Hello Everyone.
This is Adrian Olson Terry's eldest son. It is my sad duty to inform everyone that after an almost 14 year battle with cancer my father succumbed this morning. He passed very peacefully in his sleep around 5 am. Given the pain and struggle of the last 2.5 years [...]
Or more aptly, in the case of Corbett School District Superintendent Bob Dunton, a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black.
Dunton, who has proposed a charter school for Corbett in order to boost enrollment, is "irked" that neighboring districts, namely Reynolds and Gresham, are offended by [...]
From T.R. Reid's piece in yesterday's Washington Post exposing the myths undermining the argument for American health care reform:
"The key difference is that foreign health insurance plans exist only to pay people's medical bills, not to make a profit. The United States is the only developed country that lets insurance companies [...]A medical hiatus starting tomorrow means this is my last post for awhile. So read these, if you please, during my absence.
On health care:
Dave Lindorrf writes that Obama's "unwillingness to lead" on the issue of single payer health care will lead to his "Health Reform Waterloo." Pierre Tristam claims [...]You've heard all the stories about how Medicare and Medicaid are on the ropes, that doctors refuse to see patients from Medicaid because its reimbursements are so paltry, that both programs are essentially being SUBSIDIZED by the private insurers because they spend far more money than they take in, and [...]
That doesn't matter to Republicans who call any business tax increase a "job killer." Or to Democrats like Mark Hass who howled that the [...]
On Monday I wrote that the "real obstacles" to health care reform are corporate Democrats, not Republicans.
"Stop telling me how bad Republicans are--we don't need a single one to pass the public option. ...Let me be more specific.
When I say "models for school reform," I mean the reform of American universal public education. Although charter schools are technically "public" schools, they operate outside the system. That means, unlike traditional public schools, they are under no obligation to serve all students.
And they [...]
In the spirit of the O's ex-movie critic, Ted Mahar, who used to say, "And now for something completely different," here's Barry Johnson on the multiple virtues of Portland's own Pink Martini:
"I've always admired this band -- for its rhythm, classical music virtuosity, party spirit and deep knowledge of seldom-walked'" [...]Who are the real obstacles to overhauling the American health care system?
If you say Republicans, you're wrong. There aren't enough of them left in Congress to affect the outcome of pending health care legislation.
No, the real obstacles to effective and affordable health care for all Americans are ...Democrats! Not [...]
"Everybody in, nobody out" is the chanted slogan of the single payer movement.
Opponents of single payer have turned that around to mean everybody (if they're single payer advocates) out of the town hall meeting with Blumenauer and Howard Dean.
But maybe they mean everybody in jail.
' [...]I have to hand it to the Democratically-run Oregon legislature for pushing forward with legislation to raise the Oregon corporate minimum tax, the marginal tax rate on the biggest Oregon corporations, and the marginal income tax rate for wealthy individuals.
It's about time, I say.
Republicans call the tax increases "job [...]
Word comes from my friend Anne Trudeau that Harry Kershner, radical leftist (although he calls himself a centrist in step with the majority of Americans) was arrested at yesterday's single payer health care protest at Portland Community College, Cascade Campus, where Earl Blumenauer and Howard Dean were speaking. (Or as [...]
"Stooges" is how Jim Horn of School Matters described the three "unlikely comrades" featured in The Nation's excellent article, "The Selling of School Reform."
Who are the three stooges? Two Republicans --New York's Mike Bloomberg and Newt Gingrich --and Al Sharpton. What the three have in common is [...]
The founders of Physicians for a National Health Program published a study in the August, 2003 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine contrasting the administrative costs of health care in the United States and Canada.
The results? Total administrative costs covering six categories --for example, insurance [...]
I consider my frequent critiques of some of President Obama's policies --the misguided ones-- a form of "tough love." After all, I voted for him. And he wants to hear from his supporters, right?
Here's the Progressive Congressional Caucus' Donna Edwards urging progressives to "find their voices."
Here's the line I [...]
'They' being Middle East Muslims, especially those who have taken up arms against the American presence in the region. In his speech to the American Enterprise Institute (in defense of torture), Cheney explained the roots of Arab resentment:
"They have never lacked for grievances against the United States. Our belief in freedom [...]Some excerpts:
"...nowhere have we really overcome what Thorstein Veblen called 'the predatory phase' of human development. ... Since the real purpose of socialism is precisely to overcome and advance beyond the predatory phase of human development, economic science in its present state can throw little light on the socialist society of the future. ...From Chuck Sheketoff's op-ed in today's Oregonian recommending the suspension of Measure 57 to help solve Oregon's budget problem:
"Oregon already tops all states in terms of the share of general fund dollars devoted to putting people behind bars, and it spends more on prisons than on higher education -- one of [...]Charles Krauthammer has it right:
"If hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue, then the flip-flops on previously denounced anti-terror measures are the homage that Barack Obama pays to George Bush. Within 125 days, Obama has adopted with only minor modifications huge swaths of the entire, allegedly lawless Bush program. ...Criticism of Barack Obama's backsliding on "change" has come mainly from the left, particularly from the alternative media and the blogs.
Here's one example which pretty well sums up Obama's ambivalence toward single payer national health care. Health care is one of the many pressing issues Obama has failed to [...]
Now that yesterday's non-election* of school officials is in the books, let's turn to another pressing educational issue --Why American schools suck.
The author, Blue Oregon semi-regular contributor Jenson Hagen, may have "studied six languages," but in this post he speaks a language he probably hasn't studied, at least not [...]
No, not Vote Dammit! which brings to mind Willamette Week and its idiotic endorsements.
But anyway, if you're like me, you wait til the last minute to vote and then walk your ballot over to a local library. And I know many of you HAVEN'T yet cast your ballots. So this [...]
(Thanks to Lakeitha Elliott)
Yesterday I wrote that the last reconfiguration of Jefferson High School had "been no less than disastrous."
Portland Public Schools board member Ruth Adkins agrees, or at least she did three years ago when she co-authored this Tribune op-ed piece bemoaning that newspaper's support for school closures [...]
(Thanks to Lynn Schore)
In response to Kim Melton's coverage of yesterday's "community conversation" at Jefferson regarding the district's plan for redesigning its high schools, Rita Moore, Zone 4 school board candidate, stepped up with a timely response in a letter to Melton.
It reads in part:
"Just read your article on [...]Many consider Big Eddie a rube from the hinterlands, but in this segment at least, he outdoes either of his progressive MSNBC stablemates--Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow-- by demanding of the President,
"President Obama: Do you support excluding people from the [health care] discussion?"Here's the video:
The object of Ed [...]
(Post UPDATED below)
As I was listening to a really cool music video promoting school funding carried on the Stand for Children website, I noticed an option listing all of Stand's "successes" since it started operations here in Portland several years ago. Sooo, I just had to peruse it. ' [...]
A recent report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) shows just how bad American health care is compared to other developed countries.
Consider, for example, the data on health insurance coverage on page 32 of this section of the OECD report:
The United States ranks ahead [...]Andy Stern of Service Employees International Union calls the much ballyhooed plan to "lower" health care costs a "game changer." And why not? His organization brought together the various for-profit health care groups that came up with the plan.
If Stern and SEIU, a union representing mainly low wage workers, [...]
The Portland school board race in Zone 5 not only pits Scott Bailey (whom I endorsed yesterday) against Pam Knowles, it also further splits, along political lines, the ex-husband and wife team of two locally prominent Kafoury's.
Gretchen Kafoury, you see, supports Bailey. Her ex, world's worst person Stephen [...]
Although I once called Community and Parents for Public Schools (CPPS), the organization Scott Bailey formerly headed, "lapdogs for school choice*," Bailey is clearly the better of the two candidates running for the Zone 5 school board position. And never mind the useless endorsements given his opponent by the [...]
I know Jesus loves me because, in the words of the children's hymn, "the Bible tells me so."
Similarly, we "know" that the land of Palestine, all of it, belongs to the Israelites because God promised it to them. It belongs to the Jewish people alone, not the Arabs, because the [...]
You know where I stand, but here are the latest voices urging Obama to confront the crimes committed by those linked to torture.
First, (via Glenn Greenwald) there's Ronald Reagan:
"The core provisions of the Convention [against torture] establish a regime for international cooperation in the criminal prosecution of torturers relying on [...]Insufferable columnist Tom Friedman agrees with the insufferable David Broder that sanctioning torture should NOT be prosecuted as the crime that it clearly is under both international and domestic law. He therefore applauds Obama for saying that the torture policy crafted by the Bush administration was a "mistake", not [...]
Not to put too crude an spin on Willamette Week's latest school board endorsements, but when it comes to local educational politics, Portland's 'progressive' weekly needs to pull its head out of the sand, or an even darker place "where the sun don't shine."
Take the decision to support Portland [...]
The case for investigating the torture of 'detainees' and prosecuting those responsible is clear and irrefutable. Here's U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak in an interview with Glenn Greenwald:
At the heart of the Obletz plan is the Memorial Athletic and Recreational Center (MARC), a concept that fits Portland like a glove. And I don't mean a baseball glove.
Portlanders, from my perspective, are more inclined to participate than spectate. That's an identity better suited to Portland than as [...]
The [...]
(Thanks to Tauna Rogers)
It's true.
In fact, as Steve Koss reports in a must read piece on the excellent NYC Public Schools Parents blog, England's 20-year experiment with "performance standards and school rating" is the "progenitor of No Child Left Behind." The experiment has proved so disastrous that the [...]
Is poverty an excuse for lower achievement in school?
The "no excuses" crowd --No Child Left Behind enthusiasts, DC's Michelle Rhee, and, yes, Barack Obama and his Secretary of Education Arne Duncan-- say no. As far as schools are concerned, there are absolutely no excuses for poor student performance, including poverty. [...]
In many respects I consider Obama "Lincolnesque" in his politics, and I mean that in a good way. Just as Lincoln threaded a centrist path between the radical sentiments of Republican abolitionists and the reactionary venom of Democratic secessionists, Barack Obama has chosen, almost in emulation of Lincoln, centrist policies [...]
So what's with all these modern day Somali pirates preying on cargo ships in the Indian Ocean? Are they cutthroats like the pirates of old? Islamic terrorists bent on disrupting world trade? Or are they some new breed of ruthless mercenary taking advantage of the plunder to be had off [...]
Oakland-based edu-blogger Perimeter Primate (Ms Primate is a school mom) brings word of a study about a new breed of charity called "venture philanthropy."
And yes, venture philanthropy all about pushy billionaires like Eli Broad who's doing his damnedest to charterize American public education. In the process, Broad is [...]
We need Steve Novick as our next governor for one compelling reason:
Unlike current Governor Ted Kulongoski, Novick is not averse to increasing taxes. Oregon hasn't raised sufficient revenue to run its programs for decades --not for schools, for health care, or for public safety. Steve Novick is just the man [...]
And speaking of the "influentia", those movers and shakers who, because of their prominence, exert so much control over educational policy, let's not forget the malign influence on that policy of the mega-wealthy.
Bill Gates, for example.
San Francisco ed activist Caroline Grannan writes that former Republican insider, Diane Ravitch, [...]
Back in 2003, Steve Kafoury was instrumental in recruiting the successful slate of Portland School Board candidates who went on to hire Vicki Phillips as district superintendent --big mistake-- and to shut down several more neighborhood schools.
Today Kafoury, a former school board member himself, is in the Oregonian [...]
From EDDRA* correspondent Marc Barlow, who also saw the Bill Moyers interview with William Black:
"I was surprised by Black's comment that bonus structures create loyalty to fraudulent systems. "Of course, I immediately associated this to teacher merit pay and nclb's questionable assessment design and interpretation."You may have read Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz' NY Times op-ed piece (carried in today's O) on the futility and foolishness of the Obama/Geithner plan to "recapitalize" banks at the expense of taxpayers. If so, you probably recall his dire assessment:
"What the Obama administration is doing is far [...]While Howard Dean draws "a line in the sand" and asks the public to pressure Congress to include a Medicare-for-all option in health care reform legislation, PBS --the "Corporation" for Public Broadcasting-- used Frontline to suggest that for-profit private health insurance companies were fully capable of handling the demand [...]
As an advocate of public education, I see little difference between the charter school option and school choice generally. So for the purpose of this argument, I'll treat the two as synonymous.
For some parents, charter schools offer an alternative to what they view as the stifling orthodoxy of traditional public [...]
At the Portland School Board meeting Monday evening, David Wynde pronounced that the test for any charter school application is whether the proposed school meets an obvious need.
In the case of LEP, the charter high school under consideration, Wynde said the school was clearly serving students whose needs [...]
From Uri Avnery in TiKkun:
"FROM THE beginnings of Zionism, its leaders have known that their vision necessitates a large measure of make-belief. It is impossible to take over a country inhabited by another people without disguising the aim, diverting attention, hiding the acts on the ground behind a screen of flowery words.From a letter to Jimmy Carter written by a "Jew born in Palestine in 1941":
"As numerous Zionist leaders have openly expressed, they consider assimilation of Jews, such as mixed marriages, as the main threat to Judaism, comparable to the Holocaust: Both significantly reduce the number of Jews. To [equate] [...]My proposal for a one state solution to the endless conflict in Israel/Palestine has been dismissed as a "pipe dream".
Given the current state of affairs in Israel, I say that a two state peace agreement, the stance taken by former President Jimmy Carter and by President Obama, is an [...]
So what can Bernie Madoff teach us about the folly of testing [...]
But first, from David Marshak, long a critic of No Child Left Behind and "obsessive" testing:
"...when it comes to education, President Obama is a hypocrite. He sends his own kids to a progressive, child-centered school. The school enrolls 1097 students in 13 grades, about 100 per grade. It’s small and personalized. [...]
Several days ago I wrote about the "myths" in Obama's education speech to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
It seems that the speech also included some exaggerations and falsehoods.
According to factcheck.org, Obama's claim that the high school dropout rate has "tripled" in the past thirty years is simply [...]
They're small, tiny in fact, by Oregon standards. They're usually crowded. And the beach sand is typically coarse if not downright gravelly. Beaches are often hard to find. Unless you're lucky, you have to drive some distance to get to one.
I've been to three of the Hawaiian Islands --Kaua'i, Maui, [...]
Harsh reactions, from people who know something about schools.
First up, via Education Notes Online, is San Franciscan Caroline Grannan:
"Boy, is President Obama confused. ...From Rick Attig's blog:
"As refreshing as it was to hear President Obama, in his first major speech on education, call for teacher merit pay, a longer school year, more charter schools and reducing the dropout rate, it was discouraging to compare the president's rhetoric with the reality in Oregon."Here, with the teachers' [...]
Progressive evangelical preacher, Jim Wallis, writes about the moral dimensions of economic policy. In defending the Employee Free Choice Act, Wallis invokes memories of his father --a negotiator for Detroit Edison-- and argues that the EFCA levels the playing field between employer and employee:
"And the great chasm that [...](Thanks to Peter Campbell for the heads up.)
Although Barack Obama has been in office for only a month and a half, and I've promised I would give him time and the benefit of whatever doubts his policy proposals raise, his record on the economy, health care, and now [...]
During the Presidential campaign, Barack Obama boldly proclaimed health care was a fundamental human right. Now, according to Donna Smith, he may be wavering in the commitment to comprehensive health care for all Americans, regardless of income:
"...if the U.S. Senate has its way, you and I and every other [...]You may think that in the discussions initiated by President Obama on the reform of the nation's health care system that everything is on the table.
You'd be wrong.
Every interest group may be at the table, including for-profit insurance companies, but single payer has rarely been mentioned in [...]
Corporate taxes, that is.
Chuck Sheketoff of the Oregon Center for Public Policy (thank goodness he's now a featured contributor to Blue Oregon) notes that Oregon has the second lowest effective business tax rate in the nation.
What's been left unsaid, except by Torrid Joe at Loaded Oregon, [...]
First two items from Seattle, our neighbor to the north.
A lawsuit has been filed challenging the proposed Seattle school closures, alleging "that closures will unfairly affect a large percentage of poor children and students of color." The Seattle activists are one hell of a lot more active than their [...]
Local school activist Peter Campbell offers this nugget in a comment on PPS Equity regarding D.C. Chancellor Rhee's attitude toward testing:
"As much as I detest D.C. schools superintendent Michelle Rhee, at least she has the cajones/ovaries to say what she means:'People say, "Well, you know, test scores don’t take [...]
Nationally, neighborhood school closures and the creation of charters to replace them continue at an alarming pace. Take Chicago, for example.
Just last week, the Chicago Board of Education voted unanimously "to close, phase-out, consolidate or re-staff 16 schools." The teachers' union called the move a "union-busting" tactic, which [...]
Since I was busy all weekend installing a new (tankless) water heater --the old one rusted out-- I paid no attention to the conclusion of the Conservative Political Action Conference, and its last speaker, Rush Limbaugh.
But thanks to my brother, who did pay attention, I'm now aware of how [...]
Portland School Board members Ruth Adkins and Bobbie Regan authored a joint statement, appearing in today's Oregonian, defending the board's decision to lease space for public school classrooms in the Pearl District. (You can also read it here.)
Why an odd alliance? As part of their defense, Adkins and [...]
Uri Avnery has his doubts:
"Obama has not yet passed a real test on any issue. It is already clear that there is a marked difference between what he promised in the election campaign and what he is doing in practice. In several matters he is continuing the policies of George Bush with [...]Nancy Pelosi was a veritable jack(ie)-in-the-box during Barack Obama's speech last night to a joint session of Congress, leaping to her feet to lead an ovation anytime Obama said something inspiring. There was one notable exception, however. When Obama raised the issue of charter schools--
"We'll invest ... in innovative programs [...]Chase was a U.S. Senator from Ohio, an outspoken abolitionist, and one of Abraham Lincoln's rivals for the Republican Presidential nomination in 1860. He became [...]
When asked at a recent press conference --by Helen Thomas-- about whether any countries in the Middle East have nuclear weapons, Obama answered, perhaps with a wink and a nod:
"With respect to nuclear weapons, you know, I don't want to speculate."Obama knows full well that Israel has [...]
The Chalkboard Project's Sue Hildick says that, in these perilous economic times, schools "...need to be alert for every efficiency."
What sort of efficiency? Well, how about saving $20 million on more efficient student busing? Sounds good, eh?
Of course that's an efficiency --the $20 million-- for every K-12 district [...]
Apparently one of the two women proposing a new French immersion program, either as a focus option attached to an existing neighborhood school, or perhaps as another charter school, is a Francophile --a lover of all things French.
Well, so am I, at least to a degree. I love [...]
In a rare front page commentary about the large crowd* that showed up to cheer on the winless Roosevelt High School girls' basketball team in their final season home game, O columnist Steve Duin, speaking bluntly, let Portland Public Schools know what he thinks of its transfer policy:
"Maintaining that [...]Why union bashing by critics of pubic education is misguided. The thoughts of educational historian Diane Ravitch:
"On the subject of the teachers' unions, I must confess that I have always been puzzled by people who insist that the unions are the cause of everything that is wrong with education. If [...]The logic is impeccable. Assuming that the economic downturn results in the loss of 574,000 state funded jobs, many of them teachers (in Oregon, the state provides 70% of school operating money), it stands to reason that any proposal to ameliorate such a catastrophic job loss would be welcome. [...]
(Story UPDATED below)
To many Portland school activists, this story from Seattle should sound familiar:
--Seattle Public Schools superintendent proposes school closures.
--Seattle School Board approves school closure proposal.
--Seattle community 'rallies' to oppose school closures.
Seattle activists have also come up with a great petition in support of their cause. [...]
(Guest post by Lynn Schore and Steve Linder)
The Portland Public Schools board and district administrators appear to have deliberately concealed possible plans to close several schools in order to avoid "a big backlash" and to ensure support for their facilities recommendations and future capital bond measure.
The evidence of a [...]
Yesterday I wrote that newly elected Republican National Committee Chair, Michael Steele, portends more of the same-old same-old for Republican policy.
American Thinker, a conservative website with pictures of Newt Gingrich slathered all over its front page, disagrees:
"Michael Steele and Sarah Palin (as well as Jindal and Cantor) are [...]As I write this, it may already be a done deal. Maybe the Senate, with "three" Republican votes, passed a watered down version of the stimulus bill. I don't know.
But here's the question: Will a watered down bill, with too little spending and too many tax cuts, have any effect [...]
So says Joseph Stiglitz in an interview with Deutsche Welle:
"American citizens have become majority owners in a very large number of the major banks. But they have no control. Any system where there is a separation of ownership and control is a recipe for disaster."Nationalization is the only answer. These banks [...]
From Bill Moyers Journal last night:
"As Washington obsessed all week over the fate of one nominee to the cabinet, and as we watched hearings about the failure of watchdog agencies going to sleep on the job, we heard almost nothing of the people across the country suffocating in the wreckage of their lives. Some [...]Here's a counterpoint to the recent Blue Oregon post bemoaning the fate of Tom Daschle, Obama's nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services. The author of the post argues that the former Senate Majority leader unfairly became a "whipping boy" for opponents who used the issue of Daschle's [...]
At the last school board meeting, David Wynde warned that
"...in real terms, we have cut the level of funding for K-12 education in this state for almost two decades."He went on to say that school budgets are being reduced from a "grossly inadequate level of funding."
That's an admirable acknowledgment. [...]
Obama's decision to cap salaries of all the Wall Street bigwigs whose firms get federal bailout billions is a tentative step toward nationalizing a large piece of the American economy.
In other words, it's a step toward socialism.
What else can you call it? The government provides the money. It [...]
