MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'districts'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:57:33 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4676751&cid=t_413017_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FJnvtT84EUt4%2F By Neal McCluskeyEvery week, the National Journal's Education Expert blog tackles a different issue, and from hereon out I'll be weighing in on many of them, crossposting at Cato@Liberty. I sent in my first entry today, which appears as a "guest response" while they set me up to appear as a regular. It's on my favorite topic -- education and social cohesion -- so hopefully I've started with a bang. Enjoy, and thanks to the National Journal for bringing a libertarian perspective on board: Looking at the evidence suggests that school choice is the best educational system to build strong communities. A lot, though, depends on how you define “community.” Diane Ravitch essentially defines a community as a “neighborhood,” and certainly neighborhoods can be a form of community. But neighb... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4676751 Mon, 04 Apr 2011 20:36:19 +0100 4676751 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3490615&cid=t_413017_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FsVvDzVxyTnE%2F By Andrew J. Coulson…Sparta, New Jersey that is. Like their fellow citizens in 54 percent of school districts across the state, the people of Sparta rejected their local district’s proposed budget yesterday. That’s the highest rate of school budget rejections since 1976, according to the New Jersey Star Ledger. Why? Taxpayers are tired of the relentlessly increasing per-pupil cost of public schooling at a time when their own household budgets are under pressure. It helped that popular new governor Chris Christie recommended that voters reject their districts’ budgets unless the teachers unions agreed to a one year salary freeze. [HT: Instapundit] If this keeps up, voters might just decide to dump the government monopoly approach to schooling in favor of an education system... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3490615 Wed, 21 Apr 2010 15:14:48 +0100 3490615 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3193703&cid=t_413017_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F5ZuJPT709tA%2F By Andrew J. CoulsonThe Brookings Institution will release a new school choice policy guide on February 2nd, and from the sound of it, children, parents, taxpayers, and the authors themselves should be concerned.  The guide will provide: a series of practical and novel recommendations for reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, including national chartering of virtual education providers; expanding the types of information collected on school performance; providing incentives for low-performing school districts to increase choice and competition; and creating independent school choice portals to aid parents in choosing between schools. The goals these recommendations are meant to achieve are entirely laudable, but there are three reasons for serious concern: 1)  ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3193703 Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:08:47 +0100 3193703 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3189124&cid=t_413017_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fa5cqYbJxWzM%2F By Neal McCluskeyYesterday, I wrote about President Obama’s proposal to extend the Race to the Top program, this time letting school districts completely bypass state governments and apply directly to the feds for funding. I pointed out that the proposal was one among several troubling signs that Obama intends to put Washington fully — and, of course, unconstitutionally — in charge of American education.  At the time, I didn’t realize how right I was. When I was writing yesterday I was basing my comments on documents from the White House’s website and hadn’t yet read the details of what went on at the President’s photo-op announcing the proposed extension. I sure wish I had: At the dog-and-pony show, the President just came right out an... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3189124 Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:22:40 +0100 3189124 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3185315&cid=t_413017_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fn9hrpQjOPG4%2F By Chris EdwardsI happened to catch the January 7 State of the State speech by Gov. Jim Douglas of Vermont on C-SPAN. It was a sober and serious presentation that laid out the facts about higher taxes and excessive spending, which are problems in just about every state. Douglas on excessive education staffing Vermont: Since 1997, school staffing levels have increased by 23 percent, while our student population has decreased by 11.5 percent. The number of teacher’s aides has gone up 43 percent. The number of support staff has gone up 48 percent. For every four fewer students a new teacher, teacher’s aide or staff person was hired. There are 11 students for every teacher – the lowest ratio in the country – and a staggering five students for every adult in our schools. With personne... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3185315 Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:38:12 +0100 3185315 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3096838&cid=t_413017_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2F1JSyDgOuHek%2F By Adam SchaefferI’m wrapping up a paper on the real cost of public education, the total price tag per student, not just the stripped down version they typically trot out to show voters. One of the districts is Arlington, VA, which is the one I  happen to live in. Though the district is an unusually big spender, their most recent budget, for fiscal year 2010, contains hand-wringing typical for school districts across the country. “FY 2010 will present unique challenges and hardships for staff, however as stated earlier, these reductions are taken so that there is minimal impact on classroom instruction.” Arlington is planning to spend over $23,000 per student this year according to the Washington Area Boards of Education (WABE). That’s a 33 percent increase in constant dollars sin... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3096838 Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:31:48 +0100 3096838 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2796405&cid=t_413017_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2Fl-3CV8BIRXA%2F Cognitive scientist Dan Willingham has a helpful column on the WaPo’s “Answer Sheet” blog. In it, he notes that DC Public Schools advises its employees to teach to students’ ”diverse learning styles” (e.g. “auditory learners,” “visual learners,” etc.) despite the fact that research shows these categories are pedagogically meaningless. But what really grabbed my attention was this comment: “a misunderstanding of a pretty basic issue of cognition is a mistake that one does not expect from a major school system. It indicates that the people running the show at DCPS are getting bad advice about the science on which to base policy.” As cognitive scientists have been collecting and analyzing evidence on “learning styl... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2796405 Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:39:10 +0100 2796405 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2761850&cid=t_413017_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FYGOz6iUp3rQ%2F Since Neal McCluskey and I weighed in on the president’s planned address to public school students this morning, we’ve been getting a whole lot of calls and e-mails from parents who aren’t too keen on the prospect. They’ve been asking us how to let their school districts know that they don’t feel comfortable with the president as “Educator in Chief.” If you’re in the same boat, here’s how to contact your district officials and (politely, of course) voice your opinion. Go to this school district search page at the Department of Education and type in the name of your district and the state that it’s in. Click the button and it will display your district’s telephone number. I’m sure the president would approve of helping ... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2761850 Wed, 02 Sep 2009 21:21:22 +0100 2761850 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1968955&cid=t_413017_133_f&fid=35096&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FAutismVox%2F%7E3%2FkpagzfIX_UY%2F I guess you could say, I have something of a love-hate-”just deal with it” relationship with data. Being a humanities sort of person with an inclination to poetry, I’m not overly drawn to calling on the “hard data” of statistics, numbers, and the like. Being my son’s mother, I’ve learned, there’s comfort, and a need, for columns of numbers and for graphs plotting all of it. Charlie’s language being minimal, all the records of how he’s done on learning this or that skill (and we have binders and boxes stashed away, with the current “Charlie box” behind my worktable overflowing with reports from the school, the neurologist, the eye doctor……) provide essential information about his learning, and about his stru... Autism Vox blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1968955 Tue, 18 Nov 2008 07:10:31 +0100 1968955 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=791321&cid=t_413017_87_f&fid=34867&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thediabetesblog.com%2F2007%2F08%2F10%2Flandmark-agreement-in-california-for-students-with-diabetes%2F Filed under: Type 1, Type 2, Childhood, Daily News, Support, Care, ComplicationsMost school cafeterias and vending programs feed our kids junk, but even worse, students with diabetes are not provided legally required care to manage the disease during school hours. Children with insulin dependent diabetes are heading to school without the assurance of regular blood glucose testing, the administration of insulin or other diabetes care tasks. In 2005, four California families and the American Diabetes Association (ADA) filed a suit in San Francisco, alleging some California school districts were not providing adequate diabetes care. In some cases, parents were called to give aid before summoning a school nurse. Michelle Ferry was one such parent. When her son was in first grade, this widowed... The Diabetes Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=791321 Fri, 10 Aug 2007 04:00:00 +0100 791321