Ladies, are you feeling bad about those extra five pounds? This might just make you feel worse. (Sorry!) According to a study in the Journal of Applied Psychology, women who are “very thin” earn nearly $22,000 more than their “average weight counterparts.” The study was conducted by Timothy A. Judge from the University of Florida
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All-out assault on residents of Jisr al-Shughour feared after uprising against security forces The Syrian town of Jisr al-Shughour was besieged by columns of government tanks on Tuesday night as the army massed for what is feared will be an all-out assault on residents it claims killed more than 120 security force members over the weekend. By nightfall most inhabitants had fled to nearby Turkey before the expected sharp escalation in a three-month uprising that has pitched largely unarmed demonstrators against a regime using increasingly lethal force to suppress the gravest threat to its four-decade rule. Jisr al-Shughour, a town of 41,000 people, was largely abandoned. The hospital stood empty and the intelligence headquarters, which had been the scene of an uprising on Sunday, was now a looted and empty shell, according to three men who had stayed behind. Human rights activists in Damascus said 59 civilians had been confirmed killed. However they feared the final number was likely to be more than 100. The prospect of the imminent operation has stirred the ghosts of an infamous assault on the town of Hama 29 years ago, in which tens of thousands of residents were killed by the former president Hafez al-Assad after they launched a failed challenge to his authority. Assad’s son, President Bashar al-Assad, is now facing a more serious threat, with sustained protests in many Syrian towns and cities that are steadily eroding the iron-clad rule of the Assad dynasty. The siege of Jisr al-Shughour appears to mark a turning point in the popular rebellion, inspired by revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia. The Syrian information minister, Mohammed al-Shaar, insisted on Monday night that residents had taken up arms and turned on security forces. Exactly what happened is not yet clear, but anecdotal evidence emerging from the town suggested that armed clashes did take place. One witness told the Guardian that some officers from the security headquarters had switched allegiances and were shot by loyalists from inside the building. “They were killing the defecting officers,” said one local speaking by telephone. “The people came to defend them and then they had to defend themselves. There was a battle.” Another man, who did not want to be identified, also said that some officers had switched sides. The Syrian government refused to acknowledge that any mutiny had occurred. However, it did concede that forces inside the town had “lost control for intermittent periods”. Another government official confirmed that some government weapons were now in the hands of residents. The haul included five tonnes of dynamite, the information ministry spokesman Reem Haddad told the BBC. Shaar said the military would “not stay silent” and a move to retake the town was expected before daybreak. “The army will carry out their national duty to restore order,” he said. Authorities in Turkey said it had received several hundred refugees who had crossed the border, many of whom had wounds. Several thousand more villagers are thought to have fled south towards Aleppo and east into farmlands. It is not known how many residents have stayed behind. “I know that people are waiting for the army,” said one Syrian exile in London. “I have spoken to people there today and they are preparing to fight them.” If claims of an armed rebellion are proven, it would mark the first time that citizens had taken up weapons in large numbers. Protests have been taking place at least weekly in many cities, including the capital, Damascus. Human rights groups claim that more than 1,000 people have been killed, nearly all of them demonstrators campaigning for widespread democratic reforms. Weekly death tolls have risen sharply over the past fortnight, placing growing pressure on Assad. Damascus has been anxious to cast the uprising as a series of clashes with armed gangs who are backed by foreign powers aiming to topple the government. The US has imposed sanctions on Assad and members of his inner circle and there are increasing signs that Europe has lost a one-time belief that Assad is a reformer constrained by the society he rules. The UN has stopped short of imposing on Syria the same sort of security resolutions as those directed at Libya and has ruled out military intervention, and Russia has indicated it would veto any UN attempt to increase the pressure on its long-term ally. Analysts in Damascus said they feared the government was willing to push the country into a violent struggle as it tried to cling to power. Their view was backed by diplomats in Beirut, who said regime figures were likely to further destabilise neighbouring Lebanon if pressure on them continued to mount. Israel has accused Damascus of orchestrating protests in the Golan Heights along the ceasefire line between both countries to create a diversion from its domestic troubles. The uprising broke out in mid-March, initially calling for reforms but escalating into demands for the toppling of the regime after a series of brutal crackdowns that spread to most major towns and cities in the country. “Our line is that protesters either go out peacefully, or they don’t go out at all,” said one religious man in Damascus who is supporting the protests. • Nidaa Hassan is a pseudonym for a journalist in Damascus Syria Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest Turkey Martin Chulov guardian.co.uk
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CPS opens inquiry after claims prosecutors withheld undercover police officer’s surveillance tapes from defence lawyers Prosecutors have been accused of suppressing surveillance tapes covertly recorded by the undercover police officer Mark Kennedy, the Guardian can reveal. Leaked documents indicate the Crown Prosecution Service may also have misled the public and even the courts when the trial of six environmental campaigners accused of planning to break into Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in Nottinghamshire collapsed earlier this year. Two days before it was due to commence, the trial was abandoned by the CPS, which told the court that “previously unavailable information” had come to light that undermined its case against the activists. However, the supposedly new evidence – the Kennedy tapes – had in fact been in the possession of the CPS for more than a year. Prosecutors had taken part in a number of high-level meetings with police about Kennedy’s potentially explosive surveillance tapes, but withheld them from defence lawyers. Confidential correspondence between senior police and prosecutors suggests officers told the CPS about Kennedy’s deployment from the outset. The police say they handed over a transcript of his secret recording to Ian Cunningham, a senior CPS prosecutor, within weeks of the raid. The CPS confirmed on Tuesday it had opened a “full and formal” inquiry, led by deputy chief crown prosecutor, Chris Enzor, into allegations made by senior police officers who have concerns about how prosecutors managed the case. “All the public statements made by the Crown Prosecution Service about this case have been made based on the information that was available at the time. “It would be wrong to anticipate the outcome of Mr Enzor’s formal inquiry. The original police investigation took at least two years and generated thousands of pages of evidence. Mr Enzor has no previous knowledge of this case and his thorough review of the evidence is, therefore, likely to take some time.” Enzor’s inquiry was described by Cunningham as a potential “disciplinary” investigation. It is the fifth formal investigations launched in response to the Guardian’s ongoing investigation into the multimillion-pound operation to plant police spies in the protest movement. Senior police officers have privately accused the CPS of failing to cooperate with at least one other inquiry into the Kennedy affair, which is being conducted by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). The six activists were among more than a hundred spied on by Kennedy, a Metropolitan police officer who had been living deep undercover in the protest movement. Kennedy was gathering evidence to be used to prosecute the activists, who police suspected of planning to break into Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station two years ago. However, the deployment backfired when conversations covertly recorded by Kennedy provided evidence likely to exonerate rather than incriminate the six activists. Kennedy speculated earlier this year that the tapes may have been withheld by his handlers at the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU). The new evidence suggests it was down to the CPS. Most of the activists were released without charge, but the CPS brought proceedings against 26 campaigners on charges of conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass. Twenty defendants, known as the “justifiers” because they conceded they planned to break into the plant but said their actions were defensible to avert climate change, were convicted in December last year. But the six so-called “deniers” who said they did not agree to join the protest, faced a trial in January 2010. That trial collapsed after defence lawyers discovered independently the protesters had been infiltrated by Kennedy. The “justifiers” are now seeking to overturn their guilty verdicts at the court of appeal, after the director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer, said evidence relating to Kennedy’s deployment that was not disclosed at their trial may mean their convictions were unsafe. Mike Schwarz, of Bindmans, the lawyer for all 26 activists, said he hoped the court of appeal case would examine any failure to disclose the Kennedy tapes.
Continue reading …Herman ” I don’t snuff my own seed ” Cain continues to say really outrageous things. In recent weeks Cain has surged ahead in the polls, and today he was back in the Hawkeye State for several events with the anti-gay conservative group The Family Leader. During a question and answer session in Pella, Iowa, this afternoon, ThinkProgress asked Cain if he would be opposed to appointing a qualified gay person to serve in his cabinet. Cain said he would have no problem appointing someone who was openly gay, then immediately refreshed his anti-Muslim rhetoric. Leaning in conspiratorially, Cain explained gay appointees are “not going to try to put sharia laws in our laws,” before laughing. TP: Mr. Cain, you recently came under fire for your comments about the kind of people you would appoint to your cabinet. Would you be opposed to appointing an openly gay but qualified person to be in your cabinet? CAIN: Nope, not at all. I wouldn’t have a problem with that at all. I just want people who are qualified, I want them to believe in the Constitution of the United States of America. So yep, I don’t have a problem with appointing an openly gay person. Because they’re not going to try to put sharia law in our laws. Yea, there’s a big push to impose Sharia law going on in America right now so we all must make sure we weed out those Sharia lovers and at least we can count on the gays for that much. So far he’s staying away from giving history lessons, but how long can that last?
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Army document is only written statement detailing Hitler’s wish for systematic removal of Jews from Germany A document understood to be the only existing written statement by Adolf Hitler in which he set out his belief in a systematic removal of Jews from society has been acquired by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Los Angeles. The four-page letter, typewritten on faded brown paper and bearing Hitler’s signature, was shown in public for the first time in New York, in what is likely to be seen as a key artefact in the historical record of the Holocaust. It will go on display at the centre’s Tolerance Museum in Los Angeles. The centre’s founder, Rabbi Marvin Hier, said it was one of the most important documents of the period, showing the development of Hitler’s antisemitic thought, and proved he had in mind a governmental solution to the so-called “Jewish Question”. “This is the most important item we have in an archive of more than 50,000 objects,” Hier said, adding that it would be used to educate future generations and to counter Holocaust denial. Though Hitler alluded to his plans to exterminate Jewish people in speeches and indirectly through his closest henchmen, his thoughts on the subject can be found nowhere else committed to paper. Such is the prevalence of fraud in Hitler memorabilia that some experts remain to be convinced of the document’s authenticity. But the Wiesenthal Centre said it had authenticated the letter. Long known by historians of the Third Reich as “the Gemlich letter”, the original signed copy has never before been seen in public. An unsigned copy exists in the state archives in Munich. Hitler wrote the letter in Munich on 16 September 1919. Then aged 30, he was as yet unknown but was starting to show interest in politics. Shortly before writing the letter he attended a meeting of the German Workers’ party, which later he took over and converted into the National Socialist German Workers’ party. At the time he was in a propaganda unit of the German army that tried to counter Bolshevik influences among soldiers returning from the Russian front at the end of the first world war. His commanding officer, Captain Karl Mayr, told Hitler to respond to an inquiry from one Adolf Gemlich, who wanted to know the army’s position on the “Jewish Question”. In his reply, Hitler spouted an antisemitic diatribe, in which he said Jews were “pure materialists in thought and aspirations” and that their effect was “racial tuberculosis on the nation”. Crucially, he went on to set out his vision for a calculated antisemitism that would operate through strong governments rather than the emotion of the people. Emotional antisemitism, he wrote, merely ended in pogroms. “The antisemitism of reason must lead to a struggle for the legal battle to abrogate laws giving [Jews] favoured positions, differentiating the Jew from other foreigners. The final goal must be the uncompromising removal of Jews altogether. To accomplish these goals, only a government of national power is capable, and never a government of national weakness.” The signed letter was bought by the centre for $150,000 from a trader in historical artefacts. It was said to have been obtained by an American soldier in 1945 from a Nazi archive near Nuremberg and was held privately until now. The centre had a chance to buy it in 1988 but was doubtful about its provenance, particularly the fact that it was composed on a typewriter – a rare and expensive object Hitler could personally not have afforded in 1919. Hier said their doubts had been assuaged when they realised that Hitler was working for the army and would have had access to its typewriters. Adolf Hitler Holocaust Judaism Second world war Germany United States Ed Pilkington guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Army document is only written statement detailing Hitler’s wish for systematic removal of Jews from Germany A document understood to be the only existing written statement by Adolf Hitler in which he set out his belief in a systematic removal of Jews from society has been acquired by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Los Angeles. The four-page letter, typewritten on faded brown paper and bearing Hitler’s signature, was shown in public for the first time in New York, in what is likely to be seen as a key artefact in the historical record of the Holocaust. It will go on display at the centre’s Tolerance Museum in Los Angeles. The centre’s founder, Rabbi Marvin Hier, said it was one of the most important documents of the period, showing the development of Hitler’s antisemitic thought, and proved he had in mind a governmental solution to the so-called “Jewish Question”. “This is the most important item we have in an archive of more than 50,000 objects,” Hier said, adding that it would be used to educate future generations and to counter Holocaust denial. Though Hitler alluded to his plans to exterminate Jewish people in speeches and indirectly through his closest henchmen, his thoughts on the subject can be found nowhere else committed to paper. Such is the prevalence of fraud in Hitler memorabilia that some experts remain to be convinced of the document’s authenticity. But the Wiesenthal Centre said it had authenticated the letter. Long known by historians of the Third Reich as “the Gemlich letter”, the original signed copy has never before been seen in public. An unsigned copy exists in the state archives in Munich. Hitler wrote the letter in Munich on 16 September 1919. Then aged 30, he was as yet unknown but was starting to show interest in politics. Shortly before writing the letter he attended a meeting of the German Workers’ party, which later he took over and converted into the National Socialist German Workers’ party. At the time he was in a propaganda unit of the German army that tried to counter Bolshevik influences among soldiers returning from the Russian front at the end of the first world war. His commanding officer, Captain Karl Mayr, told Hitler to respond to an inquiry from one Adolf Gemlich, who wanted to know the army’s position on the “Jewish Question”. In his reply, Hitler spouted an antisemitic diatribe, in which he said Jews were “pure materialists in thought and aspirations” and that their effect was “racial tuberculosis on the nation”. Crucially, he went on to set out his vision for a calculated antisemitism that would operate through strong governments rather than the emotion of the people. Emotional antisemitism, he wrote, merely ended in pogroms. “The antisemitism of reason must lead to a struggle for the legal battle to abrogate laws giving [Jews] favoured positions, differentiating the Jew from other foreigners. The final goal must be the uncompromising removal of Jews altogether. To accomplish these goals, only a government of national power is capable, and never a government of national weakness.” The signed letter was bought by the centre for $150,000 from a trader in historical artefacts. It was said to have been obtained by an American soldier in 1945 from a Nazi archive near Nuremberg and was held privately until now. The centre had a chance to buy it in 1988 but was doubtful about its provenance, particularly the fact that it was composed on a typewriter – a rare and expensive object Hitler could personally not have afforded in 1919. Hier said their doubts had been assuaged when they realised that Hitler was working for the army and would have had access to its typewriters. Adolf Hitler Holocaust Judaism Second world war Germany United States Ed Pilkington guardian.co.uk
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Legislative body reaches near-unanimous vote of no confidence in policies of universities minister, David Willetts Oxford university has formally declared it has “no confidence” in the policies of the universities minister, David Willetts, the first sign of a concerted academic backlash against the government’s higher education reforms. Lecturers passed a motion opposing the coalition’s policies by 283 votes to five at a meeting of the Congregation, Oxford’s legislative body. The university is the first to take a public stand against the raising of tuition fees and slashing of the teaching grant, but the rebellion is spreading. Cambridge is expected to announce a date for a “no confidence” vote on Monday, while a petition against the government is gathering force at Warwick University. It is the first time a vote of no confidence in a minister has been passed by an English university, and follows a no- confidence vote by the Royal College of Nursing in the health secretary Andrew Lansley’s handling of NHS reforms. The message of “no confidence” will be transmitted to the government by Oxford University’s council, its governing body. Robert Gildea, the Oxford historian who proposed the motion, described the coalition’s reforms as “reckless, incoherent and incompetent”. He warned that proposals to introduce “off quota” student places, funded privately rather than through state-backed loans, and AC Grayling’s plan for a new private university heralded the arrival of a “two-track” admissions system. In a two and a half hour debate, he told fellow academics: “It’s a red carpet for the rich and even more competition for everyone else. We will be back to Brideshead.” The debate had added resonance on the day an influential committee of MPs published a report warning that student numbers might have to be cut to meet the soaring cost of student loans, after ministers underestimated how many universities would charge the maximum fee. Figures compiled by the Guardian show that 105 universities have declared their fee for next year, with an average of £8,765. Karma Nabulsi, a lecturer in international relations who seconded the motion, urged the academics not to consider the motion as a negative statement, “but as an affirmation of who we are and the traditions we wish to observe”. She said: “Oxford is committed above all to the pursuit of academic excellence in all its forms, a defence of academic disciplines without regard for market values, and the idea of education as a comprehensive, publicly funded activity accessible to the widest number of young people.” One of the few academics to lend support to the government was Susan Cooper, a physicist and fellow of St Catherine’s college, who argued that the market in tuition fees needed a few years to develop. She said: “The difference between [an average tuition fee of] £7,500 and £9,000 is not a financial disaster on the scale of the banking crisis. Having embarked on the experiment, I’d like to see it through.” After the vote, which was greeted with cheers from academics gathered in the university’s Sheldonian Theatre, Gildea said he hoped it would have a “rousing effect” on other universities and put pressure on the government to think again. He said: “This government comes across as ideologically driven, but actually it is weak and divided. They are weaker than they think they are and we are more powerful than we think we are. After all, they have to win the next election. If they restored the direct funding [for teaching arts and the humanities] that existed before the cuts, which would keep students fees where they were, about £3,000 a year, that would just solve a whole raft of problems.” David Barclay, president of the students’ union, who addressed the lecturers on behalf of students, said after the vote: “Whatever the pressure from the outside world, we are an institution living by our values. We are the first university to take public leadership in opposition to the government.” The government defended the new fees regime and the decision to cut direct state funding for teaching, saying the reforms “put students in the driving seat”. Acknowledging the public snub, a spokesman for the department for Business, Innovation and Skills said: “Universities have always been bastions of free speech and debate. However, our student and university finance reforms are fairer than the present system and affordable for the nation.”Gareth Thomas, Labour’s universities spokesman, said: “This is a devastating and unprecedented vote, with Oxford academics confirming what a series of independent experts and the Public Accounts Committee have already made clear; that 80% cuts, trebling tuition fees and cuts to research facilities are unfair, unnecessary and unsustainable. “David Cameron and George Osborne should not be surprised by this vote. It is their economic policy and the demand for cuts in higher education, far higher than in any other area of the public sector, which has caused this debacle.” University of Oxford Higher education Tuition fees David Willetts Education policy Conservatives Liberal-Conservative coalition Liberal Democrats Jeevan Vasagar guardian.co.uk
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Legislative body reaches near-unanimous vote of no confidence in policies of universities minister, David Willetts Oxford university has formally declared it has “no confidence” in the policies of the universities minister, David Willetts, the first sign of a concerted academic backlash against the government’s higher education reforms. Lecturers passed a motion opposing the coalition’s policies by 283 votes to five at a meeting of the Congregation, Oxford’s legislative body. The university is the first to take a public stand against the raising of tuition fees and slashing of the teaching grant, but the rebellion is spreading. Cambridge is expected to announce a date for a “no confidence” vote on Monday, while a petition against the government is gathering force at Warwick University. It is the first time a vote of no confidence in a minister has been passed by an English university, and follows a no- confidence vote by the Royal College of Nursing in the health secretary Andrew Lansley’s handling of NHS reforms. The message of “no confidence” will be transmitted to the government by Oxford University’s council, its governing body. Robert Gildea, the Oxford historian who proposed the motion, described the coalition’s reforms as “reckless, incoherent and incompetent”. He warned that proposals to introduce “off quota” student places, funded privately rather than through state-backed loans, and AC Grayling’s plan for a new private university heralded the arrival of a “two-track” admissions system. In a two and a half hour debate, he told fellow academics: “It’s a red carpet for the rich and even more competition for everyone else. We will be back to Brideshead.” The debate had added resonance on the day an influential committee of MPs published a report warning that student numbers might have to be cut to meet the soaring cost of student loans, after ministers underestimated how many universities would charge the maximum fee. Figures compiled by the Guardian show that 105 universities have declared their fee for next year, with an average of £8,765. Karma Nabulsi, a lecturer in international relations who seconded the motion, urged the academics not to consider the motion as a negative statement, “but as an affirmation of who we are and the traditions we wish to observe”. She said: “Oxford is committed above all to the pursuit of academic excellence in all its forms, a defence of academic disciplines without regard for market values, and the idea of education as a comprehensive, publicly funded activity accessible to the widest number of young people.” One of the few academics to lend support to the government was Susan Cooper, a physicist and fellow of St Catherine’s college, who argued that the market in tuition fees needed a few years to develop. She said: “The difference between [an average tuition fee of] £7,500 and £9,000 is not a financial disaster on the scale of the banking crisis. Having embarked on the experiment, I’d like to see it through.” After the vote, which was greeted with cheers from academics gathered in the university’s Sheldonian Theatre, Gildea said he hoped it would have a “rousing effect” on other universities and put pressure on the government to think again. He said: “This government comes across as ideologically driven, but actually it is weak and divided. They are weaker than they think they are and we are more powerful than we think we are. After all, they have to win the next election. If they restored the direct funding [for teaching arts and the humanities] that existed before the cuts, which would keep students fees where they were, about £3,000 a year, that would just solve a whole raft of problems.” David Barclay, president of the students’ union, who addressed the lecturers on behalf of students, said after the vote: “Whatever the pressure from the outside world, we are an institution living by our values. We are the first university to take public leadership in opposition to the government.” The government defended the new fees regime and the decision to cut direct state funding for teaching, saying the reforms “put students in the driving seat”. Acknowledging the public snub, a spokesman for the department for Business, Innovation and Skills said: “Universities have always been bastions of free speech and debate. However, our student and university finance reforms are fairer than the present system and affordable for the nation.”Gareth Thomas, Labour’s universities spokesman, said: “This is a devastating and unprecedented vote, with Oxford academics confirming what a series of independent experts and the Public Accounts Committee have already made clear; that 80% cuts, trebling tuition fees and cuts to research facilities are unfair, unnecessary and unsustainable. “David Cameron and George Osborne should not be surprised by this vote. It is their economic policy and the demand for cuts in higher education, far higher than in any other area of the public sector, which has caused this debacle.” University of Oxford Higher education Tuition fees David Willetts Education policy Conservatives Liberal-Conservative coalition Liberal Democrats Jeevan Vasagar guardian.co.uk
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So Michelle Rhee hired Hari Sevugan away from the DNC to join her right-wing-in-liberal-clothing organization known as StudentsFirst. Presumably, Hari will rehabilitate the StudentsFirst image which has become irrevocably tainted with the stench of right-wing public school destruction. Hmmm. This comes on the heels of Rhee’s huddle with Rick Scott before he gutted Florida’s public education system, her public support for Scott Walker’s plan to limit teachers’ bargaining rights (see video), lobbying on behalf of Ohio’s SB5 , a special appearance with Governor Kasich to screen Waiting for Superman , and her cozy support for Chris Christie’s school-gutting ways. Michelle Rhee claims to be all about teacher performance, but she’s really much, much more than that. She advocated for school vouchers in Indiana in concert with Governor Mitch Daniels. Oh, and I can’t forget her little dance with Bill Frist in Tennessee, where public school teachers are also in danger of losing their bargaining rights, thanks to her advocacy. And lest we forget, there’s always the Washington, DC cheating suspicions , and her special award from Betsy DeVos , where she once again appeared in lockstep with Governor Scott Walker. About those vouchers. Let’s see how many kinds of evil they truly are. Here is Florida’s voucher program in all its glory. For the low, low price of $399 and 8 days’ work, a diploma. enlarge Eight days and $399 in cash later, at the school’s Doral “campus” — a cramped third-floor office next door to US Lubricant LLC and across the hall from a hair extensions company — I was grinning widely, accepting a framed diploma and an official transcript sporting a 3.41 GPA. The degree is accepted at, among other local institutions of higher education, Miami Dade College. And it came blissfully free of that pesky annoyance suffered by thousands of local students graduating from high school this month: education. At InterAmerican Christian Academy , my new alma mater, to earn a diploma you need only to pass five very brief and easy take-home tests. Because I can’t be bothered with such things, I distributed them to local kids ages 8 to 13 to complete. Then I copied their answers. Interamerican Christian Academy is not subject to the NCLB requirements that public schools are. According to its about page, it’s a private correspondence school. They toss up a boilerplate “Christian ideals” page to keep it in the realm of religious schools, and then accept state vouchers to teach students absolutely nothing, but hand out diplomas like they’re candy. I did a podcast last week with the MOMocrats and Rachel Tabachnik where I learned that Christian schools even have their own custom-tailored Stanford Achievement Tests done which test students on “facts” as determined by Christian curriculum writers. Go read her whole post here. It’s footnoted and documented with actual facts, as opposed to the emotion-ridden pablum Rhee peddles about ‘failing schools and the like’. ThinkProgress : As Garcia-Roberts concludes, “ There’s no telling how many of Florida’s 1,713 private schools — which educate a third of a million students — are run like InterAmerican. Even as Gov. Rick Scott leads a charge to privatize education on a historic scale, our state’s private schools are among the least regulated in the nation. ” Indeed, Florida currently leads the country in “school choice” programs that include tax credits for private schools, voucher programs, and privately managed charter schools. The case of InterAmerican Christian Academy provides a cautionary tale about some of the pitfalls of the proliferation of lightly-regulated or unregulated private schools. Michelle Rhee has done more harm to teachers, public education, and students in the past two years than Republicans have in the last ten, largely because she claims to be “liberal” and “on the side of students.” Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that she’s on the side of anyone but herself and for-profit education organizations, and it’s really too bad that anyone from the DNC would join up with her to try and fool even more people about her true mission.
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So Michelle Rhee hired Hari Sevugan away from the DNC to join her right-wing-in-liberal-clothing organization known as StudentsFirst. Presumably, Hari will rehabilitate the StudentsFirst image which has become irrevocably tainted with the stench of right-wing public school destruction. Hmmm. This comes on the heels of Rhee’s huddle with Rick Scott before he gutted Florida’s public education system, her public support for Scott Walker’s plan to limit teachers’ bargaining rights (see video), lobbying on behalf of Ohio’s SB5 , a special appearance with Governor Kasich to screen Waiting for Superman , and her cozy support for Chris Christie’s school-gutting ways. Michelle Rhee claims to be all about teacher performance, but she’s really much, much more than that. She advocated for school vouchers in Indiana in concert with Governor Mitch Daniels. Oh, and I can’t forget her little dance with Bill Frist in Tennessee, where public school teachers are also in danger of losing their bargaining rights, thanks to her advocacy. And lest we forget, there’s always the Washington, DC cheating suspicions , and her special award from Betsy DeVos , where she once again appeared in lockstep with Governor Scott Walker. About those vouchers. Let’s see how many kinds of evil they truly are. Here is Florida’s voucher program in all its glory. For the low, low price of $399 and 8 days’ work, a diploma. enlarge Eight days and $399 in cash later, at the school’s Doral “campus” — a cramped third-floor office next door to US Lubricant LLC and across the hall from a hair extensions company — I was grinning widely, accepting a framed diploma and an official transcript sporting a 3.41 GPA. The degree is accepted at, among other local institutions of higher education, Miami Dade College. And it came blissfully free of that pesky annoyance suffered by thousands of local students graduating from high school this month: education. At InterAmerican Christian Academy , my new alma mater, to earn a diploma you need only to pass five very brief and easy take-home tests. Because I can’t be bothered with such things, I distributed them to local kids ages 8 to 13 to complete. Then I copied their answers. Interamerican Christian Academy is not subject to the NCLB requirements that public schools are. According to its about page, it’s a private correspondence school. They toss up a boilerplate “Christian ideals” page to keep it in the realm of religious schools, and then accept state vouchers to teach students absolutely nothing, but hand out diplomas like they’re candy. I did a podcast last week with the MOMocrats and Rachel Tabachnik where I learned that Christian schools even have their own custom-tailored Stanford Achievement Tests done which test students on “facts” as determined by Christian curriculum writers. Go read her whole post here. It’s footnoted and documented with actual facts, as opposed to the emotion-ridden pablum Rhee peddles about ‘failing schools and the like’. ThinkProgress : As Garcia-Roberts concludes, “ There’s no telling how many of Florida’s 1,713 private schools — which educate a third of a million students — are run like InterAmerican. Even as Gov. Rick Scott leads a charge to privatize education on a historic scale, our state’s private schools are among the least regulated in the nation. ” Indeed, Florida currently leads the country in “school choice” programs that include tax credits for private schools, voucher programs, and privately managed charter schools. The case of InterAmerican Christian Academy provides a cautionary tale about some of the pitfalls of the proliferation of lightly-regulated or unregulated private schools. Michelle Rhee has done more harm to teachers, public education, and students in the past two years than Republicans have in the last ten, largely because she claims to be “liberal” and “on the side of students.” Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that she’s on the side of anyone but herself and for-profit education organizations, and it’s really too bad that anyone from the DNC would join up with her to try and fool even more people about her true mission.
Continue reading …