rochelle, Villanova University, and Thomas Aquinas College. He then profiles evangelical colleges and universities in detail, discovering the factors contributing to their success. These institutions range from nationally recognized to little known, from rich to poor, with both highly selective and open admission requirements. Interviews with key administrators, faculty, and students speak to the challenges, successes, and goals of these institutions.

Schuman concludes that these schools -- Baylor University, Anderson University, New Saint Andrews College, Calvin College, North Park University, George Fox University, Westmont College, Oral Roberts University, Northwestern College, and Wheaton College -- and others like them offer important and timely lessons for the broader higher education community.

HT: Dr. A

Is there any wonder why Dick and Jane cannot pass basic reading/writing/arithmetic? From the Daily Freeman:

Student seeks balance in teaching of controversial topics

A Rhinebeck High School sophomore is urging the school district to require alternative views be presented by teachers on controversial topics like climate change.

Michelle Dewkett said the global warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" was being shown in science and English classes without equal weight being given to other positions on the topic.

"As of now, the teaching of controversial topics is out of control," Dewkett told members of the Board of Education on Tuesday. She also said the district is not following its own policy of providing students with a wide range of materials.

Dewkett cited a class on global warming as an example, saying the effects of human activity on the environment are not being balanced with information about the natural course of changes on Earth.

"It says (global warming) will kill us all without offering any alternative views throughout high school," she said. "This goes against board policy which states 'Teachers shall approach controversial topics in an impartial and unprejudiced manner.'"

Dewkett also questioned the showing of "An Inconvenient Truth" as part of an English course, saying district policy states that "material will not be introduced for their own sake and must be part of normal instruction."

School district officials did not immediately respond to Dewkett's comments but previously have encouraged students and parents to offer their views during annual planning sessions of the Board of Education's Curriculum Committee.

Dewkett said afterward that there is support for presenting other viewpoints in courses but that calling for change has been difficult.

"My friend and I want to start a club for young conservatives in Rhinebeck," she said. "Right now, though, when someone wants to talk about these things, there are a lot of students that really don't want to hear them."

HT: David D.

Adam Kissel is director of the Individual Rights Defense Program at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (thefire.org). This is in the N.Y. Post:

When a child doesn't finish his homework, who's at fault? The Race, Culture, Class and Gender Task Group in the University of Minnesota's teacher-education program wants every teacher blaming things like "white privilege, hegemonic masculinity, heteronormativity and internalized oppression." Those who don't, these professors believe, are unfit to be teachers.

These professors plainly want everybody to share their ideology. Fair enough. But they don't want to limit themselves to persuasion -- they want to use the university's power to demand that all teachers conform to their political litmus test.

Thus the task group's "final report" recommends ideological screening of applicants for admission to the school's teacher-ed program, with remedial re-education to "enlighten" anyone who is borderline.

They also don't want to let anybody become a teacher who cannot demonstrate sufficient "cultural competence." And that doesn't simply mean learning about cultural differences, but embracing specific views about how different cultures get along in America.

Did Johnny get a math problem wrong? Maybe it's because of society's "demands for assimilation to white, middle-class, Christian meanings and values."

Or maybe it's the school's fault. According to the task force, future teachers must "recognize that schools are socially constructed systems that are susceptible to racism . . . but are also critical sites for social and cultural transformation." In other words, they suspect traditional curricula of imposing racist values -- and want educators trained by the Minnesota program to instead teach their radical values.

 

#1 son is working on his CLEP exams. He successfully passed the Calculus CLEP. Didn’t even have to study thanks to the amazing Calculus class at Logos he took his junior year.

Now he needs to go back and CLEP out of College Math and College Algebra.

I cannot even tell you how underwhelmed I am at what passes for college math and college Algebra. My 7^th grader is working through the Saxon 7/8 pre-Algebra book and will do the Saxon Algebra I book in 8^th grade. Every question I have seen on the college CLEP Algebra is something that the 8^th graders know by the time they take their final exam in May.

So it comes as no surprise that a 9–year-old could pass a Western Civ CLEP exam.

Of course, it comes as no surprise that Ashley Medlock is homeschooled.

Nine-year-old homeschool student Ashley Medlock has already achieved what few people in Paris have, she passed her first College Level Examination Program test on her first try.

CLEP is a company that offers pass/fail tests for college credit on 34 different topics. It allows students to get ahead of the game or save time from a possibly boring class at a fraction of the cost of actually taking the class.

Ashley passed the Western Civilization I CLEP test Nov. 20 at Murray State University, earning three credit hours that will be valid as long as she graduates sometime in the next 20 years.

If everything goes according to Ashley’s plan, graduating in the next 20 years shouldn’t be a problem. She wants to graduate college at the same time she graduates high school, when she is 18.

Unlike many kids who make grand plans to play professional ball or make billions of dollars in a chosen profession, Ashley already has a plan to reach her goal, and passing CLEP tests is the first step.

Her father, Wayne Medlock, said that Ashley has always had good reading skills and that has helped fuel her thirst for knowledge.

“She was reading when she was two,” he said. “By the time she was three she was reading small books and things like that. Now she reads faster than I do.”

Ashley has always been advanced and mature for her age. Her mother, Patsy Medlock, remembered a time when Ashley was 2.

“She was sitting there coloring and said, ‘Mother, my colors are not cooperating!’ She’s always used big words,” she said.

You have to love statist education.

From World Net Daily:

A lawyer for the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities campus has confirmed to an educational rights organization that a plan described by a critic as teaching America as a "hellhole" hasn't been adopted, and came about because of brainstorming efforts by the education department.

The issue of the program at University of Minnesota-Twin Cities was raised by officials with The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

The group wrote to President Robert Bruinicks questioning the program's legality. The proposal included the suggestion of examinations of teacher candidates on "white privilege" as well as "remedial re-education" for those who hold the "wrong" views.
…
The plan from the college's Race, Culture, Class and Gender Task Group had suggested requiring every future teacher to accept theories of "white privileges, hegemonic masculinity, heteronormativity and internalized oppression;" "develop a positive sense of racial/cultural identity;" and "recognize that schools are socially constructed systems that are susceptible to racism ... but are also critical sites for social and cultural transformation," according to the documentation.

The plans had been targeted by Minneapolis Star-Tribune columnist Katherine Kersten, too.

She wrote the recommendations would require teachers to "embrace - and be prepared to teach our state's kids - the task force's own vision of America as an oppressive hellhole: racist, sexist and homophobic."

She said the plan from the university's Teacher Education Redesign Initiative - a multiyear project to change the way future teachers are trained - "is premised, in part, on the conviction that Minnesota teachers' lack of 'cultural competence' contributes to the poor academic performance of the state's minority students."

"The first step toward 'cultural competence,' says the task group, is for future teachers to recognize - and confess - their own bigotry. Anyone familiar with the re-education camps of China's Cultural Revolution will recognize the modus operandi," she said.

"What if some aspiring teachers resist this effort at thought control and object to parroting back an ideological line as a condition of future employment?" she posed. "The task group has Orwellian plans for such rebels: The U, it says, must 'develop clear steps and procedures for working with nonperforming students, including a remediation plan.'"

HT: David D.

It’s good to see that our government schools are practicing a zero-tolerance policy against drug dealers in the schools.

10-YEAR-OLD SUSPENDED FOR PEPPERMINT OIL

A 10-year-old suburban New York girl has been suspended for taking peppermint oil to her school and distributing it to other students. The Commack School District says in a statement on its Web Site the oil “is an unregulated over-the-counter drug.”

The girl’s mother, Corrine Morton-Greiner, said Thursday the implication her daughter Sara was taking an illicit substance to school is “infuriating.” Morton-Greiner is asking for school officials to apologize and to revoke her daughter’s suspension. Commack Superintendent James Feltman says there’s “no question” Sara’s actions violated the district’s code of conduct when she took the oil to school Monday. He says the label on the bottle says it should be kept out of reach of children.

Yes, peppermint oil is a drug worthy of suspension in the government schools.

What does it mean for society when 163 out of every 100 Bachelor Degrees are awarded to women?

From Inside Higher Education:

College admissions directors curious about the experience of touching a third rail can review what happened when the president of the University of Alberta suggested that Canadian males, including white males, needed a helping hand. She got fried ... by her own students.

Last month, President Indira Samarasekera pointed to the preponderance of women in higher education in Canada (see chart above) and suggested that perhaps males could need some extra attention. "We’ll wake up in 20 years and we will not have the benefit of enough male talent," said Samarasekera, a metallurgical engineer originally from Sri Lanka. “I’m going to be an advocate for young white men, because I can be,” she added, pointing to her Nixon-to-China status as a minority woman advocating for men.

Currently, the University of Alberta grants no admissions preferences to men – unlike scores, perhaps even hundreds, of colleges in the United States that for years have been turning down women for less qualified men. The preferences many colleges give to men are far less formal and less debated than those that help minority applicants, or women applying to some programs. But many, many admissions offices routinely look at male applicants’ test scores and grades with lower expectations than they have when viewing those of female applicants.

What happened to President Samarasekera is just a taste of what’s in store for these colleges when thousands of female high school students and their parents discover that the college of their dreams is a farther reach for them than for the slacker boy next door.

And they will find out, because in roughly six months the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights will release its findings on the breadth of the preferences practice. Among higher education insiders, there’s not much mystery to the investigation: favoring men is an open secret at private, four-year colleges, where there’s no legal penalty for helping men. Actually, it’s even done by some public colleges willing to roll the dice in the hope they won’t get sued.

How, you ask, has this remained a secret so long? Because all the interested parties have signed off on the conspiracy.

Feminist groups studiously ignore the issue of women dominating college campuses; it drains credibility from their claim as a disadvantaged group in need of redress. The day after the recent commission announcement it was investigating bias against women, groups such as National Organization for Women and the American Association of University Women were silent on the news -- despite this being an issue presumably dear to their hearts.

HT: Mark J. Perry

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

Renovation of the current high school or construction of a new high school is being considered by the Moscow School District. Estimates to fix the school could cost as much as $29 million.

Hard to believe that it was only 5 years ago that the Moscow residents gave a resounding raspberry to keely and the Moscow School District’s desire to spend $29 million of our money.

From Politico:

Democratic Rep. Parker Griffith announced Tuesday that he's switching parties – saying he can no longer align himself “with a party that continues to pursue legislation that is bad for our country, hurts our economy and drives us further and further into debt.”

“Unfortunately there are those in the Democratic Leadership that continue to push an agenda focused on massive new spending, tax increases, bailouts and a health care bill that is bad for our healthcare system,” Griffith said in a statement. “I have always considered myself to be an independent voice and I have tried to be that voice in Congress – but after watching this agenda firsthand I now believe that the differences in the two parties could not be more clear and that for me to be true to my core beliefs and values I must align myself with the Republican party and speak out clearly on these issues.

Griffith’s party switch comes on the eve of a pivotal congressional health care vote and will send a jolt through a Democratic House Caucus that has already been unnerved by the recent retirements of a handful of members who, like Griffith, hail from districts that offer prime pickup opportunities for the GOP in 2010.

The switch represents a coup for the House Republican leadership, which had been courting Griffith since he publicly criticized the Democratic leadership in the wake of raucous town halls during the summer.

From Mark Schneider in the AEI report Where Does All That Tuition Go?

We know that the costs of attending postsecondary institutions are increasing at a rate higher than inflation. And there is evidence that institutions are using a disproportionate share of these revenues for institutional and administrative costs rather than for instructional ones. This (mis)allocation is taking place in an environment in which the federal and state governments continue to pump large amounts of money into higher education without asking institutions to meet performance standards.

Clint’s story below is very similar to ours: we also moved to Moscow for Logos School. And there are a great number of people who have.

And everything he says below is accurate to the detail.

I, too, am surprised by the lack of press coverage. Logos produced 4 National Merit Scholars in this year’s senior class of 24 students. I would think that having a school with 17% of the grads are National Merit Scholars would be noteworthy. But not a word in the Daily News.

The following letter to the editor appeared in today’s Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

Christian school has strong influence in community

Recently an article was written about my experience donating a kidney (Daily News, Dec. 12 & 13). I want to thank Holly Bowen for the fine job she did and the magnanimity of the Daily News in conveying the opportunity the Kidney Exchange Program offers to people waiting for a donor. As far as the impact that the article might have in stirring readers to consider kidney donation, I am very grateful.

This letter is connected to that article; not to what was written, but to what was not.

It surprised me that, after spending at least 30 percent of my interview time explaining the many reasons for my decision to move here to send my children to Logos School, not so much as one word was printed about the school.

As one might deduce from the article, my family and I are Christians.

We are Christians who presuppose the complete veracity of the Bible and all it contains, including what it says about the education of our children.

When one is considering a Christian school that shares those convictions, for many, that road leads to Logos School. In the growing world of "classical and Christian" schools, Logos has pioneered and is helping to hold the standard.

It surprises me that I would have to have to write a polemic letter to the editor in order to give Logos School their due kudos in the community in which they serve. It has, since the early 1980s, consistently produced not only academically astute graduates, but graduates who extol biblical virtue and who ultimately become productive members of society.

Clint Hughes, Moscow 

The Tucson Citizen has an excellent review of Richard Whitmire’s Why Boys Fail: Saving Our Sons from an Educational System that’s Leaving Them Behind.

“I reported (the AAUW) uncritcally and later realized it was boys, not girls, who were struggling. I saw it personally, in the extended family and neighborhood, and also in the national data,” said Whitmire, the father of two girls. “I have 10 nephews and nieces and you can draw a line right down the middle of them and the girls were all sailing through academically and the boys were struggling – they were disinterested in school. The girls clearly wanted to do well in school and the boys’ could care less.”

But why do the boys care less? Because, Whitmire argues, they experience failure as early as kindergarten and first grade due to an increased focus on literacy competence at younger ages than in the past. Whitmire did what good reporters do when wondering about data – he started digging. What he came up with is reported in detailed in his book, but here are a few of the basics offered via e-mail and a morning phone interview:

• In the late 70s, “standards-based education” got its start with a meeting of the states’ governors. At that meeting, they decided more students should be on a college track in high school and because college track work requires heavy doses of critical reading and writing, they pushed literacy skills that used to be taught in second grade down to kindergarten. Yes, kindergarten, according to literacy experts he interviewed. Problem with that: Boys do not do so well with early literacy.
• In the past, boys used to catch up. This is no longer the case, and part of that is due to what we pre-service teachers learn in about in classes: New learning builds on prior learning. If you didn’t master content in the prior year, you’re begin this year behind the starting blocks. Ironically, boys tend to be good test-takers, which may be one reason no one really notices how far behind they are until high school, when the college-prep work turns to reams of reading and writing – not multiple choice tests.
• Few notice the “gender gap” where boys are concerned because “the school accountability movement measures socio-economic and race data,” Whitmire said. “They think ‘race’ but never ask the question, ‘How come the African-American girls seem to be doing well, while the boys aren’t?” He said researchers are just beginning to discover that racial learning gaps are impossible to solve without taking into consideration gender learning gaps.
• The usual arguments that boys do poorly because they all have ADD or ADHD or are addicted to video games are specious. Those events are symptoms of the problem, not the cause, Whitmire says. “Too many boys fall behind early, see the girls excelling and conclude that school is for girls. They get fidgety and look for other outlets, such as video games, which get blamed for the problem. But the games, rap music, etc., are not the cause, they’re the escape.”
• Latino males may be most at risk, followed closely by African-American boys. White boys from blue-collar families aren’t far behind and far more boys from middle class families are floundering than people think. Sons from wealthy families, where literacy skills are present constantly, suffer little.

From Inside Higher Education:

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has selected 19 colleges and universities for its controversial probe of whether colleges are favoring male applicants in admissions decisions, and whether any such preference is appropriate. The commission, seeking to minimize costs, selected colleges close to Washington, but included a range of four-year institutions, including public and private, historically black and predominantly white, religious and secular, and institutions of varying degrees of admissions competitiveness. While commission members say that they are just investigating a relevant issue, some advocates for female athletes view the effort as a way to raise questions about Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

And a comment from Sphere:

Many private four-year colleges, probably into the hundreds, actively discriminate against female applicants in favor of males.

Why? Because over the past two decades, boys have lost their passion for schooling in general, including college, which explains why nearly 58 percent of bachelor's degrees and 62 percent of associate's degrees go to women.

Not all boys are slackers. The most elite colleges draw plenty of high-achieving males. But below that level, the male talent pool thins out, at least when measured by what colleges are looking for: students who got good grades taking ambitious courses.

As a result, the typical second- or third-tier private college looks at two stacks of applications. The female stack is a foot higher and brimming with perfectly written essays from applicants who had more extracurriculars than fit on the form, multiple AP classes in both the junior and senior years and A averages. The male stack is not just shorter, but the essays are lackluster, the extracurriculars thin ... well, you get the picture.

What's a college to do? Admit solely on merit, and your freshman class would tilt toward 60 percent female, or even beyond. That makes for a lot of unhappy females who once on campus detest a social scene where the men act like peacocks because their relative shortage allows them to get away with it.

Sigh…

It’s the lack of merit that’s causing the educational problems we have across the board today.

Notable:

20% of high school dropouts nationwide tested in the gifted range.

Nearly 90% of those students were earning passing grades when they left school.

—Las Vegas Sun: Jump starting a proposed academy for the county’s top students

Why? Because they are bored to tears with the government schools’ “lower the bar” mentality.

From US News & World Report.

As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News. Holly Bowen did an excellent job on this article.

Idaho school districts and charter schools have a tough decision to make in the coming weeks if they hope to Race for the Top and receive a chunk of more than $4 billion of federal funds.

It's up to each district to decide whether it will join the state in applying for the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act-funded grant, but the decision must be made by Jan. 12 so the state can submit its final application to the U.S. Department of Education on Jan. 15.

Here comes the rub.

One of the most-discussed topics at the Lewiston meeting was a portion of Idaho's grant application that will propose an incentive-pay pilot program for educators.

Jason Hancock, deputy chief of staff for the Department of Education, said the program will have state requirements in addition to ones developed by each participating school district.

Generally speaking, all school-based staff, both teachers and non-teachers, would receive a lump-sum bonus for certain school- or group-wide achievements, rather than for the test scores of individual classes like in merit pay situations. The average teacher would receive a $1,500 bonus.

Hancock said the incentive-pay program would only last for the four years of the grant and would be meant to encourage creative ideas from non-administrative school staff.

Bruce Bradberry, superintendent of the Troy School District, said he is glad the incentive program is not based on individual teacher merit, but he expressed concerns that teachers would leave less-desirable schools for ones that receive more incentive pay.

And here is the difference between a capitalist and a collectivist approach to bettering education.

Socialists learned long ago that group incentives do not work. Yet we keep trying to apply socialist incentives to government schools. Then we wonder why they continue to devolve.

You want to keep good teachers and make the mediocre teachers even better? Give them merit pay. That’s a win-win for everyone.

Sue Shellenbarger over at the Wall Street Journal weighs in on the cost-benefits of a typical college diploma.

It’s nothing that you haven’t heard here before. But it’s summarized nicely in one place; and it’s being heard by the general public — maybe for the first time.

The question is: how much is that high-cost, low-quality VoTech university degree really worth? Do you really need that B.S. in welding degree?

As millions of students labor over college applications this month, they and their parents are pondering just how big a tuition bill they want to pay.

Students are increasingly skeptical about the value of a college degree; the proportion who are willing to borrow money for college if necessary has fallen to 53% from 67% in the past year, based on a survey of 800 college students by Sallie Mae, Reston, Va.

Parents are thinking harder, too, about why they sign big tuition checks, based on a steady stream of email I have received since writing about the college cost-to-value equation a few months ago.

Shellenbarger discusses some of the issues/myths floating around:

1. A path to a better-paying job
2. Preparing for a rich, well-rounded life
3. Finding work you love
4. Gaining an influential network

In the old days, academics made a strong distinction between training and education.

Those lines are blurred today. Most of what passes as “education” at the universities any more is nothing more than high-priced technical training. If you want a real education (where you are taught to think), you need to look somewhere that doesn’t have a pragmatic approach (“after you graduate, you’ll earth $$$$ and you’ll get this job”, etc).

From MNN:

Experts have found that bullying links a rash of suicides by young teens in the United States.   

A 2007 report entitled "Health Behavior in School-Aged Children" said, "Being bullied is also associated with poor academic achievement, low self-esteem, problems making friends, loneliness and higher levels of substance use." The report also said that 11 percent of U.S. students reported being the victims of bullies at least twice in the last two months.

Do the numbers mean that bullying could be considered a silent epidemic? What exactly is it? In today's world, it seems like bullying has become more insidious with the advent of the internet, text messaging and social networking sites.   

A fact-sheet on bullying sponsored by the Center for Disease Control reads that bullying occurs when "person or group repeatedly tries to harm someone who is weaker or more vulnerable."

Sounds like Social Darwinism to me.

Keep an eye open for this creep.

From the City of Moscow:

The Moscow Police Department is asking for anyone’s help in locating a possible suspect in an attempted child enticement incident.

 

On 12-15-09 at approximately 3:45 pm, a 12 year old male was approached by an adult male near the corner of East 6^th Street and Mountain View Road.  The suspect told the boy to get into his vehicle three times.  On the third request the male grabbed the upper back of the boy’s coat.  The boy was able to twist out of the males grasp and run away.  The male got into a truck and followed the boy north on Mountain View Road to F. Street, then turned and drove west on F. Street. 

 

The suspect is described as a white male, mid 30’s, 5-6, thin build, mustache, with reddish hair.  The suspect was driving a newer brown Dodge Ram truck with dirt on the sides.

 

The victim stated many cars passed him on Mountain View Road as he was running on the east side walk of Mountain View Road from 6^th Street of F. Street.

 

If anyone witnessed the incident or has any information, please contact the Moscow Police Department at 883-7051.  If you wish to remain anonymous please call the tip line at 882- 3898. 

 

From the Associated Press:

Faculty representatives at Idaho's public universities say proposed changes to state Board of Education policies would give presidents of the institutions broad power to make salary cuts during tough times.

Faculty say the revisions would allow university presidents to make permanent salary reductions - regardless of contracts with tenured and non-tenured professors and some staff members.

The proposed revisions, faculty say, would also allow the university presidents facing financial challenges to temporarily reduce wages through furloughs.

Board officials say the revisions aim to give presidents at the University of Idaho, Idaho State University, Boise State University and Lewis-Clark State College more authority and flexibility to make budget cuts amid state shortfalls.

Complete this sentence: “if you cannot afford to buy a house…”

HT: Ashley L.

What’s interesting to me is the difference between the way that Pullman behaves when this happens and the way Moscow behaves.

As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Pullman School District Superintendent Paul Sturm said the district faces a budget reduction of nearly $1 million under Gov. Chris Gregoire's budget-balancing proposal released Wednesday.

The proposed cuts could result in job losses, but Sturm said it's important that people stay calm.

"I think it's important that we don't panic, that we work through the process because this is just a starting point," he said.

Gregoire's proposed cuts would close the state's $2.6 billion shortfall, which comes on top of the $9 billion budget deficit legislators faced last year.

The proposed cuts to K-12 include suspending school levy equalization, which is used by the state to create fairness between school districts in property-rich areas and schools in areas where property assessments are lower. The budget proposal also calls for the suspension of the state-subsidized all-day kindergarten and reduced funding for K-4 enhancement, which is used to reduce class sizes in lower grades.

Gregoire is expected to release a revised budget in early January.

As I’ve said before, you cannot balance the budget without touching the largest line-item in a budget.

As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Washington State University faces an additional $13.55 million budget cut under the budget-balancing proposal suggested by Gov. Chris Gregoire on Wednesday.

The proposed cut would come on top of the $54 million reduction in state appropriations WSU has already absorbed this budget cycle.

"It's another blow," WSU Provost and Executive Vice President Warwick Bayly said. "It's an indication of how tough the economic times are."

Washington faces a projected budget deficit of $2.6 billion. The cuts in Gregoire's budget-balancing proposal would close the gaps.

Bayly said he routinely meets with college deans every Monday, and when they meet next week they will start discussing issues surrounding the budget. 

From the Magic Valley Twin Falls Times-News:

Start saving your allowance for college.

The Idaho State Board of Education met for about seven hours Thursday at Canyon Ridge High School in Twin Falls and, among other matters, passed a one-year waiver of the board’s policy of restricting state colleges and universities from proposing fee and tuition increases above 10 percent without prior board approval.

“They (higher-education institutions) can at least bring proposals to the board now, but the board is very clear that the waiver doesn’t mean they’ll automatically sign off on anything,” said Mark Browning, board spokesman.

Colleges and universities, prior to the waiver, could propose any increases up to 10 percent, but now, at least into fiscal year 2011, they can ask for anything up to 100 percent — not that it’s likely.

“Nobody’s even put a number out there yet,” Browning said, adding that California institutions have raised tuition by as much as 30 percent. “An Idaho student is an Idaho taxpayer, and Idaho families don’t have bottomless pockets.”

Colleges and universities are starting their budgetary processes for the next fiscal year, beginning July 1. The state board establishes tuition rates in its April 5 meeting.

According to the December 2009 edition of Project on Student Debt, college debt among 2008 college grads jumped 25% over those graduating four years before.

According to the report, the new debt load is $23,200 for each graduate. This is $4,550 more than the average debt from 2004.

They do have state-by-state data as well.

• Idaho:
• Average debt, $21,706.
• Proportion with Debt: 67%
• Washington:
• Average debt, $18,987.
• Proportion with Debt: 58%
• Oregon:
• Average debt, $21,029.
• Proportion with Debt: 61%

Here’s the big question: is there sufficient payoff for college for kids to incur that kind of debt?

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

Washington State University faces an additional $13.55 million budget under the budget-balancing proposal suggested by Gov. Chris Gregoire on Wednesday.

The proposed cut would come on top of the $54 million reduction in state appropriations WSU has already absorbed this budget cycle.

The good thing about recessions/depressions is that it gets businesses (and families) to reexamine their core values and missions and to prioritize those.

One has to wonder what the real core mission of our two Land Grant Universities are given the kinds of degrees/programs/classes that are offered.

Clearly, some school boards have money to burn.

The Denver Public School system is paying for a marriage counselor to help school board members with their marital difficulties.

All of this will happen at taxpayer expense at the 5–star luxury Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs.

The National Education Association spent a total of $56.3 million in campaign contributions, far exceeding the campaign contributions made by any other organization in America.

What are they buying with their contributions?

Listen to the Education Next podcast.

Logos took 4^th place in the Northwest “Math is Cool” Competition in Moses Lake, Washington, for Division 2 schools.

They’ve had a strong team this year with 4 national merit finalists on the team.