Great spirits have always faced violent protest from mediocre minds.
Albert Einstein
Helpers for Learning How to Kill a Westerner/Crusader ---
http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD126306

In its August 18, 2006 edition, the Egyptian weekly Roz Al-Yusuf featured an investigative article by Mirfat Al-Hakim titled "Hizbullah's Children's Militias." The article reveals that Hizbullah has recruited over 2,000 children aged 10-15 to serve in armed militias, and that the Hizbullah-affiliated Mahdi Scouts youth organization is training them to become martyrs . . . Hizbullah has customarily recruited youths and children and trained them to fight from a very early age. These are children barely 10 years old, who wear camouflage uniforms, cover their faces with black [camouflage] paint, swear to wage jihad, and join the Mahdi Scouts [youth organization]... "The children are selected by Hizbullah recruitment [officers] based on one criterion only: They must be willing to become martyrs."According to the article, Na'im Qasim, deputy to Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, said in an interview on Radio Canada: "A nation with child-martyrs will be victorious, no matter what difficulties lie in its path. Israel...
Memri, September 1, 2006 --- http://memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=SD127606 

Where are the Muslim mothers for peace?
There was, for me, an additionally odd, circular sense of disbelief about this particular journey. Last summer, a few days after the terrorists’ July bombings in London, I was interviewing the fatwa-reprieved Salman Rushdie in New York. A year later, on the very day of the Heathrow drama, I was interviewing his great mate Martin Amis, also in New York, albeit in a secluded enclave in the Hamptons. On both occasions, current events inevitably featured in our discussions. If you believe, as I do, that literature can help to make sense of the life we are living, then the response of these guys should certainly command some attention . . . And where are the voices of the ordinary mothers and daughters and aunts from the Muslim community saying, “Enough. No more violence. No more deaths”, as did all those courageous women who helped to bring peace to Ireland? And if they, our Muslim sisters, are mute slaves to — or, worse, themselves in thrall to — the siren call of the death-wish culture, is there any hope for the rest of us?
Ginny Dougary, "Where are the Muslim mothers for peace?" London Times, August 26, 2006 --- http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1072-2326888,00.html 

Where are the Anti-Bush mothers for peace?
Answer:  Crawford, Texas --- http://www.gsfp.org/article.php?list=type&type=21 

Al-Qaida sending terror cell seedlings across the Rio Grande
Al-Qaida reportedly integrating into Mexican society Border sheriff says Middle Easterners paying coyotes to smuggle them into U.S.
Fox News, August 25, 2006 --- Click Here
Jensen Comment
The term "coyotes" in this context refers to criminals who, for a fee, help smuggle illegal immigrants across the border.

Research in the Homeland Security Program supports the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies charged with preventing and mitigating the effects of terrorist activity within U.S. borders. Projects in this program will include critical infrastructure protection, emergency management, terrorism risk management, border control (particularly ports), first responders and preparedness, domestic threat assessments, domestic intelligence, and manpower and training.
RAND:  Homeland Security --- http://www.rand.org/ise/security/

You cannot prevent and prepare for war at the same time.
Albert Einstein

It is appallingly obvious that our technology exceeds our humanity.
Albert Einstein

Game of Nuclear Chicken Diplomacy:  Then and Now
Just hours after Iran opened a new plant capable of making plutonium “for peaceful purposes”, U.S. President George Bush assured his Iranian counterpart that any B-2 bombers that appear over Tehran in the near future would also serve peaceful purposes. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cut the ribbon on the new heavy-water nuclear plant Saturday as part of a month-long Iranian tribute to the effectiveness of the United Nations. Mr. Bush hailed Iran’s “transparent diplomacy” and said, “I called President Ahmadinejad today to congratulate him, and I told him that if he happens to notice one of them Stealth bombers going over...
Scott Ott, "Bush: B-2 Flights Over Tehran for ‘Peaceful Purposes’," ScrappleFace, August 25, 2006 --- http://www.scrappleface.com/
Jensen Comment
I recall a game of chicken that was played by macho teens in the 1950s. Two speeding cars bore down on each other aimed at a head-on collision to see which driver "turned chicken" by swerving away at the last instant.

The last game of nuclear chicken was played out to the very brink of holocaust in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis
Fortunately none of the key players (John Kennedy, Nikita Khrushchev, and Fidel Castro) was a religious fanatic in search of martyrdom and/or heavenly virgins.  Nikita Khrushchev eventually swerved to avoid thermonuclear collision. Earlier in 1961 President Kennedy had really screwed up with the Bay of Pigs Invasion, but that was not a game of nuclear chicken --- just chicken --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Pigs

Iran has commenced a new game of nuclear chicken even if its latest submarine missile photographs were probably propaganda photographs of some older Chinese missile tests.

The president of Iran has recently been trying to suck up to the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He sent her a letter in which he asks for support and writes that both the Germans and the Iranians have been screwed over by the Jews and the west.
"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sends letter to German Chancellor Merkel," SammyNews, August 29, 2006 --- http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1691950/posts

Question
Where did Israel purchase two of its new frightening submarines in this game of nuclear chicken?
Hint: It was not the United States

With the purchase of two more German-made Dolphin submarines capable of carrying nuclear warheads, military experts say Israel is sending a clear message to Iran that it can strike back if attacked by nuclear weapons. The purchases come at a time when Iran is refusing to bow to growing Western demands to halt its nuclear program, and after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map." CountryWatch: Israel The new submarines, built at a cost of $1.3 billion with Germany footing one-third of the bill, have diesel-electric propulsion systems that allow them...
"Israel Adds 2 Nuke-Capable Submarines," Fox News, August 24, 2006 --- http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,210373,00.html

Iran is said to have successfully tested an upgraded, indegenious, guided surface-to-sea missile, media reports confirmed on Saturday The missile was tested at the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman during the 'Blow of Zolfaqar' military exercises which began last Saturday.
"Iran tests upgraded surface-to-sea missile," India Defence, August 26, 2006 --- http://www.india-defence.com/reports/2408

Question
What nation has the fourth largest air force in the world?

$18B bolstering just a startAir Force head: 75 aircraft on order: Planes in service now will need replacing soonChris Wattie National Post Friday, August 25, 2006 The head of the Canadian air force says that $18-billion and 75 new aircraft are only a start at rebuilding an air force that was at one time the fourth largest in the world. Lieutenant-General Steve Lucas told the National Post yesterday the purchases of new heavy transport planes, fleets of new helicopters and replacements for the military's Hercules cargo planes are a good beginning, but more will soon be needed.
"$18B bolstering just a start," National Post, August 25, 2006 --- Click Here

Flashback from The Wall Street Journal, August 28, 1990
Speculation about a possible diplomatic resolution to the Mideast crisis sent stock prices soaring in the biggest rally this year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 78.71, or 3.11%, to 2611.63. Contributing to the gain was a $4 drop in the price of crude oil to $26.91 a barrel.

America grows weary of black leader ingratitude for the good things we do from the heart!
Perhaps most sad is that in four hours Lee has nothing positive to say about America and Americans. No mention is made of the $700 million from private citizens and churches that were committed in the first few days of the tragedy. No mention is made of the thousands of homes across the nation that welcomed evacuees. No mention is made of the tens of thousands who have successfully rebuilt their lives. (No mention is made of the thousands of fire fighters, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, cement workers, and others who spent their own money to go down to Louisiana and Mississippi to help clear debris and rebuild.)
"Katrina, lies and videotape," by Star Parker, WorldNetDaily, August 26, 2006 --- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51687

Spike Lee took his cameras and crew to New Orleans to film a documentary about Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. The four-hour production, which aired on HBO, is, unfortunately, about as destructive as was the disaster it depicts.

At a time when we need light and understanding, Lee has delivered darkness, anger and hatred. Those who will be hurt the most by the distorted and untruthful picture that Lee has concocted are the poor blacks he purports to want to help.

. . .

Central to the Katrina story is the failure of the levees. Indeed, Lee's film is called "When the Levees Broke."

But who is responsible for ignoring the warnings over the years that the levees protecting New Orleans were inadequate? Bush? Of course not.

It was Louisiana's congressional delegation that was responsible to ensure that their constituents' interests were being represented and that funds were being appropriated to fix sub-standard levees. But not a single Louisiana senator or congressman is ever mentioned or appears in "When the Levees Broke."

William Jefferson, New Orleans' congressman for the last 16 years, has been under FBI investigation over the last year under bribery charges. However, Jefferson is a Democrat and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. To shine a light on his possible, and likely, neglect of representing his constituents' interests would have distracted from the single message that Bush was the evil genius behind this tragedy.

Of course, no mention is made of Jefferson's trip home, when he commandeered a National Guard truck in the middle of rescue efforts to take him to his house to retrieve personal property.

. . .

I have written previously of the love of affair of the black left, particularly the Rev. Jesse Jackson, with Third World dictators. There is virtually no freedom of the press and speech in Venezuela. If Lee were a citizen of Venezuela and made a similar film attacking Chavez, he would disappear forever after the first showing.

Perhaps most sad is that in four hours Lee has nothing positive to say about America and Americans. No mention is made of the $700 million from private citizens and churches that were committed in the first few days of the tragedy. No mention is made of the thousands of homes across the nation that welcomed evacuees. No mention is made of the tens of thousands who have successfully rebuilt their lives.

Spike Lee clearly has little affection for the country that gives him free expression and has made him wealthy. He has produced a self-indulgent, deceitful and exploitive film about a tragedy. His message will give poor blacks more reasons to feel powerless, to feel lost, to feel that others bear responsibility for their lives, to hate, and to stay poor.

Continued in article

The extreme left does seem to have abandoned any idea of creating 
a socialist utopia; today it is devoted solely to uncreative destruction.
Opinion Journal, February 11, 2005
The extreme left has a different, but no less ungrateful, take in its review of Spike Lee's Katrina movie. Lee has been criticized for reducing "Katrina to a black problem," as Nicholas Kulish wrote in the New York Times. But Richard Kim defends this as justified and is critical mainly that Spike Lee did not go far enough in trying to destroy business enterprise. What Kim does not answer below, like most critics of business enterprise, is how socialism with big government would have done so much better. It's easy to criticize, but it's far more difficult to find a improved solutions.
"Doing the Right Thing," by Richard Kim, The Nation, August 25, 2006 ---
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=116164

Where Lee falters is not in his multi-faceted account of race and class, but in his examination of the politics and economics that set in play this unnatural disaster and continue to mangle New Orleans' reconstruction. The usual suspects are, of course, deliciously skewered: George Bush's sinister disinterest, Michael Brown's incompetence (he gets roasted by Soledad O'Brien who asks how her 23-year-old research assistant can have better intelligence than FEMA), Chertoff, Cheney, Condi and her Blahniks, Barbara Bush (the "President Momma" as Al Sharpton puts it), the insurance industry, the Army Corps of Engineers. But others, like Nagin who has consistently sided with business and property interests in the reconstruction, are largely absolved or made into heroes. With the exception of a brief query into Louisiana's oil and gas industry, the film seems to suggest that Hurricane Katrina happened because bad people made bad decisions, rather than because of the systematic gutting of urban infrastructure and the heartless pursuit of neoliberal economics.

Katrina spending is five times larger than past disasters
New Orleans' plight is not the result of federal underspending. Uncle Sam has spent some five times more on Katrina relief than any other natural disaster in the past 50 years. Both parties in Congress and the White House opted for the status quo by relying on federal bureaucracies to oversee the rebuilding effort. If Uncle Sam were deliberately trying to waste these funds, it is hard to imagine a better way than to funnel the money through the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Small Business Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Both HUD and the SBA have been on the chopping block back to the early Reagan years . . . For all the finger-pointing this week, Congress hasn't spent much more than a dime to clear away the debris of corruption, patronage, welfare dependency, high taxes and racial division of decimated neighborhoods. What is still lacking in the life of New Orleans is the vital architecture of local capitalism.
"The Tragedy of New Orleans:  Katrina spending is five times larger than past disasters," The Wall Street Journal, August 29, 2006 --- http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110008860

Spike Lee Fails to Fault Louisiana Political Corruption Where Katrina's Worst Fault Lies,
Before and After the Storm

Sneaky Intelligent Design Republicans?
I am writing to express concern about the exclusion of "evolutionary biology," a core component of the biological sciences, from the eligibility rules for the new federal "National Smart Grant" program. According to a recent account in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the list of college majors for which students may be eligible to receive the Smart Grants has only a blank line where the listing for evolutionary biology would be expected to appear.
Democratic Senator Henry A. Waxman in an August 24, 2006 letter to the Secretary of the Department of Education --- http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1690283/posts

After all the negative media publicity, evolutionary biology mysteriously reappeared on the grant list ---
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19125673.800-evolutionary-biology-reappears-on-federal-grant-list.html

Politics purportedly is not a bell-shaped curve that peaks in the center
"The Vitiated Center:  The successful failures of right and left intellectuals," by Brian Doherty, Reason Magazine, August/September 2006 --- http://www.reason.com/0608/cr.bd.the.shtml

Welfare Reform That Costs More Today for, Gulp, Welfare

"The Amazing Colossal Poorhouse:  Ten years after welfare reform, the welfare state is even larger than before," by Jesse Walker, Reason Magazine, August 22, 2006 --- http://www.reason.com/links/links082206.shtml

People on the rolls.
If you focus narrowly on the program known until '96 as Aid to Families with Dependent Children, and known since then as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, you'll get the impression that welfare is disappearing. In a time when the country's population was growing, the number of families receiving AFDC/TANF subsidies dropped from 4.6 million a decade ago to under 2 million today. There were several reasons for this, including a booming economy in the late '90s, but the chief factor was welfare reform, which established new time limits and work requirements for the program's clients.

But if you look across the spectrum of federal social programs, a more ambiguous picture emerges. As Douglas Besherov of the American Enterprise Institute pointed out last week in The New York Times, some of the families booted from TANF simply move to different sources of assistance: "food stamps (an average of more than $2,500), the Women, Infants and Children program (about $1,800 for infants and new mothers), Supplemental Security Income (an average of over $6,500), or housing aid (an average of $6,000). Their children also qualify for Medicaid. In reality, these families are still on welfare because they are still receiving benefits and not working—call it 'welfare lite.'" It's not clear what makes this arrangement "lite," given that all five forms of aid have seen their budgets increase since Bush took office.

In March, USA Today examined 25 programs, from Medicaid to the Earned Income Tax Credit. In nearly all of them, enrollment grew. Congress expanded eligibility for several, usually with the proviso that the recipients also work. But for the most part, this growth was a matter of the existing programs stretching to take on more clients as they fell below the poverty line. That doesn't necessarily constitute an increase in the number of people getting benefits: USA Today calculated that overall enrollment increased 17 percent from 2000 to 2005—"the biggest five-year increase in 40 years"—but that double-counts people who joined more than one program. But it certainly isn't the unambiguous contraction you see if you look at TANF alone.

Lest we forget, incarceration expanded considerably during this period as well. It is not true, as some leftists have suggested, that the people who left the welfare rolls simply moved en masse to jail. But there is an overlap; and, at any rate, any measurement of the number of Americans who depend on the government for sustenance should account for the 2,186,230 people incarcerated in the country's prisons and jails—up from 1,630,940 in 1996.

Money spent.
Again, a narrow focus on TANF gives the impression that welfare outlays are down. Spending on that one program dropped severely in Clinton's second term, and has remained roughly flat under his successor. But overall spending on transfer payments has increased radically, particularly under Bush. That shouldn't be surprising, given that government spending overall has increased radically under Bush. The tricky issue—particularly for those of us who are inclined to regard any transfer payment as welfare, whether the recipient is a single mom or a multinational corporation—is discerning which spending does not fall into the welfare category.

I'm not going to go through every item in the budget. I'll just note that even by the narrowest definition of welfare spending—programs aimed at fighting poverty—the figure has gone up 39 percent during the Bush presidency. There isn't any ambiguity here. The government is spending more money on welfare—and with the coming explosion in entitlements, you can expect it to spend even more in the future.

Continued in article

From the Scout Report on August 25, 2006

Policy experts, politicians, and others debate successes and failures of welfare reform 10 years of welfare reform assessed http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06234/715333-85.stm

On and off the rolls, women work to get ahead
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/15329233.htm

NPR: Legislator Offers First-Person View of Welfare [Real Player]
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5689095

In Focus: Ten Years of Welfare Reform [pdf] http://www.brookings.edu/comm/infocus/welfare.htm

NPR: Where the Welfare Law Failed Fathers
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5671231

Fact Sheet: The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/ofa/prwora96.htm

Some sixty years after its introduction during the New Deal era, the essence of social welfare in the United States was dramatically transformed with the passage of The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. Despite its cumbersome name, the Act effectively placed a five- year time limit on welfare assistance, and also required a significant commitment on the part of recipients to find work. As various groups and individuals reflected on the past ten years, some were quick to note that the number of people on welfare has dropped 60 percent. Others have been more sanguine, noting that these reforms continue to inadequately address deeper problems, particularly those of single mothers with few job qualifications or education. Some critics continue to suggest that these problems are related to structural changes in the economy, and others continue to blame the so-called "culture of poverty". The debates over what to do in order to solve the problems of working families continues to be intense, with some groups pushing to encourage marriage as a solution, and others seeking to provide more money for child care and higher minimum wages. [KMG]

The first link will take users to a piece from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s own Steve Levin that takes a closer look at the effects of welfare reform on several local residents. The second link leads to a similar piece which looks at women’s experience with the welfare system in and around Kansas City. The third link leads to a provocative piece from National Public Radio which features Montana legislator Mary Caferro talking about her own first- hand experience as a welfare recipient. Moving right along, visitors will find a diverse set of scholarly writings on welfare reform at the fourth site, offered courtesy of The Brookings Institution. The fifth link offers commentary by two scholars (Ron Haskins and Ronald Mincy) about how public policy should be adjusted over the next decade to meet the needs of poor families. Finally, the last link leads to a basic fact sheet on The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996.
 

 "Schwarzenegger Gives Up," by Shikha Dalmia, The Wall Street Journal, August 28, 2006; Page A13 --- Click Here

The real issue, however, is what this bond measure will do to California. Few doubt the need for California to invest in its crumbling infrastructure. But this is an infrastructure bond in name only. The four big-ticket items in the bond -- which is two times bigger than the biggest bond in the state's history -- are $2.6 billion for housing, $10.4 billion for K-12 schools and universities, $3.1 billion for levee repairs and $19.2 billion for transportation.

The housing bond is simply welfare masquerading as a capital project. A bulk of its money won't fund general infrastructure -- an acceptable use of general-obligation bonds like these -- but such things as cheap multifamily dwellings for low-income families, and down-payment assistance for first-time home buyers.

The education bond is equally misguided, given that 40% of the state's $94 billion general-fund revenues are already constitutionally earmarked for education. Moreover, California voters approved a total of $25 billion for school-construction bonds in 2002 and 2004 to reduce overcrowding. If there is still not enough money for new schools, it is not because of lack of state spending, but abject waste by individual districts. If anything, this handout will encourage more waste by undercutting districts' need to explore the kind of public-private partnership responsible for Inderkum High School in Sacramento being completed a month early and $2.5 million under budget. In this case, a private developer built the school and district authorities used their public dollars to lease the facility from him.

In contrast to schools, California has genuinely underinvested in its levees and transportation. Yet it is unclear that general-obligation bonds that mortgage the wallets of all future taxpayers are the best remedy. To the extent that levee repair, for instance, would benefit mostly those living in the flood plains, at least part of the cost ought to be recovered through special assessments on them.

California has also been routinely raiding the transportation dollars it raises from gas taxes for other general fund needs -- a fact obvious to anyone who has ever battled traffic on the San Diego Freeway. Yet only about half of this bond's revenues are slated for actual road building. Instead, $4 billion is going to mass transit even though mass transit's share of commuters, never large, has dropped by 9% since 2000.

Even after the proposed $19 billion transportation bond and the $384 billion in planned transportation spending by the state's biggest three regions (Los Angeles, the Bay Area and San Diego), California's traffic congestion will actually be worse in 2030 than it is today because the state is choosing pork and pet transit projects instead of prioritizing and adding much-needed highway capacity.

There are better ways of generating steady revenues to fund transportation and other needed infrastructure that don't involve giving Sacramento's politicians a ready excuse to dip into the pockets of future taxpayers. Among them, notes Donna Arduin, Mr. Schwarzenegger's former finance director, are things like privately built toll roads and congestion pricing. "These were things that were recommended to him back when he first took office," she says.

It is disheartening that the governor -- who claims to have been inspired to enter political life by the small-government ideas of Milton Friedman and Adam Smith -- has ignored these measures, especially now when government spending in California is touching the stratosphere. Indeed, despite the fact that California's economy has rebounded after the dot-com bust, pouring $7 billion more than expected into the state's coffers this year, the state's 2006-07 budget still shows a deficit of $7 billion. California has the dubious distinction of being one of only eight states showing deficits instead of surpluses right now.

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
Governor Schwarzenegger is now following the George Bush Mortgage-the-Future playbook of balancing the books with billions upon billions of  new debt rather than the Ronald Regan playbook of fiscal responsibility ink in the veto pen. The problem is that California, unlike the Feds, cannot print more money when needed to pay back debt with inflated dollars.

Finland Did Not Cave In to Bureaucracy and Education Unions
Taking Finland as an example, the following key lessons can be drawn. Education, skills and lifelong learning must be at the center of an innovative economy. Far from being a consistent top performer -- in the mid-1980s, secondary school students in Finland performed only slightly above the OECD average in science tests -- the country pursued comprehensive reforms in spite of a deep recession in the 1990s. Finland's policy makers were determined to rid their schools of the bureaucratic inertia and myriad of responsibilities that hobble other European school systems to this day. Through decentralization and holding teachers and schools accountable for their students' performance -- unthinkable in much of the rest of Europe -- the reforms instilled in educators a sense of professional pride and unprecedented empowerment. Today, Finland is the top performer in the OECD's high-school study. A second area where Finland is leading by example is in shifting its resources toward future-oriented projects. In 2004, Finland spent 3.41% of its GDP on R&D. Even more important, industry contributed the lion's share, 2.41%. Much of Europe, on the other hand, is trying (unsuccessfully) to reach the 3% target through more public spending. Finland realized that attracting private-sector investment is not only more productive but also more likely to yield commercially viable innovative products.
Ann Mettler, "Innovation, Innovation, Innovation," The Wall Street Journal, August 28, 2006 --- Click Here

Public school teachers in Detroit voted yesterday to reject a contract offer and to not report for their first day of work today. School is scheduled to start Sept. 5 for the 129,000 students in the Detroit Public Schools.
"Detroit Teachers Vote to Not Report to Work," The New York Times, August 28, 2006 --- Click Here

College Leaders in Michigan Push Hard to Defeat Vote to Bar Affirmative Action in Colleges
A federal judge on Tuesday refused to block a Michigan referendum this fall to bar affirmative action by public colleges and universities and other state agencies, The Detroit Free Press reported. The judge was harshly critical of the initiative, and said he believed that many people who signed petitions to place the measure on the ballot had been misled. But the judge said he lacked the authority to remove the measure from the ballot. College leaders are pushing hard to defeat the measure.
Inside Higher Ed, August 30, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/08/30/qt

Here's What Happened in Washington State
Minority enrollments have lagged in Washington State, relative to the state’s population for the last eight years — ever since the state’s voters barred the use of affirmative action in public higher education, the Associated Press reported.
Inside Higher Ed, August 30, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/08/30/qt

Bob Jensen's threads on both affirmative action for faculty hiring/pay and affirmative action on student admissions/aid are available in separate categories at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm

As much as I criticize the biased news media, for me the newspaper industry's financial woes are saddening
“Our investment in newspaper stocks continues to cause concern for some clients,” Mr. Sherman wrote in a letter to clients earlier this summer. “Given the disappointing returns thus far, we understand their consternation. In some regards, it would be easier for us to abandon the investment theme than to continue to argue the point.” While Mr. Sherman’s firm has been shedding some of its newspaper stocks, largely at the direction of dissatisfied clients, about 10 percent of his portfolio remains invested in newspapers. (As of June 30 his firm owned 13 percent of the common stock of The New York Times Company.) Despite the industry’s woes, some in the newspaper industry have sharply criticized Mr. Ridder for not fighting harder to save his company. He had been acquiescing to Wall Street for years, they say, and his sale of the company was only the final, most striking, example.
Katherine Q. Seelye, "What-Ifs of a Media Eclipse," The New York Times, August 27, 2006 --- Click Here
Jensen Comment
Television news reporters and correspondents are more visible, but it's an army of newspaper reporters worldwide that are truly bringing us the daily news. I don't think anybody is predicting an abrupt shutdown of the presses. But draconian cost cutting will greatly degrade newsgathering.. Much of the problem arises from the shifting of advertising, including classified advertising, from local newspapers to the Internet in such outlets as CraigsList, eBay, Google, Yahoo, etc. Newspapers moved to the Internet, but competition for advertising revenue is intense relative to the virtual monopoly powers newspapers enjoyed at one time in their communities.

Academic Freedom at the Dawn of a New Century:
How Terrorism, Governments, and Culture Wars Impact Free Speech

Q: In the essays in the book, which issues raised were the most surprising to you? Which were of the greatest concern?

A: I think what surprised me the most was how grave the situation is regarding academic freedom in many countries around the world. I certainly knew that there were problems in other countries, but until you actually read about all of the examples of people being beaten, imprisoned, and even killed for their views, I don’t think you quite understand how dire the situation is.
Matthew J. Streb in an interview with Scott Jaschik, "New Analysis of Academic Freedom," Inside Higher Ed, August 28, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/08/28/streb

The essays in a new book, Academic Freedom at the Dawn of a New Century: How Terrorism, Governments, and Culture Wars Impact Free Speech (Stanford University Press), explore attacks and defenses of professors in countries all over the world. The editors (who also contribute to the volume) are Evan Gerstmann, chair of political science at Loyola Marymount University, and Matthew J. Streb, assistant professor of political science at Northern Illinois University. Streb responded to questions via e-mail on the themes of the book.

And now a few words about academic freedom from New Hampshire's Democratic Governor
and Former Dean of the Harvard Business School, John Lynch
"Although academic freedom is important," the governor said, "if the UNH professor is promoting that view, it reflects a reckless disregard for the true facts and raises questions as to why such a professor would be teaching at the university in the first place." Woodward is a member of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, an organization that maintains the Bush administration permitted the terrorist attacks to occur, and may even have planned them, so as to rally the public around its policies.
Scott Brooks, "Lynch calls teacher's theories crazy as UNH stands behind 9/11 prof," Union Leader, August 29, 2006 ---
Click Here

The University of New Hampshire is refusing to fire a tenured professor whose views on 9/11 have led many politicians in the state to demand his dismissal. William Woodward, a professor of psychology, is among those academics who believe that U.S. leaders have lied about what they know about 9/11, and were involved in a conspiracy that led to the massive deaths on that day, setting the stage for the war with Iraq. The Union Leader, a New Hampshire newspaper, reported on Woodward’s views on Sunday, and quoted him (accurately, he says) saying that he includes his views in some class sessions.
Scott Jaschik, "Another Scholar Under Fire for 9/11 Views," Inside Higher Ed, August 29, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/08/29/woodward

"Stretching the Definition of Academic Freedom," by John Friedl, Inside Higher Ed, August 31, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2006/08/31/friedl

Academic freedom is under attack on college campuses across the country. The “Academic Bill of Rights,” authored by David Horowitz, seems to be motivated by a concern that some professors are turning their classrooms into personal forums in which they force-feed their students a liberal political dogma unrelated to the subject matter of the course.

Horowitz’s attempt to involve legislatures in addressing what is clearly an academic issue is not only a dangerous precedent, but unnecessary as well. It is dangerous because it threatens the freedom of inquiry and critical thinking that we strive to achieve through open discussion of controversial issues. And it is unnecessary because we have in place institutional guidelines and professional standards that, when properly applied, provide balance without destroying the spontaneity and intellectual stimulation that is currently found in our classrooms.

The real problem that needs to be addressed is the growing gap in the understanding of the concept of academic freedom shared — or more often not shared — by faculty and administrators. Matters of institutional policy proposed by academic administrators are increasingly — and frequently without justification — condemned by professors as infringements on their rights.

A few examples provide an enlightening illustration. These examples involve what are mistakenly seen as academic freedom issues, providing a sense of how broadly many faculty interpret the concept and the rights it creates.

My current university for many years has provided an e-mail list service open to all faculty and staff for virtually any purpose: to post notices, advertise items for sale, express opinions on any topic, and to disseminate official university announcements. As the volume of garage sale ads grew and the expression of opinions became increasingly vitriolic, many faculty and staff members elected to filter out messages from the list service, with the result that they did not receive official announcements.

As a solution to this problem, university administrators created a second list service limited to official announcements, in which all employees would participate without the option of unsubscribing. The original open list remained available to all who chose to participate. In response to this action, one faculty member sent a message to the entire university (on the pre-existing list service) denouncing the change as a violation of academic freedom and First Amendment rights, because the “official” announcements would first be screened by the University Relations Office before being posted.

A second example: At my former university, in response to concerns over a high rate of attrition between the freshman and sophomore year, the deans proposed a policy whereby each instructor in a lower division course would be required to provide students with some type of graded or appropriately evaluated work product by the end of the sixth week of a 15-week semester. The stated purpose of the policy was to identify students at risk early enough to help them bring their grades up to a C or better. (The original proposal also included the suggestion that faculty members work with students to develop a plan to improve their performance, but that was quickly taken off the table when faculty complained of an increase in their workload without additional compensation.)

When this proposal was discussed among the faculty, several complained that the scheduling of exams was a faculty prerogative protected by academic freedom, and that any attempt by university administrators to mandate early feedback to students was an infringement upon that right. Those who spoke out did not object to the concept of early feedback — they just didn’t want to be told they had to do it.

Another example: At the same institution, in preparation for its decennial review by the regional accrediting body, the vice president for academic affairs began to assemble the mountains of documents required for that review, including a syllabus for every course offered. The accrediting organization guidelines list 11 items recommended for inclusion in every course syllabus, and the vice president duly notified the faculty, through the deans and department chairs, of this recommendation.

The response of a surprising number of the faculty members was to argue that what goes into their syllabus is a matter of academic freedom, not subject to the mandate of the vice president or the accreditor. Again, their complaints did not seem to be directed at the suggested content, but rather they were opposed to being told what they must put in their syllabi.

The concept of academic freedom is often viewed as an extension of the rights granted under the First Amendment, applicable within the limited context of the educational system. One of the earliest definitions of academic freedom is found in the AAUP’s 1915 Declaration of Principles on Academic Freedom and Academic Tenure. The discussion is framed in terms of the freedom of the individual faculty member to pursue his or her research and teaching interests without interference from “outsiders,” whether they be members of the institution’s governing body or the public at large.

As an indication of how far the pendulum has swung in the 90 years since the AAUP Declaration was written, in 1915 the authors expressed concern that “where the university is dependent for funds upon legislative favor, ... the menace to academic freedom may consist in the repression of opinions that in the particular political situation are deemed ultra-conservative rather than ultra-radical.” But the authors correctly point out that “whether the departure is in the one direction or the other is immaterial.”

As appealing as the principle embodied in the AAUP Declaration may be to many academic administrators and to most, if not all, professors, that principle has not found favor in American jurisprudence. Academic freedom is not mentioned directly in the U.S. Constitution or in any federal statute. It was first recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1957 case of Sweezy v. New Hampshire, when Justice Felix Frankfurter defined the four elements of academic freedom as: “the freedom of an institution to decide who may attend, who may teach, what may be taught and how it shall be taught.” Note that this definition places the bundle of rights that make up academic freedom in the institution, not the individual faculty member.

It is a huge leap from the AAUP Declaration to the contention that a policy requiring a graded work product by the sixth week or mandating 11elements in every syllabus is an abridgment of the faculty’s constitutional rights, not to mention the claim that university administrators have no right to screen what goes out to the campus community as an official university announcement.

The problem, of course, goes much deeper. The real difficulty is that on many campuses throughout the country, the expanding concept of academic freedom has created an expectation of total individual autonomy. Our concept of faculty status seems to have evolved from one of employee to that of an independent contractor offering private tutorials to the institution’s students using the institution’s resources, but unfettered by many of the institution’s policies.

Lest any of us grow accustomed to this new order, it is instructive to see what one federal court has said about the limits to academic freedom. In the case of Urofsky v. Gilmore, a prominent legal scholar challenged a state policy aimed at restricting the use of state-owned computers by public employees to visit pornographic Web sites. The faculty member made the by now familiar claim that access to such information for teaching or research is constitutionally protected under the First Amendment, and falls within the scope of the individual faculty right to academic freedom.

The U.S. Court of Appeals disagreed, saying that academic freedom is not an individual right, but one that belongs to the institution, and in this case the institution (Virginia Commonwealth University) is an extension of the state. In the court’s words, “to the extent the Constitution recognizes any right of ‘academic freedom’ above and beyond the First Amendment rights to which every citizen is entitled, the right inheres in the university, not in individual professors....” The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review this decision, thereby allowing it to stand. And while it is binding legal precedent only for federal courts in the Fourth Circuit (Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia), this decision will serve as a powerful influence on other courts throughout the country.

The court’s conclusion was a shock to many of us, administrators and faculty members alike. Even more troubling is the court’s statement that “the [Supreme] Court has never recognized that professors possess a First Amendment right of academic freedom to determine for themselves the content of their courses and scholarship, despite opportunities to do so.” But as offensive as this statement may seem to some, it could have an unintended and beneficial consequence of bringing faculty and administrators closer together in recognizing their common bonds and in working toward achieving common goals for the good of their colleges and universities.

When faculty members recognize that there are limits to academic freedom, and that the rights ultimately reside with the institution, there is a powerful incentive to work with academic administrators to reach consensus on policies that will achieve important goals. And even if administrators feel emboldened by what may at first be perceived as a weakening of the individual faculty member’s freedom, every seasoned academic administrator knows that without faculty cooperation and support, even the most well-intentioned policy cannot succeed.

Cider apples have high levels of phenolics –
antioxidants linked to protection against stroke, heart disease and cancer
The saying goes that an apple a day keeps the doctor away but now scientists at the University of Glasgow are looking into whether a pint of cider could have the same effect. Researchers have discovered that English cider apples have high levels of phenolics – antioxidants linked to protection against stroke, heart disease and cancer – and are working with volunteers to see whether these health benefits could be passed onto cider drinkers.
"Could a pint of cider help keep the doctor away?" PhysOrg, August 28, 2006 --- http://physorg.com/news75964425.html
Jensen Comment
The fresh cider is outstanding up here in apple country this time of year. Alas --- don't forget that cider, like all fruit juice, is extremely high in calories. Persons drinking a pint of cider each day should probably drink one less pint of Guinness or Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Sigh!

Still Rotten to the Core:  Unethical and Sneaky Cigarette Companies Behind the Scenes
The level of nicotine that smokers typically consume per cigarette has risen 10 percent in the past six years, making it harder to quit and easier to be addicted, said a report that the Massachusetts Department of Health released on Tuesday. The study shows a steady increase in the amount of nicotine delivered to the smokers’ lungs regardless of brand, with overall yields increasing 10 percent. Massachusetts is one of three states to require tobacco companies to submit information on nicotine testing to its specifications and is the sole state with data as far back as 1998.
"Nicotine Levels Rose 10 Percent in Last Six Years, Report Says," The New York Times, August 31, 2006 --- Click Here

Forget the biscuits:  Pass the berries Miranda, I'm as forgetful as sin
If humans are anything like rats, scientists at Tufts University in Boston may be on the road to discovering the fountain of youth for the human brain. Reporting in the online edition of Neurobiology of Aging, Tufts psychologist Barbara Shukitt-Hale and her colleagues say a diet rich in berries improved the brain function of aging rats, WebMd reports.
PhysOrg, August 25, 2006 --- http://physorg.com/news75730536.html

Blueberries rank among the healthiest foods on the planet (good oxidizers)
Chef Rob Evans' Blueberry Recipes --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5716453

Related NPR Stories

The University of Illinois Plans a Huge New Online "Campus"
Faculty Seeking Tenure Need Not Apply

Remember the impressive SCALE study?

"The New State U," by Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, August 31, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/08/31/illinois

The University of Illinois is in many ways a classic state university system. Urbana-Champaign is a flagship, with a history of Nobel laureates and competitive admissions. The Chicago campus has been very much on the rise in the last 10 years, expanding research and graduate programs and attracting academic stars. Springfield has more of an undergraduate and liberal arts focus.

All three campuses have some distance education programs, but the university system is now getting ready to launch a whole new campus, creating an online division that could eventually rival the individual campuses in enrollment levels, operating in a very different environment. The University of Illinois Global Campus would be operated as a separate for-profit entity, have almost entirely part-time faculty members (and none with tenure), and focus on a relatively small number of degree programs.

The idea, according to Illinois officials, is to learn from a variety of models out there that are growing rapidly (UMass Online, University of Maryland University College, and the University of Phoenix), while also learning from some of the failed attempts of the dot-com boom, when many colleges started online, for-profit spinoffs with much hype — only to see them go nowhere.

“This could be extremely significant in the online landscape,” said Trace Urdan, who tracks education ventures for the Signal Hill Capital Group. The Illinois effort reflects a number of key trends, he said: the continued growing popularity of online education, the desire of many adults to study not only online but with an institution they know well, and the realization of many public universities that they need different types of models to compete for these students — while not promising the moon overnight, as some institutions did 10 years ago.

“This is part of a continuing trend where the traditional schools and state institutions are becoming much more competitive in the areas that have been dominated by the for-profits,” he said. “Their online programs are becoming more relevant, and even the ones that aren’t spending effectively have boosted the amount of money they are spending.”

Richard Vedder, an Ohio University professor who has been an outspoken critic of traditional higher education and who is a member of the U.S. education secretary’s commission studying higher education, has been praising the Illinois plan as a “bold innovation” that could shake up public higher education.

But not everyone at Illinois is in love with the plan, which is expected to receive final board approval next month. Faculty leaders from the three existing campuses are working on a letter to express concerns about the idea. One faculty leader who asked not to be identified said that the plan risked the university’s values. “Tenure is a very critical concern because it is a hallmark of the academic freedom that is needed for intellectual inquiry,” said the professor. “If people are all part-time and non-tenure track, is that a university? Is that a faculty? It’s certainly the University of Phoenix, but it’s not traditionally what has been the University of Illinois.”

The Illinois plan was the result of nearly a year of work by a committee that included administrators and faculty members (while some professors question the direction of the plan, even critics praise the administration for having been inclusive in planning).

Chet Gardner, who led the effort as vice president for academic affairs and is now leading the drive to create the new campus, said that the committee came to believe that distance education needed to grow, and that it couldn’t do so with existing models. Currently, online enrollments are about 6,900, or 2 percent systemwide “and that just can’t scale up,” he said. Under the new structure, Illinois wants to have 10,000 students enrolled in 5 years and up to 50,000 in 10 years. Programs would be limited — largely business, technology, education and similar fields in which there is strong demand by adult learners. “This will not be a traditional university where you have 100 or more academic programs,” he said.

By raising money privately — about $15-20 million for starters — Illinois plans to create the new university without state funds (which have generally been in short supply for the last decade for higher ed in the state). As a private, for-profit institution, without tenure, the new campus will seek independent accreditation, and expects to have the freedom to create (and discard) programs quickly. Courses will be starting every few weeks, not just on a traditional semester schedule. And while most students are expected to be Illinois residents, there will be no differential between in and out of state rates.

Despite all of those very non-traditional characteristics, Gardner insisted that this “isn’t about profit,” but is about the university’s historic mission. “What’s driving this is that we are a land grant university. It’s our core mission to provide access to high quality education first and foremost to the people of Illinois,” he said, adding that adult students who can’t enroll full time on an Illinois campus “aren’t well served today.”

One contention of Illinois officials is that while the online market is in some ways national or international — since anyone online can enroll anywhere — there is increasing evidence that online customers still want to root for the home team. UMass Online is one of the entities Illinois has studied — and its figures suggest a strong desire to enroll at a local institution online. During the last academic year, the institution’s enrollments increased by 23 percent, to 21,682 — in a state with no shortage of colleges and where many experts have warned that students could become scarce as the U.S. population shifts out of the Northeast. Revenues from those students were up 32 percent, to nearly $23 million.

Only 28 percent of UMass Online students are from out of state.

“There is a lot of regionalism in online education,” said David Gray, CEO of UMass Online. “I think Illinois will find a lot of receptivity in its own backyard.”

Peter Stokes, executive vice president at Eduventures, an education research firm that has advised Illinois on its plans, agreed. “State sponsorship is very positive” as potential students are considering where to enroll — in person or online, he said. Whatever people imagined about the worldwide market for distance education, “most enrollments are local.”

Stokes said that the Illinois plans reflect a maturation of the way traditional universities are thinking about starting new online ventures, some of them with for-profit models. “Everyone knows the failures of NYU Online or Fathom,” he said. “I think that going back, universities thought they could access a tremendous amount of venture capital,” and then ended up “putting their own money in, without real business models in place for the time.”

The survivors of that era — he cited eCornell as an example — are “more modest in focus.”

Stokes said it was significant that Illinois was talking about raising serious amounts of money, but not outrageous sums, and that its emphasis was on serving its own state. “The motivation to go for-profit today isn’t to raise capital, but to free themselves from constraints of traditional university governance. With traditional governance, it’s hard to make the kinds of quick decisions you need.”

Several other major public universities are currently considering an approach similar to what Illinois is planning, Stokes said, although he declined to name them. While places like UMass Online, the University of Maryland University College, and Penn State World Campus have a head start, not to mention the advantages the University of Phoenix enjoys, Stokes said that there was probably room for more players — provided they maintain a focus on their states.

Urdan of Signal Hill agreed. “The opportunity to be as big as Phoenix is gone,” he said. The opportunities that remain for state university systems are closer to home.

Not all supporters of online education, however, favor the for-profit model. UMass Online is “firmly nonprofit,” Gray said, even though it is making plenty of money. It turned over $8 million in what would have been profit to the university system last year, and Gray said he expects that to rise to $10 million this year — even with extensive growth in programming.

Gray said that UMass Online’s success relates to a degree of independence it does enjoy — while it works with individual faculty members and professors at UMass campuses, the online program can add offerings or eliminate them quickly, set up marketing efforts, and generally “operate on its own schedule,” Gray said.

“I think there was a recognition here that we needed independence to pump some energy into this initiative, that something very distinctly different had to be done,” he said.

So why stay nonprofit? Gray said that another key to success has been faculty support. New offerings are designed and taught by regular university faculty members. He said that any move to for-profit status would put that support at risk. “We never got into the arguments about profit-making,” he said. “We needed engagement to occur for this to work, and this model isn’t threatening. We got the engagement we needed because we didn’t spend a lot of time on the arguments about being a commercial enterprise.”

Gray said that there’s no doubt that “some things can be easier by adopting a for-profit model,” but he said that university leaders need to remember that “there are tradeoffs.”

Pat Langley, chair of the Campus Senate at the University of Illinois at Springfield, said that her campus is providing a model of how distance education can work well — and that she’s skeptical of the new model being proposed. Springfield has received support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to put traditional liberal arts courses online, and Langley said that professors have embraced the idea. “You always find computer science and business being offered online, but we’re working to get philosophy and English up as well,” said Langley, a professor of women’s studies and legal studies.

The reason faculty members like the program — which has resulted in Springfield having a larger share of its enrollment online than the other Illinois campuses — is that quality is the same, Langley said. “We received a commitment that the people who would teach these courses would be the people who teach them on the ground, and as a result, the quality is indistinguishable online or in the classroom, and the professors are enjoying teaching these courses,” she said.

Is a new model needed to offer more courses? “It depends what your goal is,” Langley said. “In our model, students are getting a very high quality education and I’m sure that it’s at least as good as if they were sitting in the bricks and mortar classroom,” she said. “We don’t think the model needs to be changed.”

Some faculty members are supportive of the new online effort — with a few conditions. Elliot Kaufman, chair of the University Senates Conference of the Illinois campuses, said that while “a lot of faculty are concerned, I don’t share those concerns.” Kaufman, a professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the Chicago campus, was on the committee that prepared the plan.

He noted that the university uses part-time faculty members now and that the quality of instruction by adjuncts can be very high, provided they are adequately supported. “We can’t scale up what we are doing right now with the existing model, and I think we need to use adjuncts,” he said.

“The trick is to make sure everyone is highly qualified and trained,” Kaufman said. “I understand the concerns some people have about this model, but I don’t think we should say we don’t like this model. We should say we’ll do this, and do it well.”

Jensen Comment
The University of Illinois conducted one of the first scholarly "SCALE" experiments of onsite versus online learning using resident on-campus students --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/255wp.htm#Illinois

Bob Jensen's threads on distance training and education alternatives are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm

Free from Temple University
COW:  Calculus on the Web (plus linear algebra) --- http://www.math.temple.edu/%7Ecow/

Bob Jensen's threads on free math tutorials are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#050421Mathematics

Learnthat.com: Free web training for computer courses ---
http://www.learnthat.com/courses/computer/default.asp

Free From the University of Utah
Learn Genetics Online (for teachers and students) --- http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/

The Genetic Science Learning Center is an outreach education program located in the midst of bioscience research at the University of Utah. Our mission is to help people understand how genetics affects their lives and society.

To achieve this mission, we present education offerings for various audiences, including:

• This website, which delivers interactive and print-based resources, free of charge, to Internet users worldwide. The website has two main components:
  
   
  • Information and activities: These address standards for science education, and are accessible to all users from the homepage.
  • Teacher Resources and Lesson Plans: These are accessible from the top right of any page. They include PDF-based Print-and-Go™ classroom activities and teacher guides for all materials.
• Professional development programs that update K-12 teachers' expertise in bioscience topics. See our list of upcoming courses and workshops, accessible through the Teacher Resources and Lesson Plans section of this site.
• Public education programs that highlight topics of current interest and research underway at the University of Utah.

Our educational resources provide accurate and unbiased information about topics in genetics and bioscience. Designed for non-research audiences, our materials are interactive and jargon-free, target multiple learning styles, and often convey concepts through visual elements. Our newest materials are being developed with our Exploragraphic™ design methodology.

Some topics in genetics and bioscience research are controversial. The Learning Center does not take sides in politically or ethically charged topics. Rather, our goal is to provide comprehensive information that promotes a lively discussion of these topics, so that individuals can arrive at their own informed decisions.

Bob Jensen's threads on online education and training alternatives are at
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/crossborder.htm

Question
If homework does not significantly (on average) improve learning in grade school, how does it impact learning in higher education?

"The Myth About Homework:  Think hours of slogging are helping your child make the grade?" by Caludia Wallis, Time Magazine, August  27, 2006 --- Click Here

Both books cite studies, surveys, statistics, along with some hair-raising anecdotes, on how a rising tide of dull, useless assignments is oppressing families and making kids hate learning. A few highlights from the books and my own investigation:

• According to a 2004 national survey of 2,900 American children conducted by the University of Michigan, the amount of time spent on homework is up 51% since 1981.

• Most of that increase reflects bigger loads for little kids. An academic study found that whereas students ages 6 to 8 did an average of 52 min. of homework a week in 1981, they were toiling 128 min. weekly by 1997. And that's before No Child Left Behind kicked in. An admittedly less scientific poll of parents conducted this year for AOL and the Associated Press found that elementary school students were averaging 78 min. a night.

• The onslaught comes despite the fact that an exhaustive review by the nation's top homework scholar, Duke University's Harris Cooper, concluded that homework does not measurably improve academic achievement for kids in grade school. That's right: all the sweat and tears do not make Johnny a better reader or mathematician.

• Too much homework brings diminishing returns. Cooper's analysis of dozens of studies found that kids who do some homework in middle and high school score somewhat better on standardized tests, but doing more than 60 to 90 min. a night in middle school and more than 2 hr. in high school is associated with, gulp, lower scores.

• Teachers in many of the nations that outperform the U.S. on student achievement tests--such as Japan, Denmark and the Czech Republic--tend to assign less homework than American teachers, but instructors in low-scoring countries like Greece, Thailand and Iran tend to pile it on.

Success on standardized tests is, of course, only one measure of learning--and only one purported goal of homework. Educators, including Cooper, tend to defend homework by saying it builds study habits, self-discipline and time-management skills. But there's also evidence that homework sours kids' attitudes toward school. "It's one thing to say we are wasting kids' time and straining parent-kid relationships," Kohn told me, "but what's unforgivable is if homework is damaging our kids' interest in learning, undermining their curiosity."

Continued in article

Jensen Comment
I think homework is like any other learning tool that can be used effectively or ineffectively depending upon the context of where and how it is used. Homework may enhance or suppress creativity. Homework may increase or stifle motivation. One problem is that too much homework is the mechanical exercise of merely looking up and copying answers. Another problem is that too much homework is graded mechanically such that creative answers that take time to ponder and evaluate by instructors are probably overlooked. For example, written assignments may be graded for grammar without comment on the content itself. I think some topics are better suited to homework. I can't imagine mathematics courses without homework. I learned most of the mathematics I ever mastered because of homework. In science lab exercises are a form of homework that are, in my viewpoint, indispensable. 

Economics and Banking Tutorials Free from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Inside the Vault --- http://www.stls.frb.org/publications/itv/default.html
This is a newsletter that explains the banking system, international economics, deficits, etc.

Bob Jensen's threads on free math tutorials are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#050421Mathematics

Bob Jensen's threads on free textbooks and other learning materials in various fields, including literature, economics, history, statistics, and  accounting --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm

Bob Jensen's writing helpers --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob3.htm#Dictionaries

SAT Scores Down While ACT Scores Up
Mean scores on the SAT fell this year by more than they have in decades. A five-point drop in critical reading, to 503, was the largest decline since 1975 and the two-point drop in mathematics, to 518, was the largest dip since 1978.
Scott Jaschik, "Lower Scores, Fewer Students," Inside Higher Ed, August 30, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/08/30/sat

Gaps among racial and ethnic groups continued to be significant on the SAT, including the new writing test, for which the first mean scores were released at the College Board’s annual SAT briefing on Tuesday. The board also reported a small decline in the total number of people who took the test, and while board officials insisted at a news conference that the decline was across the board, they acknowledged later Tuesday that the board’s own data suggest that the decline appears to be among students from the lowest income families.

The percentage of SAT test takers with family incomes up to $30,000 was 19 percent for the high school class of 2006, down from 22 percent a year ago. The share of SAT test takers from families with incomes greater than $100,000 was 24 percent, up from 21 percent a year ago.

Gaston Caperton, president of the College Board, provided a generally upbeat assessment of the year’s results, saying that the new writing test was off to a strong start, both strengthening the SAT and encouraging high schools to focus on writing skills. He attributed the drops in SAT scores to a decline in the number of students who took the test more than once. Fifty-three percent of students did so, down from 56 percent the previous year. Repeat test takers tend to improve their scores, Caperton noted, and students tend to alter their test-taking behavior in years when the SAT undergoes major changes, as was the case this year.

n light of these changes, he said he wasn’t concerned about the one-year drops, although he remained seriously concerned that too many students are not taking rigorous courses in high school that lead to their doing well on the SAT and in college. He said that the average drops in SAT scores didn’t even amount to a single additional question being answered incorrectly.

A reporter at the briefing asked Caperton why in previous years — as SAT scores inched upward — he had implied that those increases were signs of real progress, while he was playing down the impact of larger decreases. Caperton said that “I think we tend to overemphasize a few points here or there.”

Christine Parker, who runs the SAT and ACT preparation programs for the Princeton Review, said that she was struck by the tone of the College Board’s materials on this year’s scores. “It’s pretty clear that the board is on the defensive about these decreases,” she said. She thinks that one reason the retesting totals are down is that more students are taking the ACT and the SAT and figuring out which score will help them the most with colleges, rather than simply retaking the SAT.

Many high school guidance counselors — not to mention SAT test takers — complained that the addition of the writing test made the SAT too long, and there has been much discussion of whether “SAT fatigue” contributed to the decline in scores.

But Wayne Camara, vice president for research and psychometrics