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New and Timely Information
Proposed White House Initiatives to Empower Parents With More Choices For Their Children's Education
In the 2008 State of the Union address on January President Bush proposed three new initiatives relating to faith-based schools:
Pell Grants for Kids: a $300 million scholarship program to help poor children reach their full potential. Like the Federal Pell Grant program, which students can use to attend the public or private college of their choice, Pell Grants for Kids would offer scholarships to low-income children in underperforming elementary and secondary schools, including high schools with significant dropout rates. These scholarships would help with the costs of attending an out-of-district public school or nearby private or faith-based school.
21st Century Learning Opportunities: President Bush asked Congress to fund $800 million for scholarships for afterschool programs -- 21st Century Learning Opportunities. These scholarships will give parents the opportunity to enroll their children in high-quality after-school and summer school programs aimed at increasing student achievement, including programs run by faith-based and community organizations.
White House Summit on Inner city Children and Faith-based Schools: The President announced that a summit will be held this spring in Washington, D.C. He noted “non-public schools, including faith-based schools, have helped to educate generations of low-income students; however, they are disappearing at an alarming rate. As we continue working to improve urban public schools through the No Child Left Behind Act, we must also work to preserve the critically important educational alternatives for underserved students attending chronically underperforming public schools.”
This Summit will help increase awareness of the challenges faced by low-income students in the inner cities and address the role of non-public schools, including faith-based schools, in meeting the needs of low-income inner city students. The Summit will unite educators and community leaders to develop local strategies to partner with these schools in serving our Nation's urban students. The Summit will bring together national, State, and local leaders in education, policymaking, research, philanthropy, business, and community development to:
- Draw greater attention to the lack of high-quality educational alternatives available to low-income urban students;
- Highlight the impact non-public schools, including faith-based schools, have had in the education of youth in America's inner cities;
- Increase awareness of the challenges facing these schools; and
- Identify innovative solutions to the challenges facing these schools so they can continue serving their communities.
Teacher Tax Breaks Extended
In December 2006, Congress approved an extension of the tax deduction benefit for expenses incurred by teachers in public or private elementary and secondary schools.
Eligible educators may be able to deduct up to $250 for their non-reimbursed expenses for the purchases of for books, supplies, computer equipment (including related software and services) and supplementary materials that are used in their classrooms.
Information from the IRS about the educator expenses deduction is available by clicking here.
National Study Comparing Public and Private Schools
On July 14, 2006, the National Center for Education Statistics released a study titled Comparing Private Schools and Public Schools Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling that uses a sophisticated statistical analysis to examine the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores of public and private school students.
The study analyzed the 2003 grade 4 and grade 8 math and reading results on NAEP assessments and
examined the differences in mean scores after selected school and student characteristics that are presumed to advantage private school students are discounted. The analysis takes raw test scores from a single year and applies statistical controls for demographic factors like race, income, and disabilities.
This study looks at results on one test score at a given time – it does not measure progress over time. Single-year snapshots of test scores provide limited information about student achievement and nothing about the relative quality of public and private schools.
Although the NCES report contains a Cautions In Interpretations section advises that these statistical hypothetical results are of “modest value," the press coverage exaggerates a modest hypothetical difference to make the inferences that public schools perform better than private schools.
Click here to read an NCEA analysis of the report and a link to the full text of the document.
School Wellness Policies Required
The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2000(Public Law 108-265) contains provisions that mandate the adoption of local wellness policies, effective at the start of the 2006-2007 academic year. All schools that participate in any of the federal nutrition programs (lunch, breakfast, milk) are required to develop a wellness policy.
The law addresses, primarily, local education agencies (LEAs) who are directed to adopt a district-wide policy for all of their schools. The guidance document, detailing how the requirements of the law are to be carried out, makes specific reference to its applicability to private and religious schools that participate in any of the programs authorized under the National School Lunch Act or Child Nutrition Act.
Each private school may adopt the policy of the local public school district, or develop it own policy, or a diocesan superintendent may develop a policy for all of its schools.
In order to address, and combat, the growing health crisis of childhood obesity the law mandates that the policy detail actions that will help schools foster a healthy environment that impacts favorably on students' nutrition and physical activity. A local wellness policy, at a minimum, must include:
Goals for nutrition education, physical activity and other school-based activities that are designed to promote student wellness in a manner that the local educational agency determines appropriate.
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Opportunities for community involvement that include parents, students, and representatives of the school board, school administrators, and the public in the development of the school wellness policy.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Local Wellness Policy website provides sample policy language for each of the policy components, including: nutrition education, physical activity, guidelines for all foods and beverages on school campuses as well as other school-based activities that promote student wellness. It is available at http://teamnutrition.usda.gov/Healthy/wellnesspolicy_faq.html#private
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