Schools Matter: Bill Gates Filthy Wealth, Bolivian Chickens, and Victimized Schoolkids

Schools Matter: Bill Gates Filthy Wealth, Bolivian Chickens, and Victimized Schoolkids:

Bill Gates Filthy Wealth, Bolivian Chickens, and Victimized Schoolkids

NOTE: By now, I suppose this is old news. I tried to publish it in more general venues--reaching beyond our rather narrow education audience. Of course general audiences just don't give a damn about our plight. But I regard myself as a unique commentator on this particular issue. . . . I have, after all, actually laid hands on a Bolivian chicken.

by Susan Ohanian 

Buckets of money give Bill Gates the singular notion that he knows what it means to stand in other peoples' shoes. In his June 7 blog, Gates pronounced, “It's pretty clear to me that just about anyone who's living in extreme poverty is better off if they have chickens. In fact, if I were in their shoes, that's what I would do--I would raise chickens." Gates goes on to give lessons in chicken husbandry and economics, including the fecundity of chickens and how chicken ownership can bring empowerment to women.

In keeping with the Gates gospel that he knows what people need, Gates announced a gift of 100,000 chickens to impoverished nations worldwide, including sub-Saharan Africa and Bolivia. The Financial Times reported  that Cesar Cocarico, Bolivia's minister of land and rural development, was insulted. "[Gates] does not know Bolivia's reality to think we are living 500 years ago, in the middle of the jungle not knowing how to produce. Respectfully, he should stop talking about Bolivia, and once he knows more, apologize to us." As it happens,  Bolivia’s economy has been steadily growing for the last decade, with per-capita gross domestic product jumping from roughly $1,200 to $3,100. The Guardian stepped up with the information that Bolivia produces 197 million chickens a year. 

US media, who come  to praise Gates, showed no interest in his missteps regarding what Bolivians need. 

 For decades I have stood in shoes that would give Gates bunions. Since my first job at Grover Cleveland High School in New York City to twenty years of teaching disaffected students to studying schools in twenty-six states as prep for writing about how teachers teach and kids learn, my close contact with public schools shows me the harm Gates money has wrought. What's Schools Matter: Bill Gates Filthy Wealth, Bolivian Chickens, and Victimized Schoolkids:

Stand With Oaxaca Teacher's Strike | BustED Pencils

Stand With Oaxaca Teacher's Strike | BustED Pencils:

Stand With Oaxaca Teacher’s Strike

Mexican teachers in the poor, heavily indigenous states of Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Michoacan have bravely stood up in the face of government attempts to smash one of the last bastions of unionized workers in Mexico, education. The Oaxaca teacher’s strike is in response to the so-called educational reforms being pushed by the Enrique Pena Nieto government. These are not educational reforms at all but labor reforms. One of the more controversial elements of these reforms is that teachers will be subject to evaluations upon which their jobs depend. The teacher training schools or normals are also being threatened, especially since the disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Normal school.

The normal have been a pathway to employment for the impoverished as well as a source of political activity and community involvement in rural societies. In response, the teacher’s union, Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación went on strike in Oaxaca. The ensuing crackdown on the Oaxaca teacher’s strike and imprisonment of  (CNTE) leaders Aciel Sibaja, Ruben Nunez and Francisco Villalobos and brutal slaying of at least 4 demonstrators on June 19th illustrates the desperation of the Mexican government to contain and silence the teacher’s union.

American teachers should stand in solidarity with the CNTE and the Oaxaca teacher’s strike, as we are fighting the same set of neoliberal, corporate, interests in our system of education here in America. Our government is an ally of Pena Nieto. They have stood by and supported him in the face of his government’s violence, repression and human rights violations. There has been relative silence about the latest atrocities because they support the same vision of education. If faced with the same political clarity and courage exhibited by the Mexican teachers, our ruling class may respond in kind with repression. American teacher’s unions should demand an end to aid to the Mexican government until the CNTE confirms that the repression has stopped. Our struggle is the same.

We educators, here in the US are facing the same agenda, top down reforms in which our voices have not been included, increased, arbitrary accountability and job insecurity to fit a business model of education. The CNTE should inspire us all to stand up. We do not honor their example and their struggle by simply well wishing and liking facebook statuses. We should support them by supporting ourselves, standing up to the corporate education Stand With Oaxaca Teacher's Strike | BustED Pencils:

Turtle Learning: JUNE - where has it gone? National Caribbean American Heritage Month. LGBT Pride Month. PTSD Awareness Month? African-American Music Appreciation Month.

Turtle Learning: JUNE - where has it gone? National Caribbean American Heritage Month. LGBT Pride Month. PTSD Awareness Month? African-American Music Appreciation Month.:

JUNE - where has it gone? National Caribbean American Heritage Month. LGBT Pride Month. PTSD Awareness Month? African-American Music Appreciation Month.

Perhaps I haven't written all this month - despite the many issues and causes -- because I've had my mind on my cancers.  I admit I am somewhat absorbed by the process, as well as the side effects. The way I look has also been somewhat absorbing - although I find selfies aren't the best way to capture the process.  I havetwo cancers - - ovarian and endometrial.  Most of it was removed by way of an operation ( non-invasive luckily ) but they feel they have to try to kill anything that might remain. 

Here is one photo I took to show my red face and wounded chest sores,  as well as using a wonderful cap I bought through the Internet and a beautiful turtle scarf given to me by my friend Jim.   The redness is from Dexamethasone a steroid.   I am not sure why the sores form on my skin. A type of burning perhaps.  Why I take a steroid isn't totally clear to me. I do remember my mother's Bell's Palsy -- the first time around the time of the Rosenberg's execution when there were no steroids and she had to sit in a dark room for days and months I think to heal.  The second time was much later but unfortunately my father was dying of horrendously painful bone cancer. My mother was his caretaker - impossible for an 83 year-old woman to care for an 83 year-old man who couldn't move.  But this second time she was cured rather quickly with steroids.

This one I took at my first chemo.  I had three chemo treatments with 3 weeks in between, starting in March.
That took me up to May when I had 3 radiation treatments -- one each week for 3 weeks. Radiation seems less intrusive in my case. Don't think it's true for others. One finds out that no one else is going to be able to tell you what you will experience.CANCER IS DIFFERENT FOR EVERYONE!  

 My hair started to fall out after the second treatment I think. Or maybe the third.  This shows areas of thinning.

So I decided to get a professional hair cut from Don Morand who has been Turtle Learning: JUNE - where has it gone? National Caribbean American Heritage Month. LGBT Pride Month. PTSD Awareness Month? African-American Music Appreciation Month.:

CBE and ALEC Preparing Students for the Gig Economy | educationalchemy

CBE and ALEC Preparing Students for the Gig Economy | educationalchemy:

CBE and ALEC Preparing Students for the Gig Economy

“Career and College Ready?” (image link)

Pearson of course was ahead of the pack as usual developing a school to labor pipeline that suites the corporate masters.  As this blog explains, Competency Based Education becomes the framework for “badges” instead of credit hours and prepare students for career and college which is code for the new “gig” economy. According to Pearson: “Alternative learning credentials including college coursework, self-directed learning experiences, career training, and continuing education programs can play a powerful role in defining and articulating solo workers’ capabilities. Already badges that represent these credentials are serving an important purpose in fostering trust between solo workers, employers, and project teams because they convey skill transparency and deliver seamless verification of capabilities.”http://www.pearsoned.com/education-blog/the-rise-of-the-solo-economy-what-it-means-for-workers-and-credentials/

I could -at this point -just say ’nuff said.

But I won’t.

CBE 101

First, a brief background: Competency based education (or CBE) has been a rapidly developing alternative to traditional public education. While proponents tout it as “disruptive innovation” critics examine how disruptive translates into “dismantle”, meaning that CBE is a system by which public schools can, and will be, dismantled. This is not ancillary. It was designed to create a new privately-run profiteering model by which education can be delivered to “the masses.” Think: Outsourcing.

CBE delivers curriculum, instruction and assessments through online programming owned by third-party (corporate) organizations that are paid for with your tax dollars. Proponents of CBE use catchy language like “personalized” and “individualized” learning. Translation? Children seated alone interfacing with a computer, which monitors and adjusts the materials according to the inputs keyed in by the child. See Newton’s Datapalooza here.

So gone are the days of “credit hours” earned by spending a certain amount of hours in a classroom. Instead, children move at an individual pace detached from the larger group or collaborative learning experiences which CBE pimps try to warn us are ‘keeping certain kids back” from their “true potential.”

The immediate advantages of control and profits for the neoliberal privatizers is quite evident and well documented. SeeTalmage for more on CBE history and my own summary here.

Let’s summarize what the outcomes of the CBE paradigm of public schools will be:CBE and ALEC Preparing Students for the Gig Economy | educationalchemy:

CURMUDGUCATION Baloney Emporium Hot Dogs On Sale!

CURMUDGUCATION:

CURMUDGUCATION Baloney Emporium Hot Dogs On Sale!

PA: Cybers Are Delusional

It's been little more than a week since the bricks and mortar portion of the charter school industry took a big, hard swipe at their cyber-siblings. As you may recall, three major charter school groups released a "report" that was basically a blueprint for how to slap the cyber-schools with enough regulation to make them finally behave. The report was rough, noting all of the worst findi

4 by Peter Greene / 2h hide  //  save

MD: State Super Gets Writing Lesson

Les Perelman is one of my heroes. For years he has poked holes in the junk science that is computer-graded writing, bringing some sanity and clarity to a field clogged with silly puffery.We are all indebted to Fred Klonsky for publishing an exchange between Perelman (retired Director of Writing Across the Curriculum at MIT) and Jack Smith, the Maryland State Superintendent of Schools. Maryland is

11 by Peter Greene / 3h 

YESTERDAY

OK: An Example for All of Us

Oklahoma has taken its share of lumps in the ed debates. Their legislature is not quite as determined to burn public education to the ground as are the legislatures of North Carolina or Florida. It's not quite as committed to cashing in on the charter revolution as Ohio. But Oklahoma remains in the grip of reformster baloney, and teachers are tired and frustrated. The word 'frustrated" comes

54 by Peter Greene / 18h 

School Accountability Camps

Now that ESSA has opened the door (maybe, kind of) to new approaches to school accountability. What are the possibilities? Mike Petrilli of the Fordham Institute has outlinbed four possibilities in a list calculated to help us all conclude that only one of the possibilities is really legit. The list apparently grows out of the Fordham contest to design a compatibility system; I entered that compet

12 by Peter Greene / 19h 

 CURMUDGUCATION:

The Dangers of Eliminating Teacher Preparation

The Dangers of Eliminating Teacher Preparation:

The Dangers of Eliminating Teacher Preparation

Wisconsin is thinking about letting anyone teach. No degree will be required to enter the classroom and work with students. Isn’t it bizarre to encourage young people to go to college but claim their teachers don’t need a college degree? Surely this is quackery.

But I thought it would be a good time to do a reality check, and provide a refresher course, as to what the role of teacher preparation should demand.

For anyone who loves groups like Teach for America, this is for you too. Five weeks of training and a degree in anything is also not sufficient to teach America’s children.

Becoming a real teacher takes long-term preparation. Here is what’s involved.

Child Development

Unless teachers understand appropriate milestones, or steps for each age and developmental level including middle and high school, children will become frustrated. We already see problems with school reform that places an unreasonable burden on children in the early years.

Increasingly, despite pleas for restraint by child specialists, very young children are being pushed to learn more before they are developmentally ready.

Good teacher education includes serious study about timing for appropriate instruction The Dangers of Eliminating Teacher Preparation:

Boston Latin's racial problems reflect US school resegregation - CSMonitor.com

Boston Latin's racial problems reflect US school resegregation - CSMonitor.com:

Boston Latin's racial problems reflect US school resegregation

FINDING THE PATTERNS The resignation this week of the principal is the latest twist in a federal investigation of racism at one of America's most prestigious public schools. 

 BOSTON — When the principal of America’s oldest school announced her surprise resignation, it was a reminder of a problem far bigger than one school – the growing resegregation of American education.

After months of pressure over the institution’s handling of racially charged incidents, Boston Latin School’s (BLS) Lynne Mooney Teta stepped down on Tuesday after nine years at the helm.

The incident that garnered the heaviest media attention and which is currently under investigation by the United States Attorney General’s office, involved a student who was not black threatening to lynch a black female student and using a racial slur.

Recommended: Four campuses where many low-income students are graduating

What followed exacerbated the situation, bringing to the surface deeper issues at the school. The administration didn't inform the girl’s parents. The parents found out much later. Multiple civil-rights groups complained racism was being soft-pedaled at the school. A black student-activist group, BLS Black, made a splash when it released a YouTube video saying some classrooms had racially insensitive dynamics and racial slurs were used in the hallways.

Four campuses where many low-income students are graduating

PHOTOS OF THE DAY Photos of the day 06/24

Ms. Teta sent a resignation letter to the school noting her encouragement at the school community’s efforts to combat “racism and discrimination,” but also acknowledging more had to be done. In a more pointed letter to Superintendent Tommy Chang on Wednesday, she expressed frustration at the way the school and its efforts had been “unfairly judged.”

Overblown or not, how Boston Latin, a prestigious public exam school once known for its racial diversity, reached this point in many ways reflects the broader decline of racial diversity across the American school system and the problems that come with it. By 2009-10, some 38 percent of black students attended schools where 90 percent or more of the students were nonwhite, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. That's up from 33 percent in 1980-81. The numbers are more dramatic for Latinos: 29 percent then; 43 percent by 2009-10. At Boston Latin's racial problems reflect US school resegregation - CSMonitor.com:

The stunning lack of diversity in America's school teachers

The stunning lack of diversity in America's school teachers:

The stunning lack of diversity in America's school teachers

 2024, students who are racial minorities will make up more than half of U.S. classrooms. But minority teachers, if hiring continues at its current pace, will make up only 20.5 percent of the educator workforce. Even 100 years from now, if trends persist, teachers and students in this country will not have comparable levels of diversity.

This gloomy future was estimated based on recent data from the U.S. Department of Education report, "The State of Racial Diversity In the Educator Workforce."

According to the report, the percentage of teachers of color in public elementary and secondary schools only grew five percentage points in 24 years; they were 13 percent of the workforce in 1988 and 18 percent in 2012. This translates into an annual growth rate of 0.2 percent.

If this trend continues, there would be only four teachers of color for every 10 in 2116.

The percentage of students of color in elementary and secondary public schools is growing at a much faster rate. The number of Latino, African American, and Asian students is is estimated to rise to 54 percent by 2024, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Broadly speaking, many studies point to the benefits of diversity to companies' performance. A study by McKinsey in 2012 of 180 publicly traded companies in France, Germany, the U.K., and the U.S. found that companies with more diverse executive teams consistently achieved better financial performance.

In terms of education, studies showed that diversity in the teaching workforce can create significant benefits to students and help to narrow the academic achievement gap between majority and minority students.Research conducted by the University of Arkansas and the University of Colorado examined data from more than 2.9 million Florida students from the 2001-02 school year through 2008-09 school year.

"We find small but significant positive effects when black and white students are assigned to teachers of their own race/ethnicity in reading and when black, white, and Asian/Pacific Islander students are assigned to teachers of their own race/ethnicity in math," the authors write.

Teachers of the same race or ethnicity as their students can serve as positive role models and may be more inclined to hold high expectations for a student's potential. The study recommends aggressive recruiting of minority teachers to help improve the performance of minority students.

So one way of closing the gap is to rapidly increase the supply of teachers of color, but the Department of Education's report paints another bleak picture: There was a lower percentage of non-white students who pursue education-related undergraduate degrees than those who choose other fields of study. This means that even if higher education becomes more diverse, the pool of teachers won't necessarily follow suit.

Students of color were 38 percent of undergraduate campuses in 2012, but The stunning lack of diversity in America's school teachers:

Former Government Watchdog Struck And Killed, he investigated Sacramento's mayor, Kevin Johnson

Former Government Watchdog Struck And Killed By Driver On Upper East Side: Gothamist:

Former Government Watchdog Struck And Killed By Driver On Upper East Side

The driver of an SUV struck and killed a former White House-appointed watchdog while he was crossing the street yesterday, police said. Gerald Walpin, 84, was crossing 79th Street at Lexington Avenue at about 11:00 a.m. when a 52-year-old driver made a left turn at the intersection and struck him, according to the investigation. Emergency responders found Walpin lying in the intersection with head trauma, and he was transported to New York Presbyterian hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.

Walpin, an attorney from New York, had been appointed the inspector general for the federal AmeriCorps program under the George W. Bush administration, the AP reports. In that capacity, he investigated Sacramento's mayor, Kevin Johnson, for the hundreds of thousands of federal dollars that his nonprofit had received from the corporation that runs AmeriCorps—Walpin said that money was spent improperly, occasionally on Johnson's personal expenses. He also alleged that Johnson had engaged in "inappropriate sexual conduct" with three female students who attended charter schools funded by the nonprofit.

But the acting U.S. attorney at the time said that Walpin himself acted improperly in that investigation, in that he excluded evidence from his report that showed some of the money wasspent properly. In 2009, President Obama fired him, though his administration said the firing wasn't because of Walpin's AmeriCorps investigation, but rather because he appeared "disorganized, forgetful, and bizarre," calling into question his competence.

Walpin subsequently sued to get his job back, alleging agism and stating that he had been sick in the meeting where he'd appeared "bizarre," but that shouldn't have been grounds for his firing. He lost that suit in 2010, and since then had been a contributor to publications such as the National Review, the Washington Times, and the Wall Street Journal. He was also a partner with the NYC law firm Katten Muchin and Rosenman LLP for over four decades, according to the AP.

The driver who struck Walpin remained at the scene, and there haven't been any arrests, police said. The investigation is ongoing.Former Government Watchdog Struck And Killed By Driver On Upper East Side: Gothamist:

 Big Education Ape: Report: Kevin Johnson Offered Money to Accuser | News10.net | Sacramento, California | News - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2009/11/report-kevin-johnson-offered-money-to.html



Big Education Ape: As Mayor Johnson's Scandals Grow, Was Obama Admin Wrong to Fire Inspector General? | The Weekly Standard - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2015/07/as-mayor-johnsons-scandals-grow-was.html



Big Education Ape: GOP Inquiry Fails To Show Obama's Firing Of AmeriCorps IG Was Politicized | TPMMuckraker - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2009/11/gop-inquiry-fails-to-show-obamas-firing.html



Inspector general wants hearing with fair judge - http://www.wnd.com/?p=64597

Paying for success in education: Comparing opportunities in the United States and globally | Brookings Institution

Paying for success in education: Comparing opportunities in the United States and globally | Brookings Institution:

Paying for success in education: Comparing opportunities in the United States and globally

“This is about governments using data for performance rather than compliance” was a resounding message coming out of the U.S. Department of Education’s conference on June 10 on the use of Pay for Success contracts in education. These contracts, known globally as social impact bonds, continue to be at the forefront of global conversations about results-based financing mechanisms, and have garnered significant momentum this week with passage of the Social Impact Partnerships for Pay for Results Act in the U.S. While limitations certainly exist, their potential to revolutionize the way we fund social projects is tremendous.

A social impact bond (SIB) is a set of contracts where a government agency agrees to pay for service outputs or outcomes, rather than funding defined service inputs, and an investor provides upfront risk capital to the service provider. The investor is potentially repaid principal and interest contingent on the achievement of the predetermined outputs or outcomes.

In our research on impact bonds at the Center for Universal Education, we have analyzed the use of SIBs for education in the U.S., other high-income countries, and low- and middle-income countries. Practitioners in each of these contexts are having far more similar conversations than they may realize—all are united in their emphasis on using SIBs to build data systems for performance. There is tremendous potential for lessons learned across these experiences and across the broader discussions of results-based financing mechanisms for education globally.

Current SIBs for education globally

There are currently five SIBs for education worldwide: two in the U.S. for preschool education, one in Portugal for computer science classes in primary school, and one each in Canada and Israel for higher education. In addition, a number of countries have used the SIB model to finance interventions to promote both education and employment outcomes for teens—there are 21 such SIBs in the U.K., three in the Netherlands, and one in Germany. There is also a Development Impact Bond (DIB), where a donor rather than government agency serves as the outcome funder, for girls’ education in India. The Center for Universal Education will host a webinar to present the enrollment and learning outcomes of the first year of the DIB on July 5 (register to join here).

U.S. activities to facilitate the use of SIBs for education

At the June 10 conference at the Department of Education, the secretary of education and the deputy assistant to the president for education said that they saw the greatest potential Paying for success in education: Comparing opportunities in the United States and globally | Brookings Institution:

 Big Education Ape: CURMUDGUCATION: Social Impact Bonds for Dummies - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2015/11/curmudgucation-social-impact-bonds-for.html



Big Education Ape: Step-by-step Privatization and Profit: ESSA Delivers Schools to Wall Street with a Bow on Top - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/06/step-by-step-privatization-and-profit.html

Grand jury report: better management needed of Oakland's charter schools - San Jose Mercury News

Grand jury report: better management needed of Oakland's charter schools - San Jose Mercury News:

Grand jury report: better management needed of Oakland's charter schools

OAKLAND -- Although charter schools were intended to be an educational antidote to the city's struggling traditional public schools, many of the city's charter schools aren't outperforming their district-run counterparts, and on average, performed worse last year in statewide results, according to an Alameda County grand jury report released this week.

The grand jury, which looked into Oakland Unified School District's oversight of the city's 37 charter schools, found that 19 scored below district averages for both charter and traditional schools in mathematics in statewide test results. And 17 charter schools scored below the district average in English. The panel reported that 15 charters scored below the district averages in both categories.

Measured against the state, the results are more troubling: 62 percent, or 23 of the city's charter schools, scored below state averages in math, and 65 percent, 24 schools, scored below the state averages in English, according to results from the 2015 California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, which replaced the API scores of previous years. Many of the schools performed similarly on past API tests, the report stated.

For that reason and a host of others, the panel recommended that Oakland Unified adopt a more rigorous oversight and approval process when authorizing and reauthorizing charter schools in the city. It also urged the district to increase its staffing at the Office of Charter Schools and to increase the number of on-site visits to charter schools and their board meetings to ensure stronger accountability, including fiscal and governance oversight, since they are funded on the taxpayer's dime.

While acknowledging that other measures, such as school culture and support, must be taken into consideration alongside state test results to measure a school's success, "it's a concern that some charters are not achieving expected results and yet may still be reauthorized," the panel stated in its report.

The district also should do more to ensure charter school buildings' safety when they are located on nondistrict sites, since they don't need to conform with higher earthquake-resistance standards, the report noted.

The district is reviewing the report and will file an official response within the 90-day deadline, said district spokeswoman Valerie Goode.

"The district remains committed to ensuring all students have access to a high-quality Grand jury report: better management needed of Oakland's charter schools - San Jose Mercury News:

Politicians say they care about education. Now public school advocates are putting them to the test. - The Washington Post

Politicians say they care about education. Now public school advocates are putting them to the test. - The Washington Post:

Politicians say they care about education. Now public school advocates are putting them to the test.

 A Gallup poll taken early this year about what issues are most important to Americans found that 90 percent of Democrats view education as important while 67 percent of Republicans do. Yet education was barely raised by candidates running for the GOP and Democratic presidential candidates — and there’s no indication that it will be a big issue in the expected match-up between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the fall.

Now public school advocates opposed to corporate school reform are trying to get the attention of Democrats and Republicans, asking that both parties include five key principles in their party platforms that will be approved by their respective conventions this summer. If either party listens, it is more likely to be the Democrats, who traditionally are strong supporters of public education — even though the Obama administration embraced many aspects of the  reform movement.

Trump has said very little about education policy other than to repeatedly declare that he would kill the Common Core State Standards — apparently not understanding that the U.S. president doesn’t have the power to do this. Given Trump’s anointment of Ben Carson, the neurosurgeon who unsuccessfully ran in the GOP primaries, as an important education adviser, it is safe to assume that a serious effort to work toward ending educational inequity and improve public schools would not be forthcoming in a Trump presidency. Carson’s own education platform wasriddled with errors (and it’s worth remembering that he doesn’t believe in evolution, the central principle in modern biology that modern scientists agree is indisputably true).

[Donald Trump thinks Ben Carson is an education expert. Oy vey.]

On the campaign trail,  Clinton has spoken about public education, charter schools, the Common Core and other education subjects more than any of the other candidates — including Bernie Sanders, who often railed about billionaires controlling the political process but not Politicians say they care about education. Now public school advocates are putting them to the test. - The Washington Post: