A new report by LFA and Grunwald Associates, with support from AT&T, examines how parents perceive the value of mobile devices, how they see their children using mobiles, and what they think of the possibilities for mobile learning.
Blog Posts By Kenneth_Bernstein
Since Thursday, teacher-bloggers Ken Bernstein and Anthony Cody have been guest-blogging on the progress of the Stimulus. Here is Ken's take on what emerged from conference.
Now that we have a conference report...
It seems appropriate to revisit the impact of the Stimulus, formally known as the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), now that the House and Senate have agreed to the Conference Report and the President will sign it into law.
What will be in the law will not be as generous as the measure originally passed by the House, but is far superior to the version originally imposed on the Senate as the price of getting votes from the three Republican Senators who supported the measure, as well as keeping the votes of Democrats Ben Nelson of NE and Independent Joe Lieberman of CT. Much of what I offered in my original commentary remains, although some of the numbers have changed a bit. Thus the current national total for IDEA Part B is now 11.3 billion dollars over two years, rather than the original 13 billion. It is still a sufficient amount to ameliorate some of the financial pressures that would otherwise cost many teaching jobs, as noted in my original post. ...
Yesterday, we published guest postings on the economy, schools and the stimulus package by two teacher/bloggers: Ken Bernstein and Anthony Cody. Today, Ken responds to Anthony's posting. Bear in mind that the numbers have been changing fast as the bill races towards likely passage--so stay tuned.
Let me respond to Anthony Cody by examining in some more detail the impact of both stimulus and cuts upon the two school systems I know best: Arlington, Virginia, where I live; and Prince George’s County, Maryland, where I teach.
Virginia Governor Kaine would limit the cuts in state aid to local school districts to no more than $400/student. In Arlington, with about 18,300 students, that is a cut of $7.3 million in an FY2009 school budget of $350 million. That cut is just over 2%. Over two years, the total loss to the schools is $14.6 million. Examining the analysis available for the House version of the stimulus, over two years Arlington would have received $9.5 million, about 65% of what the state is cutting. Remember, cutting funds for schools represents cutting jobs, since the largest operational cost for schools is salaries and benefits. Cutting teacher jobs increases class sizes, with a concomitant impact upon student learning. ...
Veteran teacher Kenneth Bernstein teaches government at Eleanor Roosevelt High in Greenbelt MD and writes regularly (as “teacherken”) on education, national policy and other topics for the popular political blog DailyKos.
A member of the Teacher Leaders Network, Ken achieved National Board Certification (social studies/history) in 2005. Last fall, he was among a small group of teachers selected by the New York Times to contribute to the group blog Lesson Plans.
This is the first in a series of four guest blogs on schools and the financial crisis that we will publish in the coming days. Stay tuned later today for a contribution from National Board Certified teacher Anthony Cody.
I teach Government. I am also a political junkie. Thus I spend a lot of time reading, talking, thinking and writing about politics, the economy and, lately, the stimulus. I teach in one state (Maryland), live in another where I am political active (Virginia), and spend too much time around politicians on Capitol Hill. And here’s what I think. ...
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