College tuition

Recently all Salem State college employees and students got an email regarding the budget cut of 2.2 million dollars. How does that effect us? Most likely that means higher tuition. With the costs of textbooks, gas, and other living expenses this just add to the stress for both parents and students. Not just SSC is feeling the pitch, colleges such as BC, Yale, and other prestigious schools are also having a hard time with students wanting to go their due to tuition being to high. What people do not understand is when our economy starts to fail and job loses are spiking up everywhere college is either not an option or they chose state schools. Now if state schools jack up there tuition are college accepting rates going to go down? With everything that is going on in this country as well as others people may have to stop attending school in order to help out their families. Right now in my house my mother and I are the only ones working. I work two jobs as is while going to school full time. My stepfather and brother are most recently laid off. Now if this continues will I have to sacrifice my education in order to keep the home we all live in? I know it is not SSC fault but the government needs to realize they are going to affect a lot of students with this increase.

Freedom of Speech

My hot topic for this weeks post was on a students right to free speech. While googling some hot topics for this week there were a few I read that struck me off course.This particular article caught my attention, seeing that I myself like to talk.
Back in 2007 the U.S Supreme Court had to make the decision on a students right to free speech with the case Morse vs. Frederick. This case had to with a high school student Frederick holding up a sign at an off campus event that read "Bong hits 4 Jesus". The principal Morse saw the sign took it away from Frederick and then suspended him from school for ten days. Frederick disagreed with Morse's reaction and sued the school for freedom of speech.
After reading this I agreed with both the student and the principal in this case. For one thing the student was dumb for holding up a sign that clearly had to do with promoting drugs at a school event. Even if the event was not held at school grounds it was still a school function. Kind of like prom, if you show up intoxicated then you will have to leave and consequences will follow. So Frederick should have been suspended for some time regarding the situation. I do not agree with the ten days could have been less. As with the students freedom of speech, he was not being violated for saying whats on his mind it is what he said that got him into the situation. If his sign said Save the Whales or something to do with gay marriages and he got that reaction from the principal I would have been on his side. As for the principal he or she was only abiding by the rules of the school. I think students sometimes forget that even if it is a school event that is not held at the school the same rules follow even if you were there.Kids need to be reminded of these things.

http://education-portal.com/articles/US_Supreme_Court_Rules%3A_Schools_can_Limit_a_Student%27s_Right_to_Freedom_of_Speech.html

Economy affecting teachers?

The world we live in today is turning out be a very scary place to be living in. When have we ever heard the word economy this many times in our life time?Not many until most recently everyone is talking about it. Jobs are being lost left and right. Did we ever think that teachers would escape from this mess? I hope not recently in Portland, Maine Mark Eastman who is superintendent of Oxford Hills School District, recently learned he needed to cut $500,000 from his budget. That means that no one in that school system is safe. Several special education teachers, literacy teachers, and custodians would be be out of a job. The citizens in Portland would not allow that to happen.The principal at the Rowe elementary school raised $70,000 to help save those jobs. Many of the fellow teachers even had money taken right out of their paychecks to help save those jobs. In light of all that's going on people will help others especially in this tight economy.

No one wants to see their neighbors or co-workers lose their jobs and if communities like Portland start loosing teachers what is going to happen those students who had those teachers?It would mean over crowding in other classrooms where teachers may or may not be able to handle more than 25 kids. Towns and city's are sticking together in order to save a lot of jobs. This situation in Portland is a great example just how even teachers and those unions are not safe anymore.

This particular article caught my attention because I know with the world we are living in there are a lot of people getting laid off but i have not heard of teachers getting laid off. This struck me as a wonderful community coming together as best as they could to help not just the teachers but the students who have those teachers as well. After reading this article and just makes you question even if you have a union job or are part of a union your jobs not safe and that is scary.
http://www.nbc6.net/money/18689814/detail.html
http://mathforum.org/midpow/POW/girl.teacher.gif