Rain Rain Go Away. . .

It has been raining like crazy here as many of you probably saw in the weekend news reports. We have been staying dry since we are up in elevation a bit. Anne is finishing up her last assignments this month and putting the finishing touches on her 2nd Masters Degree, before entering the Principals Program this summer at Teachers College at Columbia University. I will be finishing my second Masters in Teaching in December.

This weekend I went out with my old high school friend Eric Lorson to get measured for tux for his wedding this May. On the way I blew the thermostat and a hose on my car and I will not be getting it back until Tuesday night. It is going to set us back about $279 but that is a price we will have to pay since it is our only car.
Luckily my parents lent us there old car to get back and forth to work. Thanks!

My brother came over this weekend and steam cleaned our carpets. The dog has been sick with an ear infection and the medicine the doctor gave him has the unfortunate side effect of making him have very low bladder control. Getting rid of his smelly mistake took my brother some time but it is clean now. Thanks Eric!

We hope everything is going well in your world. Send us out a shout via e-mail and let us know what your up to. With our schedules it is still the best way to reach us.

Weekend Madness

The snow is melting and it is starting to look like Easter around here in New York. While there is still some snow on the ground the daffodils are starting to poke up through the ground. Anne has moved ahead with Columbia and will be attending in the summer to become a Principal! Woohoo we are very proud of you.

We are expecting a little bundle of joy in October and we are very excited.

This weekend even more than most we are banging out papers and work for school. The car is now getting new shocks. This is not too bad considering that the original shocks have lasted 101,000 miles. Hard to believe the FOCUS has so many miles on it. The car has been good so far and we would consider buying another Ford product.

Anne's parents are excited about the trip to Scotland this summer--and about the bundle of joy. Anne's dad keeps telling people how she got into an IVY school early admission--it is great!

Despite being very tired all the time things are going pretty well for us here in New York although we miss all of our friends.

My friend Eric is getting married and we are really looking forward to the event in May. I have to get the time to get over for a tux fitting in Danbury. CT before he kills me. Sorry Eric!

If anyone has a chance stop by and see Digital Schools my updated web site.

NYC Teaching Fellows Cohort 7 : Anne gets Accepted to IVY League -- Teachers College - Columbia University: News

NYC Teaching Fellows Cohort 7 : Anne gets Accepted to IVY League -- Teachers College - Columbia University: News: "I am so proud of Anne, as she has been accepted to the IVYs. She is going to be attending Teachers College at Columbia University for the next year to become a principal. She has worked very hard and is taking no time off between masters degrees.

Anne is going to make a great principal. "

Missing the idea?

It is interesting to note that we are raising the barrier to education while other countries are seeing the value. This is particularly painful given that we were so successful at it with the GI BILL. Are we really that dense or just distracted?

China Plans to Cut School Fees for Its Poorest Rural Students
By JIM YARDLEY

Published: March 13, 2005


EIJING, March 12 - China will begin eliminating rural school fees this year in response to growing criticism that the education system is increasingly corrupt and discriminates against poor rural students.

The new policy, announced last week by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao at the opening of the annual National People's Congress, will begin by removing fees for 14 million students in the country's poorest counties, and will continue expanding until 2007, when all rural students will receive a free primary education.

The program is part of a broader domestic agenda outlined by Mr. Wen to address increasing inequality in China, where urban residents earn three times as much as farmers and other rural residents. Education fees are particularly crippling for rural families, who often survive on only a few hundred dollars a year.

"Without fairness in education, there can be no fairness in society," said Zhou Hongyu, a delegate to the National People's Congress, China's legislative body. "The main injustice in education now is the imbalance between cities and the countryside."

Recent studies show that an overwhelming percentage of government education spending is dedicated to cities, despite the fact that two-thirds of the 1.3 billion Chinese live in the countryside.

Li Shi, a prominent sociologist, wrote last month in the official English-language newspaper, China Daily, that the country dedicated only 23 percent of its education budget to the countryside in 2002. He said this disparity meant that rural students often missed out on an adequate education "just by being in the wrong place, at the wrong time."

In February, a group of retired educational officials in Hunan Province published a broader, more blistering critique that detailed how the cost of supporting and building rural schools in Hunan fell largely on farmers who were already among the poorest members of society.

This critique, in China Youth Daily, said rural students were further disadvantaged because a growing number of high schools and universities were lowering standards for wealthier students whose parents could make cash payments for admission, leaving less room for poor students to be admitted on merit. In addition, many universities are required to admit quotas of local city students. At a time when China is annually increasing military spending and pouring money into infrastructure projects, spending on education has fallen below projections established by the government in 1993 and is below the international average of developing countries.

Mr. Wen's promise to eliminate school fees may ultimately be difficult to carry out in a country where changes announced by the central government are often circumvented locally. China already promises nine years of free compulsory education to all students. But faced with reduced government support, schools have attached a variety of special fees to make up for the lost revenues.

For rural families, these fees can account for a quarter or more of their annual income and often are a primary reason that parents leave the farm for migrant work. Last year, financial pressure was a contributing factor in several high-profile suicides or rage killings by rural high school and university students.

Hu Xingdou, a professor of governmental economics at Beijing Institute of Technology, said that Mr. Wen's new policy moved China in the right direction but added that the government needed to assume all costs of compulsory education and eliminate corrupt practices that gave preference to wealthy or politically connected families.

"The rural education system is on the verge of collapse," Mr. Hu said. Taiwan Leader Urges Protest

TAIPEI, Taiwan, March 12 (Reuters) - President Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan called Saturday for a million people to take to the streets of Taipei, Taiwan's capital, on March 26 to protest against China's anti-secession bill, which allows for the use of force against the island.

Mr. Chen, in his first public comments on the proposed Chinese legislation since Beijing unveiled its details on Tuesday, called China a "major threat to regional stability" and said the legislation would increase tension in the Taiwan Strait. China's Parliament is expected to pass the bill on Monday.