Tag Archives: Education

Hillsdale College Constitution 101 course starts Monday.

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hillsdale

Hillsdale College Campus

Hillsdale College in Michigan is starting up a free basic online course on the Constitution on Monday, February 24. Potential students can per-register now.

These courses are non-credit courses which are based on the curriculum that the resident students must take in order to graduate. These are great extra-study courses for high school students and students of other colleges.

These well-done courses consist of video lectures and downloads from their Constitutional Reader and other sources. The course covers the Constitution in the view of the founders through their words and the government-approved Federalist Papers.

The course is complete with examinations and you even receive a certificate of completion for the courses.

Upon completion, there is a Constitution 201 course available. They also have two history courses and a new economics course.

The course comes in ten weekly sections with a video about 45-minutes long. The reading depends on how much time you devote. If you want a good understanding of the Constitution, this is about the best ten weeks you can spend.

Arizona Department of Education barred by judge from taking funding back from charters

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State education officials have been blocked by a judge from taking nearly $5.9 million away from charter schools.

In an order released Monday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Dean Fink said the state Department of Education may not demand refunds from charter schools which the state said had been given more state aid than they should have received.

Fink acknowledged the position of education agency that schools should not get money to which they were not entitled. He said that, on some level, it makes sense for the state to be able to get back the excess, no matter how long it takes.

But Fink said it would be unfair to take money from schools years later.

“Under the department’s interpretation, the effect of a shortfall is felt not by those pupils who benefited from the original excess funding, by a new cohort who received no benefit yet much now suffer the detriment,” Fink wrote.

Read more at The East Valley Tribune

Kindergarten teacher accused of removing female student’s shirt

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1-16-14-THOMAS-WALTER-WASHBURN-T045180_030000MESA, Ariz. — A Mesa kindergarten teacher was arrested Wednesday and booked for 25 counts of indecent exposure and one count of child abuse stemming from an incident in his classroom.

Thomas Washburn, 54, teaches kindergarten at Adams Elementary School in Mesa where the incident occurred on Wednesday.

The victim, a 6-year-old female, was in class with 24 classmates.

Washburn was reportedly upset and shouting in the class causing the victim to hide her face in the top of her shirt.

The victim’s mother described her daughter as “developmentally delayed” due to being born prematurely.

Read more and see video at AZFamily

County Superintendent of Schools Recruitment open

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County Board of Supervisors seeking applicants until Jan. 29

FLAGSTAFF—The Coconino County Board of Supervisors has accepted the resignation of County Superintendent of Schools Robert Kelty and has begun the open recruitment.

To ensure a smooth transition in leadership within the Superintendent of Schools Office, Kelty’s resignation is effective when the Board fills the position. Kelty, who was appointed by the Board in August 2010 and was elected to a full term in 2012, is leaving to become Regional Managing Director for Alumni and Diversity Affairs with Teach for America.

According to state statute, the Board is required to appoint a new Superintendent of Schools. The individual selected by the Board will serve until Dec. 31, 2014.

Applications will be accepted Jan. 10 through Jan. 29. The open recruitment process for the position will include an interview with the Board of Supervisors and a public forum, which will be held in early February. The Board hopes to appoint a new superintendent by mid-February.

Those interested in applying must possess a current Arizona teaching certificate and be registered to vote within Coconino County. The Board has also set the following desired qualifications, including:

• Higher level education certificate (education administration).
• An understanding of school finance issues at a global level.
• Ability to interact with the County Treasurer’s Office, Elections Office and other county departments.
• Ability to work well with the County’s school districts, schools, administrators and parents.
• An understanding of alternative teaching methods; juvenile and adult detention programs.
• Strong project management, communication and administrative skills.
• Active with the Arizona Association of Counties (AACo) and understanding of the Arizona State Legislature.
• An understanding of school governing board appointment process.
• Willing to travel and learn about county communities.
• An understanding of the Accommodation School District governing board; monthly meetings.
• An understanding of technology.
• A positive attitude.

For additional information, call Joanne Keene in the County Manager’s Office at 928-679-7134 or visit www.coconino.az.gov to submit a resume and letter of interest to the Board of Supervisors. Material can also be sent to the Coconino County Board of Supervisors, 219 E. Cherry Ave., Flagstaff, AZ 86001.

Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation

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Thanksgiving Proclamation

Issued by President George Washington, at the request of Congress, on October 3, 1789

By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation.

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and—Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me “to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:”

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favor, able interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other trangressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally, to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.

Go. Washington

The Heritage Foundation

What’s the Difference Between Memorial Day and Veterans Day?

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freedom-bannerBoth Memorial Day and Veterans Day are federal government holidays that honor American military personnel. However, one honors all past and present American veterans, and the other is set aside to remember specifically those who have died in battle.

Here’s the history of each holiday and a breakdown of the differences between them:

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is observed on the last Monday of May, which in 2011 falls on May 30. The day is predominantly for honoring and remembering military personnel who died while in the military service, particularly those who died in combat or as a result of injuries sustained during battle.

Memorial Day was originally celebrated under a different name. After the Civil War ended in 1865, people began dedicating certain days to placing flowers on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers who had died in the war . In 1868, former Maj. Gen. John A. Logan, the head of an organization of Union veterans, established May 30 as Decoration Day. The holiday’s name was formally changed to Memorial Day in 1882.

Read more at Live Science

Why is the weakest Teachers Union in the U.S. going after Students with Special Needs?

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Jonathan Butcher

For the second time in a decade, Arizona’s teachers union is trying to block children with special needs from getting the best education they can find. After kicking children with special needs and foster children out of Arizona’s opportunity scholarship program three years ago, the union is now trying to rob these children of their education savings accounts.

It’s not clear what came first—the union’s attacks on children or their dwindling influence. But this week the Thomas B. Fordham Institute released How Strong Are U.S. Teacher Unions? A State-By-State Comparison, which ranks Arizona’s teachers unions as the weakest in the U.S. Teacher union support of sales tax increases and lawsuits in the past ten years has made it clear that their priorities are not children but money and education bureaucrats. .

Read more at The Goldwater Institute

University of North Carolina denies Iraq vet in-state tuition as it mulls giving break to illegals

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EXCLUSIVE [to FOX News]: The University of North Carolina, which is currently considering giving illegal immigrants in-state tuition benefits, denied an Army sergeant the same break at its Pembroke branch even though she owns a home in the Tar Heel state and only moved away briefly because the military stationed her husband in Texas.

Hayleigh Perez, 26, hoped to use her G.I. Bill to attend the UNC’s Pembroke campus near Fort Bragg, but the young veteran — who served a 14-month tour in Iraq — was told she did not qualify as a state resident because she had been gone for about three years.

“I got frustrated. When I tried to inquire, they kept putting up roadblocks,” Perez told FoxNews.com. “It’s just disgraceful that life in Iraq, where you could die, is easier than trying to go to school here.”

Read more at FOX News