The Story I Stick To

Critics Decry Obama's 'Indoctrination' Plan for Students - Political News - FOXNews.com

2009-09-02T15:51:00.002-05:00

I encourage you to read this article, and then take a deep breath. I'm troubled by the the way this has been handled by the Dept of Ed (sending to principals, not the superintendent and school board, and scheduling it on short notice), but I'm also troubled by the outcry.

If you think the President is trying to indoctrinate your kids, how about talking to them, and giving them your side of the story? I find that they listen to Mom or Dad more than a talking head on TV.

I won't be keeping my kids out of school on September 8, but I will talk to them about this.

Critics Decry Obama's 'Indoctrination' Plan for Students - Political News - FOXNews.com

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I Need Your Help

2009-08-11T12:32:00.003-05:00

If you are a regular reader of this blog (all four of you), or anyone reading this...

I have a question I am trying to figure out, and I want/need/demand/beg for your input...at the risk of turning into just another informal polling website.

The first question goes this way: I believe them when Sociologists tell us that when you change the communication media, you change the culture. Think of how America changed when we began to implement the telegraph instead of the pony express, or the change from land-line phones to cell phones. So the question is, how do you think the Internet (and related media - TiVO, iTunes, Twitter, IM, txting, etc) has changed our culture in America?

I hope to start a discussion in the feedback threads, or if you are more comfortable, you can email me.

Thanks!

Just Say No

2009-07-08T15:04:00.004-05:00

This morning, the US Senate began its work on the climate change legislation known in the House as "Waxman-Markey", "Cap & Trade", "American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009" and HR 2454. The Senate Finance Committee is the first to hear the bill. I urge all 100 Senators to stand up for freedom and do as Nancy Reagan taught us back in the 1980s: Just Say No.

Just Say No to a huge tax increase on the people who can afford it the least. By raising the cost of doing business for the energy providers in the United States, the House bill will force energy prices up, and these increases will be passed on to consumers like you and me. Every year thousands of low-income people have trouble paying their heating bills in the Minnesota winter - and this only make it worse on them. In addition experts indicate a cost of $9.4 trillion to taxpayers and industry - it will cost all companies more to produce the food and other goods we depend on for our everyday existence. This inflation will have the worst effects on our poorest people. Taxes are Tyranny.

Just Say No to creating a regulatory environment that will force some large energy providers into dire financial positions. Will Exelon or General Electric be the next General Motors or Fannie Mae? How long until this Congress forces all industries to either accept a government buyout or leave our shores?

Just Say No to unilateral action. Get India and China on board with this concept, they are major contributors to the greenhouse gasses you are trying to reduce. A trilateral approach would be more appropriate to solving the problem, and would level the playing field in the global marketplace.

Just Say No to the spray-and-pray approach of the House, who passed a 1200 page bill with a gagillion different provisions on how to address the "climate crisis" instead of a well-considered, focused approach, grounded in existing reality and a vision for the future. I hope the Senate leadership at least gives you time to read what you are voting on. Three hours in the House was not long enough.

Just Say No.

D110 Scores well on the MCA II Test (again)

2009-07-01T11:31:00.004-05:00

It looks like we did well again this year on the tests. Bayview's scores are down from last year, but that's expected since last year was way off-the-charts. There isn't a category where we aren't 5% better than the state average, and in many cases it is over 10% better.

Congratulations to all or our staff & students on this achievement.

MCA II % Meets or Exceeds Standards

2008	2009	09avg
91.5%	95.0%	82.1%	SV 3rd Math
91.5%	95.0%	78.3%	SV 3rd Reading
88.2%	88.6%	74.9%	SV 4th Math
91.9%	86.8%	74.5%	SV 4th Reading
97.0%	91.6%	82.1%	BV 3rd Math
96.0%	92.7%	78.3%	BV 3rd Reading
94.0%	94.5%	74.9%	BV 4th Math
91.0%	89.3%	74.5%	BV 4th Reading
76.9%	77.2%	65.4%	CW 5th Math
84.0%	84.8%	72.2%	CW 5th Reading
68.0%	71.6%	63.8%	CW 6th Math
77.9%	79.7%	72.6%	CW 6th Reading
78.9%	74.3%	62.6%	CW 7th Math
72.8%	73.8%	64.8%	CW 7th Reading
77.4%	78.1%	59.7%	CW 8th Math
78.3%	79.1%	66.8%	CW 8th Reading
76.3%	82.0%	74.2%	WHS 10th Reading
64.9%	50.5%	41.6%	WHS 11th Math

http://education.state.mn.us/MDE/About_MDE/News_Center/Press_Releases/014372

Here are some nearby districts for comparison.

	2009 State Avg	D110	NYA	Delano	Watertown	Chaska
3rd Math	82.1%	93.2%	84.2%	90.8%	79.4%	88.2%
3rd Reading	78.30%	93.8%	77.9%	84.9%	74.3%	86.4%
4th Math	74.90%	91.5%	82.8%	92.0%	75.7%	81.1%
4th Reading	74.50%	88.1%	76.5%	91.4%	76.5%	86.0%
5th Math	65.40%	77.2%	72.1%	74.8%	73.5%	75.5%
5th Reading	72.20%	84.8%	81.7%	86.0%	78.8%	83.7%
6th Math	63.80%	71.6%	81.5%	86.1%	50.0%	73.0%
6th Reading	72.60%	79.7%	76.8%	89.1%	69.5%	78.4%
7th Math	62.60%	74.3%	67.4%	82.8%	66.0%	79.1%
7th Reading	64.80%	73.8%	57.7%	80.2%	72.5%	76.5%
8th Math	59.70%	78.1%	58.5%	83.0%	55.7%	80.7%
8th Reading	66.80%	79.1%	68.2%	85.7%	74.6%	84.2%
10th Reading	74.20%	82.0%	77.4%	89.3%	86.5%	86.3%
11th Math	41.60%	50.5%	38.2%	68.3%	56.4%	54.8%

Power to the People?

2009-06-30T12:00:00.000-05:00

I find myself using this phrase too often lately: "I don't get it."

All day Friday I was watching the debate in the US House over the Waxman-Markey Cap & Trade bill, I kept saying, "I don't get it." (Yes I realize Michael Jackson died, but I didn't need to watch 24/7 coverage of the aftermath) Like many of the Representatives that spoke on the floor of the House, I find some pretty fuzzy logic in this bill, and I'm very cautious of anything that gets voted through without having a chance to be studied.

We are still trying to untangle the so-called "stimulus" bill from months ago, and have yet to see any of the "stimulus" effects out here in flyover country (Star Tribune). "The Labor Department said Tuesday that jobless rates in May rose from a year earlier in all 372 metropolitan area it tracks....The U.S. unemployment rate climbed to a quarter-century high of 9.4 percent in May." (Star Tribune) I'm not feeling very stimulated, are you?

So the Cap & Trade thing...I don't get it. I need someone to explain to me how making energy more expensive is going to help any of us in tough economic times. How is it "not a tax" on the middle class to make it cost more to heat your house or drive your car? How is driving jobs from the US to China and other unregulated countries going to save the environment? I don't get it.

But the ruling party reminds us again that "they won," so they can do as they wish.

Look, in many ways we're on the same side when it comes to the future of the US energy industry. I think most Americans hate buying oil from people that hate us and would like to kill us. I think both sides see the need to save American jobs and to create new ones. I love the planet as much as the next guy, and would like to have a clean place to hand off to my descendants.

We disagree on the approach. A huge tax increase and penalties on all of the companies we depend on to produce today's energy can't be the best approach. We're smart people and we can do better. I read that the French, Japanese, Russians and Koreans are working together to build a nuclear power plant in VietNam. No really! Google it if you don't believe me. Hanoi can have clean, cheap electricity but Minnesota can't.

I heard one Representative from the left side of the aisle talking about five million green jobs the bill would create (I can only speculate how many will be temporary assignments swapping light bulbs at the Metrodome for LEDs and filling attics with insulation...then what?). It seems to ignore all the job that will be lost as all sectors absorb the higher cost of energy and have to cut jobs in order to stay afloat.

The bill creates incentives for "new" energy sources like the wind and the sun (the Sun is new..?), while ignoring that the real impact on the environment that has everyone wringing their hands is from the existing dirty coal-burning plants. If you could make coal 1% more efficient, you could out-do all solar power by a factor of thirty (source).

Now I admit I'm not the brightest bulb (and thank God for that, they would Cap & Trade me if I was!) but it seems that you could make a much smaller investment in the coal - energy industry you could create all kinds of job retrofitting coal plants with doohickeys to make the coal burn better and cleaner. And at the same time, you could sell the technology to the rest of the world to make their plants cleaner too.

Oh, and if you are the guy or gal that invents that next doohickey to make coal burn 1% cleaner, you should win the Nobel prize and go live on an island somewhere in luxury for the rest of your days.

I want to save the planet. I want to save jobs and I want to save the economy. I think the best approach is to deal with reality first: humans are going to continue to burn wood, coal, and oil for at least another generation. Shouldn't we figure out how to do this as cleanly as possible? Sure, we should try to invent the next big thing (nuclear power anyone?) at the same time, but lets be smart about what we already have, too.

The big tax increase during a recession? I don't get it.

The 86th Legislature Was a Failure.

2009-05-27T10:00:00.001-05:00

I have purposely been holding back from blogging since the end of the legislative session. Although I was pleased that a few of my pet issues were ultimately rejected, I am not happy with the results of the budget. But just as it is not a good idea to drive angry, it is also not a good idea to blog angry, and so I forced myself into a cool-down period, to see how things might proceed before venting onto this blog.

First the good:
The governor vetoed to doublespeak "Safer Schools for All" Act, which I blogged about in March, but the Legislature passed anyway.

"Bullying is a serious issue that must be vigilantly monitored, prevented and addressed ... [but] the proposed legislation is duplicative of current law which directly and clearly prohibits bullying of any type against any student for any reason," Pawlenty said in his veto message to Senate President James Metzen. Star-Tribune May 26, 2009

Again, we already have policy in place that prohibits bullying for ANY REASON. Why does St Paul think we need to be more specific? Thank you, Governor for using your head and your veto pen.

Also, the "Shared Services" legislation was taken out of the final Education package. I had blogged about this in April, and I was glad to see that it was removed. District 110 is part of a fantastic community. We appreciate and depend on the widespread, loyal support we enjoy from local businesses, and this bill would have severed that relationship. It just doesn't make sense in a country where We the People have all the power to allow big government to dictate where we can buy our cheese...

...and now the rest
The Minnesota Legislature failed. It had one job to do for this session, and that was to pass a balanced budget for the biennium, and it failed. Instead of finding a way to budget within its revenue forecast (ie: tax burden), it went $2 billion over, and shoved through a tax increase to cover the difference.

This is like a guy losing his paycheck at a poker game and mugging an old lady on the way home to cover his losses, and the Governor was right to veto the tax increase before the ink was dry.

The larger failure of the Legislature was to control spending. Its really not that complex an idea: put the checkbook down and back away. The State budget has doubled in size in the past fifteen years. Are we really getting our money's worth?

Seriously, you take $26 billion per year from We the People, and then you tell us that you can't operate the State on so little?

The Legislators can go now back to their communities and say, "We didn't cut Education." and almost not be lying. It is true on the surface that education spending in the Legislative budget was held flat. Of course, the elephant in the room is the outstanding $2billion that the Governor will now have to un-allot and accounting-shift and line-item veto to get the budget back in line.

And thats the real danger. The Legislature has now handed all of it's budgeting power to the Governor. He legally and Constitutionally must now trim the budget. But as soon as he reaches for his pen, you will hear howls of, "We held steady, but the evil Governor is the one who cut your pet program!!!" I do not envy Mr. Pawlenty this difficult job, but we elected Senators and Representatives to do the job, and they failed. Miserably.

There are good Legislators out there representing us. I have worked with and against several of them in this session - creative, dedicated people who put in long hours, and listen to people and consider new ideas. There are also bad ones - the ones who won't take a phone call or answer an email. This budget failure is not an indictment of any one member, but the body as a whole. They had one job, and they didn't get it done.

Fortunately for We the People, there is an election before the next budget cycle. Mark Tuesday November 2, 2010 on your calendars.

Scientists see this flu strain as relatively mild

2009-04-30T10:17:00.002-05:00

LA Times Story

Genetic data indicate this outbreak won't be as deadly as that of 1918, or even the average winter.

By Karen Kaplan and Alan Zarembo
April 30, 2009

As the World Health Organization raised its infectious disease alert level Wednesday and health officials confirmed the first death linked to swine flu inside U.S. borders, scientists studying the virus are coming to the consensus that this hybrid strain of influenza -- at least in its current form -- isn't shaping up to be as fatal as the strains that caused some previous pandemics.

In fact, the current outbreak of the H1N1 virus, which emerged in San Diego and southern Mexico late last month, may not even do as much damage as the run-of-the-mill flu outbreaks that occur each winter without much fanfare.

"Let's not lose track of the fact that the normal seasonal influenza is a huge public health problem that kills tens of thousands of people in the U.S. alone and hundreds of thousands around the world," said Dr. Christopher Olsen, a molecular virologist who studies swine flu at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine in Madison.

His remarks Wednesday came the same day Texas authorities announced that a nearly 2-year-old boy with the virus had died in a Houston hospital Monday.

"Any time someone dies, it's heartbreaking for their families and friends," Olsen said. "But we do need to keep this in perspective."

Flu viruses are known to be notoriously unpredictable, and this strain could mutate at any point -- becoming either more benign or dangerously severe. But mounting preliminary evidence from genetics labs, epidemiology models and simple mathematics suggests that the worst-case scenarios are likely to be avoided in the current outbreak.

"This virus doesn't have anywhere near the capacity to kill like the 1918 virus," which claimed an estimated 50 million victims worldwide, said Richard Webby, a leading influenza virologist at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.

When the current virus was first identified, the similarities between it and the 1918 flu seemed ominous.

Both arose in the spring at the tail end of the flu season. Both seemed to strike people who were young and healthy instead of the elderly and infants. Both were H1N1 strains, so called because they had the same types of two key proteins that are largely responsible for a virus' ability to infect and spread.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health published genetic sequence data Monday morning of flu samples isolated from patients in California and Texas, and thousands of scientists immediately began downloading the information. Comparisons to known killers -- such as the 1918 strain and the highly lethal H5N1 avian virus -- have since provided welcome news.

"There are certain characteristics, molecular signatures, which this virus lacks," said Peter Palese, a microbiologist and influenza expert at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York. In particular, the swine flu lacks an amino acid that appears to increase the number of virus particles in the lungs and make the disease more deadly.

Scientists have identified several other differences between the current virus and its 1918 predecessor, but the significance of those differences is still unclear, said Dr. Scott Layne, an epidemiologist at the UCLA School of Public Health.

Ralph Tripp, an influenza expert at the University of Georgia, said that his early analysis of the virus' protein-making instructions suggested that people exposed to the 1957 flu pandemic -- which killed up to 2 million people worldwide -- may have some immunity to the new strain.

That could explain why older people have been spared in Mexico, where the swine flu has been most deadly.

The swine virus does appear able to spread easily among humans, which persuaded the WHO to boost its influenza pandemic alert level to phase 5, indicating that a worldwide outbreak of infection is very likely. And the CDC reported on its website that "a pattern of more severe illness associated with the virus may be emerging in the United States."

"We expect to see more cases, more hospitalizations, and, unfortunately, we are likely to see more deaths from the outbreak," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters Wednesday on her first day at work.

But certainly nothing that would dwarf a typical flu season. In the U.S., between 5% and 20% of the population becomes ill and 36,000 people die -- a mortality rate of between 0.24% and 0.96%.

Dirk Brockmann, a professor of engineering and applied mathematics at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., used a computer model of human travel patterns to predict how this swine flu virus would spread in the worst-case scenario, in which nothing is done to contain the disease.

After four weeks, almost 1,700 people in the U.S. would have symptoms, including 198 in Los Angeles, according to his model. That's just a fraction of the county's thousands of yearly flu victims.

Just because the virus is being identified in a growing number of places -- including Austria, Canada, Germany, Israel, New Zealand, Spain and Britain -- doesn't mean it's spreading particularly quickly, Olsen said.

"You don't ever find anything that you don't look for," he said. "Now that diagnostic laboratories and physicians and other healthcare workers know to look for it, perhaps it's not surprising that you're going to see additional cases identified."

And a pandemic doesn't necessarily have a high fatality rate. Even in Mexico, the fatalities may simply reflect that hundreds of thousands of people have been infected. Since the symptoms of swine flu are identical to those of a normal flu, there's no way to know how many cases have evaded government health officials, St. Jude's Webby said.

As the virus adapts to its human hosts, it is likely to find ways of spreading more efficiently. But evolution also suggests it might become less dangerous, Olsen said. "If it kills off all its potential hosts, you reach a point where the virus can't survive," he said.

Working to calm public fears, U.S. officials on Wednesday repeatedly stressed the statistic of yearly flu deaths -- 36,000.

Sebelius and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano also rejected calls to close the borders, which several lawmakers reiterated Wednesday on Capitol Hill.

"We are making all of our decisions based on the science and the epidemiology," Napolitano said. "The CDC, the public health community and the World Health Organization all have said that closing out nation's borders is not merited here."

Though scientists have begun to relax about the initial toll, they're considerably less comfortable when taking into account the fall flu season. They remain haunted by the experience of 1918, when the relatively mild first wave of flu was followed several months later by a more aggressive wave.

The longer the virus survives, the more chances it has to mutate into a deadlier form.

"If this virus keep going through our summer," Palese said, "I would be very concerned."

karen.kaplan@latimes.com

alan.zarembo@latimes.com

Staff writers Noam Levey in Washington, Thomas H. Maugh II in Los Angeles and Ken Ellingwood in Mexico City contributed to this report.

Waconia Edible Classroom

2009-04-29T09:17:00.005-05:00

The Edible Classroom is a very cool project that will be officially kicking off next Wednesday, May 6th 5:30-7:30 at Clearwater Middle School with an event titled "Take Root."

When I was in Mrs Fraser's kindergarten class in Michigan back in the 1970s, I had perfect attendance, expect for the one Friday that my parents took me out of school to spend a long weekend with my maternal grandfather helping to plant his garden. Unlike the popular books, I don't remember anything I learned in Kindergarten, but I do remember planting that garden. Grandpa's sweet corn and Grandma's canning are legendary.

They also had an orchard where he grew several varieties of cherries, apples, and pears. Grandma had strawberries and raspberries, but her grandchildren ate most of them (guilty). Nothing tastes better than food you grew yourself, and if I live to be 120, I will remember the feel of the spring sunshine, the color of the damp soil, and the smell of the apple and cherry blossoms behind their house on Beecher Road.

The Waconia Edible Classroom is a hands-on learning experience developed for the students of Waconia Public School District 110. Located on former farmland next to Clearwater Middle School, the outdoor garden will teach students about the seed-to-table progression. Students will learn about the connection between what they eat and where it comes from, with the goal of fostering environmental stewardship and transforming the school lunch program.

Mission & Principles

Waconia's efforts are based upon the Edible Schoolyard concept founded by famed chef and author, Alice Waters, of Berkeley California. The project will provide students with the oppotunity to grow vegetables for use in the classroom, as well as the school lunch program. An orchard with apples, pears, apricots, and plums will also be planted at the edible classroom.

I'm thrilled that our kids in D110 have this opportunity. The community support has been overwhelming.

Waconia Patriot article

Local Control part 2

2009-04-17T16:01:00.006-05:00

Rep Larry Howes (rep.larry.howes@house.mn) from Walker is opposed to having local control in School Boards. He was the sponsor of the currently law that forbids a pre-Labor Day start statewide, and he is the one who killed HF195 in committee, and now he made the motion to remove the local decision from HF2 in the Finance Committee.

He says that starting school before Labor Day would harm tourism - revenue in resorts, bait shops, gas stations, shopping centers, and convenience stores would be affected, as well as the 4-H, State Fair, airlines, campgrounds, hotels, and the Chamber of Commerce. That's quite a list.

Oh I forgot teenage summer workers who apparently wouldn't be able to get any job at all for the summer if they had to go back to school a few days early.

Rep Howes and the St Paul hive-mind are wrong. Those elected officials are not smarter and wiser than the ones on local school boards. St Paul wants to decide when school starts, when it ends, how many days and hours of instruction, what test you will take, what will be on the test, and what the passing score will be on the test. They decide how much money will be spent per pupil, and how it will be spent.

All we are asking for is the ability to make the decision based on what is best for our own communities. Rep. Howes says the issue is not dead yet. I hope he is right.

2009-04-09T22:03:00.003-05:00

SF 10 is the anti-stimulus

2009-04-03T17:31:00.003-05:00

Senators,

I am writing to ask you to please vote against the ill-conceived "Shared Services" bill (SF 10) when it comes to the floor for a vote on Monday. This measure has already failed on the floor once, and the two amendments do nothing to improve its fundamental flaws.

This unwelcome mandate takes away all local controls over district spending, and forces the district to only use vendors who are on the MN Dept of Ed "approved" list - even if a local community business can provide the same services at a comparable cost. This bill includes almost everything a school may ever possibly need to purchase - school materials, supplies, tools, equipment, computers, communications devices & services, food service, and transportation.

I understand there are possible exemptions, but why should a school have to justify to MDE when they decide buy milk from a local dairy, or replace a leaky pipe at the local hardware store? Certainly in difficult economic times, we need to make every effort to cut costs, but what our schools need is more flexibility to find the best solutions, not less.

District 110 is part of a fantastic community. We appreciate and depend on the widespread, loyal support we enjoy from local businesses. To force the school district to "import" goods and services from elsewhere is unconscionable - these businesses are owned and operated by the very backbone of our community - the taxpayers, parents, and graduates of our public schools. The school district is a vital part of the local economy; this bill is just plain bad for business.

Please cast an emphatic "NO" to SF 10 when it comes the floor on Monday. If you would like to discuss this issue further, please do not hesitate to call.

Thank you for your attention.

Introducing Our New Elementary School

2009-04-01T06:00:00.007-05:00

I'm very pleased to be able to share some information this morning about the District 110 facilities plan. This fall we will be asking the voters to approve a $200 million bonding referendum to finance the construction of a new state-of-the-art Elementary School. The school will have many environmentally-friendly features including solar-heated water, lots of energy-efficient LED lighting, and electricity eventually provided by the proposed St Boni nuclear plant.

The new Coney Island Elementary building will be located on the famous island in Lake Waconia, and will offer unique educational opportunities to students, including a world-class aquatic life-sciences program, competition watersports, and the state's only under-12 tournament walleye fishing team.

Some parents expressed some initial concern about the increased bus traffic on the ice, but the City Council has assured the Board that a bridge extending Lakeview Terrace across to the island will be completed by 2012, will provide a new fishing pier, and will be financed entirely by the city of Waconia without lowering taxes.

The building itself was designed by Stephen Holl Architects and takes advantage of some of the natural features of the island's unique geography. You can see more artist conceptual drawings by clicking this link: PICTURES There will be classrooms to house approximately 450 students in grades K-5.

As the district continues to grow, the Board was presented with an opportunity to acquire the historic 310-acre island site for the new school for a price that was too good to refuse. "This school will be a signature achievement for District 110, and I think will be recognized across the country for it's innovation and outstanding design," said Stephen Holl, the lead designer.

The building will feature two main focal points, visible from almost anywhere around Lake Waconia: a lighthouse-themed Lambert Naegele Library (sketch, left) on the far eastern point of the island (SKETCH) and the glass-encased cafeteria on the north side of the school. The cafeteria will be "gently suggestive of the northern lights," says Holl. A single square puncture at the top permits a beam of sunlight to mix its warmth with the wall's cool blue north light. "So the experience of the exterior of these sheared glass ends, with their scalelessness, is completed by a unique, intimate phenomenon of translucency on the interior."

Whatever. It will have a really cool glassy wall thingy similar to the one Holl designed for the U of M's College of Architecture and Landscape (pictured, right).

It is a historic day for our District, and I'm sure as time goes on you will realize that April Fool's Day, 2009 is a day to remember in our community's history.

.

Not Funny, Mr President.

2009-03-19T23:30:00.009-05:00

I'm not even sure where to start.

You'll wake up to news reports today that The President of the United States was on Leno last night. Maybe you even stayed up to watch it.

Did you see the part where he made fun of the Special Olympics? Very funny, sir. Always good to get a laugh by poking fun at the mentally challenged. You must keep Michelle and the girls in stitches with that.

Didja ever stop and think about the thousands of people that put their time and treasure into making the Special Olympics possible? Or that they sometimes have to show up at a public bowling alley with their hat in their hands to get practice time while you and Timmy G bowl in the basement on our dime.

Ever stop to think about the athletes that stand and sing the National Anthem before their competition? Reciting "Let me win. If I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt." Brave? Going on TV in a designer suit and acting better than all of us is not brave, its stupid. Its lowbrow, and the people expect better from their Commander-in-Chief. Perhaps you should bring your teleprompter next time.

So wonderful! We have a President and a Vice President who make fun of the handicapped. I bet Sarah Palin would know better than to make a Special Olympics joke. She went on Saturday Night Live and only made fun of herself. And probably got better ratings.

It takes a small man to build himself up by tearing others down.

Realizing the potential magnitude of the mistake, the White House addressed the president’s remark to reporters aboard Air Force One.

“The President made an offhand remark making fun of his own bowling that was in no way intended to disparage the Special Olympics,” Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton told reporters. “He thinks that the Special Olympics are a wonderful program that gives an opportunity to shine to people with disabilities from around the world.”

** I REMOVED COMMENTS HERE AFTER THE PRESIDENT'S APOLOGY **

I know from experience that most of the Special Olympians in Carver County can out-bowl the President. Does that make them more qualified to be President? No, it doesn't. Treasury Secretary? Maybe.

So all over the country this winter people jumped into freezing cold water to raise money for the Special Olympics. Firemen, TV anchors, Policemen, and other solid citizens took their time and comfort and treasure and we thank them. Even if the President acts a fool, we love you, and I know the athletes appreciate your sacrifices.

So this is "change," huh?

UPDATE: President Apologizes (Fox News)
Special Olympics Press Release
Special Olympics bowler - "I can easily beat Obama"

On his way back to Washington on Air Force One, Obama called the chairman of the Special Olympics, Tim Shriver, to say he was sorry -- even before the taped program aired late Thursday night.
"He expressed his disappointed and he apologized in a way that was very moving. He expressed that he did not intend to humiliate this population," Shriver said Friday on ABC's "Good Morning America." Obama, Shriver said, wants to have some Special Olympic athletes visit the White House to bowl or play basketball.
Still, Shriver said, "I think it's important to see that words hurt and words do matter. And these words that in some respect can be seem as humiliating or a put down to people with special needs do cause pain and they do result in stereotypes."

Anti-Bullying Bill is a Waste of Time

2009-03-18T08:00:00.001-05:00

There is a hearing this morning in the Senate Education Committee on something called the "Safe Schools for All" Act (Star Tribune). This bill would prohibit "harassment, bullying, intimidation and violence" based on a student's personal characteristics such as race, sexual orientation or religion." The bill number is S.F. 971/H.F. 1198.

District 110 already has policy 413 which states, "It is the policy of the school district to maintain a learning and working environment that is free from religious, racial or sexual harassment and violence. The school district prohibits any form of religious, racial or sexual harassment and violence."

In addition, we also have policy 514 which prohibits "bullying" regardless of the motivation behind said actions.

So if we already have policies in place to prevent bullying in our schools, why do I care if the Senate mucks about with it?

Because I don't think it is their place to tell me a policy that already covers everyone in general and religious, sexual, and racial people (again, pretty much everyone) specifically needs to somehow be expanded. According to OutFront Minnesota's website:

This bill would address an all-too common problem in our schools - that of kids being forced to endure environments hostile to their education because they are personally targeted on the basis of things like sexual orientation/gender identity, disability, national origin, and physical characteristics. The legislation would simply expand the categories of people that schools already cover with their anti-bullying policies.

Well, no it wouldn't. Not here anyway. These people (everyone) are already covered. So what is the real agenda?

The current statute (121A.0695) provides:

Each school board shall adopt a written policy prohibiting intimidation and bullying of any student. The policy shall address intimidation and bullying in all forms, including, but not limited to, electronic forms and forms involving Internet use.

This policy simply protects every student equally. And it works - easy to enforce, easy to administer. Don't Bully. The end.

The new proposal:

By January 1, 2010, a school board must adopt a written policy that prohibits harassment, bullying, intimidation, and violence based on, but not limited to, actual or perceived race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, disability, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, physical characteristics, and association with a person or group with one or more of these actual or perceived characteristics. The policy shall address harassment, bullying, intimidation, and violence in all forms, including, but not limited to, electronic forms and forms requiring internet use.

Doesn't protect everyone equally does it? It makes some people more equal than others. If you can manage to bully someone based on none of the above reasons, you're in the clear!

The state is billions of dollars in the hole and we waste our time carving the population in to smaller and smaller groups so we can all push our own little agendas. Let's not pretend that that this is anything less than social engineering, and we should have the political will to stop it before it wastes any more of our precious time and resources.

If you ask me, the real bullies are the special interests pushing the local school boards around on the playground of St Paul. In fact, here are a list of the main bullies, and their contact information. I say we need to give them all some time in detention.

Senate sponsors are:
Senator Scott Dibble
Senator Charles Wiger
Senator Sandy Rummel
Senator Tom Saxhaug

House sponsors are:
Representative Jim Davnie
Representative Jeff Hayden
Representative Karen Clark
Representative David Bly
Representative Jerry Newton
Representative Carla Bigham
Representative Will Morgan
Representative Carlos Mariani
Representative Roger Reinert
Representative Mindy Greiling
Representative Nora Slawik
Representative Margaret Anderson Kelliher

Sometimes I Hate Being Right

2009-03-13T17:39:00.004-05:00

December 5, 2008 I wrote in this space

"I think once President-elect Obama takes office and the new House & Senate are in place, you will suddenly see some "surprising" good economic news, though I, for one, will not be surprised to find out that economic problems were overblown in an election year - please excuse my cynicism."

53 days after the inauguration, the President declared that the national crisis is “not as bad as we think.” (Atlanta Journal & Constitution)

I actually thought it would take longer than it did.

Then there was this: In December I said

"Sometimes the best "change" is going back to what worked in the past. Cue FDR: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." You know, if President Obama were to simply re-read FDR's 1932 inaugural address in January 2009, he would gain the support of millions in an instant. People forget some of the other great lines in that speech, such as: "'These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.'"

And today I read:

"Fear begets fear," and that "is the paradox at the heart of the financial crisis," Lawrence Summers, the president's director of the National Economic Council, told a forum.
"It is this transition from an excess of greed to an excess of fear that President Roosevelt had in mind when he famously observed that the only thing we had to fear was fear itself," Summers said. "It is this transition that has happened in the United States today." (Fox News)

I swear they read my blog in DC.

NCLB is an Abomination

2009-03-10T09:00:00.002-05:00

President Obama made is first speech devoted to Education today.

CBS News has a full transcript

Last night at the School Board Meeting, we passed a resolution calling on the Federal government to reform the No Child Left Behind abomination. I was encouraged to hear the President say:

And I am calling on our nation’s Governors and state education chiefs to develop standards and assessments that don’t simply measure whether students can fill in a bubble on a test, but whether they possess 21st century skills like problem-solving and critical thinking, entrepreneurship and creativity. That is what we will help them do later this year when we finally make No Child Left Behind live up to its name by ensuring not only that teachers and principals get the funding they need, but that the money is tied to results.

I'll be watching and waiting for "later this year" to see some specifics. He came out strongly for merit-pay for teachers. Again, we'll see what the specifics look like...

The time for holding ourselves accountable is here. What’s required is not simply new investments, but new reforms. It is time to expect more from our students. It is time to start rewarding good teachers and stop making excuses for bad ones. It is time to demand results from government at every level. It is time to prepare every child, everywhere in America, to out-compete any worker, anywhere in the world. It is time to give all Americans a complete and competitive education from the cradle up through a career.

How about a shout out for local control of the school calendar?

We can no longer afford an academic calendar designed when America was a nation of farmers who needed their children at home plowing the land at the end of each day. That calendar may have once made sense, but today, it puts us at a competitive disadvantage. Our children spend over a month less in school than children in South Korea. That is no way to prepare them for a 21st century economy. That is why I’m calling for us not only to expand effective after-school programs, but to rethink the school day to incorporate more time – whether during the summer or through expanded-day programs for children who need it.

Are you listening in St Paul? Apparently not, since you have once again knuckled under to the special-interests and mandated that school not start before Labor Day. Seoul is laughing at St Paul.

I was also encouraged to see that someone from the new administration reads this blog. Back in December I wrote an open letter entitled "the Fate of Empires Depends on the Education of Youth" that was also published in the Waconia Patriot on January 9. Today the President said, "Let there be no doubt: the future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens - and my fellow Americans, we have everything we need to be that nation." Welcome aboard, sir!

The man promised change. We shall see what he delivers.

2009-03-07T11:04:00.002-06:00

Its Hard to be Non-Partisan

2009-03-04T06:00:00.003-06:00

When one files the necessary paperwork to declare one's candidacy for the School Board in Minnesota, one is not required to declare a political party affiliation. This is not true in all 50 states, and I am not sure when or why the decision was made in Minnesota.

It is naive to think that just because no party affiliation is listed on the ballot that the people who seek and are elected to these seats have no political leanings. Indeed, I would not want such disinterested people overseeing our school systems. Anyone who thinks that "non-partisan" means "non-political," should think again.

It is difficult for me, therefore, as one with strong political interests to watch the events in St Paul and in Washington DC, and be non-partisan. If the words "conservative" or "Republican" had appeared next to my name on the ballot, would I have gotten more votes in 2006, or less? Am I to put my personal beliefs aside just because I did not have to first be nominated by a party organization in order to get my name on the ballot? I think not.

So while I recognize the economic realities facing our community, school district, state and country - indeed the world, I refuse to pretend that I agree with the approach our government is taking to deal with the problem. Even if it means a few more shekels for next year's school district budget.

Spending nearly a trillion dollars on pork projects under the guise of economic stimulus is irresponsible. This is money that the people who are spending it will never have to pay back. If they actually had to pay for all of this stuff, they wouldn't be so eager to spend the money in the first place. I call it political myopia.

It's not their money they are spending - the government doesn' t have any money of their own, they have to tax you and me to get it. In this case, they will have to tax people who haven't been born yet in order to pay for this "stimulus" package, which has not and will not "fix" what is wrong with the economy.

Last November the media and the other party told us that America had voted for "change." So far the only change I have seen in Washington is from traditional tax & spend liberalism to a "new" philosophy of spend, then tax. Now that the "stimulus" bill has passed and been signed, suddenly there is a budget crisis which needs to be addressed with tax increases. This is not a change I can detect - this is the same old song & dance. To camouflage this behind "fiscal responsibility" is unconscionable.

So far the only change I have seen in Washington is from traditional tax & spend liberalism to a "new" philosophy of spend, then tax.

The more I learn about the money set aside for school districts, the less I like it. Certainly public education needs budget help, but lets not saddle the grandkids of today's students with the bill, and lets not pretend these dollars aren't tied to liberal social-engineering and wealth-redistribution projects.

Why not pump some money into the schools that can be spent on education? Instead of giving us a portion of what is needed based on the poverty levels in our district. Is the message that we should try to attract more poor people to Waconia if we want more funding? What sense does that make? It has never made sense to me and I am afraid it never will.

Elected office is a sacred trust. I was elected to be a caretaker of School District 110, and to the best of my ability make sure that it is in better condition when I hand it over to the next person elected to my seat on the Board. The President of the United States and the Speaker of the House would do well to remember this.

Local Control - or "hey nosey, butt out!"

2009-02-18T11:59:00.001-06:00

Politics: Competing entities in conflict over their interests.

In 2009, Labor Day falls on September 7 - as late as it possibly can on the calendar. MN§120.A says that school cannot begin before Labor Day.

I'm not certain why the Legislature felt it necessary to mandate what day school can/cannot start. I understand there are some competing interests, that would like to keep the summer tourist season (resorts, gas sales for RVs and boats, etc) open as long as possible before the kids have to go back to school. I understand the State Fair is concerned that attendance will be down if schools were allowed to open early.

I understand the concern, but I don't agree with their politics. The school calendar should be determined by the local school board, not lobyists and special-interest groups. The State Fair asked the Faribault County Commission to pass a resolution pressuring the school board to open after Labor Day.

Wow, talk about convoluted! The Fair board pressuring the County board to pressure the School Board. This is all assuming that the State Legislature would allow it in the first place.

Back to the original issue, why isn't it up to local school boards to determine when school starts? Waconia's start date will not have a significant impact on the State's economy - heck if the doom-n-gloomers are to be believed, by September we'll all be in soup lines instead of cheese curd lines anyway.

In these challenging budget times, all options should be on the table - districts are considering a four-day week, starting school earlier or later in the day, and examining all programs to see if they can be supported. This is a hard enough job without all of the madates from the state and federal governments muddying the waters.

And now that the State Fair is playing some dirty pool, what is next? A resolution to reduce the carbon footprint of the number 2 pencil?

In District 110 we have approved two versions of the school calendar: one that starts classes on September 8th, assuming that the corndog-dairy princess-tractor pull Axis will successfully lobby in St Paul, and one that starts classes on August 31.

Let local Districts decide! Its our job.

The Good News and the Bad News

2009-02-10T06:00:00.005-06:00

First off, let me start with the good news for the taxpayers, I don't want it to get lost in the mix. The Board heard in the Finance Report that the January sale of the re-funding bonds went better than expected, and the projected savings to the district is now $2.2 million over the life of the bonds, which means that the cost to taxpayers will decrease by $182,000 each year. That is a little money back in your pocket.

UPDATE 2/16: Waconia Patriot article

One of the other pieces of business the Board conducted last night was a discussion of and a resolution calling for budget-cut recommendations, and I voted in favor of it - it passed 7-0. However, I know a resolution like this sounds alarming, and it is.

UPDATE 2/16: Waconia Patriot article

First, the Board has been watching the money situation very closely. Don't get the impression that this resolution is a sudden revelation - we know the economy is down, population growth is slowing, and funding is on all of our minds. We didn't just wake up to the reality that we might need to make some cuts, in fact I have been watching other districts to see how they react (see below).

Second, the resolution doesn't say that we will be making cuts, or what they might affect, or how much; it simply directs the superintendent to bring the board some recommendations. We are beginning a long process of examining how to make ends meet over the next two school years - and there is still a lot of uncertainty. We will work through it, but it very early in the process, so it is too early to be overly concerned about cutting your favorite teacher, program, or project at this stage.

You should know two things from my perspective: I don't support raising taxes or deficit spending.

One of the things I have been working on is lobbying our State Senators and Representatives to protect Education spending from the looming budget cuts at the Capitol. I have spoken with a few of them, emailed them all, and will be meeting with some in the near future.

According to Pete Willcoxon, executive director of business services for the White Bear Lake schools, school costs have climbed by an average of 3.4 percent annually, while funding has lagged behind at only 1.5 percent a year since 1993. We have to figure out how to fix this, or districts will continue to have funding problems regardless of the economy.

We are not alone...These are just some of the districts examining mid-year budget cuts, or projected cuts for next year:

St Paul - $25 million: Star Tribune
Lakeville - $10 million: Sun Newspapers
Rochester - $9.3 million: Post-Bulletin
Burnsville - $9 million?: Sun Newspapers
Eden Prairie - $7.2 million: Sun Newspapers
Forest Lake - $6 million over two years: Star-Tribune
West St. Paul-Mendota Heights-Eagan - $2.2 million: Star-Tribune
Robbinsdale - closing 3 schools to save $2 million a year: Star Tribune Fox9
Spring Lake Park - $1.5 million: ABC Newspapers
Chisago - $1.2 million: Chisago County Press
Farmington - $1.2 million: This Week Newspapers
N. St Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale - $1 million: Pioneer Press
Nashwauk-Keewatin - $1 million: Hibbing Daily Tribune
Crookston - $1 million: Daily Times
Litchfield - $894,000: Independent Review
Breckenridge - $700,000: Daily News
Sleepy Eye - $450,000/year for 2 years: Journal
Jordan - $440,000 in cuts for 2009-2010: Star Tribune, Jordan Independent
Winona - $3-400,000: Daily News, Daily News
Blooming Prairie - $300,000: Owatanna.com
Sleepy Eye - $450,000/year for 2 years: Journal

So for now, hang in there, and we will work through this together - with the same commitment to providing the highest quality education while remaining fiscally responsible.

Freedom of Speech - Blogging

2009-02-05T16:00:00.001-06:00

Students sometimes complain about their teachers. I know this may come as a shock, but it is true.

Avery Doninger used her blog to express her frustration with school administration at Lewis S. Mills High School in Burlington, Connecticut for canceling Jamfest 2007 - an annual battle of the school bands. She was [angry] and called them [a derogatory term] on the internet, and they banned her from serving on student government.

A new bill introduced into the Connecticut legislature by Gary D. LeBeau (a teacher for 35 years) would ban "punishing students for the content of electronic correspondence transmitted outside of school facilities or with school equipment, provided such content is not a threat to students, personnel or the school."

In other words, you have the right to an opinion, and the right to express that opinion, and according to a 1969 Supreme Court decision, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District, "Students do not shed their rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.''

The Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that a school principal can restrict the speech of a student who isn't even on school grounds. In Morse v. Frederick -- the so-called "Bong Hits for Jesus" case -- involved a student hanging an off-color banner across the street from his school during a school event.

It is the Internet age, folks, and this behavior is not new. Try a Google search for "George Bush is [a derogatory term]" and you will get a million hits. These people and companies insulted the President of the United States and did not get punished, but a 16 year old girl insulted her school Principal and did.

Freedom of Speech is what it is. Much of what people say is disagreeable, but they have a right to say it. Personally, I think Ms. Doninger's choice of words was vulgar, and even she admits it was "not her finest moment," and her mother wishes should would have"used more sophisticated language." but she has a right to say what she said.

The only problem I have with the proposed Connecticut legislation is the phrase "or with school equipment." You may have to allow people to express their opinion, but I don't think the school should be forced to let hem use school computers to do so. This part seems misguided and needs to be removed.

Be very cautious when they try to put limits on your rights....

FoxNews
The Torrington Register Citizen editorial
Hartford Courant
Journal-Inquirer

2009-01-29T10:00:00.002-06:00

"...as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."

Leonard Sanborn - June 3, 1916 - January 21, 2009

Rest in Peace, Grandpa

Somewhere Between Harvard and McDonald's

2009-01-21T06:00:00.004-06:00

As President Obama said in his inauguration speech on Tuesday,

"...there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act - not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. "

But who will do the work? By 2010, the American Welding Society predicts a possible shortage of more than 200,000 skilled welders and metal fabricators. (San Fernando Valley Business Journal, July 7, 2008.) With the shortage of welders, pipe fitters and other high-demand workers likely to get worse as more of them reach retirement age, unions, construction contractors and other businesses are trying to figure out how to attract more young people to those fields. (Wall Street Journal, August 19, 2008.)

It seems American pop culture has developed an aversion to hard work. During the immigration-reform debate in 2006 it was touted as fact that we depended on illegal immigrants to do "jobs Americans won't." As a country we need to re-examine the value we place on labor. Not just glitzy flashy pretty labor that we see on TV - lawyers and fashion designers, doctors and ad execs - but plumbers and carpenters and mechanics.

Adam Smith posited that labor is the only real measure of the value of other commodities, and that the true price of something is measured by the labor expended to produce it. I translate this for my own kids "if it is worth having, it is worth working for." Nothing is free, certainly not labor.

Our community is blessed with a high level of education. Somewhere around 80% of adult residents of Waconia can claim "Some college" or higher on the census survey, so they have the same high expectations for their children. I went to college, and am still going to graduate school, and I want the same for my kids someday. But lets not forget that something like 60% of high school graduates enroll in college (NCES), and of those, less than half will complete a four-year degree; and somwhere around 25% of American jobs actually require a four-year degree. What happens to the rest? Well, most of them go out and go to WORK FOR A LIVING - and not all of them make a career of fast food or retail.

What I am getting at is that America needs to provide opportunities and encouragement for our students somewhere between Harvard and McDonald's. There are many noble career choices that do not involve a mortarboard, joining a secret society, or pledging a frat. But when was the last time you saw a plumber on TV without a huge beer gut and his butt-crack showing? We glamorize those who work the least, and demonize honest, hard-working people and it needs to stop. Now!

Our kids need to know they are not failures if they don't go to law school. Be an electrician. Be a pipe-fitter. Welders and shipbuilders are nice people too, and while road construction doesn't seem very fun in Minnesota in January, over 13% of bridges across the USA are structurally deficient (FHWA), and somebody needs to get to work fixing them. The energy industry is growing at a fierce rate, and that means a great opportunity for oil-field workers, electricians, plumbers, and other skilled, handy, smart Americans. Popular Mechanics has identified their top-10 infrastructure that need to be fixed immediately. Who will do the work?

I am quite sure that if a 15-year-old walks into the guidance office at WHS, and declares that they want to be a HVAC technician or a steelworker when they grow up, that we can put them on the right path to fulfilling that goal. I wonder though, if we do enough to help them explore these "middle skill" career choices in the first place. According to the national Skills2Compete Campaign, 45% of America’s "good" jobs require only a certification or and associate degree earned at a community or technical college, and not a four-year degree (New Hampshire Business Review).

Much of the education for these skilled-trades jobs is supplied through the trade unions and their apprenticeship programs. These are a great thing for a young adult, in my opinion. They can work and learn a trade, while getting paid and building a future. There are scholarships available, work-study programs and other fantastic opportunities, and no shortage of demand for these valuable skills.

"WORK should not be treated as a four-letter word."

Kids need to know that it is OK to get their hands dirty. OK to wear coveralls to work. OK to put in a hard day's honest work for an honest wage. OK wear steel-toe shoes instead of wingtips. OK to build and rebuild America's backbone. "Jobs Americans won't do" is a load of B.S.. WORK should not be treated as a four-letter word.

As a school district, we expend a vast amount of effort preparing kids to go to college, to take college-prep courses, PSEO, ACTs, SATs, etc etc. I don't want to discourage anyone from going after a four-year degree. The world needs teachers, accountants, engineers and social workers, too. All I'm saying is there is no shame in being a postal worker, farmer, truck driver, or auto mechanic, and we should stop pretending that there is. America has always had opportunities for those willing to work hard. And I believe it always will.

The new President says "we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age," I believe him and I mean to hold him to it. There needs to be a radical shift in our thinking, beginning with funding, but following through to supplying labor to meet the demands of tomorrow. We have a tall order - training people for jobs that do not yet exist - but also for the jobs that do exist.

Now, if you will excuse me, I have to get back to work.

UPDATE 1/28/09: Rethink the Value of College, Christian Science Monitor

In The News This Week 1/16/09

2009-01-16T08:00:00.000-06:00

Enrollment Projections are down: Waconia Patriot
Comment: the fiscal conservative in me says we should be projecting zero growth. That might not be realistic, but I would rather err on the low side, than have to slash the budget later.

Board elects new chair person: Waconia Patriot
Comment: This didn't make the newspaper, but I proposed that the Board take a symbolic pay cut in recognition of the current economic situation. It didn't have support enough to pass (the vote was 5-2 for keeping the same pay). Cuts are happening all over the state in other districts (see below), and even though the dollars aren't much (Board members are grossly underpaid), the gesture is a good one I think.
Sartell-St Stephens cut Board pay by 20%: SC Times article.
St Cloud cut Board pay by 10%: SC Times article.
Watertown-Mayer pay cuts: Carver County News.

Two Waconia teachers conquer Mt Aconcagua: Star-Tribune, WCCO, Waconia Patriot
Comment: Words cannot express how proud I am of these two teachers, not just for the accomplishment of climbing the mountain, but for having the presence to use the technology to share the journey with all of us.

Follow-up from yesterday's post about Washington State saying OK to sex between teachers and students (file under "apparently I'm not the only one..."): Fox News

"I'm shocked and surprised," Connie Severson told FOXNews.com. "They're going to be teaching our students and the last thing you want is sexual relations on their mind."
Severson, whose son Stephan is a junior at Hoquiam High School, said the ruling has "opened up the eyes of other parents" in the district.

"This shouldn't be OK," she said. "They are teachers. Every one of them should know better."

Severson said the ruling could dissuade parents from enrolling their children within the Hoquiam school district.

"I'm hoping from a parent's perspective that when my daughter is 18 and dating that she's not having a relationship with her teacher," she said. "This is not college, it's not a university, this is high school."

Governor Pawlenty's State-of-the-State address: Rochester Post-Bulletin
Highlights:

Any government entity receiving money from the state -- cities, schools, counties -- should freeze wages for two years.
Restrict labor laws that allow public school teachers to strike.
Cap state university and college tuition and make a push for more online classes.
Push for Q Comp, an alternative pay system for teachers, across the entire state.
Tie additional school funding to student performance.

Comment: Wow - some good stuff here. I was pleased to see "cut education spending" was not on the list. I think a wage freeze might be palatable, especially if it means we can avoid huge cuts and layoffs. I also like the Governor's approach of rewarding high-performing teachers and districts rather than the NCLB approach of punishing the low-performers.

Minnesota Miracle - not dead yet: Pioneer Press
Comment: none

Wait...what?!?

2009-01-15T06:00:00.001-06:00

(Disclaimer: this post is rated PG)

I had to re-read the headline three times.

It says, "Wash. court: Sex between teachers, 18-year-olds OK"

Ok, it's Fox News. Maybe it is sensationalized a bit. I'll go to the source, the Seattle Times. "Teacher-student sex ban doesn't always apply, appeals court rules"

So apparently, it is not against the law in Washington for a teacher to have sex with a student as long as they are 18 years old. Normally I'm not a guy who cares who you have sex with. But I have a problem with preachers having sex with members of their church, and teachers/administrators/coaches having sex with students. UPDATE 1/22/09: Mayors and interns should be included, too. (FoxNews)

I have more than a problem with it. The State might say it is legal (and they write the laws, so they are likely correct), but it's wrong. I think if you need/want to have sex with a student that badly, you should resign as a teacher first. Then you are just two adults doing whatever you do in your bedroom. Seriously. There are over 5 billion people in the world, and you choose one of your students?

If you want to be on the school payroll, don't. End of discussion. There are a long list of things you can't do to/with/about/around a student. Shouldn't i n t e r c o u r s e be one of them?

Try on this logic for a minute. The law prohibits you from discussing the grades or medical conditions or any personal information about a student, but its perfectly fine to ummm....yeah. So heaven forbid a teacher might say, "Sally got a B+" if the wrong people are listening...clap him in irons!!! But take Sally home for an all-night discussion of Nabokov, and everything's fine! (at least in Washington state)

Since I read this story only yesterday, I concede I might have missed some bizarre set of circumstances that might be duct-taped together to somehow justify a teacher having sex with a student outside of a Van Halen song. If you think so, please by all means let me know. And if you are a teacher who is seriously considering a relationship with a student, please get some help, and for heaven's sake, wait until after graduation.

Really, I'm not that much of a prude. Some things are just wrong, and this is one of them.