"High school internships in jeopardy; State Senate's plan eliminates funding" by James Vaznis, Globe Staff | June 1, 2009
Thousands of internships for high school students across the state are threatened, and a Boston-based program that has been a national model for workforce development could be decimated under a budget cut proposed by the state Senate.
The recommendation, part of a broader effort to balance the state's budget for next year, calls for eliminating funding for the so-called school-to-career program, which last year provided more than 14,700 high school students statewide with jobs at places such as
Would they be in place of other workers looking for jobs or.... just noodling.
Related: You Can Take the Girls Out of the Ghetto....
The internships, supporters say, provide high school students with a golden opportunity to explore areas of interest that may help them decide on a major for college. The jobs can also be crucial in helping persuade some students to stay in high school by showing them firsthand how classroom lessons and a college degree are relevant to jobs later in life.
Then why the H1-Bs?
With employers paying salaries of students, the cut is not expected to affect this summer's jobs but could start creating problems for placements during the school year. The state funding helps cover the critical costs of running the various programs across the state, including the salaries of dozens of staffers who work with more than 5,600 businesses to create the internships. They also provide students with professional training.
So ONCE MORE we have a TAXPAYER SUBSIDY going to FAVORED BUSINESS INTERESTS.
You get to see why I have become so "anti-tax," no? Because it is a "LEGAL" LOOTING OPERATION!!!!!!! You are BETTER OFF KEEPING YOUR 50% when you ADD THEM ALL UP because the RETURNS on the "investment" STINK!
The Boston Private Industry Council, for instance, receives two-thirds of its funding from the state for its program, which serves more than 4,000 students and has 20 counselors at the city's high schools. The public-private partnership between the city's schools and the employer community has been placing students in internships since 1982, championed by national political leaders through the years as a model and an inspiration for other programs that have sprung up across the state.
"People assumed the program would be here forever - not so if this revenue stream goes away," said Neil Sullivan, industry council's executive director. "We understand, given the budget situation, the line item [covering the funding] needs to be trimmed back, but this cut would pull the program and others like it across the state up from the roots."
Need money?
Pigs at the State Trough
A Slow Saturday Special: Statehouse Slush Fund
Hollywood S***s on Massachusetts
Biotech Giveaway Was Borrowed Money
Massachusetts Residents Taken For a Ride
How many times I gotta put 'em up?
The Senate eliminated funding last month as it reacted to news of a projected $1.5 billion revenue shortfall - a budget crisis far more severe than what had confronted the House and the governor when they developed their proposals earlier this year....
"It's a reflection of the fiscal realities and not the value of the program," said Senator Steven C. Panagiotakos, chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee. "It's a very worthwhile program."
Along with the school-to-career program, the state funding also supports other partnerships between schools and the business sector, particularly in preventing academically struggling students from dropping out. The Private Industry Council has launched an aggressive letter-writing campaign to get the funding restored....
Isn't it amazing how WE can NEVER GET what WE WANT, 'eh?
And I think it becomes PRETTY CLEAR what Amurka's scools are about: getting some select few ready for employment. For the other dumb-down kids there is the draft!
Loss of the program could represent a setback for a developing effort by state education and business leaders to instill students with more workplace skills. The leaders are concerned that too many students leave high school without the skills necessary to succeed in the job market, such as the ability to think critically, solve problems, communicate, or work in teams....
UNREAL!!!
After the TRILLIONS of LOOT WASTED and the HORRIBLE CURRICULUM, the "leaders" NOW TURN AROUND and COMPLAIN?
And MY FIRST TEST for CRITICAL THINKING?
How do BUILDINGS FALL DOWN that way because of fire -- in KNOWN CONTRAVENTION of the PHYSICAL LAWS of the UNIVERSE!!
Starting point A for your CRITICAL THINKING, kids!
--more--"
And the cuts extend to the "very best" of us, folks:
Geoff Carens, a library assistant and union representative who is organizing a rally tomorrow to protest the cuts:
“The fact that this is happening at Harvard, who is still sitting on a chest of billions and remains the richest university in the world, shows it is pursuing this incredibly narrow path of naked self interest. They’re using this drop in the endowment as an excuse to justify really terrible cuts that will have a disastrous impact on the surrounding communities.’’
Not only that, they DO NOT PAY any TAXES!
Yesterday’s announcement also drew criticism from student leaders and renewed calls by some groups for top administrators, including president Drew G. Faust, to share in the economic sacrifice by cutting their own pay, as the presidents at Brown and Stanford universities have. The personnel cuts also, once again, raised the specter of cuts in programs.
FLASHBACK:
"Harvard president made $775k in first year on job" by Tracy Jan, Globe Staff | May 16, 2009
This as the endowment plummets, tuition is hiked, and services, techaers, and classes cut.
It is the SAME in EVERY SCHOOL SYSTEM, isn't it?
Hey, I learned something today: AmeriKa's indoctri, 'er, inculcat, 'er, brainwas, um, ejerkashen, that's right, AmeriKa's ejerkashen system is nothing but ANOTHER LOOTING OPERATION!
Harvard University paid its president, Drew Gilpin Faust, $775,043, including benefits, for the 2007-08 fiscal year, her first year on the job, according to the university's annual Internal Revenue Service filing released yesterday. It was the first time Faust's salary was made public.
The amount reflects $640,000 in cash compensation, $81,304 in moving and other expenses, and $53,739 in benefits. Harvard provides its president with a home on campus in addition to her compensation.
Yup, the RICH GET RICHER and the poor get s*** in their mouth -- or a toilet swab at $11 bucks an hour.
Faust's salary falls far below what several other private college presidents in the area earn. The Chronicle of Higher Education's annual survey, released last fall, showed Suffolk University's president, David Sargent, who received $2.8 million in compensation in 2006-07, as the highest-paid college president in the country.
Robert Brown, Boston University president, made $901,692 in 2006-07, and MIT's president, Susan Hockfield, was paid $808,698 that year. Pay for presidents at private research universities averaged $527,000 nationally.
No wonder the tuitions are so damn high: you are subsidizing avarice!
Also see: Pigs at the State Trough
Former Harvard president Lawrence Summers, who was forced to resign in 2006, was paid $611,226 during his final year as president in 2005-06. Yesterday's filing showed that Summers received $732,373 for the last fiscal year, 2007-08, during which he was a university professor, Harvard's highest-ranking professorship. He also has a $1 million mortgage loan from the university.
Un-frikkin'-real!
Summers's 2007-08 earnings reflect $580,000 in cash compensation, $120,452 in expenses and other allowances, and $31,921 in benefits. His expenses and other allowances include a $62,640 in "special agreement payment," $52,042 in loan interest subsidies, and $5,500 from the Harvard Kennedy School. He left in January to serve as director of President Obama's National Economic Council.
Also see: Censoring Larry Summers' Conflict-of-Interest
--more--"FLASHPRESENT:
Personnel costs account for half of Harvard’s $3.5 billion operating budget....
What I noticed in this article is that the reporter NEVER MENTIONS the SIZE of the ENDOWMENT! Just an innocent oversight, I'm sure.
Harvard officials find themselves in such a precarious financial position because, more than many private research universities, it relies heavily on income from its massive endowment to fund day-to-day costs. With the endowment plummeting, leaders say, they can no longer afford to maintain the university’s size and ambition....
Oh, GOOD!! Globalists gotta cut back?! Always good!
The foreboding cuts have prompted several university groups to embark on a “no layoffs’’ campaign in recent months, including a protest during Harvard’s commencement ceremony. The Harvard Crimson, a student labor group, and some law school staff members and law students have called for Faust and others to take a voluntary pay cut to save jobs. An associate professor in anthropology began organizing a campaign to ask faculty to donate 1 percent of their salaries to avoid staff layoffs.
“It’s outrageous that Drew Faust and others in the university administration have not seen fit to reduce their salaries to ameliorate the economic circumstances that the university is in,’’ said Stephen Helfer, a law school library assistant who took an early retirement after 22 years. Helfer and his colleagues collected 120 signatures on a petition to the law school dean last month asking for temporary salary reductions to reduce layoffs.
Faust made $775,043 in the 2007/2008 school year, according to university tax filings....
--more--"
Here is something else the Globe hid about Harvard:
"Charges advance in slaying at Harvard
A New York City songwriter has been indicted in the shooting death of a 21-year-old man inside a Harvard dormitory, a prosecutor said yesterday. Jabrai Jordan Copney, 20, was indicted late Thursday on charges including first-degree murder, armed robbery, and possession of a firearm in the May 18 shooting of Justin Cosby inside Kirkland House on campus.
Related: Getting High at Harvard
Copney’s compositions have been recorded by various artists, including R&B group New Edition. His lawyer, J.W. Carney Jr., did not immediately return a message. Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone said Copney and two other men planned to get marijuana and rob Cosby (AP)."
I mean, some schools you EXPECT that kind of BEHAVIOR, right?
"30 failing schools may face takeover; State would skirt teacher contracts Patrick readies bill as part of overhaul" by James Vaznis, Globe Staff | July 2, 2009
The Patrick administration, in a sharp deviation from previous state policy, will seek legislative approval to take over about 30 of the state’s worst schools and dramatically weaken their teacher contracts, as part of the governor’s effort to overhaul public education.
I guess contracts only apply to politically-connected pension looters and elite executive bonuses. All others are RIPE for REOPENING, 'eh?
The move took superintendents, school committees, and teachers by surprise because the state has long been hesitant to usurp local control, a tradition that dates back to Colonial times....
And they should KEEP IT THAT WAY!!! RESPECT TRADITION for ONCE, you vermin!
“It’s unacceptable that changes that would benefit children would be road-blocked by adults,’’ Chester said....
Here is SOMETHING ELSE that is UNACCEPTABLE!!!
How does THAT benefit kids?
No, not the LACK of a RAISE!!!!
Here is an example of a bad Massachusetts school:
The fervor of construction at the Lewenberg, at a cost of $2.3 million, has stung many of the departing teachers....
Named after a prominent Jewish attorney and community leader who died of pneumonia in 1922, the Lewenberg opened a few years later, at a time when Mattapan had a large Jewish community....
By the 1970s, the school had earned the nickname “Looneyberg’’ for its rowdy students and a schoolyard littered with discarded kitchen appliances and other junk. The Lewenberg was teetering on the brink of closure in 1984 when the school district undertook a last-minute save, installing a highly energetic principal, Thomas O’Neill.
And what a save he made....
But then the landscape shifted again, and kept shifting. As part of a sweeping overhaul in 1989, the district enacted the three-zone school assignment map, which took away the Lewenberg’s citywide status, eventually filling classrooms with fewer high-achieving students and more Mattapan children growing up in a difficult environment.
The premiere of the MCAS exam in 1998, a few years after O’Neill’s departure, put a new strain on students and teachers, as scores failed to measure up to state standards. The arts programs and much of Project Adventure fell victim to budget cuts and realigned priorities. The dragon was dismantled....
Some teachers complained that the school had become a dumping ground for the district’s worst students, [but] principal Myrtlene Mayfield said she would not entertain such talk during her tenure, which ended last year. But she acknowledged that many of her students were confronting problems, such as poverty and neighborhood violence, that can overwhelm schools.
“We just didn’t have enough resources to meet all the demands placed on schools - not just at the Lewenberg, but all schools,’’ Mayfield said.
But here the state is shoveling tax money out the door and into their pockets.
Had enough yet?
Whispers of a possible closure came at the start of this past school year when principal Andy Tuite arrived, fresh off a stint shutting down the Cleveland Middle School. A nervous Lewenberg staff dubbed him “The Closer.’’ Tuite called a meeting, assuring staff that was not his agenda. Tension eased.
Then a few weeks later.... Anger erupted, but no movement emerged to save the school.
No, we only do that for PRISONS!
Parents at the school’s final graduation earlier this month said they were saddened by the closure....
--more--"But hey, at least wees gots moneys fer SHHPORTS!!!!!
With local school athletic systems in crisis, professional sports teams in some American cities have rushed to the rescue....
Actually, no, I'll pass on the game, thanks.
Will there be similar heroes in Boston?
Do I give a s***?
After a Globe review found the city’s high school athletics program plagued by serious inadequacies in funding, facilities, equipment, coaching, and oversight, city leaders were scrambling for answers this week to problems that have festered for years and have cost countless students opportunities to make the most of their athletic abilities.
THIS is what the self-serving Globe gets ACTION on!
The cash-strapped Boston School Department has routinely allocated less than a half percent of its total budget to athletics, far below state and national averages. “It really would help us a heck of a lot if the professional teams stepped up to the plate and contributed,’’ said School Committee member Alfreda Harris, long an advocate for youth sports.
Boston’s professional teams expressed preliminary interest this week in helping the city’s struggling school athletic program. The teams already contribute to urban programs aimed at improving health care, education, and recreational opportunities for needy children.
Yeah, they are all just swell as UNGODLY SUMS are WASTED on SPORTS!
A high-ranking city official said the Red Sox are weighing a significant contribution after the Globe series. The Red Sox Foundation already contributes $200,000 a year for summer baseball and softball for Boston youth and $325,000 annually for Red Sox Scholars in the city’s schools.
“In a time of great need, there is always more we can all do, and we’re happy to work with the mayor, the School Department, other sports teams and supporters to try to provide young people in our community with more healthy, active, and safe programs that serve their needs,’’ said Meg Vaillancourt, the foundation’s executive director....
Which is great, I don't want to knock it completely; however, the WHOLE SYSTEM needs an OVERHAUL!
OUR KIDS PROGRAMS going HAT in HAND to WEALTHY ELITES with their REAL-LIFE GAMES!
Nevertheless, everybody in Boston is stirring about the sports!
"Menino will seek gifts for school sports; Sets goal of $4 million, vows to create nonprofit" by Bob Hohler, Globe Staff | June 28, 2009
Mayor Thomas M. Menino, aiming to curb chronic failings in Boston’s high school athletic programs, said he will create a nonprofit charitable foundation spearheaded by former athletes and business leaders to transform the troubled sports system into a source of urban pride.
Too bad they weren't as worried about the kids' ejerkashen.
The foundation is the centerpiece of a series of changes Menino crafted in response to a Globe series that showed the city has severely shortchanged Boston’s high school athletes in funding, equipment, facilities, coaching, and oversight. He said he has received a preliminary commitment from one Boston professional sports team to help launch the foundation and is optimistic others will join the effort.
The plan calls for the foundation to raise nearly $4 million over the next 18 months and provide substantial long-term funding....
After a while I just get tired of typing TRILLIONS of dollars for.... (fill in the blank).
Well, at least there is always NEXT SEMESTER, 'eh, kiddo?
"For philanthropy courses, students become the givers" by Tracy Jan, Globe Staff | June 25, 2009
WALTHAM - At least 10 New England colleges, including Brandeis, Holy Cross, Boston College, Wheelock, and Lesley, will offer similar courses next school year, using seed money donated by corporate and family foundations....
Related: Poor Little Brandweiss
The goal, say professors and donors, is to build upon surging interest in social responsibility among college students and make philanthropy part of the mainstream curriculum. A potential side benefit: helping colleges improve town-gown relations and, some professors said, cultivate future alumni donors.
Yeah, it is NOT ABOUT YOU and YOUR EDUCATION or even the TRUTH, kiddo; it's ALWAYS ABOUT $$$! I guess you ARE GETTING an EJERKASHUN after all!
“Some of these kids will become very wealthy in the future,’’ said Paul Schervish, a sociology professor and director of the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy at Boston College, who will soon begin teaching experiential philanthropy classes. “The professors see that this is a way to teach financial morality in the realm of philanthropy.’’
May I be excused to the bathroom, professor?
But teaching students how to give away money responsibly is more complicated than one would think, said academic leaders who gathered recently at Brandeis’s Sillerman Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy for the first national conference on teaching philanthropy.
Especially with all the LOOTING!
The Waltham college started a “practicing philanthropy’’ course this spring for graduate students and plans to create a similar course for undergraduates next spring. Students spent about two months debating their priorities, ultimately narrowing their focus to organizations committed to economic development, and early childhood education. Their task: find worthy recipients of a $40,000 donation from the Sillerman family....
Kicking back some of the stolen loot in terms of "charity," huh?
To exclusive interests, natch!
Laura McNulty's grant-writing experience and knowledge of what foundations look for when making funding decisions was invaluable in helping her secure a $10,000 grant to start her own nonprofit, Health Horizons International, McNulty said. She will move to the Dominican Republic this fall to help connect volunteer doctors on medical missions with community health initiatives in the Caribbean nation....
We need healthcare here, too, ya know?
Northeastern students started an extracurricular club last fall that operates as a de facto board of directors.... Missy Elumba, a health sciences major and ice hockey player who founded the club, also started a spinoff for NU student athletes. The group granted about $8,000 to local youth sports organizations, including helping bring tennis to impoverished Boston elementary schools....
THERE they go with the SPORTS again!
“In the future, these student athletes could go on to be professional athletes and make money with philanthropy instilled in them.’’
Well, that certainly needs to happen given the mindset of many of today's pampered players.
--more--"
Maybe you could try a SMALLER SCHOOL, huh?
BROOKLINE - Some specialists worry that the financial conditions of such schools - particularly religious and liberal arts colleges with tiny endowments and budgets that depend heavily on tuition revenue - will deteriorate further as the recession lingers, raising the possibility that some could be forced to shut their doors....
What do you mean RECESSION LINGERS?
Everyday in the BUSINESS SECTION I'm told WE ARE COMING OUT of IT -- and they DID IT AGAIN TODAY!
Some financially strapped schools have had to close entire academic programs to make ends meet, at the risk of losing students majoring in the discontinued subjects....
Related: A Class of One
Here is one subject of study they are adding: The Science of Gay
--more--"Out-of-state?
"State university system raising tuition
New Hampshire’s state university system is raising tuition for the fall. Overall costs for in-state students at the University of New Hampshire will rise 6.2 percent, to $21,600.
