Keystone Progress Blog: NEA

Showing posts with label NEA. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

NEA TV ad urges Congress to pass American Jobs Act

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Ad draws attention to the consequences of Congressional inaction

WASHINGTON—The National Education Association today launched a multi-state television ad campaign urging Congress to pass the American Jobs Act. The legislation, if passed, will get more Americans working again, modernizing the nation’s aging schools and putting teachers and support staff back to work.

“The American Jobs Act is a win-win for the American people,” said NEA President Dennis Van Roekel. “Congress can choose to put students ahead of political gridlock by supporting a bill that puts Americans back to work, modernizes our schools, and puts educators in classrooms instead of on the unemployment lines.”

The 30-second ad is airing in select media markets in Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Texas and the District of Columbia. These are states that have been feeling the economic pinch caused by severe budget cuts and painful policy decisions.

Teachers, education support professionals, parents and others in local communities are rallying behind President Barack Obama’s bold proposal to get the economy moving in the right direction again. His proposal would put up to 280,000 educators back to work and modernize 35,000 of our nation’s aging public schools.

“The fact is that educators know firsthand the devastating impact the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression is having on our communities, our schools and students,” noted Van Roekel. “Children can’t learn if they’re hungry. They can’t learn if their family can’t afford to see a dentist or a doctor. They can’t learn if they’re anxious, nervous or have low self-esteem due to living in poverty. Unemployment isn’t just an economic issue – it’s an education issue.”

One such unemployed teacher from Florida visited Washington to urge her Congressional delegation to pass the American Jobs Act. Cherine Akbari, a history teacher from Northeast High School in Oakland Park, FL, was fired the last day of Teacher Appreciation Week and five days after she moved into her new house. The American Jobs Act would put people like Cherine back in the classroom with her students again. There are hundreds of thousands of unemployed educators like Cherine who are willing and eager to get back to schools and classrooms with help from Congress.

To view the 30-second ad, visit http://tinyurl.com/4x2thmt

Visit Education Votes to learn more about school budget cuts: www.educationvotes.nea.org

Thursday, January 27, 2011

New study finds NYC charter schools not underfunded compared with traditional public schools

Rutgers report dispels many myths about charters' funding and performance

Contact:
Bruce Baker: (732) 932-7496 ext. 8232 or bruce.baker@gse.rutgers.edu
Teri Battaglieri: (517) 203-2940 or greatlakescenter@greatlakescenter.org

EAST LANSING, Mich. (Jan. 27, 2011) — In a blow to conventional wisdom, New York City charter schools are not outperforming traditional public schools and are not inadequately funded, according to a new study out of Rutgers University.

New York City charter schools are often held up as an example of how charter schools are outperforming traditional public schools and doing it with less money, which in turn is used to justify increased public funding for charters. Such assumptions do not hold water, according to the study, "Adding Up the Spending: Fiscal Disparities and Philanthropy among New York City Charter Schools," authored by Rutgers education professor Bruce Baker and Rutgers doctoral student Richard Ferris.

The study was produced by the National Education Policy Center (NEPC), housed at the University of Colorado at Boulder School of Education, with funding from the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice.

The study shows that New York City charter schools are not underfunded compared with traditional public schools. One reason for this is because the city's charter schools serve a much smaller percentage of students who are very poor or still learning English. These populations require far more resources, and they must be accounted for when making comparisons between charters and non-charters, Baker and Ferris noted.

"The assumption that these charter schools should receive support equal to traditional public schools is incorrect, because they do not serve similar populations," Baker and Ferris wrote.

Baker and Ferris also found significant funding disparities among New York City charter schools. While some charters receive almost no private funding, the most endowed charter schools receive in excess of $10,000 more per-pupil compared with traditional schools.

The study also found that on average, charter schools are not outperforming traditional public schools. After controlling for population and environmental factors, there is no statistically significant difference between charters and non-charters in performance for grades 4, 6 and 7. Meanwhile, 5th-grade charter school students underperformed their peers enrolled in traditional public schools, according to the study.

Based on their research, Baker and Ferris recommend that public funding be more tightly linked to the needs to students attending all schools, whether they're traditional public schools or charter schools. The researchers also suggest policymakers conduct annual audits of school funding levels and perhaps consider sanctioning schools that fail to adequately serve students with greater needs.

To read Baker and Ferris' full report, go to: www.greatlakescenter.org.

The report is also available on the National Education Policy Center's website at http://nepc.colorado.edu.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

NEA Video Contest: "Got Tuition?"

Contact: Jennifer Lucas Phone: 703-302-8387

Debt-ridden students, parents, recent grads get national platform on costly tuition
NEA, Huffington Post launch first-ever “Got Tuition?” video contest

WASHINGTON – Millions of students and families facing skyrocketing tuition costs in a sour economy will soon be able to tell policymakers how to fix the problem. The National Education Association (NEA) and top news blog The Huffington Post launched today a first-ever, “Got Tuition?” national video contest to provide a high-visibility platform to push for solutions to high tuition costs.

The producer of the winning two-minute video will get the opportunity to blog on the front page of Huffington Post about college affordability and $1,000 in prize money. Videos will be judged by a panel that will include Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington and other Huffington Post contributors, who will select five finalists on which the public can vote.

“Every year NEA members see talented students whose potential is not realized because they can’t afford to go to college, and our elected officials are not recognizing just how serious an issue this is for families,” said Shilpa Reddy, a spokeswoman for the NEA. “With almost 200 small lenders suspending their student loan programs this year, this has become a serious national economic issue. We’re providing a platform to the people who are bearing the brunt of this problem.”

Recent polling shows that families are increasingly concerned with rising college tuition costs in difficult economic times. Over 75 percent of people say it is more difficult to pay for college now than it was 10 years ago, and over half of families with students in high school report cutting back on spending in order to afford college. The faltering economy is most frequently named as the reason people cannot keep up with tuition costs. To add insult to injury, credit agencies actually penalize families who shop around for the best rate on student loans by tarnishing their credit ratings.

The campaign will be promoted through innovative ads on the increasingly popular site, Facebook.com, in order to reach students, who are among those most affected by tuition costs.
Contestants should send their videos to gottuition08@gmail.com and must include their name, address, daytime phone number and email address. Videos must be no longer than two minutes and should tell the contestant’s story about tuition costs, resulting student debt and what policymakers should do to solve the problem. Judges will be looking for creativity, how well the message is conveyed and relevance to the theme of college affordability.

Videos that advocate for the election or defeat of a candidate for any federal, state, or local elected office are ineligible. For more information visit http://www.gottuition.org/.