UPDATE: Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to Become Law
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Last Friday the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (HR 12, S 181) passed the Senate on a vote of 61-36, surpassing the obstructionist Republicans' attempt at a filibuster by invoking the cloture rule. Wage-equity bill sails through Senate Advertisement All 16 female senators — including four Republicans — voted for the bill. … Read more
A face-off with the Goldwater Institute in the comments
by David Safier I'm pleased to say that Matthew Ladner of the Goldwater Institute found my first column about some of his assertions (Fool's Gold: Cut teachers, improve schools) provocative enough he was moved to answer me in the Comments section beneath the post. Then I commented on his comment. Then he commented on my comment-on-his-comment. … Read more
Budget update from Rep. Steve Farley
by David Safier Tuesday's Farley Report hit my email. It's all budget, all the time this week. Here are some excerpts. Speaker Adams just confirmed on the floor that we will likely be calling a special session by tomorrow in which all normal committees are cancelled and we will focus on the adoption of the … Read more
Time to join Education Anonymous?
by David Safier The NY Times has an article about $150 billion for education in the stimulus plan. Frederick Hess, a conservative educator with the American Enterprise Institute, doesn't like the idea. School districts have to learn to live with less cash for schools, he says. If property tax revenues are down, schools need to … Read more
More Fool’s Gold: Schools don’t need money. Kids don’t need pre-K
by David Safier Here are more gems from the Goldwater Institute: money doesn't matter much in education, and providing early childhood education doesn't have much lasting educational value. In Dan Lips' words, from a Fool's Gold email blast: · Past experience shows that more K-12 spending does not significantly improve educational performance. · Federal early childhood education programs have not … Read more
An Inheritance of Ashes
by Karl Reiner The Congressional Budget Office estimates the federal budget deficit for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2009 at $1.2 trillion. That amounts to $4,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States. The rapidly soaring deficit is one of the many unresolved issues the Obama administration has inherited from the … Read more
Arizona budget woes make Huffington Post
by David Safier Beginning with the headline, Napolitano Departs, AZ GOP Cannibalizes Education to Meet Budget Shortfall, Dawn Teo tells the saga of the Arizona budget on HuffPo in detail, all the way to Paul Eckerstrom's becoming Chair of the AZ Dem Party. She ends the story with this quote from Eckerstrom's speech: As Democrats, … Read more
