Category: Village of Ridgewood

It’s School Choice Week
Rachel Sheffield
January 28, 2013 at 8:34 am

The third annual National School Choice Week is officially underway. Once again, school choice advocates—including parents, teachers, schoolchildren and administrators, and many others—will come together to promote educational choice, with more than 3,600 events taking place nationwide.

School choice is something to celebrate, because it gives families the power to choose the best schools for their children—helping children to improve educational outcomes and increasing overall parental satisfaction.

School Choice Students Graduate at Higher Rates

For example, students who participate in the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (DCOSP)—a private school voucher program for low-income K-12 students—graduate at significantly higher rates than their peers, according to the results of a “gold standard” (randomized, control group) study. More than 90 percent of DCOSP students graduate high school, compare to just 70 percent of their peers.

Similarly, research reveals that students who participate in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP)—the nation’s longest running school choice program—for all four of their high school years had a 94 percent graduation rate, compared to a 75 percent graduation rate for their peers who attended four years of public high school.

School Choice Means Academic Gains

Research also shows that students who participate in school choice programs do better in school. In a review of all the “gold standard” evaluations of school choice programs in the United States, researchers found that nine of the 10 studies revealed positive, albeit generally modest, academic improvement for school choice students.

Parents Are More Satisfied with their Child’s Academic Experience

Parents of school choice students also report high levels of satisfaction with their children’s schools. In Florida, 93 percent of parents whose children participate in the McKay Scholarship Program—a voucher program for special-needs students—report being satisfied with their child’s school, compared to just 33 percent of parents whose special-needs children were enrolled in public schools. DCOSP parents are also more likely to report satisfaction with their children’s schools and are more likely to describe their schools as safe. And Milwaukee school choice parents also report high satisfaction rates with the schools their children attend.

Education comes in many forms—from private school choice to online learning, to charter schools and public schools and home schooling. Parents should be empowered to give their children the education that best meets their child’s unique learning needs. School choice makes this possible by giving families from every background the ability to set the course for the brightest educational future for their children.

This week, find out how you can get involved in National School Choice Week.
Rachel Sheffield is a research associate in the DeVos Center for Religion & Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation.

https://tinyurl.com/b7zooz5

Our country is being attacked by our own citizens
Jan 21 ,2013
Ron DuBois

It is of great importance to watch this. It took place in a relatively small part of the country, and was successful. But to protect and defend our Constitution, if illegal and corrupt offices of our Government go much farther than they already have, in compromising our liberty and freedom, it may require a similar effort on a nation-wide scale, to restore what our Founding Fathers warned that tyrants would attempt to usurp. Before creating our Constitution, the Founders had spent many years studying every form of Government known to man. They learned the strengths and weaknesses of empires that rose and fell, and why.They gave us a new form of Government, a Constitutional Republic, that was unlike any other. Instead of the Government being all-powerful, and ruling the people, they recognized that the people, every one of us, are born with unalienable rights. They recognized, and declared, that these rights were bestowed upon us at birth, by God, and therefore could never be taken away – especially by any Government. Therefore, the power of our Constitutional Government was mostly retained by the people, and the individual States, with the only powers ceded to Government being few and specifically defined.

The Founders also pointed out that a Constitutional Republic, as per John Adams, “was only meant for a moral and religious people. It is totally inadequate for any other.” The flaws were also pointed out by Alexis de Toqueville, who wrote, “The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.” , and James Madison, who wrote, “We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.”

Today, after about 100 years of pecking away at the foundations of our Republic, the tyrants who would replace the concept of Government of the people, by the people, and for the people, with a totalitarian state, are close to achieving their goal. They have used their principles of Socialism, Marxism and Communism, to destroy religion in this country and in our schools, to destroy the family unit that was the core of our society, breach the ethics and morality that this country was built on, through the denegration of the Judeo-Christian principles embodied in the Bible and the Ten Comandments, and indeed have bribed the public with the public’s money – to the point where, as the Congress bribes so many people with other people’s money, the economy and citizens can no longer afford to pay the debts incurred. This is intentional, as the tyrants know that to bankrupt the country will force the people to give up their freedoms in exchange for the government’s help. The Goverment, aided by a Supreme Court acting in an unconstitutional manner, has further damaged the protections of the Constitution by falsely declaring it a “living document” to be changed when they think it no longer suits their purpose; they call it outdated and meaningless. George Washington foresaw this scheme of tyranny, writing,”Toward the preservation of your government…it is requisite…that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles.”

Our country is being attacked by our own citizens – those in Government, from the Congress to the White House, to the Socialist Professors who control our schools and universities, to the Socialist-controlled Mainstream Media that censors reports of corruption in our Government and slants Left-Wing propaganda to deceive the populace, to the Unions that contribute money and manpower in prodigous amounts, so they can influence the lawmakers to legislate in favor of their corrupt control of the labor force, and the Banking Industry that influences Congress with contributions so they receive permission to legally rob the citizens blind.

Wake up, citizens, and educate yourselves. You have already lost much of your freedom and don’t even know it. Most of the Media feed you lies; the only place to find the truth is on the internet, where so many individuals and groups make extreme efforts to bring the truth out into the open. The most important thing I can say to you is:  Do not believe me. Challenge me. Find out the truth for yourself – google topics. I can only sound the alarm, give you fair warning; I cannot make you see. You must open your eyes and do that yourselves.

fmr Gov. Jon Corzine on Monday after he signed into law the state’s economic stimulus bill

Will Your College Go Out of Business Before You Graduate ?
Jan 26th 2013 1:41PM
Mark Cuban

I’ve been getting a lot of questions from High School kids asking whether or not they should go to college. The answer is yes.

College is where you find out about yourself. Its where you learn how to learn. Its where you get exposure to new ideas. For those of us who are into business you learn the languages of business, accounting, finance, marketing and sales in college.

The question is not whether or not you should go to school, the question for the class of 2014 is what is your college plan and what is the likelihood that your college or university you attend will still be in business by the time you want to graduate.

Still in business ? Yep. When I look at the university and college systems around the country I see the newspaper industry.

The newspaper industry was once deemed indestructable. Then this thing called the internet came along and took away their classified business. The problem wasn’t really that their classifieds disappeared. It was more that they had accumulated a ton of debt and had over invested in physcial plant and assets that could not adapt to the new digital world.

When revenue fell the debt was still there, as were all the big buildings they had purchased, all those presses they had bought and the acquisitions they had made declined in value, but the debt accumulated to pay for them never went away.

They were stuck with no easy way out.

The exact same thing is happening to our 4 year schools. You can’t go to a big state university and not see construction. Why ?

https://blogmaverick.com/2013/01/26/will-your-college-go-out-of-business-before-you-graduate/

file photo by Boyd Loving

Reader says Bigger Class sizes would say more than ditching the paid Fire department  

Read your tax bill carefully. The ‘municipal’ portion of the taxes (fire, police, streets, sanitation) isn’t the reason your taxes go sky high. Its the schools portion (75%). Having paid firefighters who respond immediately upon receiving the call is the reason your homeowner’s insurance rates are cheaper than towns where you have to wait for a volunteer to drive to the station, grab the engine THEN respond to the fire.

Ridgewood could never fully staff a fire dept with volunteers. They can’t even do that with the ambulance. Want to save money on taxes? Pay attention to the schools portion, with generous salaries and benefits. Maybe increase class size to 30 kids and you’ll save a bundle. When I attended the schools here in the 1970′s we did just fine with large classes.

https://rjsconstruction.com/new-home-building/

Want a viable downtown : building department has been a nightmare

The building department has been a nightmare for all residents for years. An audit of the department was completed about ten years ago. Recommendations were made and ignored. The tiger team should look at the report.

Now that the tiger team has turned their attention to the downtown business district they are no longer just a financial advisory committee. A viable downtown should be supported but the needs of the business district are not always the same as the needs of the taxpayers. The business owners are not all resident taxpayers. That being said, I think that the Guild is doing a fantastic job. Their activities encourage people of all ages to come to the business district.

Now is the time to focus on the needs of the taxpayers. A recent article in the Record highlighted the fact that property taxes are an important part of the home buying decision. What about discounts for retired residents? If someone has lived here 10, 15 20 or more years there should be incentive for them to stay. A house with 4 bedrooms could bring 3 new students into the schools. If that homeowner had a 10k exemption (incentive) they might stay in town. It would be a net savings for the village. Win-win. Maybe there is someone in the village with financial modeling experience who could help to put a number on the costs and benefits of this type of program. Those planned condos in town do not appeal to me. They will probably cost as much as a home, have maintenance costs and pay the same taxes as a home.

Maybe encouraging (incentivizing) seniors to move to smaller “starter” homes in the village is the answer. The downside of this is that you could create neighborhoods of senior citizens since the smaller homes tend to be clustered together. The upside is that it could be like our own “active senior” community within the village. The block parties would be a lot different.

I don’t know that the solution is, but my tentative plan is to leave when my youngest graduates in about 8 years. Most of my tax bill goes to pay for schools that I will no longer be using. The next homeowner can pick up the tab. If the downtown is a mecca when I move then I will visit for dinner from time to time – just like everyone else

Truman “Whistlestop”

National School Choice Week to Host Cross-Country Train Tour
Rachel Sheffield
January 18, 2013 at 2:12 pm

The third annual National School Choice Week is around the corner. And so is “the first-ever nationwide, whistle-stop train tour” to commemorate the week.

The Whistle-Stop Train Tour will make a cross-country trek, with “14 very special events along the tour’s route” in support of school choice; hosted by “[p]arents, students, community leaders, education organizations and elected officials of both parties.” The train—a historic railcar dubbed “The National School Choice Week Special”—will set out from Los Angeles’s Union Station on January 25 and will end its journey in New York on February 2.

The train tour is just one of many events that will take place during National School Choice Week.

Across the country, a “record-breaking 3,000 events [are] being independently planned for National School Choice Week 2013…to demonstrate overwhelming support, and demand, for school choice…while shining a positive spotlight on the hundreds of organizations, thousands of schools, and millions of Americans working every day to increase access to great schools in our country.”

Everyone is invited to participate. A list of events taking place nationwide can be found at the National School Choice Week website, or you can plan an event of your own. You can even track the train’s progress.

“With bold strokes, our generation can—and will—make its mark on the tapestry of our national experience. Social change isn’t just something we read about in history books. It’s something we can make a reality, and in the process, secure for ourselves not only a place in history books yet unwritten, but secure for our country a brighter and more prosperous future where no child is denied the opportunity to attend the best schools possible,” notes president of National School Choice Week, Andrew Campanella.

https://blog.heritage.org/2013/01/18/national-school-choice-week-to-host-cross-country-train-tour/

The politics of division and class warfare, the centerpiece of Obama’s campaign rhetoric, are the antithesis of King’s dream

MLK, Obama and Opportunity
Rob Bluey
January 21, 2013 at 8:39 am
https://blog.heritage.org/2013/01/21/morning-bell-mlk-obama-and-opportunity/

Fifty years ago in Washington, D.C., Martin Luther King Jr. shared his dream for America. It was a vision that gave “all of God’s children” an opportunity to flourish. Today, as we remember and honor King’s legacy, it’s quite evident that millions of Americans are struggling mightily to grasp the dream that King envisioned.

King’s famous speech, delivered at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963, is worth reading in its entirety. Take note of this particular passage:

When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

What would King say about that promissory note today? On a day when President Obama will outline his vision for the next four years, an overwhelming majority of Americans believe the country is headed on a wrong track. Four years of big-government solutions have left the country pessimistic and discouraged.

The politics of division and class warfare, the centerpiece of Obama’s campaign rhetoric, are the antithesis of King’s dream.

Obama’s agenda — one that will likely include more reckless spending, bigger government and new threats to our values and institutions — threatens the very nature of the American dream. Heritage’s president, Ed Feulner, wrote after November’s election, “We will see unfold over the next four years a crucial battle for the soul of America.”

Ironically, it was Obama, while running for president four years ago, who outlined an agenda that gave great hope to disaffected Americans. Instead, he squandered the opportunity.

Obama’s embrace of government at every level — from Head Start programs that actually set children back, a failing public education system that is creating a new type of segregation in schools, crippling regulations and higher taxes on small businesses — is doing great harm to America.

Today, Obama takes the first steps to enact an ambitious agenda to remake America. Policy debates on gun rights, immigration, the national debt and countless other issues are already beginning to play out in Washington.

Conservatives must get to work to save America. It won’t be easy. Obama is transforming his powerful campaign apparatus into an aggressive lobbying machine. The President will never need to face voters again, creating the possibility of an even more radical agenda. If the past four years proved to be difficult, just wait for what’s ahead.

Along the way, conservatives will face tactical and strategic decisions that determine the future of the republic. There will be plenty of opportunities to critique Obama and oppose his agenda. Oversight by the U.S. House will be crucial to keep a check on the administration. Starting with the debt ceiling debate, lawmakers must stand firm for the principles that voters sent them to Washington to uphold.

It’s also equally important for conservatives to articulate a positive vision for America. That was sorely lacking over the past year. Opposing Obama at every turn will only get conservatives so far. They must also explain how their policy solutions will lead to a better life for all Americans.

Steve Forbes, during a recent visit to Heritage, put it this way: “If you don’t have a positive alternative … you’re going to lose.”

That’s great advice. And the place to start is stressing a fundamental American value: The United States is, and has always been, the land of opportunity. Government doesn’t create opportunity. It might redistribute it or regulate it. But ultimately, it’s the hard work and determination of Americans who make this country great.

“The American dream reminds us that every man is heir to the legacy of worthiness,” King said in a 1961 speech at Lincoln University. It’s time for conservatives to take that message to Americans from all walks of life.

https://blog.heritage.org/2013/01/21/morning-bell-mlk-obama-and-opportunity/