Deceased Attorneys Come to Life in Allegheny County. Nice.

To: webmaster.civil@county.allegheny.pa.us

Hi Does an error in the docket reports accessed through https://dcr.alleghenycounty.us reflect an error in the Department of Court Records? More than once I have seen deceased attorneys listed as parties in proceedings in which they were never involved. Please explain. Thank you, laurie kir

Payments to charter schools a burden, Woodland Hills says - BUT I SAY THIS ARTICLE IS UNINFORMATIVE BLATHER

Oh, cry me a river. Public charter schools function under the same laws as non-charter public schools. Maybe the districts need to ask themselves why children and families are opting to exercise their rights as they are provided by law; why can't they improve conditions so as to regain enrollment numbers? Lobbying to take options away from children and families encourages more flight away from their schools. Obviously.

Payments to charter schools a burden, Woodland Hills says

Districts urge state to alter methods

Thursday, January 26, 2012

By Annie Siebert, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Woodland Hills school board, which pays more than $10 million a year to nearby charter schools, is one of at least two local boards joining in an effort to change the way charter schools are funded.
School districts have long complained that they lose money when a student chooses to attend a charter school. Public schools, out of the subsidies they receive from the state, must pay the tuition for those students.
District officials argue that although they are required to pay tuition to charter schools, the staff needed to educate the remaining students stays the same, creating a major financial burden.
"When you send the money out of the public school system, you've taken away from the subsidies that are going to the general public," Woodland Hills school board President Marilyn Messina said.
During the 2010-11 school year, Woodland Hills received a reimbursement of a little more than $1.8 million from the state for its tuition payments.
This school year, the district estimates it will pay more than $12 million to charter schools but won't receive money from the state because of education funding cuts. "This time we get no support," Ms. Messina said. "There's no added supplement from the state."
The Woodland Hills school board last week voted to urge legislators to reform the way charter schools are funded and hold the schools accountable for the academic performance of the students.
"A lot of school directors feel, 'Where's the monitoring?' It's not that we're against choice, we just wonder how this money is being spent," Ms. Messina said.
The resolution was authored by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association in May. In addition to Woodland Hills, the East Allegheny school board passed its version of the resolution this month.
Woodland Hills' coffers have long suffered as a result of the number of students leaving the district to attend charter schools. As the number increases, state aid has steadily decreased until it was ultimately eliminated this year.
According to the resolution, Pennsylvania school districts' expenditures for students attending charter schools has increased by $332.5 million, or 112.6 percent, between the 2003-04 school year and the 2007-08 school year. In the 2010-11 school year, Pennsylvania school districts paid $795 million to charter schools.
East Allegheny estimated in the resolution that it will pay more than $1.2 million to charter schools this year.
"Our district is more than capable [of providing] a quality education to students ... and we encourage attendance to public schools" versus charter schools, said Toni Valicenti, East Allegheny's director of fiscal affairs.
Ms. Messina questioned the formulas for determining funding for charter schools. She noted that Woodland Hills pays charter schools $20,000 per special-needs child, but it doesn't distinguish between serious disabilities and mild impairments.
"It's under one umbrella, and it's not identified," she said.
"Choice is not the issue. It's how the money goes [to charter schools]," she said. "If you want choice, great, but don't take from our pot."

Annie Siebert: asiebert@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1613. Twitter: @AnnieSiebert.

First published on January 26, 2012 at 4:53 am

 Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12026/1206014-56-0.stm#ixzz1kaFEY47M

Related:  Pennsylvania asks for freeze on Adequate Yearly Progress
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12026/1205854-55.stm
 excerpt:

"Statewide, 94 percent of districts made AYP,..."
"In Allegheny County, Sto-Rox, McKeesport Area, Woodland Hills and Duquesne did not make AYP."

how endearing, dude's in contempt...again

post removed due to expected increase in site traffic

thoughts on nature versus nurture

If it can be argued that my weaknesses, illnesses of the body and mind, come from code inherent in my genetic make up; then, it can be argued that my strengths, fortunes of body and mind, come from that same code.

The well from which I draw my genetic code contains a vast undercurrent of ancient waters dating back to an era before measured time and spanning the continent of Europe, from Romania to Germany, to England, and to Ireland. With that in mind, each day, I look forward to what I'm capable of becoming.

snippet re: perception management

You say Welfare Mom, I say Non-Wage Earning Household Worker

I'd like to present two scenarios.

Scenario number one:

Single Mother Susie wakes up in the morning, gets dressed, makes breakfast for her children, and throws a load in the wash. She walks the older child to school and takes the younger to the playground. 

They visit the library for story time, walk home and have lunch. After cleaning the kitchen, again, Single Mother Susie folds the clothes from the laundry she'd started earlier, does some light cleaning, and spends time teaching the younger child letter recognition. 

Together they walk to get the older child at school, stop by the playground, then go home. While cooking dinner, Single Mother Susie supervises the older child's homework. The children set the table and get drinks while Single Mother Susie plates the food. 

After dinner, the family shares in the chore of cleaning the kitchen, again. The children bathe and prepare for bed, then settle in for family reading time. The children go to bed. Single Mother Susie puts away stray crayons and toys, finishes her reading, then tucks in for the night.

Scenario number two:

Single Mother Susie wakes up in the morning, gets dressed, makes breakfast for her children, and throws a load in the wash. She walks the children to the neighborhood, state funded daycare. 

Single Mother Susie then takes a bus to Bourgeois Betty's house. She makes breakfast for the children, and throws a load in the wash. She walks Bourgeois Betty's older child to school and takes the younger to the playground. 

They visit the library for story time, walk back to Bourgeois Betty's house and have lunch. After cleaning the kitchen, again, Single Mother Susie folds the clothes from the laundry she'd started earlier, does some light cleaning, and spends time teaching the younger child letter recognition. 

Together they walk to get the older child at school, stop by the playground, then go to Bourgeois Betty's. While cooking dinner, Single Mother Susie supervises the older child's homework. The children set the table and await the arrival of their mother. 

After Single Mother Susie is dismissed by Bourgeois Betty, she takes the bus back to her neighborhood, walks to the state funded daycare, and picks up her children. 

Once home, Single Mother Susie makes a late dinner. The children bathe and get ready for bed while she cleans the kitchen. Exhausted, the family tucks in for the night.

In which scenario is Single Mother Susie working?
In which scenario can we perceive a distorted version of a labor economy?
In which scenario do we have a social structure funded and designed to maintain a capitalist, classist state?


I think I've made my point.

What? Join the Industrial Workers of the World?

Open letter to the Industrial Workers of the World:

So, I've been calling for a national movement to recognize all workers as valuable contributors to our economy. It sounds simple enough, but it is one of the most difficult things I've tried to achieve. Perhaps it sounds as though I think I'm doing something new, but common knowledge dictates that the struggle of working class citizens is centuries old.

What I want to change is the context in which people frame the idea of work and worker recognition. If a logical approach to the way we think about work, value, economy, and class can be established or infused in the contemporary mind set, then we can begin to construct benevolent labor situations that will flourish despite the state of capitalism and the far reaching implications of globalism.

For a moment, suspend reactionary thoughts and focus on the following:  Working class women hold the balance in their hands. I know I'm not the only one who realizes that, and I'll say it again, working class women hold the balance in their hands. I'm quite serious. We are the demographic perfectly positioned to be mobilized to confront class structure transnationally. While that is a big picture view, it is also the heart of the workers' struggle.

Therefore, rational modes of thought toward domestic workers, household workers, unpaid elder-care workers and sex workers, for example, need to be cultivated and promoted. It's of critical importance to instill self worth, free from the binds of individualism, in the minds of the workers.

Understand, this movement has a better chance of succeeding if it is kept out of the confines of arguments pertaining to gender disparity. Were it to be perceived as a feminist movement, it would be squashed in its infancy. The working class must not be polarized by succumbing to the ubiquitous social pressure to identify with factions of gender politics.

At this time, I've yet to find an organizing body capable of supporting this call to action as I've no interest in subscribing to superfluous politics, nor will I engage in unintelligible power struggles. What I think I have found; however, is an opportunity to actualize my own need for worker recognition and fellowship within the construct of the IWW. This slight shift in my perception of my situation has benefited me tremendously. I look forward to applying for membership. Thanks, IWW, for being a light in the shadows.

Un Poquito de Tanto Verdad. Oaxaca. 2006.

The struggle belongs to all most of us.

allAfrica.com: Kenya: State Plans Drive to Popularise GMOs Amid Raging Debate

allAfrica.com: Kenya: State Plans Drive to Popularise GMOs Amid Raging Debate

Another fatal incident on the BART!