USDA to Reopen FSA Offices for Additional Services During Government Shutdown
(Washington, D.C., January 22, 2019) – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue today announced that all Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices nationwide will soon reopen to provide additional administrative services to farmers and ranchers during the lapse in federal funding. Certain FSA offices have been providing limited services for existing loans and tax documents since January 17, and will continue to do so through January 23. Beginning January 24, however, all FSA offices will open and offer a longer list of transactions they will accommodate.
Additionally, Secretary Perdue announced that the deadline to apply for the Market Facilitation Program, which aids farmers harmed by unjustified retaliatory tariffs, has been extended to February 14. The original deadline had been January 15. Other program deadlines may be modified and will be announced as they are addressed.
“At President Trump’s direction, we have been working to alleviate the effects of the lapse in federal funding as best we can, and we are happy to announce the reopening of FSA offices for certain services,” Perdue said. “The FSA provides vital support for farmers and ranchers and they count on those services being available. We want to offer as much assistance as possible until the partial government shutdown is resolved.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has temporarily recalled all of the more than 9,700 FSA employees to keep offices open from 8 am to 4:30 pm weekdays beginning January 24. President Trump has already signed legislation that guarantees employees will receive all backpay missed during the lapse in funding.
For the first two full weeks under this operating plan (January 28 through February 1 and February 4 through February 8), FSA offices will be open Mondays through Fridays. In subsequent weeks, offices will be open three days a week, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, if needed to provide the additional administrative services.
Agricultural producers who have business with the agency can contact their FSA service center to make an appointment.
FSA can provide these administrative services, which are critical for farmers and ranchers, because failure to perform these services would harm funded programs. FSA staff will work on the following transactions:
Transactions that will not be available include, but are not limited to:
With the Office of Management and Budget, USDA reviewed all of its funding accounts that are not impacted by the lapse in appropriation. We further refined this list to include programs where the suspension of the activity associated with these accounts would significantly damage or prevent the execution of the terms of the underling statutory provision. As a result of this review, USDA was able to except more employees. Those accounts that are not impacted by the lapse in appropriation include mandatory, multiyear and no year discretionary funding including FY 2018 Farm Bill activities.
Updates to available services and offices will be made during the lapse in federal funding on the FSA shutdown webpage (https://www.fsa.usda.gov/help/shutdowninfo). Programs managed by FSA that were re-authorized by the 2018 farm bill will be available at a later date yet to be determined.
LA MAKES THE WRONG CHOICE. The nation celebrates #SchoolChoiceWeek this week. Being able to choose one's own school is vital, and giving every student, parent, and teacher the opportunity to shape their own education is really what this is about. Yet in Los Angeles, with a district acquiescing to demands based on faulty assumptions about what makes education better, and teachers finally allowed to go back to work, opportunity is once again under attack. The union is pounding its chest today over an agreement that would have the school board consider stopping the growth of the popular and successful competition, which with 30% of LA public school students enrolled are cleaning their clock. Don’t like the competition?, they say? Squash it!
DON’T BELIEVE US? Read the Post
EXCLUSIVE FRANCHISE? Some 30 years ago Ted Kolderie wrote that in order to improve education school boards could no longer be the only game in town. The district’s exclusive franchise to own and operate public schools is akin to a monopoly. To create new opportunities there must be new entities, and thus the concept of charter school authorizers was born. States with only school boards authorizing charters (even if there is a state appeal) reinforce the monopoly. We are seeing the effects of that free and clear in California. Indeed the CER National Charter School Rankings & Scorecard - since 1996 - underscores that, without multiple, independent authorizers, there will be neither quality nor quantity nor equitable funding, nor better education period. That’s why year after year CER’s people scratch their head when the other rankings are posted by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Based on their concept of a model law, NAPCS scores charter laws not on what they have the potential to produce but on whether they have allegiance to a model. That’s akin to supporting a monopoly. Which is why states which have fewer than 10 schools because their processes are so bureaucratic and centralized get high marks in their rankings, while in ours, they get barely passing grades.
This choice week let’s acknowledge that it’s not what we want that is best for kids, but what their parents want, and let’s give it to them. While much of the ballyhoo is about charter schools, choice comes in all forms, which we must embrace and foster if students are to achieve their goals and dreams.
BUT THERE’S ALWAYS FEAR OF SUCCESS. It’s not limited to LA. In Washington, DC year after year unions and system defenders fight the growth and the expansion of the Opportunity Scholarship Program, which turns 15 this year. Then there’s New York, where Jewish schools are the target of bureaucratic ire. Really?
FULL STEAM AHEAD. Opponents of the Discovery Charter School in Durham, North Carolina, a STEAM-based (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) middle school initially serving 200 students and expanding that number to 528 within three years, have been working overtime. While Durham has thousands of minority and low-income students who would be the prime beneficiaries of the new alternatives to be offered by Discovery, the usual suspects on the local school board threw hissy fits at the thought of having to actually compete with anyone. Happily the Charter Schools Advisory Board approved Discovery’s application. The school will open when it receives the expected approval from the state board of education.
“SMALLER CLASS SIZES NOT PROVEN BUT TEACHERS STRIKE FOR THEM.” Now there’s a headline, from the Associated Press. And it happens to be true. There is little data correlating class size to student achievement. What correlates is teacher quality. The facts didn’t matter in the strike; only that unions could extract a commitment from LA officials to do something they believe is a benefit to teachers, quality or not.
THAT’S WHY CHOICE IS SO CRITICAL. Let parents decide if they want a school with small, or big class sizes. Maybe they want a school with no class at all, like hundreds of thousands parents escaping the uniformity of traditional public education for a more individualized approach.
WHY THE ESTABLISHMENT FEARS COMPETITION? Citing statistics proving the superior performance of charter schools can seem like bringing coals to Newcastle, but facts are always the best antidote to propaganda. The headline of this story from Indianapolis says it all (and could be applicable to most any location in the country ): “Study finds learning in Indianapolis schools lagging, but charter schools stand out.” As our attorney friends are fond of saying, “Res Ipsa Loquitur”.
HELPING THE DADS. We were delighted to see this story about a program in a Foxboro, Massachusetts charter school to bring fathers and other male role models into classrooms. “Volunteers spend one whole day at the school, arriving at 7 a.m. to greet the students, attending an orientation and spending the rest of the time in the classroom and helping out around the school.” In a day and age where our young people have too few male role models we tip our hats to Foxboro Regional Charter for the courage to address a serious problem in our society.
SUPPORTING THE MOMS. Sometimes parent’s choices cause others to question - and defend - their own. Rhode Island Parent Power Advocate Erica Sanzi writes thoughtfully about this contradiction, that many of us moms have encountered over the years. There is a tendency by people, especially mothers in my opinion, to insert themselves into the personal choices that other mothers and families make for their children. It starts with breastfeeding, moves on to, “What do you mean you let your kids eat McDonalds?”, and quickly morphs into, “I went to this school, my kids went to this school, why wouldn’t everyone else in the world want to go to this school?”
AND REMEMBER. When your heart pings because you read about the conditions of public education, remember that the people striking, opposing parents and stopping changes that would yield success are the ones who created this system and work to defend, not change, their $700 billion monopoly daily. Then, join us in the fight to ensure opportunity for every student, every learner at every level.
Founded in 1993, the Center for Education Reform aims to expand educational opportunities that lead to improved economic outcomes for all Americans — particularly our youth — ensuring that conditions are ripe for innovation, freedom and flexibility throughout U.S. education.
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Proposed Bill Preserves Right to Choose While Narrowing Abortion Window to 15 Weeks
Bill protects women from physical, psychological and emotional risks of second trimester abortions. Preferred second trimester abortion method shocks the conscience, causes fetal pain. 92% of countries in the world limit elective abortion to 12 weeks - even most Western European countries.
Rep. Acton will be presenting HB136 Abortion Amendments at a press conference on Wednesday, January 23 (12:30-1:30pm) at the Capitol Board Room, 350 N. State St., Salt Lake City, Utah. She will also be speaking at Utah’s March for Life on Saturday, January 26 (1pm) on the Capitol steps.
West Jordan, Utah – West Jordan Representative Cheryl Acton (R-District 43) has proposed a bill to narrow the window for elective abortions in Utah from viability (20-22 weeks) to the end of the first trimester (15 weeks), siting physical, psychological, and emotional risks to women and the “unconscionable” method used for second trimester abortions. The bill preserves life-of-the-mother, rape, incest and other exceptions.
“With the nation’s highest birthrate, Utah should be the safest place in the country for women and children, born and unborn,” Acton said.
Studies show that abortions performed after eight weeks pose risks to women that increase exponentially as the pregnancy progresses. Physical risks include hemorrhage, sepsis, cervical laceration, and uterine perforation. The British Journal of Psychiatry found an 81% increase in mental health issues among women who have undergone abortion. Fertility issues, like placenta previa and pre-term birth, have also been linked to previous abortions.
Almost all abortions in the second trimester employ a procedure called dilation and evacuation (D&E), which involves crushing and dismemberment of the living fetus in the womb until it dies from blood loss and its body parts are extracted piece by piece through the cervix.
“There is undisputed evidence that a human fetus detects and reacts to pain as early as 8 weeks,” Dr. Maureen Condic of the University of Utah School of Medicine writes in her paper titled The Development of Human Fetal Pain Perception. “This evidence requires us to decide whether we will act to protect the fetus from possible suffering.”
“D&E abortion is unconscionable,” Acton said. “I believe if the people of Utah knew the mechanics of this procedure, they would demand that it be made unlawful in our state.”
More than nine out of ten countries in the world ban elective abortion after 12 weeks, or three weeks earlier than Acton’s bill. This includes most Western European countries, many of which consider second term abortion a human rights violation. The United States and even the state of Utah are outliers internationally when it comes to abortion law.
Acton acknowledges that the law may be challenged in court like similar laws in other states, but she says HB136 differs in that it is a reasonable accommodation for women who have no moral objection to abortion. It also allows a number of critical exceptions for later term terminations.
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UPCOMING LIVE WEBINAR
How to Find Your Path: A Roadmap for Choosing a College, a Career, or Something Different
with Rick Fiery, M.S., MBA
Tuesday, February 12, 2019 @ 1pm ET
Can't attend the webinar? Don't worry.
As long as you register, we'll email you the replay link
. . . . .
The leap to college is often overwhelming for teens with ADHD, but this isn’t the only option after high school. Career success may well follow a different path, so learn about all the post-graduate options that can leverage your student’s strengths. If and when college is the right path, multiply the likelihood of success by helping your teen truly understand "why" he or she is going.
In this webinar, you will learn:
The expert Q&A webinar How to Find Your Path: A Roadmap for Choosing a College, a Career, or Something Different will take place Tuesday, February 12, 2019, from 1pm-2pm ET (12pm-1pm CT; 11am-12pm MT; 10am-11am PT).
MEET THE EXPERT SPEAKER:
Rick Fiery, M.S., MBA
Rick Fiery, M.S., MBA, is the co-founder of InventiveLabs in Amesbury, Massachusetts. Rick, and co-founder Tom Bergeron, created InventiveLabs because of their passion for helping young adults with learning differences find alternative paths to success. They believe that with the right environment and supports, people with learning differences can achieve substantial success.
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