Creative Writing Workshop for Adults | The Pomegranate Workshop

Pomegranate What?s Your Story?
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Writing is an art, writing is a skill, writing is staring at a blank page before you have to submit an article or deliver a speech. Or you?re writing a novel, but can?t make it past the first chapter. How do you go about it? How do you best present your ideas, how do you say what you mean, how do you tell a good story?
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At What?s Your Story?we take you through the fundamental process of writing through a plethora of forms including creative non fiction (travel writing, biographical writing, journal writing, blogging etc) and fiction (plot, character, setting, dialogue).
?Writing Fiction is an intensive 12-session module where writers of any level ? beginners or professionals ? can find their voice and hone their craft under the guidance of authors, creative specialists and playwrights. The workshop promises a wide selection of representative reading, challenging writing exercises, take-home assignments and extensive feedback through group and individual critiques of the participants? writing.
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This workshop is open to all those looking to improve their writing skills ? in fiction or non-fiction, irrespective of profession or previous experience. If you have a novel idea, we assure you it?s a likely story.
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Course Content:
At What?s Your Story? We traverse a plethora of forms and mediums ranging from Report writing (presenting a perspective or argument) creative non fiction (biographical, experiential writing, including travel writing and memoir writing), New Media (writing online, blog and social media) and of course Fiction (Plot, Character, Setting, Conflict, Dialogue).??
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Workshop details
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Dates 1st Dec to 2nd March (29th Dec and 26th Jan will be holidays)
Saturdays only

Timing 4pm-6pm
Venue
The Pomegranate Workshop
D83/848, MIG Colony
Gandhinagar
Course fee Rs 8400 including all materials (participants will be provided a computer each for the blogging sessions. For the rest of the sessions participants will be provided stationary for writing and if participants wish they can carry their own laptops for all sessions. Tea and coffee will be served at the workshop)

About the Facilitators:

Meera Godbole-Krishnamurthy?s debut novel about motherhood and architecture, Balancing Act, was published jointly by Penguin India and Zubaan in 2009. Meera was born in Mumbai and has lived in the Philippines, France, and the United States. She studied art and architecture at Oberlin College and Columbia University and received a Masters of Architecture from the University of Virginia in 1992. She has participated in writing workshops at Stanford University, the University of Iowa Summer Writing Festival, UC San Diego and the La Jolla Writers Conference. She was an Adjunct at the New School of Architecture and Design in San Diego. As an artist, she has sold several paintings and shown her work at exhibitions in California. She moved to India in 2006 and is currently writing a new novel.
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Snehal Vadherholds a Masters degree in Creative Writing from The University of Manchester and has been teaching the subject to media students at St. Xavier?s. Snehal is interested in contemporary poetry in English and literature in translation. Being a Physics graduate, he is also a keen student of influences from the sciences into literature. His short fiction and poetry has appeared in nthposition online magazine and in Nether magazine. Snehal maintains a blog on poetry appreciation and cherishes the hope to start a poetry periodical some day. Currently, he teaches at St Xavier?s College and freelances as a curriculum developer in Mumbai.

Irawati Karnik? is a writer, theatre director and actor. Her play ?Sex, Morality and Censorship? co-written with Shanta Gokhale and directed by Sunil Shanbag has been performed over the last years all across the country. She has also recently co-written a play (with Ajay Krishnan) ?The A casting?, (English)a satire on the role racial prejudices play in the world of casting. It has been directed by Sophia Stepf and opened in Berlin in 2011. Her most recent work,?Satellite City? (English), was part of the Writers? Bloc festival 2012, organized by The Royal Court, London and Rage, Mumbai. Irawati was a member of the 2012 group of writers at the Sangam House international writers? residency, at Nrittyagram, Bangalore. She is currently in the process of writing a monologue on the imagined relationship between the Kashmiri Pandit and the Kashmiri Muslim in the context of the exodus and the issue of the nation state, to be produced by The Indian Ensemble, Bangalore. Itawati has also translated the eminent playwright Mahesh Elkunchwar?s marathi play ?Atmakatha? into English, which has been published by the Oxford University Press. She has recently finished translating the socio-political history of Marathi theatre, by Makarand Sathe which is in the process of being published by the Oxford University Press as well.?
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?For registrations please contact

?Zahra 9820521940 / Priya 9892210539

Note: In case of cheque payments, cheques to be issued in the name of Pomegranate Eduworkshop Pvt. Ltd. Cheques can also be couriered to us at the following address and in case of cash payments, the timings are 11 am ? 4 pm, Monday ? Saturday. In case of bank transfers, please mail us and we will get back with the account details. In case of a bank transfer please ensure that you mail us your name and bank account number once you make the transfer so we can confirm receipt of your payment.

Address for payments and courier of cheques:

The Pomegranate Workshop,

D-83/848, MIG Colony,

Near Guru Nanak Hospital,

Gandhinagar,

Bandra (E)

Mumbai ? 400051

Tel: 32159952

Source: http://www.tpw.in/blog/2012/11/23/creative-writing-workshop-for-adults/

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Griffin shines, Redskins hold off Cowboys, 38-31

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) ? Welcome back to Texas, RG3.

Robert Griffin III threw for 311 yards and four touchdowns, helping the Washington Redskins beat the Dallas Cowboys 38-31 on Thursday.

The Heisman Trophy winner from Baylor made the Cowboys look like an overmatched college team during the decisive second quarter in Griffin's first pro game in his home state. He got some help from his receivers, including a leaping grab and long run from Pierre Garcon and some nifty footwork in the end zone by Santana Moss.

Tony Romo lost for the first time in six starts on Thanksgiving, despite a career-high 441 yards and three second-half touchdowns, including the longest of his career ? an 85-yarder to Dez Bryant. Romo ran in a 2-point conversion after a TD throw to Felix Jones and threw another scoring pass to Bryant to help Dallas close to 35-28 with 8:24 remaining.

But Griffin answered ? twice, actually. After Romo's long touchdown to Bryant, Griffin threw his fourth scoring pass, a 29-yarder to Niles Paul. The rookie became the first Redskins quarterback to throw four touchdown passes in consecutive games.

After the Cowboys pulled within a touchdown, Griffin drove them into scoring position again, calmly completing three passes for first downs and running 5? minutes off the clock before Kai Forbath made it 38-28 on a 48-yard field goal.

Dallas drove to a field goal, but DeAngelo Hall easily picked up the onside kick and ran untouched before sliding down short of the goal line, clinching Romo's third loss in three career 400-yard games. It also was the Cowboys' first loss to the Redskins in seven games on Thanksgiving.

The Cowboys (5-6) actually contained Griffin in the first quarter, getting a sack and forcing an intentional grounding penalty that gave them good enough field position for an easy drive to a 3-0 lead.

Everything changed on Griffin's first big NFL play in Texas. He hit Aldrick Robinson in stride for a 68-yard touchdown and a 7-3 lead to spark the first 28-point quarter in 13 years for the Redskins (5-6).

Griffin's next big throw wasn't nearly as accurate, but Garcon somehow came down with it and outran the Dallas defense the final 45 yards on a 59-yard score for a 21-3 lead.

Romo's first interception in four games gave the Redskins a chance to get one more score before halftime when DeAngelo Hall returned it to the Dallas 33 with 30 seconds left. Out of timeouts at the Dallas 6 with 10 seconds left, the Redskins trusted Griffin to try to get a touchdown, and Moss kept both feet in while falling out of bounds for a 28-3 lead with 5 seconds left.

Griffin completed 12 straight passes from the middle of the first quarter to the middle of the third and finished 20 of 28.

It was hard to tell with his final numbers, but the Cowboys did manage to put some pressure on Griffin. They sacked him four times, forced him to sprint out of the pocket a number of times and delivered hard hits after several throws.

The Dallas offense, playing most of the game without Miles Austin after he injured a hip early, never could answer in the decisive second quarter. The Cowboys had only two first downs while the Redskins were scoring four touchdowns.

The Cowboys' best possession came right after Griffin's first big play, but Bryant fumbled in the open field at the end of what would have been a first-down catch. DeJon Gomes returned the fumble to the Dallas 49, and Alfred Morris scored from the 1 for a 14-3 lead. Morris had 113 yards on 24 carries.

After forcing a three-and-out on Washington's first possession, Dallas quickly moved to the Redskins 11, but had to settle for a field goal when Austin couldn't hang on to a third-down throw from Romo in the back of the end zone on a hit by London Fletcher. Austin took a hard fall and didn't return.

Fletcher, who also had an interception, extended his consecutive games streak to 235 and made his 190th straight start. He started the day tied with Tampa Bay's Ronde Barber for most consecutive games, and his starting streak is the league's longest for linebackers. He left the game later with an ankle injury.

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Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL

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Follow Schuyler Dixon on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lschuylerd

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/griffin-shines-redskins-hold-off-cowboys-38-31-011507099--spt.html

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Ghana Business News ? Government is doing a lot to combat crime ...

You Are Here: Home ? Politics ? Government is doing a lot to combat crime ? Mahama

Page last updated at Thursday, November 22, 2012 7:07 AM //

President John Mahama

President John Dramani Mahama has stated that government had embarked on a number of measures geared towards combating crime in the coming years.

He mentioned the recruitment of 4000 policemen and women, establishment and equipment of a forensic laboratory among others as some of the measures government had embarked on to eliminate the menace.

President Mahama stated this when he participated in the second Institute of economic Affairs (IEA) Presidential Debate held in Accra on Wednesday.

The debate is the second in the series organized for four Presidential candidates that have representation in Parliament.

Other participants in the debate are: Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo, Presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Dr Forster Abu Sakara, Presidential candidate of the Convention People?s Party and Mr Hassan Ayariga, Presidential candidate for the People?s National Convention.

The first Presidential debate was held in Tamale last October and was followed by a Vice Presidential candidate debate earlier this month.

President Mahama said government would strengthen the forensic laboratory for the testing of ballistic, narcotic drugs and DNA, while the Narcotic Board would be supported to step up detection and arresting as an effective way of preventing crime.

On corruption, President Mahama appealed to Ghanaians to be bold to point out and report people suspected to have been engaged in one corrupt practice or the other for the appropriate authorities to take action.

The president gave the assurance that he would be more than willing to sign the freedom of information bill into law as soon as it got into his domain adding that the bill was still in Parliament and was yet to get to him.

He promised to exhibit leadership by example, by staying clean of corruption and by ensuring that his Ministers and others at the Presidency lived above reproach in the political society.

On decentralization, President Mahama promised to increase budgetary allocation to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice and Economic and Organised Crime Organisation to live up to the expectation of fight crime and corruption in society.

He said the same agencies would also be strengthened to ensure that the National Anti-Corruption plan worked perfectly and effectively in the country.

President Mahama said the introduction of composite budget by the National Democratic Congress government was in response to the inadequacies at the district levels, and such budgets could take care of the health and education sectors that were important in the growth and development of the country.

He promised to pursue the election of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives to ensure that they were more accountable to the people they served.

Source: GNA

Comments

Source: http://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2012/11/22/government-is-doing-a-lot-to-combat-crime-mahama/

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New Rules for The New-Construction Market - TOPTEN New Homes ...

by Poonkulali Thangavel

Like much of the real estate market, the new-construction sector is starting to turn a corner. Builder confidence, buyer interest and construction lending are all on the rise. However, after being beaten down financially during the downturn, builders today are more inclined to pass along the onus of obtaining financing to buyers as opposed to providing it themselves.

Positive trends all around

Mike Kinane, senior vice president for retail lending products with TD Bank in Cherry Hill, N.J., says that the bank is seeing about a 20 percent increase in construction lending in 2012 compared to last year. He attributes the increase to rising confidence on the part of buyers who feel better equipped, in part thanks to record-low mortgage rates, to handle the added costs of new construction.

Check out new homes by Sunrise Company

But it?s not just buyers who are feeling more confident ? home builders are the most confident they?ve been in years. According to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index , builder confidence is at its strongest level since near the peak of the market in June 2006.

Furthermore, with housing starts and building permits at their highest points since July 2008 , construction activity is definitely on the rise.

But despite the positive trends in recent months, builders remain guarded against potential losses and have thus changed the way they fund new projects.

Brave new market

Construction was the one of, if not the hardest-hit industry following the downturn. Before the recession, many big builders had their own finance companies that made loans readily available to prospective buyers. But builder finance companies were depleted during the downturn leaving financing options through builders far less available.

Perhaps that?s the biggest change to the new-construction market today verses yesteryear: more buyers are the ones responsible for securing financing, not the builder. And with such strict lending conditions, securing a construction loan today is no easy task.

Another change that comes with an improving construction market is the amount of incentives builders are offering. Not that long ago, builders were throwing in everything from new appliances to brand-new cars to get buyers in the door. Now, according to industry sources, these incentives are beginning to disappear as the market continues to improve.

Stephen Melman, director of economic services with the NAHB in Washington, D.C., says incentives have ?backed down from the peak. It?s not quite as many and the value of the incentives isn?t quite as great.? For instance, builders may offer some additional items that the buyer will appreciate but don?t cost too much, such as an upgraded cabinet or a bit of landscaping.

Another interesting change has been the increase in the size of new homes. A recent survey from the American Institute of Architects ? (AIA) found that: 8 percent of surveyed architects said they are building larger homes than they were last year. ?This is significant because it represents a reversal of a trend that has been going on for six years,? said Kermit Baker, chief economist for AIA in Boston.

Martha Finkley, senior manager with national homebuilder KB Home in Los Angeles, agrees, saying in an email that the average square footage of their new homes has increased over the last couple years. The average square footage of KB?s new houses in Sacramento alone has gone up 24 percent in two years.

Financing new construction

Most banks offer what?s known as a construction-to-permanent loan, which allows buyers to finance both the construction costs and the mortgage itself. During the construction period, the loan is typically interest-only and has a slightly higher interest rate than a standard mortgage.

Typically, lenders dole out the funds for construction to the builder in a series of installments over the construction period. The lender will make periodic inspections to ensure the construction is done properly.

According to the NAHB, a construction-to-permanent loan has several advantages, including offering ?buyers some valuable bargaining points for obtaining a lower sales price.?

New-home buyers struggling to come up with a sizeable down payment should consider FHA or VA construction loans, says Melman.

Buyer advice

Daria Pestone recently took out a construction-to-permanent loan with TD Bank to build a four-bedroom, four-and-a-half bath house in Greenwich, Conn.

Pestone found a builder who offered personalized service and fit within her family?s budget. In addition to saving for a down payment, Pestone advises buyers to save for the surprise costs they?re bound to encounter. ?Building your own home is an overwhelming process,? she says. ?I recommend really researching the builder. Make sure to have your financing in check. A lot of surprises can come along.?

As well, make sure that you?ve settled on a general contractor or builder before you start looking for a lender, since the lender will be looking for this when they are underwriting the loan, explains Kinane.

via? NASDAQ.com.

Source: http://www.toptennewhomecommunities.com/blog/new-rules-for-the-new-construction-market/

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Source: http://harrington42.typepad.com/blog/2012/11/new-rules-for-the-new-construction-market-topten-new-homes.html

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Gigantic orphan planet: Homeless world hurtles through space without star (+video)

The free-floating object, called CFBDSIR2149, is likely a gas giant planet four to seven times more massive than Jupiter.

By Mike Wall,?SPACE.com / November 15, 2012

This artist?s impression shows the free-floating planet CFBDSIR2149, at 100 light-years away the closest such 'rogue' world to our own solar system. It does not orbit a star and hence does not shine by reflected light; the faint glow it emits can only be detected in infrared light.

ESO/L. Cal?ada/P. Delorme/Nick Risinger (skysurvey.org)/R. Saito/VVV Consortium

Enlarge

Astronomers have discovered a potential "rogue" alien planet wandering alone just 100 light-years from Earth, suggesting that such starless worlds may be extremely common across the galaxy.

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The Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope have discovered a planet that is freely wandering through space. It has no orbit nor a star attached to it. This planet free-floating planet is labeled CFBDSIR2149 and also referred to as CFBDSIR J214947.2-040308.9.

The free-floating object, called CFBDSIR2149, is likely a gas giant planet four to seven times more massive than?Jupiter, scientists say in a new study unveiled today (Nov. 14). The planet cruises unbound through space relatively close to Earth (in astronomical terms; the Milky Way galaxy is 100,000 light-years wide), perhaps after being booted from its own solar system.

"If this little object is a planet that has been ejected from its native system, it conjures up the striking image of?orphaned worlds, drifting in the emptiness of space," study leader Philippe Delorme, of the Institute of Planetology and Astrophysics of Grenoble in France, said in a statement.

Orphan planet, or something else?

Delorme and his team detected CFBDSIR2149's infrared signature using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, then examined the body's properties with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile. [Video: Rogue Planet Has No Parent Star]

The newfound object appears to be among a stream of young stars called the AB Doradus moving group, the closest such stream to our own solar system.

Scientists think the AB Doradus stars all formed together between 50 million and 120 million years ago. If CFBDSIR2149 is indeed associated with the group ? and researchers cite a nearly 90 percent probability ? then the object is similarly young.

And if the discovery team is right about CFBDSIR2149's age, the body is likely a planet, with an average temperature of 806 degrees Fahrenheit (430 degrees Celsius), researchers said.

There's still a slight chance that CFBDSIR2149 is a?brown dwarf?? a strange object that's larger than a planet but too small to trigger the internal nuclear fusion reactions required to become a full-fledged star. Additional observations should help decide the matter.

"We need new observations to confirm that this object belongs to the AB Doradus moving group," Delorme told SPACE.com via email. "With a good distance measurement and a more accurate proper motion, we will be able to increase (or decrease) the probability that it is indeed a planet."

The new study was published today in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Billions of starless planets?

The discovery of a starless?alien planet?would not be shocking, at least not anymore. In the last year or so, astronomers have spotted a number of such orphan worlds ? so many, in fact, that some scientists think parentless planets are the rule rather than the exception.

One 2011 study, for example, estimated that rogue worlds outnumber "normal" planets with obvious host stars?by at least 50 percent?throughout the Milky Way. If that's the case, the galaxy that includes Earth probably also hosts billions of orphan planets.

And gas giants may be in the minority among these solitary wanderers, researchers say.

"We now know that such massive planets are rare and that Neptunes or Earth-mass planets are much more common," Delorme said. "We also know that massive objects are more difficult to eject [from solar systems] than light ones. If you follow the rationale, you deduce that ejected exo-Neptunes and ejected exo-Earths should be much more common than objects like CFBDSIR2149."

It's exciting to have a starless planet so close to Earth, researchers say. Future telescopes should be able to learn a great deal about CFBDSIR2149, since they won't have to contend with the overwhelming glare of a nearby host star.

"This object is a really easy-to-study prototype of the 'normal' giant planets we hope to discover and study with the upcoming?generation of direct-imaging instruments," Delorme said. "It will help to improve our forecast of these objects' luminosity and hence help us discover them ?and, once discovered, it will help us understand the physics of their atmospheres."

Follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter?@michaeldwall?or SPACE.com?@Spacedotcom. We're also onFacebook?and?Google+.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/iCOm26k_PPg/Gigantic-orphan-planet-Homeless-world-hurtles-through-space-without-star-video

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Decline in availability and use of electroconvulsive therapy for depression

ScienceDaily (Nov. 20, 2012) ? Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is considered the most effective treatment option for patients with severe depression who cannot find symptom relief through antidepressant medications or psychotherapy. In a new study, researchers at Butler Hospital and Bradley Hospital in Rhode Island found a sharp decline in the availability and use of ECT in general hospitals across the U.S.

The findings were published online in the journal Biological Psychiatry on October 10, 2012.

The researchers analyzed data from a nationally representative survey of US general hospitals, the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS), conducted annually by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). They took information from between five and eight million patient discharge records at 1,000 hospitals nationwide between the years 1993 through 2009 and found that the annual number of hospital stays in which ECT was administered fell 43 percent over the 17 year period, from more than 1.2 million to 720,000. Researchers also found a dramatic decline in the percentage of hospitals conducting ECT, from 55 percent to 35 percent of facilities with a psychiatric unit. The percentage of inpatients with severe, recurrent major depression treated in hospitals conducting ECT fell from 71 to 45 percent. But for depressed patients treated in hospitals that conduct ECT, the proportion who received the procedure remained stable.

"The data strongly support the impression that psychiatric units in general hospitals are discontinuing use of ECT and that this is driving the decline in the number of severely depressed inpatients receiving the procedure," said Brady Case, MD, an assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University and director of the Health Services Research Program at Bradley Hospital. "Growing pressures to avoid the inpatient treatment costs and length of stay associated with ECT may be one factor associated with this trend. We didn't have information on provider and patient attitudes, but as facilities cease conducting ECT, we can expect that fewer clinicians and inpatients are exposed to the option, reinforcing the turn away from ECT." Researchers also note the FDA approval of new treatment alternatives, like vagus nerve stimulation and transcranial magnetic stimulation, as possible influences.

Declines in ECT availability and use were particularly dramatic in elderly patients, a group traditionally thought to benefit most from the procedure. "Decreased availability of ECT for older patients with severe depression is of major concern, since a significant proportion of this group fails to benefit from available medication treatments. In such cases, ECT can literally be a life-saving intervention," said Lawrence Price, MD, clinical and research director at Butler Hospital and professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University.

The researchers also noted a key finding they observed throughout the 15-year study period: depressed inpatients from poor neighborhoods and those who were publicly insured or uninsured were less likely to receive care from hospitals conducting ECT. "Access to ECT for less affluent patients has concerned the field for some time, but these data really drive home the reality. The worry is that ECT may be part of a tiered system of psychiatric care that deprives the disadvantaged of one of our most effective treatments," according to Price.

The researchers acknowledge that a limitation of the study is its exclusion of data from freestanding psychiatric facilities. Case and his colleagues note that psychiatric hospitals less commonly offer ECT than general hospitals, possibly because the procedure requires a level of medical support more readily available in general hospitals. Because of this, and the fact that psychiatric hospitals have accounted for a declining proportion of inpatient mental health care, the researchers argue that this exclusion is unlikely to have offset the declines they observed.

The data also do not include information on outpatient ECT, but many severely ill patients are inappropriate for outpatient ECT initiation. Case concedes that while "changing pharmacologic treatment practices for depression have received an immense amount of attention, we still know very little about how and where ECT is being used, especially outside of academic medical centers."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Women & Infants Hospital, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Brady G. Case, David N. Bertollo, Eugene M. Laska, Lawrence H. Price, Carole E. Siegel, Mark Olfson, Steven C. Marcus. Declining Use of Electroconvulsive Therapy in US General Hospitals. Biological Psychiatry, 2012; DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2012.09.005

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/mind_brain/depression/~3/kl6sMY8XguM/121120152406.htm

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Obama's education agenda dominated by loose ends

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama's education agenda for next four years may look less like real reform and more like tying up loose ends, experts say, with practical budget issues and an age-old power struggle between Congress and the administration getting in the way.

Campaign-year aspirations for Obama's second term included closing the educational achievement gap and boosting college graduation rates to the highest in the world. But those lofty goals may have to wait, as lawmakers and Obama tackle a number of gritty funding-related issues that just can't wait.

First up is sequestration, the automatic, government-wide spending cuts set to knock out 8.2 percent of the funding to almost all of the Education Department's programs ? unless Congress acts before the end of the year to avert the cuts.

Programs intended to reduce educational inequities will take a hit of $1.3 billion, according to the White House's Office of Management and Budget. Special education, already funded far below the levels Congress originally promised, will be slashed by more than $1 billion. Most of the reductions won't take effect until next fall, when the 2013-14 school year starts, but Impact Aid, which helps districts that lose revenue due to local tax-exempt federal property, would be cut immediately.

Education advocates are optimistic a plan will be hashed out that will leave most major education programs relatively unscathed.

"Even Republicans understand that cutting education spending is not something that is popular with voters," said Michael Petrilli, a former Education Department official and executive vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative education think tank.

What comes next is less certain. The Education Department refused to comment on its agenda for the next four years, but Secretary Arne Duncan, who has said he would like to stay on for Obama's second term, has hinted at the administration's focus. Petrilli and others closely watching the administration's signals on education say it's likely the focus will be on early childhood education and higher ed.

Pre-kindergarten was a major focus for Obama in his first term, when he strengthened Head Start's accountability rules and expanded his Race to the Top program to include pre-K.

In Congress, both parties agree that college costs are spiraling out of control, but there's not much government can do to control that. What it can control is student aid, and the debate about federal loans raises a familiar disagreement about the role of government. In 2010, when Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress, the federal government cut banks out of the process and started administering all loans directly. Many Republicans favor restoring the private sector's role in issuing federally backed and subsidized loans.

Higher ed also comes with a delicate set of ticking time bombs. Student loan interest rates, capped at 3.4 percent for new subsidized Stafford loans, are set to double July 1, the expiration date for a stopgap Congress passed last year. Pell Grants, the main source of federal aid for low-income students, face the same type of crisis as entitlements like Medicare and Social Security: a cost curve that's become difficult to contain as more people take part.

When it comes to K-12 education, the prospects increase for a tug of war between Obama and Congress.

Lawmakers are more than half a decade overdue to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The Education Department has been copiously granting waivers to No Child Left Behind, the Bush-era iteration of the act, giving states flexibility with performance targets.

There's bipartisan agreement in Congress that the law should be fixed and reauthorized. "While the administration's efforts to grant waivers are helpful for states operating under the tenets of No Child Left Behind, these fixes are temporary and piecemeal," Sen. Tom Harkin, the Democrat who chairs the Senate committee responsible for education, said in an email.

But the Obama administration has shown little desire to put the policy back in lawmakers' hands. Duncan didn't mention reauthorization in a lengthy speech in October laying out his agenda.

"Waivers are not a pass on accountability, but a smarter, more focused and fair way to hold ourselves accountable," Duncan said in that speech.

In a sign of the uneven pace of progress, a major stimulus-funded grant program to turn around the worst performing schools showed mixed results in its first year, according to Education Department data released Monday.

Two-thirds of schools that received School Improvement Grants showed an uptick in math and reading scores, although most of those schools were already making progress before the grants were distributed. But scores declined at more than one in four schools that had been improving the year before grants started. Duncan said turning around failing schools is a long-term process and that a single year of scores paints an incomplete picture.

Lawmakers are also eager to reclaim control of Race to the Top, the multibillion-dollar grant competition program Obama created in 2009 to prod states into changing laws and raising standards. The administration opened the competition to school districts this year, but with stimulus funds exhausted, the size of the program shrank dramatically.

"With Race to the Top, and then these conditional waivers, it is bypassing Congress and the process we're supposed to have, adding to uncertainty," Republican Rep. John Kline, the House Education and the Workforce Committee chairman, said in an interview.

Teacher assessments are at the heart of another potential flashpoint. Chicago teachers walked off the job for more than a week in September, largely over demands that their evaluations be tied to student test scores. Teachers unions enthusiastically backed Obama's re-election, but Obama's Education Department stayed neutral on the strike, and his former chief of staff, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, led the fight against striking teachers.

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Reach Josh Lederman at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-11-19-Education-Second%20Term/id-7e2716e48365428eaaf236e618aaf116

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