Va education officials decry K-12 budget cuts

RICHMOND (AP) — What education administrators, teachers and advocates have feared has become official: Gov. Bob McDonnell says he plans to cut $731 million in state support to local public school divisions.

The amount announced Wednesday represents an 11 percent funding cut in state public-education support and makes up about 35 percent of the $2.1 billion McDonnell plans to trim overall to help reconcile a $4 billion, two-year budget gap. It comes on top of more than $1.2 billion in K-12 education cuts proposed by former Gov. Timothy Kaine.

Virginia School Boards Association executive director Frank Barham said the cuts would further place the burden of paying for public education on cash-strapped local school divisions. Barham repeated previous warnings that schools would have to lay off tens of thousands of teachers, raise class sizes and cut programs, which ultimately harm students.

“I would hate to be a superintendent or on a School Board in the next two years and have to tell parents and kids that their level of services will be less than what it is now,” Barham said. “This will drastically change (public education) and cause us to regress in the student programs and services that we offer.”

The VSBA, the Virginia Education Association and other groups have estimated that 30,000 public education jobs will have to be cut as a direct result of decreased state aid, but that number is expected to grow depending on whether divisions are able to cover their personnel costs, which typically make up about 85 percent of their school budgets.

Andy Block, legal director of the advocacy group JustChildren, said he’s concerned that forcing localities to make up a loss in state funding could exacerbate the disparities in educational opportunities that already exist between wealthy divisions such as Fairfax County and poor ones such as Petersburg.

“While some localities that will be able to make up the difference, some won’t, and those that won’t have the highest concentration of poverty,” Block said.

Funding for public schools accounts for $11.4 billion, or 37 percent of the total general fund operating budget, according to McDonnell’s office.

The largest portion of the proposed K-12 reductions involves a $225.8 million drop in funding over two years by delaying scheduled updates to the formula Virginia uses to rebenchmark the Standards of Quality, minimum educational objectives set by state law that dictate instructional staffing ratios, teacher salaries and other requirements.

McDonnell also proposes to cut $130.1 million by eliminating state salary supplements for sports coaches and department chairs; trim nearly $92 million by eliminating $67 million in state support for school construction and operating costs and other measures such as school breakfast programs; cut about $70.7 million in by eliminating inflationary adjustments for gasoline, supplies and other non-personnel costs; and decrease supplemental funding for at-risk students by $41.5 million by capping the per-student percentage of aid allowed.

Barham and others warn that the state cuts will force local governments to consider raising taxes to cover their costs.

The cuts are expected to harm every school division and devastate poorer ones in areas such as Petersburg, Lee County and Portsmouth, because those localities are more dependent on state funds to operate their schools, and have limited ability to make up the lost revenue.

“If you have no tax base, or no local wealth, you have no way to make up for what the state’s not sending,” said Robley Jones, the Virginia Education Association’s chief lobbyist. “It’s a shift and shaft — because the local folks, they’re not going to close down the schools. There’s not a locality that would say, ‘We’re going out of the school business’ — but they have varied abilities to raise money.”

School divisions statewide have seen substantial declines in local property-tax collections because of slumping housing values, and face millions in deficits. Many have discussed the possibility of cutting hundreds of jobs and reducing salaries; consolidating or closing schools; and eliminating music, sports and foreign language programs, among other measures.

In addition to cuts, the governor also proposed to add $29.5 million to allow the state to update the index used to determine localities’ ability to fund local education, reversing Kaine’s attempt to delay the routine update until the 2012 fiscal year. He also has proposed allowing the issuance of debt to pay for schools’ technology equipment.

source:  www.wvec.com

Music ‘can boost wider learning’

Learning a musical instrument at primary school can boost a child’s confidence and learning in other areas, a report suggests.

Nine out of 10 schools asked about a government-funded scheme that teaches pupils to play instruments in a group, said the process raised self-esteem.

Many teachers said the scheme led to more positive attitudes to learning and improved motivation in other subjects.

The groups are run in 6,500 schools in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The study by the University of the Arts, London, focuses on the Wider Opportunities Programme, in which eight and nine-year-olds learn to play an instrument together as a class for free. Even the class teacher joins in and learns to play.

Some 97% of primary head teachers and staff in the 1,389 schools in England, Wales and Northern Ireland who took part in the research said pupils looked forward to lessons and enjoyed playing instruments.

Many of the teaching staff said team-working skills had improved as a result, as had pupil concentration.

The scheme also had an “empowering effect” on some of the participating children, the study said.

‘Whole child’

John Witchell, chief executive of the Federation of Music Services, which commissioned the report, said there was a lot of evidence from all the people who responded about the wider impacts, such as better motivation and improved behaviour.

“It’s one of those activities that is a social activity where all the children work together,” he said.

“They are not competing against each other, they have to collaborate and use their minds and bodies to produce the music.

“They also have to use their emotions to enable self-expression as well.”

In terms of music education, the study found learning an instrument in class as effective as small group tuition.

The programme was particularly useful as an introduction to learning an instrument, identifying talent and in promoting a joyful experience that benefits the “whole child’s development”.

A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said: “Children get tremendous value from music, both as a subject in its own right and as a means of motivating students to reach higher levels of attainment across the curriculum.

“Learning to play a musical instrument can encourage the development of listening and concentration skills, appropriate behaviour, self-motivation, communications skills and teamwork.”

source:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/8485690.stm

Rock for Kids / Chicago

In my search for other non profit organizations that support youth music, I came across one particular group whose mission is both new to me and incredibly commending.

“Rock For Kids is a non-profit organization that provides support, hope, inspiration and assistance to under served children and teens. Realizing that music can be a positive motivator in a young person’s life, Rock For Kids provides free year-round music education for children in need. Rock For Kids positively impacts and celebrates young lives by offering access to safe and constructive learning experiences through which children may challenge themselves, build self-esteem and explore their own creative potential.”

Rather than just supporting music programs in struggling areas, this group supports individual kids who are underprivileged or homeless giving them support, boosting their self esteem, and giving them a sense of value.

Please check out their website:  www.rockforkids.org and support this worthy organization.

High School Dropout Rates

On average, only 58% of students in America’s 50 largest cities make it to commencement. Though suburban students graduate at much higher rates, overall, close to 10% of 16- to 24-year-olds in the U.S. do not have diplomas.

Dropping out has long-lasting effects. The average income of a worker without a high school diploma is about $20,100—a third less than the salary of a worker with a diploma—and dropouts report more health problems than graduates, regardless of income. Increasing the high school graduation rate by just 1% would save the U.S. $1.4 billion in health care costs. Prevention is key: methods such as mentoring, on-site day care, and alternative schooling can help reverse the trend.

source: www.takepart.com

DC Youth Orchestra: Success On A Shoestring

If you had the means to send your children to the best music classes, would you send them to a run-down building with dirty bathrooms and broken windows?

That’s exactly what happens for students in the popular DC Youth Orchestra, an independent program in Washington, D.C., which borrows space at a local public high school. There are hundreds of youth orchestras around the U.S., but this one has found a way to be affordable, competitive and diverse — in every sense of the word.

For Ava Spece, it’s the same story every Saturday morning: cockroaches and burned-out lights. Spece is executive director of the DC Youth Orchestra, or DCYO. She can rattle off a litany of problems she faces at Coolidge High School, where nearly 600 students gather every Saturday to take classes and practice with one of 12 different performing ensembles.

The halls ring with a wide range of music. At one end of the school, a beginning orchestra sounds like it has a lot of room for growth. At the other end of the hall, there’s the more advanced Youth Orchestra, the top dog of the program. And there’s just about everything in between: a junior philharmonic, jazz ensembles and chamber groups.

Music: The Great Equalizer

What makes the DC Youth Orchestra program a rarity is that it’s both competitive and wildly diverse. Ages range from 4 to 19. Racially, 65 percent are African-American, and overall, 85 percent are minorities. Children receiving financial aid practice right alongside kids from affluent suburbs.

“They come from public schools, private schools, home schools, charter schools,” Spece says.

Most of the kids are from D.C., and for them, tuition comes to about $15 a week — for up to about seven hours of instruction.

The DC Youth Orchestra attracts kids who want to be pushed. Take 11-year-old Avery Steck. He says he plays with the DCYO because the music program at his regular school in Maryland is kind of a joke.

“The music is cheesy and very easy,” Steck says.

The competitive nature of the DC Youth Orchestra is intense. Every so often, students take jury exams in which they perform solos in front of three or four teachers. Steck was first cello in the junior philharmonic. Earlier this year, he was challenged by another student and lost. At a recent jury, he got his first chair back, but he says he doesn’t want to brag about it.

“That was not a pleasant thing,” Steck says. “For one thing, I barely made it, and the guy I beat felt pretty bad.”

Among the DCYO’s alums is Toyin Spellman-Diaz, oboist for the Grammy-winning quintet Imani Winds.

“It was the first place where I was around my peers who really also wanted to be classical musicians,” Spellman-Diaz says.

For Spece, music is “the great equalizer.” In the past four years, 100 percent of the seniors in the DCYO graduated from high school. How do they do it? Spellman-Diaz says it’s because the students don’t take the program for granted.

“I’ve been to hundreds of schools around the country and seen their youth orchestras. A lot of times, these youth orchestras are based around people with money, and they seldom falter. But the DCYO has always been hanging by a thread, so everybody’s always aware of how precious their orchestra is.”

This weekend, the musicians in the DC Youth Orchestra perform their final concerts of the season, in theaters where the lights are working.

Article by Elizabeth Blair