Be a Pro!

Just a reminder...

It is, and it isn't.

This story is just a distraction, but a fun one. Here's my favorite joke about it so far, taken from an unnamed liberal blog:

"The real anger should be at Biden for spoiling the rollout of the new phrase. You thought the New Deal was major? This is the Big F----g Deal!"

Brilliant

Mississippi High School Cancels Prom

I never went to my senior prom, but members of this Mississippi senior class don't have the option to attend or to abstain. Undeniably, not allowing a lesbian couple to attend a prom is a violation of the couple's civil rights; nonetheless, couldn't the lesbian couple find some way around the school's policy without ruining prom for her whole class? For example, couldn't they both have gone stag(ette) or have friends take each of them as heterosexual dates. High school dances typically aren't about your "date" and more about the people you meet there or with whom you arrive....at least that's the way my high school dances were. Teens find ways around things all the time by bending the rules in their favor...why not here? Prom connotes the culmination of one's school days: where the awkward moments of adolescence feel like distant memories of the past, as you embark on a mono-mythical journey into adulthood, into your future. Why end your high school career by making a scene with the officials in what you know to be a strictly religious, conservative town? It sort of seems like McMillen was baiting the school board officials and it backfired on her big time.

Obama Education Watch: I was wrong (maybe)

Wow -- this is big. I am really impressed by President Obama and SecEd Duncan. It will be interesting to see what happens to the teachers' unions: do they swallow this (where else will they go?) or do they break openly with the President.

Speaking at an event intended to highlight his strategy for turning around struggling schools by offering an increase in federal funding for local districts that shake up their lowest-achieving campuses, Obama called the controversial firings justified.

"If a school continues to fail its students year after year after year, if it doesn't show signs of improvement, then there's got to be a sense of accountability," he said. "And that's what happened in Rhode Island last week at a chronically troubled school, when just 7 percent of 11th-graders passed state math tests -- 7 percent."

The board that oversees Central Falls High School took the startling step last week of firing 93 teachers and other staff members after the teachers union refused to agree to a plan for them to work a longer school day and provide after-school tutoring without much extra pay.

[snip]

Education Secretary Arne Duncan has said repeatedly that he wants to work with unions rather than impose reforms on them, and the National Education Association, with 3.2 million members, and the AFT, with 1.4 million members, have generally sought to play down policy differences with the administration.

I think it's clear that the Obama Administration is really real about education reform. Good.