Florida Unemployment Rate Continues to Drop

“Equipping students with a high quality education is crucial for the future of our students and our state,” said Patricia Levesque, Executive Director of the Foundation for Florida’s Future. “Florida’s budget reflects our state’s commitment to funding students’ success. I thank Governor Scott, President Haridopolos, Speaker Cannon and Florida lawmakers for keeping education a priority. I look forward to members of the Florida Legislature building on these advancements to further improve education and student achievement in the years to come.”

Florida Redistricting Maps Approved by US Justice Department

In fact, it was a man by the name of George Holliday (of Argentinian descent), who shot the infamous footage of King’s beating. Holliday knew instinctively that what he captured was troubling, and when police failed to do something about the incident he videotaped, Holliday went to the press and soon everyone saw the atrocity for him or herself. So when the not-guilty verdicts against the four accused officers were read some 20 years ago, all of us should have been united in our response. Race should not have been a factor; we needed to rally around the issue of police brutality and injustice. It was a missed opportunity. We cannot allow that to happen again.

The notion of race in America is complex, troubling and hopeful at the same time. Blacks still struggle with the remnants of slavery and unequal access to educational, housing and job opportunities. Whites still grapple with changing demographics, and immigrants work to both assimilate and hold on to their cultural heritage simultaneously.

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Florida Extended Unemployment Benefits to Expire

A recent article points out that since 2004, women and minorities have lost ground in overall representation in Fortune 500 board membership.  The Alliance for Board Diversity Census, found that in 2010, white men held 77% of seats in Fortune 500 firms, with white women holding 13%, minority men 7%, and minority women 3%.  Surveying Fortune 100 firms, the census found that white men held nearly 73% percent of board seats, which is up from their survey results from 2004 when held 71.2% of seats.  Analysts and leading diversity groups had hoped and predicted that over time, women and minorities would see increased membership in the boardroom, however over the last six years, there has been a decline in diversity.

A further breakdown of the data shows that African American men were less represented in 2010 than in 2006, and Hispanics, Asians, and other minority groups showed no significant change.  As if underrepresentation was not problematic enough, women and minorities only held slightly over 5% of top leadership positions on the boards of Fortune 500 companies.  Even more surprisingly, the survey showed that no Hispanic female held a director or board chair position.

There are many explanations that have been floated around to explain this disappointing phenomenon.  Arnold Donald, the President and CEO of the Executive Leadership Council, a network of African American Executives, stated that he believes, “The biggest contributor is just a lack of proactive intervention.”  Mr. Donald also added that he feels the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which sets standards for financial accountability for publicly traded firms, was also a contributing factor.  Increased regulations, particularly regarding financial matters has led to the recruitment of retired accounting and financial executives to the boardrooms of America’s top firms. These former executives are predominantly older white men. Additionally, Mr. Donald believes that in many cases, minorities have left their position on boards and were not replaced with other minorities.

Ilene Lang, the President and CEO of Catalyst, which advocates and promotes increasing roles for women in business, added that she believes the recession, which began after the last survey, also played a contributing role.  Both she and Mr. Donald believe that companies are not attempting to discriminate or exclude women and minority groups from leadership positions, but rather they have failed to actively recruit and promote diversity. 

Despite the fact that women and minorities may not be discriminated against, this still presents a major economic and social problem.  There is no doubt that there are many qualified professionals from minority groups which could easily serve and contribute to America’s top firms.  They have proven their skills and abilities as top managers in the corporate world and also in small businesses.  Hopefully, this study will raise the issue of diversity as a topic of conversation for further discussion by selection committees and in the next survey, we will see improvement in women and minority representation.  Ultimately, Fortune 100 and 500 firms must look out for their bottom line, and the best way to educate the selection committee on the importance of workplace diversity is to display success stories and point to empirical evidence.  As Ms. Lang pointed out, “Research has shown that diverse teams produce better results…. Corporate America has the opportunity to seize the advantage that a more diverse board can yield in this increasingly competitive global economy.”

According to a fact sheet the White House provided to reporters during a Sunday conference call, Obama will call for: an accountability system that shares responsibility for improvement and rewards excellence based on high standards and informed by assessments that measure individual student growth; a flexible system that empowers principals and teachers, and supports reform and innovation at the state and local level; and a focus on low-performing schools that ensures the most effective teachers serve students most in need.

 Education Secretary said that the No Child Left Behind is too punitive and that the law’s only reward for success is to not be labeled a failure. In addition, he said, it has caused states to dumb down standards and narrow their curriculums to focus mostly on math and reading. While those two subject areas are fundamental, he added, it is important to provide more well-rounded curriculums that also focus on such skill areas as science and the arts. He also condemned NCLB’s “one size fits all” prescription for reform that focuses on one test that takes place on one day once per year. According to the White House, 37% of the nation’s schools are not meeting their annual NCLB targets and the Education Department estimates that number could more than double, to over 80% of schools in 2011.

On the wall directly behind Rep. Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform panel, majority Republicans had erected a large poster saying: “Employment Changes December 2008-December 2010; Private Sector Jobs -8,817,000; federal government jobs +157,000.”  A sign next to it said: “2010 Average Total Compensation; Government Worker $101,628; Private Worker $60,000.”

“Compensation of private-sector employees has not kept pace with that of federal employees,” said Rep. Dennis Ross, chair of the House Oversight subcommittee that is conducting the hearing.  “Our taxpayers can no longer be asked to foot the bill for these federal employees while watching their salaries remain flat and their benefits erode.”  Ironically, federal workers are already facing a two-year freeze on cost-of-living increases through the end of 2012.

But John Berry, director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, said many federal workers are underpaid and many comparisons are phony.  He noted the federal government doesn’t employ retail clerks, waiters, short order cooks or other specialties — lower-paying private sector positions whose salaries are included in the average pay comparison statistics that Republicans rely upon.

Colleen Kelley, national president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said that Bureau of Labor Statistics show that federal workers are paid less than private sector counterparts.  She testified, “The witnesses who will claim today that federal employees are overpaid have clear ideological views that I believe should raise serious questions about the reliability of their findings.”

The hearing represents the latest effort by House Republicans to make further cuts in the budget and overall spending at a time when there is a growing state trend of cutting pay for public sector workers.  But the effort to cut federal employee pay will also have an enormous negative impact on African Americans.

The federal government is the largest employer of African Americans in the country.  According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, African Americans make up approximately 20% of the federal workforce.  If Congress cuts pay for federal workers, these cuts will disproportionately impact African-Americans, who are paid at a GS-9 level on average ($41,463 to $54,028 annually), compared to their white counterparts, who are paid almost two salary levels higher.

Additional cuts to federal salaries will not only increase this pay disparity, but will widen the pay gap that exists for African-Americans between the private and public sector.  African-American federal employees already earn less on average than individuals in the private sector.  According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the average private employee earns $61,051, or 13% more than an African-American government worker.  Though the federal government still provides many African Americans with secure employment and quality of life — benefits that, for many, are unquantifiable — this latest move should have many African Americans questioning whose side the federal government and specifically, House Republicans, are on.

President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, the Department of Education, and the Department of Health and Human Services will welcome students, parents, and teachers to the White House for a Conference on Bullying Prevention.

The conference will bring together communities from across the nation who have been affected by bullying as well as those who are taking action to address it.  Participants will speak about the effects of bullying and the work of students, parents, and teachers nationwide. Last fall the President, Vice President and several administration officials taped video messages for the It Gets Better campaign and discussed the need to dispel the myth that bullying is just a normal rite of passage.

And, here’s Kenneth S. Trump, MPA, President of National School Safety and Security Services on his take about this upcoming conference:

“The Obama Administration, with the support of Congress, is systematically destroying any hopes for  comprehensive and balanced federal school safety policy and funding. Last year they eliminated Safe and Drug Free Schools state formula grants for prevention, security, and related school safety programs.  And in the last few weeks they eliminated the only dedicated federal K-12 school emergency planning grant program.

– DC.com Editor