Oregon Ballot Measure Update

Oregon Ballot Measure No. 60, which would have required that state teachers be paid based on performance and not on experience or seniority, failed on a vote of 40% to 60%.

See previous post ("Teacher Pay on Oregon Ballot").

You have read this article 2008 election / ballot measure / Oregon / teacher pay with the title 2008 election. You can bookmark this page URL http://apt3e.blogspot.com/2008/11/oregon-ballot-measure-update.html. Thanks!

Hope is Alive

And optimism is back!

I was born 2 days before Carter was inaugurated, far too young to experience that man's presidency. I grew up inside the Beltway, listening to Grandpas Reagan and Bush preach nothing my parents believed in. I cried hard the night Dukakis was defeated, and pretty much gave up. Clinton was no salve-- by then I was old enough to be troubled by a man who clearly couldn't keep his word--not to the woman he fathered a child with, and certainly not to the thousands of poor women across the country whom he sent to work instead of college. He disappointed me time and again; by the end of his term I wished him good riddance.

W was the president that made me feel bitter and hopeless. Cynical, eager to leave the Beltway and DC far behind, dismissive of those who thought they could make a difference by working anywhere near Washington. So I find myself tonight in a small town of 12,000 in Wisconsin-- a safe haven, of sorts.

Now tonight-- the most amazing thing has happened. Despite a persistent black/white gap in educational achievement, the resegregation of our schools, rising tuition and stagnant rates of college completion...I am once again really an optimist! Because it has happened-- America has actively sought to reverse course and right the ship. It's a New Deal for us all-- Barack Hussein Obama is the President-Elect of the United States of America. Michelle Obama is the future First Lady. And the humble, forthright, and sensitive Joe Biden will replace the big Dick as VP.

GLORY GLORY Hallelujah. Obama, thank you for making it clear that this country is worthy of raising my son in.

You have read this article 2008 election / Barack Obama / presidential campaign with the title 2008 election. You can bookmark this page URL http://apt3e.blogspot.com/2008/11/hope-is-alive.html. Thanks!

Sarah Doesn't Speak for Me

I'm so glad to see this campaign season end. So many utterly despicable things have occurred as candidates raged against one another that some days it was hard to even open the paper. Remember Bill's racist slurs in South Carolina? McCain's referring to Obama as "that one" and trying to equate him with terrorists because of his religion? Awful, sad, pathetic.

But what's offended me the most was John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin for VP. Obama had just wrapped up an incredibly eye-opening convention that made me think true progress had been made in this country. Then, in an incredible slap across the face to women everywhere, John had the gall to say "Ladies, want to see a woman in the White House? I'll give you a woman.. Here: Caribou Barbie. Go play."

Come on! This woman can barely put one foot in front of the other, let alone read and carefully think through an issue of The Atlantic Monthly. She reads "all" the magazines, gazes out her window at Russia each morning, and most infuriatingly, claims to be a wonderful mom to her special needs infant! Lady, please. You want to stake your claim as Mama of the Year and put fragile babies back on the agenda? Then you'll have to actually walk the walk, by TAKING CARE OF YOUR CHILD instead of running around the country while someone else holds the babe. Special needs babies-- I know something about that. They require lots of active loving, constant holding, nursing, and nearly 24/7 attention. No one can replace Mama in doing that. I did it for 7 months straight. My son grew from 4 lbs to a healthy size, and thrived under my attention.

You can't tell me it's anti-feminist to say she should've been with her kid. No way. It's her right to choose her path, but she can't run for VP and claim to be standing up for special needs babies and their mamas everywhere. Not when she's neglecting hers. I had an 80 hour/week job where the tenure hinged on continuously working, and when my kid needed me I threw it into the wind. Guess what? Not all was lost-- in fact I'm far better off now than I was then. When I say I'm for better work/family policies, I've actually tried both sides--working, and at home-- and a mix of the two.

So no--Sarah doesn't stand for me. John-- whom I was ready to VOTE for until about 8 months ago when he lost his mind-- has completely alienated me. And Mamas everywhere-- you should be offended, pissed, and ready to VOTE AGAINST this hypocrite. Caribou Barbie-- go back to Alaska with your Ken doll. Good riddance!

You have read this article 2008 election / presidential campaign / Sarah Palin / vice president with the title 2008 election. You can bookmark this page URL http://apt3e.blogspot.com/2008/11/sarah-doesn-speak-for-me.html. Thanks!

Education and the Election

Given the tanking economy and the lives of Americans on the line overseas, it is quite understandable why education has gotten short shrift in this presidential campaign. But scratch beneath the surface, and you'll find that it is a high priority for many voters and has received much more attention in state-level campaigns than at the national level.

Education Week provides a nice summary ("Education on the Ballot") of education-related issues on this year's ballots in the 50 states. Here in Wisconsin, the only major race on the ballot is for President--although control of the State Assembly is up for grabs. Our state-level offices are up in non-presidential years and the election for state superintendent of public instruction takes place in April 2009.

Tomorrow I plan to vote for a President with intellectual, moral and leadership abilities that I can be proud of ... with a vice-presidential partner who is ready from day one ... with a once-in-a-generation biography and life story. On education, this individual is clearly engaged and interested in the policy complexity that shapes what 21st Century American schools look like. He understands the importance of the building blocks of good schools ... great teachers, high standards, sustainable funding, engaged leaders, and supportive parents and communities. He is also open to new ways of doing business that puts the interests of students first and the preferences of adults second. I believe that he will build upon and strengthen what is working while looking for new answers to intractable problems.

That individual, of course, is Barack Obama.

I look forward to watching history unfold tomorrow evening and beyond. There will be lots to discuss in the coming days...

You have read this article 2008 election / Barack Obama / Education / presidential campaign with the title 2008 election. You can bookmark this page URL http://apt3e.blogspot.com/2008/11/education-and-election.html. Thanks!

Palin's College Choices

Here's a quick post that follows up on Sara's recent post ("Palin Is A Swirling Student!") about Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin's college education.

Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times ran a story ("Sarah Palin's college years left no lasting impression") that suggests that few professors and classmates can recall Palin from her college years. Even more interesting is the insight it provides into how Palin selected some of the colleges she attended. My guess is that Palin's is not an atypical approach. One of the reasons given in the article is that her family couldn't afford -- especially from Alaska -- to make the campus visits that often are a normal luxury available to students from wealthier families.

Palin's parents -- a high school science teacher and school secretary -- could not afford the college tours so common today. Their four children were expected to, and did, work their way through college.

"We didn't have the luxury of spending a week driving around visiting universities to see what they're like," said Kim "Tilly" Ketchum, a high school friend. "We were looking at pictures of campuses."

Palin and Ketchum picked the University of Hawaii at Hilo from a brochure.

Only after arriving in Hawaii did they realize that Hilo had rainfall approaching 100 inches a year. "The rain," Ketchum said, "was disturbing."

They attended orientation but never even enrolled.

The Wasilla girls soon moved to sunny Honolulu and enrolled in Hawaii Pacific University, a small private liberal arts school. They lived in an apartment in the Waikiki Banyan and took a bus to school.

Palin, a school spokeswoman said, attended full time as a business student.

The girls studied on the beach, tried surfing and pulled straight A's, Ketchum said. "We took the basic classes -- chemistry and biology, this and that."

But there was a problem. "When you're used to having some cooler weather, you get tired of the heat," Ketchum said. "We went one semester there before we realized we needed to go someplace else."

They transferred to tiny North Idaho College, on the shore of Lake Coeur d'Alene. Palin's older brother, Chuck Jr., had gone there before transferring to their father's alma mater, the University of Idaho in Moscow.

At North Idaho, Palin and Ketchum found what they had missed in Honolulu. They lived on campus before moving to separate apartments their second semester. "It was all very quaint," Ketchum said. "You kind of felt safe."

You have read this article 2008 election / college / college admissions / Education / Los Angeles Times / Sarah Palin / students with the title 2008 election. You can bookmark this page URL http://apt3e.blogspot.com/2008/10/palin-college-choices.html. Thanks!

Election Day and Schools

A number of communities are canceling classes on Election Day due to a fear about possible threats to school security and student safety, reports the New York Times ("Safety Concerns Eclipse Civic Lessons as Schools Cancel Classes on Election Day").

The headline and the article suggests that canceling classes negates the possibility of using the voting process -- which often takes place in school gymnasiums and cafeterias -- as a real life civics lesson. In the current context, that's probably true, as these schools are trying to balance safety, security and voting all on their own without the support of policymakers.

I strongly favor making Election Day a national holiday. U.S. Congressman John Conyers Jr. (D-Michigan) sponsored a bill (H.R. 63) in 2005 that would have accomplished exactly that. Since presidential elections only come around every four years, states should seek to codify election days as state holidays as well. In fact, Delaware, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maryland, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and West Virginia have already done so.

Making Election Day a national holiday would elevate the democratic process as something sacred, a protected day when real life can at least slow down and working families can easily find the time to cast their ballots and have their children accompany them if they so choose. The movement toward more early voting is certainly terrific, but there is something special about walking into a polling place on the actual election day and exercising your democratic right.

Here's an alternative initiative focused, in part, on the issue of why we vote on Tuesdays. (In short, because the Constitution says so, based on the needs of the 18th Century agrarian economy.) Why Tuesday? is supported by the likes of Bill Bradley, Jack Kemp, Norman Ornstein, Joe Trippi and Andrew Young. Cool.

You have read this article 2008 election / John Conyers / New York Times / school / school safety / voting / Why Tuesday? with the title 2008 election. You can bookmark this page URL http://apt3e.blogspot.com/2008/10/election-day-and-schools.html. Thanks!

Debate Redux: DC Vouchers

Republican presidential candidate John McCain made a point to declare school vouchers an education policy grounded in research at Wednesday's debate. "And I've got to tell you that vouchers, where they are requested and where they are agreed to, are a good and workable system," said McCain. "And it's been proven." Not so fast, Senator!

Today's Washington Post offers a fact check on the federal "Opportunity Scholarship Program" which, of course, was imposed upon Washington, DC by the Republican-controlled Congress and President Dubya.

A U.S. Department of Education study released in June showed that students in the program generally scored no higher on reading and math tests after two years than public school peers. The findings are consistent with previous studies of the voucher program.

Leslie Nabors Olah, senior researcher for the Consortium for Policy Research in Education, a coalition of five prominent universities, said that the D.C. voucher program hasn't shown immediate benefits and that more research needs to be done.

"We have no evidence that vouchers work," Nabors Olah said.

You have read this article 2008 election / John McCain / Opportunity Scholarship Program / presidential campaign / research / school choice / voucher / Washington DC / Washington Post with the title 2008 election. You can bookmark this page URL http://apt3e.blogspot.com/2008/10/debate-redux-dc-vouchers.html. Thanks!

Education Rears Its Head

Education made a surprise appearance in tonight's presidential debate starring Barack Obama and Bill Ayers John McCain. That was thanks to the final question from moderator Bob Schieffer of CBS News. Thanks, Bob.

Obama noted that public education needs more money and reform. He prioritized early childhood education, teacher quality, and college affordability in his comments. In an earlier answer, he also cited his support of charter schools and teacher performance pay as examples of bucking his party. McCain spoke again primarily about choice and competition in education, even suggesting that a research consensus had been achieved regarding the effectiveness and impact of school vouchers. He also specifically touted the DC voucher program. Interesting. I wonder if he would support allowing DC public schools students to choose to attend schools in Montgomery County, Maryland or Arlington County, Virginia and provide funding to pay for their transportation (even on Metro)? That would be a real choice.

The full debate transcript can be found here.

You have read this article 2008 election / Barack Obama / college / debate / early childhood / Education / John McCain / school choice / teacher pay / teacher quality / voucher with the title 2008 election. You can bookmark this page URL http://apt3e.blogspot.com/2008/10/education-rears-its-head.html. Thanks!