The Presidential Planner

I'm an Asian, who has enjoyed both Asian and American public schools. The former needs more critical thinking like the US schools used to provide thirty years ago. Now many schools in Asia recognize this and are fixing it. The later needs everything...,money, accountability, discipline, values, after-school programs, smaller classes, libraries, museums, longer school hours, shorter summer vacations....

US education has deteriorated in thirty years in many ways while Asian ones have gotten stronger. The NCLB was a small step, made much smaller by poor funding. Obama's $4.3B race-to-the-top restores this when combined with teacher accountability for test results. But the US needs to spend $50B over the next ten years AND over-haul boards-of-education that have made a habit of making excuses. Money alone won't do it. But neither will accountability alone. Since school boards are generally not open to change, charter schools are a good way to show how education can be done right.

I'm sure DailyKos will ask, "Why do the Blue Dogs hate women?"

---"I will continue whipping my colleagues to oppose bringing the bill to the floor for a vote until a clean vote against public funding for abortion is allowed," Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) said Monday in a statement. He said last week that 40 Democrats could vote with him to oppose the legislation -- enough to derail the bill.---

Late-breaking announcement from the White House....

Sorry, General McChrystal, all available reinforcements have been committed to the War on Fox News.

"Obama is leaving on his Asian tour soon - the 10th I think. Expect an Afghanistan decision to be announced after he's safely on Air Force One and the doors are closed."

Beats telling the terrorists to bring it on in reference to killing American soldiers from a podium in DC.

But I guess right wingers like fake tough guys.

Nothing pushes The Big Lie quite like statistics.

---More than $4.7 million in federal stimulus aid so far has been funneled to schools in North Chicago, and state and federal officials say that money has saved the jobs of 473 teachers.

Problem is, the district employs only 290 teachers.

The Obama administration last week released the first round of data designed to underpin the worthiness of its economic stimulus plan, which so far has directed $1.25 billion to Illinois schools. That money has helped save or create 14,330 school jobs in the state, the administration claimed.

But those statistics, compiled initially by the Illinois State Board of Education, appear riddled with anomalies that raise questions about their validity, according to a Tribune analysis of district-by-district stimulus spending and other state data. Many local school officials were perplexed by the stimulus data attributed to their districts.

In the official report, Wilmette Public Schools District 39 was credited with 166 jobs saved by stimulus aid. Superintendent Raymond Lechner said the number should be zero.

At Dolton-Riverdale School District 148, stimulus funds were said to have saved the equivalent of 382 full-time teaching jobs — 142 more than the district actually has.

A similar discrepancy was found in data for Kankakee School District 111, where the stimulus report logged the equivalent of 665 full-time jobs saved. “That’s impossible,” a top Kankakee school official said, adding that the entire payroll — full and part time — is 600 workers.---

No time to agonize over Afghanistan or the U.S. soldiers who are dying there?

Posted by: Ferd | Nov 4, 2009 8:51:06 AM
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Oh stop your crap about the President not caring about Afghanistan - you're an embarrassment to the United States and you make the country's right wing look mindless. Quit parroting the nonsense.

No time to agonize over Afghanistan or the U.S. soldiers who are dying there?
Posted by: Ferd | Nov 4, 2009 8:51:06 AM

Obama is leaving on his Asian tour soon - the 10th I think. Expect an Afghanistan decision to be announced after he's safely on Air Force One and the doors are closed. Maybe he'll leave a Post-It on his desk with his decision. Gibbsy can find it and make the announcement.

Actually, they'll probably hit the Sunday shows hard on the 8th, make the announcement on the 9th and then hop on the plane.

No time to agonize over Afghanistan or the U.S. soldiers who are dying there?

Stupidity rules again,throwing money at Education does not work. St Louis tried it and spent almost a Billion dollars on schools and programs and the test scores still were at or below the national average. Discipline works and until we get it back in schools the Asians and Some European countries will continue to out do us in math and science.

You have to do this behind closed doors when it was on tv the planted question was too easy to see.

I don't recall this particular contest inside the Economic Recovery Act but you have to admit, there is nothing like a contest that has the B word as the prize. (Are there any others? Maybe one that has a T word as the prize?)

Look what people do on the Survivor series for a mere pittance in comparison. Now we have an educational contest for a "Race to the Top" that has $4.something BILLION as the prize.

Is this going to be a TV show too? Are the contestants chosen randomly or are they going to set up a venue like American Idol to vet them? Do I need to start a school system to participate or can I adopt/buy one to resurrect so I can play? Are these questions and more why the President is going to a meeting behind closed doors? (I thought we had a transparent thing going here; after this whole Visitor's Log business I thought we had direct access to all the going's on of the Executive Branch? Or is this whole "Race to the Top" how the President wants to bring some "cool" to the WH like he said when he was campaigning and Snoop Dog is going to be there to hand off some "cool" and we in turn will "get some too." Sometimes "cool" has to happen behind closed doors.)

All I know is that I want a shot at the prize here.