March 21, 1984
Boston--Until a few weeks ago, Alan Lee, a 17-year-old junior at this city's Brighton High School, had never dreamed of spending a summer abroad. But now he has high hopes of going to France this summer as an exchange student. So does Sabrina Ware from Copley Square High School.
"Catching Up: A Review of the Women's Educational Equity Act Program" provides information on the program's history and budget, and includes a description of the National Advisory Council on Women's Educational Programs, which was established through weea to advise federal officials and the public on the educational needs of women and girls. The act is up for Congressional reauthorization this year.
John Augenblick, who directed the education finance center at the Education Commission of the States until leaving last year to form an education-policy consulting firm, suggests in a paper titled "Property Taxes and the Future of School Finance" that property taxes can be made fairer and more politically palatable in order to ensure adequate and stable sources of revenue for education.
The new plan will allow the 2,250 private schools and colleges enrolled in the tiaa-cref program to offer their employees a retirement plan that allows individuals to withdraw all of their annuity payments when they retire or transfer to another institution.
In addition, 47 of the 65 principals who responded to the survey said they supported the concept of merit pay for teachers, and 53 said they were in favor of amending teacher-certification requirements to give greater emphasis to academic courses in teachers' subject fields.
Called the Leadership Program in Vocational Special Education, the three-year project is being supported by the Illinois State Board of Education.
When and where was the first school in America established? (The answer will be included with next week's quiz.)
Teachers and students of the Parker-Gray High School praised Ms. Futrell for her "toughness," and Hazel Rigby, current president of the Education Association of Alexandria, presented her with a T-shirt that read: "A woman's place is in the White House. Mary for President."
"Although 14 in chronological years, [the boy] is operating at the level of a 5- or 6-year-old," U.S. District Judge Albert Bryan Jr. wrote in his opinion. The boy's handicap made him "a ready 'stooge,"' the judge said, "to be set up by peers engaged in drug trafficking."
Mr. Coney, who was first elected county superintendent in 1978 and took office in January 1979, said his decision was prompted in part by a state auditor's findings that he "intentionally and significantly" distorted the budget figures, forcing the district to issue iou's instead of paychecks to school workers. (See Education Week, Feb. 15, 1984.)
Members of both the House and the Senate have proposed legislation that would create a $2-billion youth-employment program designed to encourage potential high-school dropouts to stay in school.
Such "energy management" systems, operated by large and expensive computers, have been used in industry for some time, but the new systems are designed for smaller desktop machines.
Last July, Gov. Richard L. Thornburgh signed a law requiring the state's 200,000 public-school employees to boost pension payments from 5.25 percent to 6.25 percent of their annual salaries, and some 100,000 state workers to raise their pension contributions from 5 percent to 6.25 percent. The changes were made to improve the retirement systems and slow the rise of taxpayer payments to both funds.