A reminder that despite the Obama administration’s unprecedented investment in infrastructure, all is not well — far from it — for the nation’s public-transit riders: After scuttling Mayor Mike Bloomberg‘s congestion-pricing plan last year, legislators in Albany are once again twiddling their thumbs as New York City’s MTA faces an insurmountable budget gap. By the […]
Dana Goldstein
Dana Goldstein, a former associate editor and writer at the Prospect, comes from a family of public-school educators. She received the Spencer Fellowship in Education Journalism, a Schwarz Fellowship at the New America Foundation, and a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellowship at the Nation Institute. Her journalism is regularly featured in Slate, The Atlantic, The Nation, The Daily Beast, and other publications, and she is a staff writer at the Marshall Project.
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AMERICAN JEWS ON ISRAEL.
The indispensable J Street has a new poll surveying the attitudes of 800 American Jews toward Israel. And while there is lots of encouraging news about support for a two-state solution — and for increased American push back against Israel’s nativist right — what really jumped out at me were the contradictory opinions many American […]
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FDA TO RECONSIDER STATUS OF “MORNING-AFTER PILL.”
Thanks to a federal court, within 30 days Plan B will be available without a prescription to all women aged 17 and older. Previously, you had to be 18 to buy the drug. And the FDA has been ordered to reconsider the Bush administration edict banning younger teenagers from accessing the drug over-the-counter. Good news […]
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THE VATICAN’S “SMALL FAVORS” ON ABORTION.
Earlier this month, I highlighted the case of the 9-year old Brazilian girl who received an abortion after being raped by her stepfather. Cardinal Cardoso Sobrinho swiftly excommunicated the doctors who provided the abortion and the girl’s mother, who approved it — while maintaining that the rapist himself was worthy of forgiveness. Last week the […]
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HOW TO CATEGORIZE MULTIRACIAL STUDENTS?
The one success of No Child Left Behind hailed by folks across the political spectrum is the law’s requirement that states collect data on student achievement according to race, class, and English language-learner status. This policy shines a light on the achievement gap that is impossible to ignore, offering up terrifying statistics such as the […]
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All Work, No Pay
Whether she likes it or not, Michelle Obama now serves as a public figure for the administration. Should the first lady get a salary for her work?
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FRIDAY AFTERNOON ZEN.
Every so often, a perfect parody comes along. This is one of them. Watching dorky guys sing about their anatomy while gyrating really really brings home how grossly most music videos objectify women as animalistic pieces of sex-meat. Enjoy. (Probably NSFW. Though totally safe for my work!) —Dana Goldstein
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The Education Wars
Unions and reformers are fighting over the future of schools. Now the battle lines have started to blur.
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CHARTER TEACHERS DIVIDED OVER UNIONIZATION.
As teachers at the Brooklyn charter school KIPP AMP continue to pursue unionization under the United Federation of Teachers, their peers at two other New York City KIPP schools have sent a powerful message to the union — stay back. In a win for the KIPP administration, which has been resisting the Brooklyn teachers’ push […]
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HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE RISING TEEN BIRTH RATE.
Today the National Center for Health Statistics reported that, for the second year in a row, the teen birth rate has increased by about 1 percent, ending a 14-year decline. In 2007, there were about 42.7 births per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 19. The shift is part of an overall increase […]
