Walk for Rural Health - June 1 Walk with us to Washington, DC to save rural hospitals in America PLZ RT

Good morning--our national partners are desperately searching for someone from the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas--ideally from Starr County, but ok if from other parts--to participate in a walk to protest the closure of rural hospitals. The details are below. Please contact Laura Guerra Cardus, MD of Texas Children's Defense Fund if you can help  (copying me please: weaverforthevalley@gmail.com     lguerracar@childrensdefense.org

North Carolina conservative Mayor Adam O’Neal is organizing a WALK from North Carolina to D.C. to bring attention to the need for states to expand coverage and/or find other ways to increase funds to rural hospitals.  It looks like south Texas' Starr County is on the rural hospital list and likely represents an area at risk for hospital closure.  Having a Texas representative from a rural areas on this walk would likely bring important media attention to the need for coverage expansion in Texas. 

Is there  anyone you can think of from Starr County who would be a good representative to join this walk?  We hear most  expenses will be paid by TORCH and we can help cover the rest, so that it would be a no cost to the participant.  While the walk is two weeks long – June 1-15 - the Texas group can do a relay with several different representatives joining for 3-4 days.

Because of the short timeline, they are looking to confirm a walker by this Sunday.  Please let me know if there is anyone you can think of.  If your organizations cover that region and are up for a walk, you would all also make great candidates.  Below you can find more details about the walk and pasted at the bottom is the letter from Mayor O’Neal. 

The details:

• The walk will be June 1-June 15, 273 miles in 2 weeks.

o   They began planning at the February 2015 National Rural Health forum, where it was estimated that 283 US hospitals face closure in 2015.  (apologies if my notes reversed any digits).

o   They also are speaking to the impact that “non-Medicaid Expansion” has in states that have not Closed the Gap, and calling on those states to come up with a plan to fill the funding gap for rural hospitals.

• It IS Ok if 2 or more walkers want to make it a “RELAY”:  i.e., not required that one person do the whole 2 weeks, but ideally coordinate so there is a Texas rep the whole time.
• There is a commitment from Texas to fund the $1950 costs of the motel rooms and bus transport for the full 2 weeks for a Texas walker. 

o   We would need to make sure the walkers can get to and from NC/DC and have food money.

• The 2014 walk by Mayor O’Neal after the Belhaven hospital got coverage from WSJ, WAPO, AP, McClatchy papers.

o   He did it after the first (but sadly not last) death in his community after the ER and hospital were closed. 

PLEASE forward this email to any lists or individuals you think might be interested.

LET ME KNOW if you want to be a walker! dunkelberg@cppp.org

Anne Dunkelberg ▪ Associate Director  ▪ Center for Public Policy Priorities ▪ 512.320.0222 ext. 102

 us Database: 4235/8701 - Release Date: 12/08/14

JOIN THE RALLY CRY FOR RURAL HOSPITALS

A MESSAGE FROM THE WALK LEADERS

WE NEED YOU ON "THE WALK NC TO DC"

Walk with us to Washington, DC to save rural hospitals in America.

Rural hospitals are facing the greatest challenge to their existence in the history of our country. In the next year, 283 rural hospitals face the uncertainty of possible closure. It is time to act. We are asking rural hospitals from all over the country to send a representative to our June 1st, 2015 walk from Belhaven, North Carolina to Washington DC to petition Congress to pass measures to ensure rural hospitals sustainability.

In July 2014, we saw the closure of our critical access hospital in Belhaven, North Carolina. After the closure, everyone seemed to think all hope was lost for our healthcare and the economic future in our town. With the assistance of Reverend William Barber, President of North Carolina  NAACP and Al McSurely, Civic Rights Attorney,  we began a walk to Washington, DC.  We received national media coverage on our walk and a White House sponsored meeting with key people in Washington to help us begin the process of reopening our hospital. This walk was solely responsible for keeping hope alive in our small town.

Now it is time for America to stand up and demand that Washington DC work on our rural hospital crisis. Our rural hospitals are just as important as any urban medical centers. We feed America and deserve to keep our current level of healthcare. When hospitals close, emergency rooms close and that means needless deaths -- our children, family members and neighbors. We have to stand up for ourselves and THE WALK will get Washington’s and the nation's attention.

THE WALK starts a national debate about the condition of rural hospitals today. Horrific damage is done to communities who lose a hospital. The potential closure in 2015 of 283 hospitals means 36,000 lost healthcare jobs, 50,000 community jobs lost, 10.6 billion in lost GDP in rural areas. Also, if you have just 10 needless deaths per closed hospital per year that means 2830 needless deaths of Americans each year. This would be equivalent to a 9/11 attack happening year after year.

Please watch the videos on this website and commit to doing something meaningful by signing up to join us on THE WALK.

This is an issue we all agree on regardless of party or politics. Let’s show Washington how we the people can cross party lines and work on this most important issue. Let’s set an example that Washington can follow now and in the future.  Reverend Barber and Mayor O'Neal have become symbols of the power that is generated when health care for poor people becomes a national moral issue.

Adam O'Neal, Mayor, Belhaven, NC

Dr. Charles Boyette, 2003 National Country Doctor of the Year

Bob Zellner, Civic Rights Activist

www.thewalknctodc.com

Scholar of Urban Riots: Baltimore ‘Is Not the End’ of Violent Protests The Chronicle of Higher Education | May 15, 2015 A11 By PETER SCHMIDT

Scholar of Urban Riots: Baltimore ‘Is Not the End’ of Violent Protests

The Chronicle of Higher Education | May 15, 2015 A11

By PETER SCHMIDT

Last month’s rioting in Baltimore came as little surprise to Ashley M. Howard, an assistant professor of history at Loyola University New Orleans.

As a doctoral candidate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Ms. Howard researched 1960s racial unrest in Cincinnati, Milwaukee, and Omaha for her 2012 dissertation, “Prairie Fires: Urban Rebellions as Black Working Class Politics in Three Midwestern Cities.” She is now working to expand it into a book that examines how race, class, and gender factor into whether people participate in urban uprisings. The Chronicle asked Ms. Howard for her take on what happened in Baltimore. Here is an edited and condensed version of the conversation.

Q. What do you see as the key differences between the recent civil unrest in Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore and the riots of the 1960s in terms of how and why people acted out and how society responded?

A. The biggest game changer of these most recent uprisings is the advent of social media. I think this can be a very powerful tool for participants to frame their grievances, to document what’s happening, and to really shift the narrative of what’s taking place. What used to be such an isolated feeling of abuse or marginalization has now become kind of a shared national experience of despondence.

With the 1960s, you would actually have local city governments enact media moratoriums, so that, especially in local markets, they would not disseminate information about the uprisings going on in their hometown. Local-newspaper coverage would have more on uprisings occurring in other cities than they would have in their own hometown. It kind of “othered” these events.

Now, with this discursive ability of social media, you really get to see people sharing their experiences, telling alternative visions of what is going on. That has an incredible democratizing effect.

Q. Are there important lessons we failed to learn in studying the urban uprisings of the 1960s? A. Certainly. I think one of the most crucial lessons that we have neglected to learn is that violent protest is on a continuum of protest. These aren’t aberrant events. They are very much in line, and part and parcel, with more-standard organized types of nonviolent direct action.

In the past 50 years, those uprisings have really been remembered as just black rage — people going out into the streets, burning and looting — and not actually looking at the antecedent events that led people to pursue this very desperate type of protest. In fact, the violent protests and nonviolent protests often interact symbiotically. When you have people referring to protesters or activists just as “thugs,” or out there just to get goods, that really diminish the power and the political agency that these people have had.

Violent protest has been a longstanding tradition in working-class communities. In many senses, it is often lionized. When you think of the labor revolts and protests that happened in the late 1800s, early 1900s, those are seen as kind of these champion moments of the proletariat and populism rising up. But when African-Americans become the primary actors, in the 1960s, they become demonized. The uprisings did not occur in a vacuum. This came after nearly a decade of organizing in which very slow movement was taking place. There was very much a change in how people understood their communities and their roles and their rights as American citizens.

Q. Do you foresee Baltimore returning to calm in the coming months? If we could magically end police misconduct of the sort alleged there, would we end the threat of civil unrest in Baltimore and other cities?

A. I think that after Baltimore’s Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake put forth the curfew, that largely stopped the threat of unrest. But I don’t think that diminishes the fact that people are still upset that black men and black women and black children feel constantly threatened.

This is what’s difficult about rebellions. There is often no magical formula to predict what’s going to happen where. In fact, many of the uprisings that occurred in the 1960s nobody saw coming. You look at Watts, and it didn’t have the urban squalor that people associate with black urban life. You think of Detroit, which was a model city in which African-Americans had strong working-class jobs. People were wildly surprised when uprisings occurred there.

I forecast that this is not the end of this kind of violent protest. But it is going to be difficult to pinpoint where this is going to come next. The rebellions that have taken place have alerted people to this as a potential tactic. Folks across the United States may still dabble in this kind of action until meaningful changes happen. Police brutality is not the only issue that concerns  African-Americans today.

Criminalizing Poverty - Marian Wright Edelman - President - Children's Defense Fund #EdBlogNet @idraedu

“Held captive.” It was how one 13-year-old described the feeling of growing up poor in our wealthy nation, and for more and more Americans living in poverty, this feeling isn’t just a metaphor. The recent Department of Justice report on police and court practices in Ferguson, Missouri put a much needed spotlight on how a predatory system of enforcement of minor misdemeanors and compounding fines can trap low-income people in a never-ending cycle of debt, poverty, and jail. In Ferguson this included outrageous fines for minor infractions like failing to show proof of insurance and letting grass and weeds in a yard get too high. In one case a woman who parked her car illegally in 2007 and couldn’t pay the initial $151 fee has since been arrested twice, spent six days in jail, paid $550 to a city court, and as of 2014 still owed the city $541 in fines, all as a result of the unpaid parking ticket. The Department of Justice found each year Ferguson set targets for the police and courts to generate more and more money from municipal fines. And Ferguson isn’t alone. The criminalization of poverty is a growing trend in states and localities across the country.
The investigation of Ferguson’s practices came after the killing of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown by a police officer, and last month the practice of criminalizing poverty made headlines again after Walter Scott was killed in North Charleston, South Carolina. Scott was shot in the back by police officer Michael Slager on April 4 as he ran away after being pulled over for a broken taillight. Scott had already served time in jail for falling behind on child support, and on the day he was stopped there was a warrant out for his arrest for falling behind again. His family believes his fear of going back to jail caused him to run from the broken taillight stop. His brother told The New York Times that Walter Scott already felt trapped: “Every job he has had, he has gotten fired from because he went to jail because he was locked up for child support,” said Rodney Scott, whose brother was most recently working as a forklift operator. “He got to the point where he felt like it defeated the purpose.” A 2009 review of county jails in South Carolina found that 1 in 8 inmates was behind bars for failure to pay child support. Rodney Scott remembered his brother trying to explain to a judge that he simply did not make enough money to pay the amount ordered by the court: “And the judge said something like, ‘That’s your problem. You figure it out.’”
The Institute for Policy Studies recently released a groundbreaking new report highlighting the policies and practices that have led to increased criminalization of poverty, and that report and similar studies are finally shining a light on the way some municipalities are criminalizing poor people just for being poor. The United States legally ended the practice of debtor’s prisons in 1833, and the Supreme Court ruled in Bearden v. Georgia (1983) that it is unconstitutional to imprison those who can’t afford to pay their debt or restitution in criminal cases, unless the act of not paying debt or restitution is “willful.” But poor people are being increasingly targeted with fines and fees for misdemeanors and winding up in illegal debtors’ prisons when they can’t pay—and in some cases, then being charged additional fees for court and jail costs. A recent investigation by National Public Radio, the New York University Brennan Center for Justice, and the National Center for State Courts cited a study estimating between 80-85 percent of inmates now leave prison owing debt for court-imposed costs, restitution, fines and fees. In some jurisdictions defendants are charged for their room and board during lockup, probation and parole supervision, drug and alcohol abuse treatment, DNA samples, and even their constitutional right to a public defender. When poor people can’t pay those fees either, the cycle of debt and jail time continues.
The private companies providing probation services in more than half of the states are some of the biggest winners when poor people are targeted. If people on probation can’t afford the fees they are charged, they breach their probation contract; this can result in more jail time, making it even less likely that they’ll be earning the money they need, and people under the supervision of these private probation companies often become liable for charges exceeding the initial cost of their ticket or fine. Federal law also prohibits people in breach of probation from receiving a range of benefits, including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), food stamps, and Supplemental Security Income—once again, exacerbating the cycle of poverty, probation, and prison.
And state and local policies establish barriers that make it more difficult for people who have served any time in prison, including those there because they were poor, to re-integrate into society. According to a study conducted by the American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section, there are more than 38,000 documented statutes nationwide creating collateral consequences for people with criminal convictions including barriers to housing, employment, voting, and many public benefits. By denying these citizens access to basic services they need to survive, our policies needlessly increase the risk of recidivism and continue to leave people truly trapped—and when we extend the cycle of poverty by criminalizing poor people, there are only a few greedy winners and many, many losers.
Marian Wright Edelman is President of the Children's Defense Fund whose Leave No Child Behind^® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. For more information go to www.childrensdefense.org. 

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CHARTER SCAM WEEK 2015 - P. L. Thomas > Pass it on

THE BECOMING RADICAL

A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University)

CHARTER SCAM WEEK 2015

It’s Charter Scam Week again, and we can conclude that charter advocacy has revealed itself in the following ways:

• Charter advocacy cannot be about improving student achievement since charter school consistently have a range of outcomes similar to public and even private schools once student populations are considered.
• Charter advocacy cannot be concerned about resegregation of schools by race and class since charter schools are significantly segregated.
• Charter advocacy is a thinly veiled attempt to introduce school choice as “parental choice” despite the U.S. public mostly being against school choice.
• Charter advocacy is tolerating at best and perpetuating at worst schools for “other people’s children”—a system that subjects minority and high-poverty children to limited learning experiences, extensive test-prep, and authoritarian/abusive disciplinary policies.
• Charter advocacy chooses to ignore that charters underserve some the most challenging students, ELL and special needs students.
• Charter advocacy also ignores that nothing about “charterness” distinguishes charter from public schools.
• Charter advocacy has committed to the (dishonest) “miracle” approach to demonizing public schools, and abandoned the original ideal of charter schools as pockets of experimentation (means and not ends) for the improvement of the public school system.

The problem for charter advocacy is that the evidence is overwhelmingly counter to nearly every claim in favor of charter schools.

Charter Scam Week 2015: A Reader

Conservative Talking Points Wrong for SC Education

Should SC Increase Charter School Investment?

Public School, Charter Choice: More Segregation by Design

Don’t Buy School Choice Week

No Excuses for Advocacy Masquerading as Research

Idealizing, Misreading Impoverished and Minority Parental Choice

NPR Whitewashes Charter Schools and Disaster Capitalism in New Orleans

“Other People’s Children” v. “They’re All Our Children”

The Charter Sham Formula: Billionaires + Flawed “Reports” + Press Release Media = Misled Public

Twitter Truth (and The Onion Gets It Again)

Listening to a Teacher from a “No Excuses” Charter School

Endgame: Disaster Capitalism, New Orleans, and the Charter Scam

Segregation and Charter Schools: A Reader

Pulling a Greene: Why Advocacy and Market Forces Fail Education Reform [Redux]

Anatomy of Charter School Advocacy

On Children and Kindness: A Principled Rejection of “No Excuses”

It’s Time to Stop Treating Black and Brown Kids Like ‘Other People’s Children’

Racial Segregation Returns to US Schools, 60 Years After the Supreme Court Banned It

Why Charter Schools Are Foolish Investments for States Facing Economic Challenges

The Similarities Between the Charter School Movement and the War on Drugs

Why Sending Your Child to a Charter School Hurts Other Children

“No Excuses” and the Culture of Shame: The Miseducation of Our Nation’s Children

Related

Parent: What I Saw, Learned and Enjoyed at #NPEChicago @ProfessorJVH

Parent: What I Saw, Learned and Enjoyed at #NPEChicago

http://cloakinginequity.com/2015/05/01/parent-what-i-saw-learned-and-enjoyed-at-npechicago/

Like most public school parents, I try to discern how to simultaneously support our schools and teachers while also figuring out ways to make sure that the educational experience our kids receive is constantly improving and moving in the right direction. That’s one reason I serve on the board of the Network for Public Education (NPE), the group that brings together like-minded public school advocates around the country since, really, it’s the same fight everywhere.

Budget cuts, disconnected from reality legislators disconnected from reality, lack of equity in financing of our schools, a pliable and passive media, easy-sounding false solutions, teachers frustrated to the point of leaving the profession . . . all of these things are at once local and national phenomena, and they aren’t accidental. This past weekend, once again the NPE annual conference in Chicago, like the inaugural meeting in Austin last spring, had the sensation of drinking water from a proverbial firehose, but in a good way. There was lots of stimulating, thought-provoking, assumption-shaking information and conversation, and the chance to engage in small groups and one-on-ones with real heroes of the movement fighting for real, effective and educator-based improvements that will strenghthen our nation’s public schools for all students. Featured conversations between Diane Ravitch and union leaders, a funny and

Yong Zhao keynote at #NPEChicago 2015

serious keynote by Yong Zhao, an opening conversation between high school junior Tanaisa Brown of the Newark Students Union and Journey for Justice veteran Jitu Brown, and a lunchtime conversation netween three notable bloggers Jennifer Berkshire of http://edushyster.com/, Peter Greene of http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/ and Jose Vilson of http://thejosevilson.com/— all of those plenary sessions were enlightening and entertaining.

I will break down some of the personal highlights for me— although by its nature with six or seven panels happening at the same time, no one person can take it all in, so this is not in any way meant to be comprehensive— it just reflects the people and sessions I was lucky enough to see and that I found especially compelling.

To me, the Debunking Myths panel, featuring skilled messaging craftsman Jeff Bryant of the Education Opportunity Network and Salon.com, as well as rising stars Hilary Tone ofMedia Matters and Diallo Brooks, from People for the American Way, was indeed a real highlight, as was the one on Effective Messaging Around Assessment (basically, Too Much Damned Testing, and it works with Ds and Rs!), led by Bob Shaeffer from FAIRTEST.org and some parent/teacher advocates form NJ and NY. I also loved the time I spent with the creators and directors of Go Public: A Day in the Life of an American School District, Dawn and Jim O’Keeffe, along with their colleague in film Shannon Puckett, whose new film Defies Measurement (See post Film Review: Defies Measurement weaves together problematic purposes of ed reform) about a middle school in California, is truly a tour de force. Other panels I attended at least parts of were one on Community Schools, led by former Tennessee legislator and Knoxville teacher Gloria Johnson and educators from Pennsylvania and Oklahoma and the Southern Education Foundation’s Katherine Dunn on the New Diverse Majority, featuring educators from South Carolina and Mississippi about some distinct ways of fighting for equity in education.

And finally, I was very happy that the College Access panel led by Nicole Hurd of the College Advising Corps  went so well and was attended by so many key people learning about this brilliant program. The panel also featured others from her group and Claire Dennison of the peer organization and collaboratoruAspire.  With college access and affordability such a critical and vexing issue for social mobility, I wish could be could be in many more schools (than the current 500 in 20 states ) doing the vital work of knocking down barriers and making college a reality for more students who deserve a life beyond their immediate circumstances. There are several aspects of the program that appeal to me— first and foremost that it harnesses the idealistic enthusiasm of recent college graduates and gives them a doable task that they are qualified to do— “near peer” advising of high school students with academic potential but in need of some extra help on the application and financial aid processes of actually going to college. Other interesting features of the advising corps approach are that it always partners with an institution of higher education and that the adviser is there to assist the professional counseling staff— and that in fact the district agrees not to replace any school counselors but instead to use the college advisers as supplemental help with a specific focus on the high-promise/low-resourced students in their application process. I have also seen the program in action at our local high school, Clarke Central in Athens, GA, where my daughter is a senior. These college advisers are effectively opening college opportunities to students who would have traditionally been less likely to attend college and it is such a key component to affording more students a chance at a academic success beyond high school.

One of my favorite short interludes at the conference was a quick pizza I shared with some teachers and parents from Toledo who were interested in a community screening of the Go Public film we did in Athens last fall— it felt like a real good reason to bring people together to find ways to spread knowledge, share ideas, gain new understandings and have some fun in the midst of it all. I am already looking forward to next year’s conference and I hope NPE can continue to successfully execute the seemingly simple act of bringing people together. It’s so worth it. And meanwhile quite a bit of the conference, about half of the panels, streamed live and are now being archived on the NPE website (a labor of love for a committed high school teacher, Vincent Precht of Burbank CA, and his websitehttp://www.schoolhouselive.org/)

All in all, NPE Chiacgo 2015 was an excellent conference and provided opportunities to network organizations from the across the United States, new perspectives and tons of information— I was made aware of lots of new links, addresses, business cards, and films.

Bertis Downs, Parent and NPE Board Member

So tune in, clue in, thank a teacher, volunteer, mentor, donate, call a state legislator, support your local school— but whatever you do, please don’t give up on public education. We cannot do that. Fight for them and fight for all our kids. Make no mistake, this past weekend reminded me again that the tide is indeed turning back toward the real work of providing good schools for all kids, and to fulfilling the real promise of public education: each child perpared for life.

Please Facebook Like, Tweet, etc below and/or reblog to share this discussion with others.

Want to know about Cloaking Inequity’s freshly pressed conversations about educational policy? Click the “Follow blog by email” button in the upper left hand corner of this page.

Related

FIRE DRILL INSTRUCTIONS DURING TESTING Bureaucracy uber alles! --Jim Scanlan #EdBlogNet @idraedu

My school (Taunton High School, Taunton, MA) actually had a situation two years ago during state MCAS testing that required an evacuation. In that spirit, I sent out the following instructions to a few folks. Bureaucracy uber alles! --Jim Scanlan

FIRE DRILL INSTRUCTIONS DURING TESTING

If there are actual flames due to a "Conflagration Circumstance," (hereinafter, "CC"), please follow the directions listed below:

1) Make sure that test booklets burn first during CC, BEFORE answer booklets. Failure to ensure may compromise the integrity of the test. Ideally, booklets will be consumed from bottom to top.

2) Make sure that all materials to be incinerated during CC have been alphabetized, to maintain test integrity. If Administrator dies during CC, alphabetization responsibility will fall to building Principal and/or His/Her appointed representative. The Representative will, ideally, know the alphabet. If not, please submit Waiver Form 65.3, sub-sections 3/789, sub-heading, "Illiterates, Responsibilities Thereof."

3) Students should be consumed by CC in alphabetical order.

4) While dying during CC, neither students nor Test Administrator should talk, weep, moan, or otherwise communicate with non-testers. Doing so may invalidate their dying.

5) Following CC, Guidance will collect pencil shards/(alphabetized) bone fragments, and escort and survivors to the appropriate hospital. Upon arrival, Guidance will cover all signage to prevent unlawful surviving/cheating.

How Texas Might Solve its School Finance Problems | KHUF radio story http://budurl.com/KHUF5 #txlege @IDRAedu

The last story in KHUF radio series on school funding in Texas is online. “How Texas Might Solve its School Finance Problems” tells how one top lawmaker is mounting a reform effort in Austin. But some analysts say that it could widen the gap between the richest and poorest districts.

http://budurl.com/KHUF5

IDRA testified on the proposal to share or analyses showing that Texas equity gaps would widen under proposed school funding measure http://budurl.com/IDRAeNsf415

News 88.7's "Houston Matters" will have a live in-depth discussion about the series today at noon.

This week, Houston Public Media News 88.7 is airing a five-part series by education reporter Laura Isensee that takes a look into the past, present and future of public school funding in Texas.

Today’s story, “How One Man's Fight for Justice Continues After His Death,” is about Demetrio Rodríguez, with interviews of his children Alex Rodríguez and Patty Rodríguez, along with Dr. Albert Cortez, IDRA director of policy, and Al Kauffman, Professor of Law at St. Mary’s University.

http://budurl.com/KHUFsf1

The Houston Public Media News website has the audio of the story, a separate write up, a video feature and other web features.

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Along with its series of stories on school funding in Texas by Laura Isensee, the Houston Public Media News website has a quick tutorial “Learn How Texas Funds Public Schools In 7 Easy Steps.”

http://budurl.com/KHUFsf7stps

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See the online database “Explore School Funding by District,” created by the Houston Public Media News to supplement a series of stories on school funding in Texas by Laura Isensee.

http://budurl.com/KHUFsfDB

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In honor of Houston Public Media News’ five-part series this week on school funding in Texas and the first story on Demetrio Rodríguez, we have put together a list of the 50 Most Memorable Quotes in School Finance, compiled by IDRA’s founder, Dr. José A. Cárdenas, in 1994. The last four quotes are from Mr. Rodríguez himself.

http://budurl.com/IDRA50list

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Today’s KHUF story, “How Parents Search for Opportunities for their Kids with Mixed Results,” tells the stories of how families saw first-hand the difference between rich and poor school districts. David Hinojosa, IDRA national director of policy, is interviewed in this story. [03:58 min]

This week, Houston Public Media News 88.7 is airing a five-part series by education reporter Laura Isensee that takes a look into the past, present and future of public school funding in Texas.

http://budurl.com/KHUFsf2

http://houstonpublicmedia.com/news/how-parents-search-for-opportunities-for-their-children-find-different-results/

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“How One Superintendent Stretches Limited Resources” is today’s KHUF radio installment in a five-part series by Houston Public Media’s education reporter Laura Isensee that takes a look into the past, present and future of public school funding in Texas. [03:49 min]

Alief Superintendent Chambers talks about lack of funding for much-needed full-day prekindergarten and for educating English learners representing 90 different languages.

http://budurl.com/KHUFsf3

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“With Current Education System, Texas On Course To Be Poorer, Less Competitive In 2050” is today’s KHUF radio installment in a five-part series by Houston Public Media’s education reporter Laura Isensee.

http://budurl.com/KHUFsf4

The state’s former demographer Steve Murdock said education funding can be a drag on the state’s future economy, pulling down household income, consumer spending and state revenue.

Speaking about the underfunding of education for English language learners, Dr. Albert Cortez, IDRA director of policy, states in the story: “And so if the state not providing those special needs students the resources that are needed, districts are hurting and students are hurting. And again, it isn’t one particular sector of the state. It’s all of us that are going to be paying the price.

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