A world of possibility for Rhee after D.C. |
| Commentaries |
An Interview with Izzy Kalman: About Bullies, Bullying and Coping |
Yes, it’s the Superman Movement. Most filmmakers must secretly dream of a sequel that is bigger, better, and more important than the original. The makers of Waiting for Superman are apparently no different. “For us, the theatrical release is just the start of social action,” says Jim Berk, CEO of the aptly named Participant Media, the studio behind the movie (see here). “When I started the company, it was to motivate the grass roots and really get people to embrace an issue, and the idea was that the politics would follow,” confirms Jeff Skoll, Participant’s founder and chairman.
In 2009, these leaders decided Participant needed its own organizing arm, so they invented TakePart.com, a website tied to an extensive network of social action websites. TakePart, which constructs a special operation for every film, also offers advice to potential activists on their chosen issues – what to do and how to do it.
Charter school funders gloated and applauded when an early preview clip of Superman was shown at a
CLEVELAND — A tape recording of the shooting deaths of four Kent State University students by Ohio National Guardsmen in 1970 reveals the sound of pistol shots 70 seconds earlier, a newspaper reported yesterday, citing the work of a forensic audio expert.
If the pistol fire is authenticated, it could prove a theory that the Guardsmen thought they were being shot at during a campus Vietnam War protest and also could back up witnesses who said an FBI informant monitoring the protest fired warning shots because he felt threatened.
The National Guard opened fire on student protesters on May 4, 1970, killing four and injuring nine others. Eight Guardsmen were acquitted of federal civil rights charges four years later.
Despite a Chicago Public Schools promise Thursday to delay demolition of the Whittier School field house for six months, Pilsen protesters refused to abandon a sit-in because schools CEO Ron Huberman would not promise to convert the field house to a library.
The City Council on Wednesday "ordered" Chicago Public Schools to postpone demolition of the Whittier School field house and restore heat cut off on protesting Pilsen parents.
WASHINGTON- In this week’s address, President Obama said that, even as we work to rebuild our economy and jumpstart job creation, it is imperative that we offer our children a quality education in order for America to succeed in the 21st century. While Republicans in Congress are looking to cut education funding by 20 percent, the President remains committed to enacting reforms that provide every child with a world-class education while at the same time equipping them with the skills and training they need to compete in the new global economy. The President will continue fighting for an education system that helps to build a strong middle class and gives our children the best possible chance in life.
The audio and video of the address will be available online at www.whitehouse.gov at 6:00 a.m. EDT, Saturday, October 9, 2010.
Remarks of President Barack Obama
As Prepared for Delivery
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Washington, DC
The other day, I was talking about education with some folks in the backyard of an Albuquerque home, and someone asked a question that’s stayed with me. He asked, if we don’t have homes to go to, what good is an education? It was a heartfelt question, one that could be asked by anyone who’s lost a home or a job in this recession.
Because if you’re out of work or facing foreclosure, all that really matters is a new job. All that really matters is a roof over your head. All that really matters is getting back on your feet. That’s why I’m fighting each and every day to jumpstart job-creation in the private sector; to help our small business owners grow and hire; to rebuild our economy so it lifts up a middle class that’s been battered for so long.
But even as we focus on doing all that; even as we focus on speeding up our economic recovery; we also know that when it comes to jobs, opportunity, and prosperity in the 21st century, nothing is more important than the quality of your education. At a time when most of the new jobs being created will require some kind of higher education; when countries that out-educate us today will outcompete us tomorrow, giving our kids the best education possible is an economic imperative.
That’s why, from the start of my administration, we’ve been fighting to offer every child in this country a world-class education – from the cradle to the classroom, from college through a career. Earlier this week, I announced a new Skills for America’s Future initiative that will help community colleges and employers match what’s taught in the classroom with what’s needed in the private sector, so we can connect students looking for jobs with businesses looking to hire.
We’re eliminating tens of billions of dollars in wasteful subsidies for banks to administer student loans, and using that money to make college more affordable for millions of students. And we’ve launched a Race to the Top in our states to make sure our students, all of them, are graduating from high school ready for college – so we can meet our goal of graduating a higher proportion of students from college than any other country in the world by 2020.
And yet, if Republicans in Congress had their way, we’d have a harder time meeting that goal. We’d have a harder time offering our kids the best education possible. Because they’d have us cut education by 20 percent – cuts that would reduce financial aid for eight million students; cuts that would leave our great and undervalued community colleges without the resources they need to prepare our graduates for the jobs of the future.
Now, it is true that when it comes to our budget, we have real challenges to meet. And if we’re serious about getting our fiscal house in order, we’ll need to make some tough choices. I’m prepared to make those choices. But what I’m not prepared to do is shortchange our children’s education. What I’m not prepared to do is undercut their economic future, your economic future, or the economic future of the United States of America.
Nothing would be more detrimental to our prospects for success than cutting back on education. It would consign America to second place in our fiercely competitive global economy. But China and India aren’t playing for second. South Korea and Germany aren’t playing for second. They’re playing for first – and so should America.
Instead of being shortsighted and shortchanging our kids, we should be doubling down on them. We should be giving every child in America a chance to make the most of their lives; to fulfill their God-given potential. We should be fighting to lead the global economy in this century, just like we did in the last. And that’s what I’ll continue fighting to do in the months and years ahead. Thanks, everybody, and have a nice weekend.
Even in suspending Proposition 98, after hemming and hawing all night long, for only the second time, the Legislature approved Prop 98 spending of $1.2 billion more than Gov. Schwarzenegger proposed in May. And then lawmakers tacked on $3 billion on top of that.
That’s the good news. The bad news is how they did it, with $1.9 billion of the $3 billion ($1.7 billion for K-12, $200 million for community colleges) deferred until the next fiscal year. In the end, that may leave school districts worse off than before.
Here’s why: There’s a good chance that for many reasons the deferred money will be like vaporware – an undelivered promise. The state budget is built on optimistic assumptions of $5 billion extra funding from the federal government and higher state revenue than the
In this political season of faux anti-establishment anger born of very real economic desperation, public educators have become the villain du jour, their reputations collateral damage in the war against “big government.” In a remarkable slight of hand, the super rich who imploded the economy, manufacturing the recession which now enrages the public, have successfully misdirected the public’s justifiable anger away from them, and towards teachers.
This anti-teacher rage is focused on the mythical cartoon character – the “Bad Teacher” – which according to recent explosion in press on education generated by the documentary “Waiting for Superman”, plagues our public schools. The “Bad Teacher” is no one in specific, but rather, a sort of free-floating, ill-defined stereotype: he is an inept, uncaring, self-interested bureaucrat waiting for his pension, not only disinterested in students, but actively engaged in standing in the way of student achievement, rather than encouraging it. I imagine the “Bad
