Number of 'dropout factory' high schools in the U.S. drops, report says

Clayton Chang

Period A

3/19/12

Current Event Posting #3

Article: http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/19/us/dropout-factory-report/index.html?hpt=us_c2
Topic: Education
Title of Article: Number of 'dropout factory' high schools in the U.S. drops, report says
Author: Sally Holland
Publication Name: CNN
Date of Publication: March 19, 2012, Monday
Length of Article: 454 words, 1 page

A. Main Ideas
U.S leaders and organizations are working on decreasing the high school drop-out rate, and increasing the high school graduation rate.  Dropout Factories is a term that refers to a school that graduates 60% or less of the freshmen that enrolled 4 years earlier.  Between 2009 and 2010, the number of dropout factories in the U.S dropped from 1,634 to 1,550.  It is estimated that about one out of every four students does not graduate high school, and the Grad Nation campaign hopes to achieve a 90% graduation rate by the year 2020.  The states that could make or break this goal are: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Virginia and Washington.  It is recommended that the middle schools that feed into these Dropout Factories be improved, so that students have the basic skills needed to graduate and succeed in high school.  
Graduation rates in U.S high schools is being given attention by the government and other outside programs.  Leaders are looking for an improvement in the U.S education system, and goals have been set to increase the percentage of high school graduates.

In my opinion, the education system should be a top priority for the U.S government.  Good schools can lead to intelligent and able future generations.  I believe that the government should do more than provide schools with money and supplies; teachers in unsuccessful schools can be trained and students and faculty members can be taught how to use their resources.  

Health Care Act Offers Roberts a Signature Case

Alex Beroza
Health
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/12/us/health-care-act-offers-roberts-a-signature-case.html?ref=us 
Health Care Act Offers Roberts a Signature Case
2 pages
Author: ADAM LIPTAK
3/11/12

One of President Obama's most important areas to improve America is finally going to be decided on soon, later in March. One of his most signature improvements to America in his first term is a new type of healthcare. This healthcare act has been debated on a lot over the past few years and has been possible the second most talked about issue after the economy crash. John G. Roberts Jr. will have possibly the most important case of his head justice career so far. The hearings will start in March and will be decided upon by June. This healthcare law could potentially bring healthcare to tens of millions of hurting Americans. 
         All in all, this decision making that will go on over two months in the Supreme Court, will effect years and years of how Americans do in their lives, and how our economy plays out as well. The idea of having greater, and more affordable health care is based on systems used in most European countries. These European countries have been doing better than the US, and hopefully are offering a glimpse into the US's future. I believe that in order to help our lower classes, their healthcare needs to be a lot better among other things. Hopefully this is just the start of more of Obama's changes for America.

Mystery Particle

Daniel M Posting#2

Science

Have Scientists Found the Mystery Particle?

By: Michael Lemonick

Time Magazine March 4, 2012

One Page

According to time magazine scientists at the Tevatron particle accelerator have found the "mystery particle" that has eluded scientists for over 45 years. The Higgs Boson(the particle) is an important discovery, due to that it ties the physics model together very neatly. The scientists at the Tevatron accelerator discovered the Higgs Boson after going through the last of the tests made at the particle accelerator last year. Due to the particle accelerators relative weakness by todays standers, the find a few weeks ago, was very hard to detect and not terribly coherent, compared to the europeans discovery of the Higgs Bosen later. The Tevatron Particle Accelerator is located outside of the boston area and was used for 28 years but was shut down last year due to the still slumping economy, making this the last great discovery that will be made at the particle accelerator. this is a fitting end to the long service life of the Tevatron Particle Accelerator to the scientific community.

North Korea: Ready to go to war with U.S., South Korea

Clayton Chang

Period A

2/27/12

Current Event Posting #2

Article: http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/27/world/asia/north-korea-tensions/index.html?hpt=us_c2

Topic: Leaders (National) and Technology/Science
Title of Article: North Korea: Ready to Go to War with U.S., South Korea
Author: Paula Hancocks
Publication Name: CNN
Date of Publication: February 27, 2012
Length of Article: 386 Words

A. Main Ideas
South Korean troops and U.S troops stationed there are engaging in military drills, and are accused of carrying nuclear equipment.  The North Koreans feel threatened by the military actions, and are ready to go to war if attacked.  The last talks between the U.S and North Korean leaders ended on Friday, and showed little progress.  These were the first talks since the death of Kim Jong Il in December of 2011.  South Korea and the United States regularly hold military drills, and the current ones are set to end in April.  Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, is said to have visited military troops and told them to “make a powerful retaliatory strike at the enemy, should the enemy intrude even 0.001 mm into the waters of the country where its sovereignty is exercised”.  
Relations between North Korea, South Korea, and the U.S are strained.  North Korea is ready to launch a counterattack, if there is one, and tensions are high between the North and South.  Talks between leaders seem to be making little progress.  
I believe that peace talks should continue to be held between leaders, and that new proposals should be introduced.  Current negotiations don’t seem to be making any progress, and until agreements are made, the U.S and South Korean troops should continue military drills in case there is an attack.  North Korea should also be talked into shutting down nuclear weapons development.  

Bad Boys take Spotlight of Today's Popular Culture

Topic: Culture
Author: Ali A. Rizvi
Author's post: From Twilight to Chris Brown: The (Almost) Final Word on the Allure of the Bad Boy
Post #2
Michael Z.
A Period US History

  In today's society, many unexplainable events occur. The most commonplace of these are the social values and morals imposed by today's society. A literary example can be found in the film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, where the protagonist is infatuated with a girl but in order to get her "hand in marriage", he has to do battle with six of her exes. After succeeding, the girl announces that she wants to go back to the sixth boyfriend, whom we find out have implanted a microchip at the back of her neck. Looking at our culture today, we see celebrities such as Rhianna and Chris Brown and are undeniably intrigued, even interested and it is accepted. Another movie that has heavily influenced the minds and social taboos imposed on the adolescent population by our society today is Twilight.
  This is important to our government and society in general today because much of what we accept and see as good are actually superficial, dehumanizing influences imposed on us by the adage that "you are what you look like". So much of who we are perceived to be depends on appearances that somewhere from the late 1800s to the present day, appearances have become the way we determine social class and they also have, as a result, become who we are. From social media such as movies, we now have a belief ingrained in our minds that having multiple relationships are okay, and we are interested and even attracted to the concept of the "bad romance". This means that for whatever reason, in the past or recently, a person in today's society is more likely to seek another dysfunctional person as a project to "fix" or in the case of guys, "heroically rescue". Because of this mentality, we have lost the meaning of "relationships" to social default and would do well to regain that which the society today labels as "old-fashioned" or "sheltered".

Apple's Job Creation Data Spurs an Economic Debate

Skylar

Post# 2

Topic: Technology

Title of Article: Apple’s Job Creation Data Spurs an Economic Debate

Author: Nick Wingfield

Publication Name: New York Times

Date of Publication: Sunday, March 4 21012

Length: 966

On Friday, March 2nd, the Apple company shared their first score of data regarding how many people are employed due to their products. Apple claims that from a study they as a company funded, they have concluded that Apple products have “created or supported” 514,000 American jobs. These jobs range from the engineers who conceptualize iPads and iPhones to the men and women who build the trucks that deliver the Apple products. It is clear that this statement displayed on Apple’s homepage was meant to show how the Apple company has improved the job market of this country far more then other studies not funded by Apple claim. Other studies claim that Apple products supply 47,000 people with jobs in this country. Apple claims that these 47,000 people are only those that the company employs directly when in actuality its products provides jobs for more then ten times that many people.

Several onlookers however debate Apple’s newly published numbers. Gary P. Pisano, a professor of business administration at Harvard University suggests that perhaps attempting to put a number on the total number of jobs created by the domino affect of the Apple company is far too ambitious. He said, “Apple has a big effect, and big is about as precise as I can make it… It’s hard to say the exact size.” Other masters of education such as David Autor a professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology suggests that it was disgraceful of Apple’s to post such a study publicly when he said, “[the] entire business of claiming ‘direct and indirect’ job creation is disreputable”. He advised that it was not smart of Apple to take credit for those jobs that could have easily been produced elsewhere without Apple. In general, it seems that many great thinkers find Apple’s gutsy move of naming themselves heros in the job making world a display of idiocy and overconfidence in computing the impossible.

Personally, I find Apple's decision to post its findings genius. Apple has always been seen as the "cooler", "hipper", sleeker and more modern choice when it comes to technology and therefore in general (excluding cost) more popular then Windows etc. To the common person who purchases an iPhone or iPod or iPad or MacBook seeing a posting about how many people Apple helps will only boost that person's opinion of Apple as a company and it will make that person happy that they purchased a product that helped supply jobs. The common person, assuming they haven't read this article has no idea what that number means or how accurate it is. I think that in general what Apple did was smart for business but very undignified.

Tattoos for Notifying First Responders

Kelcy

Post # 2 

3/4/12

Medical Tattoos: Some Use Body Art To Convey Allergies/ End-Of-Life Wishes

            This article is about the people who have given them selves tattoos to notify the people taking care of them if something happens to them about their Allergies and/ or End-of-Life wishes.  They also discuss the problems with the tattoos, one of which is the fact that the tattoos aren't a legal representation of what the person wants and so it can't be acted upon.  The recipiants of the tattoos were also talking about how it has made their life a lot easier to not have to worry about the bracelet that has the allergies on it because they used to break and get lost and would always have to replace them, but now that they have the tattoo they don't have to worry about this stuff any more.  One example is Dr. Ed Friedlander has a tattoo of " No CPR" on his chest where a  first responder would put their hands to start CPR.  This would either slow down the first responder enough to check if he is a person who wishes to not be saved if they die legally.  But they are worried that the tattoo might be put there with out legally getting something signed saying that they don't want to be saved when they die, and then the first responder will not be able to save them because they waited to long to find out.
            I think that this is a good Idea for the future if the government legalized it because it would help first responders not being sued for not following legal wishes.  I think that it is a good idea because it also helps the first responders identify what might be happening to the victim and what they need to do in order to save them or prevent further arm.  

Time is running out in Iran

Darrion

#2

Leaders

Netanyahu warns time running out on Iran

Tom Cohen

CNN

3/5/12

1.5 pages

A. Obama and prime minister of Israel, Netanyahu both think that the window for diplomatic resolution between Iran and the us and isreal is over. They have simply waited too long, and sanctions have not been working. They believe that the time for military action may be soon. The friendship between Israel and the Us however, is very strong. according to Obama, the US will always have Israel's back. Immenent annihilation is not acceptable for the citizens of Israel, and if Iran gains nuclear weapons, both Obama and the prime minister think that it is possible. Israel could be in real danger, according to these two politicians.

In conclusion, The US and Israel see Iran as a Bad guy here. it wants to gain weapons of mass destruction so it can harm on of the Us' allies. however Iran is not responding to sanctions and treats, so military action may be needed. Interestingly though, the us belives that Isreal must be able to defend itself for any attack. It is strange that the US wants to be so involved. Although Isreal is happy about this, some reporters seem skeptical. Why would the US say that if they would suppot then so much. Some say they are hoping that in the future Isreal will have the capability, but as of right now, they do not.

I personally think that, is Iran truely wnats to blow up another country, it needs to be stopped, however, i do not know the subject well enough to pass judgement. to me, it seems like the US is trying to stop Iran from doing something that it wants to do. Although we are not allies, I am not sure that the US has the right to do that. It could also be true that they want to kill innocent civilians with it. If that is true, then this needs to be stopped.

Black Students Face More Discipline

Monica Chan
Post #2
Topic: Education
Black Students Face More Discipline, Data Suggests
Author: Tamar Lewin
Source: New York Times
Date: March 5, 2012
1 Page

Statistics have shown that colored students make up a large proportion of expulsions. 35% of those suspended once, 46% of those suspended more than once, and 39% of all expulsions are made up of black students. From collected data, it shows that black students are three and half more times likely to have harsh consequences than their white classmates. Data also showed that schools containing a high population of black and Hispanic students were likely to have inexperienced and low-paid teachers. This may have an effect on the expulsion statistics of colored students. Inexperienced teachers may not provide the education needed to keep students out of trouble and focused on school. Officials say it is undeniable that the equity promised in America is clearly violated by the unfair treatment given to colored students. Because of the increase of the "zero-tolerance" policy, suspension rates have doubled in the past 35 years. Though it is important to have discipline, it may not be the best method to exempt students from school as a result of their inappropriate behavior.

At $500 billion, Apple is worth more than Poland

Kelly Milliken, Post #2

Title: At $500 billion, Apple is worth more than Poland (Technology)

Author: David Goldman

Source: Cnn.com

On Wednesday 2/29/12, Apple hit a record high market value of $500 billion. At this point, it has become one of the top five most valuable companies ever, surpassed only by Microsoft, ExxonMobil, Cisco, General Electric, and Intel. Not only is Apple's valuation is now higher than the gross domestic product of Poland, but it is also greater than the gross domestic product of Belgium, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, or Taiwan. Apple is considered one of the fastest growing technology companies, even though it has already outgrown most companies. The sales have grown approximately 73% since last year, with shares hitting a first-time high of $500. The company has been around for 35 years, but just 10 years ago, it had a market cap of only $10 billion.

Apple's growth is incredible not only incredible in comparison to other technology companies, but it is also incredible in comparison to many other companies. Apple has grown to be worth more than things such as the entire construction of the interstate highway system, or the united states aircraft carrier fleet.

Income Goes Up... Especially for the Rich

Tony Jin, Post #2
Economy


Income Goes Up... Especially for the Rich
Author: Tami Luby
Source: cnn.com
Date: 3/5/12
1 Page Long

http://economy.money.cnn.com/2012/03/05/income-goes-up-especially-for-the-rich/?source=cnn_bin

According to the Internal Revenue Service,Americans' income have finally started to rise again after two years of decline. The adjusted gross income of this year ended in a total of $8 trillion, a 5.2% increase from that of 2009. However, the majority of that rise was in the taxpayers that earned more than $250,000 annually, who saw a 13.8% increase. However, the the middle class saw a .7% drop in their wages. This resulted in a net increase of 2.1% of salaries and wages. This "uneven recovery has continued into 2011 as the stock market has continued to recover," says Saez, an economics professor at UC Berkeley.
If this income gap continues to widen, there will surely be social unrest in the next few years, as the lower classes strain against the unfairness of their salaries. This unrest will be extremely important for the current presidential candidates to deal with, since they need all the support they can get. If they fail to please the lower-income class, they forfeit any chance of winning the election later this year.

Yelp shares soar more than 60% in IPO

Andrew Wu

Current Event Posting # 2

Topic: Technology/Science

Title: Yelp shares soar more than 60% in IPO Author: Julianne Pepitone

Publication Name: CNN Date of Publication: 3/2/12

Length of Article: 604 words

The San Francisco based tech company, Yelp has jumped in value. The initial public offering(IPO) of Yelp has soared more than 60% on the Friday of 3/2/12. The company is now valued at $1.47 billion. Yelp founded in 2004, focuses itself on providing online reviews for restaurants and other businesses. Yelp claims to have 18 million such reviews. Last quarter, 66 million unique visitors went to Yelp's site on a monthly basis. In 2011, Yelp had a net loss of $16.7 million because of questionable and fraudulent reviews. The company, however, has recently cracked down on their user posted review content. By actively filtering over 5 million reviews, Yelp has managed to become profitable again.

Yelp has now managed to regain a foothold in the technology industry after almost a decade of constant struggling. The question now is how long will they keep the upper hand. Google, one of the fortune 500, has plans of its own to monopolize the very sector of the tech industry that Yelp sits on by releasing its own Yelp-like business review search engine.

Movies May be the Cause of Binge Drinking Among Teens

Drinking, especially among teens, is a very popular scene in any movies and is usually there once or twice in movies. Researchers in Europe have found that the more scenes of alcohol use teens watch on the big screen, the greater their risk of binge drinking. Aside from movie watching, other well known factors go into a teens decision to drink. Researchers looked at a teen's level of rebelliousness or sensation-seeking, peer drinking levels, family drinking patterns, affluence and gender. With all of these factors in place, researchers still found that the amount of alcohol consumed in movies influenced teens to consume larger amounts of alcohol. In the U.S., youths with high exposure to drinking in movies are about twice as likely to try drinking and, among the experimental drinkers, twice as likely to binge drink. Statistics show that teens in the U.S. start drinking at age 10 to 11 and some progress very quickly to binge drinking. Drinking has been a part of American culture for a long time. More research is being done to conclude a very controversial question, whether teens seek out movies that have alcohol scenes, or it could be that seeing scenes of alcohol use in movies makes them more likely to binge drink. It is advised to parents to watch TV with their teens, go to the movies with them and discuss what you are seeing. What parents say matters more then what one TV shoe or one movie says. 

Microsoft unveils Windows 8 in challenge to Apple, Google

Sam Current  

Event numb. 2

Tech.

Microsoft unveils Windows 8 in challenge to Apple, Google

By Dylan Renolds and Barry Neild, CNN

March 4th  

2 pages

Microsoft unveils Windows 8 for public testing worldwidely on Wednesday in the hope that it will help the brand win back some of the ground it has been losing to Apple and Google. The biggest feature of the Windows 8 is the new operating system, called the "Metro." it is a user welcome desktop that was used on Windows Phone 7, Window's recent system on mobile phone devices. However, Microsoft still remains the desktop from Windows 7 for easing the controll. It's either a benefit or a disadvantage, because yet the old desktop style helps Windows 7 users to understand the system faster and easier, but since Windows 8 is a update a long time after the Windows 7, we are expecting more than just a new look of the system. Microsoft suffered heavily in the past 2 years due to the spread of iPhones and Androids. Windows Phone system still has a large distance with iPhone's, and it's speed of updating is not faster than Android's. Perhaps the time has changed, it has became important to Mircrosoft to change, too, in order to win back the advantage it has lost.

(No one can argue that 2012 is a year of media & technology. In the past century we couldn't develop the media entertainment because of the war and the limit of technology, but in the 21th century, every imagination can become true. For instance, touch screens were once only appear in frictions, but now it is almost assessable on every new mobile device. The revealing of Windows 8 is not just a huge transition of Microsoft, but it also leads the competition of the technology device market to it's climax. However, no matter which company will make and sale the most products, the customers will always be the victors.)

Jenna

A Period Sanderson

Current Event Posting #2

March 5th, 2012

Topic: S.F. elementary schools falling short on exercise (Education)

Published by: SFGate

Date Published: Feburary 23, 2012

Original Artical Author: Emma Anderson

P.E. Teachers WANTED

According to a UCSF study, there is only 19 PE teachers in the whole San Francisco district. Because of budget cuts and higher taxes, P.E. teachers are down on the priority list of importance for the district. California mandates 20 minutes a day of physical exercise for each elementary kid, about 200 minutes for 10 days. Only one-fifth of the district qualified for that mandate. For middle schoolers, it should be 40 minutes a day. Because of problems with schools or schedule changes, schools in San Francisco only managed 114 minutes for ten days, 86 minutes short of the 200 minutes mandated.

Elementary schools in San Francisco don't have blocked out periods for PE because of the push for good test scores. This falls into the category that two-thirds of kids do not fall into the healthy fitness range when tested, and could rise if there isn't any hiring of teachers in the San Francisco district.

Kyle

Current Event Posting #2

A period Sanderson

3/4/12

Topic:Artificial Pancreas gives girl vacation from diabetes (Health)

Published by: CNN

Date published: Sunday, March 4, 2012

Original Article Author: Elizabeth Cohen

The Benefits of an artificial pancreas

Recently on CNN, an article was published about how diabetics have to live and how we have recently invented an "artificial pancreas regulator" that can help their current, damaged one. Many diabetics find that their bodies are no longer producing insulin at the proper levels, and cannot regulate their blood levels efficiently. As such, their bodies start to weaken and they will often slip into unconsciousness at low blood sugar levels (which is extremely dangerous in children). This prevents many of these diabetes-diagnosed people from participating in normal activities that most people can participate in, depending on the severity of their condition.
The pancreas regulator releases insulin or glucagon according to the patient's intake, and they make the lives of these children much easier. Also, it is usable by adults and children, so there is no problem there. Especially in young people, the fact that they have to monitor their blood-sugar levels all on their own at school or when they are out worries many of their parents. They are worried that if they do pass out, people won't know what to do or how to help raise their blood sugar level. As a result, scientists came up with a medical device that records a persons blood sugar level automatically (without testing with blood strips) and adjusts the insulin accordingly. Many medical companies are attempting to sell this product commercially, but it is very expensive to make so they are not very common yet. The medical companies are striving towards marketing this publicly, and they have started putting their product on infomercials online. Now, patients have no trouble with insulin and glucagon regulation in their bodies, since this device has literally acted as a watch. Many younger children have also been supplied with this device in hopes of testing out and releasing this product in a much larger scale.

Considering how quickly and easily this device helps regulate insulin levels in diabetes patients, it could be very promising to put research into how to improve its efficiency and production so that it could be circulated amongst all those that need them. The set up involves fitting the patient, plugging it, and hooking it up into a device the size of a small cell phone! Also, the patients can finally eat in huge quantities, since the machine will notice that the blood sugar levels are spiking and instantly input huge amounts of insulin to compensate for it.

In my opinion, I think that what scientists are doing for those out there that need help displays how progressive our society is. We depend on quickly adapting to any situation that we need to adapt to, and we are quite resilient when we do so. This machine will absolutely revolutionize how diabetes patients are treated in the future, and are very pragmatic in allowing them to live very normal lives.

Article Link:

http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/04/health/artificial-pancreas/index.html?npt=NP1

Santorum Corrected

Harrison current event # 2
Topic: Leaders
Rick Santorum on Fox News defends birth control position, Obama snob comment
Huffington post        3/4/12
2 pages


Rick Santorum fell under heavy fire from Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace about a variety of comments or facts clouding Santorum's campaign. Wallace touched on subjects such as Santorum's opposition to requiring business to cover birth control in their health plans. Santorum adamantly sticks to his guns, and says that no business should have to require anything which is against its personal beliefs. Also talked about was Santorum's 1.47% of income which went to charity, compared to other candidates 18%. Santorum explained how the cost of taking care of a disabled child weighs heavy on his finances and believes he shouldn't be belittled because of his financial decisions. Last was Wallace's scrutiny of Santorum's earlier comment, calling Obama a "snob" for wanting every American to attend a college. In fact, Santorum had his information wrong. Obama actually said he wished every American to go to at least one year of higher education, vocational training or apprenticeship. Even with these sizable holes in Santorum's reputation, he still is polling slightly ahead of Romney in pivotal state Ohio. 
I personally am apprehensive about the frivolous way some political leaders fling around misinformation. Whether they believe it to be true or not, such comments are not only harmful to the leaders themselves, but to the American public as well. Petty accusations should be the subject of school boy fights, not campaigns for the President of the United States.

Appble's Job Creation Data Spurs on Economic Debate

Grace
Current Event Posting #2
Appble's Job Creation Data Spurs on Economic Debate
Nick Wingfield
New York Times
960 Words

     Lately, there's been a research going on about how Apple has created many jobs for the unemployment.
This week on friday, the company published the result of its study that said the company had created or supported 514,000 American Jobs. Not only has Apple created Jobs in U.S., it has also created 700,000 jobs overseas.The debate that's been going on about this news was that whether the number was accurate or not. Many economists say it's hard to tell whether the number of job creation is precise or not also we don't know whether the people have been well paid or is gratified with their work. Not only have apple created jobs from their company but also created jobs in U.P.S. since it requires a lot of shipping. But still many economists still argue that it wouldn't be true if there's no Apple to begin with there wouldn't be jobs.

Minnesota School District Reaches Agreement on Preventing Gay Bullying

Name: Daniel F
Posting: 2
Topic: Civil Rights
Title: Minnesota School District Reaches Agreement on Preventing Gay Bullying
Author: Erik Eckholm
Publication: New York Times
Date of Publication: 3/6
Article Length: 675 words

After years of accusations that it had failed to stop antigay bullying and a slew of student suicides, Minnesota’s largest school district has agreed to changes designed to prevent harassment based on sexual orientation. The Anoka-Hennepin district, just north of Minneapolis, approved a legal agreement after six students had sued the district on charges that they had experienced unpunished harassment. Conservative Christian groups, while condemning bullying, argued that specifically setting up protection for sexual orientation amounts to endorsing sinful practices. As a result, the district had implemented a strange policy, directing teachers to remain neutral on issues involving sexual orientation. Teachers complain that this hampered their ability to support gay students. Last month, the district left that neutrality policy in favor of a policy to “affirm the dignity and self-worth of students” regardless of race, sexual orientation, or disabilities. In addition, the district will strengthen measures to prevent, detect and punish bullying based on gender or sexual orientation. It will hire a full-time “harassment-prevention” official, and increase mental health counseling. The six students who sued will receive a total payment of $270,000. The school board approved the agreement in a 5-to-1 vote. However, some conservative Christian parents in the district, who had formed the Parent’s Action League to preserve the neutrality policy, called the agreement a “travesty.”

In conclusion, significant changes in school policies set a good model for schools nationwide to become more gay-friendly. It will allow teachers to support gays without violating school policy. However, there is still much to be done. Setting official school policies is only one small step in the right direction. On the other hand, conservative groups object to these policies as an attack on conservative values concerning homosexuality.

State Cutbacks Curb Training in Jobs Critical to Economy

Taylor   Current Event Posting #2

Education

"Where the Jobs Are, the Training May Not Be" by Catherine Rampell

New York Times  March 1, 2012

1193 words

Public colleges around the country have started to cut back training for jobs the economy needs the most. State colleges in Nebraska, Nevada, Colorado and many more have had to totally eliminate engineering and computer science departments due to recent recessions. Within the past 25 years, there have been withdrawals from higher education during or following recessions. Once the economy recovered from these recession, there has been no restoration to the money that's been cut. Since 1985, the share of instruction paid for by students after financial aid has gone from 23% to 40%. "I understand why students are angry," says George R. Blumenthal, the chancellor of the University of California in Santa Cruz "They have to write bigger checks every year, and they can't get into the classes they want. The reality is they're paying more and getting less." State funding cuts also reduce the ability for the poor to get more training as well as making harder them to get the jobs the economy needs most: science, engineering, and health care. These fields are the most expensive to teach because of the equipment needed and safety precautions. The professors teaching these subjects are more in demand, so they are demanding much higher pay.

Many colleges have been depending on the federal government for funding, including the Pell Grant funding and the Recovery Act. Recently, Obama proposed a $8 billion federal package for community colleges for additional job training. The belief that just spending our money better would increase the number of degrees received is totally false. We need to find a better solution for our attainment levels, not just finding random efficiencies that don't last very long.

Senate kills controversial 'conscience' amendment

Shreya Rao

Current Event Posting #2

Topic: Health

Senate kills controversial 'conscience' amendment

Tom Cohen & Dan Merica, CNN 3/1/12

856 Words

The U.S. senate voted to kill a proposal by Republicans which would allow employers to opt out of providing health care coverage that they disagreed with morally.  This was the response to the controversy over the Obama administration decision to authorize the kind of health care coverage provided by religious employers.  The bill would imply that health care providers wouldn't have to follow the mandate if it violated their religious beliefs.  Senate democrats believe that it allows too much freedom for employers to input their personal beliefs on the health care issues of their workers and could prevent them from receiving the care they needed.  

This is obviously a controversial topic seeing that many are opposing the different proposals in consideration of the Obama administration decision.  It will probably be an issue to be looked into for further input since they have already thought of different approaches none of which people seem to agree with.  Religious affiliations do have a right to voice their opinions but don't have the right to impose on others' issues preventing their health.