Tuesday night was busy and chilly on Gun Hill Road in the Bronx, even if most eyes and minds were focused a few miles south, where the Yankees were hosting a playoff game. Out of the darkness around 7:30, squeezing through the doors of crowded buses and descending the steps from an elevated train platform, about 40 football players walked one by one across uneven sidewalks lugging shoulder pads, cleats and brightly painted helmets.

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Ray Baxter calls club football a â??carrotâ? to help his players get to college.

Among the Pads and Huddles, a Nudge Toward College

Student athletes and those involved in other extracurricular activities in states including New Jersey, South Carolina and Indiana are signing codes of conduct that hold them accountable for their behavior regardless of whether school is in session.

Some parents say their districts are going too far.

“Schools are crossing the boundary of what they’re authorized to do and crossing into the realm of the family — that’s unconstitutional,” says attorney Matt Wolf who is challenging the policy in Haddonfield, N.J., where he represents a teenager who lost extracurricular privileges because of an underage drinking charge.

Haddonfield’s attorney, Joe Betley, says the district is well within its right to establish rules for participating in extracurricular activities.

“We can demand higher standards in leadership positions and from those wearing the uniforms of Haddonfield,” Betley says.

Code of conduct rules vary from district to district. Some cover only the school year, some include athletes and some expand to all students participating in extracurricular school activities.

“Participating in extracurricular activities is a privilege,” says Oby Lyles, spokesman for South Carolina’s largest school district in Greenville County. That privilege can be revoked when students who wear a school’s uniform or represent a school don’t follow rules of conduct at school and in the community.

• In South Carolina, Greenville and Pickens counties have year-round conduct policies for athletes, holding them accountable when school is not in session.

• In Indiana, Carmel Clay schools have a year-round conduct policy for athletes and band and choir members. The school district expanded conduct rules three years ago to include those involved in extracurricular activities, says student services director Steve Dillon.

• At least half a dozen New Jersey school districts have year-round conduct expectations of both athletes and students involved in extracurricular activities.

Other districts restrict the codes to a sports season or the school year, such as in Springfield, Mo., and Salem-Keizer, Ore., where athletes must be on good behavior 24-7 during the school year.

“To label something a privilege does not justify a violation of the First Amendment,” says Ken Falk, legal director for Indiana’s American Civil Liberties Union, which is fighting a code-of-conduct case in federal district court. The case involves discipline placed on two female volleyball players in the Smith Green Community schools last year after they were accused of posting sexually suggestive photos on social networking sites during summer vacation.

Erik Weber, attorney for the Smith-Green schools, says such policies can be enforced year-round because those representing the school in any kind of uniform can be held to a higher standard.

“If they don’t like the rules, they don’t have to play,” Weber says.

In Mountain Lakes, N.J., Michael Bernal-Silva fought his daughter’s suspension from a basketball team in 2007 after she attended a party where other underage students were drinking. Bernal-Silva settled out of court with the school district.

“You’re not cops,” Bernal-Silva said to the school board.

Bruno reports for the Daily Record in Morris County, N.J. Contributing: Ron Barnett, The Greenville (S.C.) News; Tim Evans, The Indianapolis Star; Didi Tang, Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader; Tracy Loew, (Salem, Ore.) Statesman Journal.

Schools enforce year-round conduct rules

Schools enforce year-round conduct rules

The University of California, Berkeley, eliminated five of its intercollegiate sports programs Tuesday, two of which, baseball and men’s rugby, had become particular points of pride over the years.

The move comes at a time when athletics have faced strong criticism at Berkeley because money-losing sports have been subsidized while the academic departments have been forced to make severe cuts. The men’s and women’s gymnastics and women’s lacrosse teams will also be dropped from intercollegiate competition after this academic year.

By going to 24 programs, the university will save an estimated $4 million a year.

“Clearly, this is a painful outcome after months of deliberations, analysis and the examination of every viable alternative,” Cal’s athletic director, Sandy Barbour, said in a statement. “I deeply regret the impact this will have on so many valued members of our community.”

The men’s rugby team has won 25 national championships since 1980. But now it will be designated a varsity club sport, which officials say will allow the team to continue playing and competing on campus but force it to become financially self-sustaining.

University administrators said the cuts would affect 163 of the university’s more than 800 student-athletes and 13 full-time coaches. They vowed to honor promised scholarships to those students or help them transfer to other universities if they want to continue their athletic careers.

Only 14 of the 120 athletic programs in the Football Bowl Subdivision — the highest level of college sports — made money in the 2008-9 academic year, down from 25 the year before, according to the N.C.A.A.

Still, overall spending on sports has increased among universities with big-time programs, according to the N.C.A.A. In 2008-9, programs in the Football Bowl Subdivision increased their spending by nearly 11 percent over the previous year. At the same time, universities also increased their contribution to athletics by 28 percent. That spending came even as the economic recession forced institutions to make painful cuts.

Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau vowed that Cal would still field one of the most broad-based and successful athletic programs in the nation. Last year, Cal finished eighth in the Directors’ Cup, which has become a benchmark for the success of athletic programs. It has also become a lucrative milestone as dozens of athletic directors and coaches have bonuses tied to their standings in the competition.

“We will retain, at 24 teams, one of the larger programs in the country at an annual cost fully consistent with the levels of support provided to our peer institutions for programs that are often smaller in size,” Birgeneau said in the statement. “This is not a coincidence; the leaders of this country’s best universities have long understood the value of high-quality athletics programs and the extent to which they are an integral part of what defines institutional character and identity. In my opinion, the benefits of collegiate athletics, both tangible and intangible, far outweigh the cost. Although the program has been reduced in size, our commitment to Cal athletics has not.”

Cal-Berkeley Cuts 5 Athletic Programs

The money hasn’t even arrived, but it’s already creating a buzz in Newark, where three out of five third-graders can’t read and write at their grade level. Barely half the students who begin high school manage to graduate, and most of them do so without passing the state’s standard graduation exam.

“This money makes us feel good about ourselves, that we’re being noticed,” said 15-year-old Estephany Balbuena, a student at Newark’s Arts High School. “There’s a bad reputation of Newark, but it’s not true. Some of us are successful.”

The three players seeking to turn the windfall into a renaissance — a 26-year-old Internet wunderkind, a Democratic mayor described by Oprah Winfrey as a “rock star” and a Republican governor drawing criticism and acclaim for his budget-slashing ways — announced their plans Friday on Winfrey’s talk show.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said he would donate $100 million worth of Facebook stock over the next five years through his new Start-up: Education foundation. Gov. Chris Christie said he would give Mayor Cory Booker a major role in overseeing any major changes in the district, which the state took over in 1995 because of persistently low test scores and wasteful spending.

Booker pledged to raise an additional $150 million for the effort.

“What’s the alternative? Is it to continue what we’re doing now, with nearly a 50% dropout rate?” Christie said. “I’m much more willing to take risks and take chances when it comes to this.”

Zuckerberg paid a visit to Newark on Saturday, spending time with Booker and holding a press conference with the mayor and the governor at a downtown hotel. The three were short on specifics, saying that a key first step of the process would be getting community input on changes that need to be made.

Recounting how his grandmother had been a teacher and his parents had worked hard to give himself and his three sisters a good education, Zuckerberg said he hoped to do the same, not just for thousands of Newark students, but to help create a new model for successful public education that could be replicated nationwide. He dismissed questions about the timing of his donation, which coincides with the release of a movie about Facebook that portrays him in a less than flattering light.

“This (donation) is something that’s going to play out for years,” he said.

New Jersey’s Supreme Court has found in rulings over the past two decades that urban schools were underfunded and ordered the government to fund the most impoverished districts as well as its most affluent suburban schools. The court has also pushed the state to spend billions to upgrade school buildings in cities and provide free preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds.

While some areas have seen gains, most of those schools still fall far short on measures such as standardized tests and graduation rates.

Money alone doesn’t seem to be the answer, but money is what wealthy funders can offer.

Through his foundation, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates— like Zuckerberg, a Harvard dropout — awarded $290 million in education grants in November 2009, including $100 million to the school system that includes Tampa, and $90 million for the Memphis, district. The foundation has also given $150 million to the New York City schools over the past eight years.

Most of the funding in New York has gone toward the creation of smaller schools that aim to boost graduation rates for the most academically challenged students; several teachers also participate in a foundation-led training program. One recent study of Gates’ efforts found that graduation rates in those schools had improved.

The Star-Ledger of Newark reported Saturday that Gates, among a roster of current and new donors, had expressed interest in donating to the Newark initiative. Booker would not confirm the donation but said several donors had made pledges since Zuckerberg’s announcement, and that he would release details soon.

Florida’s Hillsborough County district, the nation’s eighth-largest, is designing a way to pay teachers, in part, by using a system that includes measuring gains with standardized tests, along with observations by principals and evaluations by other teachers. The money is also being used to train veteran teachers to mentor others.

The evaluation program is just beginning, so it’s too early to tell how it will work, district spokeswoman Linda Cobbe said. The district, though, has gotten positive comments from new teachers about the mentoring program, she said.

Similar measures are underway in Memphis, where school officials are working out how to identify, reward and retain effective teachers.

“We are seeing results of our plan,” said Superintendent Kriner Cash. “We are right on target.”

Education advocates in New Jersey call for similar steps to be taken in Newark, where more money is spent per pupil than any other city in a state that ranks near the top in per-pupil funding.

Newark was once booming, with its 1940s population of about 430,000 working in good-paying jobs in the teeming textile and manufacturing industries. But after World War II, the city began a postwar descent into racial unrest, white flight, crime and corruption. Its population suffered — it’s now down to around 275,000 — along with its schools.

Few steps on Newark’s path are clear beyond hiring a new superintendent. On her show, Winfrey endorsed current Washington, D.C., Chancellor Michelle Rhee, who has implemented changes popular among school reform advocates. Rhee wasn’t available to comment to The Associated Press.

Joseph De Pierro, education dean at New Jersey’s Seton Hall University, said his advice would be for Newark first to consider hiring back at least some of the educators laid off this year.

Students say they’ve seen the effects, with some sports teams eliminated and classes growing.

“There are now 40 students in my math class; it’s suffocating,” said Balbuena, the Arts High student.

De Pierro would also find a way to pay the best teachers more and buy better equipment and materials. And he noted that better training would be key.

“It would not be the standard kind of stuff after school and in the summer,” he said. “It would be something that takes place in their classroom when they’re teaching.”

Derrell Bradford, executive director of Excellent Education for Everyone, a Newark-based group that is pushing to broaden school choice in New Jersey, said some of the steps he would take in Newark wouldn’t cost much.

For instance, he would give charter schools unused space in traditional public schools and set up virtual learning programs in which the best teachers could come into contact — online, at least — with more children. He said he would also look for a way to pay top teachers more and exempt them from union work rules.

Any major changes might require buy-in from union members who have vehemently opposed Christie’s school cuts. Newark Teachers Union President Joseph Del Grosso said he hopes the decision makers will consult with teachers about their plans — but said he is excited about the gift.

Christie had choice words Saturday for the unions and others he said have been an obstacle to education reforms in New Jersey.

“We’re about yes, they’re about no. We’re about tomorrow, they’re about yesterday. We’re about the kids; they’re about their paychecks,” he said.

David Sciarra, executive director of the Education Law Center, which advocates for students in the state’s poorest cities, said he worries the new measures could undo the progress that’s already been made. The city has developed one of the nation’s best early childhood education programs, and middle and high schools are improving, he said.

“The question is how to make sure this money is used to enhance the reforms that have been made and not to undermine them,” he said.

Newark hopes Facebook gift translates to results

Newark hopes Facebook gift translates to results

One morning last winter I watched a middle-school teacher named Al Doyle give a lesson, though not your typical lesson. This was New York City, a noncharter public school in an old building on a nondescript street near Gramercy Park, inside an ordinary room that looked a lot like all the other rooms around it, with fluorescent lights and linoleum floors and steam-driven radiators that hissed and clanked endlessly.

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Gillian Laub for The New York Times

Screen Test A Sports for the Mind class. Instead of grades, students receive report cards with levels of expertise like â??â??noviceâ??â?? and â??â??master.â??â??

Learning by Playing: Video Games in the Classroom

Public schools across the nation, many facing budget shortfalls, have been charging students fees to use textbooks or to take required tests or courses.

Now a civil liberties group is suing California over those proliferating fees, arguing that the state has failed to protect the right to a free public education. Experts said it was the first case of its kind, and could tempt parents in other states to file similar suits.

In the suit, to be filed in a state court in Los Angeles on Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California names 35 school districts across California that list on their Web sites the fees their schools charge for courses including art, home economics and music, for Advanced Placement tests and for materials including gym uniforms.

“We found that the charging of fees for required academic courses is rampant,” said Mark Rosenbaum, the A.C.L.U.’s legal director in Southern California. The suit names two anonymous plaintiffs, both students attending high schools in Orange County; their parents also declined to be identified.

But other parents have been speaking out about the fees. Sally Smith, who has put three children through public schools in San Diego, including a daughter who is a high school senior there, said she has watched fees for uniforms and to participate in team sports rise for years. “All these fees were really taking a bite out of our budget, and our children lost the opportunity to participate in a lot of activities because we couldn’t afford them,” Ms. Smith said.

Since the late 1970s, courts in nearly every state have seen lawsuits arguing for education equity between rich and poor districts. And since the 1990s, lawyers representing low-income students have filed a string of so-called educational adequacy suits, arguing that states have not allotted enough money to provide an adequate public education, said Michael P. Griffith, a school finance analyst at the Education Commission of the States, a nonpartisan research center based in Denver.

“What’s new here is that this is not about funding levels for education, but about whether districts are charging kids to get a public education,” Mr. Griffith said. “That’s a brand-new argument. I wouldn’t be surprised to see groups in other states adopt the same line of reasoning.”

In San Diego, one of the cities whose school system is cited in the suit, a grand jury investigated similar reports this year and concluded that the fees were prohibited under California law. Nonetheless, the grand jury said in a June report, “Student fees are charged in almost all district schools.”

It listed examples: $1,833 for the cheerleading program at one San Diego high school, $180 for water polo at another high school and $400 for the wrestling program at a third school.

Mark Bresee, the general counsel for San Diego Unified School District, said in an interview that after some parents complained about the fees last year, he looked into it and concluded that some schools were indeed assessing improper charges. Mr. Bresee said he has tried to clarify the rules for the district’s 180 schools.

He acknowledged that even now, some school Web sites that have not been kept up to date may suggest that students are required to pay fees impermissible under state law.

“The school’s Web site pages are one of the problems we’ve had in this yearlong quest to get information out there and clean this up,” Mr. Bresee said.

The district’s Web site currently offers a detailed list of dos and don’ts for San Diego school principals.

May a school charge fees for uniforms for team sports? “No, a school must provide a free uniform to any student who is a team member,” the Web site says. What about gym clothes? Charges for standardized physical education attire are permissible, but the school may not mandate that the clothing be bought from the school.

Permissible charges include those for optional attendance at school-sponsored activities, for food served to students, for replacing books lent to students that they fail to return and for art materials if students take home what they make.

Officials in several of the districts cited dispute those assertions. Chaparral High School in the Temecula Valley Unified district in Riverside County, for instance, is accused of requiring students to pay an examination fee to enroll in Advanced Placement classes.

Jeff Okun, an assistant superintendent, said that students could enroll in the classes at no cost, but that taking the A.P. test required paying a fee to the College Board.

“The fee and the class are two separate things,” Mr. Okun said.

The lawsuit names Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as a defendant, arguing that it was his responsibility to crack down on school districts imposing illegal fees.

Matt Connelly, a spokesman for Mr. Schwarzenegger, said, “The administration is aware of the lawsuit and will review the complaint once it has been served on us.”

Public Schools Face Lawsuit Over Fees

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Jefferson Thomas, who as a teenager was among nine black students to integrate a Little Rock high school in the nation’s first major battle over school segregation, has died. He was 68.

Thomas died Sunday in Ohio of pancreatic cancer, according to a statement from Carlotta Walls LaNier, who also enrolled at Central High School in 1957 and is president of the Little Rock Nine Foundation.

The integration fight was a first real test of the federal government’s resolve to enforce a 1954 Supreme Court order outlawing racial segregation in the nation’s public schools. After Gov. Orval Faubus sent National Guard troops to block Thomas and eight other students from entering Central High, President Eisenhower ordered in the Army’s 101st Airborne Division.

Soldiers stood in the school hallways and escorted each of the nine students as they went from classroom to classroom.

Each of the Little Rock Nine received Congressional Gold Medals shortly after the 40th anniversary of their enrollment. President Clinton presented the medals in 1999 to Thomas, LaNier, Melba Patillo Beals, Minnijean Trickey Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, Ernest Green, Gloria Ray Karlmark, Terrence Roberts and Thelma Mothershed Wair.

In 2008, then President-elect Obama sent Thomas and other members of the Little Rock Nine special invitations to his inauguration as the nation’s first black president. During his campaign, he had said the Little Rock Nine’s courage in desegregating Central High helped make the opportunities in his life possible.

Thomas played a number of sports and was on the track team at Dunbar Junior High, but others had little to do with him once he entered Central, the state’s largest high school.

“I had played with some of the white kids from the neighborhood,” Thomas said. “I went up to Central High School after school and we played basketball and touch football together. I knew some of the kids.

“Eventually, I ran into them … and they were not at all happy to see me,” Thomas added. “One of them said, ‘Well I don’t mind playing basketball or football with you or anything. You guys are good at sports. Everybody knows that, but you’re just not smart enough to sit next to me in the classroom.’”

Beals said Monday that Thomas was nicknamed “Roadrunner, because he was so fast. You could sometimes avoid danger by running fast.”

She said by phone from her home in California that Thomas always seemed to bring a light moment to the crisis.

“He was funny, he had a most extraordinary sense of humor. He did sustain an enormous amount of damage and pain during the Little Rock crisis, but no matter what, he always had something refreshing and funny to say,” she said. “It could be the most horrible day and he would say ‘Yes, but how are you dressed and are you smiling?’”

Thomas also brought a bit of levity to the 2007 commemoration marking the 50th anniversary of the integration fight – letting the audience know how angry LaNier was with him when he stood up and cheered at a Central High Tigers pep rally.

Thomas thought the white students were carrying the school flag and yelling the school cheer. He said LaNier glared at him and later set him straight: It was the Confederate flag and the students were singing “Dixie.”

After graduation, Thomas served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam and later became an accounting clerk with the Department of Defense.

Following the 2008 election, Thomas said in an interview that he supported Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Ohio primary and he also liked former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who made a bid for the Republican nomination.

“It would have been a hard decision for me to make if Huckabee was running against Obama,” Thomas added.

Still, he said, he was overjoyed with Obama’s victory.

“This was really the nonviolent revolution,” Thomas said. “We went and cast our ballots and the ballots were counted this time. I’m thinking now we’ve got to do something. I don’t know what. But there are a lot of things Obama ran on, what he’s saying he wants to do.”

Little Rock 9 member Jefferson Thomas dies in Ohio (AP)

Little Rock 9 member Jefferson Thomas dies in Ohio (AP)

It’s a trend that is likely to grow as seniors’ ranks swell with baby boomers, who by 2015 will represent some 35% of the U.S. population, looking to either acquire new job skills or simply enjoy new learning experiences. (Baby boomers are people born between 1946 and 1964)

Nearly six decades after graduating from college, Pete Shannon still can’t get enough of lectures and homework assignments.

The 78-year-old Dallas retiree has taken dozens of classes at his local community college since he stopped working as a certified public accountant in 2004. This summer he studied music composition, and in the fall he plans to tackle philosophy and whatever else piques his interest.

Exams can be challenging, but one thing he doesn’t sweat is tuition bills. In one of many such arrangements across the U.S., Dallas County residents age 65 and over get up to six hours’ tuition free at Richland College every semester.

“It’s a marvelous opportunity,” Shannon says, calling the college his “candy store.” “It’s a wonderful place to go. The catalog is rich with all kinds of classes.”

The prospect of having to pay for even moderately priced college classes might sound daunting to a retiree living on fixed income. But numerous discounts, tuition waivers and other deals make it possible.

“There are more opportunities than in the past for senior citizens to take college classes and get help paying for them,” says financial aid expert Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org and Fastweb.com.

Many community colleges and some four-year colleges allow seniors to audit classes for free and significantly reduce tuition for those who take them for credit. The financial arrangements vary widely by school and so do the age requirements — generally 60, 62, or 65 and over.

Twenty-one states and Washington, D.C., offer free tuition for senior citizens at some or all of their public colleges, according to FinAid.org. The student still must buy textbooks and may have to pay fees.

Two relatively new opportunities offer even more help.

The Senior Scholarships program, created last year as part of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, provides $1,000 education awards for people 55 or older who volunteer 350 or more hours a year. The money may be used for the volunteer’s own education or transferred to a child, foster child or grandchild.

And the American Opportunity tax credit can lower taxes for students of any age dollar-for-dollar for the first $2,000 spent on tuition, fees and course materials. The credit also applies to 25% of the second $2,000. Unless extended, the temporary credit expires at year’s end.

More seniors might head back to school if they knew about the deep discounts and freebies — or lived near colleges. As it is, education remains an untapped resource for most.

According to data released in June by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans from age 65 to 74 say they spend 6.77 hours on leisure and sports on a typical weekday, watch 3.58 hours of TV, spend 0.71 hour reading, 0.59 hour socializing and 0.03 hour on education. That’s less than two minutes, compared to 0.46 hour or about 28 minutes for the population as a whole.

Shannon, who got his undergraduate degree in business economics from Rice University in 1953, is happy to stay in school for life. He says he takes college classes to get out of the house, at his wife’s urging, and exercise his brain. The rest of him gets a workout, too, as he often bikes the 4 1/2 miles (6.4 kilometers) to campus.

A perfect 4.0 grade-point average through 114 credit hours shows he’s not taking any mental shortcuts.

“I like writing the papers and doing the work,” he says. “It’s more complete than Googling a subject. And by the time you finish the semester, you’ve learned something.”

Thanks to the tuition deals, he reckons he has spent no more than $1,000 on education expenses since he retired. But he’d dig a little deeper into his retirement savings if he had to.

“Frankly, I’d go to college even if I had to pay up to $1,000 a year for it,” he says. “I’d consider it part of my personal entertainment budget.”

If retirement-age students decide to borrow to pay for college, loans don’t have to be as burdensome as they might expect.

Federal student loans are discharged on the borrower’s death. That means the retiree student’s heirs won’t get shortchanged because of those late-in-life classes in history and Chinese. The senior can also choose the repayment plan with the longest payback period, thus the lowest monthly payment.

When finances aren’t an issue, most any educational experience is still possible in retirement. Anne Carter Harrison-Clark of Williamsburg, Virginia, is thriving as a 71-year-old student at the William & Mary Law School.

Learning more about the law is something she long aspired to do during a career as a lobbyist and public policy lecturer at Georgetown University, among other roles. Now she has both the time and money to do it, thanks to she and her husband Bob selling property near the top of the market six years ago.

Immersed in her third year of law classes, she is thrilled to be studying at the college where her great-great-grandfather, Benjamin Harrison V, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was educated. She doesn’t at all mind being the only white-haired student or getting constantly asked why she’s there.

The short answer to that is she wants to keep the brain cells going with new information and new contacts. And she doesn’t know where this educational “journey” will take her, although she does intend to get her law degree at some point, on her own schedule.

“This whole (college) experience has been like dessert, like double fudge icing on a cake. Just a wonderful experience,” says Harrison-Clark, who already has a Ph.D. in politics. “I highly encourage it.”

Retired? Head back to school with college discounts

Retired? Head back to school with college discounts

“We have an obligation to lift up every child in every school in this country, especially those who are starting out furthest behind,” Obama told the centennial convention of the National Urban League.

The Urban League has been a vocal critic of Obama’s education policies, most notably the $4.35 billion “Race to the Top” program that awards grants to states based on their plans for innovative education reforms. A report released earlier this week by eight civil rights groups, including the Urban League, says federal data shows that just 3% of the nation’s black students and less than 1% of Latino students are affected by the first round of the administration’s “Race to the Top” competition.

Obama pushed back Thursday, arguing that minority students are the ones who have been hurt the most by the status quo.

Obama’s reforms have also drawn criticism from education advocates, including prominent teachers’ unions like the American Federation of Teachers, who have argued that the reforms set unfair standards for teacher performance.

Obama said the goal isn’t to fire or admonish teachers, but to create a culture of accountability. He pinned some of the criticism on a resistance to change.

“We get comfortable with the status quo even when the status quo isn’t good,” he said. “When you try to shake things up, sometimes people aren’t happy.”

Seeking to ease his strained relationship with the powerful teacher’s unions, Obama hailed teachers as “the single most important factor in a classroom,” calling for higher pay, better training and additional resources to help teachers succeed.

“Instead of a culture where we’re always idolizing sports stars or celebrities, I want us to build a culture where we idolize the people who shape our children’s future,” Obama said.

The president laid the groundwork for what he called “an honest conversation” about education with comments on several recent developments that were designed as sweeteners for his mostly minority audience.

For instance, he said his goal with his domestic agenda, including the economy, health care and other priorities, is to create “an economy that lifts all Americans — not just some, but all.” That comment earned him significant applause and pleased murmurs in the room.

The president also said he very much looks forward to signing a bill recently passed by Congress to reduce the disparities between mandatory crack and powder cocaine sentences. The matter has been a longtime thorn for the black community, as the quarter-century-old law that Congress changed has subjected tens of thousands of blacks to long prison terms for crack cocaine convictions while giving far more lenient treatment to those, mainly whites, caught with the powder form of the drug.

“We got it done,” Obama said. “It’s the right thing to do.”

And he forthrightly addressed the racial firestorm over the recent ouster of a black Agriculture Department official. He said the forced resignation of Shirley Sherrod “marked both the challenges we face and the progress we’ve made.”

“She deserves better than what happened last week,” Obama said.

Obama defends education policies to critics

Obama defends education policies to critics

“We have an obligation to lift up every child in every school in this country, especially those who are starting out furthest behind,” Obama told the centennial convention of the National Urban League.

The Urban League has been a vocal critic of Obama’s education policies, most notably the $4.35 billion “Race to the Top” program that awards grants to states based on their plans for innovative education reforms. A report released earlier this week by eight civil rights groups, including the Urban League, says federal data shows that just 3% of the nation’s black students and less than 1% of Latino students are affected by the first round of the administration’s “Race to the Top” competition.

Obama pushed back Thursday, arguing that minority students are the ones who have been hurt the most by the status quo.

Obama’s reforms have also drawn criticism from education advocates, including prominent teachers’ unions like the American Federation of Teachers, who have argued that the reforms set unfair standards for teacher performance.

Obama said the goal isn’t to fire or admonish teachers, but to create a culture of accountability. He pinned some of the criticism on a resistance to change.

“We get comfortable with the status quo even when the status quo isn’t good,” he said. “When you try to shake things up, sometimes people aren’t happy.”

Seeking to ease his strained relationship with the powerful teacher’s unions, Obama hailed teachers as “the single most important factor in a classroom,” calling for higher pay, better training and additional resources to help teachers succeed.

“Instead of a culture where we’re always idolizing sports stars or celebrities, I want us to build a culture where we idolize the people who shape our children’s future,” Obama said.

The president laid the groundwork for what he called “an honest conversation” about education with comments on several recent developments that were designed as sweeteners for his mostly minority audience.

For instance, he said his goal with his domestic agenda, including the economy, health care and other priorities, is to create “an economy that lifts all Americans — not just some, but all.” That comment earned him significant applause and pleased murmurs in the room.

The president also said he very much looks forward to signing a bill recently passed by Congress to reduce the disparities between mandatory crack and powder cocaine sentences. The matter has been a longtime thorn for the black community, as the quarter-century-old law that Congress changed has subjected tens of thousands of blacks to long prison terms for crack cocaine convictions while giving far more lenient treatment to those, mainly whites, caught with the powder form of the drug.

“We got it done,” Obama said. “It’s the right thing to do.”

And he forthrightly addressed the racial firestorm over the recent ouster of a black Agriculture Department official. He said the forced resignation of Shirley Sherrod “marked both the challenges we face and the progress we’ve made.”

“She deserves better than what happened last week,” Obama said.

Obama defends education policies to critics

Obama defends education policies to critics