WHAT SHELDON ADELSON WANTS
EDITORIAL
NEW YORK TIMES
[Sheldon Adelson] is the perfect illustration of the squalid state of political money, spending sums greater than any political donation in history to advance his personal, ideological and financial agenda, which is wildly at odds with the nation’s needs. Mr. Adelson spent $20 million to prop up Newt Gingrich’s failed candidacy for the Republican nomination. Now, he has given $10 million to a Mitt Romney super PAC, and has pledged at least $10 million to Crossroads GPS, the advocacy group founded by Karl Rove that is running attack ads against Mr. Obama and other Democrats. Another $10 million will probably go to a similar group founded by the Koch brothers, and $10 million more to Republican Congressional super PACs. That’s $60 million we know of (other huge donations may be secret), and it may be only a down payment.
WHY CHARTER SCHOOLS WORK
BY DEBORAH KENNY
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Critics claim that charter schools are successful only because they cherry-pick students, because they have smaller class sizes, or because motivated parents apply for charter lotteries and non-motivated parents do not. And even if charters are successful, they argue, there is no way to scale that success to reform a large district. None of that is true. Charters succeed because of their two defining characteristics—accountability and freedom. In exchange for being held accountable for student achievement results, charter schools are generally free from bureaucratic and union rules that prevent principals from hiring, firing or evaluating their own teams. ... Accountability and freedom do not guarantee that a school will provide an excellent education, but they are prerequisites.
EGYPT STUMBLES FORWARD
EDITORIAL
WASHINGTON POST
For the first time in its history, Egypt has a freely elected president. Whether that development becomes a foundation to build on or a prelude to further destabilization in the Arab world’s most populous country will depend on whether the military and Islamists can find a modus vivendi based on democratic principles. Unfortunately neither has so far shown a sufficient willingness to do so. ... Egypt still has a chance to complete a democratic transition, but it will require more mature political behavior by all sides. Strong encouragement by the United States — particularly to the recalcitrant generals of the old order — can help.
FIXING THE IMMIGRATION SYSTEM
BY DAVID A. MARTIN
WASHINGTON POST
Since Obama’s inauguration, advocates have pressured the president to trim way back on deportations, in the name of prosecutorial discretion. ...For Obama to drop enforcement way below the levels Congress has called for through appropriations laws would be more than legally dubious. It would also set a dangerous precedent that could haunt progressives. Picture a Romney administration thwarting, say, the new consumer protection laws by refusing to spend half the money Congress continually provides for their enforcement. Such hypothetical actions, by any administration, would conjure the ghost of Richard Nixon, who belligerently impounded huge sums that Congress had appropriated simply because enforcement didn’t conform to unilateral executive policies.
EGYPT'S BROTHER PRESIDENT
EDITORIAL
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Mr. Morsi takes over a post gutted of authority. For all the symbolic import of Sunday's result, formal power remains with the military, where it has rested for 60 years. A contentious decree unveiled last week lets the generals pass laws, write a new constitution and run security policy unchallenged. ... After last night's party, Egyptians wake up Monday to harsh realities. Their economy is in free fall and the allocation of power is far from settled. Some activists want to keep the protesters in the streets to force the military to give up control. Millions more want a return to stability. A new, legitimately elected president is a good democratic start, but only that.
Leave a Comment:
Did Joe actually just say the President wasted eighteen months of a FILIBUSTER PROOF majority? Ha! Ha! Ha! Is Joe Brain damaged? Is he going senile? Maybe he's trying out for a job at Fox?
Are the rest of you so scared that he will box your ears that you wont challenge him on the facts?
I believe Pelosi had 401 of her legislative bills in the house filibustered or otherwise stalled by the Republicans in the Senate in those first eighteen months! Ha! Ha! Ha! Republicans! If they couldn't lie they wouldn't be able to speak!
The auto bailout was a fantastic American success story in a time when American jobs have been going overseas. Florida is also doing great as are many American states but Romney and the Republicans are telling their media contacts to tell Americans we're doing horrible.
We are doing great compared to Europe. But the Republicans would rather tell Americans times are horrible and would rather refuse to pass any jobs bills at all. Do Republicans care about this country at all? We know right wing corporations do not view themselves as American institutions but rather as independent players but do Republicans have to sabotage our recovery just to please those donors? If that's their attitude why run for office? Get the hell out! We need people in office who actually care about the citizens they represent instead of the few hundred thousand corporate board members who don't care about the citizens of this country at all.
Wow you guys are so cynical. How long have we as a people and as politicians been trying to get a viable health care policy passed? Did you actually believe we would a get a PERFECT bill passed on the first try? Come on! Are you really that naive? Was Social Security or ANYTHING perfect on the first try? Of course not! The point is the bill is finally passed. You could of sat back and taken credit for the fact that it was a REPUBLICAN BILL conceived of, written by, and vetted by Republican's but because President Obama happened to be the one who passed it you infantile Republican's couldn't accept what was best for the country and instead threw a tantrum. I'm hoping the jurist's at your clown court do throw out the individual mandate which is what you Republicans and the insurance companies really wanted the most, NOT the Dems and as a result you guys lose the support of one of YOUR most ardent supporters - the insurance companies. In other words I hope you guys shoot yourselves in the foot by throwing your huge infantile temper tantrum!
Regarding schools - charter and otherwise:
Suppose you are own a factory making widgets.
How do you fix the problem? You could :
OR
You could do what is now standard practice in industry - you analyze and try to understand the entire process using something like Six-Sigma - Lean Manufacturing and identify the root cause.
To summarize Six-Sigma, is a methodology that includes1) process maps to understand in great detail each step, 2) documentation of all factors that impact each step - Inputs and Outputs, 3) FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis) - a list of everything that can go wrong (fail) and how severe the impact of the failure would be, how to detect and how to mitigate or eliminate and 4) investigate, analyze, graph.
When you get done with this process, you have the complete picture and have identified why some of the widgets have flaws, where the flaws occur, why the flaws occur and what can be done to improve the process.
The point is you have to look at each and every factor!
Six-Sigma works well in industry, especially a process like an assembly line.
Think how much more complicated the education process is!!!
Think about all the factors that affect how well a student learns.
Things the teacher and administration has some control over such as:
What about the things the teacher has no control over?
It makes NO SENSE to only blame the teachers!!
Do you notice a theme here though? Blame the workers never blame the administrators!
For example: Who was to blame for the mortgage crisis according to the right wing media? Well it was all the irresponsible middle and lower class people who lied about the financials on their mortgage applications. Who was responsible for Europe's financial crisis? Of course it's the lazy Greek workers etc. Who's responsible for the failure of the banks? Well Obama of course because he bailed them out. Who's responsible for the failure of faster job growth other than 4.3 million jobs? Obama of course because as President he passes job legislation in Congress not the Congressmen whose actual job it is to pass job and all legislation in this country.
See how that works? Those actually responsible love to pass the buck in this country by playing the old, "It ain't my fault, blame the guy who doesn't have anything to with it" game.
When I was a child I and my siblings received classical educations at Catholic schools. We didn't receive any monetary help from the government and as children had to work to help pay for the costs. I feel it's important to mention at this point that 30% of the students at my Catholic Prep school weren't even Catholic but those of other religions who just wanted to get an excellent education.
The vast majority of the professors had multiple PHD's and one of the huge differences between the Catholic schools and our public counterparts was that in our schools it was "cool" to get high grades and looked down upon if one received bad grades or screwed around in class. One was expected to participated in sports, clubs and extracurricular activities. Just the opposite was true of my friends in public school. The "cool kids" were the ones who screwed around, got poor grades and participated in nothing.
My biggest concern with the new charter schools is that they are partially funded by tax payer funds and they are using factually deficient text books, poorly formed syllabuses, and professors who aren't teaching classical subjects. America has fallen way too far behind the rest of the world. When I entered university I coasted through my first two years plus because of my excellent primary education. That's the education system I would like for America's children.