The Limits of School Reform - NYTimes.com

The Limits of School Reform - NYTimes.com

Excerpt from article. PLEASE READ ENTIRE.

Going back to the famous Coleman report in the 1960s, social scientists have contended — and unquestionably proved — that students’ socioeconomic backgrounds vastly outweigh what goes on in the school as factors in determining how much they learn. Richard Rothstein of the Economic Policy Institute lists dozens of reasons why this is so, from the more frequent illness and stress poor students suffer, to the fact that they don’t hear the large vocabularies that middle-class children hear at home.

Yet the reformers act as if a student’s home life is irrelevant. “There is no question that family engagement can matter,” said Klein when I spoke to him. “But they seem to be saying that poverty is destiny, so let’s go home. We don’t yet know how much education can overcome poverty,” he insisted — notwithstanding the voluminous studies that have been done on the subject. “To let us off the hook prematurely seems, to me, to play into the hands of the other side.”

That last sentence strikes me as the key to the reformers’ resistance: To admit the importance of a student’s background, they fear, is to give ammo to the enemy — which to them are their social-scientist critics and the teachers’ unions. But that shouldn’t be the case. Making schools better is always a goal worth striving for, whether it means improving pedagogy itself or being able to fire bad teachers more easily.

Deepwater Horizon, Fukushima, the Chilean Miners and the Human Cost of Energy - Ecocentric - TIME.com

"Blood per Kilowatt." (Never thought I would see this idea in secular print.)
Deepwater Horizon, Fukushima, the Chilean Miners and the Human Cost of Energy - Ecocentric - TIME.com

"It isn't just oil or electrons that flows in our pipelines and transmission wires. It's blood.

In fact, the blood cost is another way to calculate the energy equation: blood per kilowatt."

Read more: http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/2011/04/22/on-earth-day-contemplating-the-human-cost-of-energy/#ixzz1KUe0akRx

NY case underscores Wi-Fi privacy dangers - Yahoo! News

NY case underscores Wi-Fi privacy dangers - Yahoo! News
What it should be: "I think it's convenient and polite to have an open Wi-Fi network," said Rebecca Jeschke, whose home signal is accessible to anyone within range."Public Wi-Fi is for the common good and I'm happy to participate in that — and lots of people are," said Jeschke, a spokeswoman for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that takes on cyberspace civil liberties issues.

What it is: Wi-Fi and Internet was never invented or intended for criminal use or criminals--of any sort. Why should the innocent pay a price for the dammed? Love good, hate evil. Society is always burdened with what to do about evil, as it infects just about everything. Evil is inconvenient to those who are just. Concentrate on incarcerating the dammed and leave the innocent alone. Open and unsecured Wi-Fi or hotspots, as they were called back in the day before the widespread use of wireless internet, are just as the EFF spokeswoman said.

Homeless woman prosecuted for enrolling son in Conn. school - Yahoo! News

Homeless woman prosecuted for enrolling son in Conn. school - Yahoo! News
This is an unfortunate shame. It is as if we as a body of people, who form this country, have no common sense. Why put this woman in jail and kick her friend out? Isn't their another way? The harshness of the law meets these women because they are poor and black or because the law regarding changing school districts is harsh?

Change Your Eye Color Surgery: Eye Surgery Safety | Suite101.com

Change Your Eye Color Surgery: Eye Surgery Safety | Suite101.com

Some who have undergone this groundbreaking surgery express regrets and have developed vision problems.

State Rep. Charlie Brown: IBLC Condems Affordable Health Care Repeal

State Rep. Charlie Brown

INDIANA BLACK LEGISLATIVE CAUCUS FORMALLY CONDEMNS
U.S. HOUSE REPEAL OF AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE

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INDIANAPOLIS —— Members of the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus today condemned the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives for voting to deny millions of Hoosiers basic health care coverage, including affordable prescription drugs and protections against unreasonable premium increases.

“Today, the Republicans who run the U.S. House have voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act,” said State Rep. Vanessa Summers (D-Indianapolis), chairwoman of the caucus. “This means they are more interested in protecting big insurance companies, rather than the millions of Hoosiers who will benefit from the provisions of this act.”

State Rep. Cherrish Pryor (D-Indianapolis) added, “If this repeal is approved in the U.S. Senate—which thankfully looks very unlikely at this point in time—we would see a return to the days when children with pre-existing medical conditions would be denied coverage, when people who are sick would see coverage cancelled, and when the amount of care a person receives would be based on the arbitrary whims of insurance industry bean-counters, not doctors.”

Caucus members noted that the impact of repealing the Affordable Care Act would be felt across all segments of Indiana’s population:

• More than 21,000 young adults would lose their insurance coverage through their parents’ health plans. (The Act allows young adults to stay on their parents’ plans up to the age of 26 if they do not have coverage of their own.)


• More than 3.8 million Indiana residents with private insurance coverage would find themselves vulnerable again to having insurance companies place limits on how much will be spent on their health care.


• Nearly 280,000 Hoosiers again would be at risk of losing their insurance at the moment they are in an accident or fall sick, simply because of a mistake made on their application for coverage.


• More than 950,000 older Hoosiers who have Medicare coverage would be forced to pay extra for annual check-ups, and they would have to help pay for services like mammograms and colonoscopies.


• More than 66,000 Hoosiers on Medicare would lose the discounts they were set to receive for falling into the “donut hole” coverage gap, which means they would be paying significantly more on their prescription drugs.

“Beyond all of these things, repealing this act would prevent Indiana from getting the federal resources that would help us crack down on unreasonable insurance premium increases,” noted State Rep. Charlie Brown (D-Gary), ranking Democrat on the Indiana House Public Health Committee and a long-time advocate of universal health care.

“In addition, we wouldn’t be getting the federal funds needed to start health insurance exchanges to drive down costs and we wouldn’t have the support needed to start a consumer assistance program designed to protect all of us from the worst insurance industry practices,” Summers continued.

Pryor said, “Repealing this act will bring a return to the worst abuses that created our country’s health care crisis. We are hopeful that the U.S. Senate will do what’s right and stop this travesty by refusing to follow the House’s lead.”

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If you have an opinion you would like to share about this issue or any other topics related to Indiana state government, you can contact Rep. Brown directly.

State Rep. Vernon G. Smith: Indiana Dems Moderate Radical Right HB

State Rep. Vernon G. Smith

DEMOCRATS ACHIEVED GOAL OF MODERATING RADICAL REPUBLICAN BILLS

INDIANAPOLIS —— State Rep. Vernon G. Smith (D-Gary) said Indiana House Democrats returned to the Statehouse after gaining concessions on several Republican bills now before the Indiana House of Representatives.

Smith said the protest by Democrats did not cost taxpayers any money as House Republicans claimed. He said the business before the Indiana House and Senate should be completed by the end of April, so no special session is necessary. In addition, House Democrats gave up their daily stipend, while their Republican colleagues collected theirs. The Democrats also were fined $350 per day by the Republican majority for denying a quorum in the House.

“When I calculated what our protest cost me in fines, loss of daily stipend and other expenditures, the figure was more than $8,000,” said Smith. “It has been a significant drain of personal finances, yet it was worth the cost. If we had not left the state to prevent a quorum, these extreme, Republican bills would have decimated our public education system and severely damaged the earning power of working-class families in Indiana.

“The Republicans were pushing these bills through the process as quickly as possible, which prevented proper, public review of these devastating measures,” explained Smith. “The stop-action allowed a timeout for millions of Hoosiers, so they could learn more about what was happening in Indianapolis. Our protest was absolutely necessary.

“With the solid support and thunderous voice of a vast number teachers, in addition to thousands of working families, many from Northwest Indiana, we were able to force the House Republicans to compromise on several of the bills,” added Smith. “The compromises are not perfect, but those particular bills are much better than they were. I appreciate Speaker Bosma’s willingness to negotiate with us and help find solutions to our most serious concerns.”

Smith said the compromises included several areas of contention:

• the so-called “right-to-work” legislation is off the table, preserving collective bargaining rights and preventing Hoosier wages from being drastically reduced;


• the permanent ban on public employee bargaining is off the table in the House;


• collective bargaining rights for teachers is protected;


• enabling legislation for the private takeover of public schools is off the table in the House;


• private school vouchers will be limited to 7,500 students in the first year and 15,000 in the second year, rather than creating the largest voucher program in the country, which would have shifted $1 billion in state tax money from public schools to private schools;


• instead of an outright ban of Project Labor Agreements (PLAs), as originally proposed by Republicans, PLAs will still be able to be included with projects passed by public referendum; and


• the threshold for applying the common construction wage to projects would be $250,000 for 2012 and $350,000 for 2013, instead of the GOP’s original $1 million threshold, which would have had a significant, negative impact on Hoosier workers.

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If you wish to share your views or opinions about these issues or any other topics related to Indiana state government, please contact me. Please take a moment—if you have not already done so—to sign up for periodic Statehouse eUpdates about the Indiana State Legislature.