Andrew Breitbart dead at 43 - Tim Mak - POLITICO.com

Andrew Breitbart dead at 43 - Tim Mak - POLITICO.com:

Andrew Breitbart dead at 43

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Breitbart died early Thursday morning in Los Angeles. | Reuters

By TIM MAK | 3/1/12 9:25 AM EST

Conservative journalist and activist Andrew Breitbart died early Thursday morning in Los Angeles at the age of 43, says a report from Big Journalism, one of Breitbart’s websites.

“Andrew passed away unexpectedly from natural causes shortly after midnight this morning in Los Angeles,” writes Big Journalism writer Larry Solov. “We have lost a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a dear friend, a patriot and a happy warrior.”

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Breitbart.com editor-in-chief Joel Pollak confirmed to POLITICO on Thursday morning that Breitbart had passed away.

Conservative pundit Jonah Goldberg said Thursday on Fox that Breitbart was “the most fearless guy I ever knew. He truly loved th

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0312/73493.html#ixzz1nsVWuUYu

This Absurd Takeover of Our Public Life - Bridging Differences - Education Week

This Absurd Takeover of Our Public Life - Bridging Differences - Education Week:

This Absurd Takeover of Our Public Life

by Deborah Meier

Dear Diane,

I've spent the week fighting a cold of some sort, and it has worn me out. But not so badly that I didn't read your Tuesday blast on "How to Demoralize Teachers." I've a lot to add to it, but first I must return to something I touched on in a recent blog entry of my own.

Regarding Diego Rivera: In the late 1930s my father's friend from college days (City College of New York after World War I), Jay Lovestone, had given up being a left-winger and a Communist-of-some-sort and had a dilemma. He had a set of murals that Diego Rivera had painted in 1933 for his Workers School in New York. It had closed and he had managed to give away all but one. The one he couldn't get rid of was Rivera's re-doing of the central mural intended for Rockefeller Center, which the Rockefellers had tried to get him to change! Rivera stuck to his guns, and you won't therefore find it in Rockefeller Center. Would we like it, he asked? A bit naively,

Test scores. No honor. Just blame. « Fred Klonsky

Test scores. No honor. Just blame. « Fred Klonsky:

Test scores. No honor. Just blame.

by Fred Klonsky

I can tell you that every teacher I know is outraged at the past week’s events in New York. The publication of phony evaluation data based on phony test scores by the New York Times. The attack on individual teachers by Rupert Murdoch’s Post.

It is a witch hunt. And teachers are the new witches.

It was therefore very ironic on Monday night when our school board recognized honor schools in our district. Including mine.

I have often mentioned that I teach in a great school. We are small, with less than 400 students. We have terrific

Video: Despite growing public outcry, Chicago schools closed.

by Fred Klonsky

Cuts to retiree health insurance. IEA? Anybody home?

by Fred Klonsky

If you’re looking for action in response to Illinois Governor Quinn’s cuts to state aid to retired teachers’ health insurance, don’t go to the IEA website.

No emails from IEA’S Government Relations either.

Deafening silence.

Two things:

Go to the petition site and let the governor know that retirees should not have to double their payments when they and current teachers have paid and are paying their share.

Then, if you’re a delegate to the IEA RA vote for the Organizers’ New Business Item. Or contact your delegates

Dear President Obama: Dump Pritzker.

by Fred Klonsky

Dear President Obama,

On February 21st your campaign announced the naming of six national co-chairs from Illinois.

The list included Bill Daley, Sen. Dick Durbin, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Penny Pritzker, Rep. Jan Schakowsky and Alan Solow.

Yesterday Unite Here, which represents hotel employees at Penny Pritzker’s Hyatt Hotels, revealed that Penny Pritzker underpays the property taxes on her Chicago 7-bathroom mansion.

This is the same Penny Pritzker who refuses to come to an agreement with the union that represents the hotel

Jersey Jazzman: Useless, Reformy Polls

Jersey Jazzman: Useless, Reformy Polls:

Useless, Reformy Polls

by Duke

While I'm sure the corporate reformers here in Jersey will be jumping up and down, this question in the latest Qinnipiac poll is basically meaningless:

32. Governor Christie wants to limit teacher tenure. Do you think this is a good idea or a bad idea?

Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Good idea 60% 79% 45% 63% 62% 59% Bad idea 32 13 46 29 31 33 DK/NA 8 8 9 7 7 9 Union HAVE KIDS.... Philly HsHlds <18 PubSch Urban SbUrbn ExUrbn land Shore Good idea 53% 64% 68% 47% 55% 81% 57% 66% Bad idea 40 30 25 46 35 16 35 26 DK/NA 7 6 7 7 10 3 9 8

I we interpret this question literally, the NJEA "wants to limit teacher tenure" as well, as they have proposed

Ken Robinson on education reform | Seattle Education

Ken Robinson on education reform | Seattle Education:

Ken Robinson on education reform

by seattleducation2011

We were fortunate enough to select a school in California for my daughter when she started Pre-K that taught children that there was no “right way” to solve a problem whether it was math or any other subject. My daughter remained in this school until midway through middle school when we moved to a Seattle suburb. The school that she attended had high WASL scores. The difference between the schools and methods of teaching were so strikingly different. The math was dumbed down and the students were quite adept at memorizing. My daughter struggled within this environment which was not about learning really, it was more about memorizing.

Fortunately we found Nova High School which has been a beacon to many students who for whatever reason

Viewpoints: Sac City board needs to take districtwide view of school closings - Viewpoints - The Sacramento Bee

Viewpoints: Sac City board needs to take districtwide view of school closings - Viewpoints - The Sacramento Bee:

Viewpoints: Sac City board needs to take districtwide view of school closings

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By Patrick Kennedy
Special to The Bee

Published: Thursday, Mar. 1, 2012 - 12:00 am | Page 13A

A lot has been said in recent weeks about potential school closures in Sacramento.

For too long, the Sacramento City Unified School District has ducked this issue, but we cannot afford to continue to do so. Several factors including declining enrollment and dramatic change in our state's economic landscape have significantly altered the way school districts across California are financing local education, and SCUSD is no exception.

Unfortunately, this discussion often turns parochial, with elected board members focusing more on how such decisions affect their political prospects than how they affect the bottom line of the district and the well-being of our students.

Closing schools in our neighborhoods is never easy. These decisions carry with them impacts that go far beyond dollar savings. Among other things, boards must consider the length and safety of the routes students will take to get to school should their neighborhood school be closed. This hits

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/03/01/4302111/sac-city-board-needs-to-take-districtwide.html#storylink=cpy

OP-ED: Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee— Whee! Maybe?

OP-ED: Michelle Rhee — Whee! Maybe?:

OP-ED: Michelle Rhee — Whee! Maybe?

February 29, 2012, 05:00 AM By Gene Mullin

Gene Mullin Michelle Rhee, the founder of the organization Students First, spoke two weeks ago Wednesday night as part of the Peninsula Speakers Series. Her speech was one of five she has scheduled throughout California and which have been met with some mild and generally orderly protest by teacher groups. Ms. Rhee was the chancellor for three and one-half years of the Washington, D.C. public school system, a tenure that catapulted her into the ether of educational change and reform, and all the attendant controversy. She was selected by one-term mayor Adrian Fenty and left when he lost his reelection bid. She came to her job after a three-year teaching career in Baltimore, self described as being challenged as a teacher, and as part of the Teach For America program. From this modest experience and with no administrative credential, she attracted much attention from her prolonged battles with the unions, many parents and other community members. She successfully tackled one of the more difficult tasks in any district, closing schools, and eventually closed two dozen under enrolled and underperforming schools. This was clearly needed for better budgeting and much reduced enrollment. Beyond that, her credentials as an agent of change are somewhat slender, and her tactics subject to scrutiny. Some of her worthy ideas are submerged by her tendency to use an anecdotal evidence approach rather than verifiable results. She’s not a fan of tenure and would like to be able to hire and fire without regard to length of service in the profession. She bemoans the “last

Diane Ravitch to challenge education reforms | Shreveporttimes | shreveporttimes.com

Speaker to challenge education reforms | Shreveporttimes | shreveporttimes.com:

Speaker to challenge education reforms

11:00 PM, Feb. 29, 2012 |

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• Bobby Jindal

Diane Ravitch, an education adviser to former president George Bush and now an opponent of many of the reforms being pushed by Gov. Bobby Jindal, is the keynote speaker at a today session of the Louisiana School Boards Association meeting here.

Ravitch is a former assistant secretary of education who now says many of the education reforms she once advocated are wrong.

"It's an intellectual rebirth from what she once was," said Don Whittinghill, researcher for the LSBA. "Now, she's more of a philosopher than an educator," which was her profession for 40 years.

Her main point, he said, is "We're making a serious mistake with ou