Sunday, January 10, 2010

Sacramento Press / Sacramento Sustainability Forum Kicks Off 2010

Sacramento Press / Sacramento Sustainability Forum Kicks Off 2010:

"The first Sacramento Sustainability Forum of 2010 will feature two dynamic speakers covering the recent climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, and the effects of product stewardship policy for California.

Larry Greene, the executive director of the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District, will report on developments at the COP15, the United Nations’ climate change conference that took place in December in Copenhagen.

Heidi Sanborn, an independent consultant and executive director of the California Product Stewardship Council, will cover product stewardship policy and the implications for consumers and businesses in California.

Jacob Grissom, one of the founders of the SSF, says, “We were grateful for the enthusiastic reception these events received from the community last year. We are looking forward to expanding the SSF’s audience with a lineup of engaging speakers in 2010.”"

Elk Grove Citizen : News

Elk Grove Citizen : News:

"More than a dozen middle and high schools in the Elk Grove Unified School District (EGUSD) will accept students from outside their attendance boundaries this fall.

The Elk Grove school board permitted district staff to begin the open enrollment process for the 2010-11 school year during their Jan. 5 meeting.

Applications for students interested in open enrollment will be offered Jan. 11, the deadline is Feb. 11.

Christina Penna, associate superintendent of secondary education, said this is the first time the district staff is recommending open enrollment for 14 schools.

“This creates an unprecedented opportunity for families to exercise school choice,” she told the school board.

Open enrollment will not be offered for the district’s elementary schools. Reasons include the district staff’s desire to balance their enrollments as well as district plans to change many of their school year calendars from year-round to traditional, due to budget cuts.�"

Youths urged to follow dreams� Standard-Times

Youths urged to follow dreams Standard-Times:

"SAN ANGELO, Texas — Carlos Partida plans to exchange his West Texas lifestyle for big city dreams.

An aspiring artist, the 16-year-old Central High School junior hopes to move from his hometown of San Angelo to Southern California to pursue an education and career in art. First, though, Carlos plans to remain working and living at home for a couple of years after high school, until he has saved enough to start the next chapter of his life — living independently.

In the meantime, Carlos wants to improve a couple of his worst characteristics: being too timid and introverted.

Since becoming part of the city’s JOBStart youth program two years ago, Carlos has made leaps and bounds toward breaking out of his shell. As one of eight peer leaders this year, the once-timid teen is helping other youths acquire crucial skills to prepare them for the real world."

Want to salvage public schools? Try character education - JSOnline

Want to salvage public schools? Try character education - JSOnline:

"To people who run companies, honesty and punctuality are as important as computer literacy. Traits such as these are about respect for ourselves and others; they make up our character. Without character, quality work is almost impossible to produce no matter the number of employee incentives.

This is why we believe in character education. Starting in primary schools, we are advocating for a culture of character, one where we respect each other and are willing to sacrifice some personal pleasure for the greater good. It pays in more ways than one.

There is a national organization, Character Education Partnership, and a local chapter, Wisconsin Character Education Partnership, enabling schools to incorporate these fundamental ideas across the curriculum and in the atmosphere of the school."



	Your character is defined by what you do, not what you say or believe.

	Every choice you make helps define the kind of person you are choosing to be.

	Good character requires doing the right thing, even when it is costly or risky.

	You don't have to take the worst behavior of others as a standard for yourself. You can choose to be better than that.

	What you do matters, and one person can make a big difference.

	The payoff for having good character is that it makes you a better person and it makes the world a better place.

Epoch Times - Shen Yun Shows Software Manager 'the world through different eyes'

Epoch Times - Shen Yun Shows Software Manager 'the world through different eyes':

"SAN JOSE, California— As the Shen Yun New York Company gave its third performance in the Silicon Valley capital on the evening of January 9, one of the audience members found a different world opening before his eyes.

Mr. Hamilton, a software engineering manager for a large international company, said he has many friends in China but he has never been there.

'The energy that goes into the dance and the combination of colors and the music and the dance is very impressive,” he said.

'It’s very interesting to see a different part of the world through different eyes.'

He said that he enjoyed the introductions and information provided by the emcees before and after the performances and also praised the state-of-the art animated backdrops used in the show."

Jamba Juice Joins CAHPERD in Attempt to Jump Over Guinness World Record | TradingMarkets.com

Jamba Juice Joins CAHPERD in Attempt to Jump Over Guinness World Record | TradingMarkets.com:

"(Nasdaq: JMBA | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) -- Jamba Juice Company and The California Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (CAHPERD) announced today its shared mission to keep California's children healthy and active with the 2010 Jamba Jump Day(TM) event -- a mass attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the 'Most People Jumping/Skipping Rope at the Same Time'. On Monday, February 1, 2010, at 9am, CAHPERD and Jamba Juice will lead Californians in schools, nonprofit organizations, businesses, service organizations and clubs statewide as they jump rope simultaneously for 10 minutes -- getting participant's hearts pumping and encouraging heart-healthy living.

Coordinated via live webcast and broadcast online, CAHPERD and Jamba Juice expect over 80,000 people to participate, breaking the current Australian record of 59,000 skippers. Taking place at over 2,000 sites throughout the State of California and expanding to the California Congressional offices in Washington D.C., select volunteers will be warmed up with Jamba Juice's delicious, steel cut, oatmeal as they prepare to make this ground-breaking record."

Gov. Jon Corzine's greatest public service | Paul Mulshine - NJ.com

Gov. Jon Corzine's greatest public service | Paul Mulshine - NJ.com:

"Jon Corzine will be giving his final State of the State speech on Tuesday. So when I was walking around the Statehouse the other day, I decided to ask people for their thoughts on how to sum up his four years in office.

I soon ran into Deborah Howlett, a former Star-Ledger reporter who left the paper to join Corzine’s staff. She made a spirited defense of her soon-to-be-ex-boss. He had trimmed more than $5 billion from the current year’s budget, she boasted. In fact, said Howlett, he would leave office as the only governor to have a fourth-year budget lower than his first year’s budget.

That was quite an accomplishment, I granted. But having cut all that spending, just what public services did Corzine cut?
'Well he cut the Statehouse staff in half,' Howlett replied."

Three school systems sign up for 'race' - ContraCostaTimes.com

Three school systems sign up for 'race' - ContraCostaTimes.com:

"At least three Solano County school districts want to join a federal education reform effort, though none so far have the support of their teachers unions.

Friday was the deadline to submit an agreement to the state to participate in the federal Race to the Top funding program.

Officials from the Benicia, Vallejo and Vacaville unified school districts said they would or had submitted a required Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) by the deadline.

The state could be eligible for up to $700 million of the $4.35 billion Race to Top funding, which requires participating districts to institute as-yet undetermined education reforms"

Poor are educated and employed

Poor are educated and employed:

"Want to have enough money to meet your basic needs in California?

Then don't be a woman, don't be a parent, and don't be a person of color. All of these groups are disproportionately less likely to have enough income to meet their basic needs, according to a new report from the United Way of the Bay Area."

Some of these categories are not surprising: It's expensive to raise children, and gender and racial discrimination still lurk in our job markets. What is surprising about the United Way's findings is that having a job and even an education isn't a ticket to making ends meet in California. The poor, it turns out, are just like the rest of us. They just struggle more.
The analysis is based on the Self-Sufficiency Standard, a formula developed by social scientist Diana Pearce to reflect the actual cost of people's real needs in a given area. (The Federal Poverty Level doesn't accurately reflect the growing costs of health care, energy and housing, among other things.) According to the report, about 22 percent of Bay Area households were struggling even before the economic disaster began in 2008.
The Bay Area is doing better than the state overall, where nearly a third of households don't have enough income to meet their basic needs for food, housing, transportation, child care and health care. But as this season of sharing comes to a close, it's sobering to learn just how hard some of us are working to keep our households afloat.
It's also sobering to learn how many of the poor are working poor: 86.5 percent of all Bay Area households without enough income had at least one person earning a paycheck.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/09/EDMF1B5B04.DTL#ixzz0cDzAh5Sk

Educators: Governor already breaking promise not to cut school funding | News10.net | Sacramento, California | News

SACRAMENTO, CA - While Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger pledged to maintain education spending in California as part of this week's State of the State address, many educators say a closer look at the latest budget proposal shows otherwise.

Education administrators and lobbyists say they found additional cuts totaling $2.4 billion.

Kevin Gordon, a lobbyist with School Innovations and Advocacy, said the cut is on top of the $18 billionschools already lost.

"The schools are going to have to shut their doors at some point," Gordon said. "They can't exist if you can't make sure the building still stands and some of those basic things are there that set the stage forteaching."

Sacramento County superintendent Dave Gordon, said the solution to education cuts is simple -- the governor needs to speak up.

Children often hurt the most by budget cuts, group finds - Vallejo Times Herald

Children often hurt the most by budget cuts, group finds - Vallejo Times Herald:

"State and local budget cuts to a myriad of programs are eroding children's health and robbing them of their potential, according to a state organization's annual report.

Education, health coverage, obesity and asthma levels all received low grades in the 2010 California Report Card, which identifies issues impacting children's well-being, public health and the economy.

Solano County is echoing many of the same issues identified in the new study, said the Children's Network executive director, Kim Thomas .

'We have many more families dropping into low-income status,' Thomas said."

Righting California's ship of state

Righting California's ship of state:

"With our budget in crisis, our economy in the doldrums and our politics in disarray, the great temptation for anyone offering an agenda for California in 2010 would be to borrow the goal former state Senate President Pro Tempore John Burton once set during another challenging year: 'Just to get out alive.'"

Sage advice indeed for those who hold political office. But what about the rest of us?
Thankfully, the formal duty of addressing both houses of the Legislature on the future of our state each year rests only with the governor, whom I applaud for striking an optimistic and constructive tone at a difficult time and for rightly placing a high priority on higher education as a cornerstone of California's future.
You might not have heard his speech. But whether you're raising a family or starting a business, getting an education or looking for work - we've all got a stake in the state of our state. And 2010 isn't shaping up as a year when we can afford to simply stay the course. By almost any measure, the status quo isn't working. What, then, is to be done?
The tradition is to lay out a set of policy prescriptions by topic: education, transportation, health care, prisons and the like. This approach

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/09/INC81BEH7P.DTL#ixzz0cDw1GDOA

Schwarzenegger's education claim disputed - Sacramento Politics - California Politics | Sacramento Bee

Schwarzenegger's education claim disputed - Sacramento Politics - California Politics | Sacramento Bee:

"Despite Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's vow to protect public education, school officials say the budget he has proposed would require deep cuts affecting students.

While Schwarzenegger touts his plan as meeting the state's Proposition 98 school-funding guarantee, critics call that misleading, saying he would clear that hurdle only after lowering it.

Bottom line?"

Opinion: 'Parent trigger' shifts balance of power in debate over education reform - San Jose Mercury News

Opinion: 'Parent trigger' shifts balance of power in debate over education reform - San Jose Mercury News:

"Much has been written about how two education reform bills signed into law last week might affect California's chances of qualifying for federal Race to the Top funds.

As important as that funding is, the new laws' significance goes much deeper. It signals that the balance of power in education is shifting away from teachers unions and toward parents, where it belongs.

The 'parent trigger,' a controversial element of the legislation, is the best evidence of this turning point.

The concept was developed by the grass-roots group Parent Revolution in the Los Angeles Unified School District. If a majority of parents in a failing school petitions for an overhaul, the district must do something — replace administrators, convert to a charter school or make other major reforms.

By law, tenured California teachers can convert their school to a charter if a majority of them vote for it, and that has happened dozens of times. But teachers unions and other groups opposed giving parents the same right. One group called it the 'lynch mob' provision — an odd choice of words, given that it would empower parents primarily in minority communities where failing schools abound."

Revolution in U.S. education is in California

The greatest revolution in education in the United States today is taking place in Los Angeles. It is the mandate of the Los Angeles Unified School District School Board to convert almost a third of its schools either to charter schools, the public schools of choice that are the one shining light in an otherwise dysfunctional system, or other alternatives such as magnet schools. The change is not only a mighty one for the state's largest school district, but in time it could double the number of public schools of choice in California.

What is remarkable is not just the magnitude of this earth-shaking change, but the complete shift of the paradigm about how we think about public education. The driving force behind this revolution is Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is not only a Democrat but also a former organizer for the United Teachers of Los Angeles, Los Angeles teachers' union.
Villaraigosa took his nontraditional stand because, as he noted, LAUSD was racked with violence and plagued with a dropout rate of 50 percent, and showed no signs of improving.

Even more astounding: With the doors open to making bids to the school board to launch pioneering schools, groups of public school teachers and the teachers' unions themselves are submitting proposals. "This is the power that teachers have always been asking for, the authority to choose what is happening in our schools," Monterey Park English teacher Patricia Jauregui told the Los Angeles Times. She added, "With power comes responsibility. We are accountable for the results, and I don't mind that."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/09/INHV1BF35C.DTL#ixzz0cDrkcbR1

Gov Schwarzenegger Begs White House for Bailout Money | ChattahBox News Blog

(ChattahBox)—Should the White House bail California out of a mess of its own making? The ungovernable state of California is looking to the federal government for a solution to its budget woes. Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger released his 2010-11 budgetthat, includes a request for $6.9 billion in federal funds to make ends meet. Last May, while mired in a severe financial crisis, due to the recession and massive home foreclosures, the beleaguered state asked the White House for a portion of TARP funds, which request was refused. Now, the state is again seeking a federal bailout. And of course, thanks to Sen. Ben Nelson’s (D-NB) antics of holding the health care reform bill

hostage, until he secured several concessions, including having the federal government pay for Nebraska’s mandated expansion of Medicaid, Schwarzenegger is demanding that his state’s expansion of health insurance for the poor be paid for as well.

California has been facing a crisis of epic proportions long before the current recession. And unless fundamental changes are made at the state legislative level, and its constitution rewritten, no amount of federal funds can solve the state’s problems. California’s financially bankrupt and deadlocked governmenthas reached crisis levels, from a deadly storm of out of control voter initiatives and referendums, combined with a legislature that can’t pass a simple state budget.

Schwarzenegger’s proposed $82.9 billion budget also calls for $8.5 billion in cuts and $4.5 billion in alternative funding. If federal aid is not forthcoming; the governor proposes deep cuts of $2.4 billion in social welfare programs for the neediest of families, when greater numbers are losing their homes and their jobs.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Educators await Obama's mark on No Child Left Behind - washingtonpost.com

Educators await Obama's mark on No Child Left Behind - washingtonpost.com:

"Eight years after President George W. Bush signed the bill that branded an era of school reform, the education world is wondering when President Obama will seek to rewrite the No Child Left Behind law.

Obama officials, who for months have been on a 'listening and learning' tour, are expected to propose a framework for the successor to a law that is two years overdue for reauthorization. Time is growing short if Obama aims for action before midterm elections, which could weaken Democratic majorities in Congress."

As the anniversary of the law's enactment passed quietly Friday, an occasion Bush marked throughout his presidency as a domestic policy milestone, the regimen of standardized testing and school accountability remains intact.

Every year from grades three to eight, and at least once in high school, students must take reading and math exams. Every year, public schools are rated on the progress they make toward the law's goal of universal proficiency by 2014. And every year, states label more schools as falling short and impose sanctions on them, including shakeups and shutdowns.

Minn. teacher's W.H. moment | POLITICO 44

Barbara Stoflet is used to giving math exams to her sixth-graders, but on Monday she was given the most important timed test of her life.

Already in Washington to receive an award from President Barack Obama along with dozens of other math and science teachers, Stoflet was told by the White House press office that she had been chosen to introduce the commander in chief.

She had to write a speech. For the president. In 48 hours.

“I was just so honored,” Stoflet told POLITICO by phone, while ducking out of a meeting with Education Secretary Arne Duncan. “It came from the heart. It really just came to me.”

The teachers being honored had little time in Washington, so Stoflet had to work on an outline for her speech in a 45-minute window Monday night — an outline she would later scrap as she traded drafts with the White House over the next day. They asked her to talk about her experiences as a teacher and said she had just two minutes — just enough to “get the most out of every word,” she said.

This Week In Education: Blogs: Is STEM Funding Militaristic?

Blogs: Is STEM Funding Militaristic?

Obama's $250 million for math/science Mike Klonsky
Whenever we are at war school funding shifts from humanities to math/science and from small to large schools. This shift has less to do with pedagogy than it does with production.

Earmark Transparency Yglesias
Something that’s long puzzled me is the idea that bringing more transparency to the earmark process would reduce earmarking.

Adventures in Pencil Integration Robert Pondiscio
An entertaining and well-written new blog is setting tongues wagging in the small corner of the Twittersphere that I inhabit.

Studies Find No Effects Education Next Blog
Education Next’s Paul Peterson and Chester E. Finn, Jr. talk about whether randomized field trials in education should be abandoned, since they so rarely find that the treatments have any effects.

Drugging Kids John Merrow

The Washington Teacher: Rhee On Her Soap-Box Again, Shame On Anderson Cooper !

Rhee On Her Soap-Box Again, Shame On Anderson Cooper !

Much to my own discomfort, I forced myself to watch a clip of Anderson Cooper 360. Gag me with a spoon. Here's the video clip link. Just more of the same of Rhee on her soap box with unedited teacher bashing . Many who watched Michelle Rhee on Cooper's Thursday evening show were infuriated about the production of 'What's Next -Education ?' If you were watching, the answer to that question is more of the same. Stay tuned for more firings, more firings and more firings by Chancellor Michelle Rhee . It brings to mind Bill Turque's recent article in which he reported that Rhee vowed not to make teacher cuts despite a budget deficit that extends into 20011. Seems as though the WaPo had to offer a retraction to this mis- characterization as this isn't exactly what Rhee meant. The word 'vow' afterall just isn't in Rhee's vocabulary and gives us a hint of what's up ahead. So don't be surprised if DC teachers are amongst the group to get the axe along with security and central office staff in the upcoming RIF's.

The perpetual theme of Rhee's argument on and off the show seems to continue to be that ineffective teachers are to blame for all that's wrong in urban education. Of course the show infers that ineffective teachers are typically older teachers who stay beyond their time. Even the first snap shop is an adolescent student complaining about older teachers with connections. Bah humbug ! Most students I know consider all of their teachers old even when their teachers are only 26. Seems like this snapshot was intentionally staged by Cooper's producers unfortunately.

What ate at me most is this reference to teachers as 'human capital' as though teachers are something to be disposed of. Rhee's remarks lacked substance and had she been required to be a part of an educational panel, she would have been kicked to the curb quickly by anyone with a miniscule of knowledge about public education. Even a young student featured in a clip recognized the importance of having technology to enhance learning. Rhee quickly dismissed this yet when asked by Cooper what 3 things she neeed most, she commented among them, her email and prized laptop.

Schoolfinance101’s Blog

Education Trust is Flat-Out Wrong!!!!!

Sometimes I just get fed up with information spewed in the media which is simply FLAT OUT WRONG!!!! A major source of FLAT OUT WRONG information on school funding related issues these days seems to be the Education Trust, an organization which spins itself as an advocate for minority children and children in poverty. Here’s what I read this morning in the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/us/07south.html

On the other hand, Southern politicians are keenly aware of the need for an educated work force. Spurred in part by school financing lawsuits, more than half the 15 states included in the study already provide more state and local financing to heavily poor or minority districts than to affluent or low-minority ones, according to figures compiled by Education Trust, an advocacy group in Washington. But schools often layer programs on top of programs without analyzing which are effective, said Daria Hall, the trust’s director of K-12 policy.

Now, I can’t find the supposed list of 15 states (apparently, the list of fifteen is from this report) which Education Trust considers “southern” states, but

The Educated Guess � District offices will see budgets slashed

District offices will see budgets slashed

Posted in State Budget

If tumbleweeds weren’t rolling in the aisles of some district offices, they will be. Gov. Schwarzenegger is demanding a $1.5 billion cut in school district administrative costs and $45 million from county offices of education. This, he says, will protect teachers in the classroom.
The administration hasn’t said where it came up with this figure or how the cut will be imposed. Probaly it will say that central office expenses can’t exceed 4 or 5 percent of a district’s total expense. As a safeguard, Schwarzenegger is prohibiting district offices from passing off more work to the schools.

Slashing the budgets may force especially small districts to share services, like payroll, personnel and purchasing, saving some money. And that would be good.

Sixth-Graders Get an Early Crack at High School - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com

Sixth-Graders Get an Early Crack at High School

On Friday morning, wind lashed snow down a frigid East 69th Street, where some of the only light in the near-dawn darkness came from a metal food cart.

But the mood was already foreboding enough for hundreds of sixth graders who were there to take the entrance exam for the highly rated Hunter College High School, a public institution that is among the city’s most competitive, with an acceptance rate of about a 10 percent.

“I’m really nervous,” said Nathan Mulady, 11, of Jamaica Estates, Queens, as he waited inside glass doors at Hunter College, one of two locations where the test was being offered to students who had previously scored at top levels on state standardized tests.

The high school, which actually offers grades 7 through 12, is located on East 94th Street, where hundreds of students took the exam on Friday. The rest of the group brought their No. 2 pencils to the campus of Hunter College, on Lexington Avenue at East 69th Street, where they began lining up before 7 a.m. for an exam that began nearly two hours later.

At one of the two entrances at the college, the police guided

Class Struggle - Stop the two-hour snow delays

Class Struggle- Stop the two-hour snow delays:

"Stop the two-hour snow delays

Read the opposite side of this debate, from Answer Sheet blogger Valerie Strauss, by clicking here.

I know I'm not going to get my way on this. The lawyers are against me and others who share this view. Nobody beats the lawyers, or the parents who will worry no matter what the actual risk. But maybe in some future era, when we all walk around in magic padding that reduces chance of injury to zero, the legal profession will see a way to save schools from wasting a lot of precious time.

There were one or two inches of snow in my yard today, and on the street outside. It wasn't plowed. We are usually last on the list. But the car got out of our usually tricky slanted driveway with no trouble. So why were school openings in my district, and most others around here, delayed for two hours?"

Tread carefully when snow flies

Read the opposite side of this debate, from Class Struggle blogger Jay Mathews, by clicking here.

A few words to those parents who are griping because their kid’s school opened late this morning or was closed for the day: Knock it off.

It has become almost a sport among people I know to complain every time the weather turns lousy and school system officials decide that conditions are severe enough to alter the regular school routine.

“The snow barely touched the ground,” you might hear.

“It was only a dusting.”

“They are such wimps. Washington doesn’t know how to handle snow. You should see how they do it in Pittsburgh.”

Or New York. Or any place that is not Washington.

Enough already, folks.

Michelle Rhee on Anderson Cooper 360 :The WE District

Michelle Rhee on Anderson Cooper 360 :The WE District:

"Last night, Chancellor Michelle Rhee appeared on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360.� Watch the video here and share your thoughts."

Stimulus Spending: A Bright Spot - Politics K-12 - Education Week

Stimulus Spending: A Bright Spot

By Alyson Klein on January 8, 2010 7:31 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Despite the $100 billion unprecedented infusion of federal cash in the stimulus, the budget situation for K-12 in most states and districts remains pretty dismal. One very bright spot? Arkansas, where some superintendents have a difficult, but enviable challenge.

They're trying to figure out how to spend a significant boost in federal funding - millions of dollars in some cases - on a very tight time frame. And because the money is temporary, they can't put it towards anything that can't be sustained once the funds go away. And, of course, it all has to tie back to the goals of raising student achievement.

On top of unprecedented increases for Title I and special education, Arkansas districts got a major boost from the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, which was supposed to backfill cuts to K-12 and higher education. But the Natural State didn't have any cuts to restore. In fact, it has increased funding for education, in part because of a school finance lawsuit.

Education Notes Online: School Closing Hearings Turning into Perfect Storm

School Closing Hearings Turning into Perfect Storm

We predicted back in the fall that a 3rd term for Bloomberg would turn out to be his disaster. Hubris will take the Tweedy gang down the road to oblivion.

It didn't take them long to do that thing. Closing 22 schools in one felt swoop and thinking that scheduling all the hearings right on top of each other would be a classic coup of disaster capitalism of the shock doctrine type. Instead it may be turning into a perfect storm of their own making.

The press has been racing around to cover all these events. The poor gals of Gotham are being run ragged. Maura has to schlep to Beach Channel ("you come to all of those meetings in the city from HERE? she asked) and to Jamaica last night. Yoav from the Post and Lindsey from NY 1 was at both

Latest News and Comment from Education