Education: September 2009 Archives

In a new media world, we are often evaluating the role "old" media has to play in communication. And the discussion is prompted by some important questions: how do we create dialogue? with who and where? using what tools?

While I'm very excited about the possibilities new technology has to offer (texting, blogs, iPods), I have a special appreciation for "old" formulas that work like Radio Bolsa's "Youth and Education" show in Orange County.

Every Wednesday night at 7pm, the hosts of Youth and Education, a program aimed at Vietnamese immigrant parents looking for help in guiding their kids through the US education system, answer questions and talk about issues ranging from financial aid to online bullying.

From the LA Times article:

The show reaches out to parents like John Nguyen, 48, who immigrated to the U.S. in his 30s and is now raising two sons who go to Ethan Allen Elementary School in Garden Grove. Nguyen, his wife and mother-in-law listen to the radio show every week.

"The show brings up topics that I never thought of before," said Nguyen, who owns a graphic design business. "I never went to high school or middle school here, like a lot of Vietnamese parents. That's why there are a lot of things we don't know."

Nguyen said he had learned about after-school programs, programs for gifted students and how to prepare students to transfer to other schools. Nguyen, a PTA member, has also been a guest on the show, encouraging Vietnamese parents to volunteer at schools.

by Jonathan Yee, Applied Research Center

Today, September 24th, a faculty walkout is taking place at state universities across California, to coincide with the beginning of session.

The purpose of the walkout has several points:

• Confronting the unclear circumstances that are leading to fee increases and a significant reduction in classes - this includes 108,000 faculty receiving a 4-10% pay cut and a 9.3% fee increase for students. This is preceding another proposed 15% fee increase which would bring tuition to over 10,000 a year - the first time ever. At Berkeley, at least 300 employees have already been laid off, and the number of classes has been decreased by 8-10%. It will now require an extra semester for an undergraduates to receive a degree.

• Demanding a more accountable and transparent UC Administration. The UC budget has not been made public and a democratic accounting of the budget cannot take place. The process by which the cuts have taken place has been behind closed doors, without any public discretion.

• Confronting the historical legacy of legislation that has created the current budget crisis, and confronting the opaque and unaccountable UC system.

Headlines about declining funds for the California public school system have been culminating for the last 30 years, in which taxes for the rich have been decreased while state social services have been cut.

The faculty is calling for stronger educational infrastructure through administrative support, and through more financial support by means of the state. They understand what is at stake for the future of education, and that it is not looking good.

For more information about the walkout, check out UCFacultyWalkout.com (and on Facebook) and GradStudentStoppage.com.

The equation seems simple.

working parents – child care center = parent can't work

bad economy + parent not working = even worse economy

But for DC Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, this doesn't seem to make sense.

Fenty's 2010 budget eliminated funding for the DC Department of Parks and Recreation's Early Childhood and Out of School Time programs in Wards 6, 7 and 8, some of the poorest neighborhoods in the city. Instead, he's pushing for privatization of child care in DC.

Since the mayor has been in office, roughly $22 million has been cut from the child care budget and funneled towards more important things like a new dog park. Now, he's saying there's absolutely no room in the budget for federally funded child care centers that serve low-income parents. And for these parents, many of whom are just getting off of public assistance and getting back to work, this is what they'd call an E-M-E-R-G-E-N-C-Y.

It was during my first high school AP history class that I really came up against the seemingly overwhelming barriers to higher education. As the year went along, more and more students of color dropped out of the class without a wince or reaction from our teacher. By the end of the year, I was one of two Latinos in the class and the lone Chicana who thought it wasn't right our high school textbook offered only a paragraph on anything close to Chicano history.

A recent report from the National Women's Law Center and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) shows that I wasn't alone in noticing this. The study, "Listening to Latinas: Barriers to High School Graduation" reports that 98 percent of Latinas want to graduate, but 41 percent end up not completing high school in four years or drop out all together. With Latinas being the fastest growing population in the United states, economists and educators alike are calling attention to the high rates of Latina drop outs.

But as some bloggers and commentators have been focused on what this means for the nation and the economy, the report seems more interested in showing what the country hasn't been doing for young Latinas.

Through the testimonies of the interviewees, the report shows the seemingly impossible barriers that keep young Latinas from getting through high school let alone that crazy lucha we call higher education.

The cartoon's even more instructive when you take out the speech bubbles.

I've said this more in the last year than I'd care to recall, but this is a real thing that is happening in the universe that we live in.

Sarah Posner at Tapped sees a conservative Christian angle that makes some sense (term used loosely). This is, of course, part of the current campaign being waged to keep 'diversity' out of our schools.

My question is, how do these parents have the resources to pull their kid from socialist public school for an entire day, but not enough to come TO the school and sit through the two-minute televised Obama appearance WITH their kid?