Obituaries

Football player and sportscaster Tom Brookshier, 78, of cancer.
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Former Maryland Charles Mathias, 87, of complications of Parkinson's disease:

Civil rights legislation engaged Mr. Mathias throughout his Washington career, which included four terms in the House of Representatives, from 1961 to 1969, and three terms in the Senate before he retired in 1987.

Mr. Mathias, who was known as Mac, played a major role in drafting the 1964 Civil Rights Act as a subordinate to Republican leaders who provided the margin of victory in the House. He was a key supporter of later measures on voting and housing and of efforts to thwart Reagan administration efforts to roll back those victories.

He was what was known as a liberal Republican, in the days when Congress was a more cooperative body and before the nutball right took over the GOP.
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Petite character actress Zelda Rubenstein, 76, of complications from a heart attack.
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Former Commerce Department secretary Robert A. Mosbacher, 82, of pancreatic cancer:

It took a few years of poring over land records in county courthouses before a debt-averse Mr. Mosbacher — he said he had learned never to wildcat on capital or borrowed money — drilled his first well. It turned out to be a dry hole.

But in the mid-1950s he found a huge field of natural gas in south Texas and eventually drilled wells in Texas, Louisiana, Montana and western Canada.

He redeployed some of the family-owned Mosbacher Energy Company’s assets into ranching, real estate and banking, diversifying a fortune that grew to an estimated hundreds of millions of dollars.

It was at a barbecue in Texas that Mr. Mosbacher met George H. W. Bush; the two shared a background as ambitious scions of wealthy and accomplished Northeastern families.

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Abortion rights pioneer Ruth Proskauer Smith, 102.

She wasn't that well known, but the organization which she helped found is:

In 1969, Mrs. Smith and 11 others formed the first steering committee of the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws, as the organization was then known. (In 1973, after the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade made abortion legal nationwide, the group’s name was changed to the National Abortion Rights Action League; it adopted its present name in 2003.)

In recent years, Mrs. Smith remained involved with Naral Pro-Choice New York, an affiliate of the national body. She was also active in the right-to-die movement, advocating that physician-assisted suicide be legally available to terminally ill people.

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News

With the job market in the tank, some crooks are finding times have never been better, only this time a few are scamming the unemployed.
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A special education teacher faces her seventh lawsuit:

A new lawsuit filed against a Sumner County teacher charged with abusing her pre-school-aged special needs students alleges abuse as far back as 2005.


Donna Weidenbenner, 47, is already facing six lawsuits alleging abuse of students during her time as a teacher. She is also facing multiple criminal charges stemming from incidents alleged to have occurred during the 2008-09 school year.

The latest lawsuit accuses Weidenbenner of abusing a young male student between 2005-07 at Beech Elementary School, where Weidenbenner worked before her transfer to Station Camp Elementary School.


According to the lawsuit, Weidenbenner is accused of “hitting and grabbing [the boy] with such force as to cause bruising, and grabbing his head with both hands and shaking violently.”

I get wrongfully shitcanned for what amounted to a clerical error.

Here is more information:

The lawsuit claims the teacher shoved, kicked, stood on top of students and even strapped them to a toilet.

One attorney said his clients brought the problem to the attention of school officials three years ago in a meeting that was recorded on tape and paper.

"He said that she grabbed his head and he just showed grabbing it and shaking it," said mother Jamie Minnis.

Jamie and Terry Minnis said they were concerned by the story their autistic 5-year-old son came home telling them in April 2007. Their child was a student in Weidenbenner's special-education class at Beech Elementary School, so they went to school administrators.

In an audio tape of the meeting, Weidenbenner can be heard explaining her teaching techniques.

"I did not shake his head. I did touch his head. I will admit to that because I was trying to get him to look at me,” said Weidenbenner on the recording.

Principal Brenda Green defended Weidenbenner's teaching style during the meeting.

"She has a program, and she totally goes about it in a way that an onlooker might say, 'That's a little bit too strict,'" said Green on the recording.

A video report from last October:

The Education Wars: Food for Thought

The war against public education is continuing, only the face of the enemy is changing.

Box Office Champs

Whenever somebody comes up with the films with the biggest box office sales, you KNOW there is plenty of question about the validity of the stats. When ticket sales are eight dollars or ten dollars or whatever apiece, the box office champions will ALWAYS be recent films.

No film will EVER have the popularity of 1939's Gone With the Wind. Movies were a more central part of people's lives than they are now, for people back then didn't have television or DVDs or iPods or the internet as alternatives to film. The only alternative to films back in the 1930s was radio, and of course people couldn't actually see the action--they had to visualize it in their minds. They had to go to movie theaters for that.

Although the writer of the piece doesn't mention it, D.W. Griffith's outrageously racist The Birth of a Nation (1915) probably ranks near the top of all time attendance records.

Anyway, attendance records may be more important. Ticket sales have been jacked up through the roof in order to compensate for fewer people attending movie theaters.

Call Me a Skeptic

I'll believe this proposal does anything to create jobs when I see it.

There needs to be more than just tax credits to get the economy back on track, but Obama and Congress won't do it.

Meanwhile, Obama used a lot of flowery words in his SOTU speech, but those words masked the real problems facing the country:

He began by defending the “aggressive” measures he took to rescue the financial system, asserting that “one year later, the worst of the storm has passed.” Really? Precisely for whom has the storm passed?

The answer is obvious—for the financial parasites whose speculation precipitated the economic disaster. The situation for the working class has only worsened. Home foreclosures and hunger are at record levels and poverty is rapidly rising. When Obama took office one year ago, the official unemployment rate stood at 7.6 percent. It is now 10 percent—a jump of 31 percent.

The Education Wars: Teacher "Quality" Propaganda

More nonsense from a "yearbook" of how shitty teachers are and trashing pensions and tenure while the propagandists are at it.

They don't even know what "tenure" is, which protects districts more than it protects teachers, but why let any truth in?

The nonsense about defined contribution plans being so great and flexible gives the survey away as a bunch of bullshit.

The State of the Union

looks pretty damned bad and it's bound to get worse, thanks to the fact 41 Republicans can hijack anything.

How the hell did we get into this awful state of affairs?

The Education Wars: More Stupid Arneisms

I always knew Arne Duncan was blithering, blathering idiot, but I think he has just outdone himself with his remarks about Hurricane Katrina.

Duncan was quoted as replying: "It's a fascinating one. I spent a lot of time in New Orleans, and this is a tough thing to say, but let me be really honest. I think the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans was Hurricane Katrina. That education system was a disaster, and it took Hurricane Katrina to wake up the community to say that 'We have to do better.' And the progress that they've made in four years since the hurricane is unbelievable. They have a chance to create a phenomenal school district. Long way to go, but that -- that city was not serious about its education. Those children were being desperately underserved prior, and the amount of progress and the amount of reform we've seen in a short amount of time has been absolutely amazing."

A Republican would have been tarred and feathered for this idiocy, but not Arne. Nobody asks for this cretin to step down.

This is just about as bad as Michelle Rhee's idiotic remarks about the 266 teachers she wrongfully fired.

More Shit.

Evidently there really is a "sex tape," and Lisa Jo Druck is trying to get custody of it from former Edwards aide/sleazeball Andrew Young:

In his book that came out this week, Young describes viewing a sex tape that showed Edwards and a woman he assumed was Hunter. Young says some videotapes were inside a “box of trash” that Hunter left behind at a home he rented for her. He says the tape had been pulled out but that he was able to fix it.

Deputies in Orange County said in court documents filed today that they went to Young's home to try and recover the tapes and personal photographs of Hunter. After some discussion, Young's attorney told authorities that he could not immediately turn over the tape.

Along with winning the restraining order, Hunter has filed a lawsuit against Young and his wife, seeking a jury trial and damages for invasion of privacy. Young's attorney did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Edwards only recently admitted paternity of Hunter's daughter, who is now nearly 2. He and his wife, Elizabeth, are now separated.

I don't know why people film crap like this in the first place, except in her case it was possibly to blackmail Edwards sometime down the road.

Some Good News for a Change

Not that there was ever any doubt of Scott Roeder's guilt.

It's still good news anyway.

He needs to be at Florence ADX with fellow terrorist Eric Rudolph.

This morning, Lee Thompson and Dan Monnat, Tiller's attorneys, released a statement at the request of Jeanne Tiller, George Tiller's widow, and the Tiller family:

"The family of Dr. George Tiller would like to thank the jury, District Attorney Nola Foulston and her office and law enforcement for their service in this difficult matter. Once again, a Sedgwick County jury has reached a just verdict. We also want to thank George's countless friends and supporters in Wichita and around the country who have offered their comfort.

"At this time we hope that George can be remembered for his legacy of service to women, the help he provided for those who needed it and the love and happiness he provided us as a husband, father and grandfather."

Political News--Geneaology

It's bad news indeed for Hillary Clinton:

George Stephanopoulos has learned that he may be genetically linked to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

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The Education Wars: More Teacher Union Trashing

and shilling for the Obama administration's destructive Race to the Top nonsense. Naturally a know-nothing about education gets paid to write something he knows nothing about.

A remarkable thing happened in New York recently: the state legislature, in effect, turned down the chance to win $700 million in federal money. No one does that, except extremely conservative Southern governors (who inevitably relent and take the money) — oh, and occasionally teachers' unions. A few years ago, I wrote here about the Detroit union that forced the local government to reject a $200 million philanthropic gift to build 15 charter schools using a model that was already succeeding in the city. And now we have New York's United Federation of Teachers (UFT), a storied crew, thwarting the state's attempt to file an application that might have won $700 million in Race to the Top education funds — and again the issue is charter schools, with a substantial dollop of teacher accountability thrown in.

Interesting Article About Student Newspaper Freedom of Speech

This is in Fallon, Nevada. I wonder if the same thing would have happened had it been an administrator who was the target of the article:

A Nevada school newspaper has been allowed to run an article critical of a teacher, even though a teachers’ union sought to block its publication.

The article by senior Lauren MacLean at Churchill County High School in Fallon is scheduled to run Friday in the school’s paper, “The Flash.”

Her story focuses on parents who contend that music teacher Kathy Archey withheld some student audition tapes for a prestigious state competition for aspiring student musicians.

Some parents said their children were devastated to learn their tapes had not been submitted to program organizers.

Here is the article in question, which will be published tomorrow.

And this is an update regarding the controversy:

The Lahontan Valley News has learned the Churchill County Edcuation Association filed a second grievance today against Churchill County School Superintendent Carolyn Ross for a news article that will appear Friday in the high school student newspaper.

Ross confirmed today the CCEA filed a new grievance against her for releasing information about an original grievance the teachers' union filed to suppress a student article in the “Greenwave Flash.”

The Lahontan Valley News and the Las Vegas Review Journal first reported on attempts from the teachers' association trying to quash the publication of a news article. Student Lauren Mac Lean, 17, wrote an article about parent advocates demanding the district investigate Honor Choir audition practices after parents discovered evidence that the music teacher failed to submit an unknown number of student audition tapes to the region head of the Nevada Music Educators Association Honor/All State Choir program.

The CCEA cited an article of the teacher protection policy stating: “No teacher shall be disciplined, suspended, reduced in rank or compensation, adversely evaluated in a manner which could affect the teacher's employment or lead to dismissal or nonrenewal, transferred, dismissed, not-renewed, terminate or otherwise deprived of any professional advantage without just cause.”

The more I read about this, the more I agree with the union. The administrators had NO right to allow this paper to print the article. Reputations are fragile things, and, in this case, there is NO misconduct on the part of the teacher to warrant any kind of investigation. This NOT a First Amendment matter; this is the right of a teacher to continue with her career without having her reputation slandered.

This is advice that Associated Press and the Reno Gazette-Journal should take to heart. They printed MY name and the name of a school counselor in a bogus lawsuit while the parent who filed it is allowed protection from publicity, even though her name is on the lawsuit. They didn't care whether the suit had any merit; WE professionals were "guilty" of "negligence," regardless of the fact very, very few of these lawsuits ever have any merit whatsoever. There should be a state law against any paper being allowed to print the names of teachers who are defendants in a civil action because of the ease to which their reputations can be destroyed.

Obituaries--J.D. Salinger

Author and noted recluse J.D. Salinger has died. He wrote many short stories, but just one novel, his most famous work, The Catcher in the Rye, a staple of many high school literature classes and censorship lists. The central character, prep school student and head case Holden Caulfield, was a forerunner of the what would later be called the "youth culture."

When I was young, it was my favorite novel. I haven't read it in many, many years, so I don't know how it would affect me now.

He also had an infamous affair with writer Joyce Maynard, when she was still in her teens and he was in his fifties. It ended badly, and years later she sold her letters from him.

Salinger was 91 years old:

Salinger drew from Sherwood Anderson, Isak Dinesen, F. Scott Fitzgerald and especially Ring Lardner, whose wise-guy voice you hear chiming in the snappy banalities and sometimes desperate patter spoken by Salinger's characters, a tone that found its way years later into the neurotic chatter of Woody Allen's New Yorkers. But Salinger bent it all into something new, a tone that drew from the secular and the religious, the worldly and the otherworldly, the ecstatic and the unconsolable. It's customary to assume that the seven Glass children — the Glass family, an intricate hybrid of showbiz and spirituality, was his other enduring creation — make up a kind of group portrait of Salinger, each of them a reflection of his different dimensions: the writer and the actor, the searcher and the researcher, the spiritual adept and the pratfalling schmuck. That may very well be true. He made sure we could never be sure. Holden Caulfield says, "Don't ever tell anybody anything." That's one time you know it's Salinger talking.

He poured his resentment into a tirade against Hollywood that Holden Caulfield delivers in Catcher, which was published in July 1951. A few critics objected to Caulfield's free use of fairly innocuous curse words, but most of the reviews were exultant. Catcher stayed on the New York Times best-seller list for seven months, then developed its enduring afterlife. But Salinger had long since moved on from concerns with adolescent dissatisfaction to an interest in Eastern religion, especially the Gospels of Sri Ramakrishna, the 19th-century Hindu mystic. His beliefs started to find their way into his fiction. In his haunting story "Teddy," a college instructor on a transatlantic cruise ship makes the acquaintance of an otherworldly little boy who calmly believes himself to be a reincarnated soul and meets a fate he predicts for himself.

He was married three times, had two children, and three grandsons. About the affair with Maynard:

Twenty-five years later she wrote about their relationship in a memoir, "At Home in the World," the only detailed picture we have of Salinger in later life. She was prompted to go public, she said, by the discovery that he had carried on the same kind of intimate correspondences with other young women, whom he then dropped just as he did her. One year after her book was published Maynard also put 15 of his letters to her up for auction. They were bought for $156,500 by the software entrepreneur Peter Norton, who returned them to Salinger.

NYT obituary

The Education Wars: The Privatization of the Common Good

The notion government can NEVER do anything right and because of this, functions designed for the common good should be open to market forces, dies hard. It's been debunked over and over and over again, but the privatizers keep on with their destructive rhetoric.

At bottom, this is a war against democracy itself by trashing basic institutions such as public education.

The worst thing of all is the neoliberals are infecting the Democratic Party with their destructive rot.

Oakland teachers have had to face the hard lessons of Privatization earlier than most. The state took over the public schools in 2003 and then turned the school system into a virtual laboratory for the corporate concept of schools: opening charters left and right, closing schools, laying off librarians and custodians, trashing the quality of public education, and testing, testing, testing.

Our experience is that privatization proceeds in pieces, the first step includes turning over public functions to “the market” through corporatizing every policy and procedure. The United States – the first country to establish free, universal public education – is on now track to being the first country to eliminate it. After seven years, far more cities than Oakland are living out what this means.

The final step is the disenfranchisement of the public in all forms and the extermination of public rights, public lands, public parks, public control, public concerns, public spaces, the public commons, the welfare of the public, public issues and… public power.

It's a matter of ideology, not facts. These neoliberals simply can't face the fact that the public institutions are there for a reason.

News

Everything I ever learned about life I learned from Webster's and American Heritage dictionaries.
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Here is another great dog rescue story:

A frightened, shivering dog has been rescued after floating alone on an ice floe down Poland's Vistula River and then 15 miles (24 kilometers) out into the Baltic Sea.

Now his saviors just have to figure out who really owns him.

Four people have already claimed him, but so far rescuers say there's been no wagging tail of joy from the miracle dog they nicknamed "Baltic."

The dog's frozen odyssey came as Poland suffers through a winter cold snap, with temperatures dipping to below minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 20 Celsius).

The thick-furred male dog was found adrift Monday by the crew of the Baltica, a Polish ship of ocean scientists carrying out research in the Baltic Sea. Researcher Natalia Drgas said Thursday the rescue was difficult and at one point it seemed the dog had drowned.

Reuters has the video here.
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This story was very sad and another chapter in the life of a family that suffered a horrible injustice.

T. Cullen Davis, still alive, was the O.J. Simpson of Texas. He should have spent the rest of his life in prison.
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John Kerry had contacted Elizabeth Edwards a couple of days ago. He is very saddened about the whole situation, especially given the fact he had JRE thoroughly vetted back in 2004, and he was totally free of any taint of scandal.

The Education Wars: Obama Administration v. Public Education

There is a big difference between this administration and the previous one with regard to education: Ol' Bush tried to bludgeon states to comply with "standards" by making threats of sanctions, while Obama does it the "Chicago way" through old-fashioned bribery, also known as Race to the Top.

Guess which one is more effective? At least Bush and company didn't try to subvert teacher protections in order get what he wanted although NCLB was a start in that direction. But Obama and Duncan are wrecking public education with astonishing speed.

SOTU Address

For those who didn't see the 71-minute speech last night, here it is:

This is the full speech courtesy of C-SPAN. It was too hard to find the right clip from MSNBC:




The full text of the speech:

Madame Speaker, Vice President Biden, Members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans:

Our Constitution declares that from time to time, the President shall give to Congress information about the state of our union. For two hundred and twenty years, our leaders have fulfilled this duty. They have done so during periods of prosperity and tranquility. And they have done so in the midst of war and depression; at moments of great strife and great struggle.

It's tempting to look back on these moments and assume that our progress was inevitable - that America was always destined to succeed. But when the Union was turned back at Bull Run and the Allies first landed at Omaha Beach, victory was very much in doubt. When the market crashed on Black Tuesday and civil rights marchers were beaten on Bloody Sunday, the future was anything but certain. These were times that tested the courage of our convictions, and the strength of our union. And despite all our divisions and disagreements; our hesitations and our fears; America prevailed because we chose to move forward as one nation, and one people.

Again, we are tested. And again, we must answer history's call.

One year ago, I took office amid two wars, an economy rocked by severe recession, a financial system on the verge of collapse, and a government deeply in debt. Experts from across the political spectrum warned that if we did not act, we might face a second depression. So we acted - immediately and aggressively. And one year later, the worst of the storm has passed.

But the devastation remains. One in ten Americans still cannot find work. Many businesses have shuttered. Home values have declined. Small towns and rural communities have been hit especially hard. For those who had already known poverty, life has become that much harder.

This recession has also compounded the burdens that America's families have been dealing with for decades - the burden of working harder and longer for less; of being unable to save enough to retire or help kids with college.

So I know the anxieties that are out there right now. They're not new. These struggles are the reason I ran for President. These struggles are what I've witnessed for years in places like Elkhart, Indiana and Galesburg, Illinois. I hear about them in the letters that I read each night. The toughest to read are those written by children - asking why they have to move from their home, or when their mom or dad will be able to go back to work.

For these Americans and so many others, change has not come fast enough. Some are frustrated; some are angry. They don't understand why it seems like bad behavior on Wall Street is rewarded but hard work on Main Street isn't; or why Washington has been unable or unwilling to solve any of our problems. They are tired of the partisanship and the shouting and the pettiness. They know we can't afford it. Not now.

So we face big and difficult challenges. And what the American people hope - what they deserve - is for all of us, Democrats and Republicans, to work through our differences; to overcome the numbing weight of our politics. For while the people who sent us here have different backgrounds, different stories and different beliefs, the anxieties they face are the same. The aspirations they hold are shared. A job that pays the bills. A chance to get ahead. Most of all, the ability to give their children a better life.

You know what else they share? They share a stubborn resilience in the face of adversity. After one of the most difficult years in our history, they remain busy building cars and teaching kids; starting businesses and going back to school. They're coaching little league and helping their neighbors. As one woman wrote me, "We are strained but hopeful, struggling but encouraged."

It is because of this spirit — this great decency and great strength — that I have never been more hopeful about America's future than I am tonight. Despite our hardships, our union is strong. We do not give up. We do not quit. We do not allow fear or division to break our spirit. In this new decade, it's time the American people get a government that matches their decency; that embodies their strength.

And tonight, I'd like to talk about how together, we can deliver on that promise.

It begins with our economy.

Our most urgent task upon taking office was to shore up the same banks that helped cause this crisis. It was not easy to do. And if there's one thing that has unified Democrats and Republicans, it's that we all hated the bank bailout. I hated it. You hated it. It was about as popular as a root canal.

But when I ran for President, I promised I wouldn't just do what was popular — I would do what was necessary. And if we had allowed the meltdown of the financial system, unemployment might be double what it is today. More businesses would certainly have closed. More homes would have surely been lost.

So I supported the last administration's efforts to create the financial rescue program. And when we took the program over, we made it more transparent and accountable. As a result, the markets are now stabilized, and we have recovered most of the money we spent on the banks.

To recover the rest, I have proposed a fee on the biggest banks. I know Wall Street isn't keen on this idea, but if these firms can afford to hand out big bonuses again, they can afford a modest fee to pay back the taxpayers who rescued them in their time of need.

As we stabilized the financial system, we also took steps to get our economy growing again, save as many jobs as possible, and help Americans who had become unemployed.

That's why we extended or increased unemployment benefits for more than 18 million Americans; made health insurance 65% cheaper for families who get their coverage through COBRA; and passed 25 different tax cuts.

Let me repeat: We cut taxes. We cut taxes for 95% of working families. We cut taxes for small businesses. We cut taxes for first-time homebuyers. We cut taxes for parents trying to care for their children. We cut taxes for 8 million Americans paying for college. As a result, millions of Americans had more to spend on gas, and food, and other necessities, all of which helped businesses keep more workers. And we haven't raised income taxes by a single dime on a single person. Not a single dime.

Because of the steps we took, there are about two million Americans working right now who would otherwise be unemployed. 200,000 work in construction and clean energy. 300,000 are teachers and other education workers. Tens of thousands are cops, firefighters, correctional officers, and first responders. And we are on track to add another one and a half million jobs to this total by the end of the year.

The plan that has made all of this possible, from the tax cuts to the jobs, is the Recovery Act. That's right - the Recovery Act, also known as the Stimulus Bill. Economists on the left and the right say that this bill has helped saved jobs and avert disaster. But you don't have to take their word for it.

Talk to the small business in Phoenix that will triple its workforce because of the Recovery Act.

Talk to the window manufacturer in Philadelphia who said he used to be skeptical about the Recovery Act, until he had to add two more work shifts just because of the business it created.

Talk to the single teacher raising two kids who was told by her principal in the last week of school that because of the Recovery Act, she wouldn't be laid off after all.

There are stories like this all across America. And after two years of recession, the economy is growing again. Retirement funds have started to gain back some of their value. Businesses are beginning to invest again, and slowly some are starting to hire again.

But I realize that for every success story, there are other stories, of men and women who wake up with the anguish of not knowing where their next paycheck will come from; who send out resumes week after week and hear nothing in response. That is why jobs must be our number one focus in 2010, and that is why I am calling for a new jobs bill tonight.

Now, the true engine of job creation in this country will always be America's businesses. But government can create the conditions necessary for businesses to expand and hire more workers.

We should start where most new jobs do - in small businesses, companies that begin when an entrepreneur takes a chance on a dream, or a worker decides its time she became her own boss.

Through sheer grit and determination, these companies have weathered the recession and are ready to grow. But when you talk to small business owners in places like Allentown, Pennsylvania or Elyria, Ohio, you find out that even though banks on Wall Street are lending again, they are mostly lending to bigger companies. But financing remains difficult for small business owners across the country.

So tonight, I'm proposing that we take $30 billion of the money Wall Street banks have repaid and use it to help community banks give small businesses the credit they need to stay afloat. I am also proposing a new small business tax credit — one that will go to over one million small businesses who hire new workers or raise wages. While we're at it, let's also eliminate all capital gains taxes on small business investment; and provide a tax incentive for all businesses, large and small, to invest in new plants and equipment.

Next, we can put Americans to work today building the infrastructure of tomorrow. From the first railroads to the interstate highway system, our nation has always been built to compete. There's no reason Europe or China should have the fastest trains, or the new factories that manufacture clean energy products.

Tomorrow, I'll visit Tampa, Fla., where workers will soon break ground on a new high-speed railroad funded by the Recovery Act. There are projects like that all across this country that will create jobs and help our nation move goods, services, and information. We should put more Americans to work building clean energy facilities, and give rebates to Americans who make their homes more energy efficient, which supports clean energy jobs. And to encourage these and other businesses to stay within our borders, it's time to finally slash the tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas and give those tax breaks to companies that create jobs in the United States of America.

The House has passed a jobs bill that includes some of these steps. As the first order of business this year, I urge the Senate to do the same. People are out of work. They are hurting. They need our help. And I want a jobs bill on my desk without delay.

But the truth is, these steps still won't make up for the seven million jobs we've lost over the last two years. The only way to move to full employment is to lay a new foundation for long-term economic growth, and finally address the problems that America's families have confronted for years.

We cannot afford another so-called economic "expansion" like the one from last decade — what some call the "lost decade" — where jobs grew more slowly than during any prior expansion; where the income of the average American household declined while the cost of health care and tuition reached record highs; where prosperity was built on a housing bubble and financial speculation.

From the day I took office, I have been told that addressing our larger challenges is too ambitious - that such efforts would be too contentious, that our political system is too gridlocked, and that we should just put things on hold for awhile.

For those who make these claims, I have one simple question:

How long should we wait? How long should America put its future on hold?

You see, Washington has been telling us to wait for decades, even as the problems have grown worse. Meanwhile, China's not waiting to revamp its economy. Germany's not waiting. India's not waiting. These nations aren't standing still. These nations aren't playing for second place. They're putting more emphasis on math and science. They're rebuilding their infrastructure. They are making serious investments in clean energy because they want those jobs.

Well I do not accept second-place for the United States of America. As hard as it may be, as uncomfortable and contentious as the debates may be, it's time to get serious about fixing the problems that are hampering our growth.

One place to start is serious financial reform. Look, I am not interested in punishing banks, I'm interested in protecting our economy. A strong, healthy financial market makes it possible for businesses to access credit and create new jobs. It channels the savings of families into investments that raise incomes. But that can only happen if we guard against the same recklessness that nearly brought down our entire economy.

We need to make sure consumers and middle-class families have the information they need to make financial decisions. We can't allow financial institutions, including those that take your deposits, to take risks that threaten the whole economy.

The House has already passed financial reform with many of these changes. And the lobbyists are already trying to kill it. Well, we cannot let them win this fight. And if the bill that ends up on my desk does not meet the test of real reform, I will send it back.

Next, we need to encourage American innovation. Last year, we made the largest investment in basic research funding in history — an investment that could lead to the world's cheapest solar cells or treatment that kills cancer cells but leaves healthy ones untouched. And no area is more ripe for such innovation than energy. You can see the results of last year's investment in clean energy - in the North Carolina company that will create 1200 jobs nationwide helping to make advanced batteries; or in the California business that will put 1,000 people to work making solar panels.

But to create more of these clean energy jobs, we need more production, more efficiency, more incentives. That means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country. It means making tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development. It means continued investment in advanced biofuels and clean coal technologies. And yes, it means passing a comprehensive energy and climate bill with incentives that will finally make clean energy the profitable kind of energy in America.

I am grateful to the House for passing such a bill last year. This year, I am eager to help advance the bipartisan effort in the Senate. I know there have been questions about whether we can afford such changes in a tough economy; and I know that there are those who disagree with the overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change. But even if you doubt the evidence, providing incentives for energy efficiency and clean energy are the right thing to do for our future — because the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy. And America must be that nation.

Third, we need to export more of our goods. Because the more products we make and sell to other countries, the more jobs we support right here in America. So tonight, we set a new goal: We will double our exports over the next five years, an increase that will support two million jobs in America. To help meet this goal, we're launching a National Export Initiative that will help farmers and small businesses increase their exports, and reform export controls consistent with national security.

We have to seek new markets aggressively, just as our competitors are. If America sits on the sidelines while other nations sign trade deals, we will lose the chance to create jobs on our shores. But realizing those benefits also means enforcing those agreements so our trading partners play by the rules. And that's why we will continue to shape a Doha trade agreement that opens global markets, and why we will strengthen our trade relations in Asia and with key partners like South Korea, Panama, and Colombia.

Fourth, we need to invest in the skills and education of our people.

This year, we have broken through the stalemate between left and right by launching a national competition to improve our schools. The idea here is simple: instead of rewarding failure, we only reward success. Instead of funding the status quo, we only invest in reform - reform that raises student achievement, inspires students to excel in math and science, and turns around failing schools that steal the future of too many young Americans, from rural communities to inner-cities. In the 21st century, one of the best anti-poverty programs is a world-class education. In this country, the success of our children cannot depend more on where they live than their potential.

When we renew the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, we will work with Congress to expand these reforms to all fifty states. Still, in this economy, a high school diploma no longer guarantees a good job. I urge the Senate to follow the House and pass a bill that will revitalize our community colleges, which are a career pathway to the children of so many working families. To make college more affordable, this bill will finally end the unwarranted taxpayer-subsidies that go to banks for student loans. Instead, let's take that money and give families a $10,000 tax credit for four years of college and increase Pell Grants. And let's tell another one million students that when they graduate, they will be required to pay only ten percent of their income on student loans, and all of their debt will be forgiven after twenty years — and forgiven after ten years if they choose a career in public service. Because in the United States of America, no one should go broke because they chose to go to college. And it's time for colleges and universities to get serious about cutting their own costs — because they too have a responsibility to help solve this problem.

Now, the price of college tuition is just one of the burdens facing the middle-class. That's why last year I asked Vice President Biden to chair a task force on Middle-Class Families. That's why we're nearly doubling the child care tax credit, and making it easier to save for retirement by giving every worker access to a retirement account and expanding the tax credit for those who start a nest egg. That's why we're working to lift the value of a family's single largest investment — their home. The steps we took last year to shore up the housing market have allowed millions of Americans to take out new loans and save an average of $1,500 on mortgage payments. This year, we will step up re-financing so that homeowners can move into more affordable mortgages. And it is precisely to relieve the burden on middle-class families that we still need health insurance reform.

Now let's be clear — I did not choose to tackle this issue to get some legislative victory under my belt. And by now it should be fairly obvious that I didn't take on health care because it was good politics.

I took on health care because of the stories I've heard from Americans with pre-existing conditions whose lives depend on getting coverage; patients who've been denied coverage; and families — even those with insurance - who are just one illness away from financial ruin.

After nearly a century of trying, we are closer than ever to bringing more security to the lives of so many Americans. The approach we've taken would protect every American from the worst practices of the insurance industry. It would give small businesses and uninsured Americans a chance to choose an affordable health care plan in a competitive market. It would require every insurance plan to cover preventive care. And by the way, I want to acknowledge our First Lady, Michelle Obama, who this year is creating a national movement to tackle the epidemic of childhood obesity and make our kids healthier.

Our approach would preserve the right of Americans who have insurance to keep their doctor and their plan. It would reduce costs and premiums for millions of families and businesses. And according to the Congressional Budget Office — the independent organization that both parties have cited as the official scorekeeper for Congress — our approach would bring down the deficit by as much as $1 trillion over the next two decades.

Still, this is a complex issue, and the longer it was debated, the more skeptical people became. I take my share of the blame for not explaining it more clearly to the American people. And I know that with all the lobbying and horse-trading, this process left most Americans wondering what's in it for them.

But I also know this problem is not going away. By the time I'm finished speaking tonight, more Americans will have lost their health insurance. Millions will lose it this year. Our deficit will grow. Premiums will go up. Patients will be denied the care they need. Small business owners will continue to drop coverage altogether. I will not walk away from these Americans, and neither should the people in this chamber.

As temperatures cool, I want everyone to take another look at the plan we've proposed. There's a reason why many doctors, nurses, and health care experts who know our system best consider this approach a vast improvement over the status quo. But if anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors, and stop insurance company abuses, let me know. Here's what I ask of Congress, though: >>>Do not walk away from reform. Not now. Not when we are so close. Let us find a way to come together and finish the job for the American people.

Now, even as health care reform would reduce our deficit, it's not enough to dig us out of a massive fiscal hole in which we find ourselves. It's a challenge that makes all others that much harder to solve, and one that's been subject to a lot of political posturing.

So let me start the discussion of government spending by setting the record straight. At the beginning of the last decade, America had a budget surplus of over $200 billion. By the time I took office, we had a one year deficit of over $1 trillion and projected deficits of $8 trillion over the next decade. Most of this was the result of not paying for two wars, two tax cuts, and an expensive prescription drug program. On top of that, the effects of the recession put a $3 trillion hole in our budget. That was before I walked in the door.

Now if we had taken office in ordinary times, I would have liked nothing more than to start bringing down the deficit. But we took office amid a crisis, and our efforts to prevent a second Depression have added another $1 trillion to our national debt.

I am absolutely convinced that was the right thing to do. But families across the country are tightening their belts and making tough decisions. The federal government should do the same. So tonight, I'm proposing specific steps to pay for the $1 trillion that it took to rescue the economy last year.

Starting in 2011, we are prepared to freeze government spending for three years. Spending related to our national security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will not be affected. But all other discretionary government programs will. Like any cash-strapped family, we will work within a budget to invest in what we need and sacrifice what we don't. And if I have to enforce this discipline by veto, I will.

We will continue to go through the budget line by line to eliminate programs that we can't afford and don't work. We've already identified $20 billion in savings for next year. To help working families, we will extend our middle-class tax cuts. But at a time of record deficits, we will not continue tax cuts for oil companies, investment fund managers, and those making over $250,000 a year. We just can't afford it.

Now, even after paying for what we spent on my watch, we will still face the massive deficit we had when I took office. More importantly, the cost of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will continue to skyrocket. That's why I've called for a bipartisan, Fiscal Commission, modeled on a proposal by Republican Judd Gregg and Democrat Kent Conrad. This can't be one of those Washington gimmicks that lets us pretend we solved a problem. The Commission will have to provide a specific set of solutions by a certain deadline. Yesterday, the Senate blocked a bill that would have created this commission. So I will issue an executive order that will allow us to go forward, because I refuse to pass this problem on to another generation of Americans. And when the vote comes tomorrow, the Senate should restore the pay-as-you-go law that was a big reason why we had record surpluses in the 1990s.

I know that some in my own party will argue that we cannot address the deficit or freeze government spending when so many are still hurting. I agree, which is why this freeze will not take effect until next year, when the economy is stronger. But understand - if we do not take meaningful steps to rein in our debt, it could damage our markets, increase the cost of borrowing, and jeopardize our recovery - all of which could have an even worse effect on our job growth and family incomes.

From some on the right, I expect we'll hear a different argument — that if we just make fewer investments in our people, extend tax cuts for wealthier Americans, eliminate more regulations, and maintain the status quo on health care, our deficits will go away. The problem is, that's what we did for eight years. That's what helped lead us into this crisis. It's what helped lead to these deficits. And we cannot do it again.

Rather than fight the same tired battles that have dominated Washington for decades, it's time to try something new. Let's invest in our people without leaving them a mountain of debt. Let's meet our responsibility to the citizens who sent us here. Let's try common sense.

To do that, we have to recognize that we face more than a deficit of dollars right now. We face a deficit of trust — deep and corrosive doubts about how Washington works that have been growing for years. To close that credibility gap we must take action on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue to end the outsized influence of lobbyists; to do our work openly; and to give our people the government they deserve.

That's what I came to Washington to do. That's why - for the first time in history - my Administration posts our White House visitors online. And that's why we've excluded lobbyists from policy-making jobs or seats on federal boards and commissions.

But we can't stop there. It's time to require lobbyists to disclose each contact they make on behalf of a client with my Administration or Congress. And it's time to put strict limits on the contributions that lobbyists give to candidates for federal office. Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests - including foreign corporations - to spend without limit in our elections. Well I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people, and that's why I'm urging Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to right this wrong.

I'm also calling on Congress to continue down the path of earmark reform. You have trimmed some of this spending and embraced some meaningful change. But restoring the public trust demands more. For example, some members of Congress post some earmark requests online. Tonight, I'm calling on Congress to publish all earmark requests on a single website before there's a vote so that the American people can see how their money is being spent.

Of course, none of these reforms will even happen if we don't also reform how we work with one another.

Now, I am not naïve. I never thought the mere fact of my election would usher in peace, harmony, and some post-partisan era. I knew that both parties have fed divisions that are deeply entrenched. And on some issues, there are simply philosophical differences that will always cause us to part ways. These disagreements, about the role of government in our lives, about our national priorities and our national security, have been taking place for over two hundred years. They are the very essence of our democracy.

But what frustrates the American people is a Washington where every day is Election Day. We cannot wage a perpetual campaign where the only goal is to see who can get the most embarrassing headlines about their opponent - a belief that if you lose, I win. Neither party should delay or obstruct every single bill just because they can. The confirmation of well-qualified public servants should not be held hostage to the pet projects or grudges of a few individual Senators. Washington may think that saying anything about the other side, no matter how false, is just part of the game. But it is precisely such politics that has stopped either party from helping the American people. Worse yet, it is sowing further division among our citizens and further distrust in our government.

So no, I will not give up on changing the tone of our politics. I know it's an election year. And after last week, it is clear that campaign fever has come even earlier than usual. But we still need to govern. To Democrats, I would remind you that we still have the largest majority in decades, and the people expect us to solve some problems, not run for the hills. And if the Republican leadership is going to insist that sixty votes in the Senate are required to do any business at all in this town, then the responsibility to govern is now yours as well. Just saying no to everything may be good short-term politics, but it's not leadership. We were sent here to serve our citizens, not our ambitions. So let's show the American people that we can do it together. This week, I'll be addressing a meeting of the House Republicans. And I would like to begin monthly meetings with both the Democratic and Republican leadership. I know you can't wait.

Throughout our history, no issue has united this country more than our security. Sadly, some of the unity we felt after 9/11 has dissipated. We can argue all we want about who's to blame for this, but I am not interested in re-litigating the past. I know that all of us love this country. All of us are committed to its defense. So let's put aside the schoolyard taunts about who is tough. Let's reject the false choice between protecting our people and upholding our values. Let's leave behind the fear and division, and do what it takes to defend our nation and forge a more hopeful future - for America and the world.

That is the work we began last year. Since the day I took office, we have renewed our focus on the terrorists who threaten our nation. We have made substantial investments in our homeland security and disrupted plots that threatened to take American lives. We are filling unacceptable gaps revealed by the failed Christmas attack, with better airline security, and swifter action on our intelligence. We have prohibited torture and strengthened partnerships from the Pacific to South Asia to the Arabian Peninsula. And in the last year, hundreds of al- Qaida's fighters and affiliates, including many senior leaders, have been captured or killed — far more than in 2008.

In Afghanistan, we are increasing our troops and training Afghan Security Forces so they can begin to take the lead in July of 2011, and our troops can begin to come home. We will reward good governance, reduce corruption, and support the rights of all Afghans - men and women alike. We are joined by allies and partners who have increased their own commitment, and who will come together tomorrow in London to reaffirm our common purpose. There will be difficult days ahead. But I am confident we will succeed.

As we take the fight to al-Qaida, we are responsibly leaving Iraq to its people. As a candidate, I promised that I would end this war, and that is what I am doing as President. We will have all of our combat troops out of Iraq by the end of this August. We will support the Iraqi government as they hold elections, and continue to partner with the Iraqi people to promote regional peace and prosperity. But make no mistake: this war is ending, and all of our troops are coming home.

Tonight, all of our men and women in uniform — in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world - must know that they have our respect, our gratitude, and our full support. And just as they must have the resources they need in war, we all have a responsibility to support them when they come home. That is why we made the largest increase in investments for veterans in decades. That is why we are building a 21st century VA. And that is why Michelle has joined with Jill Biden to forge a national commitment to support military families.

Even as we prosecute two wars, we are also confronting perhaps the greatest danger to the American people — the threat of nuclear weapons. I have embraced the vision of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan through a strategy that reverses the spread of these weapons, and seeks a world without them. To reduce our stockpiles and launchers, while ensuring our deterrent, the United States and Russia are completing negotiations on the farthest-reaching arms control treaty in nearly two decades. And at April's Nuclear Security Summit, we will bring forty-four nations together behind a clear goal: securing all vulnerable nuclear materials around the world in four years, so that they never fall into the hands of terrorists.

These diplomatic efforts have also strengthened our hand in dealing with those nations that insist on violating international agreements in pursuit of these weapons. That is why North Korea now faces increased isolation, and stronger sanctions - sanctions that are being vigorously enforced. That is why the international community is more united, and the Islamic Republic of Iran is more isolated. And as Iran's leaders continue to ignore their obligations, there should be no doubt: they, too, will face growing consequences.

That is the leadership that we are providing — engagement that advances the common security and prosperity of all people. We are working through the G-20 to sustain a lasting global recovery. We are working with Muslim communities around the world to promote science, education and innovation. We have gone from a bystander to a leader in the fight against climate change. We are helping developing countries to feed themselves, and continuing the fight against HIV/AIDS. And we are launching a new initiative that will give us the capacity to respond faster and more effectively to bio-terrorism or an infectious disease — a plan that will counter threats at home, and strengthen public health abroad.

As we have for over sixty years, America takes these actions because our destiny is connected to those beyond our shores. But we also do it because it is right. That is why, as we meet here tonight, over 10,000 Americans are working with many nations to help the people of Haiti recover and rebuild. That is why we stand with the girl who yearns to go to school in Afghanistan; we support the human rights of the women marching through the streets of Iran; and we advocate for the young man denied a job by corruption in Guinea. For America must always stand on the side of freedom and human dignity.

Abroad, America's greatest source of strength has always been our ideals. The same is true at home. We find unity in our incredible diversity, drawing on the promise enshrined in our Constitution: the notion that we are all created equal, that no matter who you are or what you look like, if you abide by the law you should be protected by it; that if you adhere to our common values you should be treated no different than anyone else.

We must continually renew this promise. My Administration has a Civil Rights Division that is once again prosecuting civil rights violations and employment discrimination. We finally strengthened our laws to protect against crimes driven by hate. This year, I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are. We are going to crack down on violations of equal pay laws - so that women get equal pay for an equal day's work. And we should continue the work of fixing our broken immigration system - to secure our borders, enforce our laws, and ensure that everyone who plays by the rules can contribute to our economy and enrich our nations.

In the end, it is our ideals, our values, that built America - values that allowed us to forge a nation made up of immigrants from every corner of the globe; values that drive our citizens still. Every day, Americans meet their responsibilities to their families and their employers. Time and again, they lend a hand to their neighbors and give back to their country. They take pride in their labor, and are generous in spirit. These aren't Republican values or Democratic values they're living by; business values or labor values. They are American values.

Unfortunately, too many of our citizens have lost faith that our biggest institutions - our corporations, our media, and yes, our government - still reflect these same values. Each of these institutions are full of honorable men and women doing important work that helps our country prosper. But each time a CEO rewards himself for failure, or a banker puts the rest of us at risk for his own selfish gain, people's doubts grow. Each time lobbyists game the system or politicians tear each other down instead of lifting this country up, we lose faith. The more that TV pundits reduce serious debates into silly arguments, and big issues into sound bites, our citizens turn away.

No wonder there's so much cynicism out there.

No wonder there's so much disappointment.

I campaigned on the promise of change — change we can believe in, the slogan went. And right now, I know there are many Americans who aren't sure if they still believe we can change — or at least, that I can deliver it.

But remember this — I never suggested that change would be easy, or that I can do it alone. Democracy in a nation of three hundred million people can be noisy and messy and complicated. And when you try to do big things and make big changes, it stirs passions and controversy. That's just how it is.

Those of us in public office can respond to this reality by playing it safe and avoid telling hard truths. We can do what's necessary to keep our poll numbers high, and get through the next election instead of doing what's best for the next generation.

But I also know this: if people had made that decision fifty years ago or one hundred years ago or two hundred years ago, we wouldn't be here tonight. The only reason we are is because generations of Americans were unafraid to do what was hard; to do what was needed even when success was uncertain; to do what it took to keep the dream of this nation alive for their children and grandchildren.

Our administration has had some political setbacks this year, and some of them were deserved. But I wake up every day knowing that they are nothing compared to the setbacks that families all across this country have faced this year. And what keeps me going - what keeps me fighting - is that despite all these setbacks, that spirit of determination and optimism - that fundamental decency that has always been at the core of the American people - lives on.

It lives on in the struggling small business owner who wrote to me of his company, "None of us," he said, "…are willing to consider, even slightly, that we might fail."

It lives on in the woman who said that even though she and her neighbors have felt the pain of recession, "We are strong. We are resilient. We are American."

It lives on in the 8-year old boy in Louisiana, who just sent me his allowance and asked if I would give it to the people of Haiti. And it lives on in all the Americans who've dropped everything to go some place they've never been and pull people they've never known from rubble, prompting chants of "U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A!" when another life was saved.

The spirit that has sustained this nation for more than two centuries lives on in you, its people.

We have finished a difficult year. We have come through a difficult decade. But a new year has come. A new decade stretches before us. We don't quit. I don't quit. Let's seize this moment - to start anew, to carry the dream forward, and to strengthen our union once more.

Thank you. God Bless You. And God Bless the United States of America.

The Education Wars: NYC School Closures

Are New Yorkers finally realizing just how bad BloomKlein are?

Why are We in the Mess We're In?

Elizabeth Warren gave a history lesson about it:

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Obama is Giving the SOTU Speech,

aka STFU speech or CYA speech or whatever you want to call it tonight.

I will post a link to the live stream if I remember to do it at 6 o'clock Pacific time.

When MSNBC puts up the link, I'll embed that and put it here, too.

Obituaries--Howard Zinn

Famous historian Howard Zinn, who wrote A People's History of the United States and other works, has died at the age of 87. The cause was a heart attack.

Details about his colorful life:

As he wrote in his autobiography, "You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train" (1994), "From the start, my teaching was infused with my own history. I would try to be fair to other points of view, but I wanted more than 'objectivity'; I wanted students to leave my classes not just better informed, but more prepared to relinquish the safety of silence, more prepared to speak up, to act against injustice wherever they saw it. This, of course, was a recipe for trouble."

Certainly, it was a recipe for rancor between Dr. Zinn and Silber. Dr. Zinn twice helped lead faculty votes to oust the BU president, who in turn once accused Dr. Zinn of arson (a charge he quickly retracted) and cited him as a prime example of teachers "who poison the well of academe."

Dr. Zinn was a cochairman of the strike committee when BU professors walked out in 1979. After the strike was settled, he and four colleagues were charged with violating their contract when they refused to cross a picket line of striking secretaries. The charges against "the BU Five" were soon dropped, however.

Widowed in 2008, Zinn is survived by two children and five grandchildren.

The Education Wars: Temporary Teachers

This is the trend of the future, not just what is going on in charter schools:

YES Prep, for instance, almost exclusively hires younger teachers who they expect to move on to other careers. They average teacher on their seven campuses averages only about 25 years old. Many are recruited by the Teach For America program, which requires only a two-year commitment to teaching.

“Many will move on to graduate school or law school,” says YES Prep spokeswoman Jill Willis. “We talk about our students getting long days and having teacher’s cell phone numbers and weekend enrichment opportunities. On the other side of that, there’s a teacher … and it’s a heavy lift.”

Still, YES Prep administrators acknowledge they are losing too many teachers each year. (Their internal figures show 22 percent rather than the 30 percent listed by the state, but Willis says either figure is too high.) YES wants more of those young teachers to become veterans and is considering a “master teacher track” that would allow teachers who don’t want to leave the classroom to make administrative-level salaries. Such teachers would likely take on additional curriculum development and training duties.

But there are some teachers who the schools are glad to lose. Charters have much more freedom to fire unsuccessful teachers, and many take advantage of it. Willis estimated that about half the teachers who leave YES Prep are sent packing. “We’re faster to dismiss teachers,” she says. “It’s not something that we want to do, but with the demographics that we’re serving, and what we’re trying to do to push them to success, we can’t afford to have four years in a row of a bad teacher.”

It takes at least 5 to 7 years before a teacher gets really good at teaching. It is a craft that takes years, yet these operators expect the newbies to hit the ground running.

The first year is almost always a disaster for teachers because there is SO much to learn about the job. It is very, very, very difficult.

This post from the NY Teachers.net board:

There are a million reasons charters (and small schools) are a bad idea.

As for small schools, there's no evidence whatsoever that they perform any
better (in fact, they perform worse) than large, comprehensive high schools.
The ONLY reason to break up a big school into a bunch of smaller schools is that
it zeroes out the abysmal scores on English and math that caused the school to
be targeted in the first place. Problem is, they turn over so much of the
faculty and replace them with unlicensed and untrained fellows and TFA, and
other newbies who are licensed, but who have no inkling of an idea how to
teach/control a class and NEED to be surrounded by veterans who can show them
the way. The kids, however, remain the same dumpy kids that failed to succeed
with experienced teachers leading the way when the school was still a larger
facility. Just because you shut down a failing school doesn't mean you
eliminate the failing students. That's cultural and environmental and it
doesn't matter if you break a big school into twenty smaller ones with twenty
different principals, it won't change in the long run.

As for charters, there's no evidence that they would do any better than large,
comprehensive high schools. There is evidence that they would be run far more
poorly because the "principal" is a corporate bigwig who paid to buy the school.
They have no formal training in education policy or practice and run the school
like a business. Obscene hours, weird pay scales, no union protections and the
ability and desire to hire and fire at will if the kids don't do as well as they
would like. One of the charters recently was actually cited for being run like
crap and it's going to be shut down. What do you expect when you have a
businessman running a school?

I like to think that if I ever ended up working at a charter, I'd have the
cojones to tell the "principal" to stay out of my room and let the teacher (me)
teach, but I don't think I'd ever desire to work in a charter school, solely
because I don't like the idea of being told how to teach by a guy or woman who
never set foot inside a classroom (and the fact that we wouldn't be unionized).

In the meanwhile, we'll see what happens when they announce the decisions being
handed down on all the schools on the list. I hope we can file a massive
lawsuit to reverse the decision to do this. Many of the schools on the list are
good, and have been showing consistent improvement among all the years that were
mined for data. Additionally, the most recent years worth of data was not used,
which would be supporting evidence in favor of not putting the clamp down on us.
The worst part is, regardless of who is or isn't at fault for the closing of
these schools, all the faculties are going to be blackballed for being a teacher
at a school that was (or is going to be) shut down (eventually) and it'll be a
nightmare trying to find a new position anywhere. And for what? Corporate
greed? An irrational hate for unions? An irrational hate for dedicated
professionals?

More Shit

John and Elizabeth Edwards are now legally separated, as if anybody really should care since they aren't in public life anymore.

I am more worried about Barack Obama becoming legally separated in 2012--not from Michelle, but from the American voters.

The Education Wars: Michelle Rhee's Diarrhea of the Mouth

D.C. Chancellor Michelle Rhee is trying to spin her illegal firing of teachers under "reduction in force" as being justified for some "misconduct" on their part.

Of course, she's lying about that.

The reason they were let go was because of cost, and it's completely illegal.



Susan Ohanian comments:

Ohanian Comment: I post this because Rhee is in the national spotlight, the darling of the corporate politicos who are out to deform public education.

Even though an apology isn't enough to redress the wrong Rhee did, her unwillingness to make such an apology reveals a great character flaw. I don't think anybody should be around children who is incapable of saying, "I made a mistake. I'm sorry."

In Rhee's case that should be "I made a terrible mistake, and I will do everything possible to rectify it."

This article says she's "hedging." Obviously, this is too little and too late. Just as obviously, hedging is not admitting error and apologizing.

A teacher loses her job if she does not report suspected sex abuse.

Rhee should reassure the public with proof that any cases involving alleged sex abuse were reported to the police, or she should resign.

The reputations of 266 teachers are at stake. Oh, since Rhee offered some detail on the bad behavior of 8 plus "several others," make that the reputations of 250+ teachers.

Rhee's "clarifying comments" don't clarify anything.

Time for a true "due process" hearing for Rhee, and not a kangaroo court-type bunch of nonsense like what I went through.

Here is another report of diaRHEEa's lies, this one from yesterday:

The Education Wars: School Closures

A city panel has approved of 19 school closures in NYC for "poor" performance.

News

PETA crazies are at it again, this time over Groundhog Day.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says it’s unfair to keep the animal in captivity and subject him to the huge crowds and bright lights that accompany tens of thousands of revelers each Feb. 2 in Punxsutawney, a tiny borough about 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. PETA is suggesting the use of an animatronic model.

_____

Lots and lots of bad jokes about iPons, MaxiPads, and so forth now that Steve Jobs has announced the brand new iPad.
_____

"Democrat" Obama

plans to impose a freeze on social spending, right during the time when people are hurting so goddamned badly.

The spending freeze proposal exposes the cynicism of Obama’s recent turn to populist rhetoric and attempt to pose as a crusader against abuses by Wall Street bankers. The hollowness of his supposed “pivot to job-creation” was likewise demonstrated on Monday, when he previewed measures he will announce in his Wednesday address to aid the “middle class.” Obama proposed a few token initiatives, costing a relative pittance, that will neither create jobs, halt foreclosures, or stop the decline in wages and living standards.

The spending freeze aims to curry favor with Wall Street and the international financial markets, which fund the balooning national debt. News of the freeze proposal came the same day that a new Congressional Budget Office report predicted the federal deficit would rise to $1.6 trillion in the next fiscal year.

Obama’s indifference to the plight of Americans suffering through the worst social crisis since the Great Depression was highlighted in a Monday night interview with ABC News’ Diane Sawyer. Asked what he saw as the biggest difference today from when he addressed a joint session of Congress one year ago, Obama responded “I was more worried about where the country was going a year ago than I am now.”

Obama will never be re-elected. Never.

Soaking the Rich

Thank God Oregon voters have shown some sense:

It looks Oregon corporations and high-income earners will pay higher state taxes as voters weighed in Tuesday on two hotly debated measures.

The Oregonian has determined that Measures 66 and 67 will pass.

Measure 66 raises the income tax paid by households earning at or above $250,000 a year or individual filers who make $125,000 or more. Measure 67 raises the state's $10 minimum corporate income tax.

Together they generate an estimated $727 million, which has already been budgeted by the 2009 Legislature for public schools and other state services.

Too bad this can't go national.

It's needed to get this country back on the right track.

Bob Herbert

should have been asking his questions during the primaries instead of cheerleading Obama's "historic" candidacy. But no. Herbert NOW is wondering just WHO Obama really is.

Actually the question shouldn't be "who" but "what." And the "what" is very easy to pinpoint. He is a neoliberal, first and foremost, well to the right of Bill Clinton.

Tomorrow is Obama's SOTU speech, by the way. I am sure it'll be dissected to death.

News

As I was sitting around here doing nothing over the weekend, a certain invader from Crawford, Texas, showed up at the Safari Club 38th Annual Convention, and he received some kind of U.S. Army Freedom Team Salute Commendation. Ironical, given the fact this guy had gone AWOL during his National Guard stint.
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It's been ten years since the legendary Mapes Hotel imploded.

I watched it on television.

I took pictures of the Mapes a few days before the "big day."
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Are Oregon voters savvy enough to increase taxes on those most able to pay them?
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Cam John Edwards make a comeback?

Why would he want to? If he does what he wants to do, like help the people in Haiti, then that's fine. I just think the media needs to leave him and his family alone.
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WCSD's Heath Morrison announced a spending freeze on the district.

He could get rid of principals districtwide and clean house on his "executive cabinet," at least two of whom are nothing but crooks.
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The Education Wars: Do New York Teachers, Students, and Parents

live in a police state? It sure seems like it. From the Norm's Notes blog:

Last Thursday afternoon, January 21, on E. 79 St., across from the mayor’s mansion, parents, students and teachers peacefully protested against the Bloomberg Administration’s proposals to force mass closings of public schools and their takeover by charter schools. They were exercising their constitutional right under the First Amendment to publicly demand that these policies that undermine the public school system and deprive their children of an adequate education be stopped.

Meanwhile, a reporter on the scene caught on videotape the actions of police who were taking photographs of the protesters from the roof and inside a private school across the street. In 1985, the federal court ruled that it is illegal and a violation of civil rights for the New York City police to take photos of protesters, unless they have cause to believe that a crime may be committed. The city signed a consent agreement that year, restricting police surveillance according to these rules, called the Handschu Guidelines. In the case of this peaceful protest, there was no such cause. The video is available on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbNRt-5OZ68

The protesters are asking for a full explanation as to why the pictures were taken and how the police plan to use the photos. The protestors also want to know whether any videotaping of them was done. Finally, they are considering filing a complaint with Judge Charles S. Haight Jr., the federal judge who has continuing jurisdiction over the enforcement of the Handschu Guidelines.

More

The press conference asking some questions:

Part 1

Part 2


Teachers and those concerned about education really have NO rights.



Meanwhile, BloomKlein are doing a great job with the city's schools--NOT. From the NY Teachers.net board:

We all know BloomKlein does what it wants and feels no need to
justify anything.

I worked in a large (1600 kids in an 800 capacity building) middle
school. We always did ok, stayed off SURR and out of corrective
action till 2001. Then we were in corrective action. Large classes
were our biggest problem- I had 36 kids on year, 38 in another. The
principal was old school and knew little about instruction but
picked admins who did. The school was always quiet and under
control. Most of the teachers were good. You never saw kids in the
hallway, excessive rowdiness, graffiti.

Long story short, we were "restructured" on a whim in 2004. We were
not SURR. Ironically, class size became even bigger because
classrooms became offices. We did ok at my school but the two new
schools were an unmitigaged disaster- kids having sex in stairwells
(not from my school) vandalizing, one kid took a crap in the
hallway. The kids who went through those two new schools got
totally screwed because the admins and teachers could not control
the building. These things did not happen when we were one large
school. I would imagine that it was also cheaper to run a large
school with one principal and 3-4 APs vs. 3 principals and 5-6 APs.
After five years, one of the schools is STILL a mess and the other
is better, but only marginally. Turnover in both schools is very
high and those teachers regularly seek jobs with us (and kudos to
my principal who will take experienced teachers- a few are
returnees from pre-restructure.)

As others have said, Bloomberg wants to put charters in. That's the
rumor in my school now, that we will get rid of our 5th grade and
allow a charter. He also needs to place his Principal Academy
people. Two of the four principals who have gone through the other
schools in my building are/were from the PA and both are abysmal.

The Economy is Going Right Down the Tubes

Up to 30 percent of the American population is at or is heading towards poverty:

A shocking report from Brookings exposes just how massive America's poverty problem is. While substantial reductions in poverty were made during the 1990's, America's poor have been rocked by the dual economic downturns since 2000.


The result is that poverty grew at twice the rate of U.S. population growth from 2000 - 2008, and now encompasses 39.1 million Americans.

Meanwhile, the Senate should quit taking unemployment benefits and COBRA out of its legislation and quit playing fucking games with people's lives.

The economy isn't expected to turn around for a couple of years at the very earliest.

If I Wanted a Republican to Be Elected President,

I would have voted for McCain/Palin. As much as I had misgivings about Obama because his policies, where they could be discerned, were markedly to the right of any other Democratic candidate for president running in 2008, I couldn't bring myself to vote GOP.

I couldn't vote for McCain although I secretly wanted him to win, for I knew damned good and well the GOP THREW election 2008 because of the economy going south. They figured--correctly, as it turned out--Obama, given his lack of experience, would screw things up and they could return back into power to screw things up even WORSE.

It seems VP Biden has been relegated to the sidelines on domestic policy. I don't believe a PRESIDENT Biden would do the things President OBAMA is doing now.

There is a storm of outrage over Obama's latest stunt, and that is a spending freeze. This is just nuts, for more money has to be infused into the economy, and it should have been ALL ALONG in the form of job creation.

Krugman:

A spending freeze? That’s the brilliant response of the Obama team to their first serious political setback?

It’s appalling on every level.

It’s bad economics, depressing demand when the economy is still suffering from mass unemployment. Jonathan Zasloff writes that Obama seems to have decided to fire Tim Geithner and replace him with “the rotting corpse of Andrew Mellon” (Mellon was Herbert Hoover’s Treasury Secretary, who according to Hoover told him to “liquidate the workers, liquidate the farmers, purge the rottenness”.)

It’s bad long-run fiscal policy, shifting attention away from the essential need to reform health care and focusing on small change instead.

The bloom is finally off the rose for somebody whose posts I have featured a few times on this blog. This guy is just about ready to throw the president overboard:

As a staunch Obama supporter and one who cheered almost like a teenage girl at a Beatles' concert when he was inaugurated, I find this "tough decision" regarding a three-year spending freeze to be highly disturbing. Indeed, it may for me be a final straw.

I have supported Obama in nearly everything he has done so far, albeit with a few caveats. I have, with a few exceptions (Geither and Summers stand out as exceptions here), tried my best to put the most positive inflection on his appointments. I have tried to explain away his lapses from what I consider effective, wise and prudent policies in these hard economic times and with the challenges we face in our foreign relations and national security. Where we have chiefly differed is in his extraordinary efforts to compromise with our political adversaries, but I have always held, and often expressed, the opinion, and indeed the hope, that he would quickly learn that this is a mistake, not only in its essence but in its chances to succeed.

But now, where he has been given a clear choice between trying to rehabilitate his approval ratings by returning to the advocacy for change that carried him to victory in 2008 or redoubling his futile efforts to receive opposition support, he has chosen the wrong path -- not just to compromise with the Republican right, but to be numbered among them in all matters of policy save for his publicly claimed party affiliation. This three-year spending freeze, exempting the utter waste in our defense expenditures, does not differ in any respect from what John McCain would have done, or indeed what Bush did. His policies in Afghanistan and Iraq do not differ in any respect from what John McCain would have advocated. His economic policies have been written on Wall Street, just as his predecessor's were. He had curtailed expenditures on alternative energy sources, just like Bush. He has made no effort to stop the outflow of jobs and industries overseas. He has failed to enact health care reform by compromising its benefits away to the point at which it lost popular support.

I know he has only been in the White House for one year, but these are failures and policy matters that are permanent in nature, and that are absolutely, 180 degrees away from why we voted for him and for such overwhelming Democratic Congressional majorities. In fact, the only differences I can discern between our victory in 2008 and the way things would have been had we been defeated by the Republicans are the admittedly major matters that we are not now also at war with Iran, something that was a very real possibility had John McCain become our Commander in Chief, it is likely that the heinous Bush tax cuts would have been made permanent, and if something had happened to the President we will have Joe Biden step in rather than Sarah Palin. Also, it is likely we would have permanently lost GM and Chrysler.

So is there no there THERE?

Is Obama really stupid?

He isn't stupid, but he isn't the genius the media had made him out to be. Mostly he is just a willing puppet politician for more powerful interests, kind of like our dearly departed former squatter, George W. Bush. In Bush's case, though, we KNEW who was really calling the shots--Dick Cheney--but in Obama's case, it is clear Biden is NOT calling the shots. Instead it is the special interests, specifically the Wall Street types who are running things. It is outrageous when a political party supposedly representing the people--the Democratic Party--is being hijacked by many of the same people who have made the Republican Party what it is.

In short, Obama is a puppet for the neoliberals, and he is a willing puppet on the virtue of his inexperience because he believes in the same things the neoliberals believe in. And that's bad, bad news for Main Street.