David Brooks pens a too funny look at the proposed Liberal Air and it’s counterpart Right Wing Express. The faculty seating arrangements are too funny….
On a more serious note, I recently received an email from County Executive Kathleen Falk regarding non stop air service to and from our local airport. She also attached a note from Brad Livingston, our airport director regarding their current initiatives (non-stop service to and from Atlanta along with potential incentives to increase service).
Tuesday’s Results
Dane County 04/06/2004 spring election results are available here.
Locally, congrats to Ruth Robarts, Shwaw Vang and Johnny Winston, Jr. for their School Board seat victories. None of the races were all that close (although from a spending perspective, Winston & Vang far outspent their opponents while Robarts was substantially outspent by Olson & MTI). Thanks also to Alix Olson, Sam Johnson and Melania Alvarez for taking the time to run.
We do indeed need more discussion about local issues, and this election, with debate on topics such as curriculum, budget, board leadership and PAC/Group spending was useful. Bummer that so few people showed up to vote!
UPDATE: Lee Sensenbrenner summarizes the results here, along with Doug Erickson’s summary of the board races here.
Isthmus School Board Election Thread
Isthmus, Madison’s Weekly, has a somewhat interesting forum running on the School Board Elections.
Kerry On Education
Ron Brownstein summarizes John Kerry’s positions on education reform, then and now, including a discussion of the No Child Left Behind Act.
Sylvia Earle UW Madison Lecture
“Her Deepness”, Sylvia Earle gave a fascinating speech this evening as part of the UW-Madison’s distinguished lecture series. Daily Cardinal article.
Useful Links: The Revolutionaries | Google Search | Teoma | Alltheweb | Yahoo Search
UW Grad Shadid wins Pulitzer
1990 UW Grad & Washington Post foreign correspondent Anthony Shadid won a Pulitzer for international reporting for his coverage of the Iraq war and its uncertain aftermath.
Tuesday’s Election Results Page
Dane County’s election results, including the municipal judge and school board races will be posted here.
MPS: Life & Death of 8-T
Alan Borsuk writes about the demise of Milwaukee Public Schools 8-T program, an initiative “aimed at dealing with a problem that perplexes urban school districts across the United States: what to do with the large number of eighth-graders who are not really ready for high school”.
Extensive research indicates that neither holding students back a grade nor promoting them unprepared fosters achievement,” the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory said in a report summarizing the issue.
So what do you do with such students?
In 1997, the Milwaukee School Board voted to require students to meet a set of proficiency standards before they graduate from middle school in an effort to deal with a “social promotion” problem that made ninth grade, in the words of one MPS administrator, “a parking lot” for hundreds of kids who were doing poorly.
Intel Co-Founder Helps Fund Silicon Valley Charter School
The technology legend and his wife Betty Moore donated $250,000 to the school’s foundation, charter-school supporters announced Saturday during a casino-night fundraiser held at the Fremont Hills Country Club.
Gordon Moore, who is famous for predicting that a computer chip’s power would double every two years, stated in the charter-school foundation’s press release that “Betty and I feel very strongly that competition in educational opportunities results in innovation and significant improvements for all participants.” From Tim Oren
Integration’s Triumphs & Failures after 50 years
The Washington Post Magazine Features a series of articles on integration.
- Barbara Rose Johns is remembered not only as a soldier of civil rights, but also as a role model for her family.
- Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring shows what happens when everyone in the school is a minority.
- In the early 20th century, African American students learned the hard way that seperate was nowhere near equal.
- In 1954, Josie Davenport, Paul Bergeron and their McKinley High School classmates were on the unnerving front line of integration.
- The landmark decision in Brown v. Board is an appropriate moment to consider the implications of low expectations when it comes to African American and Hispanic students.