Why Are Things As They Are?

Above: The Hand of Fate

On the Little Rouge School Front This Week:

If I Boost Your Grade, Will You Please CARE About the Tests? “They’re bribing them with grades,” said Linman, an educator who helps professors improve their instruction at San Diego State University. “If we can’t make the ethical decision about what’s best for students, we have no choice but to say we’re not going to be involved….”reputations are at stake. Valhalla High Assistant Principal Sam Lund said that education has become a competitive marketplace where schools need good facilities and booming scores to draw families. Like it or not, Lund said, test scores matter. But critics argue they matter for the wrong reasons. “Raising our grades is much too drastic,” said Mitchell Winkie, a junior at Valhalla. “It seems like the point of all this is to make the school look better.”http://voiceofsandiego.org/education/article_4628d152-0645-11df-9ea5-001cc4c03286.html

Detroit Federation of Teachers Reacts to Recall Petition vs DFT President: “In interpreting its governing documents the Executive Board was doing exactly what AFT locals around the country and virtually all other unions regularly do. The membership does not have the authority to reject or overrule the decision of the Executive Board on constitutional questions. If the membership could overrule the Executive Board then the Constitution would have no fixed meaning. Rather it would mean nothing more than what a majority at any membership meeting, however large or small, would decide. The membership has the authority to amend the Constitution in accordance with the terms of that document. It does not have the authority to reject the Executive Board’s interpretation and application of that document.” mi.aft.org/dft231/ January 15 2010

Reading Corps on the March in Detroit (Beware of Benevolent Missionaries and Their Books): www.detnews.com/article/20100123/SCHOOLS/1230369/1026/Thousands-get-fired-up-at-DPS-Reading-Corps-rally

Inequality Booms In California Schools: * High-poverty schools were more than four times as likely (65.6% to 15%) as low-poverty schools to experience teacher layoffs.* 70% of principals reported that summer school had been cut back severely or eliminated. High-poverty schools were almost three times as likely (48.7% to 16.7%) as low-poverty schools to eliminate summer school. www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-schools21-2010jan21,0,4957693.story

San Diego Teachers Asked to Take 8% Pay Cut (can we smell the Detroit Rat?): www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jan/23/sd-teachers-asked-take-pay-reduction/

NYTimes on the End of Higher Ed (Class Struggle) in California: “In 1960, he added, the state created “the gold standard in high-quality, low-cost public higher education. This year, the California legislature abandoned the gold standard.” www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/education/24sfstudent.html?pagewanted=2&hp

Paul Moore on the Corptocracy of Education and Social Life:www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24481.htm

The Perpetual Wars and Booming Inequality Front:

Haiti Background from NLR, 2004: “Haitians have thus had to pay for their original oppression three times over–through the slaves initial labor, through compensation to the French for the loss of this (slave) labor, and then the interest on the payment.” www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/555.html

Videos on Haiti—check out “We Must Kill the Bandits.”radioteleginen.ning.com/video/video/listTagged?tag=kevinpina

Pakistan to Gates: If You Want ‘Em, You Chase ‘Em,” : “The Pakistani army said Thursday during a visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates that it can’t launch any new offensives against militants for six months to a year to give it time to stabilize existing gains.The announcement probably comes as a disappointment to the U.S.  President Obama’s comments in December that the U.S. would begin to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan in mid-2011 have raised questions among many Pakistani officials about Washington’s commitment. Analysts say such concerns only reinforce the Pakistani government’s reluctance to target the Afghan Taliban www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122804452

Herbert on Black People Under Attack in USA: “The election of a black president may have been important to African-Americans for myriad reasons, but it hasn’t done much for their bottom line, which continues to deteriorate. For example, without a dramatic new intervention by the federal government, the poverty rate for African-American children could eventually approach a heart-stopping 50 percent, according to analysts at the Economic Policy Institute. Already more than a third of black children are living in poverty. Present trends are not good. Communities of color are being crushed economically and the national news media have not fully focused on the carnage. www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/opinion/19herbert.html?hp

Mass Constant Unemployment: “In December 2008, 22.9 percent of the unemployed had been out of work for at least 27 weeks. A year later, that portion rose to 39.8 percent. That translates to having about 4 percent of the total civilian work force categorized as long-term unemployed.”http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/a-growing-underclass/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+creditwritedownsnews

WSJ: The Unemployment Catastrophe: “ What about the future? The problem in the job market going forward is not so much layoffs in the private sector, which are abating, but a lack of hiring. The federal stimulus program is offset by a 2010 budget shortfall for state, city, county and school districts, which the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities recently estimated will be in the range of an astonishing $200 billion nationally. Since virtually all states and cities have to run balanced budgets, the result will be reduced services, layoffs and tax hikes.” online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703837004575013592466508822.html?mod=rss_opinion_main

Two Million Plus Foreclosures, Obama Plan Helps 1%: up to 99% of eligible homeowners struggling with their mortgage payments have been unable thus far to modify their loans.online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704541004575011420045962424.html?mod=rss_opinion_main

An Anti-War Vet Speaks: www.youtube.com/watch?v=akm3nYN8aG8

Punked Demagogue Spits Back: “Obama sounded unusually defiant..” www.nytimes.com/2010/01/23/us/politics/23obama.html?hp

Bureau of Labor Stats–Private Sector Unionism Collapsing (meaning the corrupt and sold out AFL-CIO is more broke than ever—the reason they want NEA to affiliate so bad): “The overall unionization rate edged lower, to 12.3 percent last year from 12.4 percent in 2008.”

www.nytimes.com/2010/01/23/business/23labor.html?hp

Thanks to MrJ, Amber, Joe C and B,  MrZ, Lloyd, JT, Joel, Steve, Sandy, Sally, Elvira, Bob, Ruthie, Jen, MT, Adam and Gina (on to a new adventure), Nancy, Vera, Irene, Doug (hey were is that book?), Wayne, Colin, Sandra, Shelley, Betty, Don, and Bill A.

Poem of the Week:

What the Moon Saw byVachel Lindsay

Two statesmen met by moonlight.

Their ease was partly feigned.

They glanced about the prairie.

Their faces were constrained.

In various ways aforetime

They had misled the state,

Yet did it so politely

Their henchmen thought them great.

They sat beneath a hedge and spake

No word, but had a smoke.

A satchel passed from hand to hand.

Next day, the deadlock broke.

Good luck to us, every one. r