Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Forum Making Money


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  • It's frustrating this race is getting no attention
    by itsjoanne




  • Agreed
    by RedBeard




  • If you don't want to understand the different
    by Tbone




  • Nice read until I got to the cyrillic font??????? nt
    by pilgrim




  • NRA protects gunowners
    by expatuae




  • Class Act
    by reaganiterepublicanresistance




  • Why?
    by Repair_Man_Jack




  • Gotta say, love the O'Donnell witch ad
    by tngal




  • Athieists Are Very Theological
    by Repair_Man_Jack




  • Me Neither
    by Repair_Man_Jack




  • Just a thought
    by jeanms




  • Some thoughtful connections here
    by civil_truth




  • PPP did a poll of this district for Kos too
    by scarlos




  • Scary
    by Repair_Man_Jack




  • If they get a bailout they are just Pravda
    by Beaglescout




  • Well, I'd say Uncle Charlie needs more minding...
    by acat




  • Kudos to Doug Hoffman
    by rdelbov




  • Reading posts like yours makes me wish...
    by Ron Robinson




  • I agree, but...
    by IronDioPriest




  • If the annual deficit were to go to $0the interest rate spike that you mention would likely be avoided
    by JSobieski




  • Inteligent response...not.
    by rasvar




  • What is the status of Miller/Murkowski?
    by fbks




  • Profound words, Repairman, profound.
    by penguin2




  • Several others who would do well by following your lead Mr. Hoffman.
    by tngal




  • Depends on you define "savings"
    by JSobieski




  • Umm, maybe because they're a lobbying group, and therefore are partisans, of a sort?
    by acat




  • Doug Hoffman is a patriot
    by karenmartin




  • It's a Brave New World out there...
    by harling




  • Neil, I think of it more like...
    by RedBeard




  • So you are against paying down the debt
    by Death_of_the_Donkey




  • She also opposed the make-my-day-better law.
    by NightTwister




  • Remember
    by banzaibob




  • Well Done, Sir!
    by chipbennett




  • No surplusses are surplusses
    by Neil Stevens




  • Nature Naturally Abhors Cities
    by wolfgang




  • We know where the bridges and viaducts are...
    by acat




  • Surplusses are fiction until
    by Death_of_the_Donkey




  • He was a Dem before he became a Repub
    by AnnaD




  • Of course, scotch is something good :) nt
    by JSobieski




  • No we can't all agree on that
    by Neil Stevens







Yesterday during an education forum on NBC’s Today Show, President Obama was asked why his children are going to a prestigious private school while most D.C. schoolchildren remain stuck in a school system that is, at best, sub-par:


President Obama reopened Monday what is often a sore subject in Washington, saying that his daughters could not obtain from D.C. public schools the academic experience they receive at the private Sidwell Friends School.


But the city, accustomed to the mantra that its schools need reform, seemed to view the judgment as self-evident.


Obama made his comments on NBC’s “Today” show in response to a woman who asked whether Malia and Sasha Obama “would get the same kind of education at a D.C. public school” that they would get at the D.C. private school that has educated generations of the city’s elite.


“I’ll be blunt with you: The answer is no, right now,” Obama said. D.C. public schools “are struggling,” he said, but they “have made some important strides over the last several years to move in the direction of reform. There are some terrific individual schools in the D.C. system.”


Even the people in charge of the D.C. schools admit that the President is right:


Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, who recently referred to the primary election loss of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) as “devastating” to the city’s schools, did not publicly object to Obama’s remarks. She has strongly suggested that she might resign rather than work for Fenty’s presumptive successor, D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D).


“In terms of the comment from the president, it is a fair assessment,” Rhee said. “We have indeed seen good progress over the last few years, but we still have a long way to go before we can say we’re providing all children with an excellent education.”


Gray also took no apparent offense. “It would be wonderful to have a president who stood up and said, ‘I’m going to demonstrate my commitment to public education by placing my children in public education in the city,’ but again, you know, we’re all parents at the end of the day, and I’m sure he feels like he and his wife are making the best decision for their children at this juncture,” Gray said.


Now, personally, I have no problem with the fact that the President and his wife chose to send their children to Sidwell Friends rather than a D.C. Public School. Quite honestly, given the choice and the resources, it would be incomprehensible to me for any parent not to choose the superior private school over a public school which not only isn’t up to par, but also may not be safe. The problem is that President Obama apparently thinks that only wealthy people like him should have the opportunity to make that choice:


Most troubling in the Today interview, though, was the President’s failure to even mention school choice - giving parents, not politicians, control of education money — as even a potential means for reforming education.  He did, though, fully embrace his own educational freedom: When asked whether the DC public schools were good enough for his kids, he said no. That’s why they go to private school.


Here’s where we see the injustice of Obama’s  and other like-minded people’s “reform” offerings. Rather than giving real power to the parents and kids public education is supposed to serve, they insist on keeping them subject to the authority of politicians and politically potent special interests. They refuse to let all parents make the same choice the President has made, and they continue to force all Americans to hand huge sums of money over to government schools. Indeed, at the same time the President’s kids were heading off to private school, he was letting die an effective, popular, school-choice program in DC, a program that enabled poor families to make the same kinds of choices the President did.


At the same time that the President’s children were settling into their classes at one of the most prestigious private schools in the D.C. area, the Obama Administration was helping to kill the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, a school choice program that allowed inner city D.C. kids to attend private schools, including the same private school that Barack Obama’s daughters attend. As one parent of a child who was benefiting from this scholarship program asked last year, why, Mr. President ? :



The only question that I have after watching this is —- if the D.C. Public Schools aren’t  good enough for the President’s children, why are they good enough for the Mercedes Campbells of the world ?


H/T: Jason Pye





robert shumake

Android tops among new smartphone purchases | iLounge <b>News</b>

iLounge news discussing the Android tops among new smartphone purchases. Find more iPhone news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.

Exclusive: Sigma and Foveon discuss the forthcoming SD1: Digital <b>...</b>

Exclusive: Sigma and Foveon discuss the forthcoming SD1: One of the few real surprises at Photokina 2010 was Sigma's announcement of its forthcoming SD1 DSLR, and that at its heart would be a new Foveon sensor that would offer 15.4x3MP ...

Why diversity turns into conformity in online <b>news</b>: An interview <b>...</b>

If you talk to any of the number of young academics who occasionally contribute to the Lab, it's likely the name Pablo Boczkowski will come up sooner rather.


robert shumake

Android tops among new smartphone purchases | iLounge <b>News</b>

iLounge news discussing the Android tops among new smartphone purchases. Find more iPhone news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.

Exclusive: Sigma and Foveon discuss the forthcoming SD1: Digital <b>...</b>

Exclusive: Sigma and Foveon discuss the forthcoming SD1: One of the few real surprises at Photokina 2010 was Sigma's announcement of its forthcoming SD1 DSLR, and that at its heart would be a new Foveon sensor that would offer 15.4x3MP ...

Why diversity turns into conformity in online <b>news</b>: An interview <b>...</b>

If you talk to any of the number of young academics who occasionally contribute to the Lab, it's likely the name Pablo Boczkowski will come up sooner rather.



World Class Traffic Jam by joiseyshowaa


robert shumake


















-->




  • It's frustrating this race is getting no attention
    by itsjoanne




  • Agreed
    by RedBeard




  • If you don't want to understand the different
    by Tbone




  • Nice read until I got to the cyrillic font??????? nt
    by pilgrim




  • NRA protects gunowners
    by expatuae




  • Class Act
    by reaganiterepublicanresistance




  • Why?
    by Repair_Man_Jack




  • Gotta say, love the O'Donnell witch ad
    by tngal




  • Athieists Are Very Theological
    by Repair_Man_Jack




  • Me Neither
    by Repair_Man_Jack




  • Just a thought
    by jeanms




  • Some thoughtful connections here
    by civil_truth




  • PPP did a poll of this district for Kos too
    by scarlos




  • Scary
    by Repair_Man_Jack




  • If they get a bailout they are just Pravda
    by Beaglescout




  • Well, I'd say Uncle Charlie needs more minding...
    by acat




  • Kudos to Doug Hoffman
    by rdelbov




  • Reading posts like yours makes me wish...
    by Ron Robinson




  • I agree, but...
    by IronDioPriest




  • If the annual deficit were to go to $0the interest rate spike that you mention would likely be avoided
    by JSobieski




  • Inteligent response...not.
    by rasvar




  • What is the status of Miller/Murkowski?
    by fbks




  • Profound words, Repairman, profound.
    by penguin2




  • Several others who would do well by following your lead Mr. Hoffman.
    by tngal




  • Depends on you define "savings"
    by JSobieski




  • Umm, maybe because they're a lobbying group, and therefore are partisans, of a sort?
    by acat




  • Doug Hoffman is a patriot
    by karenmartin




  • It's a Brave New World out there...
    by harling




  • Neil, I think of it more like...
    by RedBeard




  • So you are against paying down the debt
    by Death_of_the_Donkey




  • She also opposed the make-my-day-better law.
    by NightTwister




  • Remember
    by banzaibob




  • Well Done, Sir!
    by chipbennett




  • No surplusses are surplusses
    by Neil Stevens




  • Nature Naturally Abhors Cities
    by wolfgang




  • We know where the bridges and viaducts are...
    by acat




  • Surplusses are fiction until
    by Death_of_the_Donkey




  • He was a Dem before he became a Repub
    by AnnaD




  • Of course, scotch is something good :) nt
    by JSobieski




  • No we can't all agree on that
    by Neil Stevens







Yesterday during an education forum on NBC’s Today Show, President Obama was asked why his children are going to a prestigious private school while most D.C. schoolchildren remain stuck in a school system that is, at best, sub-par:


President Obama reopened Monday what is often a sore subject in Washington, saying that his daughters could not obtain from D.C. public schools the academic experience they receive at the private Sidwell Friends School.


But the city, accustomed to the mantra that its schools need reform, seemed to view the judgment as self-evident.


Obama made his comments on NBC’s “Today” show in response to a woman who asked whether Malia and Sasha Obama “would get the same kind of education at a D.C. public school” that they would get at the D.C. private school that has educated generations of the city’s elite.


“I’ll be blunt with you: The answer is no, right now,” Obama said. D.C. public schools “are struggling,” he said, but they “have made some important strides over the last several years to move in the direction of reform. There are some terrific individual schools in the D.C. system.”


Even the people in charge of the D.C. schools admit that the President is right:


Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, who recently referred to the primary election loss of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) as “devastating” to the city’s schools, did not publicly object to Obama’s remarks. She has strongly suggested that she might resign rather than work for Fenty’s presumptive successor, D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D).


“In terms of the comment from the president, it is a fair assessment,” Rhee said. “We have indeed seen good progress over the last few years, but we still have a long way to go before we can say we’re providing all children with an excellent education.”


Gray also took no apparent offense. “It would be wonderful to have a president who stood up and said, ‘I’m going to demonstrate my commitment to public education by placing my children in public education in the city,’ but again, you know, we’re all parents at the end of the day, and I’m sure he feels like he and his wife are making the best decision for their children at this juncture,” Gray said.


Now, personally, I have no problem with the fact that the President and his wife chose to send their children to Sidwell Friends rather than a D.C. Public School. Quite honestly, given the choice and the resources, it would be incomprehensible to me for any parent not to choose the superior private school over a public school which not only isn’t up to par, but also may not be safe. The problem is that President Obama apparently thinks that only wealthy people like him should have the opportunity to make that choice:


Most troubling in the Today interview, though, was the President’s failure to even mention school choice - giving parents, not politicians, control of education money — as even a potential means for reforming education.  He did, though, fully embrace his own educational freedom: When asked whether the DC public schools were good enough for his kids, he said no. That’s why they go to private school.


Here’s where we see the injustice of Obama’s  and other like-minded people’s “reform” offerings. Rather than giving real power to the parents and kids public education is supposed to serve, they insist on keeping them subject to the authority of politicians and politically potent special interests. They refuse to let all parents make the same choice the President has made, and they continue to force all Americans to hand huge sums of money over to government schools. Indeed, at the same time the President’s kids were heading off to private school, he was letting die an effective, popular, school-choice program in DC, a program that enabled poor families to make the same kinds of choices the President did.


At the same time that the President’s children were settling into their classes at one of the most prestigious private schools in the D.C. area, the Obama Administration was helping to kill the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, a school choice program that allowed inner city D.C. kids to attend private schools, including the same private school that Barack Obama’s daughters attend. As one parent of a child who was benefiting from this scholarship program asked last year, why, Mr. President ? :



The only question that I have after watching this is —- if the D.C. Public Schools aren’t  good enough for the President’s children, why are they good enough for the Mercedes Campbells of the world ?


H/T: Jason Pye








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