Only 6 percent of all school districts in the country significantly outperform students in the developed world on math tests, according to “When the Best Is Mediocre,” a new report from the journal Education Next. Even students who attend ritzy school districts that are considered high-performing wouldn’t hold muster in a global mathalon, the report
Continue reading …Consumers reduced their spending on most goods and services last year, as incomes dipped. But spending in two areas bucked the trend, according to a new report. “Consumer groups” — essentially, families or single people–spent $48,109 on average last year–a drop of 2 percent from 2009, a Labor Department study found (pdf). Behind the decrease
Continue reading …Ninety-one-year-old retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens told Bloomberg News that he thinks President Obama’s health care law will pass constitutional muster. He referenced a 2005 Supreme Court decision that held the federal government could outlaw state-sanctioned medical marijuana even if the substance didn’t cross state lines, which was based on a broad interpretation
Continue reading …Ninety-one-year-old retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens told Bloomberg News that he thinks President Obama’s health care law will pass constitutional muster. He referenced a 2005 Supreme Court decision that held the federal government could outlaw state-sanctioned medical marijuana even if the substance didn’t cross state lines, which was based on a broad interpretation
Continue reading …Is the downturn redrawing the economic map of the United States? When the recession began in late 2007, the south and the Sun Belt regions were booming. But today, as the New York Times notes, states in those regions have some of the highest rates of joblessness in the country. Nevada and California, lead the
Continue reading …Is the downturn redrawing the economic map of the United States? When the recession began in late 2007, the south and the Sun Belt regions were booming. But today, as the New York Times notes, states in those regions have some of the highest rates of joblessness in the country. Nevada and California, lead the
Continue reading …Advocates for the unemployed have cheered a push by the Obama administration to ban discrimination against the jobless. But business groups and their allies are calling the effort unnecessary and counterproductive. The job creation bill that President Obama sent to Congress earlier this month includes a provision that would allow unsuccessful job applicants to sue
Continue reading …The New York City police officer who activists say pepper-sprayed women during anti-Wall-Street protests Saturday is also being sued in connection with an incident during the 2004 demonstrations against the Republican National Convention. The video above, posted on Youtube, appears to show a white-shirted officer spraying a substance into the faces of two noisy but
Continue reading …The parents of teen Jamey Rodemeyer spoke out against bullying on the Today Show Tuesday. Jamey Rodemeyer died by suicide earlier this month, after posting a number of video diary entries online recounting how his high school classmates had relentlessly bullied him for being gay. His parents, Tracy and Timothy, said that some kids who
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