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As terrible as the tragic events at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut were, the public is ignoring the 180 children, 11 years of age or younger, who were killed by a firearms in 2010, according to the most recent report on violent deaths from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  The CDC breakdown: 41 deaths were classified as unintentional, 127 as homicide, four as suicide, and eight from an undetermined intent.

Most of those deaths occur at home. And most of the weapons used are found in the home.  In 2009, among 16 participating states in the National Violent Death Reporting System, over 86% of all firearm deaths of children 11 or younger took place in or around a home. If we add in the number of teenage deaths, the number dramatically increases. Children ages 5 to 14 in the United States are 13 times as likely to be killed with guns as children in other industrialized countries

The point is that schools are safer than homes where guns are kept.  Before we request additional legislation to ban semi-automatic weapons, and extended magazine clips, we need to do something to insure that all guns kept in houses where children reside, be kept in locked cases as well having trigger locks on all weapons.

 

According to the Student Victimization in U.S. Schools Report written by the National Center for Educational Statistics, during the 2008-2009 school year nearly 40 percent of students who were victims of a crime reported the presence of gangs at the school, compared with 19.6 percent of non-victims.

This is a joyous season.  Whether you and your family celebrate Christmas, Chanukah, or Kwanza, it is a time of joy and celebration.  But this year our joy will be tinged by sadness and grief for those who lost their lives in Newtown, Connecticut.  A deranged person viciously gunned down twenty elementary children just as their lives were about to begin.  In addition, six of our colleagues sacrificed their lives in order to protect their children.  The principal and counselor ran toward the shooter.  Vickie Soto threw her body over her first graders so as to protect their bodies with hers.

As you take time to celebrate, hug your children a little closer today than you did yesterday.  Call your friends and family and tell them that you love them.  And say a prayer for those whose pain is great because they’ve lost friends, mothers, wives, sisters and young children.

The symbol of the season is a tree that reaches into the heavens.  What a fine symbol for the season.  Take time to celebrate life.

There is a direct correlation between poor performance of schools and low income.

The U.S. Department of Education found that half of all high-poverty schools, including some that get Title I money were at least 10 percent below the average school in their districts in terms of state and local aid.  More than 40 percent of Title I schools spent less on personnel personnel per student than non-title I schools serving the same grades in the same district.  Federal law requires that districts give high-poverty schools the same share of state and local dollars as their other schools before they can tap Title I dollars.

It should be obvious to all those who care that we need to have a level playing field – that is where all schools in one district get treated fairly.  Title I schools with lower-paid, less experienced teachers get less state and local money than a non Title I school in the same district.

Tomorrow, December 15, 2012, we will be celebrating our 5th year anniversary of this website.  At the same time, we want to inform you of some important landmarks.  We are approaching our 375,000th “view.”  Most of the people coming to this website are from the United States (62.4%).  But people from around the world are using the information that is found on this website.  The at-risk student population and dropout prevention is a global problem.  Canadians has the second most visitors; Morocco (?), the Philippines, Spain, India, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, Brazil, Ireland, Singapore, Netherlands, Indonesia, France, South Africa and Sweden follow Canada.During the week, between 200-300 people a day are searching this website for material.  I am now updating it, two to three times a week.  Most people search for the 15 strategies to prevent school dropouts but “Should Cellphones be used in schools?” is a close second.  It is followed by the most important job openings in the next ten years.

The number of subscribers (upper right side of the homepage) is growing quickly as people who subscribe get the up dates automatically.
At this special time of year, we want to take a moment to let you know how much your support means to us. Thank you for visiting and your valuable suggestions.  This website and its blog have been a pleasure for me to write. ( Reminder, I also write for the Huffington Post.)  I hope to continue to serve you in the coming year.

I want to wish you and yours a delightful holiday season and a joyous, prosperous and healthy new year.  And for the world, a year of peace.

Respectfully,

Franklin

The Wichita School District is one of the growing number of school districts cracking down on what teachers wear to school.  The district will not allow teachers to wear cutoff shorts, pajama pants or flip flops.  A school district in Phoenix is requiring teachers to cover up tattoos and excessive body piercings.  Female teachers in Peoria and the Litchfield school districts indicate that tank-top straps cannot be less than 2 inches wide.

What are your feelings?

I believe that if teachers wish to be treated as professionals they need to dress as professionals.  I would feel uncomfortable if I went to see a doctor who was wearing flip-flops, tattoos, excessive body piercings and cutoff shorts.

North Carolina has become the first state to make student cyberbullying against educators a crime. The new law, which took effect on Dec. 1, charges students who harass their teachers or other school employees with a misdemeanor offense, with a maximum penalty of either 60 days in jail or a $1,000 fine.

The 2012 School Violence Prevention Act passed through the North Carolina legislature with just one opposing vote. Advocates for the bill cited a number of incidents where students have received little to no penalty for online harassment, including a 2008 incident in which a student in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District created a fake MySpace profile that suggested the teacher was a pedophile.

Though many states have passed laws against student-on-student cyberbullying, this is likely the first state law that penalizes harassment against educators with jail time.

We would be opposed to teachers cyberbullying students on line, it is impressive that North Carolina has seen fit to criminalize students cyberbullying educators.  Maybe more states can follow this trend.

Across the United States politicians believe that they have found the answer to improving schools.  They have endorsed and used a variety of techniques, which they believe will revitalized a failing of state-run schools.  Bobbie Jindal, Governor of Louisiana and a potential presidential candidate in 2016 believes that vouchers and charter schools, in his low performing state, will do just that.  But Judge Timothy Kelley of State District Court ruled that the way in which the state finances its new voucher program violates the state Constitution, as it relies on money intended in “plain and unambiguous” terms solely for public schools.

The voucher program, on the other hand, is already under way: about 5,000 of Louisiana’s 556,000 students are participating.

In a statement, Governor Jindal called the decision “wrongheaded and a travesty for parents across Louisiana” and vowed to appeal. But if it survives appeal, the state court’s decision would make things far messier for a governor who is widely believed to have aspirations for national office, and who made education reform a centerpiece of his second-term agenda.

Voucher opponents in some other states have successfully argued that vouchers violate constitutional bans on money going to religious schools, while others have contended that redirecting more to private schools would leave the public education system inadequately financed.

The law at the center of the debate, which was passed last March, includes more than just a voucher system: it also significantly broadens and streamlines the process of establishing charter schools and creates a program in which students can take courses from online providers with state money.

But if the State Supreme Court were to agree with the district judge and find that arrangement unconstitutional, money for vouchers would have to be appropriated as a separate line item each year, with all of the political complications, year-to-year uncertainty and budget squabbling that would entail.

What is certain is that there will be more arguments on the issue to come, in both the courts and in the state legislature. It is certainly not as potentially problematic for the program as a decision that vouchers violate a standing court order on desegregation, as a federal judge ruled last week in regard to such an order in one Louisiana parish.

Taking money from under-funded, poorly-performing public schools and giving it, in the form of vouchers to privately-run, and in some cases, unaccountable charter schools is wrong.  Just as giving public monies to private schools is wrong.  The damage done to public education and the vast majority of students doesn’t make sense to me.