“The unemployment rate is 10 percent but businesses are struggling to fill 2.6 million jobs because applicants lack required skills” observed a December 12th Politico article.
In an effort to remedy this disconnect, the Business Roundtable recently launched The Springboard Project, an effort by a group of education and business leaders to develop policy recommendations to improve U.S. education and work training. According to their December report, “the United States ranks second-to-last among developed nations in postsecondary completion rates.”
William D. Green, chairman of The Springboard Project said that: “Improving education is essential to building a better trained and skilled workforce” and that the gap between available jobs and qualified applicants will increase unless “the nation’s educational system isn’t changed to reflect the type of skills employees will need in the future and the impediments that are driving graduation rates down.” Among the Board’s recommendations are to
- “[i]ncrease postsecondary education and training attainment rates,”
- “[e]mpower students and workers by creating nationally portable workforce skill credentials,” and
- “[b]uild on the untapped potential of community colleges and two-year institutions.”
The Roundtable also released a report last year on “Tapping America’s Potential: The Education for Innovation Initiative,” a proposal to double the annual number of U.S. science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) graduates by 2015. For the many Americans suffering from unemployment or for college aspirants worried that they will graduate without any job prospects, this statistic from The Bureau of Labor Statistics could serve as friendly advice: the Bureau predicts that employment in science and engineering fields will grow approximately 70 percent faster than overall growth in other sectors.
More Americans choosing to pursue a technical degree could also give the economy just the boost it needs. The TAP report explained that “highly educated technical professionals constitute the key differentiator in global economic competition.”
Sarah Carlsruh is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.
*Blog entries by interns reflect their personal opinions only and not that of Accuracy and Academia.
Washington University in St. Louis is charging conservative students over $800 for vandalism they did not commit.
Several red hammer-and-sickle images were found spray-chalked onto the campus sidewalks. Campus Gulag reports:
The university, failing to find out exactly who is responsible for the spray-chalking, is holding the [Young Americans for Liberty] students responsible for it. The Campus cops have repeatedly used words like felonious property damage (because the ‘damage’ is in excess of $750, which is a Class D felony in Missouri) in order to intimidate the students and are holding that over the heads of the students like the Sword of Damacles if the students refuse to pay up.
Essentially–someone defaced school property. The school doesn’t know who to blame, so they’ve blamed the easy target: students who don’t follow the university line.
Also from Campus Gulag:
There are several important points to keep in mind here, I think.
1) The students had nothing to do with the spray-chalking.
2) The students are ENTIRELY INNOCENT.
3) The university has ZERO evidence that the students sprayed anything. From what the students have said to me, the campus cops have a video of someone spraying, but they have checked it out and it is NOT any of the YAL students.
4) Spray-chalk is water soluable. And with the 5 straight days of heavy rains that came just days after the 9th, the images would have been naturally washed away. So, it was totally unnecessary for the university to wash them away.
5) The invoice is total CRAP. The workers who washed away the images with GARDEN HOSES were paid at best $8 an hour. For the bill to be in excess of $800 means that the university is claiming that the subs who washed it away took 100 man hours to wash the images away. 100 man hours is the equivalent of 2 and a half WEEKS of work for ONE man!!! Washing away some chalk takes SECONDS!
6) The university, in claiming such bogus damages is committing fraud. This behavior against powerless students is absolutely shameful.
7) The UNIVERSITY IS ENGAGING IN MALICIOUS, RETALIATORY ACTION AGAINST THE STUDENTS for their GULAG demonstration. The main lesson other students are to take away from this is that speech on campus which is contrary to the pleasure of the administration will be met with severe prejudice. This certainly will have a CHILLING EFFECT on student speech.
The university didn’t even bother to give a line item invoice. You can check it out at Gateway Pundit.
If you’d like to get involved with Campus Gulag, please email campusgulag @ gmail . com.
Allie Winegar Duzett is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia. *Blog entries by interns reflect their personal opinions only and not that of Accuracy in Academia.
“I’m as happy to be here as Roman Polanski at a Hannah Montana concert” began Jonah Goldberg at Accuracy in Media’s 40th Anniversary Conference on October 23rd.
Goldberg, Editor-at-large for the National Review Online, attacked the gloom among conservatives, arguing that desperate liberal attacks on conservativism are actually a hopeful sign. “Cheer up,” he chaffed, “for the worst is yet to come.”
On the loss of civility in the media:
- “I think that rudeness for its own sake is one of the hallmarks of asininity.”
On liberal attacks of conservatives:
- “It seem to me that, you know, screaming racist, when someone is talking about the deficit, is a sign of intellectual weakness.”
- “If I’m talking about why you can’t have universal coverage and cut costs, and you call me a bigot, it doesn’t seem to me that’s the most incredible indictment of my actuarial argument.”
- “…the best definition of a fascist today is simply a conservative who’s winning an argument”
On Walter Cronkite’s “and that’s the way it is”:
- “…this omniscient, godlike, divine proclamation of the epistemological and ontological state of affairs for that day.”
On the economy:
- “right now the auto industry is owned by… the labor unions, the federal government and essentially the democratic party. Who here doubts that that’s not going to create really awesome cars?”
Sarah Carlsruh is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.
*Blog entries by interns reflect their personal opinions only and not that of Accuracy and Academia.
At a time when schools often struggle for funding, sometimes private institutions step up to fill the perceived need for more money.
From the LA Times:
The Ford Foundation pledged $100 million Wednesday to “transform” urban high schools in the United States, focusing on seven cities, including Los Angeles.
The seven-year initiative is among the largest philanthropic efforts aimed at improving education in the United States and, as described, could both complement and challenge aspects of the Obama administration’s education reform efforts. It will fund research and reform in four areas: teacher quality, student assessment, a longer school day and year, and school funding.
The Ford Foundation is throwing its money at schools in Los Angeles, New York, Newark, N.J., Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit and Denver.
Clearly, this is a good thing–no one can complain over private institutions donating money to educate youth. However, is money really the answer here? Even if it is going to “teacher quality” and “school funding?”
The sad fact is that compared to students from a hundred years ago, our high schoolers are pathetic. Students in the 1800’s were taught to balance checkbooks; they were taught state and American history; they often learned languages such as Latin and Greek. And this was all in schools with no heating, no air conditioning, no separate classrooms, and no computers. One teacher would teach many grade levels simultaneously–and I doubt that class size at that point was a concern, given the situation. Students back then, though, did benefit from discipline–and from a lack of truancy laws. Only students who wanted to be in school ended up there, which meant that teachers only had to deal with students who cared about the material.
I applaud the Ford Foundation’s efforts, but maybe lack of money here isn’t the problem. Something to think about.
Allie Winegar Duzett is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia. *Blog entries by interns reflect their personal opinions only and not that of Accuracy in Academia.
From The LA Times:
Declaring there should be “no excuse for mediocrity” in public schools, President Obama on Wednesday pledged to push for recruitment of better teachers, better pay for those who succeed and dismissal of those who let their students down.
…
Obama called for the abolition of “firewall” rules, which prevent many schools from judging teacher performance based on student performance.
This is a fairly bizarre remark coming from a man who at least formerly was idolized by the teachers’ union.
It appears that teachers’ unions will oppose Obama as they once did Bush.
Allie Winegar Duzett is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia. *Blog entries by interns reflect their personal opinions only and not that of Accuracy in Academia.
Apparently a Denver elementary school secretary taped a student last week. And we’re not talking videotape, we’re taking duct tape. From CBS:
Palmer Elementary first grader, Joshua, was allegedly duct taped by Carter on Wednesday after being sent to the principal’s office.
Joshua,6, told CBS Affiliate CBS4 he was sent to the principal’s office on Wednesday when a substitute teacher said he was disrupting his first grade class.
“The secretary taped my mouth shut and taped my wrists together,” he said, referring to the principal’s secretary.
The secretary was arrested on Monday.
Allie Winegar Duzett is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.
*Blog entries by interns reflect their personal opinions only and not that of Accuracy in Academia.
Underperforming schools have been closing in Chicago. The results are still open to discussion, but one writer at NBC Chicago reports:
Just six percent of kids at schools that were shut down were re-assigned to significantly better schools, the study by the Consortium on Chicago School Research says. Those students did improve academically, suggesting that perhaps the city’s best schools should be reserved for students who need them most instead of those with the most clout.
Which reminds me–why don’t we start giving laptops to people who “need them most”? Or those expensive graphing calculators? Why not just redistribute the best of everything to those who need them most?
Just a thought.
Nothing like spreading the wealth, education-style.
Allie Winegar Duzett is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.
*Blog entries by interns reflect their personal opinions only and not that of Accuracy in Academia.
No one can deny that drug use is a problem in schools today. And because drug use is so prevalent in schools, many schools have been trying to fight it. Like this school in Muskogee:
Today, students and teachers are encouraged to wear red, to signify that they are saying no to drugs.
The rest of the week’s activities are as follows:
Thursday, Oct. 29: Shade out Drugs! Students may wear sunglasses. Friday, Oct. 30: Scare away Drugs! Students may wear a Halloween mask.
This whole anti-drug spirit week raises two questions:
1. Do they seriously think that encouraging students to wear the color red, or a pair of sunglasses, will actually keep them from doing drugs?
2. Is it in the job description of educators to stop student drug use? I thought educators were supposed to be educating, not making kids wear different colors to signify their stances on drugs.
Don’t get me wrong; I think drug use is always a problem, whether it happens in or out of school, and I would love it if students and people generally would wake up to the perils of drug use. But, the last time I checked, schools were supposed to be about education; I was not aware that they were supposed to monitor or take stances in any way on what students do with their bodies. Parents are the ones who are supposed to teach children the rights and wrongs of drug use, not educators.
That being said, I wish the Muskogee school the best. I’m sure that after wearing red and being allowed to wear a Halloween mask in school, many students will voluntarily give up drug use as a result.
Allie Winegar Duzett is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.
*Blog entries by interns reflect their personal opinions only and not that of Accuracy in Academia.
In London, people are beginning to ask: are Jewish schools racist?
The question stems from a recent case where a child was turned away from a Jewish school because he was not deemed to be Orthodox:
JFS is oversubscribed and gives priority to children who are deemed by the Chief Rabbi to be Orthodox Jewish. The 2,000-pupil school rejected a 12-year-old boy, known only as M, because his mother had not converted to Judaism in an Orthodox synagogue.
In June, the Court of Appeal said such a decision was “a test of ethnicity which contravenes the Race Relations Act”. But the school argues that it is central to whether a child is seen as Jewish. The case goes to the heart of whether being Jewish is a religious or a racial matter.
Mr Balls said the ruling hits admissions policies of 38 Jewish schools. “It is also likely that the admissions arrangements of approximately 60 Jewish independent schools are unlawful,” he added.
The Appeal Court ruling suggested JFS’s admissions policy indirectly discriminated on racial grounds as most people defined as Jewish by religion were also Jewish in ethnic origin. This was wrong and may have “wide ramifications”, Mr Balls said.
The fight against discrimination in schools may not have its originally intended effect. Religious schools should have the right to select their students based on religion–and it is a known fact that Jewish heritage is just as much racial as it is religious. The Jewish legacy is passed from mother to child; this is why you can have “secular Jews” in the first place.
Those who support the existence of religious schools must watch the debate in London–with our Supreme Court now apparently recognizing international law, it is not safe to assume that the decision in the UK will not affect religious schools in America.
Allie Winegar Duzett is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.
*Blog entries by interns reflect their personal opinions only and not that of Accuracy in Academia.
It turns out school lunch—soggy, cardboard pizzas with a side of half-thawed tater tots—is an expensive issue. According to an October School Nutrition Association report, “three quarters of school nutrition directors surveyed indicated that the National School Lunch Program Reimbursement was not sufficient to cover the costs of producing a meal.”
On October 21, the San Francisco Chronicle depicted a heart-wrenching anecdote of de-funded local lunchrooms. Due to what the California Department of Education Nutrition Services Division deemed “egregious” lack of compliance, the school district “has had to pony up the $1.5 million monthly cost of the lunch program for low-income students.” Federal violations included the failure to post the requisite “anti-discrimination poster in every cafeteria reading ‘And Justice for All’” and failing to “offer milk with various levels of fat content as required.” Also, according to the Chronicle, children must serve themselves at least three items of food, but “Inspectors said at some San Francisco schools it went unnoticed when children took only one or two food items.” The rules also dictate that “School staff cannot hand children—even the youngest ones—a tray of food.”
Perhaps the School Lunch Program board should focus their time and attention on debilitating solvency issues rather than on trivial infractions of fastidious rules.
Sarah Carlsruh is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.
*Blog entries by interns reflect their personal opinions only and not that of Accuracy and Academia.
