Elyse Dashew still leads the 14-person pack in raising money for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board race, but Keith Hurley found an interesting way to make good on his September promise that he'd have at least $30,000 to report by now.
Hurley, a BB&T mortgage banker making his first run for office, has raised $6,825 from other people as of this week's campaign finance report. But he's also lent himself $50,800, bringing his total receipts to well over $57,000. (You can look up all reports here; the newest are labeled 35-day reports.)
Hurley says he doesn't actually expect to sink $50,000 of his own money into campaigning. "I don't buy shirts unless they're two-for-one," he said. But he said he expects donations to pick up and wanted to have the money available.
Dashew, also making her first run, has taken in almost $31,800 so far, including $3,000 she loaned herself. She reports donations from an array of education, civic and business leaders (including $500 from retired banking titan Hugh McColl). That puts her well ahead of Tim Morgan, whose $15,550 lands him second-highest. Morgan has also landed the backing of various leaders, including $500 from his brother, Charlotte Chamber of Commerce President Bob Morgan.
Also cracking the five-figure mark: Aaron Pomis with $10,545 (including $2,500 in donated web design) and Ericka Ellis-Stewart at just over $10,000.
Others are Mary McCray at $9,000, including $1,100 from herself; Lloyd Scher at $8,800, including almost $2,300 in loans from himself; Hans Plotseneder at $8,300, including $6,550 in loans from himself; Darrin Rankin at $5,150, about $1,150 in loans from himself; Ken Nelson at just over $2,900, with $2,500 of that a loan; and Jeff Wise at $855.
Lisa Hundley filed a report showing $3,150 raised, but has now withdrawn her candidacy because she learned her cancer has returned. Larry Bumgarner filed a statement at the outset saying he wouldn't raise or spene more than $1,000, and DeShauna McLamb hasn't filed anything since her organizational reports in March.
The real question is how money and/or endorsements will translate to votes. Dashew, who is unaffiliated, won't have either party touting her, though she is garnering support from prominent Democrats and Republicans. Endorsements seem to be spread around enough to make it a hot competition for those top three spots when the votes are tallied Nov. 8.
The next finance reports are due Oct. 31.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Banker/candidate advances himself $50K
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51 comments:
Any endorsement by Hugh McColl should be a sign NOT to vote for that person.
Dashew is part of MeckACTS, members who want to return to gerrymanderng the system to dilute the "high poverty" areas throughout the county. She doesn't want the BOE do it, but rather the city to "spead the high poverty areas around".
Watch her Swann interview Question #6 and you'll see.
Hey Ann, could you ask CMS why tor the second or third time this year there has been a problem with payroll direct deposits??? My understanding is that it is supposed to be avaliable after midnight on the day employees are paid, but some deposits didn't show up until later this morning.
Wiley,
I listened to Elyse Dashew's comments and she says that as a BOE member, she would not be in favor of busing. She says that there may be more the city could do to promote diversity in given areas of the county.
This is a moderate position, saying that she's in favor of the idea of diversity. In practice, as a BOE member she says she'd vote against busing.
Where is your evidence that she's part of MeckACTS?
She comes accross as moderate, perhaps too moderate. But you should have clear evidence of your claims.
As a point of fact, Elyse Dashew has never had any connection with Mecklenburg ACTS. She is not a member and has not signed our testing petition. For what it's worth, she was also not one of the three candidates that we suggested our petition-signers take a closer look at.
As a further point of fact, there is no overlap in leadership between Mecklenburg ACTS and the Swann Fellowship. The two groups worked together on the candidate interviews, but otherwise we don't have a lot of contact.
Anon 6:47...
Dashew is co-founder of MeckFUTURE, not MeckACTS. With all the Meck ACTS, FUTURES and EDs, it difficult to keep them straight, so that was a mistake on my part, naming the incorrect "Meck" associated with her.
Dashew says she is for "diversity" which if you listen closely from start to finish, she goes from saying she found "diversity" in her child's magnet and states she doesn't think busing is the answer "at this point in time" but then states our neighborhoods should be integrated and the city should be doing that.
She asks, "does that answer your question" to which the moderator says no.
We don't need anyone on the BOE who waffles on busing.
You may not have a lot of contact but you do have the same belief in busing....
Someone suggested in an earlier post that there might be overlap in leadership between Mecklenburg ACTS and the Swann Fellowship; I was simply putting forth the facts.
Ann, where is that front-page MeckACTS investigation! It would make everyone's life so much easier!
Here is the link to MeckACTS...
http://www.mecklenburgacts.org/
Please read where they support the continued waste of over $20 million per year on the black hole known as Bright Beginnings...
Read how they support spreading students around to achieve some sort of "diversity utopia", when CMS has no say in where people live. It is CMS' responsibility to EDUCATE, not integrate neighborhoods.
• Segregating schools with high proportions of challenged students from wealthier schools is
likely to lower expectations at those schools, especially for those students who are already achieving.
http://www.mecklenburgacts.org/CentralZonesMeckACTS.pdf
• We believe these zones offer a classic example of why separate will never be equal.
Busing is dead, get over it.
Stop damning kids because of where they live. They have just as much capacity to learn in their neighborhood school as busing them 10 miles to another school.
Yes, read about MeckACTS. If you want to continue supporting the status quo with the same lame excuses as to why Johnny can't learn and support their will to bus students all over the County, by all means go for it.
Sorry Pam some might think that doing a front page thing would be akin to free advertising and more promotion of just another of the many agenda driven groups here in Charlotte all vying for their share of the billion and how to spend it.
Your group has been very lucky as has been MeckEd and others at getting your reports and the like in the paper and in front of the media.
I know that the most recent study on Choice and how it should have hit our system and our Education System like an Nuclear Bomb due to its content, was ignored by all the media.
You and others can see it here at www.WestCharlotte.com see the report.
An abstract is: We study the impact of a public school choice lottery in Charlotte-Mecklenburg (CMS) on postsecondary
attainment. We match CMS administrative records to the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC), a
nationwide database of college enrollment. Among applicants with low-quality neighborhood schools,
lottery winners are more likely than lottery losers to graduate from high school, attend a four-year
college, and earn a bachelor’s degree. They are twice as likely to earn a degree from an elite university.
The results suggest that school choice can improve students’ longer-term life chances when they gain
access to schools that are better on observed dimensions of quality.
So while it seems those groups get the attention who have agendas it is sad how those who are only interested in Education are ignored.
So I hope you and your group all the best and am sure you will be happy that we all appreciate all your are doing to get your agenda moving for your and your groups interest.
We have so many of you out there now.
Wiley,
The campaign strategy waffle (ED) is intentional until after the election. Nothing controversial or committed statements will be uttered. It will be interesting to see if any alliances work and who cancels out each other.
Larry,
This whole thing about some people having agendas and some not is silly. You have an agenda. You believe that charters and vouchers will improve education and you engage in political activity, including running for school board, in order to further that agenda. I believe that measures such as small classes, getting rid of testing madness and reducing economic isolation will improve education, and I engage in political activity in order to further that agenda.
Essentially, the study you cite seems to be saying that kids who go to better schools do better educationally. Not much of a bombshell there. The question is whether expansion of charters and vouchers is the best way to get more kids into better schools. The overall record of charter schools is spotty, and there is very little evidence that they have sparked major educational improvements, except in isolated cases. The evidence that shows the negative effects of massive standardized testing, as well as the benefits of small classes and reducing economic isolation is stronger.
We don't have to agree on this, but it makes no sense for you to claim that people who disagree with you have agendas while you do not.
Yes Pam, I am sorry my agenda is so obvious.
All these groups have all these people needing jobs and working at them and here I have been volunteering and donating for the last ten years in the Challenged Neighborhoods.
I am sorry to have brought up anything that might have challenged the cash stream to any of them.
And your opinion of charter school effectiveness is just as slanted as your other agenda driven ideas.
As I am sure you will say mine are.
But I have proof on my website and have traveled around the country on my own money for the last few years before I even suggested this just to make sure it would work here.
I have seen so many great Charter Schools like www.AchievementFirst.org and others who work that is sad you have such an attitude of protecting and keeping the future from so many kids.
All the best as we both fight for our agendas. Mine Education and your what ever it is you think you are going for.
Wiley,
Do you ever have anything positive to say? You comment on just about every CMS related story, and you generally say something bad. Are you somehow affiliated with CMS? Just wondering.
Might Wiley be one of the CMS spin doctors diverting focus away from real issues of significant impact to the community. There is generally not much to Wiley's comments in terms of actionable information. Look at the first post in this blog. Wide reaching inflammatory statements, but to what end? As if gerrymandering has not been a common practice of those in power for decades.
My only affiliation with CMS was having a child go through 13 years of school system.
Anything positive to say about CMS?
Sure. I believe CMS has many fine, dedicated teachers. I believe the vast majority of students want to learn, graduate and be successful in life.
Beyond the things mentioned above, the rest of CMS and public education in general has been languishing in the toilet for decades.
Too many special interest groups and politicians and educrats who always think they can revolutionize education, but don't.
Too many of those same people who allow the basic core of education to be corrupt by continuing to base decisions and spending on erroneous data.
There are 138,000 students in CMS. We don't yet know how many students this year CMS will be giving free or reduced lunches to. Last year the number was right at 75,000.
Think about it. That's 56% of the students and 77% of the 97,000 lunches served everyday yet that 75,000 number? It doesn't come anywhere close to the percentage of poverty in Mecklenburg County OR the number as identified by the 2010 US Census.
Yet people continue to use those artificially inflated numbers to base virtually EVERYTHING off of them to suit their agenda. Some just simply don't care because they don't want to upset the status quo or get involved finding out the real number.
Groups like MeckACTS cry about CMS wanting to consolidate high poverty schools into a Central Zone, where funds can be targeted to try and build those schools and students up and help them be successful.
I think that's a great idea, but when you potentially have 35,000 students on FRL who MAY NOT QUALIFY for the benefit, which then in turn causes CMS to have to target 75,000 students versus 40,000, that is a huge waste of funds that could be used for the most vulnerable students to ensure they have a chance to be successful.
Of course some groups don't want to know the real number. To know would mean the loss of millions in Title I and other funds that they are currently receiving.
How can you have a successful school system when the foundation is built on a faulty data?
Why do we have a school system many people don't want to send their kids to and many who live just outside the County but work here? I work with 5 people who made that decision to NOT live in Mecklenburg County because of CMS.
Why does our Mayor and at least one council member not have their children in CMS schools?
Why do we have a school system that doesn't reflect the demographic makeup of the County?
Until we fix the core system, eliminate excuses, stop with the "diversity" rhetoric and trying to gerrymander the school boundaries to spread that diversity and recognize EVERY child has the ability to learn, no matter their color, household income or where they live, there isn't much to be positive about.
Wiley,
Isn't that the trouble with all liberals? The is just infinite...very little talk about options i.e. cutting one to help another. And, if you took all the money thrown at families who really don't need it but are about to get it, we could help the truly needy. But the way the system is gamed, groups get money based on poverty so the incentive is to have as much poverty as possible.The article in the paper about teachers getting paid based on tenure rather than achievement is another huge issue...
It's how you measure that achievement.
The only issue I agree with MeckACTS on is the unnecessary saturation of proposed PFP testing.
Teachers are not the problem with education woes so why spend all that time and money pursuing it right now?
The only answer I can come up with is deflection - deflection from many of those problems I mentioned in the post above that educrats can't seem to get a handle on.
There are teachers who perform better than others or do more overall and they should be compensated for it, but using kids as the determining factor of whether teachers make the grade is ridiculous.
Wiley, Wiley, Wiley!
Clear thoughtful and well put. There is common ground and hope after all.
I still think your FRL lunch analysis is off a bit. 1) If the FRL ranks was cleared of freeloaders who do not qualify, the money would simply not come to town; it would not be there to focus on the truly needy you reference. 2) Flight away from CMS by those who can afford to go private or out of County creates a skew in the percentages. Proportionately more FRL kids are left for CMS to cover than the census would predict.
Wasting local dollars is so much more of an issue to sink our teeth into. Seems like a waste of energy to focus on items outside of local control.
I do get your perspective and might not disagree too much, but come on this is a local Board and local kids. Let’s rally on local issues we can affect change!
The more I look into CMS the more I get the impression there is a void of real leadership with backbone to make the tough correct decisions. With Supers coming in for the short term, bank a million and move on, a longterm point of view just does not exist.
Renovate a school and then lease it out while the taxpayer pays for the renovation and debt service for decades to come. What plan-et is that OK on? Doesn't it just plainly look dumb? Shouldn't at least one Board member ask why CMS is afraid to occupy Midwood?
Mudd..
The 2010 Census lists the total number of children in poverty under 18 year of age at 45,986.
The number of children in poverty between the ages of 5 and 17 at 29,514.
CMS sample audits have shown 60% of respondants do not qualify for FRL based on their applications. If you take 60% of those currently getting the benefit (75,000), that comes out to be 45,000. That leaves 30,000 who do qualify.
Match that 30,000 number with what the Census states (29,514) and you're almost dead on.
With the potential discrepancy being so large within CMS and the fact the USDA overpaid school lunch benefits nationally by $1.5 BILLION in 2009/2010, don't you think it behooves us to find out the TRUE number of kids who should be getting the benefit versus those who don't?
I agree that the federal money would most likely not stay here, but this IS a national problem and needs to be fixed, especially since other funding is dependent on that FRL number.
Incorrect FRL numbers do affect us locally by pouring more money into strategic staffing that may not be needed at current levels. FRL students get school supplies for free, AP/IB tests for free and they also get to play sports for free while other parents have to pay for those things.
CMesS
Liars and Theif upon Theif
Wiley, if your math holds true, how can CMS not have developed alternate planning mechanisms to compensate for the skewed FRL numbers to better public policy decision making?
Simple greed can explain accepting federal FRL funding. However, for CMS to steer public policy on numbers known to be skewed is a chilling thought.
With all the investment in planning, number crunchers and accountability, how is it that CMS continues to make public decisions based on data known to be skewed? This could be the local angle.
Might rabbit man be a hero after all?
Beehive Mike?
Kill the messenger seems popular today.
As one of the original people volunteering with Gang of One when it started, I offer this for everyone who thinks that melee downtown was just a fluke.
How about a free sleep over night in one of these challenged neighborhoods that CMS and their miserable failures helps push dropout rates?
I am sure you know about the sad only 30 percent graduation rate of African American Males in some of schools in our System? Something that we should be yelling from the top of our tallest buildings daily.
We need you and the elected officials to come and spend the night and see just what it is like, in these neighborhoods.
That way you can see what I have been volunteering for these last few years and want to stem.
You will see why I say Gangs have provided a need and safety that we have ignored for so long, and why I say that gangs do provide jobs where they are not available and safety where it is needed even if they do other things we may not like in society.
Just send me an intent notice and we will get a group started and come up with a great night for all of this.
Larry@gangofone.org
Note: I am not with the current Gang Of One they are now GangofOneCharlotte.org they got a Million or two and went on past the Original hard working Eastway Drive based Officers who started the group and the Many Hard Working Volunteers and are now a party kind of thing flush with cash.
Plus they are very PC which is very nice when dealing with gangs.
Mudd...
I believe my numbers are in the ballpark. I have yet to see anyone refute them. This isn't just a CMS issue. I could post - and have - many incidents of lunch fraud across the country.
Since the USDA will only allow a 3% sample audit, where is the incentive to really care?
CMS did try to pursue auditing the entire program about 5 years ago, but was told by the USDA they would lose all funding if they did. McGarry and Gauvreau wanted to call them on it but were voted down by the rest of the board.
Wouldn't it be great to be able to reduce K-5 class sizes to a 10 to 1 ratio with each teacher having an aide? Wouldn't it be great to have the money being wasted to do that, which would help ALL kids?
From Pam's webpage: "It (Shamrock Gardens) is also one of the many high-poverty, high-minority schools created when Charlotte ended busing for desegregation."
Note--problems were created "when busing ended" (2002-2003 school year was the first official year of new assignment plan).
From the NCDPI website, School Report Cards we learn that in 2001-2002 school year Shamrock Gardens had fewer than 15% white students, over 90% poor students. Test scores about 20% below city average.
From the Observer, 1997, in an article detailing state test results:
But the mood was somber at the four area schools that posted some of the lowest test-score growth in the state: Allenbrook and Shamrock Gardens elementaries in Charlotte and Lingerfeldt and Arlington elementaries in Gastonia.(from Observer,Oct. 7., 1997.)
There are also articles in the Observer archives from 1991 which describe Plaza Midwood attempts to end busing for Shamrock students, as residents there felt that many new young families were putting their children in private schools because they did not like their children being bused away from the neighborhood for 4-6 grades. This was contributing to the decline of Shamrock. (See CO, August 7, 1991, Plaza Midwood group wants neighborhood school unpaired) Kind of ironic, isn't it!
These articles and figures don't quite jibe with Pam's frequent portrayal (in local and national articles) of Shamrock being a diverse neighborhood school before busing ended. So I am a bit skeptical of her claim that Meck ACTS and Swann have little relationship other than the videos.
Anon 11:03..
Those two groups don't have to have a link on their website to each others site to know they both push the same agenda.
Good stuff in your post.
Wiley is obviously too honest to be a politician.
I understand his point about the dishonesty behind FRL, but everyone else seems to think it is just a game that EVERYONE plays so only a fool wouldn't cheat.
To me this lack of honesty is probably a core problem in many parts of our government.
The fact that everyone else goes along with the dishonesty is disheartening at best.
Anon 5:07...
The other part no one wants to talk about are those kids who are getting the benefits but don't qualify for them and being told "shhhh...it's ok".
What are we teaching them about right and wrong?
Waste and fraud has been an increasing focal point in the Federal Government.
Obama stood before Congress and the American people in January 2009 and said he was going to pay for his health care plan by "eliminating waste and fraud in Medicare and Medicaid".
Why can't we do the same with the USDA and the school lunch program?
The Obama administration is upping the ante in the way it holds agency officials accountable for how their agencies run.
In their latest move, the President will issue an executive order in the next week requiring secretaries to name a Senate confirmed official to be personally responsible for reducing the amount of improper payments.
Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag says this person will be featured on a new online dashboard tracking agency improper payments.
"The dashboard will track the error rate, identify the responsible official and list the top payment errors at given point in time," says Orszag during a conference call with reporters Tuesday. "The dashboard will give insight into what is happening and make it easier for the public to monitor how agencies are doing. We also will ask for simpler and easier Web sites and e-mails to report potential improper payments."
Here's the kicker:
•Agriculture: $4.3 billion in improper payments, or 5.9 percent of total department spending. Much of it was in the food stamp, federal crop insurance and school meals programs.
•Defense: $849 million, or 0.5 percent.
•Education: $599 million, or 2.1 percent.
Look at the top offender.
Now do you see why I feel the BOE has a right and a duty to pursue the fraud in CMS and that the USDA should allow them to do it?
Anon 11:03, According to WhiteHouse.gov, Shamrock Elementary is doing some incredible things and test scores are way up now:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/champions/parents/pamela-grundy
5:45--I agree with you about today's Shamrock and a lot of that can be attributed to the efforts of Pam. However, it is disingenuous of her to claim that Shamrock became a high poverty/high minority school because busing ended--Shamrock had been high poverty, high minority, and low scoring long before the court case even began. She has used that claim as part of her schtick for a long time and it just isn't true.
Pam,
Can you explain what you mean by "reducing economic isolation"?
I need to apologize to Pam after reading that story from the White House website.
I know that before I went into the Swann Interviews I noticed all the President Obama Stickers on so many cars in the parking lot, so it is great they have such a Champion in their midst.
I can see why we now have so many stories, points of views, letters to the editors and interviews in the Observer.
Charlotte is lucky to have our own Super Woman here in Charlotte, just like having one in Washington.
Keep up the great work.
I just have a hard time ignoring the ratings of schools from valid sites like www.GreatSchools.net who rate this Shamrock at four out of ten stars as they do with poor ratings with so many of our CMS schools based on our results.
But if the White House is saying differently we must revisit the school and others as Pam and Her group wants, perhaps with a new way of looking at them.
Maybe as she said the economic way is good. I assume that means getting magic kids transported every where.
I agree. We should get Asian Children in every class. If we are going to get magic kids, then get the top of the line, those who study the hardest and the best at test.
http://www.greatschools.org/north-carolina/charlotte/1289-Shamrock-Gardens-Elementary-School/ is the link for the Shamrock School rating.
Sharon is correct that Shamrock's problems did not begin with the "official" end of busing in 2002-03. Busing ended for a number of schools many years before that. In the 1990s, when John Murphy became superintendent, he placed more emphasis on magnets and allowed the racial (and thus the economic) balance at a number of center-city schools, including Shamrock, to slip. The results were higher poverty rates, lower test scores, and appalling neglect of aging facilities. Murphy ended the "pairing" of schools to which Sharon refers in 1992, but that did nothing to help Shamrock, which hit bottom five years later, as one of the lowest-performing schools in the entire state.
Wiley, your elaborate arguments about FRL are missing one basic fact. The cutoff point for being "officially" in poverty as defined by the census is considerably lower than the cutoff point for being eligible for free or reduced lunch. So the fact that the numbers don't match up isn't proof that massive fraud is being perpetrated.
Larry,
Your continued derrogatory remarks about Asians is inappropriate.
If you would look at the latest CMS AYP report, you would see Whites outperform Asians in math, science, history and reading from grades 3 through 8.
Regardless, trying to pit one group of kids against another is counterproductive.
Larry,
All the Great Schools site does is compile state test scores. It isn't very informative.
I was interested to see the official renewal report for Achievement First Brunswick, in New York. Essentially, it says that Achievement First Brunswick does slightly better than other schools in its community, but less well than schools with similar demographics. It looks like a classic case of a charter school skimming the more promising students from an area, and then claiming to have worked miracles. Here's a quote from the website, along with reference.
"Achievement First Bushwick has compiled a mixed record in meeting its key academic Accountability Plan goals in English language arts and mathematics. Having administered the state exams for the first time in 2007-08, AF Bushwick has over the last three years consistently met the mathematics goal; however, over the same period the school has not met the English language arts goal. . . . The school has exceeded the Annual Measurable Objective set by the state throughout the Accountability Period and outperformed its local community school district during the two most recent years, though only by a small margin. More importantly, in comparison to demographically similar schools the school has performed worse than expected each year that it has administered the state exam."
Charter Schools Institute, The State University of New York: Initial Renewal Report, Achievement First-Bushwick, January 3, 2011
http://newyorkcharters.org/pdf/RenewalReports/2010-11/AchievementFirstBushwickRenewalReport01-03-11.pdf
I know but my many years of volunteering in the class room and seeing these kids excel, finishing tests and blowing the top end of the bell curve while they just seem to not get the challenges they deserve is sad.
The same when I see those groups of kids who we let drop out in rates of seventy percent and never do anything about them, and that is not considered pitting one against the other.
Yes I am racist. I feel the superior race is the Human Race and we have not challenged it.
Until we do so, we are just going down the garden path as we have been with no real focus and all the pretty flowers in the world will not change that.
So if anyone dislikes competition then we need to shut our doors to the rest of the world as we have already lost most of our advantage.
And I have Asian Students writing me thanking me. So your ideas of derogatory seem specious.
Oh and you are talking about the kids that have not left the CMS system from Bright Flight.
I have seen those Kids who finally left of all shades.
Sharon, I assume you will be happy to know that I have changed my blog text to read: "It is also one of the many high-poverty, high-minority schools created as Charlotte dismantled its once-celebrated program of busing for desegregation." This is definitely more accurate, and I appreciate your feedback. Perhaps someday, if we continue to make headway on reintegrating the school, I will be able to remove the sentence completely.
Pam,
The difference between the two is only a couple of thousand dollars.
You can keep your head buried in the dirt all you want but the fact remains there is widespread fraud within CMS and across the country.
The USDA overpaid $1.5 BILLION in benefits in 2009/2010.
CMS own sample audits, along with other districts across the country show over 50% of their respondants do not qualify.
Do the math Pam. We're not talking a few hundred gaming the system, we're talking thousands, potentially tens of thousands just within CMS.
Why don't YOU call for a full audit? Why wouldn't you want to know exactly who we need to be targeting with extra help?
It doesn't fit your agenda.
The biggest scammer is CMS itself and other school systems. That FRL number means millions more in Title I funds and other monies from other sources.
It's kind of laughable that you have all this knowledge people try to garner yet play dumb when it comes to the school lunch program and the vast fraud within it.
In 1999, the Clifton school board in Bergen, New Jersey, voted 5-4 to report that exactly 20.16 percent of public school students were poor enough to qualify for free lunches, instead of the actual number, which was 19.19 percent. The difference was significant: If the number dropped below 20 percent the district would lose $4 million in aid. As the Bergen County, New Jersey, Record reported in November 1999, board president Wayne Demikoff said while casting his vote for the higher number, "I cannot, in good conscience, vote for something that is going to devastate the budget."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
U.S.: Up To 27% Of Children In Program May Be Ineligible (2003)
(AP) More than a fourth of the 28 million children who eat free or discounted school lunches might be ineligible, and the Bush administration is considering rules to reserve the meal programs for children of families who prove their low incomes.
The number of children enrolled in the program nationwide exceeds the number in low-income families who would be eligible for it, based on a comparison of the school lunch enrollment figures with an annual survey by the Census Bureau, said Jean Daniel, an Agriculture Department spokeswoman.
Officials have calculated that as many as 27 percent of children now getting free or reduced-price meals are ineligible, she said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) –
An audit of the state Department of Education reveals “troubling inaccuracies” in the number of kids who receive free or reduced-price school lunches under a federal program and the number who may actually qualify for the program, Foley said.
For example, in the Lincoln district more than 60 percent of students in a sample group of kids were found to be ineligible for the lunch program as part of a different audit, Foley said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
...Concerned about this problem in the late 1990s, the Department of Agriculture funded Mathematica Policy Research to conduct a pilot study in 12 mostly nonmetropolitan school districts to determine the extent to which children receiving school lunch came from families that actually met the income requirements. (In 2004, a family of four with annual income of $24,500 or less qualified for free lunch; those earning between $24,500 and nearly $35,000 qualified for a reduced-price lunch. Even the nearly 12 million children who are in families above the income cutoffs enjoy a federal subsidy of more than 20 cents per lunch.) The Mathematica study revealed that up to 20 percent of the families certified by school districts as eligible for free and reduced lunches were actually not eligible.
20% DID NOT QUALIFY. If we were to use the same 20% rate at CMS, that would mean 15,000 would NOT qualify.
I can come up with a dozen more examples.
My personal opinion is that between 25,000 and 30,000 within CMS do not qualify.
In the 2001 census, the poverty rate for a family of four was 18,000.
I know this is off the thread topic, but I just went through each page of Dashew's report. She is backed by many of the old guard and looked like many of the same donors as Eric Davis' prior reporting listed. Even Trent Merchant gave her money....not from his own pocket but from his campaign funds. Perfectly legal but what a cheapskate! Donating money that people donated to him....got to love it. I am not sure Dashew is going to mean change folks. Looks like more of the same...sad to say.
Pam,
Those were posted merely as examples.
If you want later examples, I'll be happy to post them.
You still can't refute the 2009/2010 USDA report they overpaid $1.5 BILLION.
In case you missed this in an earlier report:
•Agriculture: $4.3 billion in improper payments, or 5.9 percent of total department spending. Much of it was in the food stamp, federal crop insurance and school meals programs.
•Defense: $849 million, or 0.5 percent.
•Education: $599 million, or 2.1 percent.
$1.5 BILLION of the $4.3 BILLION the USDA overspent, more than Defense and more than education.
Trent also donated, through his campaign fund, to his good friend Tim Morgan. More of the same is not what we need. Read these reports folks, there are common threads that provide clues.
Pam,
Your whitehouse.gov posting says that test scores are up at your school, but the greatschools page shows that scores are falling. What's going on?
Dashew is Tim Morgan in a skirt. No original thought, will do what Eric Davis tells her to. Backed by the chamber and will simply continue cms down this Broad tiled road of testing.
Anon 9:34, Let me guess, are you hoping to find a candidate who will look like Tom Tate in a mini-skirt instead? Joyce Waddell is a necktie?
No, Joyce Waddell is not a necktie. There are a few tools on the board, but no neckties.
Outsource. Managed Competition. Stop all the foolishness. Don't believe CMS self-serving numbers. CMS will not improve performance until it improves in the areas of management and upper management. The sky is falling is just another excuse for we never had it together anyway, so now we have more of an excuse for not doing our jobs. This entrenched entitlement mentality has to be uprooted to be overcome. According to all the insiders CMS is doing great and can’t be expected to excel under existing budgets. Phooey.
Sky is falling is right! First CMS is going to lose something like 1000 teachers, then ends up with several hundred more than last year? What about that ever elusive bucket of year end funds? I hear it often ranges into the several millions of dollars. Big puddle of pet slush puppy projects?
Dashew has said that she believes the school board has a role in shaping where and how developers develop to ensure diversity.
Folks, that ain't moderate.
Pam,
You wrote "I believe that measures such as small classes, getting rid of testing madness and reducing economic isolation will improve education, and I engage in political activity in order to further that agenda."
I actually agree with you on small class sizes and ending the testing madness. HOWEVER, you can't use government of any kind to reduce economic isolation. We've been trying to take money from achievers and producers and give that money to people who do not achieve and do not produce. For over 50 years we have tried it, and it is an abject and colossal failure. Project LIFT is another prime example - we're going to throw $55 million at the West Charlotte feeder schools. That "MAY" have a positive impact for 5 years. But we've proven over and over that throwing more money at education has no meaningful impact on anything, except the negative impact on taxpayer bank accounts. Project LIFT monies should be used to help educate and train the PARENTS of the kids in the West Charlotte feeders. That way, when the kids go home at night, they will see their parents studying which sets a positive role model environment. When kids see that their parents have a real value on education, the kids will value it more. Then, we use some of those dollars to provide incentives to employers to locate into West Charlotte and hire the people who have been educated/job trained by LIFT. Then, we use more of those funds to go out and find and train and mentor the entrepreneurial spirited people in West Charlotte who have the drive and passion to open and build a business, but don't have the business acumen and/or money to do so. We help them open and hire people from W.C. - and in the end, we then would have done some meaningful things that will have a positive economic impact in an impoverished area. In order for the people of W.C. to prosper economically, they must WORK for it and BUILD it - we should all help support that, but we've got to stop handing out, and start helping people LIFT themselves up economically.......
Elyse Dashew has not been endorsed by ANY prominent or REAL Republicans, let's get that straight. And quite frankly, anyone who has raised money from the far lefties and RINO's is quite adept at telling people what they want to hear - which then means, if she's telling the anti-bus-ers what they want to hear AND she is telling the pro-bus-ers what they want to hear......and when she gives an "answer" to a question you spend 5 minutes listening to her say nothing about the actual question. She's playing politics, playing both sides.....well two sides...the lefties and the RINO's. Don't buy it - and don't vote for her. And if you don't believe it, follow her to a right leaning event and then a left leaning event. Don't trust AND do verify.
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