Nader to speak in Tulsa
Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader will speak about Oklahoma’s ballot access law and the current presidential campaign at Oklahoma State University-Tulsa on Thursday at 1 p.m. in the Auditorium.
“Open the Debates” is the theme of Nader’s remarks, which reflect the Nader and vice presidential candidate Matt Gonzalez campaign’s call for inclusive, democratic presidential debates.
Nader will also address
OSU-Tulsa is located at 700 North Greenwood Avenue, near I-244 and Detroit Avenue. For more information, contact the Nader campaign at 202-471-5833.
’09 National Merit semifinalists announced
I just wrapped up writing about the 2008 National Merit Scholarship winners in July.
But already, the list of nearly 200 Oklahoma students who are semifinalists in the 2009 National Merit Scholarship Program is out.
The 195 students are among 1,600 nationwide who will go on to compete for $35 million in college scholarships. About half will win, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.
I did a few breakdowns of the list of Oklahoma semifinalists:
143 attend public schools.
42 attend private schools.
9 are homeschooled.
1 goes to a charter school.
Three schools yielded more than 10 semifinalists:
The Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics, with 22.
Jenks High School, with 14.
Holland Hall School in Tulsa, with 13.
The students qualified by earning the highest scores among state test-takers on the 2007 Preliminary SAT exam.
The list of seniors will be narrowed down to a list of finalists before the scholarship winners are announced in the coming months.
Click here for a list of all the Sooner semifinalists.
Wendy Kleinman
Education Reporter
Gun-free, idle-free schools
Schools already are designated gun-free, drug-free zones, and West Virginia is moving toward adding “idle-free” to the list.
The state’s Department of Environment Protection is entering the second year of a program that provides school boards, Head Start programs and private schools with signs declaring them idle-free, according to this Charleston Daily Mail story.
The state already prohibits school buses from idling unless it’s below 40 degrees outside. Officials hope the signs will encourage parents to do the same.
Are financial or environmental concerns enough to convince you to cut your engine while you wait for your children to get out of school? Share your comments here.
Wendy Kleinman
Education Reporter
State Title I funds rise as number of children in poverty does same
Prepare yourself: There are a lot of numbers in this blog.
But what they reflect is important: the amount of money given to districts with a lot of children living in poverty. That actually makes Title I the largest federal school funding program, for which figures were released today.
Oklahoma received 15.8 percent more in Title I school funding allocations this year than last year, the seventh-highest percentage increase of all the states, according to a report by the Center on Education Policy.
Title I funding nationally totaled $13.8 billion, and all states had increases except for Wisconsin.
The 2008-09 allocations, which in Oklahoma total $148.5 million, are based on the number of low-income children in the 2005 calendar year. Oklahoma was one of 17 states that saw a more than 10% increase in the number of low-income children from the 2004 to 2005 calendar years.
Oklahoma’s percentage of low-income children spiked 16.8 percent, a smaller jump than only Vermont, Hawaii, Maine, Nebraska and Idaho.
This spreadsheet shows how much each district in the state was allocated. Districts will likely receive less than their allocations after state adjustments for things like boundary changes and charter schools.
The districts in Oklahoma with the highest allocations are:
Oklahoma City – $22,277,435
Tulsa – $18,109,977
Lawton – $4,477,234
Putnam City – $4,431,600
Midwest City-Del City – $2,982,065
The districts in Oklahoma with the lowest allocations are:
Stidham – $8,545
Peckham – $0
Plainview (the one in Cimarron County) – $0
Reydon – $0
Straight – $0
Click here if you’re interested in how districts in other states fared.
Wendy Kleinman
Education Reporter
Teachers to Troops
I wrote a story for today’s Oklahoman about a program called Troops to Teachers.
And while the federal Troops to Teachers program brings military personnel into the educational fold, there also are citizens in military reserve units who go from teacher to soldier.
Nationally in April, 4.1 percent of those in the Selected Reserve — those most likely to be called to duty — said they work in the education field, Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Les Melnyk told me.
There are more than 800,000 men and women in the Selected Reserve, he said.
The education category includes those who work in grade schools and colleges, and those who work for schools but not as classroom teachers.
By the way, here are some breakdowns on what geographic areas and subjects those in the official Troops to Teachers program go into; just click on the images to see the graphics at full size:
Share your thoughts here on those who have served as both troops and teachers.
Wendy Kleinman
Education Reporter
Obama, McCain on education
The economy, war and energy crisis all are more important issues facing the nation than education, according to an AP-Ipsos poll in July. But if you’re reading this blog, then education most likely does interest you.
So now that Barack Obama and John McCain have both formally accepted their nominations and spoken to the nation from their respective conventions, I thought I’d post information about each of their education plans. They all have a lot of ideas, so following are the links to the details of them.
McCain: www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/19ce50b5-daa8-4795-b92d-92bd0d985bca.htm
Obama: www.barackobama.com/issues/education
Poke around, read both sides, and come back here to share your thoughts.
Wendy Kleinman
Education Reporter
Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal College honors first graduates
Congratulations to the first graduating class of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal College!
Last week, 13 students graduated from the college that shares the Weatherford campus of Southwestern Oklahoma State University.
Above are a couple photos from the event. The first photo shows College President Henrietta Mann and 2008 Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal College Princess Cristina “Cricket” Yellowman. In the next one, John Haumpo receives a stole, Pendleton blanket,
Good luck to them all!
Students play hooky, with their parents’ blessings
This is a follow-up to a story link I posted a while back.
Hundreds of students in Illinois are spending the first day of classes trying to enroll in higher-performing schools instead of in seats at their home sites. Students and their parents say they hope their protest will highlight disparities in Chicagoans’ education along the socioeconomic divide.
People on both sides of the issue have compelling arguments: one side saying the protest sends the wrong message to kids, the other saying that taking a stand is their best shot at rectifying an unequal education system. Which camp do you fall into?
Read the full story here, and then share your thoughts.
Wendy Kleinman
Education Reporter
