Despite Employment Rates, Obama Declares That The US Is Not In Decline

"Good subjects must feel guilty. The guilt begins as a feeling of failure. The good autocrat provides many opportunities for failure in the populace." –Frank Herbert, Children of Dune

Chicago teacher strike. Neoliberalism: "There is freedom in drawing a line in the sand. For too long now, teachers have known that they were participating in something cruel." .... Deal tomorrow? "Under the [new] proposal, teacher raises would be structured differently, as requested by the union; evaluations of tenured teachers during the first year could not result in dismissal; later evaluations could be appealed; and health insurance rates would hold steady if the union agreed to take part in a wellness program. The new proposal also removes the district's ability to rescind raises because of an economic crisis. The board stripped teachers of a 4 percent raise last year, sparking union distrust of the mayor." ... Deal: " But given where the two sides started, it looks to me as though Mayor Rahm Emanuel's team has moved further than the CTU." ... Testing: "These days it is unusual to find an editorial or opinion column asking whether the tests were designed to measure teacher quality. They were not. Frankly, the test publishers ought to be yelling bloody murder about the inappropriate use of the tests, but they are making so much money that it's hard to hear their complaints or to expect them." ... Testing: "[T]here's not a lot of research that says the key to better-educated students lies in holding teachers accountable for numbers that were never designed to judge their performance." ... Newark: "'You have members who look at the news," [Joe Del Grosso, the Newark Teachers Union president] said. 'If the teachers there prevail in their way, the teachers here would want to prevail here, also. It's just human nature.'"

AK. Climate: "King salmon fisheries in major Alaska watersheds have been declared failures by the U.S. Department of Commerce, making commercial fishermen eligible for disaster relief. The reason for the poor returns [from the ocean for spawning] remains unknown but researchers continue to suspect ocean factors."

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