October 2010 Blog Posts (8)

Biased Textbooks: Texas Gets It But Florida Does Not By Dr. Richard Swier

Dr. Francis Haithcock, Chancellor of Florida's Public Schools, is the perfect example of a Catch-22. Catch-22 is a general critique of bureaucratic operation and reasoning. The phrase "Catch-22" is common idiomatic usage meaning "a no-win situation" or "a double bind" of any type.

Over seven months ago Aya Sewell, mother and parent with two children in Sarasota public schools, went to the School Board and requested the textbook World History: Patterns of Interaction be removed from… Continue

Added by Harry Mathews on October 29, 2010 at 5:28am — No Comments

Kids Aren’t Cars; Schools Aren’t Factories

by Kyle Olson

As “Waiting for ‘Superman’” so eloquently points out, the industrial assembly-line model of America’s public schools, created decades ago, isn’t working. In fact, it’s setting us further and further behind our global competitors.

Today, it is essential that our children graduate high school and college prepared for the fierce competition they will face in the global marketplace. Their economic survival will be determined by their ability to compete with countries… Continue

Added by Harry Mathews on October 25, 2010 at 7:05am — No Comments

FUSD To Overcollect Taxes by $1.5 Million

I'm sure it was an honest mistake

October 13, 2010

A calculation error at Flagstaff Unified School District will lead to the district over-collecting more than $1.5 million in property taxes this year.

The error came about when more than $3 million in expenditures were assigned to the capital outlay account rather than to bond revenue funds- the money from selling bonds to pay for construction and renovation projects. This inflated capital outlay… Continue

Added by Harry Mathews on October 13, 2010 at 8:00pm — No Comments

Last Chance for School Reform

D.C. schools are the worst in the nation, but they may also be ripe for big changes.

Katherine Mangu-Ward from the May 2010 issue

American public school teachers don’t get fired. They just don’t. In New York City, hundreds of teachers spend all day in “rubber rooms” because they’re deemed too dangerous or stupid to supervise children but can’t be booted because they have union-protected tenure. In crisis-ridden California, the mildest of threats from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to cut… Continue

Added by Harry Mathews on October 13, 2010 at 7:50am — 1 Comment

Biased Textbooks: Texas Gets It But Florida Does Not

By Dr. Richard Swier

Dr. Francis Haithcock, Chancellor of Florida's Public Schools, is the perfect example of a Catch-22. Catch-22 is a general critique of bureaucratic operation and reasoning. The phrase "Catch-22" is common idiomatic usage meaning "a no-win situation" or "a double bind" of any type.

Over seven months ago Aya Sewell, mother and parent with two children in Sarasota public schools, went to the School Board and requested the textbook World History: Patterns of… Continue

Added by Harry Mathews on October 8, 2010 at 6:44am — No Comments

The Church of Body Modification? What Next?!?! Let's Start the Church of Robbing Banks So We Can Have All the Money We Want (HELLO?!?)

ACLU sues NC school over student's nose piercing

By TOM BREEN, Associated Press Writer Tom Breen, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 21 mins ago

RALEIGH, N.C. – The American Civil Liberties Union claims in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that a North Carolina school violated the constitutional rights of a 14-year-old student by suspending her for wearing a nose piercing.

The lawsuit from the state chapter of the ACLU seeks a court order allowing Ariana Iacono to return immediately to… Continue

Added by Harry Mathews on October 6, 2010 at 11:18am — No Comments

TEACHER FAIL

I wonder if this was an IB Teacher?

Added by shimauma on October 5, 2010 at 9:50pm — 1 Comment

Teacher on more than 200 tapes having sex with kids, police say

EL PASO, Texas - An El Paso high school dance teacher is accused of recording more than 200 videotapes of himself having sex with as many as 70 children, some of whom were elementary school age.

Federal agents testified that they found the videos in the home of 34-year-old Marco Alferez. He was jailed without bond Thursday, a day after the hearing. He is also accused of downloading child pornography.

David Kimmelman, Alferez's attorney, did not immediately return a phone… Continue

Added by Harry Mathews on October 4, 2010 at 8:14am — No Comments