I made an error in the information on Roy Blunt and the Social Security meeting. It has been removed from the blog. I thank the first person who told me about the mistake and I am grateful that my command of the English language is such that I don't have to resort to the words used by the second.
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The Carthage R-9 Board of Education voted Monday night to enter into a contract with Newton Learning to operate the district's summer school.
Add Carthage to the school districts that probqbly cannot understand the Diamond R-4 School District's quixotic lawsuit against Newton, the summer school arm of Edison Schools.
With the addition of Carthage, Newton Learning is now operating summer schools for Sarcoxie, McDonald County, and East Newton in this area and there may be others.
While I still have reservations about education-for-hire, I did see first hand during the summer of 2002 when Edison operated the Diamond summer school that Edison paid the teachers (at a far better rate than the school district) gave the school district a truckload of supplies, all of which it was allowed to keep, provided a curriculum that was in line with the Missouri MAP tests and also provided plenty of gifts for the students who attended the summer session.
And after all that has said, no one seems to deny that the summer school raked in about $200,000 in profits. Though R-4 Superintendent Mark Mayo initially said that Edison ended up costing Diamond money, a later quote from Board President Dr. Wayne Webb in the Joplin Globe indicated that was not the case and that Edison had, in fact, made money for Diamond. The local school district just disputed the amount and, as far as I can determine, has been the only school district to ever take this kind of dispute with Edison to court.
Mayo has said that other area school districts have had problems with Edison, but it appears that the school districts he has named, never used Edison for summer school, though they may have considered it.
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The ability of cities' to hold down rates for the lowest tier of cable services may be coming to an end, the Fayetteville, Ark., city attorney told the city council Tuesday night.
Cox Communications has filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission saying there is no longer a need for cities to regulate the pricing because of increased competition for television services, including satellite dishes and offerings that will soon be provided by companies such as SBC, according to this morning's Northwest Arkansas Times.
The city attorney told the council there was no reason for the city to fight the petition since it had never been able to negotiate with Cox anyway. "The change would just take away something that has caused us grief," attorney Kit Williams said.