Tag Archives: We Don’t Need No Education

Revenue-Hungry States Canceling Back-To-School Sales Tax Holidays

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“[Massachusetts] isn’t the only state to forgo its sales-tax holiday in order to raise additional funds. Kansas, North Carolina, Nebraska, Rhode Island and Wisconsin, state legislators are among those that have also decided against holding new tax holidays or reinstating them during the last few years. ITEP estimates that state and local governments that retain the holidays will lose out on more than $300 million in revenue due to the holidays this year. Those losses in revenue come as states are also poised to see aggregate tax revenue growth below 4 percent this year, down from 5.5 percent in 2015, according to Moody’s Investors Service.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-04/tax-free-back-to-school-shopping-over-as-states-cancel-reprieves

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UK reviews home schooling amid fears children are being ‘radicalised’

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“It is unclear how many children and young adults are being home schooled but it is thought to be in the region of 20,000 to 50,000.  Parents do not have to inform their council that they are educating their children at home, leaving the government in the dark about the number of kids at risk of radicalisation through education at home. ‘For every parent doing a brilliant job, there may be someone filling their child’s mind with poison. We just don’t know. We don’t have reliable figures,’ the source said.  The Education Secretary’s new approach comes after the announcement of an investigation into the activities of unregistered schools and madrassahs.”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3367640/Home-schooling-20-000-children-country-reviewed-amid-fears-radicalised-parents.html

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“Don’t Be a Puppet”: New FBI CVE Tool Targets Young People

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“Don’t Be a Puppet, the game developed by the FBI, ‘leads the viewer through a series of games and tips intended to teach students how to identify someone who may be falling prey to radical extremists. With each successful answer, scissors cut a puppet’s string, until the puppet is free.’  The game asks students to identify the types of social media activities that ‘should raise alarm.’ ‘Among the choices were a person posting about a plan to attend a political event, or someone with an Arabic name posting about going on ‘a mission’ overseas. The correct answer was the posting with the Arabic name,’ Goodstein described.”

http://bordc.org/news/dont-be-a-puppet-new-fbi-cve-tool-targets-young-people/

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Chicago Public Schools’ pain is these financial firms’ gain

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“Struggling to make payments for pensions and pay down billions of dollars in debt, the Chicago Public Schools last week announced 1,050 layoffs and $200 million in spending cuts to keep the school system afloat.  Dozens of financial and legal firms have been paid $18.1 million in fees from CPS borrowing and debt-refinancing deals since 2011, according to records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.  CPS still owes billions on borrowing deals dating to the mid-1990s, when then-Mayor Richard M. Daley took formal control of the school system, which then began renovating and building schools using borrowed money.”

http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/7/71/740413/watchdogs-cps-bond-fees

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WV teacher threatened with fine for violating Obama school snack rules

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“The Williamson PreK-8 teacher, who was not identified, would give her students ‘wrapped candy’ as a reward for their hard work and good behavior.  Because the practice was an alleged violation of the federal rules championed by first lady Michelle Obama, Mingo County Schools Director of Child Nutrition Kay Maynard ‘placed a call to officials at the West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) to report the incident,’ the Williamson Daily News reports.  Maynard also spoke to Williamson PreK-8 principal Shannon Blackburn, telling him about the possibility of a monetary fine for the teacher.  When news spread, parents and students mobilized, collecting pennies to pay the potential fine.”

http://eagnews.org/wv-teacher-threatened-with-fine-for-violating-michelle-os-school-snack-rules/

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Helpful Hackers vs. College Regulators

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“In January 2014, California’s Bureau of Private Postsecondary Education (BPPE) sent warning letters to at least a half dozen local coding programs. According to VentureBeat, which first reported on the letters, the coding academies were given two weeks to ‘start coming into compliance’ with BPPE regulations. If they didn’t, they risked $50,000 fines and forced closure.  But the supervision these agencies provide also comes with significant costs. In addition to all the paperwork the academies must complete, there will be financial obligations as well: A $5,000 application fee, plus 0.75 percent of their annual tuition revenues, capped at $25,000.”

http://reason.com/archives/2015/04/09/helpful-hackers-vs-college-reg

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Elon Musk starts his own small, secretive school without grade levels

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“The school is called Ad Astra — which means ‘To the stars’ — and is small and relatively secretive. It doesn’t have its own website or a social media presence.  Christina Simon, who writes about private elementary schools in Los Angeles, has done some digging around Ad Astra.  She says she’s been in contact with a mother whose child attends Musk’s school. The mother told Simon that the relatively new Ad Astra School is ‘very small and experimental,’ and caters to a small group of children whose parents are primarily SpaceX employees.  Musk says in the interview that Ad Astra, which is a year old, currently has 14 kids and will increase to 20 in September.”

http://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-creates-a-grade-school-2015-5

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I Wish My Job Didn’t Exist

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“I was not hired to teach students, perform research or help our students become better leaders. But without my work, many of our students would not be able to enroll in our university.  My work entails keeping Norwich out of trouble with many regulations, such as the Clery Act, FERPA, and Title IX, but I’d like to focus on perhaps the most maddening set of regulations—those pertaining to online education. Over the last four years, Norwich has spent over $500,000, a figure that includes my salary, fees paid to states, surety bonds, agent permits, registered agents, and travel costs. Not one cent had any educational value.”

http://fee.org/anythingpeaceful/detail/i-wish-my-job-didnt-exist

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Australian public programming questions value of reading to children

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“‘Evidence shows that the difference between those who get bedtime stories and those who don’t — the difference in their life chances — is bigger than the difference between those who get elite private schooling and those that don’t,’ British academic Adam Swift told ABC presenter Joe Gelonesi.  Swift said parents should be mindful of the advantage provided by bedtime reading.  ‘I don’t think parents reading their children bedtime stories should constantly have in their minds the way that they are unfairly disadvantaging other people’s children, but I think they should have that thought occasionally,’ he said.”

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/reading-to-children-at-bedtime-abc-questions-value-of-time-honoured-practice/story-fni0cx12-1227335151442

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It’s time to talk about the role of police in our public schools

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“Possession of nicotine or a tobacco product by a minor is, by all accounts, a minor infraction. In Ohio, it carries the penalty of a $100 fine, having to attend a tobacco education program, or both.  Or, as they used to do in my high school, authorities would just take it away from you. Case closed.  But that’s not what happened here. The 16-year-old student was arrested on charges of resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and given a smoking citation. He was also reportedly given a 10-day suspension, which the school later said it had reversed after video of the incident went viral.”

http://fusion.net/story/120936/its-time-to-talk-about-the-role-of-police-in-our-public-schools/

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