Issue 5 2009: May
WHAT IS A CHARTER SCHOOL?
It's an independently run public school that's been freed of the usual school district rules. Some charters are started with an assist from local school districts, but most are launched by independent groups seeking to challenge the local education bureaucracy with new ideas and curricula. Charter schools claim higher standards - and ambitions - than ordinary public schools, and aren't bound by union rules on teacher tenure, assignments, and hours. There are currently 4,600 charter schools in 40 states and the District of Comlumbia, educating about 3 percent of public scool students in the U.S. ..... The Week
ANY SUCCESS WITH CHARTER SCHOOLS?
Some produce students with higher test scores than public schools, and some do not; it's hard to draw any blanket conclusions, and there is disagreement about how to compare public and charter school students.
Commited to the idea that "demography does not define destiny," the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) is a network of 66 mostly charter schools located in minority, low- income neighborhoods in 19 states and the District of Columbia. School begins at 7:30 a.m. and continues until 5 p.m., with tutoring provided in the evenings. Saturday morning classes are common, and students commit to three weeks of summer school. If that seems out of the ordinary, so are the results that KIPP schools achieve. So far, more than 80 percent of KIPP alumni have gone on to college, a matriculation rate bearing no resemblance to that of most public schools with student populations similar to KIPP's, which is 90 percent African-American or Latino. Despite salaries 15 percent to 20 percent higher than district averages, teacher turnover is high at KIPP, in part because administrators fire teachers who fail to achieve results. "At KIPP, ther is no blaming 'downtown,' one school director said. "There is no blaming the system." ..... The Week
ROBBERY WITH A BANANA
An ingenious North Carolina teenager allegedly brandished a banana rather than a gun while holding up a store, then tried to eat the evidence. John Szwalla, 17, tried to rob an internet cafe with the fruit held beneath his T-shirt, but the staff overcame him, say police. Szwalla managed to eat the banana, but failed to eat the peel, which police duly photographed and took into evidence. ..... The Week
GRIDLOCK
For years angry populists complained that Congress "does nothing," says Michael Kinsley. The charge was true primarily because of poltical gridlock in the capital, which created a stable status quo that voters enjoyed "more than they cared to admit." Now with the Democrats in the White House, in firm control of the House and on the verge of a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, Democrats face a "terrifying prospect": They might actually have to fulfill the lofty promises made on the campaign trail. Democrats will have no excuse if actual legislative action is passed on say, health care reform or energy reform and they prove to be disasters. Such legislative action from Washington could provide a rude shock to voters, whose usual wish list - "expand our benefits and cut our taxes and balance the budget while you're at it" - is as comforting as it is unrealistic. For good or for ill, gridlock is dead. "Now, when voters demand change, they may well get it. We'll see how they like it." ..... Michael Kinsley, The Washington Post
LIVING WITH THE PARENTS
Eleven percent of the U.S. population between ages 35 and 44 - traditionally years in which wage-earners come into their own - is now living with parents or in-laws, according to a survey by AARP. ..... The New York Times
RAPID GROWTH IN INDIA
India now has 41 cities with more than 1 million people. The rapid growth of these megacities is overwhelming municipal services, leaving many with mounds of trash, sewage flowing directly into polluted rivers, and middle-class neighborhoods encircled by slums. ..... The Wall Street Journal
CELL PHONES OR LAND LINES
New data from the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention shows that for the first time, more U.S. households have only cell phones - about 20 percent - than only land lines, at 17 percent. About 60 percent still have both, but the trend is clear. ..... San Jose Mercury News
SWINE FLU??
People with garden-variety sore throats and fevers have been flooding emergency rooms nationwide, convinced that they have the swine flu. At one Bakersfield, CA hospital, none of the record-breaking 188 patients who came to the ER in one day two weeks ago had the virus. "It's a major drain on resources," said hospital official Jarrod McNaughton. ..... The New York Times
MILT'S MORSEL OF THE MONTH
"True terror is to wake up one morning and discover your high school class is running the country." ..... Kurt Vonnegut, quoted in TheBookreporter.com
JIM'S STETHASCOOP
"Capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell." .....Astronaut Frank Borman, quoted in The New Yorker
