Nat Hentoff remembered principal Elliott Shapiro and his vision of “community schools,” and praised Randi Weingarten for resurrecting the idea in her recent AFT acceptance speech. [Village Voice]
An audit by the office of city Comptroller William Thompson cited “a lack of documentation, a lack of oversight” of Department of Education travel expenditures. [Daily News]
Double dutch is the newest public school sport. [New York Times]
2 Comments:
1 R. Skibins
· Aug 1, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Think of all of the millions wasted sending people to Confratute at the University of Connecticut each summer. Or sending administrators to all-expense paid trips to “conferences” in Florida? Or the millions wasted on things like the Leadership Academy, or alternative certification programs where living expenses and tuition is subsidized, and half leave within five years anyway.
2 Phyllis C. Murray
· Aug 2, 2008 at 11:33 pm
It is ironic to read the headlines in the news.”Dept. Of Education Taken To Task Over Expenses Audit Finds Money Is Often Spent Frivolously,” around the same time that we were notified about cuts to Teachers Choice allocations.
$150 for all teachers;
$100 for social workers, school psychologists and guidance counselors;
$50 for school secretaries; and
$75 for lab specialists.
Fortunately, our teachers are not only bright, they are resourceful, creative, and resilient. Thus, they will seek out Donors Choose and other great organizations which offer grants to support their work in their classrooms.
The Teachers Choice dollars were never enough. And now…that only 60% of TC dollars was salvaged, teachers will continue to use non-reimbursable personal funds to create a classroom environment which their students need and deserve. Unfortunately, the story of a teacher’s dedication to his/her students never makes the headlines in New York City.
Phyllis C. Murray