It was a silent call to arms: an easy-to-overlook message urging New Jersey students to take a stand against the budget cuts that threaten class sizes and choices as well as after-school activities. But some 18,000 students accepted the invitation posted last month on Facebook, the social media site better known for publicizing parties and sporting events. And on Tuesday many of them — and many others — walked out of class in one of the largest grass-roots demonstrations to hit New Jersey in years.(Link)
Newark students walk out of school, take City Hall
“Decisions by the board — made up of lawyers, a dentist and a weekly newspaper publisher among others — can affect textbook content nationwide because Texas is one of publishers’ biggest clients.”
So what should concern other states is that because Texas is one of the biggest markets, it’s thought that textbook publishers will follow Texan standards. As Texas goes, so goes the nation?
So is the decentralized educational system of the U.S. to blame? Or the private textbook publishers? What can other states do besides relying on teachers to ensure that all topics are covered, and covered fairly?
Another note not covered in this particular article, the Texas Board of Ed removed discussions over the difference between sex and gender from sociology texts, claiming it would be ‘inappropriate’ for high school students. Really.
It kind of amazes me that guests in Lehigh dorms aren’t required to sign in at the entrances. At Rutgers you were required to be signed in by a resident with the front desk worker during certain hours, and you had to have an ID on you. Granted this is not a fool proof system, but it appears there’s nothing at all here. Aside from having a record of who is in the building when, it can help deter lesser incidents by visitors if they know they could be held accountable. Even with that kind of precaution, there was still an incident at my sister’s dorm at Rutgers where a man had been sleeping in the lounge, apparently waiting for an opportune moment to assault a woman. I can’t verify this story, but even at my time there someone in my dorm was threatened by an intruder in the building. I don’t know if there have been any incidents here recently, but it is something that concerns me, probably because I’m here over spring break in a very empty dorm. Walking around in the quiet halls is not the most comfortable feeling. Walk up to a dorm entrance behind any resident and they will, out of courtesy, hold the door for you. Residential services FAQs assures residents that the only people that have access to the dorm are other residents, residential services, and maintenance, but in reality that’s not really the case, is it?
Bilingual Charter School opening in Bethlehem which will have a tie in to Lehigh’s globalization program. Personally I think it’s a great idea, the best way to learn a language is to start young and practice continually. Both Spanish mother tongue and English mother tongue students can/will benefit from being taught in a bilingual environment. Unfortuantely attitudes like this aren’t unusual: ” one student who wished that his name be withheld said, “I wouldn’t send my kids there. My ancestors came to this country not knowing English; they had to learn English to get citizenship and make money. I think [they] would be rolling over in their graves if they knew that American tax dollars were teaching kids any other language but English.” ”
The Comparative & International Education Society is holding its 54th annual national conference in Chicago this week. Representatives from various universities and institutes are in attendance and sharing their thoughts on ReImagining Education.
For those of you that utilize Twitter — we encourage you to follow our updates at #CIES2010. Attendees are live tweeting using this hash tag, which allows individuals to follow our progress throughout the week.
Even if you do not use Twitter, you can still follow the “conversation” by going to http://twitter.com/ and typing #CIES2010 into the search column. Once the search is complete you will be able to see what all has been said by everyone “tweeting” the conference.
From 2001 until 2008: Republicans use reconciliation to pass controversial legislation. Democrats use the filibuster and threats of a filibuster to further their agenda. Both sides accuse each other of abusing quirks in the Senate’s rules to subvert democracy.
From 2009 until until today: Democrats threaten to use reconciliation to pass controversial legislation. Republicans threaten to filibuster to further their agenda. Both sides accuse each other of abusing quirks in the Senate’s rules to subvert democracy.
See Lehigh’s efforts on fundraising for Haiti here.
Lule has been studying news coverage of Haiti for more than a decade and notes that social media may be the ticket to overcome “the restless spotlight” which switches to the next disaster before the first is a few days old.
For me this hearkens back to the recent revolt in Iran, when the government tried to shut down all outside contact and yet tweets and texts still broke through. Does social media bring hope as Lule suggests? Will it serve to illuminate what the mainstream media is leaving out?
The Citizens Uniteddecision has opened the floodgate for future campaign contributions. Below is a discussion between Bill Moyer and Jeffery Toobin about the recent Supreme Court ruling. The gist of the conversation centers on the probability of corporations putting money and energy into smaller, hidden campaigns—not nationally televised presidential, or even Congressional, campaigns. Toobin is insistent that local judicial campaigns will see the greatest increase in campaign contributions from corporations.
(Remember, there is a long history of corporations injecting money into judicial campaigns for particular candidates because of specific interests—because of the belief that judges will rule differently for those who helped in a campaign. It is naïve to think corporations have no vested interest in certain candidates holding power in the congressional, legislative, and judicial systems in our country. For instance, in his 1996 race for Texas Supreme Court, Tom Phillips raised $1.3 million, 43 percent of which came from parties with Supreme Court Cases. Talk about conflicting interests!)
After reading this New York Times magazine article about the controversial and all too powerful Texas Board of Education, I wonder if campaign contributions will increase not only for judges but also for state boards of education like the one in Texas. One of the most telling quotes from the article shows how conscious special interest groups are when it comes to local politics: “[Pat] Robertson’s protégé, Ralph Reed, once said, ‘I would rather have a thousand school-board members than one president and no school-board members’”
The increase of campaign contributions to state boards of education candidates around this country because of Citizens United is a real possibility, and one that might be even more “under the radar” than the judicial campaigns. In fact, it is already happening. Local boards of education and local judges can have far greater power in altering how we think about education and law respectively than any Senator or Congress member.
