Lauren Zuniga re: Personhood

''As her sons have seen her: the mother in patriarchy: controlling, erotic, castrating, heart-suffering, guilt-ridden, and guilt-provoking; a marble brow, a huge breast, an avid cave; between her legs snakes, swampgrass, or teeth; on her lap a helpless infant or a martyred son. She exists for one purpose: to bear and nourish the son.''

~Adrienne Rich (1929 - 2012), U.S. poet. Of Woman Born, ch. 8 (1976)

Do politicians know anything at all about schools and education? Anything?

Tenth-graders in Springfied, Ill., last October. (AP photo)

ASK THIS | February 07, 2012

Diane Ravitch poses a dozen piercing questions on education and school policy. Some of them turn conventional thinking on its ear, and each could be a starting point for reporting on elections, from the presidency on down to local school boards.

By Diane Ravitch
gardendr@gmail.com

 

1.     Both Republican candidates and President Obama are enamored of charter schools—that is, schools that are privately managed and deregulated. Are you aware that studies consistently show that charter schools don’t get better results than regular public schools? Are you aware that studies show that, like any deregulated sector, some charter schools get high test scores, many more get low scores, but most are no different from regular public schools? Do you recognize the danger in handing public schools and public monies over to private entities with weak oversight? Didn’t we learn some lessons from the stock collapse of 2008 about the risk of deregulation?

 

2.    Both Republican candidates and President Obama are enamored of merit pay for teachers based on test scores. Are you aware that merit pay has been tried in the schools again and again since the 1920s and it has never worked? Are you aware of the exhaustive study of merit pay in the Nashville schools, conducted by the National Center for Performance Incentives at Vanderbilt, which found that a bonus of $15,000 per teacher for higher test scores made no difference? 

 

3.     Are you aware that Milwaukee has had vouchers for low-income students since 1990, and now state scores in Wisconsin show that low-income students in voucher schools get no better test scores than low-income students in the Milwaukee public schools? Are you aware that the federal test (the National Assessment of Educational Progress) shows that—after 21 years of vouchers in Milwaukee—black students in the Milwaukee public schools score on par with black students in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana?

 

4.     Does it concern you that cyber charters and virtual academies make millions for their sponsors yet get terrible results for their students?

 

5.     Are you concerned that charters will skim off the best-performing students and weaken our nation’s public education system?

 

6.     Are you aware that there is a large body of research by testing experts warning that it is wrong to judge teacher quality by student test scores? Are you aware that these measures are considered inaccurate and unstable, that a teacher may be labeled effective one year, then ineffective the next one? Are you aware that these measures may be strongly influenced by the composition of a teacher’s classroom, over which she or he has no control? Do you think there is a long line of excellent teachers waiting to replace those who are (in many cases, wrongly) fired?

 

7.     Although elected officials like to complain about our standing on international tests, did you know that students in the United States have never done well on those tests? Did you know that when the first international test was given in the mid-1960s, the United States came in 12th out of 12? Did you know that over the past half-century, our students have typically scored no better than average and often in the bottom quartile on international tests? Have you ever wondered how our nation developed the world’s most successful economy when we scored so poorly over the decades on those tests? 

 

8.     Did you know that American schools where less than 10% of the students were poor scored above those of Finland, Japan and Korea in the last international assessment? Did you know that American schools where 25% of the students were poor scored the same as the international leaders Finland, Japan and Korea? Did you know that the U.S. is #1 among advanced nations in child poverty? Did you know that more than 20% of our children live in poverty and that this is far greater than in the nations to which we compare ourselves?

 

9.     Did you know that family income is the single most reliable predictor of student test scores? Did you know that every testing program—the SAT, the ACT, the NAEP, state tests and international tests—shows the same tight correlation between family income and test scores? Affluence helps—children in affluent homes have educated parents, more books in the home, more vocabulary spoken around them, better medical care, more access to travel and libraries, more economic security—as compared to students who live in poverty, who are more likely to have poor medical care, poor nutrition, uneducated parents, more instability in their lives. Do you think these things matter?

10. Are you concerned that closing schools in low-income neighborhoods will further weaken fragile communities? 

 

11. Are you worried that annual firings of teachers will cause demoralization and loss of prestige for teachers? Any ideas about who will replace those fired because they taught too many low-scoring students?

 

12.  Why is it that politicians don’t pay attention to research and studies?

Add end

 

And another question that came to mind after the initial posting of this article: 

 

13.  Do you know of any high-performing nation in the world that got that way by privatizing public schools, closing those with low test scores, and firing teachers? The answer: none.

 

 

Photo by Jack Miller

Diane Ravitch is Research Professor of Education at New York University and a distinguished historian of American education.

Iris from my friend, Robin Clawson.  Photo: DBE

A Primer on Louisiana Politics, Presidential Candidates, and the Petroleum Club

Many thanks to Shreveport Times writer, Adam Duvernay, for being so clear about the intentions of the oil & gas barons, and of greedy politicians.

Aside from the self-confessed special interests of the oilmen, we see the true definition of class warfare, pandering, and gluttonous, self-serving power.

One doesn't have to read between the lines to realize (1) the corrupting influence of unregulated capitalism and (2) the blatant disregard for the poor & struggling middle class in our representative (what a joke!) election process.  -DBE
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Jill Keller, Aimee McFarland, Steve Craig and Jodi Penn enjoy a business lunch together recently in the dining area at the Petroleum Club in downtown Shreveport. All are with Heard, McElroy and Vestal, LLP, also in downtown Shreveport

Petroleum Club puts oil, gas industry next to politicians

12:36 AM, Mar. 23, 2012
Written by Adam Duvernay

The Petroleum Club in downtown Shreveport has hosted just about every politician who needed to shake hands with the Louisiana oil and natural gas industry.

From Bossier-born U.S. Rep. Joe Waggoner and Shreveport-born Sen. Bennett Johnson in the 1960s to President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s to current Louisiana politicians such as Sen. David Vitter and Sen. Mary Landrieu, Shreveport's oil-and-gas men have had first-hand access to elected officials for decades.

Tonight the club will host GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, the frontrunner for the Republican candidacy by accumulated delegates and campaign contributions. Romney's $1,000-per-head fundraiser doesn't guarantee him the Club members' votes, but he'll be trying.

"It's always been a very interesting gathering when our politicians or hope-to-be politicians come to see us," said former-Club president John Palmer. "We get a pretty good idea of what their thinking, and they get a good idea on what we're thinking. That's the advantage of having a nice place like the Petroleum Club — we're right there in the same room."

The Petroleum Club was founded in the late-1940s around the boom that brought Shreveport-Bossier's first oil and gas men to the area. With the backing of United Gas and Carter Oil Company, the social club got off the ground in competition with the up-scale Shreveport Club — a contemporary association of managers and business men. The Petroleum Club initially limited its membership to those who made at least 50 percent of their income from the oil and gas business. But times weren't always good for the industry, and when companies started to leave the area the Club opened membership to the industry's lawyers and accountants.

After years of moving, resizing and reshaping the Club, Palmer oversaw the 1969 move to the current location at Mid South Towers in downtown Shreveport. The Club has remained a meeting place for both local and national industry leaders, though membership and events have been opened widely in recent years.

"A lot of deals get done at the Club," said Fleet Hall, President of J. Fleet Oil and Gas Production Co. and a member since 1969. "It's a social club and a place for networking. That's the way deals get put together — it could be over a cup of coffee or lunch or whatever."

The club is more than a political stage, Hall said. Members enjoy lunches there every week, industry leaders use the Club for social gatherings and reports on the state of business and the Clubs many rooms, all named for oil and gas producing formations in the area, host everything else in between.

Hall, who began his membership as a oil and gas attorney in 1969, said political visits have always been common. It's usually Louisiana politicians, and Hall said he remembers many visits from former-Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards and a particular reception for U.S. Senator Russell Long in the early 1970s.

"He hadn't been to Shreveport in a while and the Club hosted a reception for him. I tell you, it was packed with people from wall to wall," Hall said. "We felt he was very attune to the needs of the oil and gas industry."

Political visits are usually sincere efforts to communicate between the energy industry and the offices of governance, Hall said. Of course there is money to be raised — the ever-present task of a politicians — but he said it goes beyond just rustling funds.

"I don't feel it's been superficial or just glad-handing," Hall said. "I think its been a sincere effort with most of our visitors to help understand the needs and positions of the industry."

For his part, Hall said he's a Romney supporter. While he doesn't speak for the whole club, his close friends are almost unanimous on their pick.

"I think he represents the values we're looking for, and I think he's the kind of business person we need," Hall said. "Romney could give the industry and private businesses the chance to create jobs. He's our best hope and we'd like him to be our President."

Romney is collecting money from any Club members who pay to attend his event tonight, but Palmer said the hope is he'll walk away with more than just their cash.

"Hopefully he'll understand the oil and gas industry is actually trying to do something here to turn the economy around," Palmer said. "The things the Obama administration is pulling is only hurting the industry and hurting the country."