October 1, 2013

About the 1995 shutdown. Newt Gingrich Crybaby.

From the New York Daily News 2012, explaining their cover from 1995.

Newt Gingrich, crybaby: The famous Daily News cover explained

Here was Newt Gingrich, leader of the Republican Revolution and defender of civilization on this planet, forced to sit for 25 hours in the back of Air Force One, waiting for President Clinton to stop by and negotiate a budget deal. But Clinton never came back. So Gingrich, in his rage, drafted two resolutions that forced Clinton to bring the federal government to a grinding halt.

The extraordinary behind-the-scenes tale Gingrich told yesterday morning at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast is either comedy or tragedy, or junior high school cafeteria intrigue, take your pick. It surely was not what you expect to hear from the stewards of your government.

Gingrich had been invited aboard Air Force One last week to fly to the funeral of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. With a budget crisis pending, he expected Clinton would take time out during the flight to talk about a possible solution.

But Clinton, who seemed to be genuinely grieving over Rabin's death, stayed up front in a cabin with former Presidents Jimmy Carter and George Bush on both the outward-bound and return trips.

In Gingrich's own words.

October 1, 2013

The Shutdown Party. A great editorial from USA Today

The Shutdown Party: Our view

In this case, however, the "they're all bums" reaction is off-base. This shutdown is not the result of the two parties acting equally irresponsibly. It is the product of an increasingly radicalized Republican Party, controlled by a deeply disaffected base that demands legislative hostage-taking in an effort to get what it has not been able to attain through the electoral process or the judiciary.

Republicans in the House are making demands that are both preposterous and largely unrelated to budgetary matters. In return for keeping government running (and, even more ominously, for paying its bills), they want President Obama to undermine the health care law that he ran on in 2008 and 2012, and now considers his signature domestic accomplishment.

No president of either party could accept that kind of badgering. No president should, as it would set a terrible precedent.

.."Ending the shutdown will probably require House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to stand up to the Tea Party purists and allow the full House to vote on a "clean" bill to fund the government, without any amendments about ObamaCare. Whether and when Boehner will do so remains to be seen. In the meantime, if the shutdown drags on, the inconveniences pile up and the toll on the economy becomes more apparent, it's clear where the blame is properly laid.

Linked at my Twitter site

September 27, 2013

Ever received intrusive American Community Survey from Census Bureau? Required by law. Thoughts?

I just received one sent to my address, didn't use my name. I guess it will be easiest to go online and fill it out, but from what I have read it seems intrusive. I see the fine can be up to 5000 dollars, so it doesn't sound like much of a choice.

Here are a couple of articles I found about it. Seems controversial.

From the New York Times, 2012.

The Beginning of the End of the Census?

The American Community Survey may be the most important government function you’ve never heard of, and it’s in trouble.

This survey of American households has been around in some form since 1850, either as a longer version of or a richer supplement to the basic decennial census. It tells Americans how poor we are, how rich we are, who is suffering, who is thriving, where people work, what kind of training people need to get jobs, what languages people speak, who uses food stamps, who has access to health care, and so on.

It is, more or less, the country’s primary check for determining how well the government is doing — and in fact what the government will be doing. The survey’s findings help determine how over $400 billion in government funds is distributed each year.

But last week, the Republican-led House voted to eliminate the survey altogether, on the grounds that the government should not be butting its nose into Americans’ homes.

I gather the House did not succeed.

From NBC News:

On Your Side Alert: Legit or Scam? American Community Survey

Some of you may have received The American Community Survey from the Census in the mail and asked yourself, is this legit? Well, you are not alone, others are asking that same question. The survey asks lots of personal questions and that has many of you uncomfortable. We did some digging and got some answers.

Not only did you call some of you emailed us wanting to know more about the survey. One concerned viewer says, "The questions asked are quite involved and personal and there is no need for the government to know most of these things. Do you know if this survey is a scam or legit? "

We checked and the survey includes dozens of questions like "what time does a family member go to work", "how long does it take them get to work" -- and "how many times have you been married?"

Despite how awkward some of these question sound, we can confirm The American Community Survey is not a scam. In fact, you are required by law to fill it out and could be fined up to five thousand dollars if you don't. This doesn't mean however, that scammers won't try to create something similar, so before you fill out the survey, contact the Census.

I don't like to link to the Washington Times, but they do have more details on what is on the survey.

Tell All or be Fined

In the section on housing they want to know details about your property, how many rooms you have, whether you have a mortgage and how much it is, what types of energy you use and how much it costs, how many cars you own, what your property taxes are, how much your property is worth, the size of your lot … and on and on.

And that’s just the beginning. For each person in the house it demands to know educational history, ethnic composition, where they lived a year ago, what sort of health insurance they have, what hearing difficulties, what vision problems; whether they have difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions due to physical, mental or emotional condition; difficulty walking or climbing stairs; difficulty dressing or bathing; difficulty doing errands such as shopping due to physical, mental or emotional condition; marital status; complete marital history, how many spouses, when; children and grandchildren; information on disabilities; employment info, where, when, and two whole pages of work and income inquiry.

Just wondering if anyone has had this experience? I have mixed feelings.

September 25, 2013

Florida gun group offers free shotguns to arm those in high-crime neighborhood near Sanford.

Just what Florida's Sanford area needs right now.

Florida gun group offers free shotguns

A gun group is offering free shotguns to residents in Florida, billing it as a way for people to protect themselves against crime.

Members of the Florida chapter of the Armed Citizen Project, which is based in Texas, began advertising the program on fliers in the Sunshine Gardens neighborhood near Orlando.

The neighborhood is about 25 miles south of Sanford, a city thrust into an international debate about self-defense and race after neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old.

..."If my neighbor is armed, my neighborhood is safer," Ritter said.

September 18, 2013

Florida is complicating enrollment efforts and limiting information about health care exchanges.

Looks like Floridians will not benefit from lower prices on the new Obamacare health exchanges. The Rick Scott Republicans who rule the state are making it hard for people to get information about it.

From the New York Times:

Florida Among States Undercutting Health Care Enrollment

MIAMI — As many states prepare to introduce a linchpin of the 2010 health care law — the insurance exchanges designed to make health care more affordable — a handful of others are taking the opposite tack: They are complicating enrollment efforts and limiting information about the new program.

Chief among them is Florida, where Gov. Rick Scott and the Republican-dominated Legislature have made it more difficult for Floridians to obtain the cheapest insurance rates under the exchange and to get help from specially trained outreach counselors.


....Even among states hostile to the law, Florida became an outlier this year when it passed a bill removing for two years the state insurance commissioner’s ability to approve insurance rates for new health plans, she said. This leaves Floridians vulnerable to higher rates at a time when the new health plans will be introduced.

...Last week, Florida’s deputy health secretary ordered county health facilities to bar navigators, or outreach counselors. The health department said it was following established policy: All outside groups are prohibited from using county health property to conduct nonstate business. Brochures, though, will be made available, according to a statement. No written requests for space have been made by navigators, a spokesman said.

So the good news about lower rates in many states will mean little to Floridians.

More on this from Huffington Post:

Florida Bans Obamacare Navigators From Helping Uninsured At County Health Departments

Florida has issued an order that will prevent residents from finding out how they can sign up for expanded subsidized health insurance at county health departments.

The directive bans the outreach activities of "navigators," or counselors hired under the Affordable Care Act to help low-income, uninsured residents sign up for the state's expanded insurance program.

"This is another blatant and shameful attempt to intimidate groups who will be working to inform Americans about their new health insurance options and help them enroll in coverage, just like Medicare counselors have been doing for years," said U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Fabien Levy.

September 10, 2013

TFA alums launch campaign against group's role in privatization of schools.

From The American Prospect:

A Break in Teach for America’s Ranks

Last month, TFA alumni and members critical of the organization joined students, parents, and community activists at Chicago's Free Minds/Free People education conference for a summit titled “Organizing Resistance to Teach for America and Its Role in Privatization.” (The Education for Liberation Network, which runs the conference, works with organizers but does not control the outcomes of summits.) It was the launch of the first national campaign against TFA and the first national-level convergence of dissident TFA rank and file.

While debate over TFA traditionally revolves around the effectiveness of its teaching model—recruits receive just five weeks of pre-service training and commit to only two years of teaching—organizers are focused on TFA’s broader political impact. With formidable corporate funding and partnership, TFA is part of a market-oriented reform movement that involves expanding charter schools to compete with district schools, pegging teachers' job security to students' standardized-test scores, and churning in fresh teachers while weeding out those who “underperform,” regardless of experience. These moves purport to enhance student outcomes; they also increase teacher turnover and destabilize school systems.

Summit participants raised issues with TFA at its many points of impact, from teaching to reform politics. Some who had gone through the program said the fast-track training had left them underprepared for the classroom and with little opportunity to voice their concerns. Others came from teacher and parent activist groups that champion critical pedagogy, student voice, and other goals that don't necessarily jive with TFA's emphasis on the role of singular teacher-leaders in mitigating poverty. Of these, some came from Chicago—ground zero for school closings, charter expansion, and mass teacher firings—and described TFA's continued growth in the city as the blunt edge of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's drastic overhaul of district schools.

The group is part of a push to do away with teachers' unions. That is an unfortunate part of the education reform movement led by Arne Duncan. The laying off of career teachers is a tragic part of this reform trend. These experienced teachers are being replaced by graduates with 5 weeks training.

Teach For America's Civil War

TFA’s resources are enormous. The organization’s total assets for the 2011 fiscal year topped $350 million. That includes eight-figure support from the Broad, Walton, and Gates Foundations, leading bankrollers of campaigns to privatize school districts and ramp up standardized testing. The TFA orbit is also growing. It now has more than 10,000 corps members in 48 regions, as well as more than 32,000 alumni. Districts pay thousands in fees to TFA for each corps member in addition to their salaries—at the expense of the existing teacher workforce. Chicago, for example, is closing 48 schools and laying off 850 teachers and staff while welcoming 350 corps members. After Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans cut 7,500 school staff, converted the majority of its schools to charters, and, between 2005 and 2010, saw its share of black teachers drop from 73 percent to 56 percent. Over the past five years, TFA expanded its Greater New Orleans corps from 85 teachers to 375.

For districts, charter schools and fast-tracked teachers are attractive alternatives to public schools staffed with unionized labor—especially under the well-financed push that TFA supports. As the organization grows, it cultivates leaders who align themselves with its pro-charter slant. Leadership for Educational Equity’s alumni resources, as well as its biggest names, trend toward a particular politics. The 11,000 alumni who attended TFA’s 20-year anniversary summit in 2011 got to hear from charter boosters ranging from Harlem Children’s Zone CEO Geoffrey Canada and StudentsFirst CEO Michelle Rhee to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Colorado State Senator Michael Johnston. TFA alums are principals at half of KIPP charter schools—which two alumni founded—and the majority of Achievement First schools. Of the corps members TFA claims remain in education after their two-year stint (a hotly contested figure), administrators and extracurricular leaders are included.

It appears that Teach for America is A way to replace experienced, higher-salaried teachers

That will lead to teaching becoming a temp job.

On top of failing to make a dent in poverty, Teach for America actually detracts from social justice by hurting real teachers. Teach for America students take low, entrance-level pay while also receiving a government subsidy for their salary in the form of Americorps stipends. Schools lay off teachers and then hire Teach for America teachers to fill positions that real teachers would otherwise be filling. Teach for America teachers are undercutting the wage needs of real teachers and causing them to be laid off as a result.

And some background on the founders:

Marcello Stroud sent me TFA’s 990 for fiscal 2008. It shows that TFA had revenues of $159 million in fiscal year 2008 and expenses of $124.5 million. CEO and founder Wendy Kopp made $265,585, with an additional $17,027 in benefits and deferred compensation. She also made an additional $71,021 in compensation and benefits through the TFA-related organization Teach for All. Seven other TFA staffers are listed as making more than $200,000 in pay and benefits, with another four approaching that amount.

It’s also interesting to look at the 990 for the KIPP Foundation, the charter school chain led by Richard Barth, a former Edison vice president and TFA staffer who also happens to be Kopp’s husband. Barth made more than $300,000 in pay and benefits, bringing the Kopp/Barth household income to almost $600,000 for their work with TFA and KIPP. (In a 2008 article, the New York Times dubbed Kopp and Barth as “a power couple in the world of education, emblematic of a new class of young social entrepreneurs seeking to reshape the United States’ educational landscape.”)

A lot more than meets the eye to TFA.

September 10, 2013

This picture says so much about changes in education. Switching blame.

Posted at Twitter

I remember those days from the 60's. Things really have changed. We teachers were not the enemy back then. The "reformers" have used propaganda to switch the accountability.

September 10, 2013

FL is able to prosecute Zimmerman even if his wife refuses to do so. But will they?

According to Think Progress:

Florida Can Prosecute George Zimmerman Even If His Wife Doesn’t Press Charges

While the details of this altercation are still unknown, too often, victims of domestic violence drop or opt not to press charges. They fear retaliation from their assailants and complications from a long drawn out trial process, or they’re pressured to drop the cases by friends, family, and the abusers themselves.

“I think that it’s important to understand this particular situation,” Rita Smith, Executive Director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, told ThinkProgress. “There’s already been such notoriety. If I were her, I would have concerns as well about moving forward.”

But there is some hope — at least in Florida — that charges can be brought against George Zimmerman without Shellie’s involvement. In that state, an appeals court held “the decision to prosecute does not lie with the victim of a crime.” Rather, the state’s attorney decides whether or not to review a case.

Linked at my Twitter feed

September 7, 2013

CA student takes on Michelle Rhee's ed reform. Kudos Hannah Nguyen.

Student takes on Michelle Rhee

Hi everyone, my name is Hannah, I’m a student… Just a few things though, I felt like this whole event was very much looking at these educational policy issues as a reformers versus teacher unions kind of issue, and as a student standing here and watching this battle it is really disheartening, because it’s a lot deeper than that, and these are everyday realities.

...And there’s a lot of things brought up — going back to poverty — reformers say that poverty isn’t destiny, and that sounds great, and I believe in that, and that’s awesome. But you know what, if you really care about students, you should say that poverty shouldn’t be.

Yes, we need to work on in-school factors, and simultaneously we need to work on out-of-school factors and caring about the whole child.
Back to high stakes testing. I don’t know a single student — I’m sorry, I have a lot of friends, and I have friends at other schools too — I don’t know a single student who says that they learned something from a high-stakes test, and the way that their school is structured. They should be given the freedom to learn what they want to learn, open curriculum, well-rounded, arts, music, humanities….

Hannah says choice can be a good thing, but she is highly critical of charters that push out low-performing students.

Hannah Nguyen ?@hbnguyen18

Oh my goodness, I'm on the Answer Sheet... Is this the real life...

I am noticing a turnaround in the public's view of the reformers. Parents are realizing these "reformers" intend to undermine public school systems in our country.

I feel now that those of us who have been writing about the harm being done by this administration's policies under Arne Duncan have been vindicated. Maybe it was worth all the vitriol directed at us to see this turning around of mindsets.