"New" Laptops for Teachers

Florida Governor Jeb Bush's proposal to give a laptop to every teacher in Florida is big news this week.

All of Florida's nearly 164,000 public school teachers would receive laptop computers under a $237 million plan to recruit and retain educators, which Gov. Jeb Bush unveiled Monday at North Miami Middle School.

This story is shocking for what it tells us about the state of public education in America. With average per-pupil spending hovering around $10,000, a classroom of twenty students generates approximately $200,000 for a school district. A laptop computer for a teacher should be a standard expense of any public school. It is ridiculous that laptops are "extra" and goes to the inefficiency of the entire system. At the California charter school where I serve as a board member, laptops for our teachers are just part of the regular cost of educating children.

No wonder their is a labor shortage in education. Professionals want to be provided with the tools to do their job. School districts already receive plenty of money to afford a laptop for every teacher.

No Way Out: Community Edition

Its not always just individual families that want to escape a low-performing school district. The Los Angeles Times reports on an entire community desperate to escape. Of course their home district is holding them and their money hostage.

The move also would have meant that Ladera residents no longer would help pay off Inglewood school bonds — although they would have been required to chip in for those in the Culver City district.

Unless Inglewood got enough new homes or other development to make up the difference, Inglewood taxpayers would have had to shoulder more of the burden of paying off the bonds.
Several committee members nonetheless expressed sympathy for the Ladera Heights residents, who said they have tried for years to work with Inglewood to improve the schools before giving up and seeking a better situation for their children.

"I appreciate very much what the Ladera Heights people are trying to achieve," committee member Lloyd de Llamas said. But, he said, he could not vote for a transfer that would shift so much of the property tax base from one district to another.

"I hate to think that education has come down to just being about money," said committee member Frank Bostrom, one of the two "no" votes against rejecting the proposal.

People in Ladera Heights, a largely residential community of about 8,000 people, say they have long been unhappy with the Inglewood schools, citing low test scores and a rate of high turnover in district leadership.

Many send their children to private schools or get permits to let them attend campuses in other districts. According to school district records, fewer than 350 students from Ladera Heights attend Inglewood schools.

Amazon Rocks: Public School Edition

A great New York Daily News investigation into the New York City Department of Education book purchasing practices.

The bottom line: Amazon and Barnes and Noble are much cheaper!

Despite massive buying power that could muscle big discounts, the city's Department of Education pays more for some books than everyday online bargain-hunters, a Daily News investigation found.

An analysis of 25 popular children's books and literary novels found that principals and teachers who buy through the department's Fastrack purchasing system spend an average of $1.76 more per tome than shoppers who choose the lowest-priced book on Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble's Web site.

With 1.1 million students, city schools could negotiate rock-bottom prices for nearly anything they need to buy, yet a paperback copy of the Dickens classic "David Copperfield" costs them at least $5.94 - $3.30 more than the price on Amazon.com.

A school that wants "The Complete Chronicles of Narnia" in hardcover would have to spend an extra $19.50 to buy the collection at the school's $51 price, instead of Amazon's $31.50.

Lisa Guest of Walter Williams On The Limbaugh Show

This is the trusty husband, guest posting...... and braggin' on the Old Lady.

Walter Williams will be sitting in for Rush Limbaugh on Friday January 20, 2006 and barring some off-the-wall Murphyism, Lisa will join him during the 1:00 pm (EST) hour (10:00 am PST). I'm betting the Meathead Initiative will come up, but the they'll be discussing education generally as well as education choice, particularly in view of the Florida Supers, who recently went on record in finding educational choice to be unconstitutional by saying that....

....private schools aren't uniform when compared with each other or (with) the public system

Now, there's a revelation. In the words of Huey Lewis, Sometimes Bad Is Bad, and, apparently so long as it's uniformly bad, like say, Compton or Oakland, then it's okay. They certainly didn't mean districts like ours where some schools are high performing and some are, well, not uniform. Your Results May Vary. Wait. If public schools aren't actually uniform, then Fla's public schools are, by definition, unconstitutional. Gladys! Get Fla on the line.

Ron Meyer, lead attorney for the coalition that included the teachers union, the PTA, League of Women Voters, & the NAACP that challenged the voucher program had this to say.

It (the victory) means that Florida's taxpayers will not be forced to pay for schools which are unaccountable. The public schools of Florida will welcome the return of these voucher students at the end of the school year.

Not mentioned is this: The 700 affected students are 95% minority and will be welcomed back to the absolute dregs of the most abysmal schools in Florida. Those students vouchered out of the public school system in the first place because the program was designed to get kids out of the worst of Florida's failing schools.

On that note, anybody see John Stossel's Stupid In America: How We Cheat Our Kids Friday night? A calculated effort to induce anger and tears to be sure, but it worked.

Institute for Justice represented the families and has the details of the whole sordid affair here.

This was originally posted at The Wine Commonsewer

TWC