Fast Report
Miami-Dade County offers school choice
• The Miami-Dade County school board approved a plan at its Oct. 23 meeting that will allow parents to select a public school other than the neighborhood school to which their children have been assigned.
Public school choice will be phased in beginning with the 2003-04 school year. The district will be divided into six to eight zones, and parents will be allowed to choose a school within their zone.
Superintendent Merrett R. Stierheim acknowledges that public school choice is needed because a growing number of students are taking advantage of other choice opportunities.
Miami-Dade County enrolls 365,000 students, making it the nation's fourth largest school district. This year, 7,500 students attend 25 charter schools, siphoning off $37.5 million from the district's $2.4 billion annual operating budget. As many as 34 new charter schools could open in the next four years.
Although a declining number of students are participating in the state-funded voucher program–90 this year, down from 330 last year–3,500 students are attending private schools using vouchers financed by corporate contributions.
Voucher students return to public schools
• More than one in four voucher students in Florida have returned to public schools since August. These students had participated in the state's "opportunity scholarships" program, the nation's only statewide voucher program, which allows students at failing public schools to transfer–at state expense–to a private school.
According to the Miami Herald, 170 of 607 students statewide who had requested vouchers last summer have since re-enrolled in public schools. Among the reasons cited: trouble with transportation, lack of familiar faces, a more demanding curriculum, and too many rules.
The state's John McKay scholarship program, however, has continued to get more popular.
This program provides vouchers to enable public school students with disabilities to transfer to private schools. About 8,000 students statewide are participating in this program this year, compared to 4,000 last year, the Florida Times-Union reports.
CDC publishes guide on asthma
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has published a guide to help school officials provide safe, supportive learning environments for children with asthma.
The guide urges schools to focus their asthma programs on students with poorly managed, moderate-to-severe persistent asthma as demonstrated by frequent school absences, school health visits, and hospital visits.
CDC's recommendations are organized under six strategies:
(1) Establish management and support systems for asthma-friendly schools.
(2) Provide appropriate school health and mental health services for students with asthma. Obtain a written asthma action plan for all students with asthma, make sure students have immediate access to medications, and provide case management for students who are frequently absent.
(3) Provide asthma education and awareness programs for students and school staff.
(4) Provide a safe and healthy school environment to reduce asthma triggers. Prohibit tobacco use at all times on all school property and at all school events, and prevent indoor air quality problems.
(5) Provide safe, enjoyable physical education and activities for students with asthma.
(6) Coordinate school, family, and community efforts to better manage asthma symptoms and reduce school absences.
According to the New York Times, the number of children with asthma rose 74 percent from 1980 to 1994. Asthma accounts for 14 million missed days of school each year.
Irradiated meat in school lunches
• The U.S. Agriculture Department approved a new rule allowing irradiated meat in the school lunch program.
Meat companies have urged the federal government to allow this rule change, arguing that irradiation makes food safer. Irradiation rids food of parasites and bacteria, including E. coli and salmonella, by exposing it to low levels of gamma rays or electrons.
Irradiated meat has been available to the public since 1999.
There were 50 school-related outbreaks of food poisoning, with 2,900 illnesses in 1999, the U.S. General Accounting Office reported. Incidents of food poisoning in U.S. schools have been increasing at a rate of 10 percent a year.
The World Health organization and American Medical Association have deemed irradiated meat safe, but some health activists argue that it is not.
Several groups, including Public Citizen and the Organic Consumers Association, say irradiation destroys vitamins and nutrients and can develop chemicals that are linked to cancer and birth defects.
Public Citizen also notes that food companies and industry groups with a major stake in irradiated food contributed heavily to the Bush campaign, including the Food Marketing Institute, ConAgra Inc., and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.