Posts Tagged ‘teachers’
Will the GOP vote to kill jobs as further proof they hate Obama more than they love America? – UPDATED
Obama speaking at fire station in Virginia
Daylife/Getty Images used by permission
Maybe as early as Thursday night, the Senate will take its first vote on one bite-size piece of President Obama’s jobs bill, a $35 billion measure to fund the hiring of 400,000 teachers and a smaller number of cops and firefighters. It will fail. As usual not a single Republican will vote for it, and since a majority in the Senate is now not 51 but 60 because the Republicans filibuster nearly everything, it will fall well short of passage…
The basic facts are these. The public supports this bill. Senate Democratic sources say that of all the individual pieces of the larger jobs bill, this one polled the best by far. Better than payroll tax cuts. That’s why they decided to go with it first. The funding mechanism is also highly popular. It is a 0.5 percent (don’t miss that decimal point!) surtax on dollars earned above $1 million—so, for example, a person whose salary is $1.2 million would pay the extra 0.5 percent only on those dollars above $1 million, for a whopping tax increase of $1,000. I have not seen polling on this specific amount of tax, but surveys constantly show that the generic “millionaire’s tax” wins broad support. Just yesterday, National Journal put it at 68 percent, including 90 percent of Democrats and 71 percent of independents…
In an earlier time, in normal times, when legislators used to behave the way legislators are supposed to behave, the minority’s leaders would have brought the price tag down, made the majority and the White House agree to something they wanted—peeling back one of those EPA regulations the Republicans hate—and we’d have had a deal…the minority would have actually paid a bit of attention to those polls showing the American people backed this.
Of course, Republicans can’t say that they’ll oppose Obama on everything, but they don’t have to. People get it. It seeps out of them, like oil from a polluted stream.
It’s difficult to attempt politeness describing what passes for Republican ideology, nowadays. I frequently discuss politics [and economics, technology, education] with one of my kinfolk who is a former Republican. That is, a former member of the Republican Party. After 50 years of commitment to traditional American conservatism – the whole range from environmental conservation to fiscal soundness with a healthy taste of what Bush and Cheney would have characterized as isolationism – he left that party. He doesn’t ask me to be polite – as long as I recognize the difference between conservatism and populist hypocrites. That’s good enough for me.
Watching the effete prancing in the worst political minuet played to patriot tunes since George Wallace tried to lead the White Citizens Councils into Congress and the White House – how could anyone who hasn’t lost his mind defend these deliberate attempts to sabotage the American economy, the American people?
UPDATE: Democrats Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Mark Pryor of Arkansas voted against the administration proposal last night, as did independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. No Republican supported the measure.
Three especially worthless politicians + the predictable in-your-pants vote for the wealthiest 1% of America.
Mexican gangsters leave severed heads next to primary school
Souvenir of Acapulco
Five severed human heads were found near an elementary school in Acapulco, Mexico, an area where some schools had already canceled classes because of lack of security.
The heads were found Tuesday inside a sack that had been placed inside a small wooden crate, the Guerrero state public security secretariat said…
Teachers this month held protests over threats they received, presumably from drug cartels. The calls threatened harm if teachers did not pay a portion of their salaries to the drug gangs…
Late last month, right at the beginning of the school year, teachers fled from about 75 schools after receiving threats. Administrators and other personnel also refused to go to work and many schools were left empty and padlocked from outside for two weeks.
I know that Mexico is a democracy and all sorts of constitutional forms rule jurisprudence, etc.. But, this level of barbarism justifies something like martial law.
Completely aside from all the understanding analyses of how that nation got to the point of criminal anarchy – questions of public safety and sanity have to prevail sooner or later. If that requires locking down the streets and going door-to-door, whatever, to drag these scumbags to trial and prison – it’s overdue!
Sex education begins to stir in Chinese elementary schools
Appreciating the feel of weight shift during pregnancy
Daylife/Getty Images used by permission
China has long been considered a conservative country where talking about sex is taboo, especially to children.
But things have started to change — slowly.
A report in a local Beijing newspaper about a new sex education textbook for elementary school students — some as young as six-years old — has triggered a heated debate in cyberspace and beyond. The Beijing Times, a popular local tabloid, reported that the textbook, “The Steps of Growth”, explains the concept of sexual intercourse with images and illustrations that some people consider too explicit and graphic…
Some experts in the field even weighed in on the debate. “The content of this text book is not consistent with the children’s cognitive capability of this age,” said Hu Ping, a sex education expert who owns a studio in Shenzhen, southern China, where she gives classes to young students about sex and health…
In contrast, some parents are comfortable with the textbook. “It’s better to teach it to the children earlier than later. The kids nowadays know everything anyway,” said Li Yan, a father with a seven-year-old son.
Education authorities in China’s capital deny the book is a formal textbook to be taught in all the local elementary schools. They say it is only an experiment in some schools.
Nevertheless, in a faxed statement to CNN, they said, “it’s very important to carry out health education, including sex education, to elementary and middle school students.”
RTFA. Looks like the program – as it is implemented – will be more inclusive and broad-based than in parts of the world where religious fears are included in on decisions like this. Maybe not. Maybe the conservative traditions leftover from the Confucianist past will get in the way as thoroughly as might some fundamentalist church.
It still makes me chuckle at how parts of the world dig in their heels and reject knowledge for ideological reasons. My family introduced a book called “The Stork Didn’t Bring You” into my elementary school about a jillion years ago. They went the route of the PTA; but, in fact, there were progressive teachers in our hard-as-nails factory town who were ready and able to ease the door open to sex education.
Except for some raving and ranting at the big Roman Catholic church a mile down the road – it was easy as pie.
Gipsies awarded lottery cash to learn hip-hop dancing
A group of gipsies have been handed a £5,000 grant of lottery cash – to learn hip-hop dancing.
The travellers will be taught street dance after being handed the grant from lottery funding.
The £4,690 cash will pay for specialist tutors to visit caravan sites and teach the gipsies hip-hop dance moves. Young gipsies will be expected to showcase their new routines at a festival which celebrates travelling culture.
The cash, provided from the All Lottery Grant, will be used to pay for a private tutor to visit the Shirenewton travellers site in Cardiff.
The idea was thought up by Isaac Blake, founder of Romani Arts, which showcases gipsy cultural projects.
The group will perform in June at an event to mark Gipsy Roma and Traveller History Month.
What can I say? In tough times, when there might be more productive uses of state funds – education comes to mind, perhaps health education – forking over funds to teach one culture how to adopt the styles, bust a move from another culture for fun and giggles is beyond absurd. Did Blake at least have to write a grant proposal?
I’m never surprised when the less-than-educated come up with ideas like this. I witnessed a local high school student complaining about potential losses with funds cuts being imposed through New Mexico. She was in a panic that competitive group dancing might be cut from her school’s curriculum.
Maybe we might ship her and her peers over to the UK?
Right-wing + teabaggers capture Florida Republican Party – and maybe lose an election to the Moderate they want to force out.
Florida Governor Charlie Crist, fighting for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate, stirred more speculation he may leave the party and run as an independent when he vetoed a contentious Republican measure on Thursday…
Crist vetoed a bill passed by the Republican-led Legislature to eliminate traditional teacher tenure, saying the measure went too far in taking away teacher protections that constituents overwhelmingly wanted to keep. The bill also would have linked teachers’ pay to improvements in student test scores.
The ultimate George W Jeb Bush cheap-out.
Crist trails in [Republican] opinion polls to Marco Rubio, a former House Speaker from Miami who has become the darling of the Republican Party’s conservative wing.
He further distanced himself from Rubio on Thursday by siding with teachers and some of the state’s largest unions, the Florida Education Association and the AFL-CIO.
A Quinnipiac Poll released hours before the veto showed Crist losing to Rubio by 23 points if the Republican primary were held now. If Crist ran as an independent, the poll found he would win a three-way race with 32 percent of the vote, compared with Rubio’s 30 percent and Democratic front-runner Kendrick Meek’s 24 percent…
Crist told reporters the measure was inflexible and too hastily crafted without proper input from teachers, parents, superintendents and school boards and had damaged the morale of teachers, parents and students.
As usual, the Republican version of “reform” is designed to cut jobs and downgrade education.
Of course, keeping someone sensible in office remains a function of the Florida electorate. One of the blogs I’ve been involved with for quite a spell maintains a special logo just for silly things that happen in Florida.
U.S. measure of future math teachers = mediocre
America’s future math teachers, on average, earned a C on a new test comparing their skills with their counterparts in 15 other countries, significantly outscoring college students in the Philippines and Chile but placing far below those in educationally advanced nations like Singapore and Taiwan.
The researchers who led the math study in this country, to be released in Washington on Thursday, judged the results acceptable if not encouraging for America’s future elementary teachers. But they called them disturbing for American students heading to careers in middle schools, who were outscored by students in Germany, Poland, the Russian Federation, Singapore, Switzerland and Taiwan…
“The study reveals that America’s middle school mathematics teacher preparation is not up to the task,” said William H. Schmidt, the Michigan State University professor who was its lead author. To improve its competitiveness, Dr. Schmidt said, the nation should recruit stronger candidates into careers teaching math and require them to take more advanced courses…
“There are so many people who bash our teachers’ math knowledge that to be honest these results are better than what a lot of people might expect,” said Hank Kepner, professor of mathematics education at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, who is president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. “We show up pretty well here, right in the middle of the pack.”
Sorry, folks; but, I can’t get excited about “middle of the pack”.
Face the essential history of American education – which showed the way to the rest of the world at providing sound qualifying knowledge to high school students, preparing them well for university education.
In my admittedly extended lifetime, I went through typical urban elementary and secondary schools which turned out university-level students. Add the dynamic that rushed through this land – led by returning soldiers and the GI Bill – after World War 2, and the U.S. was an education dynamo.
We have lost too much to be happy with half-measures.
Canadian teachers buy national lottery in the UK
National Lottery operator Camelot has been sold to a Canadian teachers’ pension fund for £389m.
The company, currently owned by a consortium that includes Cadbury, has been running the UK’s National Lottery since it began in 1994. The sale will be looked at by the regulator, the National Lottery Commission. One of the factors in its decision will be whether or not the national interest will be served by the sale.
Camelot’s proposed buyer, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan – known simply as Teachers’ – runs the pension fund for more than a quarter of a million Canadian teachers.
It already has a wide range of investments in the UK, including Birmingham and Bristol airports and a 27% stake in Northumbrian Water.
The National Lottery Commission’s chief executive, Mark Harris, said: “We will scrutinise the proposal to ensure that the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is fit and proper to take over the running of the National Lottery and that the commitments we secured for the National Lottery, players and good causes during the licence competition are safeguarded.”
Could have been worse. What if they bought Portsmouth FC?
Obama chides California for failing to evaluate teachers
U.S. President Barack Obama has singled out California for failing to use education data to distinguish poor teachers from good ones. Obama urged the state to change this situation so as to receive competitive, federal school dollars, according to the Los Angeles Times.
At stake are billions of U.S. dollars in federal stimulus funds to be allocated in “Race to the Top” grants, the paper noted.
Obama’s comments on Friday echo recent criticisms by his Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who warned that states that bar the use of student test scores to evaluate teachers, as California does, are risking those funds.
Obama and Duncan made their position clear. “This competition will not be based on politics, ideology, or the preferences of a particular interest group,” Obama said. “Instead, it will be based on the simple principle: whether a state is ready to do what works.”
“Race to the Top” applicants must show progress in four key areas to compete for the 4.35 billion dollars: adopting rigorous academic standards, recruiting and retaining talented educators, turning around chronically low-performing schools, and building data systems to track student and teacher effectiveness.
But Obama also pointed out that teachers should not be judged solely on student test scores.
You’d think that was clear enough.
It seems likely that if the president has to point out student eval isn’t the only road on the map – then that must be the target for those whose opposition to change is more important to them than the change considered.
Humbugs all.
Palin rejects funds for education, public safety, unemployment benefits, health programs: a solid Republican
Daylife/AP Photo
Gov. Sarah Palin is putting political ambition above Alaska’s interest by rejecting federal stimulus funds, Democrats said Friday.
Bob Poe, a Democratic candidate for governor, suggested Palin is grandstanding because the legislature can overrule her — and is considered likely to — CNN reported. Poe, in a conference call with reporters, suggested the governor is “narcissistic.”
“It’s outrageous that Palin wants to turn down Alaskans’ fair share of federal stimulus money for education, public safety, unemployment services and health programs,” said State Democratic Party Chair Patti Higgins. “It’s very clear that Palin is sacrificing the needs of Alaskans for her national political ambitions.”
Palin said she is willing to take federal dollars for construction projects but not $288 million for schools, energy assistance and social services, the Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News reported…
Anchorage School Superintendent Carol Comeau said she was “shocked and very disappointed” that Palin would reject funds for schools.
The Dem’s candidate isn’t the only pol in Alaska who thinks Palin is playing this game as part of her future plans as McCain’s replacement as candidate. But, that alone – can be enough to piss off a lot of Alaskan conservatives. They’re not necessarily interested in being pawns in her game.
President Obama speaks about education
President Obama spoke to the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce this morning on the topic of education, vowing to “finally make No Child Left Behind live up to its name.”
In a wide-ranging speech, he called for more time in the classroom, “whether during the summer or through expanded-day programs for children who need it.”
“…we will end what has become a race to the bottom in our schools and instead, spur a race to the top by encouraging better standards and assessments,” he said. “This is an area where we are being outpaced by other nations. It’s not that their kids are any smarter than ours – it’s that they are being smarter about how to educate their kids.”
“They are spending less time teaching things that don’t matter, and more time teaching things that do,” the president continued. “They are preparing their students not only for high school or college, but for a career. We are not. Our curriculum for eighth graders is two full years behind top performing countries. That is a prescription for economic decline. I refuse to accept that America’s children cannot rise to this challenge. They can, they must, and they will meet higher standards in our time.”
President Obama’s full remarks, as prepared for delivery, are linked here.
Little concerns me as much as education. I grew up in a New England factory town, downhill from a pair of coal-burning behemoths that were 2 of the 3 largest employers in town.
The elementary school I attended was what you would expect in the 1940′s: an brick industrial-looking building staffed by underpaid teachers. In 8 years of schooling, passing through almost 600 students, we had 3 dropouts. They also were our only juvenile delinquents.
My parents loved education and what it could bring to us. Not unusual among 1st-generation Americans who lived through the Great Depression and FDR’s New Deal. My mom taught me to read when I was 4 years old.
Why can’t we accomplish this in a society hundreds of times wealthier?
