Warrior Connection – 11.22.15

The November 22 edition of Warrior Connection was a discussion between host Dr. Doug Rokke and exceptional educators Dr Sharon Weiss, Superintendent, Jerry Sanderson Associate Superintendent, and Bill Engelbrecht, Associate Superintendent of Schools for the Peoria Illinois Catholic Diocese ( www.cdop.org ) on what makes a good school for our children / families. It was very clear from the conversation as data verify that solutions exist for the current public school crises. But more important it provides parents information on a choice to ensure their child receives an excellent education for the “whole” child. This choice is not limited at all to just Catholic children and families but is available for all.

http://www.peoriamagazines.com/ibi/2015/aug/why-catholic-schools-do-well

Stephen Lendman – Police State Public Education In America

America’s founders believed education was insurance against loss of liberty. Jefferson said “(e)very government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories. And to render them safe, their minds must be improved…” Public education is vital because it serves the public interest – giving meaning to “we the people.” …

Paul Craig Roberts – This Has Become Routine

In his comment on the mass shootings at the Oregon community college, President Obama said: “This has become routine.” So have police shootings of unarmed and unresisting Americans. So have numerous other undesirable and deplorable happenings, such as the foreclosure on the homes of millions of Americans, while the “banks too big to fail” are bailed out with trillions of …

Nadia Prupis – Initiatives to help addicts highlight links between legally prescribed pain medication and opioid addiction

Faced with a growing nationwide opioid addiction, health and consumer advocates say it’s time to identify and sever ties with the culprits behind the scourge—pain medication manufacturers and the companies who promote their products. In Massachusetts, which recently saw a spike in deaths related to heroin overdoses, police and community organizations in Gloucester implemented a new program this year—known as …

Feds Spent $3.3 Billion on Charter Schools, with Few Controls (Part 1) – Jonas Persson

“The waste of taxpayer money—none of us can feel good about,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan told the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health & Human Services and Education just last month. Yet, he is calling for a 48% increase in the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) quarter-billion-dollar-a-year ($253.2 million) program designed to create, expand, and replicate charter schools—an initiative repeatedly criticized by the …

College readiness declines when school’s focus is improving test scores, study finds

Education reform policies that penalize struggling schools for poor standardized test scores may hinder — not improve — students’ college readiness, if a school’s instructional focus becomes improving its test scores, suggests a new study that explored efforts to promote a college-going culture at one Texas high school. Published recently in The High School Journal, the case study reveals the unintended …

Why the conventional wisdom on schooling is all wrong

Kids go to school to learn stuff. Right? Not exactly, according to veteran education Marion Brady, who has long argued that public education needs a paradigm shift — though not the same one pushed by school reformers who champion the Common Core State Standards, school choice and vouchers. Brady says schools need a complete transformation in what and how students …

Strikes Grow in China as Grassroots Labor Movement Takes Shape

As the economic landscape in China continues to shift, an awakening working class is demanding fair treatment and higher wages—and the movement is picking up steam. The Associated Press on Monday highlighted the emerging resistance to workplace exploitation and authoritarian government policies that has steadily grown over the past four years, with numbers of strikers doubling annually since 2011 until they reached more than …