Presidents' Day or Washington's Birthday?

Here we go again.

Even the State of Michigan's official website illustrates the power of the myth of "Presidents Day." The "Official Holiday" page lists Monday, February 17 at "President's Day" when state law (435.101 Sec. 1) clearly indicates that "the third Monday in February" is Washington's Birthday.

I say shame on our State government for helping to mislead the public, perpetuate an ignorant myth, and diminish the importance of honoring our first president.

I've posted on this and have written to the Editor of our local newspaper many times in past decades. I'll let someone else explain the myth of Presidents' Day this time.

Presidents' Day or Washington's Birthday? | Infoplease.com
by Ann Marie Imbornoni

Well, according to the federal government, the holiday observed on the third Monday in February is officially Washington's Birthday. But many Americans believe that this holiday is now called "Presidents' Day," in honor of both Presidents Washington and Lincoln, whose birthdays are Feb. 22 and Feb. 12, respectively. It turns out that whether you honor one or the other or both of these presidents may depend on where you live.

States Decide on Holidays

The states are not obliged to adopt federal holidays, which only affect federal offices and agencies. While most states have adopted Washington's Birthday, a dozen of them officially celebrate Presidents' Day. A number of the states that celebrate Washington's Birthday also recognize Lincoln's Birthday as a separate legal holiday.

When Was the First Public Celebration of Washington's Birthday?

Washington's Birthday has a history as old as our country. It was celebrated publicly for the first time in the late 18th century, while George Washington was still president.

Washington's Birthday became official in 1885, when President Chester Arthur signed a bill making it a federal holiday. Meanwhile, there was President Lincoln's birthday on Feb. 12, which never became a federal holiday but was celebrated as a legal holiday in many states outside the old Confederacy.

Origins of the Monday Holiday

In 1968, Congress passed the Monday Holidays Act, which moved the official observance of Washington's birthday from Feb. 22 to the third Monday in February. Some reformers had wanted to change the name of the holiday as well, to Presidents' Day, in honor of both Lincoln and Washington, but that proposal was rejected by Congress, and the holiday remained officially Washington's Birthday.

Nevertheless, there was a popular misconception that the day had been officially renamed, a misconception only reinforced by the fact that the third Monday in February can only occur between Feb. 15 and Feb. 21. This means that the holiday is always after Lincoln's birthday and before Washington's birthday, without ever coinciding with either. Furthermore, some states which had previously celebrated Lincoln's Birthday dropped the observance after the federal holiday reforms, supporting the notion that the two presidential birthdays had been combined.

While the name change has never been authorized by Congress, it has gained a strong hold on the public consciousness, and is generally used on calendars, in advertising, and even by many government agencies. There have been attempts to introduce legislation requiring federal agencies to call the day Washington's Birthday, but these have never gotten very far. No matter what's in the law books, the popular usage is now well established.

You Can't Please All of the People...

Many people feel that Lincoln, the president credited with preserving the nation during the Civil War, has been short-changed. To them, having Presidents' Day is a sensible way to recognize both Washington and Lincoln. Others feel just as strongly that having an inclusive Presidents' Day diminishes Washington's importance in American history.

Read more: Presidents' Day or Washington's Birthday? | Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/spot/washington1.html#ixzz2t6wdB32i

You should also read:

Presidents' Day 2013: Actually, there’s no such thing

We don't care what that newspaper ad says, there's no official 'Presidents' Day' holiday. By law, it's 'George Washington’s Birthday' honoring the Father of Our Country, and only him.

By Peter Grier, Staff writer / February 18, 2013

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/2013/0218/Presidents-Day-2013-Actually-there-s-no-such-thing

Snopes.com also chimes in against the myth of "Presidents' Day:"

http://www.snopes.com/holidays/presidents/presidentsday.asp

Tax Cuts Won’t Grow the Economy, Could Further Drain School Funding

Tax Cuts Won’t Grow the Economy | Michigan League for Public Policy



Income tax cuts lock in deep and harmful cuts in education and other public services. Over the last decade—even before the Great Recession—Michigan budget and tax policies resulted in deep cuts in the public services and structures that are the foundation of economic opportunity and growth. To gamble on a personal income tax cut—despite the evidence that tax cuts do little to boost the economy—puts basic public services at risk, and undermines Michigan’s fledgling economic recovery.



Reinvesting in public education is at the top of Michigan’s to-do list. Overwhelmingly, high-wage states are states with well-educated workforces, in part because a pool of well-educated workers attracts high-wage employers.(9)



There are many ways to improve workforce skills in Michigan, including increasing access to postsecondary education, reducing high-school drop-out rates, moving people without high school degrees through GED and associate degree programs, increasing the quality of K-12 education, and offering preschool and family support programs for parents of young children.(10)



Unfortunately, the reality in Michigan is that:



Fifty-five school districts across the state are grappling with deficits. In the decade between 2003 and 2013, the minimum per-pupil foundation allowance for K-12 public schools increased by only 4%, in the face of a 21% increase in inflation.(11)  State funding for K-12 education fell by over 20% between Fiscal Years 2004 and 2013 when inflation is taken account.



Michigan lags behind other states in education spending. A national report found that the state is spending $572 per student less than it did in 2008, a 9% cut (adjusted for inflation), putting it behind 33 other states that cut less, or invested more, in education.(12)



(9)  Berger, N. and Fisher, P., A Well-Educated Workforce is Key to State Prosperity, Economic Analysis and Research Network (August 22, 2013). 

(10) Ibid. 

(11) K-12 Schools Minimum Foundation Allowance, Senate Fiscal Agency (updated September 18, 2012). 

(12) Leachman, M., and Mai, C., Most States Funding Schools Less Than Before the Recession, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (September 12, 2013).

Equity and the Yellow School Bus

Education Week: The Yellow School Bus: A Model for Equity

Peter W. Cookson Jr., researcher, teacher, and author wrote a thought-provoking piece in the January 8, 2014 edition of Education Week titled "Looking for Equity on the Yellow School Bus." It's based on his research of high schools at various socio-economic levels and the impact each has on the students who attend there. You should read the article or his recent book (Class Rules: Exposing Inequality in American High Schools, Teachers College Press, 2013) to get the full measure of his argument.

In short, he claims there are a number of factors that "contribute to how high schools reproduce our class system." He goes on to identify four in particular but he concentrates his essay on what he refers to as "social-class rites of passage" which are more or less the "deep curriculum of high schools" that tend to perpetuate social-class distinctions. You'll understand better what he is talking about by reading the complete essay.

In the end, Cookson comes back to where the essay started: the yellow school bus. He uses the bus as a metaphor for our common concern, regardless of income or geography, about the safety of our children and their ability to attend school and be educated. Nationwide, we all acknowledge the yellow school bus and we know precisely what we should do if one is off to the side of the road boarding or discharging it's passengers. We don't only stop when its one of our kids on the bus or just for children from our neighborhood or social status. We do it for all, rich or poor, neighbors or strangers. So why is it so difficult for this country to recognize the inequity of our school system and provide similar economic supports for classrooms, teaching, and learning?

Cookson points to four issues that would lead to extending the equity of the yellow school bus to the rest of the educational experience for all, regardless of wealth or skin color. I'll just briefly summarize them here:

• Stop the trend of spending more to educate affluent students than poor children.
• Our curriculum needs revamping to cut across social classes and draw connections between them.
• We need to put education back into the hands of teachers who know their students.
• End the current test-craze that serves primarily to perpetuate class divisions.

The last two points are probably the most important. As Cookson puts it, "Finland did not become the No. 1 school system in the world because it spent precious resources paying corporations to manufacture tests that are intellectually questionable and perpetuate these class divisions. Finland became No. 1 by liberating teacher creativity."

A favorite saying of mine fits here: Better sameness is not the answer.

Will Retention Become the New Poverty Intervention of Choice?

Michigan's House of Representatives is considering a bill to retain 3rd graders who don't demonstrate proficiency in reading as measured by the MEAP or whatever new state assessment will replace it. That's right, the legislature says that all 8 year-olds have to demonstrate reading at grade level but they don't have a clue yet as to how they will measure that, since they have placed adoption of the SBAC on hold for now.

And just where will most of the 3rd graders who get a "do-over" come from? Why from low income families and impoverished communities, of course. The chart below demonstrates the correlation between reading proficiency measured by the fall 2012 3rd grade MEAP and percentage of the school's students who are eligible for free-or-reduced lunch (a measure of poverty). The schools represented by the diamonds are from an eleven-county West Michigan area.

Reading is certainly important and most schools are doing their best with the diminishing resources they have to address and overcome the obstacles to success their students face every day. We certainly welcome the legislature's help with this matter but punishing children by retaining them and placing them at further risk of dropping out altogether is not the answer. Providing at a minimum adequate school funding to support the learning needs of each child is where the State House should be focusing its efforts.

In Response to Five Unanswered Questions in the SIG Data

Five Unanswered Questions in the SIG Data - Politics K-12 - Education Week

"So the U.S. Department of Education released summary data last week on the School Improvement Grant or SIG program. In a nutshell, the data showed that after $3 billion in stimulus funding, plus more than $1 billion in regular congressional appropriations, roughly two-thirds of SIG schools that were in the program for two years showed some improvement. But another third of SIG schools stagnated—or even slid backward.

"There are big differences of opinion over whether that constitutes "incremental progress" (U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's view) or whether that's a total disaster for the already controversial, much maligned SIG program.

"But almost everyone agrees that the data left out a lot of things that could prove pivotal when trying to make claims about the efficacy of the program..."

What was not pointed out was the success of Wyoming, Michigan's Lee High School (Godfrey-Lee Public Schools) during the three years it effectively employed a SIG grant after being notified in 2010 that it was on the dreaded list of persistently low-achieving schools (PLA). In short, the school went from the 9th percentile of all Michigan schools to 63rd percentile in just the first two years of the grant. During the third year it lost a few points but still leads most of the surrounding high schools in the rankings.

Also not pointed out was the fact that the staff, students and parents of Lee High School were able to do this in spite of being located in a one-square-mile school district of 1,900 that:

1. Has the 5th lowest property value per pupil in the State of Michigan.

2. Has the highest poverty percentage in the county for school-age children ages 5-17.

3. Has the second highest percentage of limited English language students in the state.

4. Has a student body that is 85% "minority."

5. Has a transiency rate by the end of 8th grade of nearly 50% of its students, where less than half of the students have been attending district schools for 3 or more years.

6. Has had to cut staffing and trim critical programs due to a 14% real dollar decline in the per pupil foundation allowance over the past ten years, including a $470 per pupil cut by the current Governor.

Despite the obstacles listed above, nearly 30% of students who attend the district are enrolled through schools-of-choice having decided that Lee High and our other schools have the programs and family-centered learning climate they want. In fact, the district's overall enrollment has ballooned by more than 33% since 2002 and Lee High School currently has the largest enrollment in its history.

And despite occasional accolades from Michigan Department of Education staff delivered to us second-hand, not one elected leader in this state or elsewhere has ever stopped by or even bothered to communicate "job well done."

And people wonder why our students and staff call themselves Rebels.