Much-vindicated Michael Mann and Hockey Stick get final exoneration from Penn State — time for some major media apologies and retractions � Climate Progress

Much-vindicated Michael Mann and Hockey Stick get final exoneration from Penn State — time for some major media apologies and retractions � Climate Progress
Much-vindicated Michael Mann and Hockey Stick get final exoneration from Penn State — time for some major media apologies and retractions

"An Investigatory Committee of faculty members with impeccable credentials" has unanimously "determined that Dr. Michael E. Mann did not engage in, nor did he participate in, directly or indirectly, any actions that seriously deviated from accepted practices within the academic community for proposing, conducting, or reporting research, or other scholarly activities."

July 1, 2010

PANEL STICKS UP FOR AN INNOCENT MANN
His work “clearly places Dr. Mann among the most respected scientists in his field…. Dr. Mann’s work, from the beginning of his career, has been recognized as outstanding.“

Oakland’s Small Businesses Brace for Oscar Grant Verdict | California Progress Report

Oakland’s Small Businesses Brace for Oscar Grant Verdict | California Progress Report

Oakland’s Small Businesses Brace for Oscar Grant Verdict

by kaldveer

By Poornima Weerasekara
New America Media

Black-and-white posters of Oscar Grant’s smiling face are plastered on many downtown shop windows, especially on 17th Street, which suffered the most damage after riots broke out to protest the deadly police shooting that killed the 22-year-old butcher’s apprentice on New Year’s Day last year.
As the trial of former police officer Johannes Mehserle, accused of killing Oscar Grant, draws to an end, with a verdict anticipated as early as this week, city authorities advised small businesses to stock up on plywood, board their windows, and follow Twitter updates from the Oakland police in anticipation of more civil unrest.
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Southeastern PA Budget Coalition protests budget (cuts) | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Southeastern PA Budget Coalition protests budget (cuts) | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

Southeastern PA Budget Coalition protests budget (cuts)

by Rajiv Venkataramanan on Jul 01 2010

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• budget cuts
• budgeting
• community organizing
• funding
• Ed Rendell

If legislators in Harrisburg expect to come home to an electorate satisfied with a passed budget, they are going to be in for a surprise. Thursday afternoon, the Southeastern PA Budget Coalition, a motley group of social service providers, unions, community organizations, and advocacy groups, staged a rally outside Philadelphia's City Hall to protest the various cuts the state budget entails.

Passions ran high as the group of around 400 people, armed with bull horns and signs, chanted and testified about what they thought was unjust about the state. budget. Katie Sipp, Executive VP of SEIU Health Care PA, declared that "budgets are political documents," and that this state budget reflected the political priorities of Harrisburg legislators. She went on to say that the budget serves "corporate greed, but not the peoples' need."

This was the overarching theme of those who spoke: that the legislature did little, if anything, to make corporations pay their fair share of taxes and instead slashed programs critical to the lives of vulnerable populations in PA. One after another, spokespersons from various groups expressed shock at how Harrisburg politicians

Michigan Legislature approves school budget

Michigan Legislature approves school budget

By TIM MARTIN, Associated Press Writer

Thursday, July 1, 2010

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(07-01) 13:37 PDT Lansing, Mich. (AP) --
Michigan's public schools won't get all of their financial problems fixed with a budget bill that sailed through the state Legislature on Thursday, but at least they're safe from state aid cuts in the upcoming year.
Public schools will get a small $11 per student increase by the end of September, raising the minimum per student foundation grant received from the state to $7,162 a year but still leaving schools below 2009 funding levels. The new funding levels will remain intact for the state fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, meaning school districts will fare much better than most state programs in a budget plan that likely will be full of cuts.
Lawmakers wrapped up the $12.8 billion school aid budget before leaving town for a break expected to last at least two weeks. The Republican-led Senate passed the school aid bill 37-1, while the Democratic-led state House passed it 98-6. Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm will sign the bill, spokeswoman Liz Boyd said.
"It takes care of education in a difficult year," said Sen. Ron Jelinek, a Republican from Three Oaks.
Tougher budget decisions — including those affecting prisons, social services and

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/07/01/financial/f133704D43.DTL&type=education#ixzz0sT0SFTc1

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Democrats struggle to pass war funding bill - Boston.com

Democrats struggle to pass war funding bill - Boston.com

Democrats struggle to pass war funding bill

By Andrew Taylor

Associated Press Writer / July 1, 2010

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WASHINGTON—With their ranks infused with anti-war sentiment, Democrats controlling the House were struggling Thursday for a way to both finance President Barack Obama's Afghanistan troop surge and salvage their dwindling jobs agenda.

Pressure to act before the Fourth of July has House leaders like Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., scrambling to find the mix of war money and stimulus money that could attract Democratic votes Thursday evening.

The House measure is anchored by money for the war and Democrats are likely to add funding for other programs not connected to military needs.

The Senate passed Obama's $37 billion war funding request in May, but House leaders have been short of solutions -- and votes.

The delays have eroded any leverage House Democrats might have had in their dealings with the Senate and the White House, which are pressing the House to accept an almost $60 billion Senate measure that blends the war funding request with money for disaster aid accounts, foreign aid and disability benefits for Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange.

Even if passed, the House measure has been promised a cold shoulder from Senate Republicans, who have the votes to filibuster it if the measure went to the Senate. The prospect of further deadlock and delays in providing troop funds has Democrats like Earl Pomeroy of North Dakota pressing House leaders to simply

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R2T caught in D.C. budget fight | EdNewsColorado

R2T caught in D.C. budget fight | EdNewsColorado

R2T caught in D.C. budget fight

by Todd Engdahl

Colorado’s $175 million Race to the Top bid could be affected by a proposal that would divert money from R2T and two other education stimulus programs into a fund to save teacher jobs.

Rep. David Obey, D-Wisc., wants to use $800 million in previously budgeted reform money to help pay for a $10 billion Education Jobs Fund, which would be distributed to states to blunt the impact of teacher job losses caused by budget cuts. Obey is chair of the House Appropriations Committee.

Colorado Rep. Jared Polis, D-2nd District, and seven other House members sent a letter to Obey Thursday, asking him to withdraw the plan.

“We are deeply troubled by the proposed $800 million cuts to three critical education reform programs: $100 million from the Charter Schools Program, $200 million from the Teacher Incentive Fund and $500 million from Race to the Top,” the letter said.

“By setting the bar very high and challenging education communities across the nation to come together in pursuit of our common goal for improving public schools, Race to the Top has already led to major progress that

THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: Speaking truth to power

THE PERIMETER PRIMATE: Speaking truth to power

Speaking truth to power

by The Perimeter Primate

Last Friday, in person, I told Arne Duncan just what I think. At least a tiny bit of it, anyway.
Duncan was in the Bay Area for three events: as the guest of U.S. Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey for a discussion on education reform, and to give commencement speeches at two community colleges, Foothill College and DeAnza College.
I attended the first event in Marin County which was held at an extremely affluent Mill Valley high school in the middle of the day.
Even though I’m a parent, not a teacher, I joined the group of teacher protesters who showed up and were permitted inside to stand at the back (sans signs). The event was basically a Q & A for educators of constituency districts.

Representative Woolsey moderated and invited questions from audience members: two from superintendents,

Gray's education plan calls for community input, pledges transparency

Gray's education plan calls for community input, pledges transparency

By Bill Turque

Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 1, 2010; 1:14 PM

Calling the Fenty administration's approach to education reform "shortsighted, narrow and clandestine," D.C. Council Chairman and mayoral candidate Vincent C. Gray promises more transparency, funding equity for public charter schools, tax credits for early-childhood programs and new attention to the city's neighborhood high schools in a policy blueprint to be unveiled Thursday afternoon.

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The fifteen-page document, which does not offer cost estimates for the proposals, reflects broad areas of agreement with the reform program led by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) and Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee. It voices support for continued mayoral control of the public school system and the ideas embedded in the

Under investigation, a school gets low marks from teachers | GothamSchools

Under investigation, a school gets low marks from teachers | GothamSchools

Under investigation, a school gets low marks from teachers

by Anna Phillips

As the city’s investigation into grade tampering by a high school principal enters its second year, morale at the school has taken a turn for the worse.
A majority of teachers at Herbert Lehman High School who took the city’s annual survey said they don’t trust the school’s executive principal Janet Saraceno. And 81 percent said the principal is not an effective manager.
Results from the survey of teachers, students, and parents also show that in the “safety and respect” category,

Imagining themselves chancellor, top students offer sage advice

by Philissa Cramer

If Joel Klein handed over the reins of the Department of Education to its top graduates, we’d soon see stronger arts offerings, less tracking, and an end to the policy of assigning schools a letter grade.
The suggestions came from a panel of students who won scholarships available at schools managed by the nonprofit New Visions. Asked what they would do if they became chancellor, the students, and a few of their teachers, offered this advice:

“You should totally let us have cell phones in school,” said Karina Melendez, the cancer survivor who aspires to the Supreme Court. But then she got serious, saying she’d do away with the letter grades that schools are 

President Obama: Don't Cut Race to the Top - Politics K-12 - Education Week

President Obama: Don't Cut Race to the Top - Politics K-12 - Education Week

President Obama: Don't Cut Race to the Top

by Alyson Klein

1 person liked this

President Barack Obama is urging Congress not to cut his signature education reform initiative.
"The President believes that we need to keep teachers in the classroom, and we have worked with Congress to find a way to pay for it. But the President also feels very strongly that we should not cut funding for Race to the Top, one of the most sweeping reform initiatives in a generation," said Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the White House, in an email.
Still, the version of the $10 billion edujobs bill the House will vote on will include the $800 million in cuts to the Race to the Top, the Teacher Incentive Fund, and charter schools that Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, proposed. There are only five amendments set to be considered and none of them change the offsets.
The cuts will help pay for a $10 billion fund to help states stave off teacher layoffs and $5 billion in new money for Pell Grants.
The House could also consider a change that would boost funding for summer youth jobs by $1 billion. That was

Parasitic “Reformers” Upset as Obey Tries to Save “Edujobs” � Edumacation Archive

Parasitic “Reformers” Upset as Obey Tries to Save “Edujobs” � Edumacation Archive

Parasitic “Reformers” Upset as Obey Tries to Save “Edujobs”

by thatsrightnate

What is an edujob? An edujob is a fancy way that some supposed reformers like to refer to teachers. It sounds like these are jobs that add nothing to a school and simply are adults getting in the way of a child’s education—what’s sad is that is exactly how many of these so-called reformers feel about teachers. With a new Twilight movie opening last night to the delight of junior high school girls across the country, it’s ironic that the educational vampires are out in force today, looking to suck the life blood out of public education in the name of profit.
So why the Orwellian language? The answer is simple. Who with one degree of common sense would push for building more charter schools or Race to the Trough funding for innovation, while at the same time cutting hundreds of thousands of teachers from the schools of this country and jamming more and more students into a classroom?
Congressman David Obey (D-WI) seeing the crisis that some have referred to as a teacherpocalypse has tried to cobble together the funds to save teacher jobs. His bill would would cut $500 million from the Race to the Top, $200 million from the teacher incentive fund (TIF), and $100 million from the charter school program. It would also secure $10 billion to save 140,000 teacher jobs in this coming school year.
Congressman Obey explained his action this way, “When a ship is sinking, you don’t worry about redesigning

NEA RA gonna be long and angry this year… � Dr. Homeslice's Blog

NEA RA gonna be long and angry this year… � Dr. Homeslice's Blog

NEA RA gonna be long and angry this year…

JUNE 30, 2010

tags: SIG, RTTT, Duncan, Obama, Teaching, NEA, NEA Representative Assembly, ESEA

by drhomeslice

In just a few days the NEA RA will begin; delegates from all over the country are arriving in rain-soaked New Orleans to begin the process of unpacking and excercising their parlimentary procedural muscles.

I’ve been here a few days already at one of the many preconferences. I have to say, this is going to to one angry RA. Perhaps the angriest I’ve ever been too. I think this is my fifth RA, they tend to blur together into one big long parlimentary procedural motion.

Perceieved federal impotence and dysfunction

I think the delegates will target the federal funding we’ve recieved over the last year. Specifically RttT and SIG grants. And they’re not happy with Obama, but Duncan’s name keeps coming up and up again. Not in a pleasant way. We’re dealing with a membership loss, the first since the early 1980s, and are going to collectively have to deal with the loss of revenue. Not to mention all the