A federal judge has given all school districts in the state until January, to improve their education programs for students whose native language isn’t english.

The ruling, issued on Friday, says the Texas Education Agency has failed students who do not speak english as their native language.

In the Tyler Independent School District, there are eighteen-thousand students.

Thirty-five -hundred of them, aren’t native speakers.

TISD officials will take a closer look at how many of their bilingual students are enrolling in colleges, university’s or trade schools after high school.

TISD officials will be closely monitoring the results of their Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills(TAKS) tests, as well.

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In the world of higher education, summer is usually the off-season.

But for some students, this summer was the culmination of years of hard work in a 2,400-mile solar car race from Plano, Texas to Calgary, Alberta.

Fifteen teams of students drove photovoltaic-powered cars across the North American Solar Challenge finish line in Calgary Tuesday, led by the University of Michigan Solar Car Team and its vehicle, Continuum.

Placing second was the car Ra 7 from Principia College, followed by the sole European finisher, the German FH Bochum Solar Car Team.

Michigan’s victory, which took about 51 hours and 42 minutes on the road, is its fifth NASC championship. The school also won the last NASC, in 2005.

It took Principia almost ten hours more than Michigan to complete the race, in about 61 hours and 38 minutes. Bochum’s car took about two hours more, but the University of Waterloo Midnight Sun Solar Car Team was a very close fourth, taking about fifteen minutes longer.

Principia’s success may be as noteworthy as Michigan’s margin of victory. The college has fewer than 550 students, all of them undergraduates. It’s a sharp contrast from the enormous research universities that traditionally win solar car races.

“It’s unique, I think, for their college to field a team, (because) they don’t have an engineering school,” said Dan Eberle, NASC’s organizer.

But he noted that small teams have had some success in the past.

“If you can get a group of folks who are really committed, then you can do a lot,” he said.

Driving force

Jeff Ferman, the race manager for Michigan, talked about how rewarding it was to enter Calgary and be greeted by 40,000 people.

“All the time and dedication really paid off,” he said. “We got to get out and walk across the finish line with (the car). It was great.”

“The streets were lined with people,” he said. “There were people on overpasses with tripods taking pictures.”

The Michigan team led almost the entire race from Texas, trailing only on the first day of driving when it had to stop to fix a minor electrical problem. But that 20-minute stop was the only time it had to pull over to make repairs, which team members said was one reason they did so well.

“Reliability is one of the key things,” said Steve Hechtman, Michigan’s project manager and a driver. “As they get more miles, teams start to get more problems with the car.”

“Once we left Fargo we just started pulling away from the other teams,” he said, referring to the stop the cars made in Fargo, North Dakota Saturday.

Eberle said building a reliable car is “the first criteria” for a successful solar car team.

“There’s two things that really make a team,” he said, discussing Continuum’s crew. “One is they’re very well-organized. Two is that they’ve been able to stay on the road.”

Eberle said he was still surprised how far ahead of the rest of the field Michigan was.

Powering up

He noted that Michigan uses gallium arsenide multi-junction photovoltaic cells on their car. The gallium cells can provide almost 50 percent more power than silicon photovoltaic cells, but are nearly twice as expensive.

Principia and a number of other teams also use the gallium cells. “We do limit the surface area of the gallium cells,” Eberle said, but added, “the people who came in first are the people with the high-performance cells.”

Luke Martz, director of fundraising for Iowa State University’s PrISUm Solar Car Team, said he thought the difference between the types of cells teams used had a major impact on the race. PrISUm, which placed eighth, uses silicon cells.

“There’s not anything that I hold against any other teams that did use gallium cells,” he said. “But it’s like apples and oranges.”

Darshni Pillay, operations manager for the University of Calgary Solar Car Team, disagreed about the advantage provided by the gallium cells. Her team, which uses the more expensive cells, came in sixth, two spots ahead of PrISUm.

“I really don’t think that would have been a deciding factor,” she said. She said the regulation limiting the surface area of the cells negated most of the advantage they provided.

Pillay pointed out that Calgary’s team, like PrISUm, had to tow its car when cloud cover was heavy in the early stages of the race. She said the reason leading teams didn’t have to “trailer” — which is legal but incurs a time penalty — was because they were able to get ahead of the weather, not because of any superior technology.

Finishing the race

Martz and Pillay both said they were happy with their results. Pillay pointed out that this year was only the second NASC her team has competed in, and said sixth is a big step up from their last finish. In 2005 Calgary’s team placed 13th.

PrISUm’s finish in the middle of the pack is noteworthy because the team barely managed to qualify for the race. Its car didn’t, in fact, finish the 60 laps on a closed race track in Plano, Texas necessary to qualify for the race.

Martz said the car had mechanical problems when it first arrived in Texas and so the team only got it on the track on the second day of a two-day qualifying process.

PrISUm only was allowed to compete after finishing the first leg of the trip, to Neosho, Missouri, in the allotted time without trailering. The teams from Durham University and Oregon State University, which also didn’t qualify on the closed track, didn’t make it to Neosho in time.

“I think we did exceptionally well with what we had,” Martz said.

He noted that when the car had problems, the other teams were eager to help.

“If there’s a team that’s struggling,” he said, “they’re going to get help from whoever’s available.” Pillay added one caveat.

“Everyone’s sympathetic to each other and wants to see all the other teams cross the finish line,” she said. “Maybe just not in front of them.”

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The University of Texas System board of regents has unanimously approved a plan to sell some of the oil and natural gas reserves beneath the system’s vast West Texas lands for about $1 billion.

The university system would get the money up front from an investment bank or oil company in return for agreeing to provide a certain amount of oil and gas from its 2.1 million acres during the next 10 years or so.

A draft summary of “proved developed producing” reserves on the system’s West Texas lands estimates there are 16.68 million barrels of oil, 3.06 million barrels of natural gas liquids and 81.94 billion cubic feet of natural gas.

It isn’t yet known what percentage of the reserves would be sold under the agreement, said Anthony de Bruyn, UT System spokesman. The $1 billion sales figure is an estimated amount, and the exact amount won’t be known until further reports are completed, he said.

Since 1923, when the system’s first well began producing, it has received royalty payments only for actual production, not future production.

The regents are planning to enter into the transaction now because of the attractive financial conditions, said Scott Kelley, executive vice chancellor for business affairs.

“Current market conditions have given us this opportunity to take advantage of relatively high oil and gas prices and low interest rates,” Kelley said.

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Texas Medical

From small family medical practices to Seton hospitals it’s happening all over Central Texas.

“People are interested in finding new alternatives and for that matter being more conscious about their health,” said Alistair Jones, the Director of Oriental Medicine at the Jefferson Street Family Practice.

Jones is certified in oriental medicine and his practice is in what some may consider an unlikely place, a family doctors office.

“What’s great is if I’m not sure what’s going on with somebody I’ll say why don’t you go get checked out by the doc and lets make sure we have the while picture here,” Jones said.

From acupuncture to herbal medicine, it’s something traditional medical doctors like Ajay Gupta are recommending.

“I always try and encourage looking into long term treatments that don’t involve medications and acupuncture will fall right into that,” Gupta said.

Having both western and eastern medical practices under one roof isn’t just for small family doctors, Seton recently opened the GoodHealth Commons at Seton Medical Center in Round Rock.

With everything from meditation to herbal medications, hospitals are responding to the patients changing needs.

“We look to improve quality of life for our community and bring in these types of services and modalities and incorporate them back into our hospital and research in the future,” said AJ Wagner, Manager of GoodHealth Commons.

Several health insurance providers are also now covering the cost of acupuncture and other alternative medicines.

If you’re interested in treatment, call your insurance to see what they will cover.

Do you need help with the FAFSA form? The FAFSA Financial Aid Application is the most important financial aid form you can complete. But many people either avoid it or make costly mistakes when filling it out. Our free, comprehensive FAFSA help guide, Frequently Asked Questions, and FAFSA secrets will help you maximize your financial aid.

2008 FAFSA Tips For Financial Aid

Berea College, founded 150 years ago to educate freed slaves and �??poor white mountaineers,�?? accepts only applicants from low-income families, and it charges no tuition.

�??You can literally come to Berea with nothing but what you can carry, and graduate debt free,�?? said Joseph P. Bagnoli Jr., the associate provost for enrollment management. �??We call it the best education money can�??t buy.�??

Actually, what buys that education is Berea�??s $1.1 billion endowment, which puts the college among the nation�??s wealthiest. But unlike most well-endowed colleges, Berea has no football team, coed dorms, hot tubs or climbing walls. Instead, it has a no-frills budget, with food from the college farm, handmade furniture from the college crafts workshops, and 10-hour-a-week campus jobs for every student.

Berea�??s approach provides an unusual perspective on the growing debate over whether the wealthiest universities are doing enough for the public good to warrant their tax exemption, or simply hoarding money to serve an elite few. As many elite universities scramble to recruit more low-income students, Berea�??s no-tuition model has attracted increasing attention.

�??Asking whether that�??s where our values lead us is a powerful way to consider what our values are,�?? said Anthony Marx, the president of Amherst College, who considered the possibility of using Amherst�??s $1 million-per-student endowment to offer free tuition but concluded that it would make no sense, given Amherst�??s more affluent student body and the fact that the college already subsidizes about half the cost of each student�??s education.

�??We�??re not Berea, much as we respect them,�?? Mr. Marx said, adding there would be no social justification for giving free tuition to students from wealthy families.

Although this year�??s market drop is taking its toll, the growth in university endowments in recent years has been spectacular. Harvard�??s $35 billion endowment, Yale�??s $23 billion, Stanford�??s $17 billion and Princeton�??s $16 billion put them among the world�??s richest institutions.

Such endowments have helped make higher education one of the nation�??s crown jewels. As Harvard�??s president, Drew Gilpin Faust, said in her spring commencement speech this year, endowments at Harvard and other research universities help fuel scientific advances as government support is eroding, and help drive economic growth and expansion in a difficult economy.

Although most universities have only modest endowments, the wealth of the richest has made them increasingly vulnerable to criticism from parents upset about rising tuition costs, lawmakers pushing them to spend more of their money and policy experts arguing that they should be helping more needy students.

�??How much do you need to save for future generations, and at what point are you gouging today�??s generation?�?? said Lynne Munson, of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity in Washington.

In January, the Senate Finance Committee requested detailed endowment and spending data from 136 colleges and universities with endowments of at least $500 million, with a possible eye to forcing them to spend at least 5 percent of their assets each year, as foundations are required to do. Large, tax-free endowments �??should mean affordable education for more students, not just a security blanket for colleges,�?? said Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, who is reviewing the data.

The commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service tax-exempt section said this spring that he wanted his agency to be more aggressive in ensuring that universities made �??appropriate use�?? of their endowments. And officials in Massachusetts are studying a proposal for a 2.5 percent tax on the part of university endowments greater than $1 billion �?? a threshold exceeded by nine of the state�??s universities.

�??The endowments have grown to such an astonishing extent that people are asking, if the wealth and the value of the tax exemption are increasing, is the public benefit increasing, as well?�?? said Evelyn Brody, a tax professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law.

This year, Ms. Brody said, the debate has entered new territory. Traditionally, discussion about endowments has focused on the balance between using the money for the current generation versus saving it for the benefit of future generations.

�??Endowment spending has usually been a �??when�?? question, about when the money would be used for a charitable purpose,�?? she said. �??But now, it�??s also being viewed as a �??what�?? question. What is the money for? And I think that�??s new.�??

In part, it is simply a question of itchy fingers. When one sector amasses great wealth, other sectors find it irresistible.

Harvard University is a world famous middle for higher instruction. Its admittance requirements are firm, and competition for staffing is highly spirited. If you do get in although, you are almost guaranteed a premium and varied college knowledge. Harvard has a wide assortment of open-minded arts majors, and over 3500 dissimilar courses to investigate.

Princeton University refuses to be ranked next. Located in New Jersey, Princeton has a wealthy custom of demanding coursework and satisfying research chances. The faculty members are among the most appreciated members of their own fields. If you desire to concentrate on your personal self-governing investigation, Princeton suggests many individual study things with faculty advising and support.

Yale University is a highly esteemed place to obtain your student degree. Yale has a lot of funding likelihoods and a helpful residential college housing organization. You are able to take almost any major, and you will have tenured teachers training your undergraduate coursework.

The institution of higher education of Pennsylvania is a great organization for interdisciplinary studies. The university has a lot of joint-degree courses, interdisciplinary majors in addition to institutions. The Institute for Medicine and Engineering is the most important junction of ground-breaking thinking and unique investigates. The Management and Technology course combines financial study with degree courses in manufacturing or practical discipline. In case you are looking to unite disciplines, Pennsylvania is the right choice for it.

State Board of Education members agreed Thursday to move ahead on a proposed rule that would allow high school athletes to receive twice as much credit toward graduation as allowed under current state requirements.

The proposal �?? allowing four years of sports to count for credit instead of two �?? will be drafted as a new state rule and voted on by the board at its next meeting in September.

Although some board members voiced reservations about the idea, most who spoke on the issue Thursday expressed support for the rule, calling it a matter of fairness for thousands of student athletes in Texas high schools.

Backers, including the Texas High School Coaches Association, contend that new state graduation requirements calling on students to do more coursework discriminate against student athletes by slicing the time available for participation in sports.

“This is a fairness issue,” said board member Ken Mercer, R-San Antonio, noting that students in other extracurricular activities �?? such as band and dance �?? can get four years of credit for those activities.

“If we are going to honor scholar dancers, why not honor scholar athletes?” he asked. “We will still be requiring all the core [academic] courses for all our students.”

A recent survey by the Texas Education Agency of 1,154 Texas superintendents, principals and teachers found that more than 86 percent favored the idea of credit for four years of sports.

Craig Agnew, the Brenham High School coach and teacher who petitioned the board to adopt the rule, told members that an “unfair burden” is being placed on student athletes who are struggling to meet all the new course requirements while continuing to participate in sports. That burden was not imposed on students in activities such as band, choir, dance teams, theater and Junior ROTC, he pointed out.

“I was dumbfounded by the lack of fairness toward athletes,” he said. “Many of these students are having to make alternative academic plans while others will opt not to participate in athletics for all four years.”

Asked whether the change would lead to increased pressure on some students to participate in sports for four years, Mr. Agnew replied: “I would be naive to say no. But I also believe it won’t happen in good programs that do things the right way.”

Board member Terri Leo, R-Spring, was the main critic of the proposal, arguing that it would force the board to write curriculum standards for football, basketball and other sports, and that it would reduce the number of elective courses that student athletes could take in high school.

“I am concerned we are not adding academic rigor in our high schools if we do this,” she said. “Let’s wait and see how the [new graduation standards] work.”

But other board members said they were persuaded by Mr. Agnew’s arguments.

“I have generally found that students who do best in school are those who participate in extracurricular activities,” said Bob Craig, R-Lubbock. “And if we’re going to give four credits for band and ROTC, I believe we ought to do the same for athletics.”

Under the new state graduation requirements, which took effect with freshmen last year, students need four years each of math, science, English and social studies �?? the so-called 4×4 core courses �?? along with their electives and a handful of other required classes such as two years of foreign language and 1 ½ years of physical education.

In all, the number of credits needed to get a diploma will increase from 24 to 26 for students graduating in 2011. A credit is equal to one year of instruction in a subject.

Students can now get up to two years of credit for participation in sports, which meets the current requirement of 1 ½ years of physical education and also a half-year toward elective course requirements.

Under the proposed rule, a student would be able to count the additional two years in athletics as part of the elective courses needed for graduation. The so-called Recommended High School Program �?? taken by most students �?? requires 3 ½ elective credits to graduate, as well as 1 ½ credits of physical education.

That would mean a student utilizing the proposed option would count four years of sports as 1 ½ credits in physical education and 2 ½ credits in electives.

Other groups supporting the change are the Texas Girls Coaches Association and the Texas Athletic Directors Association.

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