NewsRack: 'Education Reform' news in 'US' topic for user newstrust (3,966-3,986 of 5,614)

Sunday Talk: Field of dreams	27.3.2011	Daily Kos
With President Obama's approval rating hovering below the 50% mark, his reelection in 2012 is far from certain. However, a quick look at the Republicans exploring the possibility of running against him should give us all reason to be optimistic. Here they are, in alphabetical order: Michele Bachmann : Fact challenged kook . John Bolton : Mustachioed menace . Herman Cain : African-American . Enough said. Fred Karper : Openly gay . Enough said. Sarah Palin™ : Jew for Jesus . ;) Dr. Ron Paul or Dr. Rand Paul * : The gold standard of crazy . Tim Pawlenty : Action movie zero . Rick Santorum : Google him. All in all, I'd say that Obama's reelection is a pretty good bet . ...
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Wisconsin universities form unions despite Scott Walker's union-busting	27.3.2011	NewsTrust Yahoo Pipes Feed
(Photo source: SEIU ) Wisconsin's workers haven't only fought back with protests and recall efforts. Since Scott Walker began his attack on Wisconsin's public employees, faculty at three University of Wisconsin campuses have voted to join the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). In February, faculty at the University of Wisconsin- La Crosse voted in favor of the union by a 249-37 margin. March 9, University of Wisconsin- Stout joined the union 196-31. March 24, University of Wisconsin- River Falls , 148-16. "What we've seen at UW-River Falls today is an extension of what we've seen across our state since Walker announced his disastrous bill," stated Wes Chapin, a professor of political science and chair of his department. (snip) According to Prof. Chapin, Gov. Walker's budget repair bill further galvanized the faculty's resolve to form a union. "When it became clear that the governor's extremist legislation had nothing to do with balancing the budget and everything to do with ...
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Charlie Weaver: Employers should be encouraged by education legislation in Minnesota	26.3.2011	Twincities.com: Opinion
Until recently, much of the debate at the Capitol about education reform was little more than the same predictable noises coming from the same predictable corners.
Educational-Industrial Complex, Idaho-Style	26.3.2011	Crooks Liars
Click here to view this media [h/t Heather ] Meet Tom Luna, Idaho's Republican Superintendent of of Public Education, architect of the gutting of Idaho public schools, massive teacher layoffs, and union-buster. Tom Luna is an interesting character. He's a good, solid Republican, 2-year veteran of the Bush Administration's Department of Education, and doesn't really have any educational qualifications for the office he now holds. No, seriously. He doesn't. Here's his resume´ in a nutshell: Education: Classes at Boise State and Ricks College, Bachelor of Art (2002) in Weights and Measures from Thomas Edison State College, a non-accredited on-line degree factory supposedly based in New Jersey. Also, he owns a scale company whose largest account is an Idaho corporation owned by Frank Vandersloot -- Melaleuca. Remember that name. I'll be talking about him later. Tom Luna's Amazing Fundraising Abilities Now, Tom Luna had one of the best-financed 2010 re-election campaigns I've ...
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Taking on the Teachers	26.3.2011	ConsortiumNews.com
Republicans target school teachers' job security with dubious claims about improving education, warns Lawrence Davidson. March 23, 2011
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Wisconsin GOP: You're friggin' right we want that one friggin' college professor's friggin' emails	26.3.2011	Daily Kos
Bill Cronon / Hilary Fey Cronon Holding true to Republican form, the Wisconsin GOP is coming down hard on their preferred sort of target: a relatively powerless individual who opposes the Republican agenda in any way. The Republican Party of Wisconsin has sent a request to make public the emails of a single college professor who also happens to be a critic of recent Republican policy initiatives in Wisconsin. Talking Points Memo lays out the story : Bill Cronon -- or William Cronon, as I think of him -- is a Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin . A few days ago he wrote an oped in the Times critical of Gov. Walker and his push to abolish collective bargaining rights for public employees in Wisconsin. About a week before that, he wrote a blog post -- the first in a new blog called Scholar as Citizen -- examining just who's behind this big anti-union push. He focused on a group called ALEC (The American Legislative Exchange Council).(...) Less than two days after Cronon ...
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Gove 'favouring academies' for visits	25.3.2011	The Guardian -- Front Page
National Association of Head Teachers says academies agenda means education secretary is ignoring bigger picture Headteachers have accused the education secretary of being driven by an ideological agenda after it emerged that almost half the schools he has visited since taking power are – or have applied to become – academies. A list obtained from the Department for Education reveals that 10 of the 27 schools Michael Gove has visited since he became education secretary are academies. A further two have had government approval to become academies and three are considering applying to switch status. Across the country, just 3% of primary and secondaries – 638 schools – are, or have applied to become, academies. Gove has said he wants academy status – when schools opt out of local authority control – to be "the norm" because this will drive up standards. Gove also appears to have concentrated his visits on schools that are already performing well. Thirteen of the 27 schools and two ...
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Ravenswood school board rejects Rocketship charter school petition	25.3.2011	San Jose Mercury News: Breaking News
The Ravenswood school board rejected Thursday night a charter school's petition to open a K-5 school in East Palo Alto, agreeing with the superintendent's opinion that the school's model wouldn't work for the district.
Parents come out for DPS's school turnaround plans	25.3.2011	Headlines: All Headlines
Parents and reform-minded activists gathered outside DPS headquarters Thursday to support school turnaround and to encourage administrators to continue making changes.
Romer: Lack of focus on unemployment 'shameful'	24.3.2011	Daily Kos
Christina Romer (Larry Downing/REUTERS) So it turns out that one of the former chairs of the Council of Economic Advisers who signed on to that Politico op-ed calling for implementation of the deficit commission's unofficial, non-binding, failed recommendations is worried about unemployment. Too bad Christina Romer couldn't have gotten a piece of this into that op-ed. “Shameful.” That’s what Christina Romer calls our apparent decision to stop worrying about unemployment and focus instead on deficit reduction and defunding public television and reproductive rights organizations. To see unemployment at 8.9 percent, she said at Vanderbilt University, is an “absolute crisis.” But we’ve slowly become accustomed to it. After all, 8.9 percent is better than almost-10 percent, which is where we were a few months ago. And it’s coming down, isn’t it? And aren’t we broke? It’s true that 8.9 percent is better than almost-10 percent, but it’s not better enough. Remember that 8.9 percent was the ...
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Wisconsin Republican hypocrisy deepens on 35% raise for Randy Hopper's mistress	23.3.2011	NewsTrust Yahoo Pipes Feed
Via Rock Strongo in the diaries , Scott Walker's administration has now offered a justification for giving Senator Randy Hopper's mistress a 35% raise at her new state job. WKOW in Madison reports : Officials said Valerie Cass, 26, who sources identified as a woman involved in a relationship with Sen. Randy Hopper (R-Fond du Lac), was hired Feb. 7 by the department of regulation and licensing to a limited term, communications specialist position at an hourly rate of $20.35. The hourly rate is equivalent to an annual salary of $42,328. Officials said the position was vacated by Robyn Lockett on Jan. 19. Officials said Lockett’s hourly rate was $15.00 equivalent to an annual salary of $31,200. "Ms. Cass’s compensation was set based on her professional experience in communications, her degree in journalism and the expansion of job duties to include policy research and analysis," DRL spokesperson David Carlson wrote in a statement. So, the Scott Walker administration believes in giving a 35% ...
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Teacher layoffs - a destructive annual event	21.3.2011	SFGate: Op-Ed
Teacher layoffs - a destructive annual event
The Death (and Life?) of School Desegregation (Cached)	21.3.2011	Balkinization
The Death (and Life?) of School Desegregation
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Diving into the mainstream	21.3.2011	Twincities.com: News
Last fall, Steven Cain needed to get away from school.
Triangle: Remembering the Fire	21.3.2011	Daily Kos
Procession in memory of victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire If you're like me, you learned about the Triangle Shirtwaist fire in high school history, but what you learned was fairly sketchy—the opening paragraph of its Wikipedia entry probably about captures it: The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers, who either died from the fire or jumped to their deaths. Most of the victims were recent immigrant Jewish women, age 16-23. Many of the workers could not escape the burning building because the managers had locked the doors to the stairwells and exits. People jumped from the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors. The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, which fought for better working conditions for sweatshop workers. As you might guess, that leaves out rather a lot. This is the week of the 100th anniversary of the Triangle fire, and tomorrow (Monday) night at 9:00, HBO ...
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Letters to the editor, March 21	20.3.2011	SFGate: Op-Ed
Letters to the editor, March 21
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Detroit schools struggle to solve budget woes	20.3.2011	MSNBC
Despite reworking vendor contracts to save money, shutting down old buildings, weeding out cases of fraud and theft, and keeping dozens of teaching and other district jobs unfilled, the $327 million deficit hasn't gone away.
Emergency financial manager struggles for answers to massive Detroit Schools budget deficit	20.3.2011	Star Tribune: Nation

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Detroit schools struggle to solve huge budget woes	20.3.2011	Boston Globe: Latest
Detroit schools struggle to solve huge budget woes
It's time to leave nuclear power behind	20.3.2011	Daily Kos
Wikimedia Commons Speaking at a town hall meeting in October 2009, Obama specifically cited Japan as a model for America's nuclear renaissance. "There's no reason why, technologically, we can't employ nuclear energy in a safe and effective way," Obama said. "Japan does it and France does it, and it doesn't have greenhouse gas emissions, so it would be stupid for us not to do that in a much more effective way." Well, he still has France. Sort of . But Stupid? The real stupidity would be in trusting anything the nuclear industry says or does. With Japan still in crisis, the nuclear industry has been quick to assert that it can't happen here, and that the Japanese plants were old and poorly designed. And never mind that the industry has been extending the lives of and relicensing similar plants here. The industry always tells us their designs are safe. They told us that about the plants now in at least partial meltdown. They tell us that about the similar plants that are being relicensed. They ...
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