Utah's rebellion stalls

I'm disappointed but not surprised. Under pressure from the White House and the DOE, it seems as though Utah's rebellion against NCLB is being put on the back burner.

Utah has shelved its rebellion against the federal No Child Left Behind education program, at least for now, with the Utah Senate voting to study the problem instead of passing a law prohibiting the use of state or local tax money to pay for federal mandates.

The Senate on Thursday sent the bill to a committee that meets only in summer, handing a victory to the Bush administration. Administration officials have visited the Utah Capitol three times in recent weeks, hoping to defuse hostility over President Bush's education program.

The Senate's action came without debate on a voice vote.

House Education Chairwoman Rep. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem, said the study committee wasn't a "graveyard." Dayton presides over the Education Interim Committee and vowed to revive the issue for next January's legislative session.

"It's not dying," Dayton said. "It's putting off and deferring."

This essentially keeps the issue off until next January, after the general election. Soooo, I think this is part of the re-election strategy, part of which is to try to sweep this thing under a rug until afterwards. I wonder what other 'surprises' we'll encounter regarding NCLB. Maybe they'll try to get the states to postpone releasing the testing results until January also. Oh, and I forgot: let's dumb down teacher standards, too. Maybe the terrorists will leave the DOE alone.

It's over: grocery workers ok new contract

Every morning on the way to school, we pass by the Pavilions and wave to the strikers walking next to the parking lot. We never crossed the picket line, only because we buy groceries from the local health food stores out of necessity. The kindergartener has terrible food allergies. The other reality is that patronizing the health food stores is not something to be proud of because I don't think those stores are unionized at all.

The grocery workers strike has been awful, to say the least. It wasn't just a strike; it was a lockout of workers at the other two chains, which indicates collusion if anything. The press release says 86% of the workers approved the contract. I think that reflects the depth of desperation of these guys. I can't find details about the contract although I'm sure it will be available soon.

Article on the assault on teacher standards

This excellent article in the Black Commentator covers the big picture view of vouchers, teacher standards, and other alarming information, such as the funding connections between the Walton Family and education. Brief snippet:

The Bush gang is engaged in a massive fraud – a deliberate campaign to plunge the public schools into chaos and disrepute in order to create a larger “market” for education privateers. There is method behind the madness of No Child Left Behind, as administered by Rod Paige and his menagerie of covert and overt voucher contractors. While rich and poor school districts alike struggle to make sense of NCLB-imposed testing and performance criteria, the administration prepares to defund the venerable National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) in favor of the newly-invented, pro-voucher, typically misnamed American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence (ABCTE). Founded in 2001, ABCTE has tested only 100 people, according to PFAW – which is, in a perverse way, understandable since the rich right-wingers who created the entity fundamentally oppose certification of teachers!

The fraudulent ABCTE is the offspring of the Education Leaders Council (ELC) and – another wild misnomer – the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ). Both owe their existences to the fantastically deep pockets of the Wal-Mart family and Milwaukee’s Bradley Foundation, the parents and principal paymasters of the national voucher network. NCTQ is itself the mutant child of ELC – the result of inbreeding among millionaire Republicans.

Breeder Reactor Meltdown in 1959

For my friends who were asking about this: in the LATimes this week, we have news of a breeder reactor meltdown in 1959 in Calabasas.

A 1959 nuclear meltdown at Rocketdyne's Santa Susana Field Laboratory near Simi Valley released far more radiation than was previously known and likely contributed to some area residents developing deadly cancers and other illnesses, according to experts hired by the plaintiffs in a lawsuit pending against the lab's operator.

A representative for Rocketdyne's parent company, Boeing Co., called the experts' findings little more than speculation.
...

Two experts found that the July 1959 meltdown of an experimental breeder reactor released 15 to 260 times more deadly radiation than was released during the 1979 nuclear reactor disaster in Three Mile Island, Pa.

Arjun Makhijani, a nuclear engineer and president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Takoma Park, Md., and Bernd Franke, an expert on nuclear contamination and scientific director of the institute in Heidelberg, Germany, made the conclusions.

"At the time of the meltdown and for decades to follow, defendants successfully covered up the seriousness of the disaster and the impact it had on the residents of the two neighboring valleys," the declaration states. "Only now, during plaintiffs' experts' analysis of the incident, has the truth come to light."

Rocketdyne's 2,700-acre field laboratory, perched on a rugged plateau in the Simi Hills, is best known as a rocket engine test site for the Air Force and NASA.

But from the 1950s through the 1980s, Rocketdyne conducted nuclear research on a portion of the lab site for the government. The work included the operation of small nuclear test reactors and recycling of highly contaminated spent fuel from nuclear fuel rods.

The partial meltdown was not widely publicized until 20 years after the incident. The company later said there had been no danger to the public or workers.

As for any effects on humans, this is what is said in the article:

"Their statements add nothing new to the debate and are based on speculative assumptions," said Boeing spokesman Dan Beck. "It's a lot of theory, but there's no scientific evidence of a public health threat or a threat to property as a result of operations at Rocketdyne."

Moreover, Beck said, three cancer studies conducted by the federal government over the last several years found that rates for thyroid cancer among nearby residents were not higher than levels in the general population.

For more than three decades, Rocketdyne conducted nuclear research at the Santa Susana Field Lab on behalf of the federal government. Public disclosure in 1989 of lingering, low-level contamination from past nuclear projects sparked a public furor and prompted Rocketdyne to halt nuclear operations there the following year. Cleanup of contaminated facilities continues to this day.

Eight scientific experts, including two associated with an international energy and environmental watchdog group, submitted their findings on radiation and chemical exposure on Feb. 12 to the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles as part of the 6-year-old lawsuit against Boeing. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit include more than 120 area residents.

According to declarations filed with the court, the experts concluded that the plaintiffs' exposure to hazardous substances released from Rocketdyne's facilities "in reasonable medical probability, was a substantial factor in contributing to the risk of developing their injuries or cancer."

The experts hired by the Santa Barbara law firm of Cappello & Noel said the plaintiffs were exposed by inhalation to a number of hazardous substances, including hexavalent chromium, radionuclides, trichloroethylene and a "toxic chemical cloud containing multiple human carcinogens" that caused at least 83 plaintiffs to contract cancer.

Another 23 plaintiffs with cancer are suspected of contracting their diseases from exposure to Rocketdyne chemicals, and another 17 do not have cancer but fear they will get it, said attorney Leila Noel. Of those with cancer, many have already died, she said.

The scientists reached their conclusions based on calculations and analysis of 8.5 million pages of documents turned over by Boeing over the last five years. They considered such factors as the number of years a resident lived in the area, weather conditions on a particular day and the types of chemicals that were known to be used at the plant at the time.

Note: this was not a headline article. I believe it was buried somewhere in the back where I usually find other interesting articles.

In Santa Monica...

The strikers at the local Vons got some great publicity and a morale boost with a Kerry visit Thursday. While I'm glad the strike has for the most part ended, I'm not happy with the results of the negotiations. Bleah! At least it'll be over soon. How many more beatings can the unions take before there are virtually no benefits left?

In regards to voting next Tuesday, March 2nd, as a PTA mom (I never thought I'd be one but here I am), the California state has four bond measures, of which I am supporting two: 55 and 56. Proposition 55 will help pay for badly needed K-12 infrastructure problems. I don't think it'll have a chance given that our movie star governor is really pushing his two bonds, 57 and 58, which means attention to 55 has been nil. Hey, it was on the ballot first! Fortunately, 55 will go on the ballot again in November.

As for my opinion about 57 and 58? Steve Lopez says it best.

The inlaws actually changed party affiliation to vote for Mr. Governor over there. In my circle of a family and friends, he is still damn popular, unfortunate because hearing about our movie star governor really makes me feel sick to my stomach. "If he says we must vote for it, we really should because he knows better".

As for schools here, our superintendent has been making huge waves with his "gift" proposal. Briefly, he wanted to require that 15% of all donations be placed into a general fund, the money to be doled out to schools according to need. The larger situation is that we don't have enough money from the state and local funds to properly fund our schools. In response, the schools in the wealthier areas run huge fundraising drives to provide necessities as well as extras. Needless to say, we have a huge class divide in Santa Monica: for example, one school in a 'nonwealthy area' only generate $30,000 per year in donations while at the other end Malibu High brings in one million a year. School board meetings have turned into rowdy affairs. In the end, the school board plans to support a modified plan: 15% of the first $100,000 to be donated to the general fund, with decreasing percentages of amounts beyond the first $100,000.

Then there's the CEPS deal. A group of activist parents started the Committee for Excellence in Public Schools with the goal to provide a steady revenue stream for our school district. The money will come from the City of Santa Monica, who has been very generous and supportive of schools in the past. To do this will require a charter amendment, meaning the proposal needs to get on the ballot November. The Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce has come out in support of this amendment. However, quite a bit of opposition is coming from the city unions, understandably, but also from the local media, the Santa Monica Daily Press. When I was phonebanking the other day for CEPS, a number of parents I contacted were already turned off by the media. The organizers need to address these criticisms better.

More BSE cases in Ireland

Although four more cows with BSE were found in Ireland, this is actually seen as an improvement from last year. Now, since both Japan and Ireland test more frequently than the US for BSE, the implication is scary, to say the least.

Thinking along similar lines, here in America, this guy wants to test all his cows for BSE. But he can't legally.

To assure the safety of its meat, the company, Creekstone Farms of Arkansas City, Kan., a subsidiary of the Enterprise Management Group, wants to use rapid diagnostic tests that are routinely used in Japan and many European nations.

But no rapid tests have been approved by the United States Department of Agriculture, and department officials pointed out yesterday that it was against the law for any company to sell or market any unapproved diagnostic test. They said they would not respond to Creekstone's request until they evaluated the legal, regulatory and trade implications raised.

Other meat producers are upset by the company's request, saying it has broken ranks in an industry besieged by bad news. Dan Murphy, vice president for public affairs at the American Meat Industry, said American beef was so safe that widescale testing was unnecessary.

Hey, guys, are you afraid of what you'll find? If Ireland is still finding cows with BSE, and they've been vigilant since 1997, what does that mean about US beef?

More at bad things.

Using code

In the middle of this piece on bloggability, I found this :

The Republican Party uses speaking in tongues - using code words which have different meanings to different audiences. Bush can be for square in favor of "a humble foreign policy". To the east and west coast - humble means playing well with others. To the religious radio audience, it means being the instrument of God, with a capital "G", on earth. Hence, one can be strongly in favor of two mutually contradictory positions.

This is gold. Meaning, can we do this too? My first sense is that it feels deceptive, kind of icky. But seriously, can our eventual Democratic candidate do this to get the swing voters? Will he do it?

This is what Lakoff talks about but doesn't provide too many examples on how or what to do.

It's about the children

Time to run out and do the mom thing, meaning pick up the kindergartener, run errands, and spend time with her. A luxury, I know, but I do want to respond to this editorial. In the meantime, Dr. McKinney's op-ed provides one of the most powerful criticisms against NCLB that I've seen recently. Note that this was written before Mr. Paige's editorial.

This pretense at education reform takes our eyes away from the child who lives in poverty, comes to school hungry, and has parents who themselves cannot read. Rather, it focuses us on test scores and throws criticism at the school that cannot seem to "educate" this child. And it pretends that the 25 to 30 percent of young people who drop out of school before graduation simply do not count.

President George W. Bush has expressed his concerns that "too many of our neediest children are being left behind." And he is correct. But NCLB focuses on schools, not on children and their families. It focuses on annual testing and public reports of the test scores, not on inadequate health care, homelessness, hunger and poverty.

No Child Left Hungry would be an enormously important piece of legislation. This would respond to the 13 million children in our country who are "food insecure", that is, living in a household in which income is not adequate to ensure enough to eat. Children who are hungry cannot learn effectively. It makes no sense to test them.

No Child Left Unhealthy would respond to the 44 million Americans, about 15 percent of the population, who have no health insurance. Sick kids do not attend school. Kids whose teeth are decayed and aching, who do not get important immunizations, whose parents cannot afford to take them for medical attention do not achieve well in school.

Finally, a No Child Left Homeless Act would do wonders for children and their families. The description of typical people with no place to live has changed; it is families with small children who cannot find affordable housing.

Mandatory standardized testing, as imposed by the No Child Left Behind Act, does not and cannot identify and address any of these problems that fundamentally impact our ability to educate children. No Child Left Behind is disingenuous and duplicitous. It has almost nothing to do with the approximately 30 percent of all children who, because their basic needs are not being met, are being left behind. And almost no one is talking about them.

A growing movement...

Pharyngula posts a very colorful map on creationist activity across the nation.

Good by to the teacher of the year...

This isn't about NCLB directly, but a common thread everywhere is that there's just not enough money for schools to run properly. In this case, the teacher of the year may lose her position. Isn't that lovely?

The Danville Independent School Board voted this week to eliminate 10 positions for 2004-05 because of uncertainty over the school system's funding and the state budget, said Greg Shulz, the district's director of support services.

Among the positions is that of Patti Rowland, curriculum and technology resource teacher at Hogsett Elementary School. Rowland was named Kentucky's 2004 teacher of the year and received $10,000 from Ashland Inc. for the achievement.

"I call that the irony of the budget," Lisa Gross, a spokeswoman for the state Education Department, said of the Danville district's decision.

Gov. Ernie Fletcher has come under fire for proposed cuts to public schools in the budget. In January he ordered $6.9million in cuts to education programs, and proposed other cuts in his 2004-06 budget.

Critics have said the cuts would be a setback to gains made by schools since the 1990 Kentucky Education Reform Act. But Fletcher has said he plans to restore more than $51million for education programs. And he has defended his education budget by noting that he proposes keeping base per-pupil spending at $3,191 for next year and adding $7 per pupil in 2005-06 to pay for teacher raises.

Milestones

The kindergartener now reads to us. Dr. Seuss, mostly. Those rhymes are real catchy. And off to school she goes, without any clinging, whining, or tears. Amazing.

All of Minnesota?

An example of the punitive NCLB standards:

A report today will estimate that 80 percent to 100 percent of Minnesota's school districts will not meet expectations of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, according to a state official familiar with the report.

A war on public education

Educational issues finally emerged from undercover with this week's spectacular remarks by our Secretary of Education, Rod Paige.

These remarks did not come out of a vacuum. Under increasing pressure for a number of weeks, the Department of Education (DOE) under Paige has been working hard to salvage the President's signature education bill, No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Mary Ratcliff has written a wonderful big picture view of this at the Left Coaster.

Paige and his representatives recently completed a gnarly goodwill tour of the states in defense of NCLB. To say they were not well-received seems to be an understatement. Utah, despite threats from the DOE and the White House, continues the legislative process to exempt them from the unfunded portions of the law. More states are still seeking exemptions to the law. Last week, the DOE announced superficial changes to exempt non-English speaking kids from testing under NCLB, changes that look good in the headlines but do not fare well under closer scrutiny. The DOE plans to announce more changes to NCLB in the next few weeks.

So he's got a lot on his plate right now but Rod Paige's remarks, while excused as a 'joke', were upsetting, to say the least. Although he does offer an apology of sorts, these were pretty strong words. Of note, this is not the first time the NEA and others requested his resignation in response to his comments as Magpie points out. In an April 2003 interview given to a Baptist publication, Mr. Paige made a slew of comments that got him into hot water.

Mr. Paige told the newsletter of the Southern Baptist Convention: "All things equal, I would prefer to have a child in a school that has a strong appreciation for the values of the Christian community, where a child is taught to have a strong faith." Now, one may take from this that Mr. Paige's personal preference is for Christian schools, which is not a firing offense but is faintly insulting given that he is the nation's lead spokesman for public schools. Or one may see it as an encouragement to public school teachers to mimic Christian values and teach children to have a strong faith, which is also odd given that the Supreme Court frowns on the practice.

Christian schools are growing, he elaborated, because "the value system is set. That's not the case in a public school where there are so many different kids with different kinds of values." What could he mean by "kids with different kinds of values"? If this is a euphemism for kids with bad attitudes or teachers who can't discipline or failing schools, he should say that. As is, this sounds like a criticism of the diversity we've always encouraged in our public schools.

The reporter was fired, and retractions were made. The article, no longer available on the web, is now replaced with an amended transcript of the entire interview. A quick look at the contents still don't change my opinion of his views.

Sometimes, slips of the tongue can be revealing. Since I'm fascinated by differences in world views, I wonder if there might be a way of seeing the world consistent with his comments that "the NEA is a terrorist organization".

Recently Dave Neiwert posted an extremely urgent and amazing piece on the threat of theocracy on the judiciary. Within his post is a link to source article which explains the theocrats' opinion of public education (go to the subheading "A whole generation of Gary Norths"). The entire article is a must-read because it explains in detail the Christian Reconstructionist view of the world. I'm not buying the religion aspect so much as this is about power and control, using religion as a tool.

As for their war on public education, within their framework, NCLB is destined to be a failure. Even the effort to teach creationism in Georgia fits in well within this framework. And, oh yes, seeing teachers' unions as terrorists, or the milder term, 'obstructionists' makes sense in this world view. So it may all just be bunk but still I think that understanding this point of world view, however horribly uncomfortable it may be, is extremely important. And it goes to say, the more we know, the better we can counter their arguments especially in the general election.

Now, please note I don't have any proof that Mr. Paige is one of these guys. On record, Mr. Paige does support vouchers. He is a deacon in a Baptist church. He has said he publicly supports Christian schools. And he made those comments about terrorists. That's all I know. While there may be no connection between Mr. Paige and the theocrats, it goes to say that keeping an eye on this movement as well as increasing our communication to others about this will be a challenge.

With regards to education and the general election, please note on your calendars that August and September will be the release dates for more school reports about NCLB. Since it'll be close to election time, more bad news about NCLB will not be good for the Republicans so expect more attempts to mitigate problems with NCLB. I'd say since they've tackled special ed and non-English groups, they are running out of the easy options.

On the net, for more articles on what's going on with education, the American Prospect this month features a slew of articles. Around the blogs, check out recent posts on other NCLB related by progressive bloggers including: sheba, maura, Jay at Open Source Politics and this teachers' blog called Teachers Speak Out.

crossposted at The American Street

Worrying about education

This result runs along the well, gee, duh... category. Results from a new poll by the National PTA indicates that

... an overwhelming 93 percent of public school parents said that education will play a major role in their decision about which candidate to support in this election year.
In a national telephone poll of 800 public school parents, more than half of the respondents (55 percent) ranked school funding as a top issue facing public schools today eclipsing both school safety and quality. Additionally, 85 percent of parents believe the federal government should provide more funding for education.

The National PTA hasn't taken a stand on NCLB at this point. Poll questions are indirect but this is certainly about attitudes towards NCLB. Being a fairly conservative organization, they may never take a stand against it but 93% is huge. And the result: you saw the news this week, along with lots of testiness in the air.

That black hole

My position on the Iraq whatever you call it caused a few waves within my circle of friends and family, many who still hold true to the standard Republican party line. Still, I won't be happy waving this article around, with these revealing paragraphs on why we are there now:

One of those reasons is that sanctions and containment were working and everybody pretty much knew it. Many companies around the world were preparing to do business with Iraq in anticipation of a lifting of sanctions. But the U.S. and the U.K. had been bombing northern and southern Iraq since 1991. So it was very unlikely that we would be in any kind of position to gain significant contracts in any post-sanctions Iraq. And those sanctions were going to be lifted soon, Saddam would still be in place, and we would get no financial benefit.

The second reason has to do with our military-basing posture in the region. We had been very dissatisfied with our relations with Saudi Arabia, particularly the restrictions on our basing. And also there was dissatisfaction from the people of Saudi Arabia. So we were looking for alternate strategic locations beyond Kuwait, beyond Qatar, to secure something we had been searching for since the days of Carter ? to secure the energy lines of communication in the region. Bases in Iraq, then, were very important ? that is, if you hold that is America?s role in the world. Saddam Hussein was not about to invite us in.

The last reason is the conversion, the switch Saddam Hussein made in the Food for Oil program, from the dollar to the euro. He did this, by the way, long before 9/11, in November 2000 ? selling his oil for euros. The oil sales permitted in that program aren?t very much. But when the sanctions would be lifted, the sales from the country with the second largest oil reserves on the planet would have been moving to the euro.

A powerful commentary by my favorite cowboy at The American Street provides a great big picture view. At this point, I don't care about being right, that we really shouldn't be there, so on. I'm saddened by this huge loss of lives, of money, of effort.

Lost In Translation

One of my favorite writers online, Jeff, at Notes on the Atrocities, is currently holding his very own film fest. He's got way more sophisticated and elegant analyses than me so please visit him and enjoy his series.

To say that I actually saw a recent movie, albeit on DVD, is quite a personal triumph for this mom. I just seem to have a lot going on in the evening time, such as catching up on the bookclub selection, participating in PTA related stuff and oops forgot about the blogging thing, that watching a movie has been an extremely low priority.

(Warning: The following reveals a bit of character development).The little hype that I heard through the grapevine about this movie was that it was a Bill Murray vehicle. But having been forewarned that it was not the typical comedy, I was shocked to find out how ambiguous this movie was. While it's superficially about a 'love story' between two Americans stuck in Japan, my sense of it was that it was a very personal movie exploring father-daughter issues. Color my perception Freudian but yes, it was a love story sliding closer to that more forbidden theme. This underlying tension makes it both fascinating as well as uncomfortable to watch. The character Murray played seemed more paternal to me than anything romantic. And while sexual tension existed between the two, it was across so many formal boundaries, that it was a stretch for the two to even connect in the vacuum created by being in Japan. I haven't read any PR material by the director, although I would be curious to find out if she addresses this. I would imagine not.

Adding to that discomfort is the disjointed feeling of being in a foreign country. It was a wise decision to not employ subtitles. It helped to further enhance a sense of isolation, defined by the linguistic island that the couple lived within, bu it also made this movie more poignant.

As for the acting, I'm certainly not the sophisticated movie watcher but as a fan of Murray, I thought he brought surprising maturity to his character. Still a bit of the smart-alecky guy, he also brought a more jaded, more sophisticated, and a wiser sensibility to his role. My sense is that the female lead was the true center of the film, which is why I gravitate towards a personal explanation for Coppola's film. As for that father-daughter tension, I'm wondering if it's more about her relationship with her dad, not so much the incest angle, but the role he's played in her life, especially with her career.

Since I haven't seen any other film recently, I definitely have no comment on the annual awards aspect. The husband snored through most of it but I enjoyed the ambiguities in the characters as well as whole sense of being unmoored and afloat in a foreign world. Your comments appreciated. Feel free to disagree.

Woohoo! No more geometry

It's only Monday, and we've already gotten one very spectacular slip of the tongue by our fearless leader at the Department of Education. He's already said a much milder but just as telling comment very recently:

But the mood swiftly changed when Paige was asked about Vilsack’s criticism.
.
“I think it’s so unfortunate to have those kind of comments made at a school or anywhere near a school,’’ said Paige, who argued Vilsack is “completely incorrect.’’

“I can only think of two reasons why anyone would make comments like that. One is being misinformed… Another is intentionally misinforming the public for whatever reason,” he said.

Talk about projection. Jeez.

We also have news of the latest example of "perverse incentives", as defined here:

Not only does more testing not work, Losen said, but it creates "perverse incentives" for schools to take destructive measures in order to keep test scores high. For example, he said, many schools boost scores by encouraging students who are already behind -- disproportionately minority and special education students -- to "voluntarily" drop out. Districts can do this, Losen said, because while NCLB provisions require schools to improve graduation rates, these provisions are not as rigorously enforced as those demanding improvement in test scores.

Panelist Elisa Hyman, deputy director of the nonprofit Advocates for Children of New York, said the "discharging" of low-performing students who could harm test scores is a widespread problem in New York City public schools. At one school, 5,000 students were discharged over the course of a year, she said. And overall, she estimated that between 50,000 and 60,000 students have been discharged from New York City schools in the last few years.

During her presentation, Hyman described some of the discharged students who have asked her organization to help them gain readmittance to their schools.

"It's sad," she said. "A lot of the kids had all of their credits and all of their exit exams but one. Most of the other kids are struggling with literacy, and they're being moved nowhere or to a GED program where they have no chance of getting a GED."

Enter: stage right, Mississippi.

Mississippi's State Board of Education has officially removed geometry as a high school graduation requirement.

The proposal has been in the works for several months now. Students will instead be required to take algebra one and another higher math.

The change was made to bring Mississippi into compliance with the federal "No Child Left Behind."

The federal law requires that students be tested at the highest level of math required.

The problem, according to State School Superintendent, is that Mississippi students are tested at Algebra One, but geometry is the highest level of math required.

Why stop at geometry? Why not just get rid of public schools?

10th BSE Case in Japan

In a country testing 100% of their cows for BSE comes news of their 10th case of BSE. This is in Japan, who have been worried about BSE longer than the US, but also have terribly more proactive than us in trying to keep BSE out of their cows. Even more alarming to me is how far back they have to go to figure out possible sources of infection.

"In a report on BSE compiled by a farm ministry panel in September last year, it was determined that cows born in the spring of 1996 had probably contracted the disease from meat-and-bone meal produced from infected cows before the manufacture of the feed was banned in October 2001.
The panel said the tainted feed was either produced from cows imported live from Britain during the 1980s or feed imported from Italy before 1990."

Another reason why I don't like this company

Still one more example of corporate welfare and theft of public resources, this time in India:

Monsanto, the world's largest genetically modified seed company, has been awarded patents on the wheat used for making chapati - the flat bread staple of northern India.
The patents give the US multinational exclusive ownership over Nap Hal, a strain of wheat whose gene sequence makes it particularly suited to producing crisp breads.

Another patent, filed in Europe, gives Monsanto rights over the use of Nap Hal wheat to make chapatis, which consist of flour, water and salt.

Environmentalists say Nap Hal's qualities are the result of generations of farmers in India who spent years crossbreeding crops and collective, not corporate, efforts should be recognised
...

Monsanto, activists claim, is simply out to make "monopoly profits" from food on which millions depend. Monsanto inherited a patent application when it bought the cereals division of the Anglo-Dutch food giant Unilever in 1998, and the patent has been granted to the new owner.

Unilever acquired Nap Hal seeds from a publicly funded British plant gene bank. Its scientists identified the wheat's combination of genes and patented them as an "invention".

Greenpeace is attempting to block Monsanto's patent, accusing the company of "bio-piracy".

"It is theft of the results of the work in cultivation made by Indian farmers," said Dr Christoph Then, Greenpeace's patent expert after a meeting with the European Commission in Delhi.

More commentary here.

Way back in the dark ages, I used to be an avid sci-fi fan. Now I don't put the time into it because it seems as though I'm reading about it in real life, which makes it even more horrifying. Many of the short stories had the theme of robots or machinery gone amuck. Now I think it's not robots but big corporations, soulless and disconnected from any sense of common good towards the earth and humans, exhibiting sociopathic behavior.

Defusing or delaying that time bomb?

First, the Department of Education graciously allowed some revisions for special ed kids, though some argue it doesn't go far enough. Then this.

Under the new regulations announced yesterday, states will be permitted to grant a one-year transition period for English-language learners in their first year in U.S. public schools, which means that these students will be temporarily excluded from their schools' test results. At the other end of the performance spectrum, students will continue to be counted as members of the "limited English-proficient" subgroup for two years after they learn English.

Mary at The Left Coaster has written a wonderful big picture view of these new revisions to NCLB.

In California, we still have a problem. According to the LA Times:

But the new policies, which take effect immediately, will have little, if any, impact in California, where 25% of the 6.2 million public school students are still learning English.

Most students who are learning English enter the state's schools in kindergarten or first grade — well before third grade, when their test scores count for federal evaluation purposes, state officials said.

California already has an agreement with the federal Education Department to count students in the limited-English group for three years after they are determined to be fluent in English. State education officials criticized the new regulations.

I know some kids will do fine but is this enough time for the average child who probably lives in a non-English speaking household to do as well as a child who is native born? This doesn't solve the larger problem, although maybe it'll retain some voters for the November election.

Still there's this other thing. A recent poll indicated this:

In a nationwide survey among 699 parents conducted by Opinion Research Corporation (ORC) and sponsored by Results for America, respondents were supportive of the concept of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) but critical of the initiative's punitive terms, especially in relation to their own children's schools.
"The level of support melts away significantly when they are asked to consider what this could mean specifically in the context of their child's school," says Wayne Russum, ORC's senior research manager.

Checking out those results more closely, the researchers found that one of the things parents really want is smaller class sizes. I wonder what will happen when parents find out what NCLB is really about because it's not about smaller class sizes.

The Department of Education plans to introduce more changes in the next weeks. So what will it be: bandaids or real changes? My unhappy bet will be on the bandaids.

Alternatives to standardized testing

I can't remember how many times I've read this guy's column and disagreed, usually vehemently. However, I have to give him credit. Here's a very satisfying interview with Deborah Meier about alternatives to standardized testing.

Deborah Meier started a school in East Harlem called the Central Park East school for low-income families. What she says about standardized testing is right on:

Furthermore, if we are not measuring something of importance then spending most of our resources on trying to do the unimportant better is bad, not good. The titles of the test make them look sensible. It takes time, and talking with kids, to realize they are not measuring basics -- or advanced knowledge, either. Even the 6th-grade math test asks questions that neither you nor I have ever faced since we left school. Ditto the tests in literature (so-called reading). Even so-called authentic writing tests are scored according to a formula -- the scorers devote a minute or two per essay. This kind of test misleads us about what constitutes effective written communication, not to mention other forms of communication -- like the spoken word. And God help us when they start testing in science and history!

Not only do the tests not measure basics, but they also distract us from teaching the kind of stuff that might engage kids' minds and hearts, stuff that would force them to engage in the real discipline of intellectual life -- weighing evidence, seeing other ways of looking at the same data or situation, comparing and contrasting, seeking patterns, conjecturing, even arguing. The trouble with such skills is they don't come packaged with right/wrong answers.

For more about her and her school, here is a 1994 account. Her philosophy is described here:

Meier's pedagogical goals have remained clear and constant for nearly twenty years at Central Park East. She aims to create a better informed, better equipped, and more engaged person who can play a greater part in her community.

My ideas on teaching and learning focus on small "d" democratic values, by which I mean a respect for diversity, a respect for the potential of each individual person, a respect for opposing points of view, and a respect for considerable intellectual vigor. My concern is with how students become critical thinkers and problem solvers, which is what a democratic society needs. If we believe that our schools are failing us and that children can't learn the basic skills, then what we are saying is that democracy is a utopian ideal, an impossibility, and I just don't believe that. There is nothing in the nature of being human that makes democracy an impossibility.

Admittedly, not every teacher would favor adopting Central Park East's methodology. Debbie Meier is a politically committed, unabashed social democrat, and she and her cohorts were staunch believers in progressive education. In some quarters Meier's agenda provokes substantial skepticism; the average parent may not know much about the educational crisis, but strongly suspects that it all started with the new math. To a lot of people, "progressive education" sounds like something that has failed already.

And achievement has been high, as measured by standardized scores. They thrive in this environment.

The Central Park East schools are an example of what talented teachers can do when they are free to design their own curricula and run their own schools. In District Four, we told teachers with ideas for their dream schools, "Go ahead and try them. We'll support you." The most common initial reaction was disbelief. Their second reaction was to go out and start a lot of wonderful new schools that did not look like one another or like regular public schools.

What started as a desperate response to a crumbling school district has turned into a vigorous and vital renaissance with the potential to transform the city's schools. Indeed, the transformation that Debbie Meier and other educators have brought about in East Harlem can be a model for reversing problems in the schools on a national level. We believe that bureaucracy does not solve problems; it creates them. We understand better than ever today that there is no such thing as just one way to educate all children. These forces are leading us in the direction of de-bureaucratization, decentralization, school-site autonomy, and choice for parents, students, and teachers. It worked in District Four, and there is more than sufficient reason to believe that it will work in many other places as well.

A major ramble: understanding world views

On my 'must visit daily' list, I visit Dave Pollard's site kinda like a bee stalking crosspollination, attracted to the wealth of ideas he presents daily. A recent post brought up memories, and I'm repeating what I wrote in the comments with more explanation here.

Part of my clinical training that I cherished so much emphasized how each personal encounter is essentially a cross-cultural interaction, no matter what the background of the said individuals. Problems arise when each assumes the other to have the very same point of view. This is even more poignant when the two have a superficially similar background: ethnicity, religion, SES, so on. Any sort of relationship problems such as marital difficulties, neighbor problems, office politics can be seen within this prism. If we take a step back and start over with the premise that, yes, despite our similarities, our individual worldview is unique, and we must understand what those differences are, then there's a chance for progress. The challenge is to be able to identify what those differences are, what they mean to us, and then to be willing to understand the other.

Dave has a nice list of things on that post but the item I gravitate the most to is the one about stories. From my point of view, I see it as part of how we develop our own unique worldview and how we endow individual meaning to the words that we use to communicate with others.

To do this work requires an inward movement, a look within. What are my values, my world view, my sense of what's right and wrong and most importantly, what do I judge and what do I condemn? The most amazing thing is that this is not easy work. Not only is it hard to look at our assumptions objectively, but most of us don't want to look at this because this directly challenges our sense of what we believe so dearly is merely opinion, neither fact nor truth. Ouch. I recall a huge section of student body rebelling at considering what we believe in falls into the realm of... egads..."western eurocentricity". Imagine: could there be any other way of thinking? The plea was : don't make us go there.

Because of this background, I cherish Lakoff's work because he's developed a framework to look at our world views in reference to politics. He discusses 'marriage' in this new article. Behind that word lies a huge reservoir of meanings. Lakoff, taking the big picture, delineates two different worldviews, each with its own set of implied values, expectations, and judgements. How to navigate the two worlds requires an understanding of the structure behind all the words. Without this understanding, we can only wonder at why communication is such a minefield.

This new article, however, offers examples of how to bridge the gap and argue for understanding regarding the marriage issue.

But the progressives who are not running for office can do a lot. Progressives need to reclaim the moral high ground – of the grand American tradition of freedom, fairness, human dignity, and full equality under the law. If they are pragmatic liberals, they can talk this way about the civil unions and material benefits. If they are idealistic progressives, they can use the same language to talk about the social and cultural, as well as the material benefits of marriage. Either way, our job as ordinary citizens is to reframe the debate, in everything we say and write, in terms of our moral principles.

The rest of us have to put our ideas out there so that candidates can readily refer to them. For example, when there is a discussion in your office, church, or other group, there is a simple response to someone who says, "I don't think gays should be able to marry, do you?" The response is, "I believe in equal rights, period. I don't think the state should be in the business of telling people who they can or can't marry." The media does not have to accept the right wing's frames. What can a reporter ask besides "Do you support gay marriage?" Try this: "In San Francisco, there has been a lot discussion of the freedom to marry, as a matter of equal rights under the law. How do you feel about this?"

I think a whole handbook on the how-to's is needed. His theory is not the end-all be-all theory of life but here, today, now I think it's another badly needed technique to deal with the conservative agenda.

Educational Wedge Politics? No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the Latino Vote

Education, considered one of the top priorities of Latinos, was the topic of choice by the Pew Hispanic Center and the Kaiser Family Foundation for their second nationwide survey. Looking specifically at Latino attitudes and opinions towards education with targeted questions about NCLB, results indicate that Latinos as a group are more optimistic and positive about their children's education, the schools, and teachers when compared to attitudes of whites and African Americans.

Latinos also are willing supporters of the key principles embodied in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the education reform law that is the core of President George W. Bush's education agenda. The legislation requires all schools to use standardized tests to measure a student's progress and sanctions those that do not improve. On the issue of how to deal with schools that repeatedly fail to meet performance levels, when forced to chose, Latinos are more likely to favor helping to improve the schools but requiring students to continue to attend than whites, who are more likely to endorse the principle of letting parents move their children elsewhere.

Over two-thirds (67%) of Latinos agree that the federal government should require states to set strict performance standards for public schools. About two in ten (21%) disagree and 12% say they do not know if states should set strict performance standards for public schools.

Three-quarters (75%) of Latinos agree that standardized testing should be used to determine whether students are promoted or can graduate (20% say such testing should not be used for this purpose and 5% say they don't know.

These results certainly bring to mind whether NCLB could be used as a wedge issue in this current election. Given Latino support for standardized testing and for strong educational standards, how reasonable would it be to assume the vote would be for that guy who tells us he is the education president?

Just looking at the voucher issue, Latinos, especially the foreign born, are probably less likely to be swayed on this subject. While Latinos support choice in education, results (warning: pdf file) indicate that Latinos aren't comfortable expressing an opinion about vouchers. Still, survey results indicate that foreign born Latinos would prefer to help a failing school and stay there, rather than going out of the community to another school.

While Latinos support standardized testing and academic standards in this study, it would be important to point out that this is not necessarily support of specific NCLB mandates. In fact, survey results showed that very few knew much about NCLB. 87% of Latinos, 81% of whites, and 85% of African Americans "did not know whether an education reform bill had been signed into law by President Bush". This lack of knowledge certainly is my experience in the community I live in as well.

The follow up question would be: if Latinos knew how NCLB works and what the consequences of NCLB high stakes testing will be, would there still be support for NCLB? Here lies a golden opportunity to get out to Latinos and others in the community information about the problems with NCLB and how high-stakes testing transform a good idea into a really destructive force.

For starters, the way NCLB works is perverse. It wasn't meant to be rigged originally but now schools with a diverse student body have a much harder time with passing NCLB standards. The more diverse the student body, the more demographic subgroups are set up. In order to pass, a school must be absolutely perfect in every way; not only does every single subgroup must achieve a 95% participation rate, but each subgroup must pass at the deemed achievement level which becomes higher every year. By the year 2012, this level of passing must be at the impossible rate of 100%. Something is inherently wrong with a system that punishes diversity in a school.

At this point, NCLB does not exempt the English language learners from testing. English language learners must reach 100% proficiency without additional educational services. Parent assistance programs in community based centers for Latino parents have also been eliminated in the current Bush budget. These centers had provided additional resources for parents to help their families and kids. While tutoring and transfers are offered to parents in schools that fail, parents find that there is not enough space for all their kids to be placed in other schools. The NCLB program is underfunded by $9.4 billion. Expensive tutoring, offered by private firms, only suck money away from already stressed school budgets.

While this study forms a nice baseline for further work, a deeper understanding of Latino dynamics is certainly warranted, as reflected in Luis Toro's splendid essays recently. Some questions have been raised concerning the demographics of this surveyed group such as SES and geographic differences. This analysis, apparently, will come later(warning: pdf file).

But to get back to the wedge issue, there has been much discussion that a Democratic Latino vote is not guarenteed in this election year. For instance, in a recent message to House Democrats, Bendixen and Cardona warn that the more newly arrived Latinos may well be more 'persuadable' to be swing voters. Along those lines, Republicans plan to put a lot of money in courting Latino voters, using Spanish language media.

The verdict isn't in yet but it could be if we ignore this situation. We need to be just as aggressive as the Republicans. Education is a hot topic amongst Latino voters. Increasing awareness of the current new education 'reform' problems may be a window of opportunity for Democrats to mobilize voters so we can vote against the guy who brought us educational cuts and the nightmare that is NCLB.

Special thanks to Luis Toro who reviewed an early draft and provided valuable feedback.
crossposted at the american street

Keeping our eyes on the prize

This election is about the raw exercise of power by the government and the ability of the Democrats to fight it.

And see the first set of responses at the american street: Dave, Digby, Jeff, and Chuck. And thank you, Jay.
No doubt there'll be tons more post-mortems later.

Please don't buy the bull...

To put this BSE/CJD within a larger perspective, here's the latest from Stauber with Rampton, including what needs to be done:

Fortunately, the steps which need to be taken are rather simple and understandable. We should ship U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman and her smartest advisors to Britain so they can study and copy the successful feed and testing regulations that have resolved the mad cow problem in Europe. Veneman and her advisors should institute a complete and total ban on feeding any slaughterhouse waste to livestock. You may think this ban is already in place, because that's what industry and government said they did back in the summer of 1997. But beside the cattle blood being legally fed back to cattle, billions of pounds of rendered fat, blood meal, meat and bone meal from pigs and poultry are rendered and fed to cattle, and cattle are rendered and fed to other food species, a perfect environment for spreading and amplifying mad cow disease and even for creating new strains of the disease.

The feed rules that the United States must adopt can be summarized this way: human beings do not have to be vegetarians, but the animals we eat must be. The United States must also institute an immediate testing regime that will test millions of cattle, not just the 20,000 that were tested out of 35 million slaughtered in the past year in the United States. Japan now tests all cattle before consumption, and disease experts like Dr. Prusiner recommend this goal for the United States. And of course, no sick "downer" cows, barely able to move, should be fed to any humans. These are the type of animals most likely to be infected with mad cow and other ailments-although mad cows can also seem completely healthy at the time of slaughter, which is why testing all animals must be the goal.

Unfortunately, Veneman and the Bush administration currently have no plans to do the right thing. The United States meat industry still believes that the millions of dollars in campaign contributions doled out over the years will continue to forestall the necessary regulations, and that soothing PR assurances will convince the consuming public that this is just some vegetarian fear-mongering conspiracy concocted by the media to sell organic food. Will the American public buy this bull? It has in the past. Much depends on journalists and what they are willing to swallow. It looks now as if papers such as the Wall Street Journal and New York Times are finally putting some good investigative reporting teams onto this issue, and that may undercut and expose PR ruses such as the USDA's "blame Canada campaign."

I'm waiting eagerly for those investigative reports. In the meantime, it's the health food store for us.

Then there's this damn good post about mad cow, agribiz and other stuff at the Anger Management Course( link thanks to Kevin at the american street) and from the Anger Management guys, here's the must-read website belonging to Dave Louthan, the guy who killed the cow testing positive for BSE over at Vern's in Washington state.

More food goodies, link again from the anger management people, is at bad things, who covers not only BSE but GM issues.

And the most current hot news is that there may be more than one form of BSE in cows.

This may even lead to the identification of at least three types of BSE-like diseases in cattle. The research seems to point to a different form of the deformed and deadly prion protein thought linked to BSE from those suggested by Prof Collinge. British scientists have never found different types of BSE, but scientists such as Prof Collinge say this is because the government has never looked.

Although unconfirmed, now they're talking about at least three forms of BSE.

A Botanical Ramble

I know it's hard to believe we have seasons in southern cal but we do. And the changes are subtle, meaning you have to really pay attention but it's there to notice. Winter traditionally means more rain although with global warming, it seems the pattern has shifted a bit. Nonetheless, today we have a small storm blowing through town straight from the Pacific. Since we had lots of time this morning, we walked to school, trying to skip between the raindrops. Pittosporum, this nondescript bushy thing with a mouthful of a name, is in bloom this time of year. While it's blossoms are white, tiny, messy and blows off the trees everywhere, pittosporum blooms combined with rain smells incredibly fragrant. Husband thinks I'm batty but this is my time of year to go on walks at night, yes, even if it's raining. I can't get enough of pittosporum. And in a few weeks, the purple jacaranda trees will be in bloom. This is it, my favorite time of the year, with rain, pittosporum in the air, and jacaranda blooms.

Status quo, if anything

A recent essay by Monbiot on the Comcast/Disney thing triggered some thoughts. While I liked what Monbiot said about the 'sinister grip of Disney', I share less of his optimism regarding the future of that grip. I'm not sure why he thinks the new owner will be any better. If anything, it looks like more empire building, another conglomerate getting bigger. Why would they want to stop a good money making thing?

But I do share his concerns about Disney. One of the things I object to is how easily one can replace imagination with corporate images, especially in the young, the vulnerable ones, something that I think Disney excels at. Case in point: Cinderella. I want my child to have the freedom to imagine Cinderalla as something other than the standard blonde haired blue-dressed Disney image. And the same goes for the other fairy tales.

But really, there's a larger picture to this. I don't agree with blaming Disney completely for this because we have a role in this. We are doing it to ourselves, to our kids. It's part of our culture. And we have a choice to expose our kids to mass market imagery at such a young age.

A couple of other points I don't agree with. He talks a lot about 'infantilizing'. I'm not sure I agree with it so much that I also think that part of what's going on is greed. Children are very vulnerable to brands. The younger they are, the fewer cognitive skills to discriminate, analyze, and think about their choices and their environment.

As for his objections about anthromorphizing animals, I disagree there as well. This has been going on for a long time. Joseph Campbell made a career out of looking at how humans used myth to help explain how the world works. A vital part of myth is about identifying with creatures with human aspects.

So I'm thinking regarding that merger, it'll be status quo, if anything regarding Disney, although I do hope that Monbiot's optimism is warranted and that what he hopes will happen will indeed come true.

BSE Tidbit of the Week

I was worried about the "other" parts of the cow. Now I know way too much.

But despite new rules adopted in December to keep the riskiest tissues out of the food chain, some of the unsavory ingredients can still wind up on the table, hidden behind innocuous labels like "beef flavoring" or as accidental contamination in taco filling or processed meat.

People can get a fatal, human version of the disease by eating tissue from infected animals, though no one knows what dose it takes.

Cows can become infected by eating less than one-thousandth of an ounce of brain tissue from a sick animal, a panel of international experts said in a report to the U.S. Department of Agriculture earlier this month.

And for more:

But because only about 15 percent of cattle slaughtered are over 30 months of age, the brains from 30 million animals a year can still go into the human food supply.

Most don't, though, because they're instead made into animal and pet food. But fresh, canned and frozen brains can still be sold in specialty markets and served in restaurants.

Brains can also be used in headcheese and some other processed meat products, as long as they're listed on the label. No label is necessary when brains and spinal cords are cooked along with other ingredients to make beef broth, beef flavoring and beef extracts.

It's also still legal to include brains in nutritional supplements called "glandulars."

The new regulations allow processors to use machines to scrape flesh from the backbone of cattle under 30 months of age. A meat paste results that isn't supposed to contain bits of spinal cord. But sometimes it does. It is used in a variety of products, from taco filling to pizza toppings, hot dogs and some types of sausage and beef jerky.

Emphasis is mine.

Dealing with Reading Difficulties in Kids

The always excellent Psychscape has a brief summary on research, both basic and applied, on how to mitigate some types of 'learning differences'. The solutions are pricey but worth looking into for any parent with kids struggling with a reading difficulty. Their research suggests that real changes neurologically does occur with targeted exercises.

Getting Rid of Exceptional Help Under NCLB

I so despise reading about stories like this. What's clear in this case is that Devone Adams will be sorely missed, and her absence will undoubtedly cause a ripple effect.

Adams overcame cerebral palsy and a serious learning disability to earn a job helping other severely challenged students at Salvin School, the same South Los Angeles school she once attended.

But Adams, 35, could lose her job helping children as a result of a federal law designed to help children. The No Child Left Behind Act requires “qualified” teachers and classroom aides, and it rates Adams, who has 13 years of classroom experience, as unqualified.

The reason is that Adams has limited reading skills — a result of the brain injury she suffered at birth. The same impairment made her right hand gnarled and useless and gave her a limp and a right foot that juts to the right. An adult, when first meeting her, sees shyness and some uncertainty, an apparently timid soul, fragile as an alpine flower. But Adams assumes self-assurance with her class of autistic kindergartners at Salvin, a school with 308 students, most of whom are moderately to severely disabled. Her work as a “special education trainee” includes diapering children, getting them on and off the bus and salving their troubled souls with steady, loving attention. In partnership with the teacher, she also helps them learn to communicate, to sing, to take turns. If all goes well, they’ll also learn how to recognize numbers, shapes and colors.

“She’s really gifted,” says Mohamed Mbaye, the classroom teacher with whom Adams works. Because these children don’t communicate in words, Mbaye relies on Adams to understand unspoken needs and feelings. “In terms of instruction, she knows how to adapt the materials — to use toys and stuffed animals — to make things more concrete. She can right away tell what their strengths and weaknesses are and so help them learn. She gives me a lot of ideas as well as using my ideas.”

This story underscores the fact that special ed kids aren't going to do well under NCLB mandates, a statement which falls into my understatement of the day category.

Go, girl!

Here I was, trying to figure out how get in a few hours of worker bee level of community activism. It was just a simple request to get in some phone banking and petition signing hours. My goodness, the questions that came up: when do I do it? How many evenings a week? What about babysitting? Do I drag the child to the rallies? Will I attend the school board meetings now? Jeez.

Then comes the wonderful news that Mary Beth of Wampum fame will take the big leap and run for a Maine state legislative seat. It places my worries within a very different context.

Let's support our progressive blogger mom in her quest to make a difference. She's now communicating with the millions on a very exciting path.

Utah Worries while Pennsylvania Gags

Just noticed a couple of editorials in the Utah papers about the ramification of their infamous House vote regarding NCLB. Here:

Standing up to Washington also presumes Utah has political clout in a presidential campaign. With only five electoral votes, Bush could easily afford to take away Utah's funding for not going along with his program. Rather than influencing a reform in the education policy, Utah would become an example of what happens to those who don't toe the line.
But this doesn't mean Utah should meekly give up and accept the program. Rather, state education officials need to sit down with their federal counterparts and lobby for reforms in the law.

And here:

But Utah could wind up the big loser if the Bush administration decides to make an example of the state -- by pulling all its federal education funding, for example -- in order to whip other doubters and recalcitrants into line during this no-holds-barred election season

One theme: fear of retribution by the Bush administration. Out of all the states, Utah apparently is dead last in terms of per-pupil spending. Their worries about NCLB include how to fund this darn bill without spending even more of their local money on education.

They should be worried because our fearless leader, in Pennsylvania trying to shore up support in that swing state, made these illuminating comments:

When Bush wasn't discussing jobs, he was talking about education. Flanked by local education officials on a stage in the school's gymnasium, Bush said the onus for fulfilling his federal education mandates -- known collectively as "No Child Left Behind" -- ought to fall mostly on state and local funding sources.
Districts shouldn't bank on checks from the federal government, he said, even though that's precisely what district Superintendent Barbara Hasson asked for. "We want to thank you for the push," Hasson said, "but we need a little more money."

So we get straight from the source support for that notorious NCLB meme unfunded mandate. Emphasis is mine.

Blogroll Additions, Finally

I have been remiss in keeping my blogroll up to date. I just have a few bad memories of changing my template, only to nuke the entire bottom half of the blogroll. Don't ask me how that happened. Using HTML still makes me nervous, but hopefully, all will go smoothly this time.

More on CJD...

This CJD thing isn't going away. Guaranteed. Take this story:

But Hatte Blejer, of Alexandria, Va., shook some of the committee members with the story of her late husband, Daniel, a lifelong blood donor who died five weeks ago of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), a condition similar to the human form of mad-cow disease.

The classical form of CJD, which Blejer's husband had, is thought to be caused by genetic mutations that arise spontaneously in roughly one person in a million. Both diseases kill victims after eating holes in their brains. As soon as she found out what was wrong with her husband, Blejer contacted local blood banks, where he had donated three times a year for 25 years. She also tried to alert hospitals where he had undergone seven brain operations.

She discovered there was no federal system in place to warn blood banks and other medical facilities when a former donor or patient is diagnosed with CJD.

"If I had not contacted them, the Red Cross would never have known," she said.

As it was, there was little the blood bank could do, since the donated blood had been used. Blejer said she was never able to find out whether the surgical instruments used on her husband were reused, potentially spreading the brain infection to other people.

My heart goes out to this woman. I applaud her efforts to contact authorities despite all that she's gone through. What sticks out like a huge red warning flag is that little comment about the seven brain surgeries he endured.

But consider this: could he have gotten CJD from the surgeries, either from blood transfusions or the instruments?

New Insight into the Mercury/Developmental Disability Connection

I've been avidly but quietly following the mercury/autism stories. While we are fortunate in many ways with our child, there are some chronic health issues that keeps us on our toes, the major one being extremely debilitating migraines related to consuming certain things such as preservatives, MSG, nitrates, and such. That's why you'll see us hanging out at the local health food store. Being the prototypical Mothering magazine type of mom, I've also been quite concerned about the ongoing vaccine concerns, first with thimerosal, now with other vaccine components such as fetal bovine serum (trace quantities, I know).

This study is the first I've seen that looks at dysfunctional cellular mechanisms underlying heavy metal poisoning. The results are so hot that publication date was moved up by two months, something that is extremely rare in basic science research. Methylation is one of those basic cellular processes that if it is disrupted or altered in any way, would probably result in something serious, especially in a developing organism. That's because methylation is also one of the many ways gene expression is regulated, meaning if you mess with methylation, you can mess up development. And, apparently, growth factor signaling of one type at least, which in turns affects methylation, is altered by heavy metal exposure, such as mercury.

Industry propaganda will undoubtedly push the negatives of this study. They are easy to list and not so easy to debunk, such as transferability of results created in vitro to an in vivo situation.

Nonetheless, I think this work is extremely significant and will lay the foundations for more targeted research.

More discussion at The Bloviator.

Addendum: And definitely more discussion at Wampum on MMR, (the lack of) mercury, and the presence of live virus in vaccines.

Utah Leads the Way

But will it be a stampede? Consider Utah taking this big step:

In a rebuke to the Bush administration, the Utah House voted yesterday to prohibit the state's education authorities from using any local money to comply with the president's signature education law, No Child Left Behind.

The vote, by a Republican-dominated chamber, comes after weeks of criticism by lawmakers arguing that the federal education measure impinges on the state's right to set its own education agenda and that the cost of compliance would be too high.

Utah's defiance is the most politically embarrassing challenge by any state so far to the wide-ranging federal law, which penalizes schools that fail to meet rising targets on standardized tests.

Actually, it might have been worse because Utah was well on its way to be the first state to completely opt out of Bush's education law, No Child Left Behind (NCLB). But after a visit from concerned White House and DOE representatives, Utah backed off from this public relations disaster, voting instead to spend only the amount of federal money allotted to them, $103 million, but not a penny more. I will be very interested in finding out how Utah will do this and still comply with NCLB mandates.

A big gorilla, it turns out, may be the feds, the Department of Education, with this threat:

It wasn't clear which -- if any -- of the 45 No Child provisions are fully funded, and the U.S. Education Department has warned Utah that picking and choosing mandates could affect funds for other education programs.

It would be important to track any punishment to Utah but to other states who may follow Utah's steps.

It's not surprising this red state has come this far. Utah has long been complaining about this intrusion by the federal government. While providing only about 7% of total educational funds, the federal government now has an unprecedented amount of control over public education due to NCLB mandates.

As for that stampede, it looks like it might be starting and it looks awfully bipartisan.

More at the american street...

The 100th Day of School

When I went to kindergarten back in the dark ages, we didn't celebrate the 100th day of school. These days, there's a whole school based industry revolving around it. Wednesday, tomorrow, is the 100th day for our child's program. We've got projects of 100 items to bring and then a party to celebrate. For those who need to know, read Mrs. Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten, because, well, that's what happens. The whole class has been looking forward to this all year. Then it's 80 more school days left, according to our child. Gee, time has gone by too quickly.

Excuse me: It's about violence

The faux moon landing curdled my stomach. But I started getting nervous when the kindergartener began to demand what the erectile dysfunction ads were about. Uh, about love? Well, then why were they in separate bath tubs? Good question. I don't know, dear child. And how come they are on the roof in their tubs watching the sunset? Beats me. Cuz it's pretty. The questions came fast and furious. And since we missed the big Janet moment, the dad found it on the web. The kindergartener really didn't care because breast has been best in La Leche land but she wanted to know why the guy had to pull the tab. Now that wasn't very nice. Bingo. The child gets it. And that truly should be the real outrage amongst many others including trying to explain sexual dysfunction to a kindergartener. More links and better commentary than me by Trish Wilson.

Recreating Evolutionary Theory

I've been pushing Christine Terry's delightful science blog within my circle of mom friends. I know I'm biased but I think that a good grounding in science has become even more critical as our world becomes more technologically sophisticated and complicated by such things as GM foods, prions, genetic testing, and other wonderful worries.

But now she's gone political, which is even better. With her brief compilation, follow the trail to a bunch of great posts on the attack on educational curriculum by 'revisionists'.

In particular, consider this brief snippet from the very exceptional Pharyngula:

One might argue that these are members of the lunatic fringe, lost causes that will never be persuaded, and that evolutionists shouldn't bother trying. Unfortunately, these are leaders of large flocks who have far more credibility with the uninformed than a bunch of eggheads in Sin Francisco. If you are a devout Christian, and a secular humanist (who knows little of your faith) tells you "there is no conflict between religion and evolution," while your pastor gets in the pulpit and tells you that "you will go to hell for believing the earth is more than six thousand years old, and you are corrupting our earthly world as well," who are you going to trust?

I think this section of the site destroys its own credibility with this blithe assumption that many creationists will know is false. We should be honest. Evolution is compatible with many religions. However, if your religion tells you that the world is six thousand years old, that it was created by fiat over the span of six days, that species are immutable, that all existing species are derived from a select few rescued from a flood in a big boat, and any of a host of other silly stories that are directly contradicted by the world around you, you're just going to have to accept the fact that the weight of the evidence from physics, geology, and biology all dictates that your religion is wrong. It's that simple. You are wrong. Wise up. Find a better faith that isn't so damned stupid. And if you are so inflexibly dogmatic that you can't do that, you give up the right to dictate how science and education ought to operate.

There's way more in the post but the thing that gets me is, again, how worldview impacts politics and education in a major way. How to communicate across/ over/under/despite of differences in worldviews is one of my major concerns in this election process.

Addendum: Via the amazing Linkmeister, news of a new UCB based website about evolution, which I'll send directly to my biologist pals. But the part I liked the best was the section on External Roadblocks, complete with ways to deal with antievolutionists, legal issues, and strategies.

Oh, Dear

The thing that catches my eye is that we don't know how this thing is spread, how infectious this is, so on. This really reminds me of AIDS in the early early days before it was even called AIDS.

Couple of points: Oh. So mad deer roam. You mean, they don't go "down" like cows?

Following the uproar triggered by the discovery of the first known case of mad cow disease in the United States, researchers and regulators are focusing new attention on a similar disease afflicting hundreds or thousands of "mad" deer and elk that roam freely across large parts of North America.

Then this: how is it being spread? The "without direct contact" possibility scares me. No mention of water supply but it crosses my mind.

But unlike mad cow disease, which is known to spread only when cattle consume feed containing tissue from infected animals, chronic wasting spreads more easily from animal to animal, probably through saliva, urine, hair or feces. Some animals have apparently gotten the disease without any direct contact with others.

No evidence yet of it crossing species naturally but why is this being brought up?

But researchers have found they can transmit chronic wasting disease to cattle and to mice by injecting infected tissue into their brains. They are also concerned that carnivores such as wolves and mountain lions could get infected if they eat diseased wild deer and elk -- especially the brains and central nervous system tissues.

Lots of other questions come to mind, foremost being what is the relationship of chronic wasting disease to BSE and CJD? The more light shed on this subject, the more this looks like a ticking timebomb.

BSE Tidbit of the Day

The guy who killed the cow testing positive for BSE has an interesting take on the story.

Contrary to reports from the federal Department of Agriculture, he asserts that the cow he killed was not too sick to walk. And it was caught not by routine surveillance, he says, but by "a fluke": he killed it outdoors because he feared it would trample other cows lying prostrate in its trailer, and the plant's testing program called for sampling cows killed outside only.

"Mad cows aren't downers," he said. "They're up and they're crazy." The Agriculture Department disputes his account. Dr. Kenneth Petersen, a food safety official, faxed copies of the Dec. 9 inspector's report saying the cow was "sternal," or down on its chest.

Mr. Louthan said he believed the government changed the report on Dec. 23, during the panic at Vern's when a positive test was found. The "smoking gun," he said, is that it is the only one on the page marked "unable to get temp" while other cows' temperatures were recorded. It is easy, he said, to get a rectal temperature from a downed cow but hard from a jumpy one.

In addition, he goes on to say this:

The now famous cow, he said, was a white Holstein from the Sunny Dene Ranch in Mabton, Wash.

She was "a good walker," he said. As the driver poked her with a cattle prod, her eyes were "all white, bugging out."

"She wouldn't come down that step," he went on, "and I knew she was fixing to double back in and trample the downers, and that's a mess," so he killed her there.

Mr. Louthan was also the plant's carcass splitter, and he has a warning about that too.

With a 400-pound band saw, he said, splitters cleave the spinal column from neck to tail as hot-water jets blast fat and bone dust off the saw. The slurry, with spinal cord in it, "runs all over the beef," he said. The carcasses are then hosed with hot water and sprayed with vinegar.

Bucky Gwartney, director of research for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, confirmed that most American slaughterhouses do the same. Since the Dec. 31 ruling that all cows older than 30 months must have their brains and spinal cords removed, "processors are actively looking at changes," he said.

I know he could simply be wrong or confused. But given some of the information I've seen about BSE and how the beef industry works, I know that I don't trust the Department of Agriculture regarding what happened on that day.

Riches to Rags: California Schools

For all of those out there who don't know, the public educational system in the Golden State sucks big time. As a state, we now rank 40th in the nation. How did this happen in a course of 25 years?

With the gory details, John Merrow's documentary on CA public education called "From First to Worst" will air this week on local PBS stations in CA. I'm sorry to find that only a handful of PBS stations will be showing this documentary outside of CA. If so, you'll have to settle for the parts of program found online.

Here in Santa Monica, our public schools have a great reputation. But the ugly secret is that if you look more closely, we have really two school systems here, one for the wealthy and one for the not so wealthy. Our wealthier schools, which include those in the Malibu area, benefit from extremely active and savvy parent-run educational foundations pumping money into their particular school. These schools, the parents are proud to say, are literally semi-private public schools. In the not so wealthy areas of Santa Monica, however, working class and immigrant parents struggle with fundraising. The parents don't have the time, the skill set, the connections, the resources. And it shows in the schools and the programs offered.

To partially mitigate this discrepancy, our superintendent, John Deasy, is proposing a controversial plan to require 15% of all privately raised money be thrown into a general fund. Money to different schools will then be doled out using a complicated need-based formula.

Not surprisingly, this has elicited howls of indignation and rage from our wealthier set of parents. It's really divided the community here with questions about fairness, entitlement, and self-responsibility.

For instance, is it fair that the hard earned money of parents in one area of Santa Monica be given to schools who don't do as much fundraising? On the other hand, is it fair that one school provides free whale watching trips and poetry writing sessions to their kindergartners while the school nearby with different demographics runs a more bare-bones program? The questions can be spun in many different ways. I certainly don't have the answers but I think that for our community, continuing this discussion ultimately benefits us all.

Our situation is really a microcosm of what's going on larger scale in CA. Merrow covers other topics as well, including a look at the impact of Prop. 13 and immigration on public education.

For those who wonder why we should worry about public education, Merrow makes a couple of good points. He points out that one out of 8 children in US public education are in California public schools. Peter Schrag, in one interview, notes that what goes in CA will happen in the rest of the nation.

"And I think a lot of other things are at stake, not just the economy. We talked about California as being a harbinger of the future and so on. Certainly our demographics are the direction the whole country is heading. Which is going to be more heavily Latino and Hispanic. And so if we don't succeed here in this, we're in deep trouble.

Finally, from Merrow:

"A strong public education system is essential for a healthy democracy, Merrow said. "Democracy is not instinctive behavior, it's learned behavior," he said. "That's why it's critical that somehow California get back on the path from worst to first."

For those who won't be able to see this program, the PBS website contains quite a bit of information, such as partial transcripts of interviews, and other goodies.
Two reviews: here and here
In Los Angeles, it airs 10PM Thursday night, KCET. Check here for your local schedule.
crossposted at the american street

Making A Difference

Inspiration in two places on the web.

First is Mary Ratclif's gentle reminder about Wellstone, his worldview, and his legacy.

The second is an essay on Clarkson, a British leader of the anti-slavery movement who made such a huge impact on changing public opinion about slavery when slavery was the backbone of the economy. And at the end, is this reminder from the author:

Changing the World
Though born in the age of swords, wigs, and stagecoaches, the British anti-slavery movement leaves us an extraordinary legacy. Every day activists use the tools it helped pioneer: consumer boycotts, newsletters, petitions, political posters and buttons, national campaigns with local committees, and much more. But far more important is the boldness of its vision. Look at the problems that confront the world today: global warming; the vast gap between rich and poor nations; the relentless spread of nuclear weapons; the poisoning of the earth's soil, air, and water; the habit of war. To solve almost any one of these, a realist might say, is surely the work of centuries; to think otherwise is naive. But many a hardheaded realist could – and did – say exactly the same thing to those who first proposed to end slavery. After all, was it not in one form or another woven into the economy of most of the world? Had it not existed for millennia? Was it not older, even, than money and the written word? Surely anyone expecting to change all of that was a dreamer. But the realists turned out to be wrong. "Never doubt," said Margaret Mead, "that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

BSE Tidbit of the Week

Bleifuss points out some rather old information about BSE:

To all indications, and contrary to recent news reports, an American strain of BSE has long been circulating through the food chain. In 1985, a Stentsonville, Wisconsin, mink ranch was wiped out by transmissible mink encephalopathy. The diet of the mink consisted of 5 percent horsemeat and 95 percent “downer cows”—cows so lame they fall down and are unable to get up.

Could one of those downer cows fed to the mink have been infected with an American strain of BSE? In December 1992, the late Richard Marsh, a veterinary scientist at the University of Wisconsin, reported on experiments in Mission, Texas, and Ames, Iowa, where brain matter from scrapie-infected American sheep was injected into the brains of cows. The infected cows developed BSE, but their symptoms differed from the mad cow disease that was plaguing Europe. In May 1993, Marsh told me, “The signs that these cattle showed were not the widely recognized signs of BSE—not signs of mad cow disease. What they showed was what you might expect from a downer cow.” In other words, BSE-infected cattle in Europe went mad before dying, but BSE-infected cows in the United States simply fell down and died. Each year in the United States about 150,000 cattle suffer from downer cow syndrome. Those downer cows that made it out of the pasture alive ended up in the slaughterhouse and into the food chain. Until 1996, when the practice was banned by the USDA, the slaughterhouse remains of at least 14 percent of all cattle, including downer cows, were rendered into protein and fed back to other cows as feed supplements. What’s more, the meat from these tough and old downer cows usually ended up in fast-food hamburgers and other highly processed meat products—that is until the slaughter of downer cows was halted by Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman on December 30, 2003.

As the months go by, I think we'll find more and more evidence that indicates we have a quite a problem on our hands, which makes this my understatement of the day.