Month: <span>September 2010</span>

Wanted: An education in civility

Remember what happened about this time last year, when a large number of fearful parents and nervous school administrators – egged on by rabid rightwing pontificators were predicting the end of Western civilization? Well, maybe the furor wasn’t quite that bad, but it was bad enough when President Obama decided to use the Internet to […]

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Playing games with $830 million

As you may have heard by now, the state of Texas’ application for $830 million in federal education jobs money has been rejected by the U.S. Department of Education because Gov. Perry tried to change the rules. Specifically, the application, submitted by Education Commissioner Robert Scott, didn’t provide the assurances required by federal law that […]

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A virtual disappointment

The Texas Connections Academy, a hightech replacement for the traditional classroom, may fancy itself the wave of the future, but its lessthenimpressive performance for the Houston Independent School District has left about 800 students high and dry. The academy is a forprofit company that contracts with HISD to run a virtual campus for 1,000 students […]

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Now, Perry’s job is on the line

Gov. Rick Perry loves to play politics with federal funds, even at the expense of his taxpaying constituents. The most infamous example, so far, was his rejection of about a half billion dollars in federal unemployment funds last year, even as the state’s jobless rate was rising and the state’s jobless compensation fund was running […]

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