The Office of the First Lady announced today that First Lady Michelle Obama is scheduled to deliver three commencement addresses in the months ahead.

On May 8th, the First Lady will address the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. Established more than 130 years ago, the University began as the only state-supported institution of higher education for African Americans in Arkansas. Like many of the nation’s more than one-hundred historically black colleges and universities, the University has played a special role in enabling young people from many walks of life to further their education. While the University offers many different areas of study, it remains dedicated to the mission of providing educational opportunities to underserved communities particularly in the Arkansas Delta region.

It is one of a small number of HBCUs that also are land-grant institutions and thus have a long history of preparing students for fields in agriculture, farming, and engineering. The University currently boasts an enrollment of more than 3500 students.

On May 16th, The George Washington University will host their graduation ceremonies in Washington DC. Mrs. Obama is scheduled to address this group provided the student body, faculty and staff complete the 100,000 hours of community service required during the 2009-2010 academic year. Mrs. Obama issued the challenge for these service hours in exchange for her commencement visit in September of 2009, during the first National Day of Service and Remembrance, which was the culmination of President Barack Obama’s “United We Serve” summer service initiative.

On June 11th, Mrs. Obama will address the Anacostia Senior High School Commencement, a DC public school that Mrs. Obama visited in the spring of 2009 in conjunction with her Women of Excellence event and her early mentoring activities as First Lady.

In 2009, Mrs. Obama spoke to the University of California, Merced’s first full senior class. She also addressed the Washington Math and Science Tech Public Charter High School Graduation in Washington DC.

In the last week Tawnell Hobbs of the Dallas Morning News has been reporting on the poor performance of 4 DISD  High  School: Kimball, Pinkston, Roosevelt, and Seagoville.  According to Hobbs, the high schools have been deemed academically unacceptable for four consecutive years.  This sets up the possibility that each school would remove 75 percent of teachers and reassign at least 50 percent of the students.

She also writes that there are contingency plans to have the four schools act as “Sattelite Magnets” for Townview also known as shuffling chairs on the deck of the Titanic.

These school must all be considered as serious candidates for a Spruce style reconstitution.  After being in the same low performing situation a few years ago, it was decided that 75% of the teachers at H. Grady Spruce would be removed and students disbursed to other DISD schools.

As we’ve reported here, Spruce High is making strides under the direction of Dr. Lucy Davila Hakemack.  Test scores are up, and even more importantly students feel like that can have a positive high school experience.

It’s important to use any means possible to keep these schools as part of their respective communities for the long term.  And while currently these schools represent community underachievement, it doesn’t have to be that way.  They could all benefit from fresh ideas, new thinking, and a better approach. The same could be said for DISD as a whole.

While each of these schools could gain from partnerships with entities like TI, SMU, TAMU-Commerce, and El Centro as mentioned in Hobbs column, throwing up our hands shouldn’t be the answer.  Reconstitution is painful and costly, and doesn’t look good for the school or district once it takes place.  But when you have an example like Spruce right inside DISD, it seem like the option would be fully vetted and seriously considered.

Photo of Dr. Michael Hinojosa from Dallas Elevators

DallasSouthNews.org is a Dallas nonprofit news organization that focuses on Southern Dallas.

• What’s wrong with this picture? Um, the white girl in the middle has something to do with it. Earlier this month, Nikole Churchill,22, was chosen as 2009 Hampton University homecoming queen. Hampton U is historically black, and the main campus of 5,700 students has a  mostly black student body.

• Churchill wrote a letter to President Barack Obama claiming he could relate to the racism she was facing at the university. “I am hoping that perhaps you would be able to make an appearance to my campus, Hampton University, so that my fellow Hamptonians can stop focusing so much on the color of my skin and doubting my abilities to represent,” she wrote, “but rather be proud of the changes our nation is making toward accepting diversity.”

• So why shouldn’t Churchill win? She got accepted to the university. She paid tuition. Attended classes. She won fair and square. Complaining about her race now is a little like the pot calling the kettle black.

U.S. Department of Justice to Release Study on Children’s Exposure to Violence;

U.S. Department of Education to Provide $500,000 Grant to Help Fenger Community

Attorney General Eric Holder and Education Secretary Arne Duncan today joined with Chicago city officials to call for a national conversation on values to address youth violence in the wake of the fatal beating of a Chicago high school student.  The announcement followed meetings with City officials, community leaders, students, and parents.

“Youth violence isn’t a Chicago problem, any more than it is a black problem or a white problem. It’s something that affects communities big and small, and people of all races and colors. Today is the beginning of what will be a sustained, national effort on behalf of this entire administration to address youth violence and to make our streets safe for everyone,” Holder said.

“Chicago will not be defined by this incident but rather by our response to it – so we came here today to join with you and with communities all across America – to call for a national conversation on values. It’s a conversation that must happen every place in America where violence, intolerance, and discrimination exists,” Duncan said.

Today’s meeting continues President Obama’s and the Administration’s strong commitment to combating violence:

• • In August, the Attorney General joined mayors from across the nation at a White House Gang Violence Prevention and Crime Control Conference.
  • The Recovery Act provided $4 billion for state and local law enforcement assistance, crime prevention, victims of crime, and funding to address violence against women. Through the Recovery Act, the City of Chicago received over $13 million in funding from the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) to hire 50 officers to help combat crime and violence.
  • The President’s budget includes a request of $298 million in additional funding for hiring additional police officers to help meet the Administration’s commitment to hire 50,000 officers nationwide.
  • The Administration requested $114 million within the Department of Justice to fund programs designed to reduce criminal recidivism and help end the revolving door from corrections to reoffending, as well as $115 million in reentry-related programs funded within the Department of Labor.
  • The President’s budget requested $24 million to support successful community-based partnerships designed to end violent youth crime – partnerships like the successful model implemented by Operation Ceasefire in Chicago.

The Department of Justice will today release a study on children’s exposure to violence. Among other findings, the study shows that more than 60 percent of the children surveyed were exposed to violence in the past year, either directly or indirectly. Nearly half of children and adolescents were assaulted at least once, and more than one in 10 were injured as a result.  Nearly one-quarter were the victims of robbery, vandalism or theft, and one in 16 were victimized sexually. The study can be found at www.ojjdp.ncjrs.gov after 2 p.m. ET.

“These numbers are astonishing, and they are unacceptable. We simply cannot stand for an epidemic of violence that robs our youth of their childhood and perpetuates a cycle in which today’s victims become tomorrow’s criminals,” Holder said.

Duncan announced that the Department of Education is working with Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to award a $500,000 grant to help Fenger High School and the elementary and middle schools that feed into Fenger HS, restoring learning environments following the death of 16-year-old Derrion Albert. His fatal beating, outside a Roseland community center several blocks from the high school, was captured on a cell phone video. Funds for this grant are coming from a grant program entitled Project SERV – School Emergency Response to Violence. This program is designed to help restore the learning environment in school districts that have been impacted by a significant traumatic event. SERV grants also were provided to school districts in New Jersey, Massachusetts, and New York in 2009.

Duncan emphasized, however, “This is not about the money. Money alone will never solve this problem. It’s about our values. It’s about who we are as a society. And it’s about taking responsibility for our young people to teach them what they need to know to live side-by-side and deal with their differences without anger or violence.”

The grant from the Department of Education will enable CPS to facilitate safe passage for students to and from school, offer training to enable teachers to better manage their classrooms and engage students in learning, and it can be used to collaborate with community organizations to expand and increase student-centered support programs. The grant also can be used to strengthen the school support network with crisis response training for teachers, and to provide additional, extensive mental health services to students and the school community.

###

When:

2:00-5:30 p.m. September 24th, 2009

Where:

Room 146A

Washington Convention Center

801 Mount Vernon Pl NW

Washington, DC 20003

Why:

54 percent of the African American community is not online. Underserved communities are excluded from opportunities to access job applications, health care information or financial services. Black Power 2.0 will feature the nation’s elite African American social media experts at the cutting edge of digital movement.

A special session, “The World as We See It: Recreating Communities with Public Purpose Content,” will feature Rey Ramsey, CEO of One Economy, and award-winning director and producer, Robert Townsend. They will address the role of public-purpose media—online content that engages, informs and facilitates action—in stimulating demand for broadband among those who need its resources most. Townsend produces and directs Diary of a Single Mom, a ground-breaking online Web series that chronicles the lives of three single mothers trying get ahead despite obstacles that all single parents face.

Interviews:

Diary of a Single Mom Cast Members present at the session include:

* Monica Calhoun (“Sister Act II,” “Love and Basketball”),
* Janice Lynde (“Six Feet Under,” “General Hospital”)
* Valery Ortiz (“South of Nowhere,” “Date Movie”)
* Richard Roundtree (“Se7en,” “Shaft”)
* Billy Dee Williams (“Star Wars,” “Lady Sings the Blues”)
* Leon (“Cool Runnings,” “Waiting to Exhale,” “The Temptations”)

Participants:

Majority Whip James E. Clyburn, U.S. House of Representatives*

Donna Brazile, Principal, Brazile & Associates*

Farai Chideya, Founder, Popandpolitics.com; Power to Pen Media Group (Moderator)

Robert Townsend, Actor/Director/Producer, Diary of a Single Mom

Rey Ramsey, CEO, One Economy Corporation; Founding BBOC Member

Donna Byrd, Publisher, The Root at WashingtonPost.com

Eric Easter, Vice President Digital & Entertainment, Johnson Publishing/Ebony Jet

Gina McCauley, Founder, Blogging While Brown, What About Our Daughters, Michelle Obama Watch

Carmen Dixon-Rosenzweig, Founder, All About Race; Editor, AOL Black Voices

Angela Conyers-Benton, Founder, Black Web 2.0

Shawn Williams, Editor, DallasSouthNews.org

Gary Mack, CEO, Dacodo

James Andrews, Co-Founder, EveryWhere

Navarrow Wright, Founder, Global Grind

Kristal High, Founding Co-Chair, Innovation Generation Broadband Policy Summit

I want to thank the House of Representatives for the progress they made today on the reforms I’ve proposed to strengthen higher education and our early education system.  Today, the House delivered a historic set of reforms to the financial aid system that will offer relief to students and families.

This bill will end the billions upon billions of dollars in unwarranted subsidies that we hand out to banks and financial institutions, and will use that money to guarantee access to low-cost loans, and strengthen Pell Grants and Perkins loans that make college more affordable.

This bill also follows through on our plan to shore up our community college system, simplifies the complicated financial aid forms to make it easier for students to apply for and get the help they need, and will strengthen standards and improve outcomes in early learning programs. I look forward to signing these reforms into law.

General

These tools are just all around helpful.

1. Checklist for College Planning: Make use of this checklist to help your high school student make the right decisions.
2. ACT Student Stories: Share these stories with your child to motivate them to do well for college.
3. Five Common College Parenting Mistakes: Avoid making these mistakes with your child.
4. 10 Ways to Jump-Start College Planning: Follow this guide to help your middle school student prepare for college.
5. Checklists for Parents of College Students: Get things straight with your college student using these checklists.
6. Common College Planning Terms: This resource will help you decode terms in college planning.
7. A Senior’s Advice to Parents: Read this article to get advice for helping your student, straight from a real high school senior.
8. Hoverings: This blog for college parents offers lots of helpful advice.
9. My child is off to college…now what?: This article offers sound advice for what you can do now that your child has left the nest.
10. College Confidential Parents Forum: This forum is a great place for parents to discuss admissions, financial aid, and more.
11. Helping Your Child Become a First-Generation College Student: This booklet will help you prepare your teen for college and a career.
12. Parents Countdown to College Coach: Read this blog for excellent ongoing advice for parents getting ready to send their child to college.
13. Glossary: In this glossary, you’ll find college related terms and acronyms explained.
14. Break Those Bad Habits Early: Get your student prepared for college life by breaking these bad habits.
15. College Parent Magazine: This magazine will help you survive the college parenting experience.
16. College 101 for Parents: In this guide, you’ll find essential questions and answers for parents sending their children off to college.
17. ACT Parent Newsletter: Subscribe to this newsletter from ACT, and you’ll get ongoing advice for preparing your future college student.
18. End-of-Year College Planning Checklist: Follow this checklist to make sure you’re on track.
19. Learning to Let Go: Parents as Partners: In this guide, you’ll learn how to be a good parent partner.
20. Empty Nest Syndrome: From this guide, you’ll learn how to deal with your empty nest.
21. Decade of Decisions: In this quarterly newsletter, you’ll get news customized to your child’s year in school.

“Is George Bush a good President?’ I would ask him. “Yes” he would answer every time. Hard to believe with him growing up in a house with solidly progressive parents, but our son loved him some Dubya.

“Dad have you ever met George Bush?” he asked me while sitting at the table one day. “No son I haven’t,” I said puzzled by his question. “Then why do you always say that he takes your money?” he inquired. All I could do was laugh and shake my head.

It really makes all the sense in the world that our little fella hearted the POTUS. He was born soon after 9/11, and George W. Bush was the only President he had known in his lifetime. He realized -as a student of current events- that
being the President of the United States was the highest honor reserved for an American. He respected the office.

Though I challenged his thinking, I never tried to indoctrinate him, or force my belief that George W. Bush was a sub par President upon him. But that’s not what we’re seeing from the losing team these days. The losing team opposes anything thing the President does, and literally wishes for his failure everyday. And we know at least one pastor who takes it one step farther by praying for his death. Steve Anderson said he wants the President to “die like Ted Kennedy of brain cancer.”

Parenthetically, remember when George Jefferson called up the White House, got mad at the operator and the secret service visited him, thinking he was a threat to the security of President Jimmy Carter. But now I guess it’s OK to say you want the president dead, and think that this man wouldn’t rejoice if someone did take the law into their own hands.

Yes there was a lesson plan for teachers that was to accompany President Obama’s speech, calling on students to write the President and tell him how they would improve the country. Imagine that, a challenge to students to engage in the process of government. The nerve of the President to ask today’s youth to put their thinking caps on.

Critics would rather our kids be like the lady who Jay Leno interviewed recently on the street. Leno asked her “Who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.?” The woman thought about it but was unable to come up with an answer. He then asked “Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?” “SpongeBob Squarepants!” she replied.

Someone has to stand up to the losers who find any and every excuse to oppose the President. They do in loudly, without shame, and without remorse. It’s easy to sit on the sideline and allow their birther, death panel, socialist, rantings to go unchallenged. But ignorance can’t be allowed to prevail.

Barack Obama won the election. Barack Obama is the President. Barack Obama is black. Barack Obama wants America’s healthcare system to get off the bottom of the heep of industrialized nations and be more efficient. Get freaking over it.

I cannot for the life of me imagine keeping my child home from school because he was going to hear a speech from the democratically elected President of the United States of America. Can’t imagine it. I also can’t imagine being such a sore loser.

Even after President Bush stole….er…won the election in 2000 v. Al Gore, I -like most progressives and liberals- vowed to move on and give the President the chance to show he was willing to work across the aisle with Democrats like he did as governor of Texas. He didn’t.

And here’s President Obama, bending over backwards to placate Republicans when his party has a filibuster proof majority in the Senate. Do you know what President Rove…er…President Cheney….er…President Bush would have done with a filibuster proof majority? I shutter to think. Yet the President gets no reward, no thank you, no atta boy (well let’s hold off on atta boys) for extending an olive branch.

It’s sad to think that not only are loser conservatives hell bent on bringing about the President’s failure, but intelligent, rational, and free thinking conservatives stand by and listen to all the hate speech and partisan roadblocks being thrown out by their brothers and sisters without saying a word. RNC figurehead Michale Steele is afraid to speak around El Rushmo, so of course he won’t denounce the behavior of his faithful. Shame.

I’m sure parents out there feel just as good about their decisions to teach their children to hate the president, and disrespect the presidency, as I do about my decision to teach my son to respect the office. But I can wholeheartly say that any parent who takes their child out of school because they don’t want them to hear from our Commander-in-Chief is doing their child a great disservice.

Not only will the campus be used for educating Dallas citizens, but it will also house the Southeast Dallas Chamber of Commerce, the Southeast Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and the Wilkinson Center.

Eastfield Pleasant Grove already has 300 students registered for the Fall Session.  The theme of the day was how the Dallas workforce lags behind in the area of education, and that DCCCD is the largest college system in Texas.  The citizens of Southeast Dallas have another landmark to be proud of, and hopefully the city as a whole will embrace it.