Featured Stories
K12 Inc’s “96% satisfaction rating* from parents” is 87% bunkum*
May 12, 2012
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by David Safier
[*Source of "87% bunkum" figure: I pulled it out of my own head.]
The for-profit, publicly traded online education corporation, K12 Inc., expends a great deal of effort recruiting new students. With a "churn rate" (students who leave each year) close to 33%, it has to replace a third of its students every year just to stay even, and it also needs to grow to make a profit. The corporation is known for resorting to all kinds of high pressure, deceptive practices to lure and keep students — the kind of behavior that makes me question whether K-12 Inc. has the ethical integrity needed to educate students successfully.
I recently ran across an online ad for Arizona Virtual Academy that proclaims, "96% satisfaction rating* from parents." See that asterix in the statement? Follow it to the bottom of the page and you find, "*Source: K-3 Experience Survey, TRC."
The survey by TRC Market Research, which advertises it tailors its research to meet a company's needs, only includes parents of very young children, not the entire K-12 population of the schools, something you only learn by reading the fine print no one reads. It's likely parents of younger children are going to find the online environment more satisfactory than parents who have to take responsibility for the education of their older children. But even so, it's hard for me to believe, with a churn rate of 33% — probably lower for the early grades — only 4% of parents would be dissatisfied. There had to be a far larger number of unhappy campers.
That 96% satisfaction figure has an interesting history in K12 Inc. literature. More below the fold.
Imagine Schools take more hits
May 12, 2012
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by David Safier This isn't local news, unless you acknowledge that the justly maligned, for profit Imagine Charter Schools corporation runs 14 schools in Arizona. Six Imagine Schools in St. Louis were closed by the state because of their students' shamefully low test scores, leaving 3,800 students with no place to go. Of course, the … Read more
New Obama campaign ad: ‘Reverse’
May 11, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Remember how bad things were? Do we really want to reverse course now?
The Obama campaign released a new ad on Thursday about job creation titled "Reverse." The ad is airing in Florida. Hmmm, that chart looks familiar.
Video below the fold.
Fact Checking the mendacity of ‘Mittens’
May 11, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Time once again for Steve Benen's weekly fact checking of the pathological liar Willard "Mittens" Romney. Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity, Vol. XVII:
As the 2012 presidential campaign advances, impatience with Mitt Romney's penchant for falsehoods grows. Jamelle Bouie this week reflected on the the fact that "the former Massachusetts governor has no use for honesty in his campaign."
"Constant mendacity is the norm for Romney and his campaign, and odds are good that he won't suffer for it," Bouie wrote. "Campaign reporters don't have a strong incentive to challenge him on his misrepresentations, and interested parties have a hard time dealing with the deluge."
And yet, we remain undeterred, as evidenced by the 17th installment of my weekly series, chronicling Mitt's mendacity.
1. At an event in Euclid, Ohio, Romney argued, "We will not forget the fact that when [President Obama] was putting in place $787 billion of borrowing in his first few months in office that he said the borrowing would keep the unemployment rate below 8%."
That's a popular claim for Romney, but it's completely untrue.
2. Romney said in the same remarks the only reason the unemployment rate dropped from 10% to 8.1% is "because of the people that dropped out of the work force."
That's demonstrably false.
3. At the event, Romney also said of the president, "[H]is vision is that it is ok for a small business to raise taxes from 35% to 40% of small businesses."
In reality, Obama has cut taxes on small businesses, and raising the top income tax rate would not adversely affect small businesses, no matter how often Republicans argue to the contrary.
4. Romney added, "You know, the number of ships in the U.S. Navy is smaller than any time since 1917."
This one again? Romney dropped this lie a while ago, but it's apparently back.
5. Romney went on to say, "Let me tell you, we will take America in a very different place. He is taking America on a path towards Europe and Europe is not working there. It will not work here."
The irony is, Europe is trying to grow through austerity, just as Romney intends to do here. He's lying in a self-refuting sort of way.
6. Romney also argued, "Syria is Iran's source of access to the Mediterranean."
Iran doesn't share a border with Syria.
7. Romney said of the American auto industry, "I'll take a lot of credit for the fact that this industry's come back."
Pete Hershberger on Barber, Kelly
May 11, 2012
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by David Safier We LD-26-ers certainly remember Pete Hershberger as our moderate Republican state rep who was chased out of office by the right wing that took over his party. Al Melvin beat him in a Senate primary, and the rest is part of our shameful history. Hershberger is still a Republican and still a … Read more
My solid gold, 2003 Maine quarter
May 11, 2012
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by David Safier I got a gold quarter in change yesterday. Curious, I went on eBay. Complete sets of 33 gold Commemorative Quarters are selling for $239.95 — or at least that's the asking price. A quick google search tells me these Franklin Mint-type gold plated quarters are absolutely genuine and worth about 25 cents … Read more
Congressional races shake up
May 11, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: David Crowe, the Republican-cum-Democrat who first ran for the U.S. Senate and then decided to challenge Congressman Raúl Grijalva in the new CD 3 Democratic primary, has decided to drop out of the race and endorse conservadem former state Sen. Amanda Aguirre. Raul Grijalva challenger David Crowe Robles drops out. As I've … Read more
Extreme Makeover: ‘E Coli Conservatism’ and Jesse Kelly: the pro-salmonella candidate
May 11, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
As I posted yesterday in Extreme Makeover: Jesse Kelly 2.0, "Blog for Arizona is going to go back through our posts from 2010 and repost some of them to demonstrate the "extreme makeover" the RNCC is doing to make Jesse Kelly 2.0 appear more palatable to voters in 2012."
Here is one of my favorites from 2010 (repost). "E Coli Conservatism" and Jesse Kelly: the pro-salmonella candidate:
Steve Benen at The Washington Monthly takes a look at Republican Jesse Kelly in Arizona's Congressional District 8:
Over the summer, there was a major egg recall, following at least 1,300 salmonella-related illnesses spanning 22 states over the summer. The Washington Post reported in August that the outbreak highlights the need to fix "the holes in the country's food safety net."
That truth was hard to deny, and even harder to ignore. As we learned more about the story, we saw that the salmonella problems stemmed from an uninspected producer in Iowa, with a record of health, safety, labor, and other violations that go back 20 years. The need for better regulations and enforcement has been obvious for decades, but conservative, anti-regulatory lawmakers have consistently put industry profits above public safety.
With this in mind, [Think Progress has a story] that's so astounding, it's almost hard to believe.
Although there are a diverse set of political beliefs in the United States, there are currently two major political philosophies clashing for control of the American body politic. One, the progressive view, believes in a society where a democratically elected government plays an active role in helping all people achieve the American Dream, no matter who they are. The other, the conservative vision, believes in the on-your-own-society that favors the wealthy, big corporations, and other privileged sectors of society.
GOP House candidate Jesse Kelly, who is running in Arizona's 8th congressional district, championed this second vision a week ago at a campaign rally hosted by the Pima County Tea Party Patriots. During a question-and-answer period, a voter asked Kelly about the recent salmonella outbreak, which led to recall of more than half a billion eggs.
