Education

In marketing

It’s pretty clear that the American people want to boot Bush & Co. out of the Whitehouse. Barack Obama’s message of change absolutely resonated in Iowa, stunning the country with an astounding win. Even on the Republican side, the insurgent who criticized the President’s “bunker mentality” beat the corporate Bush-apologist in Iowa. Change has been the recurring theme of this campaign so far.

It’s the end of the year and a good time to take stock of what we’ve accomplished over the last year. What were you hoping the Democratically-controlled Senate would have accomplished in 2007?

Mindless Idiocy Department

I nominate the mindless idiocy award be given to the mindless idiot that forced the post master to remove the local veterans photos from the walls, with another mindless idiocy award to the post master who had them removed.

Next mindless idiocy award goes to the “educator” who caused the grade schooler to be expelled for drawing a stick figure picture of a gun, along with the mindless administorial idiot who enforced it.

How to save the world, or at least fix up or our corner.

The Preamble:

    We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

The Austin School District appreciates The Education Trust for spotlighting a serious concern of public education today, i.e. ensuring that all children are taught by highly effective teachers. These reports surface a national issue that Austin ISD has been working to address in its schools for several years: that differences exist in the experience levels, and therefore in the expenditures on salaries, of teachers working in schools serving divergent populations of students.

The following is from the introduction to the issue book Too Many Children Left Behind: How Can We Close the Achievement Gap?

In a nation that prides itself on providing equal opportunity for all, too many low-income and minority children are falling behind their peers in school. In an increasingly competitive global arena, the United States cannot afford to ignore this widening achievement gap. What can be done to close it?

This issue book presents three possible approaches for dealing with this problem:

Approach #1: Raise Expectations and Demand Accountability