'Nemo' School Closures Hobble Working Parents During Snowstorm
NEW YORK -- At 4 p.m. Thursday, Claire Brown Goss, a pregnant working mother of two, learned that her town of Ashland, Mass., planned to shut down its schools on Friday in anticipation of this weekend's blizzard. Ten minutes later, she received a call from her babysitter who lives a few towns over, so she, too, had to cancel.
The mother works as a part-time teacher and writer, and is losing one day's pay. "Now I have to cram some work into the 60-to-90-minute nap that my 2-year-old gives me," Brown Goss said Friday, shortly after her son and 4-year-old daughter fought loudly over a cardboard box. "It's one of those situations that most parents find themselves in. The clock starts running the second he falls asleep."
She added, "I haven't showered yet today."
And so goes the familiar scramble working parents face as the first flakes of snow fall from the sky. It's
The mother works as a part-time teacher and writer, and is losing one day's pay. "Now I have to cram some work into the 60-to-90-minute nap that my 2-year-old gives me," Brown Goss said Friday, shortly after her son and 4-year-old daughter fought loudly over a cardboard box. "It's one of those situations that most parents find themselves in. The clock starts running the second he falls asleep."
She added, "I haven't showered yet today."
And so goes the familiar scramble working parents face as the first flakes of snow fall from the sky. It's
Arne Duncan Defends NCLB Waivers, Texas Testing Reduction? Ed Today
Arne Takes The Stand As we reported yesterday, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan faced both praise and skepticism yesterday as he testified before a Senate oversight hearing on his No Child Left Behind waivers. In the spirit of non-jargony brevity, and because it's Friday, we give you some choice quotes from the hearing:
- "We do have a responsibility to set a high bar to protect the interests of students ... but how to reach that bar, I believe, should be left to states" -- Duncan
- "The question is, the facts are the facts." -- Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who might be the next education committee chair following Sen. Tom Harkin's (D-Iowa) retirement.
- "Let's move away from this Washington version of 'Mother May I.'" -- Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who is a former U.S. education chief and now the ranking Republican on the committee.
- "There's a lot of angst out there, a lot of concern ... We are in regulatory purgatory, sir." -- Sen Pat