Uptown Radio

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In Pat O’Mara’s basic algebra class at Borough of Manhattan Community College in Tribeca, students are trying to learn how to calculate the slope between two points.

O’Mara: So this is the X and Y coordinance of the first so it’s the x’s of 1 and y’s of 1, and the coordinance for the second one would be x’s of 2 and y’s of 2.

It’s a concept that the students should have learned in middle school. But they are learning it again because they failed the school’s entrance placement test.

Tasha Colorado from Fresh Meadow, Queens, is one of the students in O’Mara’s class. She is taking three remedial classes this semester, including math, reading and writing. That means she will not get any college credit even if she passes all her classes. She said she thought she was good at math.

“I thought I was… But I used a calculator. In college, you can’t use a calculator. So it kind of screwed me over,” said Colorado.

Colorado is part of the majority at BMCC. About 60 percent of all math classes offered there are remedial, and three-quarters of the all freshman at CUNY community colleges need at least one remedial class in math, reading or writing.

Last year CUNY spent 33 million dollars on remedial instruction in its 6 community colleges. That amount nearly doubled over the past 10 years.

Faulty say there are a few reasons for the increase. First more students are going back to college, after years in the workforce-which means they have not been in school for a while. O’Mara says she sees that in her class.

“They’ve probably been away for a couple of years. If you don’t keep up with any subject, you are kind of full. Then you are asked on one test to put all the right answers down, you’ve forgotten a few things only because you haven’t done it for a while,” said O’Mara.

Others students and faculty blame the increase on public high schools. Another student in O’Mara’s class, Frank Sanchez, was not surprised that he failed the placement test. He said he had bad math teachers in high school.

“I’ve always had trouble with math. And when I came into the school, I have a more of an understanding since I’ve had math ever, Sanchez said.

Sanchez graduated from New York City public high schools, like two-thirds of his classmates. Kathleen Offenholley coordinates adjunct math instructors at BMCC. She says the faculty spends a lot of time making up for the high schools’ shortcomings.

“New York has an enormous disparity of income. A lot of people live in very poor neighborhoods with not much resources for their schools. And I think a lot of my students come from that kind of backgrounds,” said Offenholley.

Another reason for the increase in remedial classes is the changing culture. Gay Brookes is the chairperson of the developmental skills department at BMCC.

“Many students don’t read very much. So they don’t have the fluency in their reading ability. So they look at a textbook and it’s got 250 pages of rather dense print, and they just don’t know how to approach it,” said Brookes.

Students don’t get college credits for remedial classes, or developmental courses as they are formally known. But the classes cost the same as credit-bearing courses. Low-income students’ tuition can be covered entirely by Pell grants. However, Republicans in the US House of Representatives are proposing to cut the grant funding by up to 15 percent. Dolores Perin from Columbia University’s Teachers College studies remediation at community colleges. She says that supporting remedial students benefits everyone.

“We as taxpayers have to think about tomorrow and not just today,” said Perin. “Think about the implications of supporting students with low skills because those are the workforce tomorrow. The workforce is aging out. We need to replace them.”

The long-term solution to reduce remediation is for high schools to prepare their students better. Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and a former governor of West Virginia, says high schools and colleges need to get on the same page when it comes to standards.

“Up until recently, our high schools and our community colleges and four-year institutions haven’t been communicating well enough about what it is that students need to be able to succeed in college or career,” said Wise.

The National Governors Association’s Center for Best Practice last year developed an initiative to help improve K to 12 education. So far more than 40 states have adopted it. In New York, CUNY is working with New York City Department of Education to align academic standards. In the meantime, the city’s high schools will be graded for their graduates’ college readiness.

Gianna Palmer, age 2, flying high thanks to her dad, Chuck.

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Commentator Gianna Palmer grew up surrounded by plenty of strong women, including her mom. But the most outspoken feminist in her life has always been her father.

For the first few years of my life my mom worked full time and my dad, a freelance photographer struggling to find work, stayed home with me, his only child. When I was three, my dad took a job as a city bus driver. He usually worked at night, so he was always thinking up things we could do together during the day.

When I was five, he built me a custom barbell set out of a wooden pole and some PVC pipe. He painted the bar and the barbell plates bright pink and purple, my favorite colors at the time. Weightlifting was his favorite sport, and he thought I might like lifting a barbell, too.

He told me,  “I just wanted you to have a little toy one to experience it, I didn’t have any notion about pushing you into it or making you real strong, or any of that stuff. I made it as realistic as possible. It looked just like a miniature Olympic bar.”

He actually knew grown women who lifted weights. He’d taught a co-ed weightlifting class about 20 years before, and wanted to show me that no interest should be off limits because I was a girl. But tangible things like the barbell aside, my dad also felt strongly about the way women were treated in society— and in religion.

He grew up a fundamentalist evangelical Christian in Illinois, but became disillusioned with his faith when he was about 18.

He did agree to raising me Jewish, as my mom wanted. But when I was about to have my bat mitzvah and, at 13, become a woman in the eyes of the Jewish faith, my dad sat down with my Hebrew tutor and asked him about the Jewish prayer that says, “Blessed art thou, O Lord, that I was not born a woman.”

My dad Chuck, says “The subtlety of that statement is still lost on me. It’s not subtle.”

When I went away to college, I learned firsthand that actually sexism could be subtle.

I enjoyed classes like “Feminist Theory” and “Paternalism and Social Power.” But   outside the classroom, I sometimes felt like in order to fit in, I had to act a part.

My sophomore year I was appointed chair of the student budget committee. We handed out three quarters of a million dollars to fund activities on campus.

We were five guys and two girls, and I was in charge.

I still cringe when I think about how some of the guys on the committee— my friends— used to call me “Giggles” in front of groups who came in to ask for funding.

The nickname started as joke my freshman year, because I’m not actually all that giggly. The name made me feel accepted… and belittled.

And it was one of many times I’ve realized that not everyone is attuned to male-female dynamics the way my dad is.

But that would be hard.

Recently he sent me an email with a link to an article written by a male reporter that critics were calling sexist. In the subject of the email he had written “MAKES ME ASHAMED TO BE A MAN” in all caps.

“Oh Dad,” I thought, “you’ve got nothing to worry about.”

Gianna Palmer’s dad recently sent her a weightlifting DVD called “the Art of Strength.”

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Newly designated school chancellor Dennis Walcott greets Staten Island city council member Vincent Ignizio at the Committee on Education hearing. Walcott said 4500 teachers would have to be laid off due to state budget cuts. Photo by: Jacob Anderson / Columbia Radio News.

The brand new chancellor of New York City Schools wasted no time getting down to business today. This morning, Dennis Walcott faced the Committee on Education’s budget hearing for the next fiscal year. He said Bloomberg’s policies will stand, including the Mayor’s estimate that 4500 teachers will need to be laid off due to state budget cuts.

Walcott began the public meeting on a personal note.

“This morning I dropped my grandson off at his school which also happened to be my own elementary school when I was a child,” he said.

His day quickly got lot tougher. He faced the council and told them that the state’s education budget doesn’t cover the needs of New York City’s one million students.

Several of the nineteen council members blamed the mayor for the school’s financial problems. They said if Bloomberg would support the so-called millionaires tax–income tax on people making over 200 thousand dollars a year, that revenue could help cover school costs. Council Member Charles Barron, from Brooklyn, told Walcott to tell the mayor that.

“When y’all go to lunch or breakfast or caviar at his mansion, whatever you do, I think it’s important to try to influence him that it’s the tax breaks,” Barron said.

Barron fought back when Walcott insisted that people losing their jobs would be unfortunate, but that it was necessary.

“I also do not want to lay off teachers,” Walcott began.

“You don’t have to Dennis,” Barron interrupted. “I know you don’t want to have to lay them off–don’t!”

Barron and others called on the city to use its 3 billion surplus to cover the lost funding. Walcott said it would be unwise to spend it all at once. He spent more time talking about getting rid of the “Last In, First Out” policy, or LIFO, which gives preference to teachers based on seniority instead of performance. He says the policy leads to firing the wrong person.

“The only thing worse than having to lay off a teacher is having to lay off a bad teacher,” he added.

Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott, left, walks his grandson Justin, 7, to PS 36- St. Albans School, Queens, a day after he was nominated to replace Cathie Black as schools chancellor. Photo by: Henny Ray Abrams / AP.

Public school parent Ann Kjellberg attended the meeting, and said her child’s teacher is young, and at risk of getting laid off under “Last In First Out.” But she said completely getting rid of LIFO could mean too much emphasis on test scores. She’s says that’s already happening.

“My kid’s in fourth grade and they started test prep for a test they’re taking in May, in March,” she said. “They spend half the day–more than half the day–preparing for this stupid test.”

Kjellberg fears getting rid of LIFO would make that kind of teaching standard.

Dennis Walcott says he’ll continue to push for the end of LIFO when he goes to Albany next week. As for layoffs, he said pink slips will have to go out by June at the latest, but may be sent even sooner.

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Still no deal. That is the word from Capital Hill, where lawmakers are still struggling to reach agreement on a federal budget to fund the government through September.

If there is no agreement by midnight tonight, the government will shut down for the first time in 15 years.

But after meetings late into the night yesterday, the Republicans and Democrat can’t seem to reconcile their differences. In fact, they can’t even seem to agree what their differences are.

Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, talks to the press on Capitol Hill Friday, April 8, 2011. Photo by: Alex Brandon / AP.

Republican speaker of the house John Boehner, said:

“Only reason we do not have an agreement as yet and that issue is spending.”

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said it is something else entirely:

“The only thing, the only thing holding up an agreement is ideology.”

Boehner and House Republicans say the problem is that the White House and the Democratic Senate haven’t agreed to large enough budget cuts:

“When will the white house and when will senate democrats get serious about cutting spending a bill that fails to include real spending cuts will hurt job growth and signal that Washington is not serious about dealing with its spending addiction.“

But Reid said the two sides had agreed to cut about 38 billion, something that Boehner denies.

During a floor debate today, Reid told the president pro-tem of the Senate that the real cause of the stalemate is two sections of the budget bill known as policy riders, which were added by House Republicans.

“The two main issues that are holding this issue up are reproductive rights and clean air. These matters have no place on a budget bill, Mr. President.”

One of the two riders would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating green house gases. Another would cut federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

Republicans Senator John Kyl of Arizona says abortion is the most common service that Planned Parenthood provides:

“Everybody goes to clinics, to hospitals, to doctors and so on. Some people go to planned parenthood. But you don’t have to go to planned parenthood to get your choleteral or your blood pressure checked. You go to Planned Parenthood to get an abortion and that is well over 90% of what Planned Parenthood does.

But actually, Planned Parenthood officials say that the opposite is true– ninety percent of their care is preventive–from breast exams to contraception. Just three percent of their business is abortion-related.

What’s more, federal law has long prohibited government funds from paying for abortion. According to Reid, the real effect of the cuts will be to make it harder for women to get essential health services.

“Republicans are asking me to sacrifice my wife’s health, my daughters’ health and my nine grand daughters health. They’re asking me to sacrifice the health of women in Nevada and irah and across this country. I m not going to be part of that. I won’t do it.”

If they can’t resolve their disagreements by midnight, the federal government will effectively shut down. Nonessential services from national parks to veterans’ clinics will close and 800,000 federal employees will stay home.

Here in New York City, thousands of federal employees would be placed on Furlough. Some of the most visible effects might be at landmarks that are administered by the national park service.

Visitors to the Statue of Liberty take photos, Wednesday, April 6, 2011 in New York. Photo by: Mary Altaffer / AP.

Tourists lined up this morning for the ferry to Ellis Island. Lynn and her family from Milwaukee who didn’t want to give her last name, said she is happy that they beat the shutdown deadline.

“I’m very thankful we’re coming today to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty and hadn’t gotten tickets for tomorrow.”

Jo and Mark Dine are visiting from Brighton, England. They say the shutdown is more likely to affect the city than it is to affect them.

“If we wanna come we’ll still come but I think it’ll affect your revenue definitely.”

But a tourist named Mark near the end of the line for the ferry said what he did on his vacation wasn’t as big a deal as the dispute in Washington.

“We should be able to get the budget fixed, that’s the more important issue.”

As of now, House and Senate leaders still can’t compromise, and the temporary loss of jobs and services across the country may be imminent. The closure of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty is expected to affect 20,000 tourists and 130 employees.

A crack caused by Thursday's big aftershock in the ground near a shelter for tsunami survivors in Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. Photo by: Yomiuri Shimbun / via AP.

The largest aftershock since the devastating March 11 earthquake hit Japan yesterday. We spoke with Seismologist Geoffery Abers, who says that aftershocks can happen months and years after the initial quake, and that the one that occurred yesterday probably won’t be the last. Abers is a Seismologist with the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York.

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With just hours to go, a government shut down hangs in the balance as President Barack Obama and top congressional leaders remain at a stalemate with no signs of compromise.

Democrats say they made concessions to reach $37 billion in cuts, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters Friday morning that a dispute over women’s health services – namely a rider that would cut funding for Planned Parenthood has prevented a deal.

Senator Harry Reid said: “The debate has nothing to do with the number. It has every thing to do with women’s health. That was the only issue that was left undone when we left the White House last night.”

House Speaker John Boehner didn’t mention the women’s issue in his own brief statement this morning. Instead, he blamed Democrats and the White House for not being serious about cutting government spending:

As the deadline gets closer the Obama Administration has readied furlough notices for hundreds of thousands of federal workers that are deemed non essential. Willow Belden explains what that means.

The precise definition of an “essential service” is a bit of a gray area. Each government agency essentially gets to choose which employees are indispensible. But some things are definite. Services protecting national security or public safety, keep going.

Federal prisons will remain open. Air traffic controllers will stay on the job. And our troops will keep fighting overseas.

People receiving social security or unemployment benefits will get their checks. And since the post office has a separate budget, you’ll still get your mail.

But here’s what will change:

The IRS won’t process tax returns. And if you’re trying to go to a national park … or get a new passport, that’s not going to happen.

Union leaders have filed suit, saying that making some federal employees work without pay violates the U.S. Constitution.

France’s embassy in Ivory Coast says the ambassador’s residence was hit by two mortar shells and a rocket fired from positions held by forces supporting the country’s strongman, Laurent Gbagbo, who refuses to emerge from a bunker at his residence next door to the embassy.

A French statement says it is the second such attack in 48 hours. It did not say if there were any casualties

Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay $70 million to settle civil and criminal charges for bribing doctors in Europe and paying kickbacks to the Iraqi government to illegally obtain business.

The government accused Johnson & Johnson subsidiaries of providing money and travel gifts to doctors in Greece, Poland and Romania in exchange for their prescribing Johnson & Johnson products to patients.  Johnson & Johnson subsidiaries also allegedly paid kickbacks to the Iraqi government to obtain contracts under the United Nations Oil for Food Program.

NATO has acknowledged that its airstrikes hit rebels tanks in eastern Libya, but insisted that no one told them the rebels used tanks.

British Rear Admiral Russell Harding, the deputy commander of the NATO operation, said he regretted the accident, but did not apologize.

“I am not apologizing. The situation on the ground, as I said was extrememly fluid and remains extremely fluid.”

NATO’s Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, however, expressed regret over the loss of life, saying alliance forces were doing everything possible to avoid harming civilians.

FILE - Mew York City Schools Chancellor Cathie Black at a school function. Photo by: Mark Lennihan / AP.

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The surprise resignation by Cathie Black from role as New York City school chief comes after 3 months on the job.  Black’s ratings as school chancellor were below 20% in one poll.

Now the mayor has picked a deputy mayor to run the schools.  Gianna Palmer speaks with Gary Anderson, a professor of Educational Administration at New York University about the context of the school shake-up.

EU Flag (File) Photo by: Virginia May / AP

Portugal becomes the latest European Union member to ask for a bailout, following Greece and Ireland.

Uptown Radio host Anna Maria Jakubek speaks with Nuno Garoupa, a professor of law and economics at the University of Illinois about the decisions Portugal and the EU have to make in order to tackle this financial crisis, and the larger economic consequences for the continent.

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