(Source: inothernews)
"
We are very disappointed that PBS became a political target in the Presidential debate last night. Governor Romney does not understand the value the American people place on public broadcasting and the outstanding return on investment the system delivers to our nation. We think it is important to set the record straight and let the facts speak for themselves.
The federal investment in public broadcasting equals about one one-hundredth of one percent of the federal budget. Elimination of funding would have virtually no impact on the nation’s debt. Yet the loss to the American public would be devastating.
As a stated supporter of education, Governor Romney should be a champion of public broadcasting, yet he is willing to wipe out services that reach the vast majority of Americans, including underserved audiences, such as children who cannot attend preschool and citizens living in rural areas.
For more than 40 years Big Bird, has embodied the public broadcasting mission – harnessing the power of media for the good of every citizen, regardless of where they live or their ability to pay. Our system serves as a universally accessible resource for education, history, science, arts and civil discourse.
Each day, the American public receives an enduring and daily return on investment that is heard, seen, read and experienced in public media broadcasts, apps, podcasts and online – all for the cost of about $1.35 per person per year.
"— Excerpts from a statement by PBS in response to a Mitthead. (via inothernews)
FROWNBITE Student Camren Jenkins was interviewed by a local TV news reporter as he waited for school to start at Frazier International Magnet School Wednesday in Chicago. Teachers and students were returning to class after teachers’ union officials voted to end a seven-day strike. (Photo: Scott Olson / Getty Images via The Wall Street Journal)
I love everything about this photo. Everything.
A group of tourists spent hours Saturday night looking for a missing woman near Iceland’s Eldgja canyon, only to find her among the search party. The group was travelling through Iceland on a tour bus and stopped near the volcanic canyon in the southern highlands Saturday afternoon, reports the Icelandic news organization mbl.is. One of the women on the bus left to change her clothes and freshen up. When she came back, her busmates didn’t recognize her. Soon, there was word of a missing passenger. The woman didn’t recognize the description of herself, and joined in the search. About 50 people searched the terrain by vehicles and on foot. The coast guard was even readying a helicopter to help. But the search was called off at about 3 a.m., when it became clear the missing woman was, in fact, accounted for and searching for herself.
MIRAMAR, Fla. (AP) — A South Florida charter school has closed its doors leaving teachers without their last paycheck. The Miami Herald (http://bit.ly/RtWXMU ) reports teachers knew the end was near for Miramar’s Parkway Academy, but didn’t expect to be stiffed of their final month’s pay. The Broward school district voted in March to close the 517-student school. Officials cited the school for eight years of subpar performance and accused it of using uncertified teachers in some classrooms.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The North Carolina NAACP’s president says the civil rights group is launching a campaign targeting Republican legislators who have resisted full funding for the state’s pre-kindergarten enrichment program.
Thousands of young illegal immigrants waited in long lines yesterday for the chance to remain legally in the U.S. for the next two years.
Obama signed an executive order in June allowing the children of illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S. before turning 16 and are now under the age of 31 to come out of the shadows and apply for the temporary legal status.
After coming to America 12 years ago at the age of 10, Abel Gomez has already received his GED in New York, and hopes to go on to college in the U.S. to study accounting.
“I’m so excited,” Gomez, 22, told The Daily at the Mexican consulate in New York City. “It’s the opportunity that a lot of people are waiting for.”
“I witnessed the attack on Pearl Harbor and had the privilege of serving in the United States Army during World War II and I find the comments made by the Congressman from Pennsylvania to be misguided and insulting. It is complete nonsense to suggest that a matter discussed, debated, and approved by the Congress and the President is akin to a surprise attack that killed nearly 2,500 people and launched our nation into the second World War or a terrorist attack that left nearly 3,000 dead and led to fighting and dying in Afghanistan and Iraq. Having fought for this nation in Europe, I find that I have a special kinship with those who served in Afghanistan and Iraq and I routinely visit with the most severely wounded veterans of those conflicts. Just yesterday I met with a brave young man who lost all four of his limbs in Afghanistan. I hope the Congressman from Pennsylvania has the courage to share his comparison with them.”
(Source: greatestgeneration)
The defendants, led by Sam Mullet Sr., stood up one by one before U.S. District Court Judge Dan Aaron Polster and said they understand the risks of trial, including lengthy prison terms if convicted. The judge told one woman she was responding robotically to his questions, and another woman wiped away tears with a tissue as questions were asked of each defendant. Most of the other defendants and their family members in court watched without emotion. The plea bargains detailed in court would have given many of the defendants sentences of two to three years in prison instead of the possibility of 20 years or more. Several might have been eligible for parole. Prosecutors say a feud over church discipline led to attacks in which the beards and hair of men and hair of women were cut, an act considered deeply offensive in Amish culture. The Amish believe the Bible instructs women to let their hair grow long and men to grow beards and stop shaving once they marry. Several members of the group living in Bergholz in eastern Ohio carried out the attacks last September, October and November by forcibly cutting the beards and hair of Amish men and women and then taking photos to shame them, authorities said.
For crying out loud, we’re not adopted puppies you can show off to your friends.
AND BOOM.
The Onion makes a good point, even though it is satire.
In the most recent school year, Cleveland’s schools — the second largest district in Ohio — ranked 608th out of 611 school districts on the state’s performance index. It’s no surprise then that, since 2000, with the introduction of vouchers and charters, enrollment has shrunk by 30,000 students as families have left the city’s underachieving schools for better educational opportunities elsewhere.
Allowing trends like that to continue doesn’t lead to revival and renewal. It’s not acceptable and must be changed. For Cleveland to be a global magnet for economic growth, families, children and communities must have the opportunity to fully participate in an improving quality of life. Essential to that are, of course, strong schools.
Achieving that is why a broad-based, bipartisan coalition came together to conceive and support the Cleveland Plan. The Cleveland School District, Cleveland Teachers Union, American Federation of Teachers, city of Cleveland, Cleveland and Gund foundations, Greater Cleveland Partnership, Breakthrough Charter Schools, national education leaders and a host of Cleveland’s civic and clergy leaders developed the ideas and momentum to make change possible.
Not surprisingly, many were initially skeptical. What helped bring people together behind the plan, however, is the simple fact that, without exception, the plan puts children first.
Do students at a particular school struggle with reading? The district’s best reading teachers could be deployed there to help them catch up. Could children benefit from the extra teaching attention of a longer school day or a longer school year? It could happen more easily now. Is an organization sponsoring charter schools that siphon taxpayers’ money without delivering good results? That sponsor will not operate in Cleveland.
The reforms may sound like common sense, and they are, but even changes that are desperately needed can be difficult to make. Fear of the unknown can paralyze even those in need. By carefully and patiently listening to and working with the community, teachers, parents and members of the General Assembly, however, eventually the value of the Cleveland Plan’s reforms secured the support needed to become law. It’s a case study in how different people with different views can come together to get something important done.
(click the link to read the entire article)
This is the same guy who split his suit at World’s and gave everyone quite the show.
Influential New York City educatorGary Rubinsteinhas long been critical of Teach for America, the organization that brought him into the classroom 21 years ago. In a blog post last fall, hearguedthat people should no longer sign up to join the organization. Now, he’s asking TFA teachers and alumni to take action against what he calls “the corporate reform movement for which TFA is the poster child.”
“Now you’ve experienced how difficult teaching is. You’ve seen, also, how complex the achievement gap is too,”Rubinstein writes. He goes on to ask some tough questions that challenge key tenets of the TFA philosophy: “So do you really believe that the issue is ‘bad teachers’ who need to be motivated through fear of being fired or through cash bonuses? Is that really what you determined after working in a school alongside people who elected to become career teachers? Those of you who worked in charter schools, do you really believe that they are providing an excellent education to all students?”
Rubinstein is inviting corps members and alumni to write openly about what they believe TFA must change, either on their own blogs or as guest posters on his blog. High on his own list is reworking TFA’s five-week long summer training institute, where new corps members learn the nuts and bolts of being a teacher.
Rubinstein is far from alone in his belief that TFA needs to change the way it trains corps members. Last February, after the organization’s 20th anniversary summit, an alum created a Change.org petition asking that corps member “receive at least a full year of high-quality, school-based preparation before they assume responsibility for their own classroom.”
(Click the link above to continue reading)
I am not a fan of TFA, and do not believe it is set up the way the program’s philosophy originally intended. That doesn’t mean I think TFA-ers themselves are bad. I just think a lot of them go into it very naively. I feel like teachers who choose to go into the field, who choose to teach in hard to staff schools, and who stay for longer than two years should receive tuition or loan credits. I don’t think that someone with less training, making the same amount of pay, and only making a 2 year commitment trumps that.
I think TFA makes teaching sound like summer camp to those outside the field.
I think it is a small band-aid to a much larger problem, and the lack of training and two year commitment create problems of their own.
I wish the money, time, brain power, and creativity were being used to serve schools in a better way.
I also think it is super shady that they turn down applicants who have already worked towards a teaching degree.
