School Community

Some people are destined to own a home and others are perfectly happy renting an apartment. There is no right or wrong choice between buying a house and renting an apartment, but there are some things to consider before you make your final choice.

There are a lot of advantages to owning your home such as complete privacy, financial equity and the freedom to remodel it in any way you want. However, the list of advantages for renting an apartment is a long one as well.

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Close to Work

People who work in the Seattle or Tacoma area benefit from renting Tacoma apartments because most apartments are close to work. Seattle and Tacoma are rapidly growing cities in the state of Washington and downtown employment is becoming popular. The same can be said about renting an apartment in any big city. There is no long commute to work, and you are always close to your office.

Repairs

The subject of maintenance can be tricky when trying to compare buying a home with renting an apartment. Homeowners will say that when something goes wrong with their home, they fix it immediately. But we all know that is not the case. Expensive major repairs can sit for some time until the homeowner can afford it.

With an apartment, the guidelines for repair response time can be outlined in the lease and it becomes the landlord’s problem to pay for the repairs and get them done quickly. The cost of repairing an apartment building is something that most tenants never have to worry about.

Maintenance

It does not take a super sleuth to find a nice apartment complex that keeps the lawn mowed, the landscaping trimmed and the snow shoveled in the winter. People who live in apartments can wake up in the morning and not have to worry about shoveling out the driveway to get to work. Unless a homeowner plans on paying someone to mow the lawn and shovel the snow, then he is going to spend a lot of time maintaining his grounds.

Moving On

If a homeowner decides that he wants to move to a new house, he has to go through the process of selling his home first. The homeowner has to hope that he finds a buyer for his home at the same time that he finds a new home to buy or else everything is on hold. It can often be an extended and frustrating process.

When an apartment renter wants to move to a new place, he gives his landlord sufficient notice and then moves out. Nothing simplifies the process of finding a new place to live more than being an apartment renter.

Renting an apartment can be beneficial to people who are always on the go due to the nature of their work and for those who do not have the capacity to buy their own place yet. With apartment rentals available, you can have a place you can temporarily call home while saving for your own dream home.

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Online Degree Programs: A Different Form of Education

Teaching careers are highly valued in today’s society. It takes a special person to teach others how to do something. However, earning your degree does take a good effort on your part. There are some things that may deter a person from going back to school. The hours of the classes don’t fit your schedule, the need to go to another location after work, and dealing with the younger generations currently attending school – these can be some of your reasons. But now, because of the internet, you don’t have to be present in a classroom to take courses. Here are some suggestions when looking for an online degree program to take.

1. Is the school you chose accredited? There are thousands of online degree programs for a master’s in education. But, you have to make sure that the school of your choice has the accreditation you need. The reason is that employers will not recognize online schools that offer low-quality degree programs. You can check out any online school’s accreditation with the six regional organizations. Also, be aware that even though a degree program is less expensive, that does not mean it is the best choice.
2. Is the degree program supportive? Good schools offer great support for their current and prospective students. If a school is overcrowded with students, you’re likely to get over-looked during online classes. Alternatively, too many students to one teacher can cause other damaging effects, such as little to no availability for questions regarding assignments. Check the teacher-to-student ratio. You may also want to look into the student mentors and career services. These extra options are set to help you succeed and should be available when you need them.
3. What are my payment options? The first method of paying for online schools is usually done by applying for FAFSA. Some of the best online masters in education programs will accept FAFSA. Others may not, so you have to be aware of your qualifications. On the FAFSA website, they can determine whether you are eligible to receive aid from them. The application doesn’t take long to fill out, and you will generally receive an answer within 24 to 72 hours. Other payment methods include personal loans and scholarships.

Going back to school to receive your master’s degree in education is an exciting time. Since it is online, you are granted the flexibility of your classes. This allows you to work and pursue other agendas while you succeed in your class.

The schedule at Paul Robeson High School.

Students at Paul Robeson High School are served lunch at 2 p.m. or later. As we reported earlier this month, many students at the phasing-out school say the schedule leaves them hungry and unable to focus on classwork by the second half of the school day.

Later in the day, my stomach [is] talking to me, and the teacher is talking to me at the same time, senior Akeem Pearce told me. I dont know who to listen to.

Our readers asked whether it is legal for a city school to serve lunch so late in the day. The short answer is yes, according to the letter of the law — but maybe not according to the spirit.

State law governing school lunch schedules does not specify a window of time for serving lunch, but rather requires that schools serve lunch at a reasonable time, which could vary from community to community.

Overcrowding and co-locations — which ask multiple schools stationed in the same building to share a single cafeteria, gym and auditorium — have caused some schools to complain that they are unable to schedule lunch at a reasonable time.

In response to complaints about the lunch schedule at Manhattans P.S. 116, which is severely overcrowded, Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh introduced a bill last March that would require schools to serve lunch within a specific time window.

Under Kavanaghs bill, schools couldnt schedule students for lunch until at least two and one-half hours after the start of the school day, and all students would have to have a lunch break by four hours after the first bell. Under that rule, Robeson would be required to begin serving lunch by 12:30 p.m. at the latest.

The notion is that if youre going to have a full school day, you need a break to eat, Kavanagh told me. For people who feel like 2 oclock is not a reasonable time, thats already a violation of state law.

The bill failed to gain traction during the 2011 legislative session, but Kavanaugh said he hoped his colleagues would discuss it this spring.

Chancellor Dennis Walcott told me after the marathon Panel for Educational Policy meeting Feb. 9 that he could not judge whether 2 p.m. is too late for schools to serve students lunch without knowing a schools individual situation — and he was not familiar with complaints about Robesons lunch hour.

Prof Les Ebdon: wants Oxford and Cambridge to make allowances for applicants from comprehensives in order to make them more “inclusive” 

A controversy broke out on Twitter earlier this week about an article in the Times Educational Supplement in which a teacher called Jonny Griffiths describes a conversation with a bright sixth-former who’s worried about his exam results. “Apart from you, Michael, who cares what you get in your A-levels?” he says. “What is better: to go to Cambridge with three As and hate it or go to Bangor with three Cs and love it?”

The controversy was not about whether the teacher was right to discourage his student to apply to Cambridge – no one thought that, obviously – but whether the article was genuine. Was Jonny Griffiths a real teacher or the fictional creation of a brilliant Tory satirist? Most people found it hard to believe that a teacher who didn’t want his pupils to do well could be in gainful employment.

Alas, Mr Griffiths is all too real. Since 2009, when I first mooted the idea of setting up a free school devoted to academic excellence, I’ve come across dozens of examples of the same attitude, all equally jaw-dropping.

For instance, there’s the now famous battle between the Diocese of Westminster and the Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School in Holland Park. Once a grammar school, Cardinal Vaughan was forced to become a comprehensive in 1977, but it managed to retain its high standards thanks to a succession of great headmasters. It is currently the highest-performing state school in Kensington and Chelsea, and 13 of its pupils were offered places at Oxford or Cambridge last year.

As a voluntary-aided Catholic school, Cardinal Vaughan falls within the bailiwick of the Diocese of Westminster, and in 2008 the diocese’s education department referred it to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator, accusing it of practising a form of covert selection. The Left-wing educationalists at the diocese wanted the school to be more “socially inclusive”. For those unfamiliar with New Labour gobbledegook, that’s code for “bog standard comprehensive”. The complaint was partially upheld.

Following up on a plan he unveiled last September to let states apply to be exempt from basic elements of the Bush-era No Child Left Behind education law, President Obama will today announce the first 10 states that have qualified for such exemptions.

The Associated Press, citing “a White House official … who spoke on condition of anonymity because the states had not yet been announced,” says the states are: Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

One state, New Mexico, has been denied a waiver but is working with the administration to see if it can soon qualify, according to the wire service.

The goal of the waivers is to give states more flexibility as they seek to reach educational achievement goals set by the federal government when George W. Bush was president.

NPR’s Larry Abramson reported in September, when Obama’s waiver plan was announced, that:

“States that apply for and receive waivers no longer have to label schools as failing if they fall short of achievement goals. Instead, states can come up with their own plans to boost performance. They also no longer have to set aside a certain amount of federal money to deal with low performing schools. …

“States must show that they have ways to measure student growth and get students ready for college or a career. They also have to be developing comprehensive teacher evaluations that include the use of standardized test scores.”

The AP adds that while “No Child Left Behind requires all students to be proficient in reading and math by 2014 … Obama’s action strips away that fundamental requirement for those approved for flexibility, provided they offer a viable plan instead. Under the deal, the states must show they will prepare children for college and careers, set new targets for improving achievement among all students, reward the best performing schools and focus help on the ones doing the worst.”

The plan for exemptions, Larry also reported, worries some “advocates for minority and special education students” who are concerned that such students will be ignored.

Tags: education, No Child Left Behind, President Obama