This week's newsletter includes another discussion about the Republican neglect of our infrastructure. Since I wrote it two more levees have failed, flooding Des Moines, which aren't included in my analysis. If you want to help the Midwest, you can go here.

Turning to the election, the attacks have begun in earnest. Republicans rolled out a whole slew of attacks against Barack and Michelle Obama...some borderline racist, some merely lies, and none all that effective. In most states Obama's popularity has surged such that if the election were held today, Obama would easily win with over 300 electoral votes, just like Senator Chuck Schumer predicts will happen. But keep in mind, this is just the first volley of attacks.

It appears more Obama supporters have taken up Stephen Colbert's challenge to help fund Pennsylvania classroom projects with a lot more interest, judged by donations, than Clinton's supporters. (See Colbert push the challenge here http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertrepo rt/videos.jhtml?videoId=164383)

Basically, the challenge asks Obama and Clinton supporters to make donations to fund school projects in PA in the name of their candidate.  Supporters of each candidate are being asked to donate a total of $66,001. As of noon-ish today (3/24), nearly nine-hundred Obama's supporters have donated a total of $58,287, impacting 9789 students. Nearly one-hundred Hillary's supporters have donated $11,699, impacting 1744 students. The average donation for an Obama supporter is ~$64 compared to ~$124 for a Clinton supporter.

Supporters of senators Obama and Clinton who have contributed to this worthy cause aught to be commended. This is at least one good outcome of this extended nomination process

Journal Gazette: A "moment" is about as nonspecific a term for measuring time as, say, a "smidgen" is for delineating distance or a "tad" for calculating volume.

But, that didn't stop the Illinois legislature from passing a measure earlier this month requiring all public schools to observe a daily "moment of silence," without defining exactly how long these so-called moments should last.

Such ambiguities in the modified Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act -- which previously permitted such periods of quiet on a voluntary basis.

British Government released the movie, An Inconvenient Truth, to be shown in schools.

One man, Mr. Dimmock, a school Governor, challenged that in court, making of course, outrageous claims of the movie.

Democrats in Congress tried recently to create a new tax to help pay for the Wars.  That of course hit a brick wall.  I can almost bet you those that fought the idea were those that have been pushing War from day one.  

I'm sure the real reason for trying to pass a tax bill was to get American's to wake up.  Most of us know that when Americans are hit with possible tax increase they immediately go into Alert mode.  Yes, I want new schools.  Yes, I want new roads.  Yes, I want new infrastructure and new bridges.  Yes, I want a stronger military and yes, I want to go to war; but don't ask me to pay for it.

[I hope this post about the changes to No Child Left Behind proposed by Congress proves interesting. It was originally posted on Edwize and written by Edwize blogger Maisie.]

Lest you think that the debate over reauthorizing No Child Left Behind is hard-to-follow/wonkish/a tempest-in-a-teapot or anything like that, note that Jonathan Kozol today entered his 76th day of a partial hunger strike over NCLB.

In protest over that law, Kozol, the widely-published, passionate advocate of educational equality, has taken himself into the realm of serious danger.

He's sick of NCLB. Mandating math and reading tests and punishing schools and students who do not meet their targets is "turning thousands of inner-city schools into Dickensian test-preparation factories," Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page quoted Kozol as saying. It has "dumbed down" school for poor, urban kids and created "a parallel curriculum that would be rejected out-of-hand" in the suburbs.

[I hope this post about the changes to No Child Left Behind proposed by Congress proves interesting. It was originally posted on Edwize and written by Edwize blogger Jackie Bennett in response to a New York Times editorial.]

Every corner of the educational community has protested the consequences of No Child Left Behind, including that the law has narrowed the curriculum and unfairly penalized schools already making progress.

In spite of that, an editorial in the NY Times defends the status quo. Referring to proposed NCLB revisions, the Times complains that the changes will "allow schools to mask failure in teaching crucial subjects like reading and math by giving them credit for student performance in other subjects."

Yet, just one paragraph earlier the Times has this to say: "Faced with poorly educated workers at home -- especially in science -- American companies are increasingly looking abroad."

[I hope this post by UFT President Randi Weingarten on Hurricane Katrina and its continuing impact on New Orleans schools proves interesting. It's crossposted from Edwize and Eduwonk, where it originally appeared.]

Today we mark the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The images of widespread destruction and needless suffering and death that flashed across our television screens two years ago remain fresh in our collective memory, if only because they were so stark and terrible. For a moment, the reality of the "other America," living in poverty and shut out of the American dream, became real for all Americans. We were shamed by the knowledge that thousands of people, many of them poor or of color, were left for days and days without essential food, water, shelter, medicine and health care as a result of the catastrophic failure of our government. In the wealthiest and most powerful nation of the world, such a failure was a monumental travesty.

In the two years since Katrina, those images have faded from our television screens. But the government's abandonment of the poor and working people of New Orleans continues today. In June, I went to New Orleans, together with UFT leaders Michelle Bodden and Leo Casey, to further our partnership and assistance to our sister local, the United Teachers of New Orleans [UTNO]. I was stunned by what I heard and what I saw: it is hard to find the words that fully convey the enormity of the wrong that is being done today in New Orleans.