| Lottery idea: $20 a play for $1 million
Plans are in the works for an old-fashioned raffle -- a drawing game that harks back to the origins of lotteries in the United States. But this one will be up-to-date in its scope.Instead of paper ticket stubs, the state would offer 500,000 numbers for sale on play slips through the computer network in place at outlets statewide.The $20 cost of a ticket would establish a high mark for a single play since North Carolina launched its lottery in March.Four grand prizes of $1 million are planned. So if tickets sell out, $20 would buy a 1-in-125,000 shot at the big prize."It's about as good as it's going to get to win $1 million," lottery chief Tom Shaheen said of the odds.He said plans call for five additional winners of $100,000 and 500 winners of $1,000.The other 99.89 percent of the tickets would be losers.The game would generate roughly $3.5 million for education programs but would not make a big dent in what have been sluggish sales overall.Shaheen proposes that tickets go on sale in May and that winning numbers be drawn on the Fourth of July.
State consultant helps schools with new law
By 2011, South Carolina's public high schools could begin to resemble colleges with their course offerings. School districts in Horry and Georgetown counties have already identified dozens of majors to offer students, including real estate, accounting, digital communications and culinary arts, to help meet state mandates. State Department of Education Consultant Ron Miles met with Georgetown County's school guidance counselors and career specialists Thursday to talk about compliance with the Personal Pathways to Success Program. The state's program was created to improve the state graduation rate by integrating academics with career education. Personal Pathways to Success was created out of 2005's Education and Economic Development Act. Under the act, all eighth-grade students must select a "career cluster" or general career path, such as agriculture, arts or technology, by this summer.
Illawarra preschools join funding protest
Community preschools in the Illawarra will join state-wide action today to call for improved New South Wales Government funding. NSW has the highest average preschool fees in Australia and the lowest level of attendance, with 41 per cent of preschool aged children missing out. The director of the Keiraville Community Preschool, Margaret Gleeson, says research shows preschool education gives children the best possible start to their formal schooling years. Ms Gleeson says the children will be involved in activities today to highlight concerns. "We'll be painting paper plate sad faces that are painted red representing the 41 per cent of children who can't access our preschool, and we'll be planting them outside our gates, we've got a big banner on our fence that says 'preschool education, its a right, not a privilege'," she said.
HSU alumna works with dolphins, other marine life
Kristi Davis Thompson graduated from Henderson in 1995 with a degree in education, specializing in physical education with a sports medicine emphasis. She has a dance/theater minor.
Twelve years later, is Thompson a teacher?
No.
A physical education teacher or a sports trainer?
No.
A professional dancer or actor?
No.
Thompson is a marine mammal specialist working with dolphins, sea lions and many other species. She is currently the director of marine operations of a new facility at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas.
So how did Thompson stray from her academic specialties and end up in the water with sea creatures?
"It's something I always wanted to do," Thompson said.
US details funds at risk if English learners aren't tested
RICHMOND, Va. State education officials say the federal government has detailed how much money Virginia school divisions could lose in a dispute over mandated testing. Some school districts are protesting a part of the No Child Left Behind law that requires children who are trying to learn English to take the same reading tests as their native-speaking peers. Eight school boards have passed resolutions expressing their frustration with the measure, saying that it is unfair. Raymond Simon, deputy secretary of the U-S Department of Education, told state education officials this week that the federal government could withhold school divisions' Title One funding if they use an unapproved substitute reading test for students with limited English proficiency. Title One schools receive funds to serve children from low-income families.
New effort to bolster workforce training
School districts in Central Texas are getting some help from regional planners to prepare the next generation of Austin's workforce. The Capital Area Council of Governments, or CAPCOG, and the Rural Capital Area Workforce Development Board have launched a new program to help school districts implement Achieve Texas, a Texas Education Agency initiative to redesign career and technology education programs by 2012. The program uses so-called career clusters and pathways, recommended course sequences based on student interests, to prepare graduates for careers in the 21st century global economy. .
Is Arnold Regressing? Schwarzenegger's Fundraising Ban Proposal ...
Ever since the days of the recall election, Arnold Schwarzenegger -- who has raised more campaign money from special interests than any other California politician in state history -- has been fixated on the idea of banning fundraising during budget deliberations. But unlike most of the half-cooked ideas he had during his campaign and his first year in office, this one seems to be stuck in his brain, as the Sacramento Bee reported Sunday. This proposal -- which he now says should be an initiative -- has never gone anywhere. And for good reason. It's felony stupid. Here's the idea as proposed by Schwarzenegger: ban all fundraising from the day he issues his May budget revision (typically early May) until the budget is signed (this date should be June 30, but has gone as long as Labor Day in recent memory).
Interview: Dominique de Villepin
Measures like the ban on smoking in public places, measures in innovation, education, equality of opportunity, which were accelerated after the crisis in the suburbs, show that the country is advancing. The ambition I set myself was that during these two years, on the big issues, employment, growth, competitiveness, debt, we could build a sort of minimum consensus to look at these questions with the necessary pragmatism. On unemployment, for instance, I wanted to fight the fatalist idea that existed that everything had already been tried against unemployment. I wanted to take a pragmatic approach, refusing ideology, to use all means, without asking if it was a left-wing or right-wing policy. FT: What do you think about Nicolas Sarkozy's call for a 'rupture'? DdV: The political debate has shown that nothing done or said by my political family on the right is incompatible with me.
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