Prostate Payoffs, Teacher Layoffs

An interesting societal choice between paying for the education of the youth or paying to extend the lives of prostate cancer patients.

Medicare to pay for $93,000 prostate cancer drug - Yahoo! Finance: "Medicare officials said Wednesday that the program will pay the $93,000 cost of prostate cancer drug Provenge, an innovative therapy that typically gives men suffering from an incurable stage of the disease an extra four months to live.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid said the biotech drug made by Dendreon Corp. is a 'reasonable and necessary' medicine. The decision ensures that millions of men would be able to afford the drug through the government-backed health care coverage. With government reimbursement, analysts estimate Provenge could rack up $1 billion in sales next year. The decision, which will be finalized by June 30, is important for Dendreon because most prostate cancer patients are 65 or older.

Medicare is legally prohibited from considering price when deciding whether to pay for a new treatment. The Food and Drug Administration approved Provenge last April and in most cases Medicare automatically covers drugs cleared by the agency. But Medicare's decision to review Provenge last year prompted outrage from some patients and doctors who said the government was looking for a reason to avoid reimbursing for the pricey drug."

Teacher Layoffs May Cause Turmoil in Schools - NYTimes.com: "School authorities across the nation are warning thousands of teachers that they could lose their jobs in June, raising the possibility that America’s public schools may see the most extensive layoffs of their teaching staffs in decades.

Though many of the warnings may not be acted upon — school systems, their budget outlook unclear, routinely overstate their likely layoffs at this time of year — when layoffs do occur, they cause a chaotic annual reshuffling of staff members.

Thousands of teachers are forced to change schools, grade levels or subjects, creating a chronic instability that educators call “teacher churn.”

“Most districts have not done layoffs for years, so they have no idea how bad this is going to be when it hits,” said Timothy Daly, president of the New Teacher Project, a nonprofit group that has studied the effects of teacher layoffs.

Much of the public debate over teacher layoffs has concerned the question of how layoffs are decided, with sharp divisions between politicians and union leaders over the seniority-based layoff methods stipulated in union contracts.

Many argue that the rules rob schools of the talented young teachers who are the first to be let go. Union officials say that without such protections, more senior teachers would be let go first to save money.

But school superintendents say that the consequences of sweeping teacher layoffs are often overlooked in the policy debate. Layoffs, they say, hurt school cohesion, undermine student achievement and rupture ties with parents...."