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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (91742)	12/21/2004 10:58:24 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793822

The SF school system tries some "tough love." This illustrates one of the symptoms. As The Chronicle reported this month, the "grim reality" facing San Francisco's African-American children is that more than a third of them between ages 15 and 17 were taken to juvenile hall in 2002 Behind this comment is the resistance of the Teacher's union. But the fact that the school can do it shows just how bad it must be in the school system if the union can't stop it in a town like San Francisco. Recently, the most controversial aspect of the initiative has been the requirement that teachers in these schools reapply for their positions. Underperforming schools -- new front in today's struggle for civil rights - Arlene Ackerman is the superintendent of the San Francisco Unified School District. "What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" -- Langston Hughes. More than 50 Years after Brown vs. Board of Education, the modern struggle for civil rights for people of color is still being waged in the classrooms of our public schools. Despite the dramatic progress that I have witnessed and experienced firsthand during my lifetime, many core educational inequities still exist for black and brown children. As one of 50 black students integrating an all-white high school of 3,000, I felt the sting of racism every day. As my honor society's first black student, I marched alone during the induction ceremony because the white student who was assigned to escort me refused. Since my high school days, we have seen important progress -- in civil-rights protections, African Americans and women running for President, the rise of the black and Latino middle class, and ever-greater diversity due to immigration of Latinos, Asians and other people of color. I am grateful to have been an American while these advances occurred and proud to have done my part as an educator to help this cause. In my career, I have chosen to work in the most difficult schools and sometimes with the children who face the greatest challenges: black, brown, Asian, immigrant and poor. Tragically, as a nation we have failed many of our black and brown young people by condemning them to a substandard education. Only 53 percent of Latino students who begin the 9th grade graduate four years later. By 17, African Americans are achieving at the same level as 13-year old white students. We know the terrible consequences of such failures to provide a decent education. We have watched the quality of countless young lives erode before our own eyes. As The Chronicle reported this month, the "grim reality" facing San Francisco's African-American children is that more than a third of them between ages 15 and 17 were taken to juvenile hall in 2002. Sixty-one percent of California's children who are living in poverty are Latino. What are we as a community obliged to do to for the young people facing these challenges? As a lifelong educator, I have always believed that we need to teach our youth the skills and knowledge they need to succeed as responsible adults. Regardless of what station in life they are born into, all children deserve a good education. Shame on anyone who looks the other way while some children are denied these rights, year after year. In evaluating schools as superintendent, I have always asked, "Would this school be good enough for my children?" Unfortunately, in several cases even in our community, the answer is no. Our latest and most ambitious attempt to improve these schools is a dramatic intervention called the Dream Schools initiative. Creating Dream Schools is a process of turning around our lowest performing schools by establishing within them more rigor, more resources and the best possible quality of teaching for the underserved students who attend them. The first three of these schools have opened, and are thriving, in Bayview/Hunters Point. We plan to open seven new Dream Schools next school year and, in fact, have been ordered to do so by a federal court. Recently, the most controversial aspect of the initiative has been the requirement that teachers in these schools reapply for their positions. I understand the difficulty this approach presents to the affected teachers, and by no means do I intend to discredit them. Many of them work minor miracles with their students every day and are among our district's most dedicated educators. But despite their best efforts, the academic performance of the students in each of these schools is unacceptably low. In order to catch up, these kids cannot afford teaching that is "good enough"; it must be exceptional. Many of the teachers at these schools should remain there. The rest will be offered teaching positions at other public schools in the city. Not one of these teachers will be forced out of a job. I am convinced that if we don't intervene dramatically for these students, including taking steps to ensure that all of them are taught by outstanding teachers, we are undermining their future and perpetuating inequality in our schools. By providing students unequal education, we help create a permanent underclass. Avoiding this fate is the major civil rights challenge we face today. Some opponents to Dream Schools claim that the district is not showing respect. I regret that some feel this way, but my first priority is confronting the educational inequalities that harm some of our children every school day. The situation is urgent. What will happen to these young people if we don't intervene? Faced with the difficult choice of avoiding making adults uncomfortable and improving the education these children receive, I must choose the latter. Every time.

To: LindyBill who wrote (91742)	12/21/2004 11:59:45 AM
From: KLP	Respond to of 793822

Breaking: 'I Can't Hear, I Can't Hear,' Soldier Cried After Noon Attack on U.S. Chow Hall in Mosul By Jeremy Redmon The Associated Press Published: Dec 21, 2004 FORWARD OPERATING BASE MAREZ, Iraq (AP) - It was a brilliant, sunny day with blue skies and warmer than usual weather in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Hundreds of U.S. soldiers had just sat down for lunch in their giant chow hall tent. It was about noon Tuesday when insurgents hit their tent with a suspected rocket attack, killing 13 soldiers, including two from the Richmond-based 276th Engineer Battalion. More than 50 were wounded; civilians may have been among them. The force of the explosions knocked soldiers off their feet and out of their seats. A fireball enveloped the top of the tent, and shrapnel sprayed into the men. Amid the screaming and thick smoke that followed, quick-thinking soldiers turned their lunch tables upside down, placed the wounded on them and gently carried them into the parking lot. "Medic! Medic!" soldiers shouted. Medics rushed into the tent and hustled the rest of the wounded out on stretchers. Scores of troops crammed into concrete bomb shelters outside. Others wobbled around the tent and collapsed, dazed by the blast. "I can't hear! I can't hear!" one female soldier cried as a friend hugged her. Near the front entrance to the chow hall, troops tended a soldier with a gaping head wound. Within minutes, they zipped him into a black body bag. Three more bodies were in the parking lot. The military asked that the dead not be identified until families could be notified. Soldiers scrambled back into the hall to check for more wounded. The explosions blew out a huge hole in the roof of the tent. Puddles of bright red blood, lunch trays and overturned tables and chairs covered the floor. Grim-faced soldiers growled angrily about the attack as they stomped away. "Mother (expletive)!" one mumbled. Sgt. Evan Byler, of the 276th, steadied himself on one of the concrete bomb shelters. He was eating chicken tenders and macaroni when the bomb hit. The blast knocked him out of his chair. When the smoke cleared, Byler took off his shirt and wrapped it around a seriously wounded soldier. Byler held the bloody shirt in his hand, not quite sure what to do with it. "It's not the first close call I have had here," said Byler, a Fauquier County, Va., resident who survived a blast from an improvised explosive device while riding in a vehicle earlier this year. Byler started walking back to his base when he spotted a soldier collapse from shock on the side of the road. Byler and Lt. Shawn Otto, also of the 276th, put the grieving soldier on a passing pickup truck. The 276th, with about 500 troops, had made it a year without losing a soldier and is preparing to return home in about a month. "We almost made it. We almost made it to the end without getting somebody killed," Otto said glumly. At least two other soldiers with the 276th were injured, but it was not clear how serious their wounds are. Insurgents have fired mortars at the chow hall more than 30 times this year. One round killed a female soldier with the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division in the summer as she scrambled for cover in one of the concrete bomb shelters. Workers are building a new steel and concrete chow hall for the soldiers just down the dusty dirt road. Lt. Dawn Wheeler, a member of the 276th from Centreville, Va., was waiting in line for chicken tenders when a round hit on the other side of a wall from her. A soldier who had been standing beside her was on the ground, struggling with shrapnel buried deep in his neck. "We all have angels on us," she said as she pulled away in a Humvee. Wheeler quickly joined other officers from the 276th for an emergency meeting minutes after the blast. Maj. James Zollar, the unit's acting commander, spoke to more than a dozen of his officers in a voice thick with emotion. He urged them to keep their troops focused on their missions. "This is a tragic, tragic thing for us but we still have missions," he told them. "It's us, the leaders, who have to pull them together." Just hours before the blast, Zollar had awarded a Purple Heart to a soldier from the 276th who was wounded in a mortar attack on another part of the base in October. Zollar eventually turned the emergency meeting over to Chaplain Eddie Barnett. He led the group in prayer. "Help us now, God, in this time of this very tragic circumstance," Barnett said. "We pray for your healing upon our wounded soldiers." With heads hung low, the soldiers trudged outside. They had work to do. AP-ES-12-21-04 1118EST

To: LindyBill who wrote (91742)	12/21/2004 1:10:15 PM
From: sea_biscuit	Respond to of 793822

Two months ago, there were some smart-asses here on SI who were saying that the attacks were happening because the insurgents wanted to influence US elections. At that time, I said that they don't care. They just do what they do. This time around, the same geniuses are saying that the insurgents want to influence the Iraqi elections. I say the same thing -- they don't care. This will continue even after the so-called elections take place (and Allawi is installed in power again by the US). The insurgents don't care. They just do what they do.