Pell Grant in danger

Supporters sign petition

            Students, educators and past recipients have made their voices heard in the last week regarding Congress’s discussion on cutting federal Pell Grant funding to lower the national debt.

            According to Maureen Downey’s “Get Schooled” blog, which appears in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Pell Grants are estimated to cost the U.S. $40 billion in 2012. She reported that the budget passed by the House of Representatives would prevent 1.5 million more students from being eligible for the financial aid.

            “Advocates counter that Pell Grants are already failing to keep up with actual college costs,” Downey said. “Thirty years ago, the maximum Pell award covered about three-fourths of the college costs.” She added that the current annual cap is $5,550.

            Some Republicans in favor of cutting Pell Grant have equated the program to welfare, including U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Montana. Downey reported that during an April radio interview with Blog Talk Radio, Rehberg said the program was becoming welfare of the 21^st century.

“…You can go to school, collect your Pell Grants, get food stamps, low-income energy assistance, section 8 housing, and all of a sudden we find ourselves subsidizing people that don’t have to graduate from college. And there ought to be some kind of commitment and endgame,” he said to Blog Talk Radio.

It was later reported y KECI 13 that Rehberg said his statement was taken out of context. He said the federal government would not be able to keep up with the demand of the program, just like it couldn't keep up with the welfare system.

But not all of Congress feels the same way about Pell Grant.  U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Maryland, encouraged people on Twitter to voice their opinions on the matter. “I say let’s keep Pell Grants-Republicans say slash Pell Grants to protect tax breaks for the pampered & prosperous. Start tweeting on that!” she tweeted on July 19.

Educators and other Pell supporters retweeted the same message last week, including Michelle Rhee, CEO/Founder of StudentsFirst.org. “10 million hard-working college students rely on #Pell grants to afford college. Protect their funding and futures,” she tweeted on July 22.

Cathy Crea, a professor in St. Paul, Minn., tweeted “Most of my students are #Pell Grant recipients and would be unable to attend college without that federal money.”

While many supporters are passionate about the program because they were recipients or know someone who was, Rich Williams and Justin Draeger make a more rational point in a USA Today editorial. “Deficit reduction, like education policy, should focus on ensuring a stable and sustainable economy,” Williams and Draeger wrote. “If that is the goal, cutting funding to higher education and job training programs is the wrong approach.”

            The editorial argues that higher education is a good investment for a nation because it leads to greater wealth among individuals and more job options. “Higher-earning college graduates also pay more in taxes, are less likely to end up in prison or on welfare    and, according to 2010 Department of Labor Statistics analyses, are more likely to give back to their community through volunteering.”

            More than 17,000 people had signed a petition as of July 23 on Change.org opposing the potential cuts to Pell Grant. For more information on Pell Grant and other education issues follow Bohemian Jean’s education list on Twitter.

The list includes Education Week reporter Michele McNeil, “Get Schooled” blogger Maureen Downey, StudentsFrist.org founder Michelle Rhee and education organizations College Success, Campus Progress, American Association of State Colleges and Universities and U.S. News Education.

Obama seeks $50 billion for education

More spending for college prep and special ed

            States may be cutting education budgets to make up for revenue shortfalls, but President Barack Obama requested more money for the U.S. Department of Education.

            Obama requested $50.7 billion in discretionary appropriations for the department of education. According to the department’s website, the request was $4.5 billion more than the 2010 appropriated budget.

            A 2011 budget summary, illustrated in this graph, shows that special education grants and the College and Career Ready Students program are the president’s highest priorities and have been since he took office.

About $14.5 million is budgeted for College Ready programs and $12.5 million is budgeted for special education grants. Both budgets have stayed relatively the same since 2009.

            Obama’s budget request did include a $3 billion increase in K-12 education programs and $1.35 billion to expand his Race to the Top state initiatives. The budget reaffirms Obama’s goal of recruiting and retaining effective teachers by funding $950 billion worth of competitive grants to school districts that build comprehensive curriculum.

            Obama also asked for a significant increase to the School Turnaround Grant funding. In 2009 and 2010, $546 million was budgeted for School Turnaround, but $900 million is budgeted for 2011. Tony Romm with The Hill reported that the grants were aimed at improving the graduation rates and academic achievements.

            “However, that money is conditional on low-performing schools adopting drastic reforms in the coming year — measures that include firing staffs, establishing charter systems or shuttering their facilities indefinitely.” Romms wrote.

Charter controversy continues

Charter controversy continues       

Education officials in Georgia are still debating the pros and cons of charter schools over traditional education system models.

            The issue gained more national attention in May when the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that the 2007 law that created the Georgia Charter Schools Commission was unconstitutional. The court stated the commission unlawfully granted the state authority to approve and fund charter schools over the objection of local school boards.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that the ruling affected 16,500 students by voiding the operating agreements with 16 charter schools. Tony Roberts, president of the Georgia Charter Schools Association, told the AJC that the court’s decision was a travesty.

“The majority of the Georgia Supreme Court has just found 16,000 innocent children in Georgia guilty of choosing a better education,” Roberts said. “And even worse, the justices have sentenced them, in many cases, to failing or inadequate schools."

            According to a NewsMax article, former President Bill Clinton has been a long-time supporter of charter schools, and the number of charter schools increased by 2,000 during his presidency. There are currently 113 charter schools in Georgia.

Clinton was the keynote speaker June 21 during the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools conference in Atlanta. He said government influence on education needed to be limited because the public no longer had trust in the government.

“People have given up on us because it looks like a food fight most of the time,” he said during his speech. “This is not about ideology. It is not about theology. It is about what we can do to give our kids a brighter tomorrow by putting our country back in the futures business.”

The U.S. Department of Education released an evaluation report in 2010 on the impacts of charter schools. The study evaluated 36 charter schools in 15 states from 2004-2006. The analysis found that charter schools serving more low-income or low-achieving students had statistically improved math test scores. But charter schools serving more students with higher income or higher achievement had statistically negative effects on math test scores.

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools website states that charter schools close the achievement gap, offer students smaller class sizes and provide better opportunities for students who live in underserved communities. WSB Atlanta gives a local charter school a closer look in this video.

            “The recent ruling by the Supreme Court is unfortunate because it makes it more difficult for these high-performing schools to reach families, but it won't stop Georgia parents from demanding more high-quality public charter school options,” said Peter C. Groff, president and CEO of NAPCS, in a press release.

            While the U.S. Department of Education study found that charter schools did not have a statistically significant impact on student achievement, it did find that charter schools positively affected parent and student satisfaction with school.

In response to the Georgia Supreme Court ruling, the Georgia State Board of Education granted 11 of the 16 affected schools State-Chartered Special School status. The remaining commission schools will come before the board for the new status at a later time.

“Today’s action by the State Board ensures that the students affected by the recent Supreme Court decision will still get to go to the school they originally chose,” State Superintendent John Barge stated in a press release.

The Georgia Department of Education defines a charter school as a public school that operates under a contract approved by the local board of education. The contract allows the school to request waivers from state requirements giving it more flexibility in exchange for greater accountability with performance objectives.

But each state feels differently about the concept of what a charter school should be. The Center for Education Reform conducted a survey in 2008 on adults and their attitudes toward charter schools.

State-by-State Highlights California: Seventy-one percent of respondents (vs. 69 percent nationally) preferred having choices of schools other than the one to which a child is assigned based on where the child lives. Connecticut: Twenty-six percent of respondents (vs. 20 percent nationally) correctly identified charter schools as "public" schools when asked to pick from a list that also included private, religious or parochial, and magnet schools. Georgia: Sixty-two percent of respondents (vs. 59 percent nationally) supported the concept of "considering student performance when deciding how to compensate teachers" and agreed with the idea that "a teacher whose students actually perform well would receive a higher salary and additional financial rewards." Missouri: Seventy-eight percent of respondents said they would be very or somewhat likely to move their child out of a school if the child felt unsafe. New Jersey: The words "Accountability" and "Innovation" resonated most with respondents being viewed favorably by 88 percent and 82 percent of respondents respectively. New York: Seventy-one percent of respondents supported "allowing communities to create new public schools - called charter schools - that would be held accountable for student results and would be required to meet the same academic standards/testing requirements as other public schools but not cost taxpayers additional money." Wyoming: Fifty-nine percent of those surveyed feel that more than one group (beyond local school boards) should have the authority to create charter schools.

SOURCE: The Center for Education Reform