May 24, 2008
Nobody can recall the ceremony, but Don McLeroy made it clear yesterday that he thinks he’s been designated Kommissar of Education, ramming through a proposal altering English standards for the next decade — without debate, without even a chance to read the proposal.
It’s probably not so bad a pig in a poke as it might be — of course, no one had the chance to review it, so no one knows, really — but the processes used, worthy of Napoleon or Kruschev on a bad day, should give cause for concern.
Gotta think about this one for a while.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
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Education, Education quality, Government, History, State school boards, TAKS, Teaching, TEKS, Texas, War on Education | Tagged: Education, education standards, English, Politics, state board of education, Texas | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
May 16, 2008
Government teachers, can you find this in the textbooks you use in your classes?
Nat Hentoff reports:
The Bush administration believes, he said, “that the president could ignore or modify existing executive orders that he and other presidents have issued without disclosing the new interpretation.”
I noted before, these are exciting times to be teaching, with all these examples of Constitutional law, and Constitution abuses, and President Bush’s War on the Constitution in the headlines, or buried on page 14, every day.
Tip of the old scrub brush to Ed Brayton at Dispatches from the Culture Wars. Nat Hentoff’s original column is at WorldNet Daily (!!!). The Constitution with comments, and also here.
Other resources:
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Leave a Comment » | 9/11, Bill of Rights, Capturing history, Checks and Balances, Democracy in action, Ethics, Freedom - Political, Freedom of Information, Freedom of the Press, Government, History, Law, Patriotism, Politics, Presidents, Totalitarianism, U.S. Constitution, War on Terrorism, War on the Constitution | Tagged: Dictatorship, Government Secrecy, Homeland Security, Politics, Totalitarian Regimes, War on the Constitution | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
May 15, 2008
For the past half century at least one of the greatest exports from the U.S. has been education. The benefits to the U.S. flow from having trained many of the best scientists, business executives, international leaders and others worldwide. Friends in high places help a lot.
Beginning with the Reagan administration as I count it, there has been a concerted war on education. Without openly stating the case, officials in government have systematically hammered away at America’s leadership in science research, technology applications and defense readiness. In 1993 Newt Gingrich led the effort to stab America’s nuclear research in the back, successfully, killing the Superconducting Supercollider, in a move that simultaneously took revenge on the education establishment, science and scientists, and Texas politicians like LBJ and former Speaker of the House Jim Wright, of Fort Worth.
The War on Education continues. Notice that in fighting against scientists and educators, officials also must sabotage America’s readiness to defend against natural disasters, and chemical and terrorist attacks.
Where is David Pierpont Gardner to write the report when you need him?
Tip of the old scrub brush to the Liberal Doomsayer.
Other resources:
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Leave a Comment » | 9/11, Civil Rights, Education, Government, Graduate study, Higher education, Research, War on Education, War on Science, War on Terrorism | Tagged: Civil Rights, Education, Science, Terrorism, War on Education, War on Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
May 6, 2008
Living through the Watergate scandals and the Constitutional crises they produced — and spending part of that time in Washington, D.C., working for the Senate — I got a wonderful view of how constitutional government works, why it is important that good people step up to make it work, and a glimpse of what happens when good people lay back and let the hooligans run amock.
Over the last three months it occurs to me that we may be living in a similar time, when great but latent threats to our Constitution and the rule of law may be halted or rolled back by one John Dean-like character who will stand up before a group of elected officials, swear to tell the truth, and then, in fact, tell the whole truth.
Teachers, are you taking advantages of these lessons in civics that come into our newspapers every day?
We live in interesting times, exciting times — we live in educational times.
You should be clipping news stories on these events, and you should be using them in your classrooms today, and saving them for the fall elections, for the January inauguration, for the new Congress . . . and for your future classes.
What other opportunities for great civics lessons come to our doorsteps every day?
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Leave a Comment » | Accuracy, Checks and Balances, Government, Heroes, Journalism, Justice, Law, Leadership, Lessons of history, Scandals, U.S. Constitution, U.S. House of Representatives, Watergate scandal | Tagged: Checks and Balances, civics, Constitution, Current Events, Government, Newspapers, Politics, Teaching, U.S. Congress | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
May 3, 2008
Utah rejected education vouchers last November, so the release from the Census bureau at the first of April probably got overlooked as not exactly important — I saw no major story on it in any medium.
Maybe it was the April 1 release date.
Whatever the reason for the lack of recognition, the figures are out from the Census Bureau, and Utah’s at the bottom end of spending per student lists, in the U.S. I wrote earlier that Utah gets a whale of a bargain, since teachers work miracles with the money they have. But miracles can only go so far. Utah’s educational performance has been sliding for 20 years. Investment will be required to stop the slide.
Utah’s per pupil spending is closer to a third that of New York’s.
Of course, spending levels do not guarantee results. New York and New Jersey lead the pack, but the District of Columbia comes in third place. Very few people I know would swap an education in Idaho, Utah or Arizona, the bottom three in per pupil spending, for an education in D.C.
Public Schools Spent $9,138 Per Student in 2006
School districts in the United States spent an average of $9,138 per student in fiscal year 2006, an increase of $437 from 2005, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released today.
Public Education Finances: 2006 offers a comprehensive look at the revenues and expenditures of public school districts at the national and state levels. The report includes detailed tables that allow for the calculation of per pupil expenditures. Highlights from these tables include spending on instruction, support services, construction, salaries and benefits of the more than 15,000 school districts. Public school districts include elementary and secondary school systems.
All the census statistics are on-line, for free. Policy makers can mine these data for insights — will they? You may download the data in spreadsheet or comma-delimited data form.
The rest of the press release is pure policy talking points:
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
21 Comments | Classroom size, Economics, Education, Education reform, Education spending, Education success, Government, Politics, Public education, Teacher Pay, Teaching, War on Education | Tagged: Education, Education spending, Government, Politics, School Finance | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
April 17, 2008
The kid in Kearny, New Jersey, who caught his U.S. history teacher peddling religion instead, is at it again.
This time he’s targeting a textbook on government — and it happens to be one written by the most right wing of the semi-mainstream government text writers.
Education Gadfly has the story here, with the Official Fordham Foundation cynicism at anyone who professes to be the the left of Ayn Rand (it’s an endearing cynicism, really — it makes the stuff much more readable, and it indicates that there is gray matter in action behind the comments). CNBC has the Associated Press story here.
Matthew LaClair complains about the book’s slant on climate change and church-state relations — two hot-button issues, to be sure. One wonders why a government text has any view on climate change, and one wonders how anyone could get the church-state thing wrong without criminal intent — but go see for yourself. LaClair, you recall, recorded his U.S. history teacher going on about the glories of Christianity, and blew the whistle. For that Matthew got slapped around unjustly in the local media. He was correct, before, about church state relations, so we might cut him some slack on this complaint.
Read it all; and remember to trust your textbooks no farther than you can throw them. The Bathtub tends to agree with the Gadfly that texts should be accurate, and that the selection processes for texts is out of hand (as defined by Diane Ravitch). But on the other hand, it appears to me that James Q. Wilson and John Dilulio, the authors of the text in question, got some things wrong. They can fix it, and do so with a smile.
Will they?
See also the other bias on the issue, from the Center for Inquiry — with a detailed critique.
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
1 Comment | Academic freedom, Accuracy, Climate change, Government, History, Textbook Selection, Textbooks | Tagged: Accuracy, Climate change, Education, Politics, Religious Freedom, Textbooks | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
March 15, 2008
I miss Ann Richards.
Here’s an excerpt from Molly Ivins’ column of September 18, 2006, the week after Ann died.
She knew how to deal with teenage egos: Instead of pointing out to a kid who was pouring charcoal lighter on a live fire that he was idiot, Ann said, “Honey, if you keep doing that, the fire is going to climb right back up to that can in your hand and explode and give you horrible injuries, and it will just ruin my entire weekend.”
She knew what it was like to have four young children and to be so tired you cried while folding the laundry. She knew and valued Wise Women like Virginia Whitten and Helen Hadley.
At a long-ago political do at Scholz Garten in Austin, everybody who was anybody was there meetin’ and greetin’ at a furious pace. A group of us got the tired feet and went to lean our butts against a table at the back wall of the bar. Perched like birds in a row were Bob Bullock, then state comptroller, moi, Charles Miles, the head of Bullock’s personnel department, and Ms. Ann Richards. Bullock, 20 years in Texas politics, knew every sorry, no good sumbitch in the entire state. Some old racist judge from East Texas came up to him, “Bob, my boy, how are you?”
Bullock said, “Judge, I’d like you to meet my friends: This is Molly Ivins with the Texas Observer.”
The judge peered up at me and said, “How yew, little lady?”
Bullock, “And this is Charles Miles, the head of my personnel department.” Miles, who is black, stuck out his hand, and the judge got an expression on his face as though he had just stepped into a fresh cowpie. He reached out and touched Charlie’s palm with one finger, while turning eagerly to the pretty, blonde, blue-eyed Ann Richards. “And who is this lovely lady?”
Ann beamed and replied, “I am Mrs. Miles.”
One of the most moving memories I have of Ann is her sitting in a circle with a group of prisoners. Ann and Bullock had started a rehab program in prisons, the single most effective thing that can be done to cut recidivism (George W. Bush later destroyed the program). The governor of Texas looked at the cons and said, “My name is Ann, and I am an alcoholic.”
She devoted untold hours to helping other alcoholics, and anyone who ever heard her speak at an AA convention knows how close laughter and tears can be.
One to make history, one to record it.
I miss Molly Ivins.
Save
Save
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1 Comment | A Good Story, Government, Politics, Texas | Tagged: Ann Richards, Famous stories, Good Government, hope, Molly Ivins, Politics, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 6, 2008
King Canute* couldn’t hold back the tides.
Surely the Utah legislature doesn’t think they can hold back the rumblings of the Rocky Mountains, either — but the proposed legislation raises delectable questions about the role of government in preventing disasters, especially using zoning laws as the method of prevention.
Good discussion material for government, civics, geology and “integrated physics and chemistry (IPC).”
* Canute was a Viking. Is anyone from Pleasant Grove, Utah, wondering about the symbolism here, with the high school mascot being the Viking, and the town being located at the foot of the mountains, almost astride the Wasatch Fault?
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Leave a Comment » | geology, Government, Law, Science | Tagged: civics, Cnut the Great, earthquakes, geology, Government, King Canute, landslides, Law, Science, zoning | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 6, 2008
“Paul Revere” at Effects Measure muses on the effect of one vote in the grand scheme of things, and comes up wondering whether it wouldn’t be a good idea to require voters to vote — as indeed is done in Australia (voters pay a fine for failing to vote).
It’s a good discussion of the impact one citizen’s vote really makes, a discussion leavened by the science background of Revere. The article would make a wonderful warm-up exercise for classes in civics, government, economics and U.S. history.
Voting is a privilege, but it’s also a duty of good citizenship. Should we require people to vote, by law, with criminal penalties for those who fail to make a choice at the polls?
What do you think?
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
3 Comments | Bell Ringers, Citizenship, Civil Rights, Economics, Government, Voting Rights Act, Warm-up exercises | Tagged: Citizenship, Elections, Government, Politics, voting | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 5, 2008
P.Z.’s not the only one. I get e-mail, too, and some of it’s not junk or spam.
Texas friends, see especially that little note at the bottom about resolutions to present at caucus, and remember that our Texas caucuses are the evening of the primary election, back at the polling place:
Dear Ed,
On Friday PBS NewsHour ran this story on us.
Then today, the National Academy of Sciences , the National Academy of Engineering , and the Institute of Medicine joined AAAS and the Council on Competitiveness as official cosponsors of Science Debate 2008. Together we now comprise a large portion of the American science and technology community. 64 leading universities and big-name organizations have also officially signed on.
We now have an exceptionally attractive location and date and we hope to be inviting the candidates late this week.
We need your help to make that invitation as compelling as possible:
- Please recruit every prominent leader you know to join this important initiative in the next two days.
- Please recruit every institution, corporation or organization you can get to join this important initiative in the next two days. Have them mention it is an organizational endorsement.
- Keep track of our growing list of signers here and here.
This is it, folks. We need you. Thanks for being a part of this historic and important initiative. Finally, please consider making an online donation here.
The team at ScienceDebate2008.com
PS: if you live in a state that caucuses this Tuesday, please consider presenting this nonpartisan resolution calling for the debate.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Leave a Comment » | Citizenship, Elections, Government, Politics, Reason, Science, Texas | Tagged: 2008 elections, Science, Texas primary | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
January 2, 2008
I tell students to go to the source; if they read the original documents, that puts them ahead of 99% of the people who claim to know what they are doing, especially in history.
Do you know what is a “grave breach” under the Geneva Conventions? Below the fold, material from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), with links to more original document material. DBQ, anyone?
Read the rest of this entry »
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3 Comments | DBQ sources, Ethics, Government, International law, Iraq, Justice, Peace, Politics, War | Tagged: Geneva Conventions, Justice, Politics, torture | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
January 2, 2008
Some of us were still digesting the heart- and conscience-rending story of the Navy Judge Advocate General (JAG) who resigned rather than continue to work in an organization that unethically endorsed torture, when we also became aware of the Bush administration’s plan to politicize the justice operations of the U.S. military. (See Geneva Conventions, here.)
Jurist, a news organ from the University of Pittsburgh Law School, with the short version here (with a recounting of other political troubles in JAG); the Boston Globe has the longer version here.
It’s the sort of move one expects from Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharaf; it’s the sort of move one would expect President Hugo Chavez to try in Venezuela, before the college students and military shout him down. It’s a banana republic-style action. It’s a move beneath a U.S. politician. Or, it should be.
If Orrin Hatch and Arlen Specter were alive today, you can bet this proposal would be dead.
For high school history and government teachers, these are exciting times. Abuses of the Constitution and potential crises cross the headlines every day. Each of these stories tells students the importance of knowing government and where the levers of power are.
Jan Carlzon at SAS Airline used to say people armed with knowledge cannot help but act. We must be missing the boat — where is the action?
Tip of the old scrub brush to Ed Brayton at Dispatches from the Culture Wars.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
2 Comments | Government, Justice, Law, Politics, Presidents, U.S. Constitution | Tagged: Government, Justice, Politics, U.S. Constitution | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
December 28, 2007
The lead editorial in Thursday’s edition of The Dallas Morning News endorsed science and questioned why a graduate program in creation science should be tolerated by Texas, and specifically by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB). It’s an issue discussed here earlier.
In the first part, “Be vigilant on how they intersect in our schools,” the paper’s editorial board is clear that the application from the Institute for Creation Research to teach graduate education courses in creationism is vexing, and should be rejected:
It’s troubling, then, that the Dallas-based Institute for Creation Research, which professes Genesis as scientifically reliable, recently won a state advisory panel’s approval for its online master’s degree program in science education. Investigators found that despite its creationism component – which is not the same thing as “intelligent design” – the institute’s graduate program offered enough real science to pass academic muster. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board will vote on the recommendation in January.
We hate to second-guess the three academic investigators – including Gloria White, managing director of the University of Texas at Austin’s Dana Research Center for Mathematics and Science Education – but, still, the coordinating board had better give this case a long, hard look.
The board’s job is to certify institutions as competent to teach science in Texas schools. Despite the institute including mainstream science in its programs, it’s hard to see how a school that rejects so many fundamental principles of science can be trusted to produce teachers who faithfully teach the state’s curriculum.
Keven Ann Willey, the editorial page editor at the News, herds a lot of conservative cats on a strong editorial board that probably reflects the business community in Dallas; several members of that board probably argued that there must be recognition and condemnation of the “persecution of Christians” who are required to learn evolution and other science ideas that conflict with various Christian cults. And so the editorial has an odd, second part, “Faith is, by nature, based on the unprovable,” which calls for respect for religious views by science — without saying how that might possibly apply to a science class in a public school.
Faith maintains its unique quality because it is based on things we cannot prove in this life. By reducing it to an empirical science, it ceases to be faith. Yet, no matter how many linkages scientists uncover to show that man evolved from pond slime, they will never do better than those who rely on faith in answering the ultimate question about a greater being behind our existence.
As the debate rages, it’s worth noting that the world’s great religions agree on the need for science. And even the agnostic Albert Einstein conceded that science can’t answer everything: “My religiosity consists in a humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit that reveals itself in the little that we, with our weak and transitory understanding, can comprehend of reality.”
It’s demeaning for the faithful to tout belief as science. But equally so, the advocates of science should be respectful enough to admit that faith is all that remains when science fails to provide the answers we seek.
So, the Dallas Morning News supports the rational view that the ICR’s application to train teachers to violate the Constitution is a bad idea. But they warn scientists to play nice.
Remember, scientists in Texas this year published great research and supported a bond issue to put $3 billion into research to fight cancer. In contrast, IDists and creationists tried to sneak a creationist graduate school into existence, fired the science curriculum director at the state agency charged by law with defending evolution in the curriculum for defending evolution in the curriculum (Gov. Perry is still missing in action, so no word from any Republican to slow this war on science), tried to sneak Baylor University’s name onto an intelligence design public relations site (in the engineering school, of course, not in biology), and tried to pass off a religious rally at Southern Methodist University as a science conference.
Play nice? Sure. But this is politics, not playground, and since the game is hardball, we’re going to play hardball. DMN, you are right in the first half of your editorial: When you’re right, don’t back down. Our children and our economy need your support.
Read the rest of this entry »
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3 Comments | Creationism, Education, Education quality, First Amendment, Government, Graduate study, Higher education, History, Teaching | Tagged: Creationism, Education, Newspapers, Politics, Religion, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
December 22, 2007
Remember the State of the Union pledge to put science front and center in building the nation’s economy?
That was then, this is now: Fermilab is cutting projects due to reduced federal funding. The U.S. is ceding pre-eminence in particle physics to CERN in Europe, or anyone else who will simply spend the money.
Dorigo has the details and links, at A Quantum Diaries Survivor.
It is clear that the US congress does not believe pure research in subatomic physics something useful for the Nation. Let’s face it: we lived through sixty years of good funding on the standing wave of nuclear weapons research, but we do not seem to manage to fool anybody anymore: no more deadly tools from muons and neutrinos. So, no dough. Sad, but true. I only hope that Europe will be smarter and that particle research at CERN will continue as strong as it has been recently shown to be.
Regret to start your weekend on down notes; science does best if syncopation is not limited, however. Get out there and play.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
6 Comments | Government, Physics, Politics, Research, Science, War on Science | Tagged: broken promises, Physics, Politics, research spending, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
December 21, 2007
Z Magazine is a little slow on the draw with this article, “Downwinders catch the drift,” so we note it here for the archives. The Energy Department scotched the worried-about test. So this is history.
But it’s scary history, and it needs to be remembered. The scariest part is that it comes around again, after even the most ardent pro-military, keep-the-finger-on -the-missiles-launch-button types acknowledged the injuries and deaths of thousands of U.S. citizens, innocent civilians mostly.
Every once in a while I see a small note about the problems with the radiation injury compensation program, intended to fill in where the courts and the Federal Tort Claims Act failed so spectacularly. This story is just a reminder of the deadly nature of big government unchecked.
Did we need to be reminded?
(And Ron Preston: Where are you?)
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Leave a Comment » | Atomic Bomb, Government, Nuclear weapons, Public health | Tagged: Government, nuclear fallout, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 