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Items I twittered, or wished I had:
Best News of the Week: According to RiShawn Biddle, Obama and his Education Secretary Arne Duncan really are using the leverage provided by federal stimulus money to force states to allow more charter schools. The teachers' unions "feel betrayed." Hope that's not just for show. ... P.S.: This unashamedly pro-Obama article runs in ... The American Spectator. ... P.P.S.: Biddle also says the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has helped create a "counterweight" to the NEA and AFT. Won't make up for Vista! But it's a start. ... P.P.P.S.: If there are well over a million students in charter schools now, and the federal government is pushing them to grow like Topsy, at what point does a vicious circle set in, with public schools losing their even moderately motivated students, causing them to decline even further, causing even more students to leave, etc.? Not that this public school death spiral would be such a bad thing. We should just be prepared for it. The way we should have been prepared for GM. ... 11:27 P.M.
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Neiman Marcus is stealing The Atlantic's business model ... OK, to really emulate The Atlantic you'd have to throw in David Axelrod, and maybe sub Marc Ambinder for Nora Ephron. ... And then sell the thing to ExxonMobil. ... 11:26 P.M.
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51 is the Wussiest Number: Ryan Lizza reports that, in the White House debate over whether to bail out Chrysler, Obama asked his advisers, "What do you think the percentage likelihood is that , if we give this deal a chance, it will succeed?" Then-auto czarito Steven Rattner answered, "Fifty-one percent." ... What do you think the percentage likelihood is that Rattner's answer was sincere? I hope, for his sake, it's close to zero. There was substantially less than a 51% chance the Chrysler bailout would succeed (if "success" means a viable company). There still is. ... Not being a sophisticated investment banker, I would translate Rattner's answer as: "I know you'd like to approve this deal, and I'm not one to buck the tide, so I'll give you the minimum necessary reassurance, while covering my ass as much as possible (in the 80% likelihood that it fails)." ... P.S.: Lizza's piece is generally encouraging--the country could be in worse hands. But it's vaguely discouraging if for Obama and his brain trust the issue actually turned on whether or not the deal would succeed, which seems a less sophisticated question than whether or not it was worth trying to soften the blow to the Midwest by postponing Chrysler's inevitable failure. Could the whole debate have been Kabuki? ... 11:25 P.M.
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Where's Crossfire When You Need It? Jon Klein's Triumph! CNN now in 4th place, losing to FOX, MSNBC, and itself (HLN)! Somewhere Tucker Carlson is smiling. ... 11:24 P.M.
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When Father Hesburgh throws down ... How can we know when the tide of respectable opinion has decisively turned against the teachers' unions? When a panel that includes Father Hesburgh, Birch Bayh,. Bill Bradley, Eleanor Holmes Norton and Roger Wilkins goes medieval on them, saying their resistance to reforms designed to hold schools accountable has hurt "disadvantaged students" and led to "calcified systems in which talented people are deterred from applying or staying as teachers ..."
Here are two undiplomatic grafs from the report's final page:
The unions have battled against the principle that schools and education agencies should be held accountable for the academic progress of their students. They have sought to water down the standards adopted by states to reflect what students should know and be able to do. They have attacked assessments designed to measure the progress of schools, seeking to localize decisions about test content so that the performance of students in one school or community cannot be compared with others. They have resisted innovative ways-such as growth models-to assess student performance.
In their attack on education reform, the national unions have often been unconstrained by considerations of propriety and fairness. They have sought to inject weakening amendments in appropriations bills, hoping that they would prevail if no hearings were held and the public was unaware of their efforts. They have used the courts to launch an attack on education reform, employing arguments that could imperil many federal assistance programs going back to the New Deal. They have failed to inform their own members of the content of federal reform laws.
The report follows up a much heralded establishment call for reform in 1996 that was endorsed by two union presidents. But it notes that in the twelve years since, "few of the necessary reforms" have been put in place. ("Twelve years--the entire length of a child's education--is a long time.") In other words, it implicitly serves as an argument against trying to reform the schools in cooperation with the unions, and in favor of trying to reform the schools by defeating the unions. ...1:48 A.M.
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Steve Clemons appears to be urging a non-Gandhian approach on the Iraqi opposition. ... 4:06 P.M.
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Psst! Tsi-ay Inda-Kay Orking-Way: What if they came out with a study showing that No Child Left Behind is working--raising test scores without hurting high- or low-achievers--and nobody paid attention? (Except Education Week). ... 4:05 P.M.
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New Chrysler owner FIAT tries its hand at viral advertising. ... [Thanks to reader J.] 4:04 P.M.
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U.S. Pushed FIAT Deal on Chrysler (WSJ): Chrysler execs were lobbying for an alternative merger with GM even in late stages, apparently. Obama's task force wanted FIAT. ... P.S.:You have to wonder if the Obama team knows the FIAT deal it promoted won't work, and arranged it simply as a way to delay the inevitable--while it actively avoided a merger that would foist Chrysler on GM, because GM does have at least a chance to survive after bankruptcy and doesn't need Chrysler's baggage. (Why make Chevy responsible for the Sebring?) ... P.P.S.: Note that this isn't paranoia, but posinoia--the nagging suspicion that people in power are doing seemingly bad things for secret good purposes. ... 6:47 P.M.
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Gran Salida Update: Also from the WSJ--
Emigration from Mexico to the U.S. dropped 13% in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year, with more Mexicans leaving the U.S. than coming in. ... [snip]
In the case of Mexico, Latin America's largest supplier of new immigrants to the U.S., data released this week by the Mexican government shows emigration to the U.S. dropped 13% in the first quarter of 2009. In the same period, more people returned to Mexico than left Mexico for the U.S., about 139,000 and 137,000, respectively. ... [snip]
For now, Santiago, a 37-year-old Mexican migrant who declined to give his last name, is placing his bets on his home country. On a recent flight from the U.S. to Mexico City, Santiago wore a black leather jacket and cowboy boots ... [E.A.]
Hmm. Doesn't this violate Immigration PC 2.0, 2009 edition, in which it's acceptable to admit that levels of illegal immigration into the U.S. are falling but unacceptable to suggest that immigrants are actually returning home in large numbers (which would fit uncomfortably into the Comprehensive party line that illegal immigrants are here to stay and will never leave, and don't have much more in the way of active attachments to their home countries than, say, the Pilgrims did). ... See, for example, the notorious Nina Bernstein, "No Evidence of Return Migration is Found," NYT, January 15, 2009. ...
P.P.S: Always trust content from kausfiles. (The academics are always the last to know!) ... 6:43 P.M.
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"If you wanted to end it, this really wasn't the way to do it": Ever wondered what Eduwonk looks like? I know I did. Here he surfaces to explain why Obama's decision on the D.C. vouchers program was "really subversive." ... 6:41 P.M.
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Friday, May 15, 2009
Is Obama about to waste $100 billion in education "stimulus" spending? That's the implication of this mild-mannered Andrew Rotherham article. ... 1:28 A.M.
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Perplexing Party Line: Net immigration from Mexico to the U.S. is down by half, says the NYT. Is that due to the economy or stepped up enforcement? According to the Times' fourth graf, "Mexican and American researchers" say it's the economy and lack of jobs. That's the party line of pro-legalization forces, who would like to deny that stepped-up enforcement can have, and has already had, a big impact. But then the Times buries paragraphs like this:
The enforcement buildup along the border, which started during the Bush administration, has made many Mexicans think twice about the cost and danger of an illegal trek when no job awaits on the other side, scholars said.
Obviously both factors are at work. But only one factor is PC. ... P.S: The NYT ed board might want to revisit its declaration:
Nor have the forces of global economic migration magically adjusted to fit the American mood.
I don't even understand why the Times ever made that claim--wouldn't it be smarter, if you were a pro-legalization advocate, to argue that free immigration is no threat because in periods of recession the flow does "magically" adjust (reduce) itself?
The Times--and the rest of the pro-legalization lobby--seemed to believe it was more important to stamp out the idea that enforcement--or anything, for that matter--can stop or slow the inevitable tide of immigration to which we all just have to adjust ("whether you like it or not," as Gavin Newsom might put it). Someone should remind them that the sales pitch for "comprehensive" reform is precisely that enforcement will work once existing illegals are amnestied. If enforcement is powerless, "comprehenisve" reform is a fraud. ...
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**This Times ed board passage, for example, comes close to saying that any enforcement strategy is doomed:
[I]t helps to remember that the country has ... [snip] ...spent decades and billions to seal the border as tightly as possible.
It stages raids to pull people off assembly lines and out of their beds and cars. It has added hundreds of thousands of prison beds to hold illegal immigrants and enlisted local police officers to enforce federal laws. It has done everything it can to make illegal immigrants miserable in the hope that they will abandon their jobs, houses and citizen-children and tell everyone back home to forget about America. And how has that worked? It hasn't.
The Times dismisses even the idea that stricter enforcement can discourage would-be immigrants who are still back in their home countries. Isn't it "comprehensive" reformers who say that--once existing illegals are "out of the shadows"--stricter enforcement will discourage would-be immigrants who are still back in their home countries? Cecilia Munoz needs to have a talk with the NYT. ... 1:27 A.M.
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I've been an admirer of Carlos Watson ever since the New Hampshire primary of 2004, where he managed to talk for a half hour with Robert Novak and never make a dull or familiar or bogus point (not easy to do when 3,000 journalists have already chewed over the material). But wow, this is an awfully ambitious new web site. It's as if one man were turning out Slate. ... Elizabeth Spiers seems to be involved in some way, which is another good sign. ... 1:26. A.M.
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Thursday, April 23, 2009
Embarking on a monumental task that some say is doomed to fail, Los Angeles Unified school officials are taking aim at state laws that make it virtually impossible to fire teachers.
You might think that the school district, which is in the process of laying off 3,500 teachers, could at least use that as an excuse to lose the bad ones and keep the good ones. You would of course be wrong. Laid off teachers--and administrators--with seniority have the right to "bump" lower-seniority teachers, creating "a domino effect that leads to the loss of new, nontenured teachers" at the bottom of the pyramid.
The L.A. school board wants to change these rules (by providing, for example, that teachers who get two consecutive poor performance reviews be automatically dismissed).. Even Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a former teachers' union official, seems to support some "bumping" changes. ("I believe in seniority, but you can take things to a point where it becomes unfair to other people too.") Unfortunately: a) The district can't reform the rules itself--they are written into state law and it will take a new state law to amend them; b) The district has missed the deadline for introducing new state laws in 2009. Nothing can happen until 2010; c) Even in 2010, nothing will happen. "It has no chance of passing," says one expert, thanks to opposition from the California Teachers Association and the United Teachers of Los Angeles.
At least with General Motors--which arguably makes much better cars than the L.A. Unified School District makes schools--there is the possibility of bankruptcy to force changes in excessively protective union rules. In public education, there's only the hope that charter schools will eventually expand so rapidly that they displace conventional schools governed by the UTLA (before they succumb to union pressure themselves). Go Steve Barr! ....
P.S.: At this point in an L.A. press item I usually contrast the sensible, lively coverage of the
Daily News with the stuffy, PC coverage of the dying
L.A. Times. But the
Times has actually been highly
skeptical of the UTLA in recent years, and
supportive of
charters. The teachers' unions have lost the MSM. They may not care, though. They still have the pols. ...
10:38 P.M.
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Rick Wagoner = Ngo Dinh Diem? Discuss. After visibly defenstrating GM CEO RIck Wagoner, and moving to replace the board of directors, won't Obama now "own" the GM problem? If the company shuts down in the near future, costing tens of thousands of blue collar jobs, it will be under executives implicitly or explicitly chosen by Obama. It will be Obama's failure, not simply GM's failure, no? A public sector failure, not just a business failure. Doesn't that make it harder, not easier, for the administration to walk away and force the company into bankruptcy (if, for example, the company's plans for "viability" continue to fall short after the new 60-day deadline)? And doesn't that, in turn, make extracting the necessary concessions (by threatening bankruptcy) more difficult as well? ... This wouldn't be the first time that financier-turned-autoczar Steven Rattner's tendency to talk to the press--and maybe emphasize his own role--proved counterproductive. ... 2:23 A.M.
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Why are L.A.'s charter schools doing better at weathering hard budgetary times--without cutting teachers--than L.A.'s regular schools?
Free from rigid union contracts, able to make spending decisions at the school-site level and continuing to see enrollment growth, charter schools can run their campuses like small businesses. At a time when the Los Angeles Unified School District faces layoffs of some 8,500 people and is dismantling popular programs to cut costs, some charter schools are actually hiring teachers. (L.A. Daily News)
2:12 A.M.
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kf Does Have Some Enemies Left! Raines is gone. Bangle is gone. But I'd forgotten about "visionary" CNN president Jon Klein, who righteously killed Crossfire in order to bring us ...what was it again ... storytelling? ... emo? ... Glenn Beck? ... it's hard to keep track. Under Klein's leadership the network has now dropped to third place in prime time, behind previously hapless MSNBC, a development Klein madly and hilariously spins here. ("The fact that one network may have eked out a slight edge in one small slice of the overall business really doesn't say much of anything.") ... [You forgot Jeffrey Toobin. Wasn't Toobin an enemy?--ed. Yeah, but there's nothing happening with him.] ... 1:46 A.M
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Jonathan Cohn seems right in what I take to be his point here, which is that the key to selling universal health insurance isn't stressing the need to cover the"uninsured," but the need to save the insured (and those who can afford insurance) from the maddening hunt for a policy that won't screw them when they need it, or if they switch jobs. Savings in administrative costs, the virtue stressed by Cohn in this latest post, seem like the least of it, especially if they only amount to $300 a year. ... 1:23 A.M.
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Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Center for American Progress' Jennifer Palmieri says the daily "8:45 A.M." call among leftish activists (disclosed by Politico) is an attempt to give the White House a "coordinated echo chamber on the outside." [E.A.] She is subtle, isn't she? ... It wasn't enough for Palmieri to emasculate poor Matt Yglesias. Now she has to belittle the entire left wing of the Democratic Party. ... Jane Hamsher resists. ...
Update: Jonah Goldberg argues that CAP is a cargo cult. ... 2:34 A.M.
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Eduwonk's Andy Rotherham reads Obama's education speech to find the battle lines between the President and the teachers' unions. ... He links to others who do the same thing. ... And he writes good heds. ... P.S.: Obama did have a strong-but-vague graf on dismissing bad teachers:
And just as we've given our teachers all the support they need to be successful, we need to make sure our students have the teacher they need to be successful. And that means states and school districts taking steps to move bad teachers out of the classroom. But let me be clear -- (applause.) Let me be clear -- the overwhelming number of teachers are doing an outstanding job under difficult circumstances. My sister is a teacher, so I know how tough teaching can be. But let me be clear: If a teacher is given a chance or two chances or three chances but still does not improve, there's no excuse for that person to continue teaching. I reject a system that rewards failure and protects a person from its consequences. The stakes are too high. [E.A.]
Will Jennifer Palmieri let them talk about this on the 8:45 A.M. call? Seems risky--might detract from the requisite unanimity. Or else they all might decide to go after Obama. ... 2:46 A.M.
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Will Congressional Democrats kill the D.C. voucher program? It's William McGurn's skillful deployment of victims vs. Democratic dogma--and I think the Obama administration just blinked, at least a bit.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Wednesday that poor children getting vouchers to attend private schools in the District of Columbia should be allowed to stay there, putting the Obama administration at odds with Democrats trying to end the program.
Duncan opposes vouchers, he said in an interview with The Associated Press. But he said Washington is a special case, and kids already in private schools on the public dime should be allowed to continue.
"I don't think it makes sense to take kids out of a school where they're happy and safe and satisfied and learning," Duncan told said. "I think those kids need to stay in their school."
Eduwonk has context and perspective--noting that even in D.C. vouchers aren't where the action is. ("[I]t's the public charters not the vouchers that are taking over.") ... Update: Edspresso isn't impressed. ... P.S.: Of course, McGurn is working the Take Away Rule, which holds that it's always harder for politicians to take something away from someone than it is to not give it to them in the first place. In the vast majority of circumstances, this principle favors government-expanding liberals, since it makes any federal spending near-impossible to cut (especially if there are telegenic victims, as here). It's what will make Pelosi's "temporary" stimulus spending permanent. I don't blame McGurn for turning this powerful weapon against Democrats. Still, it would overwhlemingly be in conservatives' interest if the weapon no longer worked. That's obviously not the case. ... 12:51 P.M.
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