Over at On Special Education, Christina Samuels takes a look at the implication of vice-presidential candidate's Sarah Palin's proposal for centers for special needs parents. Like parts of McCain's Head Start proposal, it seems that some of this may already be law.
Vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin gave a speech today on special eduction. You can read more about it over on my colleague, Christina Samuels' On Special Education Blog.
Palin advocated, among other things, for full funding of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. I wonder how that will square with Sen. John McCain's plan to freeze most spending—including for education programs—until he can conduct a top-to-bottom review of all federal programs.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin used yesterday's vice presidential debate to stress her expertise with energy. But it seems she has an energy crisis back home that's hitting rural, and urban, schools particularly hard.
Earlier this week, the superintendent of Anchorage's school district and the city's mayor sent a letter to Gov. Palin, urging her not to "stand by and tolerate the deterioration of rural Alaska." Residents of Alaska's small villages and cities are fleeing their rural communities—and their schools—for urban Anchorage, where gas, heating fuel, and food are cheaper and social services are easier to get. In some rural areas, gas has hit $11 a gallon. In the nearly two months since the school year began, this exodus has resulted in an additional 500 Native Alaskan students for the Anchorage school district, which has had to hire an additional 18 teachers. Unexpected, mid-year growth like this is tough for school districts, which build their budgets months before school starts and have little recourse to gain additional money during the school year.
At the same time, Alaskan schools serving those rural communities are seeing their enrollments plummet. The Sept. 29 letter points out that Bristol Bay School District has seen its enrollment drop by about 20 percent and has reached a 20-year low this year of just 140 students.
Anchorage's superintendent and mayor urge Gov. Palin to set up a local, state, and federal task force to address this issue. On a national stage, this is an opportunity for Gov. Palin to call attention to the plight of rural America and its schools—which are so often at the center of small town America.
UPDATED 10/9: In an Oct. 8 letter of response, Palin said she would direct her rural sub-cabinet to more closely examine the issue. Her letter indicated that while high fuel prices have not been found be to be a definite cause of migration, that “they could be a signficiant factor.” She added that her energy coordinator was working on a plan to help Alaskans cope with high energy costs.
Rural schools, in particular, struggle with low graduation rates, recruiting teachers in hard-to-staff subjects, and offering their students a wide range of courses, especially at the high school level. Even though about 22 percent of the nation's public school students attend schools in communities with populations less than 2,500, problems facing rural schools have been largely overlooked by the presidential candidates, a fact that hasn't escaped advocates for rural education.
There wasn’t a single question on education during the vice presidential debate, but Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska and Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware managed to get some of their views on schools on the table anyway–-including a surprise comment from Palin saying that she wants to increase education funding.(UPDATE: Read the transcript here.)
“Our schools have got to be really ramped up in terms of the funding,” Palin said during the debate at Washington University in St. Louis. “Teachers need to be paid more.” And she said that states’ education standards have been “a little bit lax” and need to be raised.
That might be news to her running mate, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who has said that he wants to freeze most domestic discretionary spending, including for education, until he can conduct a top-to-bottom review of all federal programs.
Palin also gave voters a sense of where she stands on the No Child Left Behind Act, which neither presidential candidate has addressed much on the campaign trail. Palin said the law needs more “flexibility,” although she did not elaborate on what that would look like.
And she bemoaned the lack of attention education has received. “It’s near and dear to my heart,” she said.
But Biden pointed out that McCain hasn’t proposed increasing education spending. McCain has said he wants to freeze discretionary spending for most domestic programs, including education, until he can conduct a top-to-bottom review of all federal programs.
Biden cited lack of money as a reason that NCLB law hasn’t been a success.
“The reason No Child Left Behind was left behind, the money was left behind, we didn't fund it,” he said.
Biden said that he and his running mate, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, would not scale back their $18 billion education spending plan, despite the recent economic turmoil and a possible $700 billion federal assistance plan for the financial sector.
“We won’t slow up on education because that’s the engine that’s going to give us the economic growth and competitiveness we need,” Biden said.
Palin also gave a nod to the educators in her family – her father and brother are both teachers.
"I know education you are passionate about with your wife being a teacher for 30 years, and God bless her," Palin said to Biden. "Her reward is in heaven, right? I say, too, with education … I come from a house full of school teachers. My grandma was, my dad, who is in the audience today, he's a schoolteacher, had been for many years. My brother, who I think is the best schoolteacher of the year. And here's a shout-out to all those 3rd graders at Gladys Wood Elementary School, you get extra credit for watching the debate."
Biden and Palin weren’t given the opportunity to criticize their opponents’ records on schools, but Biden did get in a quick dig at Sen. McCain on the issue, saying that “he has not been a maverick when it comes to education.”
If moderator Gwen Ifill doesn't ask Republican Sarah Palin or Democrat Joe Biden a question about education during tonight's must-watch debate at 9 p.m., it won't be because no one tried.
The Education Equality Project folks are making their pitch to the debate honchos to ask an education question. A letter to the moderator, signed by New York City Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein, the Rev. Al Sharpton, and ED in '08 leaders, makes the case that the amount of time devoted to education during the presidential campaign has been "shockingly small." The letter goes on to say:
In fact, of 653 questions at 30 debates, only 20 questions addressed education—just 3%. The infrequency with which education is discussed at the debates can't be attributed to a focus on the economy and foreign policy. In the last Democratic debate in Cleveland, for instance, Senators Obama and Clinton spent more than 15 minutes discussing health care; no education questions were asked.
Meanwhile, late this afternoon a rally was scheduled at Washington University in St. Louis, where tonight's debate is to be held, to urge the candidates to focus on children's issues. Sponsored by the Every Child Matters Education Fund, the rally was expected to include children, parents, educators and child advocates in hopes of drawing the candidates' attention to education and social issues facing children.
Already, the National Education Association is weighing in on the debate, even before the first words are exchanged. In a press release that just hit my inbox, NEA Vice President Lily Eskelsen said: “Unless Gov. Palin offers a distinctly different vision from Sen. McCain on improving our nation’s public schools, she’s just more of the same. So far, she’s failed to do anything but offer blind support for the same bad policies of the past eight years." (UPDATE: I suddenly remembered that the NEA was far more impressed with Palin a few weeks ago when her selection was announced.)
It's entirely possible education will be an issue in the debate. Both Biden and Palin have teachers in their families. But even if it's not, you can get the kids' perspective on the debate by following the Scholastic Kids Press Corps here on Twitter.
If you’d like to do your own prep work before the debate, you can read up on Palin’s views on evolution vs. creationism and her record on special education funding in Alaska.
Regarding Joe Biden, read about his views on NCLB, merit pay, prekindergarten, and his education plan when he was running for president.
As part of a series of interviews on the "CBS Evening News," anchor Katie Couric asked Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin last night about whether evolution should be taught in schools.
Couric: Do you believe evolution should be taught as an accepted scientific principle or as one of several theories?Palin: Oh, I think it should be taught as an accepted principle. And, as you know, I say that also as the daughter of a school teacher, a science teacher, who has really instilled in me a respect for science. It should be taught in our schools. And I won't deny that I see the hand of God in this beautiful creation that is Earth. But that is not part of the state policy or a local curriculum in a school district. Science should be taught in science class.
Scientists across the country were likely heartened to hear Palin shift her position on the teaching of evolution in schools. Addressing the issue of teaching evolution and creationism during a televised debate during her 2006 campaign for governor of Alaska, she said: "Teach both. You know, don’t be afraid of information. Healthy debate is important, and I am a proponent of teaching both.”
If you want to watch the video below, the evolution exchange is around minute 7:30.
From guest blogger Mark Walsh:
Sarah Palin told Charles Gibson of ABC News in their extensive interviews that questions about whether she can be both a mother and a high-powered politician are irrelevant, in part because she grew up under, and benefited from, the federal law that bars sex bias in public education.
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination based on sex in federally funded education programs. The law is widely credited with increasing girls' and women's high school and college athletic opportunities.
Asked by Gibson last week whether it was sexist for someone to ask whether Palin could manage a large family and the vice presidency, the Alaska governor said:
"I don't know. I'm lucky to have been brought up in a family where gender has never been an issue. I'm a product of Title IX, also, where we had equality in schools that was just being ushered in with sports and with equal opportunity for education, all of my life. I'm part of that generation, where that question is kind of irrelevant, because it's accepted. Of course you can be the vice president and you can raise a family."
The interview transcript is here, with this exchange under the heading "Sarah Palin on sexism."
Gibson accompanied the Republican vice presidential nominee on a walk through Wasilla High School in Alaska, where in 1982 Palin was a member of the girls' basketball team that won the state championship after she hit a crucial free throw late in the game.
Palin also ran track and cross country at Wasilla High, and she is still an avid runner in addition to being a "hockey mom," the Anchorage Daily News reports here.
While Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has only recently vaulted to the national stage, she's been on the radar screen for awhile here at Education Week, which covers the education angle of legislative sessions, governors' State of the State addresses, and any other big policy developments in the state capitals.
In fact, EdWeek's "Capitol Recap" of Alaska's 2008 legislative session, an eight-paragraph account written by our Alaska beat reporter, Sean Cavanagh, is now being invoked by Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign in defense of charges that Palin cut special education while in office.
Last night, the Arizona senator's campaign press office sent out an e-mail blast titled: IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: FactCheck.org: "Sliming Palin." In it, the McCain campaign brags about an entry by Factcheck.org, which uses Sean's recap to point out that Palin actually boosted special education funding. The Annenberg Political Fact Check is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.
Charges are flying around the Internet that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee who has a four-month-old son with Down syndrome, cut special education funding in her state. But a close look at budget documents by my colleague Christina Samuels shows that Palin actually increased state spending on special education.
Christina writes in On Special Education that these false charges spreading throughout the Web are driven by a misreading of the state's budget documents.
Read Christina's complete post here.
--Michele McNeil
Sarah Palin cast herself as the PTA and hockey mom with bite on Wednesday night, using her much-anticipated speech before the Republican National Convention to define herself as a Washington outsider who will vigorously attack the Democratic presidential ticket.
"I was just your average hockey mom who signed up for the PTA," the Alaska governor said in accepting the GOP nomination for vice president. "I signed up for the PTA because I wanted to make my children's public education even better."
The speech was well-received at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.
"This was a home run," said Crystal Kennedy, an Alaska delegate and a member of the Anchorage school board. "The country knows she means business."
Phyllis Gorman, a retired teacher and small-business owner from Edmond, Okla., seconded that sentiment.
"I think she spoke from the heart," Gorman, an Oklahoma delegate, said of the Alaska governor. "And she showed us she knows about being tough."
Gorman said she didn't know much about Palin's record on education issues. But on Topic A of the week—the pregnancy of Palin's daughter Bristol—the Oklahoman said the candidate was handling the situation "with grace."
"We would all prefer the daughter to be married or not be pregnant," Gorman said. "But that's life."
Palin’s service on the PTA gives her hands-on experience with school policy, said Cyndi C. Mosteller, a delegate from South Carolina.
“What other presidential candidate do you know that’s been in the education trenches like that?” Mosteller said.
And delegates lauded Palin’s pledge to serve as an advocate for children with special needs.
After acknowledging her infant son Trig, who has Down syndrome, the Alaska governor said, "Children with special needs inspire a special love."
"To the families of special-needs children all across this country, I have a message: For years, you sought to make America a more welcoming place for your sons and daughters," Palin said. "I pledge to you that if we are elected, you will have a friend and advocate in the White House."
“I would say that her experience gives her insight” that most people don’t have, said Geneva Taylor, a Colorado delegate and a retired banker from Steamboat Springs.” She’s going to make sure that those types of children are taken care of.”
--Mark Walsh & Alyson Klein
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, right, will seek to define herself tonight as the vice presidential nominee of the Republican Party.
The party's convention here in St. Paul has become defined by Sen. John McCain's surprise choice for a running mate, with her relative inexperience, the revelation of her daughter's pregnancy, and her views on sex education and teaching creationism all providing fodder.
Delegates at the Xcel Energy Center appeared firmly supportive of the Alaska governor.
Jerry Bowen, a Republican delegate and real estate agent from Franklin, Tenn., said he thinks the pregnancy of Palin's 17-year-old daughter makes the Alaska governor an excellent spokeswoman for abstinence-only sex education, a policy that Bowen supports.
“I think Gov. Palin is the poster child for that message,” he said. “We can not condemn her daughter for being human and making a mistake.”
When McCain selected Palin, Michelle Steel, a delegate from Los Angeles, said she was “shocked, because I didn’t know who she was.”
But now she is excited by the Alaskan—particularly by the prospect of having a woman on the ticket.
Ms. Steel, who serves on the state Board of Equalization in California, said she isn’t troubled by Palin’s daughter’s pregnancy.
“You don’t know what [teenagers] are going to do,” said Steel, who has two young adult children. “You can’t follow them everywhere. … I think it’s time to drop it and move on.”
That hasn't happened, as the media has used the pregnancy news as the launching pad for stories on Palin's support for abstinence education (and just how her daughter's pregnancy is or isn't relevant), whether Palin could juggle the vice president's job with her family situation, and whether the governor was thoroughly vetted by the McCain campaign.
In an interview on Monday before Palin announced her daughter's pregnancy, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings was slightly off-message from the McCain campaign's effort to portray Palin as experienced.
"I don’t really know her personally, and I look forward to getting to know her better," Spellings said. "She’s only been there in office for a year and a half or so."
The secretary said she was familiar with Alaska's record on education, including during Palin's tenure.
"They have done some really interesting things up there," Spellings said. "They have one of the best data systems in the country. They're one of our growth-model pilot states, one of 10. They applied for differentiated accountability, and they’ve got one of our [Teacher Incentive Fund] grants."
"They’ve got a long way to go, no doubt about it," the secretary added. "Their standards are fairly low, and their achievement lags the national average. Beyond that, I look forward to meeting her."
--Mark Walsh & Alyson Klein
Sen. John McCain has reportedly tapped Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential nominee.
Gov. Palin, a Republican elected in 2006, helped champion an overhaul of the state’s school finance system, which supporters said channeled more money to rural districts outside Anchorage and helped stabilize school districts' budgets. The measure, approved by the Alaska legislature this year, also hiked spending for students with special needs.
Alaska has an unusual state-run performance-incentive program, which rewards school employees with payments for gains in student achievement. The program was initially signed into law by Ms. Palin's predecessor as governor, Frank H. Murkowski. The program is distinct in it that rewards many different kinds of school employees, including administrators, teachers, custodians, and secretaries, for increased student performance at their school.
Funding for the program has continued under Ms. Palin, according to the state's Department of Education and Early Development, which announced another round of awards in August.
Ms. Palin has also become known for juggling her duties as Alaska's chief executive with those of a parent. Well into her term as governor, she announced that she was pregnant, and in April, she gave birth to a son, Trig Paxson Van Palin, who was diagnosed with Down syndrome. The governor was reportedly back at work days after the boy was born. She and her husband, Todd, have four other children.
