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The bill would require the state department of education to perform a study to make certain a city district could sustain itself before granting approval to move forward with a separation from a county district.
When a city pulls out of a county school district, it takes its tax base with it, diluting scarce financial resources for public schools. "It's hard to provide a quality education when there's duplication of effort," Coleman-Madison said. "It doesn't make sense financially."
Those differences in wealth often result in differences in academic offerings and successes, exacerbating existing inequities in student outcomes.
The most recent figures show that Alabama isn't investing much more money into education than it has in years past. In fact, when the numbers are adjusted for inflation, Alabama isn't even spending as much as it did in 2006, more than a decade ago.
But, Coleman-Madison said, it's not just the money that matters.
Cities that break away from larger county systems are "eroding the foundation of the whole state educational system," she said.
Since 2000, 11 Alabama cities have seceded from the countywide school district in which they are located. Nine cities opened new districts, and two, Gardendale and Gulf Shores, are currently under way.
Not counting those two under way, there are a total of 137 Alabama public K-12 school districts: 67 county and 70 city districts.
Alabama's smallest school district is Linden City Schools in Marengo County in west Alabama, with 463 students enrolled this school year. Five other school districts each have student populations of less than 1,000 students.
Thirteen districts each have more than 10,000 students, and Mobile County is the largest district, with nearly 54,000 students enrolled this year.
Coleman-Madison, a former educator, said her bill isn't aimed at Gardendale's current effort to break away from Jefferson County. Any districts that have formally executed a separation agreement will not be impacted by her bill, she said.
"While the situation with Gardendale has shined a light on it, we've had this before," she said. Instead, she said, it's more about "where are we going in this state?"
Jefferson County Superintendent Dr. Craig Pouncey was chief state financial school officer at the state department during many of the recent breakaways.
He is currently battling Gardendale's efforts to break away from Jefferson County, a matter that is wrapped up in the federal courts due in part to a half-century-old desegregation order.
A federal appeals court is currently deciding whether a federal district court's ruling to allow Gardendale to partially form a school system will stand.
An initial sticking point when the Gardendale-Jefferson County negotiations began in 2014 was how much Gardendale was willing to pay for the $55 million Gardendale High School facility.
Alabama's current state law doesn't require payment for school facilities inside the city limits of the breakaway district. Instead, the law allows the two parties, the county and the city, to negotiate a separation agreement, which includes any amounts payable for school facilities.
Coleman-Madison's proposal sets forth a requirement for a breakaway district to "acquire or build its own school facilities for pupils within the [city] system."
"If the newly-formed system assumes ownership of an existing facility," Pouncey said, "then there has to be some level of compensation to the county district to replace the facility that is being assumed by the newly-formed district."
Higher taxes and messy talks: Can Gulf Shores avoid school split woes of Alabama's past?
Those who observe school-county splits note that often taxes increase and problems surface during breakaway negotiations. But Gulf Shores city officials believe there will be few complications after the City Council voted Monday to begin breakaway talks.
Pouncey said he likes the bill and that it's time for lawmakers to do something to stem the breakaways.
Similar bills have been filed two or three times before, he said, but none got very far, usually because the legislators representing cities that are considering secession put a stop to the bill's passage.
Breakaway efforts get started for all sorts of reasons, but most involve a community's desire to exercise more local control over schools and to improve educational offerings for their community's children.
EdBuild, a national organization focused on equitable school funding, published findings last year that Alabama was second in the nation in the number of school district secessions since 2000.
The organization's executive director, Rebecca Sibilia told AL.com at the time that community members shouldn't be faulted for wanting the best for their children, which is often what drives the desire to secede. And Alabama's law makes it easy to do so, she said.
Of Coleman-Madison's bill, Sibilia said, "This is a great step in ensuring that students won't be left behind, and all kids have access to great schools. We encourage the legislature to support the proposal."
Sibilia said she would like for the bill to go farther, saying, "The state should consider including other best practices, like ensuring that there won't be substantial changes in funding levels for students left behind, and that the new borders won't be drawn will serve to segregate students based on race or class."
Coleman-Madison said many people, in wanting to break away from a county school system, are concerned only with their own children, but that's a mistake, because eventually all children grow up and interact with each other.
"If we all come together and pool our resources, we can give all kids a good education," she said.
Recognizing that this is an election year, and Republicans have a super-majority, Pouncey said he isn't sure what the chances are that Coleman-Madison's bill will pass. "Hopefully it will at least create some dialogue," he said, because the continued fragmentation of school districts and resources isn't good for kids.
A bill that would make it easier for the secretary of state to solve problems with the state’s troubled voting machines and get them recertified took another step forward Monday when a Senate committee passed it unanimously.
House Bill 1155 would allow county election officials to participate in certification testing so that their expertise could be considered when deciding whether the machines are accurate and secure.
The committee inserted a clause specifying that the recertified machines could only be used in the 2008 and 2009 elections before they would have to be tested again.
“This is a temporary fix,” said Sen. Sue Windels, D-Arvada.
Students opposed to cutting up frogs and cats in biology class could perform “digital dissections” instead, under a bill that passed the House education committee.
HB 1149 would let squeamish kids or those who object to the process learn about animal body parts via video or computer program, said Rep. Nancy Todd, D-Aurora.
The measure passed 8-5, with dissenting Republicans saying it could “open the floodgates” to laws accommodating students who object to textbooks because of deforestation or learning about evolution.
Bill would let gifted kids into school earlier.
Legislation that would allow gifted 4- year-olds to go to kindergarten got initial approval Monday.
The measure from Rep. Cherylin Peniston, D-Westminster, also would let gifted 5-year-olds enter first grade — a year ahead of schedule.
DUARTE >> A 15-year-old boy was rescued today after he became stranded on a rock amid rushing waters in the Duarte spillway along the San Gabriel River.
Firefighters responded about 5:35 p.m. to the area of Royal Oaks Drive and Encanto Parkway, according to a Los Angeles County Fire Department dispatcher.
A firefighter made his way to the boy and brought him to safety, the dispatcher said.
Getting a bank loan or credit card, buying an insurance policy or investing in a mutual fund is very easy today, given the several points-of-sale available. These include agents, online intermediaries and the bank/ insurance company/ fund house directly. But, what happens when you have to lodge a complaint with regard to deficiency of service or mis-selling? Should you approach the agent/intermediary or the company directly? What is the time-frame for the complaint to be resolved?
In addition to complaints on deficiency, insurance complaints include fraudulent calls claiming to be representatives of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) and offering of policies of different insurers with various benefits.
In case of banking products, the common complaints include misbehaviour of collection agents for recovery on overdue outstanding credit cards/ loans, delay in resolving debit/credit card complaints pertaining to billing or disputed transactions, dispute/communication relating to interest rate on loans and advances, says Anand Aras, CEO, Banking Codes and Standards Board of India.
Mis-selling complaints include those saying the agent had promised a certain amount of dividend while selling the MF, but the actual payout was lower. Or the agent had not mentioned the lock-in period while selling the fund, says an official of a fund house. “These complaints are difficult to prove and don’t get resolved at the level of fund house. These are the ones that reach consumer courts."
A written complaint is not mandatory and consumers can lodge complaints through phone on the toll-free numbers available on the website of the bank, insurance company or fund house. E-mail complaints are also valid. Make sure you have the acknowledgement or complaint tracking number for follow up of your complaint.
“It is not necessary for a customer to submit a written complaint. However, depending on the nature of the complaint, a customer may be asked to submit it in writing where we need to validate the identity of the complainant. Complaints are also accepted from the customer’s registered email id and our call centre," says Vijaya Nene, director - operations & services, PNB MetLife India. If you want to lodge a complaint in person, go to the closest branch or office of the financial institution.
“Nearly all banks have a grievance redressal cell, so customers can visit their bank’s branch and meet the officials to resolve the problem,’’ says Aras. In the case of MFs, the first point of contact is the fund house’s client service head, followed by the chief complaint officer.
“Simple complaints related to errors in personal details or in account statement etc get resolved in 48 hours. If it is not resolved at the fund house level, customers can use SCORE (Sebi Complaints Redressal System), where it is possible to log in and register their complaints,’’ says an official with a mutual fund house.
Similarly, if the bank is unable to address the complaint within a month’s time, the customer can file a complaint at the Office of the Ombudsman under whose jurisdiction the bank branch is located. The contact details of the Ombudsman are available on the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s website and the entire process is free of cost. There are also complaints categories, which can be escalated to the Banking Ombudsman.
If you are not satisfied with the decision of the BO, you can file an appeal with the appellate authority within 30 days of receiving the communication from the BO. The appellate authority is the deputy governor of RBI.
Insurance companies have a time-frame of eight weeks stipulated by the regulator, after which policyholders can approach the Insurance Ombdusman. Details of the Ombudsman are provided in policy kit, website and also mentioned in the companies’ responses provided to the customer.
Given the large number of frauds being reported, especially in case of credit/debit cards, once you lodge a complaint with the bank and block your card, you must lodge a first information report with the local police station, too. In fact, banks will insist on this.
Appealing to the growing market of travelers looking for the convenience and enhanced value of a one-price-for-all vacation, La Cabana All Suite Beach Resort in Aruba is presenting the Club Cabana Inclusive package in 2003.
“La Cabana’s impressive number of activities and dining options translates into outstanding all-inclusive vacation value,” said Adwina Arends, the resort’s director of sales and marketing.
The Club Cabana Inclusive package includes spacious Grand Suite accommodations; breakfast, lunch and dinner daily; unlimited beverages such as soft drinks, juice, house beer, house wine and cocktails of the house (drinks are available during bar hours for personal consumption only; surcharges apply for certain premium brand beers, wines and liquors); free use of chaise lounges and towels; use of the deluxe Health & Fitness Center with racquetball, squash and aerobics; daytime tennis; free sign-up for the Camp Cabana fitness program; an invitation to the Manager’s Cocktail party; and service charge and tax.
The Club Cabana Inclusive package is priced from $472 per person, based on double occupancy, for a four-day/three-night stay, valid Jan. 4 - April 20, 2003. Between April 21 - Dec. 19, 2003, the package starts at $362 per person, double, for a three-night stay. Prices for longer stays are available.
Prices for children (between two and 12 years of age) are from $104 for a four-day/three-night stay, Jan. 4 - Dec. 19, 2003, while staying in the same room as one or two paying adults and using existing bedding. Children under two stay for free in the same room as paying parents and using existing bedding.
For breakfast, guests have a choice of a buffet or a la carte menu at the Captain’s Table; American Slam breakfast at the tropically-decorated, open-air Islander Grill; and various muffins, pastries and sandwiches from the Lobby Café.
Lunch choices include American, Mexican or Italian buffets at the Captain’s Table; a la carte selections at the Islander Grill and the casual, poolside Pizza & Pastabilities; and sandwiches and salads from the Lobby Café.
Dinner at La Cabana offers an abundance of treats such as a la carte dining at the Captain’s Table (boasting an international-inspired menu, plus local favorites), E Piscado (serving seafood specialties), the new Las Ramblas Terrace (for Spanish tapas), the Islander Grill (for American cuisine), O-Sushi-Mi (fresh and flavorful sushi delicacies) and Pizza & Pastabilities (providing pizza, pasta and other snacks); three theme nights at the Islander Grill (The Captain’s BBQ - Mondays, Caribbean Dance & Food Festival - Wednesdays and Carnival Dinner Party - Fridays); selections from the Lobby Café (sandwiches, roasted chicken and more); and one dine-around at the Hang Out (offering American and Tex-Mex delights from grilled shrimp and barbecue chicken to fajitas and rib-eye steak).
The Galley Bar, upstairs overlooking the lobby in the main section of the resort, is a popular gathering spot for daily happy hour, watching sports, playing pool, karaoke and disco dancing. Other choices for tropical libations include the Pata Pata Pool Bar (on the main pool deck; daily happy hour and live music is an afternoon highlight), the Oasis Beach Bar (located directly on Palm Beach) and the Sunset Swim-up Bar (situated near the Grand Suites).
Situated along Eagle Beach, La Cabana is a complete vacation, recreation and entertainment complex in a relaxed atmosphere reflecting the ease and spirit of the Caribbean. At La Cabana, you get “a suite for the price of a room” as all accommodations are extremely spacious and feature fully-equipped kitchenettes along with all the comforts of home.
La Cabana’s sports facilities are exceptional. The Health & Fitness Center is outfitted with tournament-size squash and racquetball courts, an aerobics floor, a wide selection of free weights, circuit weight-training equipment, Life Fitness cardiovascular equipment, and men’s and women’s saunas.
Five tennis courts, all lit for night play, offer the ideal setting for an exciting match. Tennis clinics are available, and an on-property pro shop rents special racquets, balls and other equipment.
The resort complex boasts three free-form swimming pools—one at La Cabana and two within the Grand Suites courtyard. Beach and pool volleyball, water aerobics and bingo are offered as part of La Cabana’s daily activities program. Schedules are posted daily. Also available are five walking and jogging trails so guests can explore Aruba’s flora and fauna or just breathe fresh Caribbean air; maps and guidelines are available.
Jagdish N. Bhagwati is Arthur Lehman Professor of Economics at Columbia University. He was the Economic Policy Adviser to the Director-General of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade from 1991 to 1993.
In the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis, the mainstream view that dominates policy circles, indeed the prevalent myth, is that despite the striking evidence of the inherently crisis-prone nature of freer capital movements, a world of full capital mobility continues to be inevitable and immensely desirable. Instead of maintaining careful restrictions, we are told, the only sensible course is to continue working toward unfettered capital flows; the favored solution is to turn the IMF even more firmly into an international lender of last resort that dispenses bailout funds to crisis- afflicted countries. The IMF took an important step in this direction at its annual meeting in Hong Kong last September, when the Interim Committee issued a statement virtually endorsing an eventual move to capital account convertibility -- which means that you and I, nationals or foreigners, could take capital in and out freely, in any volume and at any time -- for IMF members. The obligations originally listed in 1944 in the Articles of Agreement, on the other hand, included only "avoidance of restrictions on payments for current transactions" and did not embrace capital account convertibility as an obligation or even a goal.
This is a seductive idea: freeing up trade is good, why not also let capital move freely across borders? But the claims of enormous benefits from free capital mobility are not persuasive. Substantial gains have been asserted, not demonstrated, and most of the payoff can be obtained by direct equity investment. And even a richer IMF with attendant changes in its methods of operation will probably not rule out crises or reduce their costs significantly. The myth to the contrary has been created by what one might christen the Wall Street-Treasury complex, following in the footsteps of President Eisenhower, who had warned of the military- industrial complex.
Forget for a moment The Godfather--the 21 million-selling book and the movie that virtually created the Mafia as literary and cinematic subject. Forget The Fortunate Pilgrim, The Sicilian, The Last Don and other best sellers. Forget Superman, Earthquake and the rest of the blockbusters. Forget two Academy Awards. Forget that he wrote some of the best stuff ever about the American family and the Italian-American immigrant experience. Forget that all this was done by the son of illiterate immigrant parents.
For more than five years, the Kremlin has tried to find a way to bring the internet in Russia under its control.
Now under mounting pressure to bring online activity to heel ahead of presidential elections in March, the authorities have developed a distinctive strategy that sets the country apart from China or Iran.
The approach rests on two pillars. The first is the use of intimidation: The Kremlin has always been behind the curve in terms of its tech, but it has never lacked the resources for selective repression. Second, rather than targeting individual users, it is going after tech and internet companies. They are easiest to scare because they have the most to lose.
The most scandalous legislation of 2017, banning VPN services which facilitate anonymous browsing, confirmed this strategy. The bill involves internet service providers in the enforcement system by requiring providers to check the state censor Roskomnadzor’s blacklist of uncooperative VPNs on a daily basis and take immediate action.
As always, the results have been mixed. Although Roskomnadzor reported that some VPN services have complied with the law, the most popular VPN services have openly defied the legislation.
Meanwhile, 2017 saw a new wave of protests in 80 cities, organized primarily on the VKontakte social network. It was also the year during which a new generation of political vloggers produced content that went viral on YouTube. Neither of these phenomena could have been predicted.
The fact that the Russian authorities were caught off guard on the eve of a presidential election has added more fuel to the Kremlin’s already high level of internet paranoia. Drastic action on the Kremlin’s part is to be expected — it’s an election year, after all. The only question is: What will it do?
The Kremlin has neither the time nor the resources to introduce an effective system of nationwide mass online surveillance before the elections — it wouldn’t be able to overhaul the infrastructure of the Russian internet in years, never mind a few months.
Imitating the Chinese approach, with its massive and costly system of censorship combined with Chinese technology, does not seem feasible, not least because of the Russian secret services’ own reservations toward opening up Russian telecommunications to Beijing and possible Chinese surveillance.
For two years, global internet giants Google, Twitter and Facebook have been tangled in a peculiar dance with Roskomnadzor, and its tone has long become irritatingly monotonous: Roskomnadzor issues a warning forcing the three companies to move their servers to Russia, and the companies send another high-placed official to convey another vaguely formulated promise with no purpose other than to calm down the Kremlin and buy some time.
Time, though, could be running out. A ban on one of the companies — even if it is temporary — has looked like an attractive option for the Kremlin for years, and it will become all the more attractive as the authorities become more desperate in 2018.
The second option, to send more people to jail for their online posts, is also entirely within the capabilities of the Russian secret services. This could become even more tempting as the Kremlin becomes increasingly aware that the most sensitive content distributed on the Russian internet is generated in Russia itself, not in Washington.
The most depressing thing about all of this is that while Russia’s censors apparently need Putin’s personal permission to go after global platforms — at least some sources have pointed to the president to explain the absence of such a ban until now — repression could be intensified at the drop of a hat.
The technology and resources for that are already in place.
Andrei Soldatov is an independent journalist and co-author of “The Red Web.” The views and opinions expressed in opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the position of The Moscow Times.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the campaign trail in the Queens borough of New York City.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York has an interesting take on how she wants HBO's "Game of Thrones" to end.
The freshman Democrat said on a Yahoo News podcast that she hoped the series ended with Westeros' seven kingdoms transitioning to a democracy.
Ocasio-Cortez has used "Game of Thrones" campaign imagery on social media, as has President Donald Trump.
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York says she wants HBO's "Game of Thrones" to end with Westeros' seven kingdoms transitioning to a democracy.
During an interview on Yahoo News' "Skullduggery" podcast, Ocasio-Cortez talked about the hit cable television show, among other topics.
"Could you imagine if no one ends on the throne and they transition to democracy?" she said. "Wouldn't that be badass?"
The eighth and final season of "Game of Thrones" premiered Sunday night. She added another, more likely desire for the show's finale, scheduled to air May 19.
"Another hope would maybe be Jon Snow and Daenerys [Targaryen] just take the whole thing and they build a second [throne]," she said.
Ocasio-Cortez has used "Game of Thrones" in campaign imagery before, as has President Donald Trump.
"Justice is here," said one image Ocasio-Cortez posted to Facebook in 2017 for the left-wing political group Justice Democrats, in a play on the show's "Winter is here" tagline.
Trump has used the show's similar slogan "Winter is coming" to tease heavy sanctions on Iran. In one tweet, Trump touted a "sanctions are coming" image.