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Montgomery Advertiser – Historian: State capital moved often in early days
Montgomery Advertiser – Alabama college tuition program millions in red
Montgomery Advertiser – Dems name Mark Kennedy as new state party chairman
Montgomery Advertiser – AG: Civil-rights era cold cases a high priority
Montgomery Advertiser – Turning point for MPS? Parents, officials debate rezoning/closure plans
Montgomery Advertiser – Pike Road leaders take wait-and-see approach to MPS plan for schools
Montgomery Advertiser – US, world food costs on the rise
Montgomery Advertiser – Municipal bonds can be risky investments
Montgomery Advertiser – Advertiser editorial: Assess Georgia water offers carefully
Huntsville Times – Gov. Robert Bentley calls meeting of Alabama A&M trustees to discuss issues with SACS
Huntsville Times – Huntsville area’s retail vacancy rate drops for second year
Huntsville Times – Violence in Egyptian revolution painful for native to watch from Huntsville
Huntsville Times – 45 years ago, state’s coldest day was in New Market; almost 100 degrees cooler than Saturday’s spring-like weather
Huntsville Times – EDITORIAL: Gov. Bentley’s cabinet has diverse makeup
Huntsville Times – JOE MORTON ON ALABAMA’S NATIONAL SCHOOL REPORT CARD:
Huntsville Times – RICKY THOMASON: Passing the buck on public school woes
Birmingham News – Alabama wage tax refund compromise stirs opposition
Birmingham News – Birmingham Mayor William Bell sets sights on transit, light rail
Birmingham News – Judge postpones bond hearing for Country Crossing developer Ronnie Gilley
Birmingham News – Alabama Legislature unlikely to create a new job tax for Jefferson County
Birmingham News – Birmingham banks’ safety ratings improved
Birmingham News – House Ethics Committee Chairman Jo Bonner says political realities keep OCE operating
Birmingham News – Shelby County will be at forefront of challenge to Voting Rights Act
Press-Register – Katrina Cut on Dauphin Island closed with giant heap of rock
Press-Register – Point in Time count finds little increase in Mobile, Baldwin county homelessness
Press-Register – Editorial: Stuck in left field
Press-Register – Insight: A look at ‘Big Jim’ Folsom and ‘Doc’ Bentley
Press-Register – Insight: Pushing for a full recovery in south Mobile County
Press-Register – Insight: ‘Integrated’ special-ed plans fail to help the most vulnerable
Press-Register – Editorial: Reason over rhetoric in oil drilling
Tuscaloosa News – Returning soldiers use hunting to regain normalcy
Tuscaloosa News – New DOT director: Funds will be needed
Tuscaloosa News – EDITORIAL: Death penalties under review after drug ban
Tuscaloosa News – EDITORIAL: 112th Congress can learn a lot from Alabama
Florence TimesDaily – Survey: 84 percent plan to look for new work this year
Florence TimesDaily – City inmate dies in jail
Florence TimesDaily – Group: Redevelopment threatens tree research
Anniston Star – Go ahead and lead: New Legislature must be brave
Anniston Star – Endangered, for now: Protect the Alabama Coast
Anniston Star – Leadership for hard times: The Southern states still struggle to carry out Roosevelt’s vision
Decatur Daily – Playground adds to Jack Allen appeal
Decatur Daily – Economy shows signs of growth
Good Morning, Danny & WALTM…
–You Have Never Seen A Presidential Ad Like This One–
Courage to Stand
Movie trailer-esque video for former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty [R] as it crescendos with patriotic bravado and pulls at the heartstrings. No matter your political beliefs, if you aren’t at least moved in some way by this commercial then you are beyond jaded and there isn’t much hope for you.
The ad, which promotes Pawlenty’s book and is a prelude to his Presidential bid, is the best political ad I’ve seen. Detractors will dub the ad bombastic, over the top sensationalism but I ask you this; isn’t that the point of any good political campaign? To get us all to rally around a person who we believe can do what it takes to lead this country? A well-oiled ad campaign, and he’s now on our radar. And in a very favorable light. Pawlenty/Rubio?
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Press-Register – Insight:‘Integrated’ special-ed plans fail to help the most vulnerable
“We issue students with Individualized Education Plans [known as IEPs] the same textbooks that others have; we teach them the same material; we give them the same tests. We take the “individual” out of the equation.
And our interpretation of special education law has again narrowed to the point that many special-needs children are being deprived of the very thing No Child Left Behind was instituted to safeguard: an appropriate education.
Children do not pass tests when they read on a second-grade level and are tested on a fourth-grade level. They do not pass tests that require them to multiply and divide, when they cannot tell you that 8 comes after 7 without consulting a number chart.
Besides depriving the children of an appropriate education, we are depriving them of dignity. They take the tests; they fail the tests. They tell themselves that they are failures, and the quarterly scores verify that that is true.
We push these children every day to understand concepts far beyond their skill and developmental levels, and every day their frustration builds.”
I say that the system is the failure. Any system is broken that requires students with one leg to compete in the 50-yard dash against students with two legs, and then holds their coaches accountable when they can’t make it across the finish line in acceptable time.”
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–The Smallest Minority–
Just one more reason why nothing much changes and nothing changes very fast in public schools. People simply don’t have the time or the resources to make schools do their jobs. The laws largely protect them from being responsible for doing their jobs. Tenure effectively protects educators from losing their jobs in all but a few narrow and special circumstances, so they can’t be fired for not doing their jobs.
This is just one more reason why we need schools for The 21st Century Student, where problems can be fixed system-wide once and they stay fixed. The same battles don’t have to be fought over and over again with each new generation of students.
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“The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.” –Ayn Rand
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-Pookie