The value of great teachers

There was an article I nearly covered a few days ago--Sunday--in The New York Times that told of the high value of good teachers on children and the great effects they can have. I thought it so self-evident that I didn't write about it. Now comes a column from The Times' own Nicholas Kristof, expanding on it: The Value of Teachers "...a landmark new research paper underscores that the difference between a strong teacher and a weak teacher lasts a lifetime. Having a good fourth-grade teacher makes a student 1.25 percent more likely to go to college, the research suggests, and 1.25 percent less likely to get pregnant as a teenager. Each of the students will go on as an adult to earn, on average, $25,000 more over a lifetime — or about $700,000 in gains for an average size class — all attributable to that ace teacher back in the fourth grade. That’s right: A great teacher is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to each year’s students, just in the extra income they will earn. The study, by economists at Harvard and Columbia universities, finds that if a great teacher is leaving, parents should hold bake sales or pass the hat around in hopes of collectively offering the teacher as much as a $100,000 bonus to stay for an extra year. Sure, that’s implausible — but their children would gain a benefit that far exceeds even that sum." That is, if the parent is involved. And if the parent cares about their child. And their child's success. Links: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/12/opinion/kristof-the-value-of-teachers.html; http://obs.rc.fas.harvard.edu/chetty/value_added.html; http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/06/education/big-study-links-good-teachers-to-lasting-gain.html?scp=2&sq=teachers&st=cse;

Note to Washington: On cutting spending when you need growth

“The austerity that is going on in Europe, America and so forth is effectively a suicide pact for our economies. “Greece does not have much scope, but the United States and Germany and a number of other countries do have considerable space for stimulating their economy, and it is absolutely essential that they do that.” --Joseph Stiglitz, economist, professor at Columbia University and former chief economist at the World Bank. Links: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/government-stimulus-measures-too-feeble-stiglitz/article2213385/; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stiglitz

The Sham and Embarrassment That Is Roy Blunt

In November, 2006, The New York Times ran an article about the Republican Party and our very own representative Roy Blunt and what he means and represents in Washington, DC and this country. I ran a post on it then, all those years ago. It's still true, very true, right up to today.

 Some excerpts from that article on this man, what he is, what he does and how he represents us:

Roy Blunt embodies the insidious, half-legal corruption that has permeated the G.O.P. majority since 1995. Blunt’s election as minority whip, by a 137-to-57 margin, was a defiant Republican rejection of calls to clean up their act. Warnings by Blunt’s challenger, John Shadegg of Arizona — “We ceded our reform-minded principles in exchange for a ...tighter grip on power” — went unheeded.

  In 2004, Blunt turned his lobbyist team loose to win passage of a bill eliminating a $50 billion corporate tax break that the World Trade Organization had ruled in violation of international agreements. These lobbyists inserted $143 billion worth of new corporate tax breaks, turning the bill into a Fortune 500 Christmas tree.

  Blunt...is bland, unctuous and adept at keeping a low profile. But there is plenty to see. After divorcing his wife of 35 years to marry a tobacco lobbyist, Abigail Perlman, he cleared his second marriage with the House Ethics Committee to get “a waiver of the limitations of the gift rule to allow me to accept gifts in connection with my wedding.” 

 Blunt unblushingly told the Heritage Foundation this month that Republicans “have allowed our efforts to defend traditional values to be defined as little more than a politically driven effort to appease ‘family groups.’ ” 

 For Blunt, the blurring of boundaries is a family tradition. His son Matt is the governor of Missouri. Another son, Andrew, is one of the state’s top lobbyists. Almost all Altria subsidiaries — Kraft, Miller Brewing, Philip Morris (remember Abigail Perlman) — hired Andy Blunt, along with other financial backers of Roy Blunt. 

 In Blunt, House Republicans have kept on display a top official reminding voters why they cast ballots for Democrats on Nov. 7. After winning the post of minority whip last week, Blunt declared that the Republicans had “come together ... frankly, to get rid of the bad habits that we may have developed in 12 years in the majority.” This is precisely the opposite of what they actually did, which was to affirm their bad habits. The burden on the Democrats will be to make the elusive Blunt a nationally recognized figure.

 All reasons why we need to get Roy Blunt out of our government and with all due, deliberate haste.

 Link to original post:  Same Old Party