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The conservative counter-revolution is built on
the fear that the 60s and 70s, in the last century, may come back and they
will lose control as they almost did during the Vietnam Era when citizens were
prepared to practice a more participatory kind of democracy [within the channels
of power and in the streets] which questions the roots of their
society. It leads to the conservatives constant propagandizing
around issues of control and fear and this kind of 'accountability' which
targets and marginalizes and breaks down social cohesion and any sense of
community. Better to built passive conformity dispositions in students,
through punishment, tough love, and what is authentic through testing,
rather than critical democratic discourse that has the potential to create
a more caring and compassionate society. It permeates not only the
official organs of the power elite, but also many middle class families in the
way they socialize their kids as a basis of ensuring the reproduction of their
own class status. It creates a complex matrix of self-blame among people
who convinced of their own powerlessness. [Poppycock, really.] Of
course the propagandizing keeps attention away from the legitimate, palpable
fear that people live in their own lives, sensing that things are not as good as
the lies fed to them by the mainstream media and conservative politicians.
The most significant news item for me, during the past week, was the IMF warning
on the U.S. deficit and balance of trade, and its potential to send the global
economy into a downward spiral. The Asian flu may well be coming to the
Gold Mountain.
BB
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2004 1:59
AM
Subject: Re: [Futurework] Killing its
own
Robert and Ed,
This is a very sad state that children find
themselves in. I've never seen so much irresponsibility. Now
they are even throwing kids in jail for school infractions. Jail
is a great teacher but it teaches people to be criminals not better citizens.
On the one hand information is withheld from parents and then when
the crash comes, the parents are impotent in their ignorance.
Its even worse in college when underage students are expected to be paid for
by parents but the parents are not privy to grades, health records,
etc. It springs from both left and right. With the
left screaming individual freedom and the right screaming hold them
responsible while this takes the onus off bad parents and bad
teachers. It is disgusting and is system
wide. This does not mean that I believe the schools are
hopeless and going to hell in a handbasket. But this element of it
is in severe need of rethinking from both left and right wings.
The problem is that neither seems to know much about education or
cooperation. Education is always a team effort if the best is to
be drawn from the student.
REH
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, January 09, 2004 9:14
PM
Subject: Re: [Futurework] Killing its
own
Ed,
What is happening in the United States is a
great tragedy, not likely to end in November, unfortunately. The
internal war against kids has also been extended to education.
See below from Chicago.
Bob
SCHOOLS PRESSURED TO DUMP BAD STUDENTS, CRITICS
SAY
Chicago Sun-Times -- January 9,
2004
by Kate Grossman
Phillip Parker knew he was in the wrong when he
started skipping class
and getting into trouble at Chicago's Crane High
School. But before he
could figure out how to fix it, he found himself
dropped from school.
"I'm not one to blame others for what I did, but
if the school had
steered me the right way, it could have helped," said
Parker, who says
teachers and staff seemed too busy to really give him
the help he needed.
After dropping out, he landed a spot at West Town
Academy, an
alternative school. He knows he's one of the lucky
ones.
"A lot of students just give up," Parker said. "It's almost
like their
life has no direction, they ain't got nothing
going."
In the 2001-02 school year, 17,400 students -- 17.6 percent
-- dropped
out of Chicago schools, according to an analysis of state
data by the
Greater West Town Community Development Project. That's up
from 13.5
percent in 1992. The Chicago public schools publicize a lower
percentage
-- 13 percent in 2003, down from 16.6 percent in 1995. Those
percentages
don't include 27 alternative schools.
The numbers are
too high and the pressure on schools to push out truant,
low-performing
students is only growing, several experts, including
Illinois Education
Supt. Robert Schiller, testified at a state Senate
Education Committee
meeting in Chicago Thursday.
The main culprit is the federal No Child
Left Behind law, Schiller and
others said. That law requires schools to
meet testing, graduation and
attendance benchmarks each
year.
"There is tremendous pressure on districts," said Sen. Miguel
del Valle
(D-Chicago), the committee chairman. "All of this is creating
a climate
that, as the superintendent says, creates a disincentive to
hang on to
students and help them go the extra mile to stay in
school."
Del Valle convened the hearing to come up with legislative
ideas to
confront Illinois' dropout problem. Statewide, the rate is 4.9
percent.
Suggestions floated at the hearing include more accurate
counting of the
problem, more small schools, such as Chicago is trying,
more emphasis on
early childhood education and more academic support for
middle schoolers
and ninth-graders.
Del Valle has one bill
pending that would make it more difficult to drop
students, make it
easier for them to return and change the way they're
counted so they can
be tracked and schools aren't penalized if they drop
out
again.
Several advocates support the proposal but say the existing
law must
also be enforced. State law says students over 16 can only be
denied an
education if they are expelled for serious misconduct or if
they don't
have enough credits to graduate by the time they're
21.
"The dropout problem is largely a push-out problem for kids who'd
like
to stay in school," said William Leavy, director of the Greater
West
Town group. "Our neediest kids have the least
support."
Added Bob Meyer, a teacher at West Town Academy: "We think
[Chicago] and
other districts should be mandated to do what we do daily
-- give kids
another chance."
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, January 09, 2004 10:19
AM
Subject: [Futurework] Killing its
own
As a Canadian, I find the behaviour of the US
administration increasingly perplexing and difficult to understand.
Killing people, including kids, in Afghanistan and Iraq is one thing, but
killing its own is incomprehensible. More and more, one gets the
impression that America exists for the ownership class, the top five
percent or even one percent, and no one else matters! Rogue abroad
and rogue at home!
Ed
 
January 9, 2004OP-ED COLUMNIST
Sick State Budgets, Sick KidsBy BOB
HERBERT
 hile headlines continue to tell us how great the
economy is doing, states across the U.S. are pulling the plug on
desperately needed health coverage for low-income Americans,
including about a half-million children.
Even as the Bush administration continues its bizarre quest for
ever more tax cuts, the states, which by law have to balance their
budgets, are cutting vital social programs so deeply that tragic
consequences are inevitable.
The cruel reality is that Americans at the top are thriving at
the expense of the well-being of those at the bottom and,
increasingly, in the middle.
A new report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows
that 34 states have made potentially devastating cuts over the past
two years in public health insurance programs, including Medicaid
and the very successful children's health insurance programs known
as CHIPS. More cuts are expected this year.
"Almost half of those losing health coverage (490,000 to 650,000
people) are children," the report said. "Substantial numbers of
low-income parents, seniors, people with disabilities, childless
adults and immigrants are also losing coverage. Cutbacks of this
depth in health insurance coverage for low-income families and
individuals are unprecedented."
The worst of the cuts are in Texas. "The Lone Star State has
adopted deep cutbacks in its State Children's Health Insurance
Program that will cause about 160,000 children — one-third of its
SCHIP caseload — to lose coverage," the report said.
Texas is also making Medicaid available to fewer pregnant women,
a dangerous move that increases the number of women without coverage
for prenatal care and the actual deliveries. "All told," the report
said, "Texas is eliminating coverage for between 344,000 and 494,000
children and adults. Census data showed that, even before these
changes, the percentage of people who were uninsured was higher in
Texas than in any other state."
A loss of health coverage frequently leads to a reluctance to
seek needed care. "In poor or low-income families, where there is
not a lot of disposable income, people will avoid going to the
doctor or getting a prescription," said Leighton Ku, one of the
authors of the report. "Certain diseases can then become much more
severe. With children, it's likely that they won't get treatment for
ear infections, asthma, diabetes — conditions that can ultimately
lead to hospitalization."
When treatment can no longer be avoided, the financial
consequences can be ruinous. Medical expenses are one of the leading
causes of bankruptcy in the U.S.
Officials at the center noted the case of a woman in St. Louis
who works but whose annual income is below the poverty line. Under
eligibility rules in effect until 18 months ago, she would have
qualified for Medicaid. Under the new rules, she does not.
The woman became ill and was told upon her release from the
hospital to seek follow-up care. But without any health insurance,
her medical bills have been overwhelming. According to the center,
"[The woman] has occasional abdominal pain but is not getting any
treatment. She intends to declare bankruptcy because she cannot pay
the $47,000 she owes in medical bills, but so far has been unable to
save the funds needed to pay for a bankruptcy filing."
People caught in this kind of squeeze often find themselves
"sicker, much poorer, or both," said Robert Greenstein, the center's
director.
It seems extremely strange that in the United States of America,
the richest, most powerful nation in the history of the world, we
are going backward in the 21st century in our ability to provide the
most fundamental kinds of health care to ordinary people, including
children.
The health insurance cutbacks would have been even worse if not
for the $20 billion in emergency state aid that was reluctantly
approved by the Bush administration and the Republican-led Congress
last year. Despite the economic upturn, states are still struggling.
They face a collective budget deficit of $40 billion to $50 billion
for the coming fiscal year, and there is little sentiment among
Republican leaders in Washington for another round of fiscal
relief.
Maybe the nation itself needs a doctor. Shoving low-income
people, including children, off the health care rolls at a time when
the economy is allegedly booming is a sure sign of some kind of
sickness in the society.
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