Once upon a time there was something known as waiting until you reach your destination before you notified friends you were safe. Once upon a time not too long ago people merely pulled off the side of the road if they wanted to notify people how things were going. Now you've got morons who aren't paying attention to their driving and end up getting killed.
Get a fucking Bluetooth if it is really necessary to inform friends, although that is about as distracting as actually holding a telephone. Texting while driving, let alone texting to put on a social network like Facebook, is just ridiculous.
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Let's hope this school board exercises some sense about Temp for America.
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It wasn't enough that people like Paul Vallas and his backers including Arne Duncan destroyed the New Orleans school district, now Governor Bobby Jindal is looking at taking the destructive policies statewide:
Gov. Jindal has submitted a legislative proposal that would offer vouchers to more than half the students in the state; vastly expand the number of privately managed charter schools by giving the state board of education the power to create up to 40 new charter authorizing agencies; introduce academic standards and letter grades for pre-schoolers; and end seniority and tenure for teachers.
Under his plan, the local superintendent could immediately fire any teacher—tenured or not—who was rated "ineffective" by the state evaluation program. If the teacher re-applied to teach, she would have to be rated "highly effective" for five years in a row to regain tenure. Tenure, needless to say, becomes a meaningless term, since due process no longer is required for termination.
The bill is as punitive as possible with respect to public education and teachers. It says nothing about helping to improve or support them. It's all about enabling students to leave public schools and creating the tools to intimidate and fire teachers. This "reform" is not conservative. I would say it is radical and reactionary. But it is in no way unique to Louisiana.
What a "winner" John White is:
John White was selected by Jindal to lead the state after Jindal took control of the state board of education last fall. John White had led the New Orleans Recovery School District for only a few months when he was chosen to run the state. He is a former Teach for America teacher and a graduate of the Broad Superintendents Academy. Much of his time in New York City was spent closing public schools and replacing them with charter schools, the so-called portfolio approach (like the stock market, where you keep the winners and sell the losers). He had nothing to do with academic matters, with curriculum or instruction. So he is well-suited to what Bobby Jindal is trying to accomplish in Louisiana. By the way, it won't surprise you to learn that Arne Duncan applauded Jindal's appointment of White as state superintendent and called White a "visionary leader." I guess, in Duncan's worldview, a "visionary leader" is someone willing to shut down public schools no matter what the parents and local community say.
As I said, the real battle in education is between those who see teaching as a profession and those who don't, and those who don't are winning.
You can thank widespread apathy among the public for that.
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