#EdChoice

[jenelleb]

???? **Announcing a Nationwide School Choice Program for Healing Haven Amenity Campuses!** ???? We are excited to introduce a transformative school-choice program that prioritizes holistic education and well-being for students across the nation. Our Healing Haven Amenity Campuses offer an innovative approach to learning, focusing on academic excellence, mental health, and community engagement. **Why Choose Our Program?** Comprehensive Curriculum Mental Health Support Community-Centered Learning State-of-the-Art Facilities We invite all educational agencies, businesses, and community partners to join us in this endeavor. Together, we can create a nurturing environment where every child can thrive. ???? **Watch Our Introductory Video:** [YouTube Link]( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHUPd_gEG8w) **Tagging our wonderful partners:** - @USEducationDept - @NatlSchoolChoice - @EdChoice - @CharterSchoolsUSA - @EdTrust - @SchoolChoiceNow - @American_Ed - @USChamber - @K12Inc - @GreatHeartsAcad …and many more nationwide agencies and local partners who support educational choice and innovation! **Spread the Word!** #SchoolChoice #HealingHavenCampus #EducationReform #MentalHealthMatters #CommunityLearning #StudentSuccess #InnovativeEducation #NationwideEducation #HolisticLearning #PartnerWithUs Join us in creating a brighter future for our children. Together, we can make a difference! ???? --- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHUPd_gEG8wGoogle Keynote (Google I/O ‘24) - Audio Describedutube

[ledenews]

EdChoice Expansion a Boost for Schools like St. John Central Academy

The telephones at 3625 Guernsey Street in Bellaire just got a lot busier. With a recent stroke of the pen by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, a private school education just got a lot more affordable to a lot more families all across the Buckeye State. And that means a lot more students can and will be considering a private education at St. John Central Academy. DeWine signed the state’s biennium $86M budget two weeks ago. Signed into law as part of that budget was an increase in the state’s EdChoice Expansion scholarship program. The program provides scholarship money for students in K-12 to attend private schools. There are two options: the traditional, which targets students living in failing public school districts. The other, the expansion program, is entirely income based. Previously, students living in families whose income level reached 250 percent or less of the Federal Poverty Level were eligible. For a family of four that was right around $70,000. Now? That amount has increased to $135,000, meaning many more students are eligible. In addition, families falling above the 450 percent income limit will still be eligible, but on a sliding scale that provides less scholarship money as income increases. But for those who meet the 450 percent or less requirements? They will be eligible for the full scholarship amount of $6,165 for grades K-8 and $8,407 for 9-12. “There’s been a lot of talk on the board about this,” admitted Johnetta Yaegal, Board Chairman with SJCA. “We’re probably going to have a lot of people who were turned down for an expansion scholarship in the past that are now eligible. “They can now come here for free. Kids can go to a public school or a private school, and now, it gives everybody that opportunity.” SJCA is carrying on its tradition of a solid educational experience aimed at preparing its students for a successful career, and life, beyond their teenage years. Yaegal pointed to the amount of scholarship money made available and earned by the graduating class just two years ago which totaled $2M. Now consider that graduating class consisted of just eight students. “That means we are pushing academics over everything else,” Yaegal said. “The (graduating) class was only eight kids and they have that many scholarship offers among them.” St. John Central Academy is located on Guernsey Street in Bellaire. Big Things Happening Onward and upward is the goal down at SJCA as big plans are in the works, even prior to the expansion of the EdChoice Program. The Academy hired a new principal in 1991 St. John Central graduate, Dr. John Rose. He’s served as a professor at West Liberty, West Virginia University, and even Yale. He’s lived and taught abroad. He’s putting his spin on the schools’ goal of providing “excellence in education”. “We just signed him to a five-year contract,” Yaegal said. “He brings a lot of culture and things that he wants to implement long term.” One of those evolutions is soon, SJCA will be taking on boarding students from both out of the area and overseas. St. John is in the process of receiving its I-17 form approval. It’s a “petition for approval of school for attendance by a nonimmigrant student” from the Department of Homeland Security. While that’s in process, academy leaders are beginning the hunt to find appropriate housing for those students. “We’ve looked at several properties and had several opportunities to purchase,” Yaegal admitted. “And we need to get our I-17 solidified before we can sponsor (boarding students).” Yaegal noted the eventual boarding house for those students will be overseen by what she classified as dorm parents, adults who will live in-house and provide assistance and guidance and ensure the students' out-of-class needs are met. She also assured boarding students will not affect St. John Central Academy’s OVAC, nor its OHSAA status. With all that in play, coupled with the expansion, Yaegal also sought to dispel any rumors of the impending downfall of SJCA. The Fighting Irish are not going anywhere. “We’ve heard from two (local) bus garage superintendents who asked one of our employees when we were closing,” Yaegal said. “They heard we were closing. But we’re signing contracts with people for five years. We just finished installing a $127,000 chemistry lab. We’re putting in a $92,000 boiler. “I think it’s important for parents to know because we’re moving forward on so many different aspects of school and growth.” St. John offers a quality education and experience, one unique and evolving here in the Ohio Valley. It’s also one now that’s a LOT more affordable to families, both there, and beyond. Read the full article

[eraserdude6226]

I wonder if LBJ's school is a "for-profit" charter school in the state of Ohio? These schools supposedly take in "non-traditional" students and get paid money from the states EdChoice program but are run to make money at the end of the year. Doesn't matter if the kids pass the state test or not, they'll make money for the corporation all day long!!

Not One 8th Grade Student at the Lebron James Akron School Has Passed a State Math Test in 3 Years | The Gateway Pundit | by Anthony Scott

[kids-worldfun]

School Choice: Where Now? School choice means giving parents the power to select the best education environment for their children grades K-12. Where is school choice now? Read more

[redptstrategies]

When I get my desk cleaned off what are the two books that still have a home... Yup, @edchoice ABCs Of School Choice & @alec_states RichStates, PoorStates... Two must reads... #nerd #education #edchoice #edreform #smallgovt #localcontrol #SFOF (at Grant Sawyer Building)

[theculturedmarxist]

Most recently, a January poll conducted for the New York Times found that 68% of Americans backed required masking for students in order to try to control the spread of the omicron variant. A separate survey from December found that only 28% of adults supported in-person schooling without masking during a COVID spike.

An EdChoice poll from last month showed that 50% of parents supported school mask requirements for children ages 5-11, while 29% believed that masks should be encouraged. Only 21% opposed encouraging or mandating masks.

That level of support for masking in schools stretches back to this summer, well before the omicron case spike, although the magnitude varies.

For instance, an Education Next poll of parents in June 2021 found that 47% supported masking requirements of students, compared to 35% who opposed them. (The rest weren’t sure). Similarly, an Associated Press poll from July showed 52% of parents backed mask mandates for students, while 28% were against them.

A National Parents Union poll in September found even stronger support: 70% of public school parents supported requiring all students to wear masks and another 11% thought that unvaccinated children should have to wear masks.

Polls from Axios, Gallup, Morning Consult, and USA Today have also found majority support for masking of some kind; so have statewide polls in Florida, Tennessee, and Virginia. Majorities of teachers and parents of students with disabilities also support masking. The polls do show a consistent partisan divide, with Republicans much more skeptical of masking than Democrats.

“I understand personal choice, I understand personal freedom. But when it comes to public health, we should all be looking out for each other,” one New York City parent told the Associated Press. “The best protection so far is to mask up and vaccinate.”

Coming right off the last post about the Biden Administration wanting to "message" people into being okay with "living with the virus":

This week, NPR described a “growing chorus of pediatricians, neuroscientists, special education teachers, and parents who are concerned about the effects of prolonged masking on children.” The Atlantic, the New York Times, and the Washington Post all recently published opinion pieces questioning the need for masks in schools.

This is totally organic and not at all suspicious!

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

On August 21, 1831, Nat Turner, an enslaved American, led about 70 of his enslaved and free Black neighbors in a rebellion to awaken his white neighbors to the inherent brutality of slaveholding and the dangers it presented to their own safety. Turner and his friends traveled from house to house in their neighborhood in Southampton County, Virginia, freeing enslaved people and murdering about 60 of the white men, women, and children they encountered. Their goal, Turner later told an interviewer, was “to carry terror and devastation wherever we went.”

State militia put down the rebellion in a couple of days, and both the legal system and white vigilantes killed at least 200 Black Virginians, many of whom were not involved in Turner’s bid to end enslavement. Turner himself was captured in October, tried in November, sentenced to death, and hanged.

But white Virginians, and white folks in neighboring southern states, remained frightened. Turner had been, in their minds, a well-treated, educated enslaved man, who knew his Bible well and seemed the very last sort of person they would have expected to revolt. And so they responded to the rebellion in two ways. They turned against the idea that enslavement was a bad thing, and instead began to argue that human enslavement was a positive good.

And states across the South passed laws making it a crime to teach enslaved Americans to read and write.

Denying enslaved Black Americans access to education exiled them from a place in the nation. The Framers had quite explicitly organized the United States not on the principles of religion or tradition, but rather on the principles of the Enlightenment: the idea that, by applying knowledge and reasoning to the natural world, men could figure out the best way to order society. Someone excluded from access to education could not participate in that national project. Instead, that person was read out of society, doomed to be controlled by leaders who marshaled religion and propaganda to defend their dominance.

In 1858, South Carolina Senator James Henry Hammond explained that society needed “a class to do the menial duties, to perform the drudgery of life. That is, a class requiring but a low order of intellect and but little skill.”

But when they organized in the 1850s to push back against the efforts of elite enslavers like Hammond to take over the national government, members of the fledgling Republican Party recognized the importance of education. In 1859, Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln explained that those who adhered to the “mud-sill” theory “assumed that labor and education are incompatible; and any practical combination of them impossible…. According to that theory, the education of laborers, is not only useless, but pernicious, and dangerous.”

Lincoln argued that workers were not simply drudges but rather were the heart of the economy. “The prudent, penniless beginner in the world, labors for wages awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land, for himself; then labors on his own account another while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him.” He tied the political vision of the Framers to this economic vision. In order to prosper, he argued, men needed “book-learning,” and he called for universal education. An educated community, he said, “will be alike independent of crowned-kings, money-kings, and land-kings.”

When they were in control of the federal government in the 1860s, Republicans passed the Land Grant College Act, funding public universities so that men without wealthy fathers might have access to higher education. In the aftermath of the Civil War, Republicans also tried to use the federal government to fund public schools for poor Black and white Americans, dividing money up according to illiteracy rates. But President Andrew Johnson vetoed that bill on the grounds that the federal government had no business protecting Black education; that process, he said, belonged to the states—which for the next century denied Black people equal access to schools, excluding them from full participation in American society and condemning them to menial labor.

Then, in 1954, after decades of pressure from Black and brown Americans for equal access to public schools, the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren, a former Republican governor of California, unanimously agreed that separate schools were inherently unequal, and thus unconstitutional.

Immediately, white southerners lawmakers launched a campaign of what they called “massive resistance” to integration. Some Virginia counties closed their public schools. Others took funds from integrated public schools and used a grant system to redistribute those funds to segregated private schools. These segregation academies dovetailed neatly with Ronald Reagan’s rise to political power with a message that public employees had gotten too powerful and that public enterprises should be privatized.

After Reagan’s election, his Secretary of Education commissioned a study of the nation’s public schools, starting with the conviction that there was a "widespread public perception that something is seriously remiss in our educational system." The resulting report, titled “A Nation at Risk,” announced: “the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people.”

Although a later study commissioned in 1990 by the Secretary of Energy found the data in the original report did not support the report’s conclusions, Reagan nonetheless used it to justify school privatization. He vowed after the report’s release that he would: “continue to work in the months ahead for passage of tuition tax credits, vouchers, educational savings accounts, voluntary school prayer, and abolishing the Department of Education. Our agenda is to restore quality to education by increasing competition and by strengthening parental choice and local control.”

The drive to push tax dollars from public schools to private academies through a voucher system has remained a top priority for Movement Conservatives eager to dismantle the federal government, although a recent study from Wisconsin shows that vouchers do not actually save tax dollars, and scholars do not believe they help students achieve better outcomes than they would have in public schools.

Calling education a civil rights issue—as President Barack Obama had done when calling for more funding for schools—former president Trump asked Congress to fund “school choice for disadvantaged youth, including millions of African-American and Latino children. These families should be free to choose the public, private, charter, magnet, religious or home school that is right for them.” (In fact, most of those using vouchers are already enrolled in private schools.) His education secretary, Betsy DeVos, was a staunch supporter of school choice and the voucher system; she and her family gave $600,000 to promote school choice ballot laws in the decade before 2017.

The coronavirus pandemic sped up the push to defund public schools as Trump pushed hard to transfer funds from the closed public schools to private schools. In December 2020, he signed an executive order allowing states to use money from a federal anti-poverty program for vouchers, and as of mid-2021, at least 8 states had launched new voucher programs. A number of Republican governors are using federal funds from the bills designed to address the pandemic to push vouchers.

In 1831, lawmakers afraid of the equality that lies at the heart of our Declaration of Independence made sure Black Americans could not have equal access to education.

In 1971, when segregation academies were gaining ground, the achievement gap between white and Black 8th grade students in reading scores was 57 points. In 1988, the year of the nation’s highest level of school integration, that gap had fallen to 18 points. By 1992, it was back up to 30 points, and it has not dropped below 25 points since.

—-

Notes:

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3h500t.html

https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/12/in-southern-towns-segregation-academies-are-still-going-strong/266207/

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/just-visiting/nation-risk-and-re-segregation-schools

https://progressive.org/magazine/private-school-vouchers-levin/

https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2021/05/07/tracking-the-growing-cost-to-taxpayers-of-private-school-vouchers/

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/governors-federal-virus-aid-expand-school-choice-79563407

https://www.news-herald.com/2021/08/08/ohio-public-schools-plan-lawsuit-to-challenge-edchoice-program/

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona-education/2021/08/17/arizona-gov-doug-ducey-offers-incentives-reject-mask-mandates/8169357002/

https://www.courthousenews.com/devos-family-donated-600k-school-choice-ballot-efforts/

https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/12/07/504451460/school-choice-101-what-it-is-how-it-works-and-does-it-work

https://www.npr.org/2017/02/28/516717981/watch-live-trump-addresses-joint-session-of-congress

https://edreform.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/A_Nation_At_Risk_1983.pdf

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/28/trump-private-schools-pandemic-451757

https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/12/07/504451460/school-choice-101-what-it-is-how-it-works-and-does-it-work

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/just-visiting/nation-risk-and-re-segregation-schools

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[azspot]

Bureaucratization ballooned school staff. From 1990 to 2018, as one of us documents in “Back to the Staffing Surge” in EdChoice, while the number of public school students rose 23 percent, teachers increased by 32 percent, other school staff by 60 percent, and administrators to manage everyone else skyrocketed by 81 percent. Going farther back in time, from 1950 to 2006, the ratio of students to staff fell from 19.3 students per staffer to a mere 8 to 1 (see “President Obama and Education Reform”).

All this bureaucracy has had at least two negative effects. First, public school spending soared while teacher pay stagnated, leading teachers to seek advancement into the bureaucracy, where they get paid to boss around other teachers. Both economically and psychologically, bureaucracy has devalued teaching. Second, with all those staff members, public schools feel more bureaucratic and less personal, and teachers are doing more paperwork and meetings with other grownups and less mentoring of students and parents.

[laliberty]

2) Academic Performance Isn't Improved

School choice doesn't improve educational performance. That is the common line from organizations such as BRIGHT Magazine, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and Buzzfeed.

These articles and others are quick to point to Louisiana's failing experiment. However, they are also quick to ignore two important factors. First, Louisiana operates a very strict school choice program. To enroll scholarship recipients, participating private schools must participate in state testing aligned with the public school curriculum, among other rules. Second, Louisiana is an anomaly. Out of 19 empirical studies, only three found negative academic effects, and two of them were from Louisiana.

Academic performance for students is improved, but public school students also benefit. From 34 empirical studies, 32 found positive benefits for public school students.

By creating competition, public schools have to allocate resources more efficiently. If they don't, they risk effectively going out of business.

On the whole, the competitive environment has helped both private and public schools alike. The reason? It holds public schools accountable. Schools must begin to treat parents and students as customers to be served rather than a captive audience. ...

3) It Increases Segregation 

... Kristin Rawls writes in Salon that school choice is purely for the white middle and upper classes. The article argues that minorities don't have the time to choose a school. At the same time, she quotes a Wake County parent and former teacher who stated: “they find the process taxing and stressful, recognizing that they may be unqualified to determine which school is best for a specific child.” By using this within the article, she gives credit to the idea that some parents are too ignorant to make the right decision for their children.

These arguments are condescending but also very misleading. Both African Americans and Hispanics are largely in favor of school choice. Only 20 percent of such minorities are against, whereas 34 percent of whites are. The evidence shows that African Americans are widely in favor of school choice. To say they would not make the right choice goes against the evidence of its support.

The reason for minority support is simple. Segregation already exists in schools. Minority kids in poor areas have no choice but to attend underperforming schools. Ultimately, minority populations end up in the same impoverished neighborhoods with no way out.

The reality is that choice tends to produce positive results. Why? Because it can’t get much more segregated than it already is. Students are assigned to schools based on where their parents can afford to live. The existing schools for minorities are already underperforming and underfunded, largely because of their zip codes. The support is there, but so is the evidence.

An OECD publication stated:

It often is claimed that school vouchers lead to greater segregation. However, this claim is rarely checked against the available evidence. In fact, the evidence is all on the other side— voucher programs provide a greatly reduced level of racial segregation by breaking down neighborhood barriers.

This statement is backed up by empirical research. Out of ten studies on ethnic segregation, nine show overall positive effects. The anomaly was in Milwaukee, which showed no visible effect. Such research can be interpreted in different ways. Halley Potter, a fellow at The Century Foundation, looked into the Louisiana study.

What she found was an increased level of segregation in private schools. However, the study actually found a far greater decrease in segregation at public schools. As Greg Forster, an EdChoice Senior Fellow, stated: “this study actually found the voucher program created a significant net decrease in ethnic segregation!”

[democracyin-news]

Students kept waiting while tutoring funding hangs in limbo

Students kept waiting while tutoring funding hangs in limbo

America’s students have suffered these last two years, and school districts have struggled to make up for lost time and lost learning. School officials have begun identifying tutoring as an evidence-based solution, and they aren’t alone. Policymakers at the state and federal levels have prioritized funding dedicated to in-person tutoring, and recent polling from EdChoice has shown substantial…

[jakeshanley]

Voucher System and Public Schools Pt. 1

The problem with public schools

In high school I was a member of the Red Ribbon Week planning committee—a week dedicated to promoting anti-drug awareness and help for substance-abusing students. I was on staff with some of the other school club leaders in the top ten percent and honors societies. “You know nearly everyone in the top-ten percent cheats,” my friend Raymond told me some time later. He was taking more advanced courses than I was with them, and told me about some of their decisions in class. “Yeah, they’re all taking eight AP courses, but they have a Facebook group where they share their answers on tests, so they can help each other get into Ivy Leagues.” How could high-achieving students, placed on an anti-drug awareness committee, slide by the administration for cheating and do work for a cause they possibly did not even support? I argue that the voucher system is worth implementing on a national level, due to the lack of moral integrity in public schools.

What is a voucher? A voucher "give[s] parents the freedom to choose a private school for their children, using all or part of the public funding set aside for their children’s education" (“What Are School Vouchers?” EdChoice, 28 June 2021, https://www.edchoice.org). Vouchers give lower income families a chance to attend higher performing private schools in the area rather than a local public school. In this three part series, I aim to focus on how the voucher system can improve the moral or character formation of K-12 education.. For the remainder of this article, I will focus on the issue I touched in the introduction: the culture of success at public schools.

The current state of public school education is illiberal and damaging to a proper moral education. According to author Paul Barnwell of the Atlantic magazine, “since 2002, standardized-test preparation and narrowly defined academic success has been the unstated, but de facto, purpose of their schooling experience.” (Barnwell, Paul. “Students’ Broken Moral Compasses.” The Atlantic, 25 July 2016. Accessed 15 April 2022). Rigorous test preparation and high SAT/ACT results are the purpose of a public school education. This rigorous test preparation is essentially contributing to an illiberal education—students are trained to write and complete a test, not develop their intellect or moral capabilities.

Barnwell states, “According to the 2012 Josephson Report Card on the Ethics of American Youth, 57 percent of teens stated that successful people do what they have to do to win, even if it involves cheating.” Students deprived of moral education are affected directly— the value of success replaces the value of morally good action.

In the next part in this series, I will focus on the benefits of a voucher system for both student success and moral formation.

[ledenews]

St. John Central Well Situated

It has been quite an inaugural year for St. John Central Academy for the building, its students and faculty, and the spirit of St. John Central High that still pervades the school. The Diocese of Steubenville handed the building over to a newly founded corporation comprised of St. John Central High School alumni.  This board immediately gained the support of past Fighting Irish alumni and has been successful in steering the school forward.  St. John Central Academy just completed year one of its 5-year plan and is showing signs of marked growth. “It’s been crazy,” said SJCA Advancement Director Johnetta Yaegel. “When we started, everything was coming down to the last minute because of how long it took to get the charter in place and then follow up with all the other requirements needed to open the school. “Everyone was prepared to move forward with the new school year and Mrs. (Selina) Brooks (principal) took everything to the top. Then, the coronavirus happened, and we were able to continue educating our students in expert fashion to complete the school year.” The Academy ended the school year with 103 students enrolled K-through-12, roughly the same amount the combined St. John Central High School/Grade School finished with its final year. Those numbers figure to increase in the coming years as programs expand and the Academy further establishes itself in the minds of the community as a viable educational option. “I think it’s safe to say the Valley needs to know we are here to stay,” said Yaegel, whose daughter will be a senior for the 2020-21 school year. “There are major changes coming at the school.” Yaegel admitted the Academy has exciting news, both in the short term and in long-term planning for the students, their families, and the community.

Coming soon

SJCA is in the process of planning a significant expansion of its chemistry lab with plans to invest $100,000 in equipment and technology.  The school’s biology lab has already been upgraded to a state of the art level. Dan Vitlip, the school’s renowned science teacher, is spearheading the design and planning of the lab. It will incorporate aspects of robotics, chemistry, and engineering. SDJCA is reaching out to alumni for support for Mr. Vitlip and his programs.  “Anyone who has had the opportunity to take his classes, understands their value, and will undoubtedly support his efforts to expand the programming for the sciences at SJCA,” Yaegal said. The school also plans to offer computer coding classes taught remotely by alumni who are Information Technology professionals for more in-depth exposure to these technical skills. In addition, the school is racing to give every instructor at SJCA the ability to teach remotely. Yaegel noted the ability for full remote learning will come in handy should another coronavirus wave hit or another similar situation requiring the school building to be closed for an extended period. It also increases the potential offerings available to both SJCA students and potentially others off-site. “We want every teacher in the whole school to have remote capability,” Yaegel said. “Our teachers will be able to go to work, even during a quarantine, and still be able to teach their kids how they normally would.” Yaegel briefly touched on the ability of home-schooled children to directly connect to a live instructor and participate “in the moment” with that instructor and classmates. Many parents of home-schooled students struggle with higher mathematics and sciences.  Home-schooled students will be offered the opportunity to participate in dissections with Mr. Vitlip, having their own specimens sent to their homes, and participate actively.

The E-Sports team members built their gaming rigs used for competition. Their setup is shown, along with iMacs further down in the school's upgraded computer lab.

E-Sports and Other Athletic Plans

The Academy’s E-Sports team, which plays competition-style PC video games remotely versus other schools, is a program taking off. SJCA students helped design the E-Sports station at the school along with helping to build the gaming rigs themselves. “The students built the computers themselves, under supervision,” Yaegel said. “You can compete against schools from anywhere and there isn’t a classification ranking system like those of the OVAC. If you can field a team and have the equipment, you can compete. “You can play people all over the country.” And that was the exact plan. The team built the equipment, practiced strategy, and was ready to go, and then the pandemic kept the team from playing because the lab was closed, and the students will wait to compete when the new school year starts. More traditional sports are being discussed as well. The Academy had planned an instructional soccer camp to be held at its facility. Coaches from both Wheeling University and West Liberty were to run the camp. It, too, was canceled. But the Academy is in talks of taking the necessary steps of getting a soccer program up and running. For the first few seasons, SJCA will need to practice and play its games on other schools’ or facilities’ fields. But that isn’t the long-term goal. “We eventually want to be playing on our own field,” Yaegel said. “We are working on trying to get together with plans for our own pool facility that also will include a soccer facility. “We were going to present ideas to the Belmont County Tourism Department with a presentation on March 20, but that got canceled.” The school is looking at adding a golf team this year. The return of boys’ basketball in coming years is also in the works.

A Pool You Say?

A home soccer field is a great addition, but there are many options to utilize in the interim for SJCA. But an indoor pool? Those locations Upper Ohio Valley-wise are at a premium. The facility’s demand would be immense, not just from a Fighting Irish swim team, but other area teams without a home pool, along with other local organizations. Obviously, it’s not an inexpensive prospect. So, when asked if this was more vision than plan, Yaegel responded. “We have some funding in place already and a lot of interest,” Yaegel said. “Our people in Belmont County don’t have an (indoor) facility for kids to practice swimming. It’s a vital part of school sports. We need a facility for our students and the students of the Valley.” There are a number of schools that have official teams without a home pool to practice in. Other schools have swimmers who compete individually. This provides an additional practice option and what would be the first in Belmont County for indoor use. “This would be for all the kids in the Ohio Valley who don’t have a place to practice,” Yaegel said. “Our kids need that. Bellaire needs that, something here to generate tax dollars for the city.” Yaegel noted another possible option to help with funding once the facility would be open is to offer up space for medical offices therapists. These medical professionals could set up a satellite office with the intention of performing aqua therapy for their patients. Any funding attributed to allowing the facility such use could help with upkeep and maintenance on the facility.

Speaking of Funding

Depending on where you live and what grade level your child is currently in, they may be eligible for a scholarship from the EdChoice program in Ohio. In short, if your child is a fourth grader at a county elementary school and if they attend a school listed on the EdChoice program site as being eligible, your child could attend SJCA at no cost to you. Locally, according the Ohio Department of Education, those districts and grade levels are: Belmont County—Bellaire (K-4, 9-12); Bridgeport (5-8, 9-12); Martins Ferry (5-8, 9-12); Shadyside (9-12); St. Clairsville (K-4) and Union Local (K-5, 9-12).Monroe County—Beallsville (K-6, 7-12); Monroe Central (9-12, K-8 at Woodsfield and Skyvue); River (9-12, K-8 at Powhatan)Jefferson County—Buckeye Local (K-6 at all three elementary schools, 9-12); Edison (9-12); Indian Creek (4-6, 9-12); and Steubenville (5-8). Yaegel noted that once the EdChoice scholarship is approved, the student can enroll at SJCA. From that point, the family need only renew the scholarship each year by the deadline. Eligibility does not change if the student’s home district improves or the student advances to a grade level where the home district is higher performing. Once they are eligible, they remain eligible until graduation, provided the scholarship is renewed on time. “Even if the district is no longer failing, once the student is enrolled, that voucher follows the student,” Yaegel said.

The SJCA building houses students from kindergarten through 12th grade. More than 100 students attended last year and that number figures to grow as parents learn more about the EdChoice scholarship opportunities, as well as what the school has to offer.

Open for All Students?

St. John is not picking and choose its students in order to keep its test scores higher, as some have suggested. If that was the case, enrollment never would have been an issue. The school will accept students that have an Individualized Education Program, that is not a disqualifier. But Yaegel noted there are some disabilities, whether those be physical or learning disabilities, that the public-school system is better equipped to accommodate. And if parents are inquiring about sending their child(ren) to St. John, the staff will be honest with their assessment. “We have students at our school on an IEP,” Yaegel said. “But if you are a student with a severe disability, we can’t accommodate that. We don’t have the structural resources and staff to handle severe disabilities.” “We are able to help those students who need extra attention, that extra study table after school. Our intervention specialist can go 1-on-1 with them and get them the help they need.” St. John is no longer affiliated with the Diocese of Steubenville and, as such, is not a Catholic school. But it is a non-denominational Christian school where religion may be taught and practiced For more information, call (740) 676-4932 or visit SJCA on its temporary website and fill out your information to be contacted at sjcacademy.net Read the full article

[myweddingsandevents]

Open SmartNews and read "100 public schools are suing Ohio, saying EdChoice voucher programs are unconstitutional" here: https://share.smartnews.com/JZxHL

To read it on the web, tap here: https://share.smartnews.com/57hjv

[safebusmtap]

How to overcome homeschooling challenges?

An idea that has been around far longer than school-based training in the West, self-teaching is a significant and well-known educational choice in the US. In 2019 alone, practically 3% of the country's K12 understudy base was self-taught by their folks.

The COVID-19 episode, notwithstanding, has diverted self-teaching from an anomaly to the favored alternative for guardians and understudies. According to the 2020 EdChoice survey, nearly half (43%) of guardians who decided not to self-teach before the viral episode were more open to the thought following the pandemic, while 53% of the guardians demonstrated that they were probably going to select to self-teach their wards, either full-time or low maintenance.

Home-schooling: The concept and bottlenecks to expect

Freed from the restrictions of the traditional grade-based curriculum, home-schooling provides parents with an exciting opportunity to introduce greater personalization in the children’s education. Lessons can be paced to match the student’s specific needs, interests, and abilities. It also allows parents to form deeper bonds with their wards.

The interaction for enlisting for self-teaching in the US is likewise very clear. While the standards may fluctuate, contingent upon the state and locale, most places in the US expect guardians to just enlist with the state/region instruction board through a site. Guardians of youngsters effectively in school may have to send across a letter of withdrawal to the school head or neighbourhood director declaring their expectation to self-teach their ward prior to pushing forward with the enrolment interaction.

All things considered; self-teaching accompanies something reasonable of difficulties.

It gives guardians more power over their wards' schooling and permits them to present a more extensive scope of customary and non-traditional subjects like games, religious philosophy, theory, administration, and expressions in the learning experience. In any case, this adaptability can frequently demonstrate overpowering for guardians, especially the individuals who are new to self-teaching. Worries about the picked subjects not lining up with understudies' inclinations frequently leave them unsure about the best coursework for their youngsters' drawn-out advancement. Guardians additionally battle to plan the advancement made by their wards and stress over how it holds facing their friends in the conventional school environment.

Many parents also find it difficult to define and follow a realistic schedule when teaching their home classes. Schools streamline the learning process by clearly defining teacher schedules and responsibilities. However, in home schools, parents must regularly switch between provider and teacher roles. Failure to smoothly manage both responsibilities can impact short-term and long-term learning, as well as child-parent relationships.

Parents choosing home-schooling for the duration of the pandemic ought to additionally make certain that the transition is easy and hassle-unfastened for his or her children. Though the shift from school-primarily based totally schooling to home-schooling has been made less complicated through a yr of faraway learning, the drastic alternate withinside the pedagogical method may be provoking for students, particularly the ones at a more youthful age.

Thankfully, these challenges are not without solutions.

Solutions to home-schooling challenges

For instance, to define the curriculum, parents can begin with an honest discussion with their wards about their subjects of interest, current progress, and learning milestones. Doing so can help them to make the foremost relevant curriculum and teaching approach while also identifying and addressing the bottlenecks within the learning process. Parents can additionally access resources and support within the sort of online forums, communities, FAQs, and groups where they will receive helpful suggestions for his or her concerns and doubts.

As far as mapping the progress goes, some states and districts require home-schooled learners to undertake assessments at regular intervals. Most, however, leave learner evaluation to the oldsters. it is important to know that progress is subjective; while home-schooled children score higher percentiles than their school-based peers on the average, they will perform better in some subjects and lag in others. Parents, therefore, can choose the developmental milestones and progress roadmap that best reflects their wards’ specific abilities, interests, and learning styles.

Dad and mom can also address struggles with learning schedules through choosing the maximum suitable coaching approach. Does their ward require a strict timeline with sincerely described intervals of learning and play, or do they seem greater receptive to unfastened shape gaining knowledge of which can appear even during bedtime? Are they higher served by using maintaining a schedule that mimics the college instructional yr., or will a yr.-long learning method be preferable? Information their toddler’s temperament and wishes assists mother and father in making the proper decisions with regards to scheduling.

Many home-schooling parents also form communities that share teaching responsibilities and learning resources while ensuring that the child’s peer engagement – an important part of the development process – is not compromised. Joining such communities can also help ease the distress caused to the students by the pedagogical change.

Ultimately, whether parents choose school-based learning or home-schooling for their wards, the end goal is to help the young learners develop into more well-rounded, mature, and knowledgeable adults. While the government is working hard to reopen schools after a year-long disruption, home-schooling might be here to stay for many families across the US. Understanding the challenges associated with the concept, as well as their solutions, can help parents ensure that their children have access to the best possible learning experience – regardless of what they choose.

Source:

https://safebus.io/blog/the-challenges-of-homeschooling-and-how-to-overcome-them/

[donald-brenneman]

Stark was Ed's choice? Where he be to not let tenure get pulled? Maybe pulling a wildcat gas mask grasp of the homeless girls of nerk abandoned asses.

see her back where house. Tip notes, or see a DC of Edison with a lead to sinus balance wit ur Hancock on the ✔️🎰☔

rip & roar brother

[go-redgirl]

Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder holds a "gaggle" with reporters to discuss the EdChoice voucher program. Householder was arrested on Tuesday in association with a $60 million bribery scheme. (Laura Hancock/cleveland.com)

This isn’t the first federal investigation to cloud Householder’s political career. The FBI investigated allegations of kickbacks and other issues in 2004 during his first term as speaker, but Householder never faced charges as a result of the investigation.

The most recent investigation outlined in federal documents unsealed Tuesday alleges that Householder represented a political solution to FirstEnergy’s financial problems. Investigators outlined in the 82-page complaint and affidavit that Householder’s relationship with the midwestern energy giant was something of an exchange: Householder would get FirstEnergy its bailout of nuclear power plants and it would finance Householder’s election as Speaker of the House, according to the complaint.

The ensuing scheme would involve $60 million in payments from First Energy to Generation Now, a nonprofit federal investigators said was controlled by Householder. Those payments were made from March 2017 through March 2020.

See a full list of payments at the bottom of this post.

Lobbyist Matthew Borges, also charged and arrested Tuesday, described Householder’s deal with FirstEnergy as an “unholy alliance,” the court documents say.

FirstEnergy channeled money into 501(c)(4) Generation Now, which was first redirected to fund Householder’s election to the House and his bid for speaker, the complaint says. Householder faced incumbent Republican Speaker Ryan Smith in the election, and won 52 to 45.

Householder is not listed as creator of the nonprofit, but text messages and recorded conversations included in the criminal complaint associate Householder with Generation Now, with lobbyist Neil Clark suggesting that anyone who made out checks to Generation Now should hand them to Householder personally, as it’s “his C4.”

About $215,000 was also wired out of Generation Now’s account to settle a personal lawsuit against Householder, according to the complaint. Money was also used to pay more than $100,000 in expenses related to Householder’s Florida home, the complaint says.

Payment list from FirstEnergy to Generation Now:

Date Direct Pass ThroughMethod

March 16, 2017 $250,000 Wired

May 17, 2017 $250,000 Wired

August 10, 2017 $250,000 Wired

December 8, 2017 $250,000 Wired

March 15, 2018 $300,000 Wired

May 4, 2018 $100,000 Wired

August 16, 2018 $500,000 Wired

October 16, 2018 $400,000 Check

October 29, 2018 $100,000 Check

April 30, 2019 $1,500,000 Wired

May 7, 2019 $1,500,000 Wired

May 15, 2019 $2,500,000 Wired

May 22, 2019 $2,500,000 Wired

May 29, 2019 $1,500,000 Wired

June 5, 2019 $2,000,000 Wired

June 13, 2019 $1,361,899 Wired

June 20, 2019 $2,116,899 Wired

July 5, 2019 $1,879,457 Wired

August 2, 2019 $734,250 Wired

August 7, 2019 $4,390,000 Wired

August 22, 2019 $653,000 Wired

August 29, 2019 $2,003,000 Wired

September 5, 2019 $2,403,000 Wired

September 12, 2019 $2,403,000 Wired

September 19, 2019 $4,695,000 Wired

September 26, 2019 $2,445,000 Wired

October 3, 2019 $4,160,000 Wired

October 8, 2019 $1,600,000 Wired

October 10, 2019 $10,000,000 Wired

October 17, 2019 $248,000 Wired

October 22, 2019 $3,000,000 Wired

October 22, 2019 $4,331 Check

March 3, 2020 $2,000,000 Wired

Total: $44,092,505 $15,904,331

Grand total: $59,996,836