Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Capps
Nope, nothing to try. It's the truth. Sorry but you cant hide from the facts. It's the truth. He doing exactly what he spoke against for years but only doing it even worse.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Capps
Nope, nothing to try. It's the truth. Sorry but you cant hide from the facts. It's the truth. He doing exactly what he spoke against for years but only doing it even worse.
And how will the defenders of the 1% change life for the middle and working classes for the better, DanicaFan? By cutting their healthcare? Being opposed to teaching critical thinking skills in school? By fighting medical marijuana 'tooth and nail', despite over 70% of Americans being in favour or medical marijuana, and 50% wanting it legalised for all uses? (I'm with Johnson and Stein on the war on drugs, Obama's current war on drugs policies are amongst the biggest ways in which he has disappointed me.) How about gay rights, or do gay marriages lead to COMMUNISM, despite gay marriages never being allowed in Eastern Europe/USSR before 1989, North Korea, China etc etc. Maybe less regulation of the banksters, and less taxes on their Swiss/Cayman Island headed wages?
Perhaps the USA should continue rimming Israel, never ever criticising its treatment of the Palestinians? (Again, something Obama has disappointed me with, however still not as bad as Romney, fyi I support Israel's right to exist, as well as Palestine's, so don't try to smear me as some kind of anti-semitic Hamas sympathiser.) Perhaps people who have grown up and spent most of their lives in the USA should be deported to Mexico despite them having no memory of the place and feeling American, attending school/being in a job etc etc? Perhaps more private prisons should be built to house more small time offenders and destroy their prospects for life?
As usual, not good enough, but keep trying. With any luck, you will eventually get the idea as to how to better express your thoughts -- at which time I will be happy to acknowledge such a feat. You can do it, I know that you are fully capable of it.Quote:
Originally Posted by DanicaFan
Speaking of hiding from the facts, why is Romney (and the GOP for that matter) having so many problems winning people over to his side? Maybe all the flip-flopping and double-talk, being for any number of things before he was against them could be a factor? The ability to change one's mind when presented with new facts and/or interpretations is an admirable quality, but to do so purely for political reasons is to lack the courage of one's convictions. Before Romney slid over to the Right to embrace no end of ideas that fall short of making sense he was actually a much better candidate than what we are now presented with at the moment. Had Romney the courage of his -- moderate -- convictions and not become a prisoner of the current GOP ideology, I doubt that this election would even be close. Not that I could ever vote for him, of course, but at least you could anticipate him not being a menace to society which most of what he (actually, the GOP) espouses and says he will do were he to win would make him.
It was interesting to note how comfortable and at ease Romney was with his fellow Plutocrats when he made his "47%" speech as compared to how awkward he is around hoi polloi. Just an observation that others have pointed out to me.
I believe education league tables and the like to have been an utterly pernicious development.Quote:
Originally Posted by Starter
The private, for profit and "on line" Kidergarten to 12th Grade (known on these shores as K-12) is just one more thing to socialise the cost, and privatise the profits..Quote:
Originally Posted by BDunnell
The usual scam is to "embed' these corporations "advisers" who are essentially lobbyists, to convince legislatures and school districs they need to pour taxpayer dollars into their hands.
2 seconds hunt and peck on the trusty ol' keyboard finds the company mentioned is a seemingly scammy deal:
For-Profit Online Charter Scandal « Diane Ravitch's blog
Original report:Quote:
Maine’s State Commissioner of Education Stephen Bowen went to San Francisco to hear Jeb Bush tout the glories of for-profit online charter schools. Jeb Bush’s foundation paid for the trip. The commissioner met with Jeb’s chief education aide, Patricia Levesque, whose company lobbies for the online corporations. She promised help.
This is what the Maine Sunday Telegram found after getting access to public records of the correspondence:
Bowen was preparing an aggressive reform drive on initiatives intended to dramatically expand and deregulate online education in Maine, but he felt overwhelmed.
“I have no ‘political’ staff who I can work with to move this stuff through the process,” he emailed her from his office.
Levesque replied not to worry; her staff in Florida would be happy to suggest policies, write laws and gubernatorial decrees, and develop strategies to ensure they were implemented.
“When you suggested there might be a way for us to get some policy help, it was all I could do not to jump for joy,” Bowen wrote Levesque from his office.
“Let us help,” she responded.
So was a partnership formed between Maine’s top education official and a foundation entangled with the very companies that stand to make millions of dollars from the policies it advocates.
In the months that followed, according to more than 1,000 pages of emails obtained by a public records request, the commissioner would rely on the foundation to provide him with key portions of his education agenda. These included draft laws, the content of the administration’s digital education strategy and the text ofGov. Paul LePage’s Feb. 1 executive order on digital education.
A Maine Sunday Telegram investigation found large portions of Maine’s digital education agenda are being guided behind the scenes by out-of-state companies that stand to capitalize on the changes, especially the nation’s two largest online education providers.
K12 Inc. of Herndon, Va., and Connections Education, the Baltimore-based subsidiary of education publishing giant Pearson, are both seeking to expand online offerings and to open full-time virtual charter schools in Maine, with taxpayers paying the tuition for the students who use the services.
Special Report: The profit motive behind virtual schools in Maine | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram
September 13
Special Report: The profit motive behind virtual schools in Maine
Documents expose the flow of money and influence from corporations that stand to profit from state leaders' efforts to expand and deregulate digital education.
By Colin Woodard cwoodard@pressherald.com
Staff Writer
This story originally was published on Sept. 2, 2012.
KEY FINDINGS
PULLING THE STRINGS: Maine's digital education agenda is being guided behind the scenes by out-of-state companies that stand to profit on the changes.
FLORIDA CONNECTION: The LePage administration has relied heavily on former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education, a conservative think tank, in writing policies to create taxpayer-funded virtual schools in Maine.
FOLLOW THE MONEY: This foundation and its top officials receive funding from online education companies, which will profit if the initiatives go forward.
REMOTE CONTROL: The foundation wrote much of the language in Gov. Paul LePage's Feb. 1 executive order on digital learning, which embraces foundation policies.
BACKSTAGE MEETINGS: The secretive American Legislative Exchange Council -- a corporate-backed political group for state legislators -- developed digital learning legislation that was introduced by Maine lawmakers. Stephen Bowen (pictured) was a private-sector member until he was appointed education commissioner in Maine.
FAILING GRADES: Virtual schools have no classrooms, little or no in-person teaching and a poor track record compared to public schools. (Sidebar, A5)
CRITICS REACT: National education leaders say democratic governance is being superseded by corporate control.
• BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS
Comparison of Gov. LePage's executive order on digital learning and the
draft order provided by the Foundation for Excellence in Education.
Digital Learning Now! agenda (adopted by LePage administration)
American Legislative Exchange documents leaked to Common Cause showing Stephen Bowen's membership and attendance at ALEC meetings.
Emails between Stephen Bowen and Patricia Levesque, executive director of Foundation for Excellence in Education.
Patricia Levesque's compensation (from Foundation for Excellence in Education's 2010 IRS filing)
• ADDITIONAL READING
New York Times Dec 2011 investigation of K12 Inc.
And:
Studies: Existing full-time virtual schools earn poor grades | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday TelegramLike American "health care" American education system is very expensive and we see routinely the results are extremely modest... And where ever there's a lot of money being shovelled willy-nilly, there's going to be people trying to suck in as much as they can..Quote:
A study released in July by researchers at Western Michigan University found that only 27.7 percent of the full-time virtual schools run by the nation's largest online education company, K12 Inc., met federally mandated Adequate Yearly Progress goals, compared to 52 percent of public schools.
Students at its schools scored lower in both reading and math and had a graduation rate of only 49 percent, compared to a 79 percent average among comparable students at public schools in the 24 states where the virtual schools are located.
"Across a wide variety of school measures they do very poorly, even though their demographics looked to us like suburban schools," says the study's lead author, Gary Miron, who is also a fellow at the National Education Policy Center. "We didn't see high poverty or a lot of ESL (English as a Second Language) students."
The virtual schools are paid for by taxpayers, but the students learn largely from home, with lessons delivered online from teachers tens, hundreds or even thousands of miles away. There is no schoolhouse, playground, gymnasium or lunch hall, although under some models students will occasionally meet for face-time sessions with each other and an educator.
In lower grades – virtual schools start at kindergarten – the programs typically rely on parents who act as “learning coaches,” following instructions that appear on their child’s computer. Older students do most of the work online themselves.
Teachers monitor and grade students remotely. They answer questions online or by telephone. Major national online teaching companies such as K12 Inc. have teacher-student ratios as high as 60 to 1.
Taxpayer pays, private Media Corporation profits.
And as always, the usual suspects blame those at the lowest rung of the ladder.... How predicable. ..how sad.
Sorry, I had forgotten, in this earlier post, to mention the costs of the program. The funding is determined between the Board of Education and the Company. It is almost always the cost per student of the educational unit (usually state, county or school district) which is then paid to the company per student enrolled in the charter program. That's the total compensation. The company actually has certified teachers located in the states served who are assigned to the students. Even with the cost of providing technology (computers) to enrolled students, the company can make a tidy profit because they don't have to maintain the (often crumbling) brick and mortar schools, the administrative overhead, and the company's teachers are non union.Quote:
Originally Posted by Starter
The Presidential Debate kicks off in about 20 minutes time. I honestly expect to hear nothing of any import from either side.
I do expect more "spin" than a top in a blender in a washing machine on a carousel though.
meh. Willard din't crash and burn, but he sure made no effort to explain a single detail of his big 5 trillion dollar deficit reduction plan. "Trust me", was him main message, "I'm going to create 27 million new jobs."
Limp from willard, Obama was fine just holding the position.
I don't think he expected to crush the weaselly Willard..
He needs to hammer on the flip flop flip flop that we've seen so hilariously from Willard
Not entirely true. There was one:Quote:
Originally Posted by janvanvurpa
“I’m sorry, Jim, I’m gonna stop the subsidy to PBS… I like PBS. I love Big Bird. I actually like you, too.”
- Mitt Romney, 3rd Oct 2012
If you work out the maths on this, cutting the subsidy to PBS amounts to 0.012% of the Federal Budget. To put that in perspective, it would be the same as me cutting 22c from my weekly pay packet, which isn't even enough to buy a Chuppa Chupp.