A modest proposal by President Clinton for vague and voluntary national standards provoked strong opposition disciplineinhighschools in Congress and elsewhere. A variety of efforts on the part of states to introduce some forms of curriculum guidelines and to reinforce them with statewide testing have stirred up strong reactions at the local level. Reinforcing this local response to setting standards has been the hostility toward government that has characterized the politics of the last two decades. Increasingly, elected officials have won office disciplineinhighschools on a platform of being relentlessly anti-government. disciplineinhighschools They see their disciplineinhighschools primary job as an effort to protect local communities and individual citizens from the intrusion of government control Denver should consolidate its program for gifted middle-schoolers to stop children from leaving for private, charter and magnet schools, the program''s leader said Thursday.

Denver now offers its gifted-and-talented program at three schools - Baker, Place and Smiley - so students get special instruction near home. But Barbara Neyrinck, head of gifted-and-talented programs for Denver Public Schools, said the programs need to be consolidated to make them stronger, more of disciplineinhighschools a priority and more appealing School administrators proposed creating an expanded special education program for high disciplineinhighschools school students Wednesday in response to the rising costs of out-of-district placements. The goal is to keep special education students in the district, Superintendent Randy Bell said. The program, proposed during the School Board’s business meeting, would target high school students and involve both Hudson and Litchfield. The biggest area of the special education budget is out-of-district costs, said Leslie Derbyshire, disciplineinhighschools special services director. In addition to tuition costs,

all political stripes, including long-standing Tories - are hoping their grassroots movement will bring about a groundswell of support. The full-page ad reads, in part: ``Large classes. Fewer special education classes. Reduced library staff. Fewer arts programs . . . Does this sound like your school?'''' The first one appears in today''s Star. The funding formula is not meeting needs of kids in Toronto, or anywhere,'''' said Joanne Pauli, speaking on behalf of the newly formed Friends of Public She has three children, one at North Toronto Collegiate. Most of the parents have some connection to the collegiate; the idea for the ad campaign came out of a parent council meeting. The one-size-fits-all formula isn''t really fitting anyone at all,'''' Pauli said. In 1998, the provincial government seized control of education spending, taking away individual boards'' ability to raise their own taxes depending on their needs. It now spends $13.4 billion a year.

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