No Child Left Behind Act Part II

As Explained earlier the No Child Left Behind Act helped parents get involved with the students to keep them on track, now something added onn is that if a child attends a failing school then they are allowed to transfer to better schools. This is definatly something very nice to have due to the fact that many low income areas probably have failing schools, so for free they will be able to transfer to a better school. This could be a good thing or a bad thing, because if the student gets into a nicerand better school they may not be able to pay off going there. on the upside to that if the student can afford it but just couldnot get in before now they have the opportunity to get a better education.

"Although critics worry that choice will benefit only children with the most resourceful parents, the new rules require school districts to give priority for transfers to ''the lowest-achieving students from low-income families.''"

Honestly that statement makes no sense to me, because why offer it to the worst student and lower your school's standards, or offer it to the highest achieving student from the low income families, they will be smart and be able to go to a nice school for a decent price. The worst achieving student probably won't care about going to a better school, but a higher achieveing lower- income student would appreciate the opportunity more.

Clinton's Student Loan Plan

In 1993 President Clinton tried passing a student loan plan. this plan was to help impoverish students get money for collage easier than ever. This plan was to allow the student to be able to directly borrow money from the Federal Government instead of having to get a loan from the bank, then qualify for the loan, and meet some other requirements. that whole process takes way to long to do, so Clinton tried to make the process shorter, easier, and more manageable for the student to get access to. This gives more Impoverish students a chance at college, but there was one problem. Most people in the legislature were going against this plan.

"Bankers' groups have been lobbying vigorously against the legislation, arguing that private industry can serve the students more efficiently than the Government."

By taking the student loans out of the bank that makes the local banks lose money, which also takes down the salary of the workers. These banks argued that they would do a better job than the  Federal Government because they have the experience and many customers may not switch over anyways. The plan failed and Clinton lost.

ECHO Supplies for the Children

Every weekend in Janesville, Wisconsin a woman by the name of Marge Sell Runs a local charity for the underprivileged children in the area. the name of her program is Everyone Cooperates to Help Others (ECHO). This program helps these low income families by giving the children school supplies and anything that the children will need for school. one of the sad things is how much these families appreciate what Marge is doing for them:

 "The day of the distribution, it just kind of shakes you," she said. "The parents are so grateful, and the kids just clutch their little school supplies so close to them as if they're going to somehow disappear when they walk out the door."

Just reading that makes me feel all upset too. these families can't even afford supplies for their children, which means what can they afford? Luckily, now that Marge gives the families, the ones that qualify, the supplies now they can focus more on what they truly need like food and clothing. In the end when all of a children's school supplies add up they can get really costly which is not helpful to families who can barely keep their children in school.

Youth Leadership Foundation

In Washington D.C. there is a program starting up that helps 300 underprivileged students. The Youth Leadership Foundation has a summer program that allows children, who have been denied an education, to be able to get a decent education in this 5 week program. The Camp describes its program as a "Real Life Fairy Tail Ending." The program runs from Preschool to tenth grade and the children that are being tought there are realizing that learning can be easy and fun at the same time.

"Throughout the five-week program, students take academic and cultural classes such as art, drama, music and dance. The classes are taught by teachers from charter schools across the District."

People from all over the community come to help for this 5 week program. These classes may not be the math or English classes, but these other classes allow the students to open up and to be able to see society as more than just writing and arithmetic.

Books for Kids

Ever since i was in kindergarten i had known about the organization Books for Kids.  This organizations shows that even the most low income families can still give their children a good education through reading. Books for kids builds libraries all over the nation, donates books, and partners with literacy programs. Many children need to buy a library card to be able to read the books, but for Books for Kids the children can sit in the comfort of the library and read as  much as they want. Books for Kids targets mostly children at the preschool age because the children are starting to read and understand books, and by getting them started early they will be able to continue with their education in the future.

"Our libraries are only the first step in helping the children we serve gain the skills they need to be ready for school. Through our libraries, we start by providing access to books and a print rich environment, then we work to make sure the gift comes alive. Books for Kids runs programs in our libraries to engage the children and all of the adults in their lives in books and reading and to try to ensure that adults understand the importance of and are reading to them. Our goal is school readiness and literary success through the building of the skills in these children that are the key to literacy: phonological awareness, alphabetic knowledge and understanding the concepts about print conventions."

New Educational Work Books

Many teachers that are involved in underprivileged schools find themselves unable to understand the feelings of their students. The teachers have jobs, get paid, and probably have a fairly nice home or apartment. Unlike their teachers, most of these children come from very poverish families, and in California those impoverish families normally consist of minorities.

"Last week, the California Department of Education released an 152-page workbook that offers to help school districts improve the academic performance of impoverished and minority children."

This new workbook is supposed to help the teachers connect with their students better, and understand their situations more. Also, with this workbook the faculties are trying to keep the education of these children up to standards. California is trying to make even the most poverish children as smart as any other children, and this is just a step forward to achieving that goal.

South Calcutta Inner Wheel School

South Calcutta  Inner Wheel School has helped hundreds of underprivileged children in India for 46 years. This organization has given these children a chance to play in a safe environment and have a education that most children there never get. Each children gets a healthy meal everyday at lunch, and that is also more than some of those families over there get a day. The only problem is that there are so many families trying to sen their children there that they are running out of space fast, and, sadly, they have to deny children entry every year. This organization is hoping to get enough donations to expand their facilities and accept more applications. South Calcutta teaches children from the nursery level to the 4th grade, everything for free. This organization is well trusted amongst each adult. Each teacher gives each student individual attention, unlike some of the elementary schools in the U.S. So far South Calcutta only has one location, but they are hoping that in the future, word of their organization will spread and they hope for the donations to keep as many kids in the school as they can.

Children's Defence Fund (CDF)

Freedom Schools

A nation wide program known as Freedom Schools helps kids to learn and love reading. All over the nation there is a large difference between the education of blacks and whites and the goal of Freedom Schools is to help shorten that gap. Many of these locations are placed near larger communities of the lower class, to show them that even their children can get a good education

"Over 9,600 children participated in Freedom School programs this summer, at 140 locations in cities across the country. The Freedom Schools were created by the Children's Defence Fund, a nonprofit group working to advocate for children."

This is a free program over the summer from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Each participant is provided a healthy meal for breakfast and lunch as well. This program is so well supported in L.A. that there are seven different locations.

"The children participate in daily reading sessions, both individually and in groups, and get to keep the books they read."

Tel Hi Community Center

Every year around Thanksgiving, 660 Lombard Street in San Francisco has a large event for the community around it. This place is a community center called Tel Hi, and each year for Thanksgiving they serve a dinner to families all over the area who can't afford a Thanksgiving meal. this Center is a place where children go their either if they need a tutor, just want to play on the playground, or if they just need a place to stay and be safe while their parents are at work. Also, that center is also a place where the elderly can be "babysat" throughout the day without being in a nursing home. So, these families each year come to get a nice meal during Thanksgiving while volunteers, such as my mom and I, will serve them. Again my Dad's company McCarthy volunteer each year to help serve food, along side local high schoolers and other companies in the area. Each person is assigned a specific job one person could be serving food while another hangs leaves that the children make out of paper. My mom and I  had the task of putting bread and cookies on the plates as they came buy. In total there were cranberries, stuffing, turkey, rolls, cookies, potatoes, and gravy. It was all food donated by Tante Marie's Cooking School. This event took about 6 hours total with people leaving and arriving almost non stop, and in the end we were able to also have a little dinner ourselves and it was delicious. it was good to know that these people still got to have a fun and delicious thanksgiving.

Leap For Kids

"Thousands of people flocked to Ocean Beach Saturday to participate in the annual Sand Castle Competition sponsored by Leap, a nonprofit organization committed to providing elementary school kids with access to the arts. Twenty-four teams — composed of architects, engineers, contractors and students at elementary schools — had four hours, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., to compete to build the most impressive sand castle. This year’s theme was “Sand Francisco,” and castles depicted iconic San Francisco landmarks such as AT&T Park, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Transamerica building."

Along side helping schools each year with McCarthy Heart Hat, McCarthy also deals with a fundraiser group called Leap For Kids. This fundraiser each year is a giant sand castle contest, where construction companies from all over the bay area team up with an elementary school and build a giant sand castle. each year there is a specific theme, the last contest's theme was "San Francisco". The schools know about the themes ahead of time and plan out what to build at school using clay models. eventually all of the ideas get narrowed down to one and that one is used as the basis for the castle that they will build. Our project this year was to construct the wharf/pier. Eventually that clay model came to life as a large sand castle. Our castle had the pier with  a crab and sea lion on top of it, and anchor hanging off of the side, and a sea lion on the side sticking its head out of the water. All throughout this event there is a large raffle going on. My sister won the lowest prize of sees' candies and i won two tickets to Great America. it's such a fun event! And even though we didn't come in first the kids still enjoyed themselves on the beach.

McCarthy Heart Hats

My dad works for a construction company called McCarthy. This company mainly deals with  building hospitals, and aside from helping people by building these hospitals they also help people with a program called McCarthy Heart Hats. This program helps the communities around the country though hard driven volunteer work. I was able to attend the most recent volunteer work that they had, which was to basically freshen up a school in Oakland. While we were there we planted dozens of plants and trees, painted a giant mural of Martin Luther King Jr., replace all of the benches with fresh new ones, and rebuild fences. many of the students at the elementary school came to help as well with their parents. most of the time i was helping keep the kids entertained, but i also helped paint the mural. The mural itself is huge!  Almost every field from my dad's company were there from white collar workers to the blue collar ones, every one helped out. the whole process took roughly 7 hours to complete, and it was such a transformation from the time that we got there fro the time that we left, it was almost like night and day. This company goes all through the city of Oakland and San Francisco doing what they can for the community, they helping out schools each year as well and are still going strong.