Whodunit!
 |
| Police Sketch of Burglar |
The good news is that I went straight to the Apple store and bought a new MacBook Pro, so be on the lookout for some shnazzy new stuff here in a few days. There are few shopping experiences more pleasing than the
Thursday, April 7, 2011
School Tech Connect: Whodunit!
School Tech Connect: Whodunit!
School TechConnect is closing. Just for a couple days--- we were burglarized here and I've got to get reorganized. The funny thing is this----when you walk into a burglarized house, you get this sick feeling, but my sick feeling was oddly specific. I immediately thought, "Crap! This is an omen about Wisconsin--- they're gonna steal the election."
The good news is that I went straight to the Apple store and bought a new MacBook Pro, so be on the lookout for some shnazzy new stuff here in a few days. There are few shopping experiences more pleasing than the
The good news is that I went straight to the Apple store and bought a new MacBook Pro, so be on the lookout for some shnazzy new stuff here in a few days. There are few shopping experiences more pleasing than the
Schools Matter: MichelleFirst
Schools Matter: MichelleFirst
MichelleFirst
Gene Lyons has this beautiful piece in Salon:
Except for weight loss potions, no area of American life is more prone to fads, panaceas and miracle cures than public education. Everybody agrees that schools are failing, and since everybody went to school almost everybody's an expert.
Naturally, it's assumed that the biggest experts are those with the most money. Hence the philanthropic enterprises of what Bob Somerby calls the "Billionaire Boys Club" draw outsize attention. Whether it's New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg or Microsoft's Bill Gates, the guy with the thickest wallet is assumed to have all the answers.
Even when that person's badly misinformed. Consider Gates' recent speech to the
NYC Public School Parents: Chancellor Resigns Yet Again
NYC Public School Parents: Chancellor Resigns Yet Again
Chancellor Resigns Yet Again
April 7, 2011 (GBN News): In another surprise announcement, Dennis Walcott resigned today, just hours after being named NY City Schools Chancellor. After a ten second nationwide search, Mayor Bloomberg has named Fox News personality Glenn Beck to replace him. No reason was given for Mr. Walcott’s move. However, the sudden resignation is in keeping with a growing tradition among NY City Schools Chancellors.
The choice of Mr. Beck is widely seen as an effort to curry favor with Governor
Prison Versus Education: NAACP Report Spotlights Spending, Population Ratios: LAist
Prison Versus Education: NAACP Report Spotlights Spending, Population Ratios: LAist
The NAACP's "Misplaced Priorities" LA County data map
Prison Versus Education: NAACP Report Spotlights Spending, Population Ratios
The NAACP's "Misplaced Priorities" LA County data map
Today the NAACP released a report called "Misplaced Priorities," which "examines America's escalating levels of prison spending and its impact on state budgets and our nation’s children." Among the six cities explored in the report is Los Angeles, where "more than a billion taxpayer dollars are spent every year to incarcerate people from Los Angeles neighborhoods where less than 20 percent of Los Angeles residents live."
One of the focal points of the report is the contrast between the education system and the prison
This Week In Education: Reform: What Teachers And Parents Really Think
This Week In Education: Reform: What Teachers And Parents Really Think
Reform: What Teachers And Parents Really Think
A lot of people I know feel overwhelmed by the amount of information coming at them each day and the clamor of opinions and the buzz of emotions surrounding school reform. This blog is designed in part to reduce those feelings and make it easier to track education issues without spending all day doing it. That being said, there are times when it's worth delving deeper -- if only to get a reminder of how these issues play out in the real world, how strongly people in schools feel about them. My Chicago schools blog has a lot of comments and a healthy debate -- closely moderated to prevent
Magazines: Atlantic Magazine Nominated For Autism Story
The only education-related article I saw during my quick scan of the list of 2011 National Magazine Award finalists is the Atlantic Magazine's article Autism's First Child,” by John Donvan and Caren Zucker. Read the story or watch the video about what and how they found their subject.
IEA publishes Koch and Wal-Mart boycott info. « Fred Klonsky's blog
IEA publishes Koch and Wal-Mart boycott info. « Fred Klonsky's blog
IEA publishes Koch and Wal-Mart boycott info.
As a result of our New Business Item passed at the IEA RA a month ago, the IEA has published a letter from President Ken Swanson that includes information about the anti-union practices of the Koch brothers and Wal-Mart. As directed by the RA, the IEA website also includes a thorough list of consumer products made by Koch brother owned companies.
The link also takes note of the role of the Koch brothers funding of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, which has been responsible for intimidation of pro-labor academics at Michigan public universities.
Swanson says:
At the 2011 Illinois Education Association Representative Assembly, a new business item was passed that asked IEA to please let its members know about some of the big businesses that are behind the current anti-public education
Will Michigan Teachers Walk? | Labor Notes
Will Michigan Teachers Walk? | Labor Notes
Michigan teachers are voting whether to authorize bold actions to challenge the king-like powers of the state's "emergency financial managers." Public sector strikes are illegal in Michigan, although some teachers (like these Detroiters) have mounted successful strikes. Photo: Jim West.
Will Michigan Teachers Walk?
Howard Ryan
| April 7, 2011
Michigan teachers are voting whether to authorize bold actions to challenge the king-like powers of the state's "emergency financial managers." Public sector strikes are illegal in Michigan, although some teachers (like these Detroiters) have mounted successful strikes. Photo: Jim West.- Login or register to post comments
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Faced with a Republican onslaught whose impact could be deeper than that seen in Wisconsin and Ohio, the Michigan Education Association is taking a membership vote to authorize job actions.
The day after busing a 100-member delegation to join the Madison protests in mid-March, MEA President Iris Salters asked her union’s 110 local presidents to conduct the votes among 155,000 teachers and school support staff.
A yes vote would authorize MEA “to engage in significant activities—up to and including a work stoppage”—that will “increase the pressure on our legislators” to “end these attacks.” Specific demands on the legislators were not spelled out. The votes are to be conducted by April 14, but the MEA will not release results unti
Save Our Schools March & National Call To Action | California Progress Report
Save Our Schools March & National Call To Action | California Progress Report
Save Our Schools March & National Call To Action
By Lisa Schiff
Exon Mobil, $156 million. Bank of America, $1.9 billion. General Electric, $4.1 billion. Chevron, $19 million. These highly profitable companies, and many others like them, received these extraordinarily large amounts of money back as tax refunds. Yes that’s right, Republican lawmakers at the state and federal levels are trying to convince the American public that we need to decimate critical services like Medicare and public education so that we can hand over our money to these companies.
In the most intense ideological battle since Newt Gingrich was in office, Republicans at state and federal levels are holding fast to plans to extend tax breaks and implement drastic cuts to a variety of social services, including education. In California, the health care community, K-12 public schools and public institutions of higher education are steeling themselves for unknown levels of losses.
Church and State: How Bad Religion Gets It Wrong on Government
By Rev. Peter Laarman
Progressive Christians Uniting
Competent journalist friends of mine have been doing good reporting lately on the unholy intersections between conservative religion and conservative political ideology within Tea Party and Republican circles. Whereas lazy corporate media types tried to convince us that the Tea Party marks a break with Religious Right dominance inside the GOP, it was always obvious to serious observers that an anti-tax gospel has been a major feature of Religious Right teaching for decades. And thus it was equally obvious that the smarmy Ralph Reeds of this world would surely find their place in any new Grand Coalition of anti-government activists.
Is Parent Revolution an Astroturf Group? | Mother Jones
Is Parent Revolution an Astroturf Group? | Mother Jones
McKinley Elementary School parent, Oralia Velasquez.
Is Parent Revolution an Astroturf Group?
McKinley Elementary School parent, Oralia Velasquez. I went to Compton to find out.
DONATEThu Apr. 7, 2011 3:00 AM PDT
Like all the houses on this block of southern Los Angeles, education reformer Oralia Velasquez's bungalow has bars on the windows and doors. I ring her doorbell one night as her neighbors—men in blue uniform shirts, kids carrying soccer balls—enter a few of the pastel houses that line the street, greeted by barking dogs and the wafting smell of dinner. We sit near family photos and statues of the Virgin de Guadalupe and discuss the complex national education debate playing out now at her daughter's elementary school.
Until the nation's first "parent trigger" law passed in the school district, news coverage of Compton was often reduced to gang violence and drive-by shootings. But the flatlands are also dotted with graceful, dilapidated hom
Michelle Rhee's political scorecard
Michelle Rhee's political scorecard
Michelle Rhee's political scorecard
Michelle Rhee’s constant support of right-wing governors has many wondering about her political affiliations (as proof of this: go to Google, type “Is Michelle Rhee”, and see what the top searches are). While Rhee is quick to label herself a Democrat, many commentators have questioned her bona fides. Washington Post reporter Mike DeBonis recently wondered if Rhee is becoming a “right-wing darling”, a blogger for the Asian-Pacific Americans for Progress has labeled her response to the Erasure Gate scandal as “the kind of response you would expect from the right-wing”. Rhee openly expressed reservations about voting for Obama in the 2008 election, and hasrecently partnered with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Looking at the politicians Rhee has worked with since leaving DC, it seemed that all were Republicans. So we decided to start keeping score. For your information (and entertainment), here’s a chart of the governors that
Jersey Jazzman: Chris Christie: Lying Liar
Jersey Jazzman: Chris Christie: Lying Liar
Chris Christie: Lying Liar
Maybe it's a function of writing day in and day out about the lazy job the press does on calling Chris Christie on his bull. But I wasn't surprised in the slightest that Diane Sawyer let him get away - yet again - with some sensationally bald-faced lying:
DIANE SAWYER: We have seen all the high-octane debate. Debate is a polite word sometimes for what's going on about education in New Jersey. I was looking up and I saw the ad running now that has been taken out, which talks about you and keeps saying, "Chris Christie is making the wrong choices for New Jersey." [Critics say] that larger class sizes put the children at risk, that cutting funding for the schools over $1
Benjamin Todd Jealous: Prison Spending Bleeds the Education System
Benjamin Todd Jealous: Prison Spending Bleeds the Education System
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By Benjamin Todd Jealous & Rod Paige
There is a bipartisan tide of lawmakers who are trying to fix our nation's out-of-control corrections system, and make funding for education the priority.
California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill to transfer thousands of nonviolent offenders from state prisons to county jails, an admirable effort to reduce prison overcrowding and make treatment programs more effective. In Virginia, Gov. Robert McDonnell is working to close eight prison facilities and use that money to support higher education.
And Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked in his 2010 State of the State address: "What does it say
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