When “Comparable” School Funding Isn’t Equal Funding

by David Safier (TASL) In many school districts around the country, “comparable school funding” means that schools in high rent neighborhoods get more money than those serving poor students. I don’t know if this is true in Arizona in general or here in Tucson, but it’s something that needs to be looked into. To understand … Read more

Sheila Tobias Helped Pave the Way for Gender Equality in Math

by David Safier It gives me a great deal of pleasure to see that we’ve reached an important educational milestone in the U.S. The gap in math performance between males and females has been wiped out. So says the National Science Foundation’s study of boys’ and girls’ scores on standardized math tests, which showed no … Read more

Sha Na Na? Who Wudda Thunk

by David Safier For those of you who haven’t heard of or don’t remember Sha Na Na, it was a popular rock group in the 1970s whose members acted as if they were a doo-wop group from the fifties, complete with retro clothes, hair styles and attitudes. If any group epitomized street corner proletariat rock-and-roll … Read more

Why Is It Called a “Station Wagon?”

Have you ever tossed and turned in bed at night unable to get this thought out of your head: “I’ve called it a ‘Station wagon’ since I was a kid. But why station wagon?” No, neither have I. But I’m reading Tales of the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald in short daily email installments … Read more

At the McCain Ranch: McCain Discusses the Surge

by David Safier McCain takes a load off his feet after an especially tough week on the campaign trail. He gives us a new explanation of his earlier explanations of the surge. Son, I want to teach you a wonderful new word — SURGE. I ain’t gonna teach you what it means, ’cause that’s the … Read more