House Bill Calls for Eliminating 43 Education Programs

[proud2BlibKansan]

Forty-three education programs would be scrapped under a bill introduced today by Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., the chairman of the House Education and the Workforce subcommittee that oversees K-12 policy. For background, read this post.

"It's time to trim the fat," Hunter said in a statement. "Today I will introduce legislation that will eliminate—not consolidate, not defund, but eliminate—43 wasteful K-12 education programs. At a time when approximately one-third of American fourth graders can't read, we must concentrate on education initiatives that have a track record of putting the needs of students first."

Among the programs the bill would eliminate are Striving Readers, the Even Start Family Literacy Program, and the National Writing Project.

Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., the chairman of the House education committee, and Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., a senior committee member and former chairman, are co-sponsors.

more . . . http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2011/05/house_calls_for_eliminating_mo.html?cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS1

Some of the cuts:

Even Start Family Literacy Program, Enhancing Education Through Technology, Striving Readers, the National Writing Project, Smaller Learning Communities, Reading is Fundamental, Improving Literacy Through School Libraries, Elementary and Secondary School Counseling, Teaching American History, School Leadership, Grants to Reduce Alcohol Abuse, Community Technology Centers, Bilingual and Emergency Immigrant Education Program, Star Schools, Early Reading First, Comprehensive School Reform, and the Ready to Teach Grant Program.

[Drale]

1. "At a time when 1/4 of all house republicans can't read

we need to trim the stupid out of our political system."

Drale

[Zoeisright]

2. I HATE that asshole John Kline and just wrote and told him so.

And also asked where the jobs are he and his fellow assholes promised.

[OHdem10]

3. The Righties are serious and have made their points clear.

They want small government.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

4. if you have 1/3 of fourth graders that don't read

you have a MUCH larger systemic problem than a few programs...

sP

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. I wouldn't trust a word that comes out of Duncan Hunter's mouth

[Hannah Bell]

12. good thing we don't have 1/3 of 4th graders who can't read. but thanks for catapulting the neolib

propaganda.

there sure is a lot of that at DU, especially on education.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

13. good thing I was just talking about what the article said

otherwise I might offend your sensibilities. of course, you could have lambasted the OP but you decided to speak to my response...interesting.

sP

[Hannah Bell]

15. no, you were talking about what a republican privatizer said: Duncan Hunter, R-Calif

and he's a liar.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

18. right and it is a major point in the article posted in the OP

but you only seem to see it in my post...

sP

[proud2BlibKansan]

20. A major point that is CLAIMED by Duncan Hunter

He's a dishonest right wing hack. I don't believe him.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

21. i wasn't speaking to the veracity of the claim... n/t

[QED]

5. 1/3 of 4th graders can't read - so let's eliminate early reading programs

Yeah, that's the ticket.

:sarcasm:

[ProdigalJunkMail]

7. my question is

why could kids read BEFORE these programs and what have these programs shown to work? what is the return from time/money/effort put into them. if they are failing, let's do away with them and find/do something that works.

sP

[Igel]

8. They couldn't.

But few cared.

There are some risky inferences from the stats. For instance, the cohorts that did really badly in school still do really badly in school--it's just that they comprise a somewhat larger percentage of the population even as their racial demographics change. (The cohorts that did well actually do better than their predecessors did. Otherwise we'd have a downtrend instead of what's essentially a flat line.)

Some of the programs show improvement in early reading readiness. Mostly it's an accident. They claim to teach things like phonemic awareness, but while "teaching" phonemic awareness they have a lot of interaction with the kids and increase their vocabulary--which is what actually increases phonemic awareness. The researchers generally know that everybody wants to believe what they say, so they have really sucky controls. "We will teach phonemic awareness using these materials, but radically alter the interactional environment *and* teach phonics, then say all of the increase in results is because of our materials." Wouldn't fly in a science dept. It's cheered in ed depts.

Most of the effect of early childhood intervention is gone by 4th grade for most kids, although you can still find traces of it (statistically significant, but faint) at age 18 and 19. What happens is that many the kids who need EC intervention tend to lose "grade level" points sometimes as much as a third of a year, over summer; few gain any. Those who really don't need EC intervention often actually gain grade level tenths, up to a third of a year, over summer break. Take a class with everybody at 3.0 at the end of third grade. Return for 4th grade and one group of kids is back at 2.7 and need review to regain lost ground; another group of kids is as 3.3 and coasts for the first few months.

There is a payback: Some kids retain the advantage that they were given well enough to come out even in 4th and 5th grade, and stay even. It's really expensive per kid, but there's no good way (that I've heard of) of determining which kids will stay with it and which won't.

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. How about let's not trust a shithead republican or his data

[ProdigalJunkMail]

14. i honestly don't know if these myriad programs work

i do know the state of education is radically changed over the years...

sP

[Hannah Bell]

16. my question is, why do you believe Duncan Hunter, R-Calif?

[ProdigalJunkMail]

19. yeah, because you believe there is nothing wrong with the education

system in this country. everything is hunky dory...that way, you don't have to think about what might be wrong and how to fix it. if you believe everything is A-OK then you are in denial.

sP

[RKP5637]

6. Maybe we should start by trimming the "FAT" in the republican party. They remind me

of corporate hatchet men that came in and cut the companies to shreds with layoffs and then later the company went out of business because they had lost their core competences.

Meanwhile the corp. hatchet men floated off with golden parachutes to repeat the same stunt.

The people that had done the real work in the corp. were gone and these fat asses soaked up the cash, sold off assets and raked in zillions. I am so fucken tired of the bullshit from the republican party. Wake the fuck up Americans for a change!

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. Amen

[Telly Savalas]

17. A quick look at a piece of the fat

http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/doc/about.csp

I'm getting pretty fucking sick of dumbasses who substitute vague ideological declarations (especially of the anti-government variety) for substantive discussion of public policy issues. Kline needs to explain to us why this sensible looking program is "fat".