(Bakersfield.com) Kern High School District trustees on Wednesday unanimously shot down a petition for a proposed charter school named after our nation’s president.

All five board members rejected the idea of Barack H. Obama Leadership Academy based on district input that it did not meet California Education Code standards for the establishment of a charter school.

During a special board meeting, trustees commented that the petition was “inherently weak,” “fiscally irresponsible,” “ill conceived,” “not feasible” and “not thought through.” District staff outlined its findings and analysis in a 15-page report.

Trustee Chad Vegas said he wasn’t concerned with the name of the school, and would reject it even if it were named after Jesus Christ.

“The problem is the petition itself is inherently weak,” said Vegas, who also said he is in favor of charter schools. “They don’t provide anything that seems necessary to running an academy.”

The school aims to teach disadvantaged, at-risk teenagers and at the same time provide mental health services and substance abuse treatment, according to the petition. Representatives for the school were not in attendance Wednesday.

Petitioner Edna Miller said they were never informed of a hearing. She first learned about it and the petition’s denial through a reporter’s phone call. She said she was surprised to hear about the 15-page report.

“A lot of work went into preparing the petition,” Miller said. “To indicate that it’s not up to par is absurd. Any reasonable person that has any form of intelligence can see that it was put together professionally.”

Petitioners Miller and David McGuire said Bakersfield would benefit from the academy, which would cater to those in danger of dropping out. The school would be tuition-free.

District staff said charter officials didn’t ask to work with the district, and no one from the charter has visited campuses or inquired about other similar programs the district has in place. The district’s current charter school, Kern Workforce 2000 Academy, targets at-risk students.

This isn’t the first time the academy’s petition has been denied. Orange Unified School District trustees earlier this month said the petition contained numerous errors, “presented an unsound educational program” and was “poorly prepared, inconsistent and even incomprehensible,” according to The Orange County Register.

Kern High’s report essentially states the same. It also points out that among the three charter board members, two are related to the petitioners — one of those is a high school student.

The 3-inch petition turned into KHSD also incorrectly identified the district as “Kern County Unified School District,” Escondido Union High School District, which is in San Diego County, and other districts.

Organizers decided to name the proposed school after Obama because he preached change, and the academy would bring about change in students’ lives, Miller said.

Two schools in California have been named after Obama. No high school in KHSD is named after a person, and there is a policy for naming schools after individuals. Only individuals deceased for at least two years or a former district trustee or employee are eligible.

A few people in attendance spoke during the hearing.

Gail Bunters said she was opposed to naming a school after Obama, calling him “anti-American.”

Jan Casteel-Fleury, who is with Project 180 gang-prevention program, said the charter school’s intent to address high-risk youth was a good one.

Charter schools are usually reviewed and sponsored by local school districts. If denied, appeals can be made to the county and state boards of education.

Several trustees said they were in favor of charter schools and programs that address high school drop out rates. But the plan for an Obama academy was not feasible, they said.

To view a copy of the district’s analysis on the Obama academy, go to The Californian’s education blog, “The Grade,” at www.bakersfield.com/blogs.

Rate my professors for bias.

Here is the kind of middle of the road thinking that you can find on University of California Television.

(The Washington Post) Soon after Arne Duncan left his job as schools chief here to become one of the most powerful U.S. education secretaries ever, his former students sat for federal achievement tests. This month, the mathematics report card was delivered: Chicago trailed several cities in performance and progress made over six years.

Miami, Houston and New York had higher scores than Chicago on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Boston, San Diego and Atlanta had bigger gains. Even fourth-graders in the much-maligned D.C. schools improved nearly twice as much since 2003.

Continue reading "Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s legacy as Chicago schools chief questioned" »

Professor Thomas Sugrue of the University of Pennsylvania really seems to like the new deal.  He only wishes that communities never had the chance to spend those federal dollars.  He seems to like complete control from the top.  The following is extracted from thenation.com and albany.edu:

• I don’t believe that historians should become propagandists. (read below and see the irony in this remark)

Continue reading "What Professor Thomas Sugrue of UPenn is telling students." »

(Bennington Banner) Pearson Higher Education recently published “Strategies and Lessons for Culturally Responsive Teaching: A Primer for K-12 Teachers” by Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Education Professor Roselle K. Chartock.

The textbook, which draws on Dr. Chartock’s 43 years of experience as a high school teacher and college professor, helps educators talk to young people about diversity, social justice, and building community.

Continue reading "New textbook for teachers promotes liberal ideology" »

“As Horowitz has often said, it doesn’t really matter whether any one specific allegation about liberal bias on campus is true, because we know that something like it is true somewhere or other. And that’s what the hard-core culture warriors of the right believe about universities; there’s nothing you can do, no study you can cite, no reality-based demonstration you can perform to persuade them otherwise.”

(The Talking Dog) Michael Berube writes the very popular eponymous blog of that name, teaches English (holding a chair as Paterno Family Professor of Literature at the Pennsylvania State University), is the author of “What’s Liberal About the Liberal Arts?” , a discussion of so-called liberal academic bias that effectively dismembers the charges of the right-wing of a bias reflected in America’s classrooms, and a plethora of other books and other works appearing in publications such as The Nation and The New Yorker. On September 27, 2006, I had the privilege of interviewing Professor Berube by telephone; Professor Berube also significantly expounded upon on his answers by e-mail. What follows are my interview notes as extensively supplemented by Professor Berube’s e-mail answers (or perhaps, vice versa).

The Talking Dog: You know, of course, that the first question is invariably “Where were you on 9-11″?

Continue reading "Professor Michael Berube tells us why liberal bias doesn’t exist on campus" »

(Startribune) If grades make you a long shot for college, you’re much more likely to get a break if you can play ball.

An Associated Press review of admissions data submitted to the NCAA by most of the 120 schools in college football’s top tier shows that athletes enjoy strikingly better odds of having admission requirements bent on their behalf.

The notion that college athletes’ talents give them a leg up in the admissions game isn’t a surprise. But in what NCAA officials called the most extensive review to date, the AP found the practice is widespread and can be found in every major conference.

The review identified at least 27 schools where athletes were at least 10 times more likely to benefit from special admission programs than students in the general population.

Continue reading "Athletes given special admission breaks" »

(theadvocate) Don Belton, an assistant professor of English at Indiana University and one of the leading African-American voices in academia, was found stabbed to death in his Bloomington, Ind., home Monday, the Associated Press reports. Twenty-five-year-old Michael J. Griffin has admitted to the stabbing, police say.

Griffin reportedly said he stabbed the 53-year-old Belton because the professor sexually assaulted him on Christmas Day and then showed no remorse, according to court papers. Griffin said he went to Belton’s home on Sunday to confront him about the assault and that an argument and scuffle ensued. According to the probably cause affidavit, Griffin then stabbed Belton with a 10-inch military style knife after Belton failed to “show or express any type of feeling that what had taken place was a mistake.” Griffin is being held in county jail and is expected in court for an initial hearing on Wednesday.

Continue reading "Professor killed by student who says he was victim of sexual assault" »

“She has written critically about legal opinions under Bush that addressed the war in Iraq, interrogation methods, a military tribunal system denying certain rights to detainees captured in the war on terrorism and Bush’s use of presidential signing statements to ignore provisions of new law.”

(Indystar.com) The nomination of the Indiana University professor tapped by President Barack Obama to become a top legal adviser has effectively been tabled by Congress.

The Bloomington Herald-Times reported that Dawn Johnsen is one of six nominees who failed to receive a vote before the Senate recessed this month. Without a vote or action to carry over the nomination to the next session, it is up to the White House to decide whether to renominate the candidates or consider some other action.

The president has made no statement about his intentions on the issue.
The IU law professor was an ardent critic of the Department of Justice during the two terms of President George W. Bush. She joined IU in 1998 after spending five years at the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, including two years as its acting assistant attorney general.

Continue reading "Bush bashing IU Professor’s nomination on hold" »

Let’s see what Professor of Political Science and holder of the Avice Saint Chair of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley Paul Pierson has to say to students at UC Berkley.

Here are some highlights from an interview regarding Pierson’s book Off Center: The Republican Revolution and the Erosion of American Democracy extracted from globetrotter.berkley.edu.

• “I’m not going to pretend that I would be ecstatic about a government that was pursuing conservative policies”

Continue reading "What U.C. Berkely Political Science Chair Paul Pierson is tellings students" »