Global Strategies

Not enough bilingual and minority teachers to vote for IP28

What would be the impact of Initiative Petition 28 on minority teacher employment and general minority employment in Portland?

From, the 6/29/16 Oregonian (here):

A corporate tax measure on the November ballot could raise $3.4 billion a year and add more than 20,000 jobs to Oregon's economy in the next decade, according to a report released Wednesday by economists at Portland State University.

But the university's Northwest Economic Research Center found all of the job growth fueled by the measure, known as Initiative Petition 28, would come from expanded spending in the public sector: 33,600 additional government jobs by 2027.

During the same time period, the state could add 13,500 fewer private sector jobs than it would have without the corporate tax, according to the report.

Many of the 33,600 additional government jobs will be teachers. And, while Portland needs and cannot find more teachers of color and more bilingual teachers (here), most of the additional teachers hired will be monolingual, White teachers. This will not improve education in Portland. And, by giving monolingual, White teachers seniority, it will make creating a more diverse and bilingual educational workforce more difficult in the years ahead.

(2) The report does not itemize the employment impact by race. Further analysis should. I would guess that there would be more persons of color in the 13,500 private sector jobs lost than in the 33,600 government (including teachers) jobs added.

In my view, Oregon needs to create a training and credentialing system that produces sufficient bilingual teachers and teachers of color before its funds the hiring of additional monolingual, White teachers.

Obama on trade and globalization

President Obama made an important speech to the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa yesterday.  Like me, he advocates a progressive international policy agenda that both fights inequality and embraces globalization. Matt Yglesias summarized his comments (here):

Speaking to the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa on Wednesday evening, President Barack Obama took the opportunity to defend his administration’s broad approach to globalization and inequality, slamming isolationists and xenophobes on the right as well as the dogmatic laissez faire ideology that he believes gives them succor. But he also took to task critics on the left who see retreat behind national boundaries as the only way forward in a global economy — making a call for more globalization and bigger government combined as the key to a successful progressive internationalist approach to the world economy.

I am with Obama and my advocacy for more dual language immersion programs and paid high school study abroad programs are efforts to strengthen our abilities to sells more goods and services abroad and to spread the benefits of international trade.

I am going to miss Obama!

Preschool for All and PPS"s Head Start grant

I am a proponent of universal pre-school as a very high priority, especially for all low-income students. As the most cost effective means to close the achievement gaps, I would favor shifting funds from higher education and high schools to fund pre-school programs for low-income students. So I take an interest in pre-school program in PPS.

In the materials for this week’s PPS Board meeting (here), there is a copy of PPS’s Head Start’s renewal grant and a resolution for the PPS Board. I find the materials confusing and have the following five sets of questions. I hope Board members will ask them or PPS staff answer them in their presentation, if any.

(1) Coverage and costs

What percentage of age eligible PPS students are enrolled in PPS pre-school programs? In 2015-16, PPS had 4,097 kindergarteners. The Head Start grants shows, as I interpret it, 823 students enrolled in preschool programs. Does PPS now serve about 20% of its age eligible students (823/4,097)? PPS data show that, for 2015-16, 46.5% are low income (eligible for free or reduced priced meals.

How many more pre-school students does PPS have and how much would it cost to provide them with preschool programs?

Here are two charts calculating (a) the costs per student and (b) estimating the additional costs of universal pre-school in PPS to be $36.3 million per year. The costs of expanding PPS pre-school to only low-income students would be an additional $12.0 million per year.

(2) Classroom spaces and facility planning

What is the five year plan for expansion of PPS preschool programs? Where will the new pre-school programs be located? And how are those classroom space needs integrated into the enrollment balancing outcomes?

(3) Dual language immersion

What is the pre-school service model for students whose native language is not English? Are there dual language immersion pre-school programs where appropriate?

The grant application is unclear whether there is even one dual language immersion pre-school program. It only says “Bilingual Educational Assistants for every classroom at least one day per week.” From my perspective, every pre-school student who will be in a dual language immersion program for kindergarten should be in a dual language immersion program for pre-school.

(4) Foster site

Willamette Week recently reported “Now WW has learned NAYA has halted work on the early learning center because the nonprofit doesn't have the money to build it or the managers to make it happen.”  What is PPS’s plan now for pre-school programs in SE?(5)Fringe costs

The costs of fringe benefits seem to be 60% of salaries. This seems high. Is this same across all of PPS?

(5) Fringe Costs

The costs of fringe benefits seem to be 60% of salaries. This seems high. Is this same across all of PPS?

Countering Globalization: Brexit, Trump, and PPS

From my perspective, there is a clear shared value between many Brexit supporters, many Trump supporters, and the dominant political coalition in Portland Public Schools (particularly as the Board reflects that political consensus). That shared value is a hostility to globalization and to the “elites” who have promoted it.  Globalization is seen as a political and economic system that benefits others (the 1%, multinational corporations, and foreigners) and does not benefit individuals, their families, and their neighbors.

I disagree. I think the economic benefits of globalization are broadly shared now and could be even more broadly shared. Those benefits could be more broadly shared here in Oregon if we would make several simple, inexpensive adaptations to our education system (more dual language immersion programs, paid high school study abroad).

I do not think there is an alternative to globalization that offers the same levels of economic well-being, stability or peace. I fear the growing anti-globalization sentiments will make a poorer, more contentious, and more dangerous world.

British youth understand the future and are angry.  From the Huffington Post article “EU Referendum Results: Young ‘Screwed By Older Generations’ As Polls Suggest 75% Backed Remain:”

An age breakdown of EU Referendum polling shows young voters overwhelmingly supported Remain while older people backed Brexit, leading to claims that baby boomers were “screwing the younger generations over yet again”.

75% of people aged 18-24 claimed they voted for Remain in the YouGov survey after voting closed, a figure that falls as age increases.

In comparison, just 39% of those aged 65 and over backed a vote to stay, causing commenters to say it was “infuriating” that “young people.. have a future without the EU and it’s one they don’t want”…..

What kind of a future do the youths of Portland want? Do they want to be bilinguals? Do they want to have spent a high school year abroad? How do they want to interact with the rest of the world?

 

“Crouching Tiger: What China’s Militarism Means for the World”

As China’s economy grows, China will, as Professor John Mearsheimer said in my previous blog post (here), “spend increasing amounts of money on defense, and they will build more and better military capabilities.” Paid high school study abroad in China programs and more Mandarin immersion programs are intended, among other goals, to be a way to prepare our next generation for this challenge. Here are two videos with more specifics on the Chinese military build-up. They are the first two episodes of a ten episode documentary related to the book “Crouching Tiger: What China’s Militarism Means for the World” by Peter Navarro.

Mearsheimer on China: "There is going to be a serious arms race"

More on the future challenge China’s rise presents, and why more US students fluent in Mandarin and with experiences in China could prove useful.  From minute 21 of the video above, Professor John Mearsheimer speaking:

One of the really interesting questions here is what is the competition between China and the United States going to look like?  First of all, I think there is going to be a serious arms race.  I think that the Chinese will spend increasing amounts of money on defense, and they will build more and better military capabilities.  At the same time, the United States is going to increase defense spending, and it is going to send more and more of its military assets to Asia than it has in the past.

WWE superstar John Cena speaking Mandarin

If WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) superstar John Cena can learn to speak Mandarin, so can (should) you.

The WWE announced it was signing a multi-year deal with the Chinese streaming service PPTV.  The announcement was made by John Cena in Mandarin (here).

John Cena Wikipedia entry is here:

John Felix Anthony Cena Jr. (/ˈsiːnə/; born April 23, 1977) is an American professional wrestler, rapper, actor and reality television show host signed to WWE.

Cena started his pro wrestling career in 1999 with Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPW), and won the UPW Heavyweight Championship the following year.^[9] Cena signed a developmental contract with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, later renamed to WWE) in 2001, debuting on the WWE main roster in 2002. From a generic character in 2002, Cena morphed into an arrogant and edgy rapper for the time period of 2002-2003.^[10][11] Cena later transitioned to his current character, which he describes as a "goody-two shoes Superman".^[12] However, Cena has been labeled as the "most polarizing pro wrestler ever" as his character has many supporters and many detractors.^[13] In 2015, WWE credited Cena as being the "face of WWE" from 2004,^[14] while in 2012, IGN described Cena as WWE's franchise player since 2005…. More

Here are two versions of Cena’s speech.

More on push to get one million learning Mandarin

More on the US push to increase the number of Mandarin learners in the US from 200,000 to 1,000,000.

First, a press release from the organization US China Strong, which begins (here):

BEIJING, JUNE 7 – Asia Society and the US-China Strong Foundation today announced a new partnership to realize Presidents Barack Obama and Xi Jinping’s call for 1 million American students to be learning Mandarin by 2020.

The two organizations made the announcement during the 7th Annual US-China Consultation on People-to-People Exchange (CPE), chaired by US Secretary of State John Kerry and Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong. Asia Society and US-China Strong share the goal of dramatically increasing the number of Americans proficient in Mandarin—an increasingly critical skill set given the strategic importance of the US-China relationship.

Asia Society has for more than ten years led a national effort to expand the number of Americans studying Chinese language and culture, creating a network of more than 40,000 Mandarin learners from 28 states. During this same period, the overall number of K-12 Mandarin learners has increased more than tenfold to approximately 200,000.

Still, as Josette Sheeran, President and CEO of Asia Society, put it: “More than 400 million Chinese are studying English, so we need to attract and encourage more Americans to take on their share of the responsibility of fostering mutual understanding for this critical bilateral relationship.”

“By dramatically increasing the number of US students studying Mandarin, we will ensure a greater understanding of China, create a pipeline of China-savvy employees and ensure that students from all walks of life have the skills and opportunities to compete in today’s workforce,” said Carola McGiffert, CEO of US-China Strong.

US-China Strong – formerly named the 100,000 Strong Foundation – is leading the 1 Million Strong initiative to grow the number of US K-12 students studying Mandarin fivefold in five years. Supported by a task force of education and technology experts, the Foundation is working to develop Mandarin language curriculum norms, increase Mandarin language teachers in the US and support the development of new technology platforms to enhance accessibility of language…..

Second, a video from China’s state media: