NOW with Bill Moyers Tonight

it appears it will be about Public Education tonight.
Since we've had a couple lengthy discussions in the past few days... I thought people might be interested in seeing it.

I'm definitely interested in the topic and wonder if they'll mention "no child left behind" and what a fiasco it is.


Cher

I was about to start a thread but it would have been a dupe...

http://www.pbs.org/now/thisweek/index.html

This week on NOW:

Former Houston, Texas school superintendent Rod Paige was tapped by President Bush to be Secretary of Education because he had a reputation as an educator who could turn things around in public schools. Paige had orchestrated what some called the "Houston miracle," a dramatic decline in dropout rates and an increase in test scores. But critics and whistleblowers contend that Paige's methods created the climate for falsification of test scores and drop out rates. And how does that affect the nation's new "No Child Left Behind" education law which uses Houston schools as a model? David Brancaccio goes to Houston to examine the scandal in the city's public schools and looks at what it might mean for the future of public education in America.
http://www.pbs.org/now/society/nclb.html
http://www.pbs.org/now/society/dropouts.html
http://www.pbs.org/now/society/edmap.html
http://www.pbs.org/now/society/intedstats.html

This week, popular broadcaster Rush Limbaugh told his audience about his addiction to painkillers and of his plans to check into a rehab center. But even for the millions of chemically dependent Americans who have healthcare insurance, a treatment center still may not be an option. Bill Moyers talks to Representative Jim Ramstad (R-MN), who have joined efforts to introduce a bill that would permit doctors and treatment specialists--not the insurance companies--to make decisions on addiction treatment. This legislation is aimed at making insurance plans cover chemical addiction the same way they cover other chronic diseases.
http://www.pbs.org/now/society/heartact.html
http://www.pbs.org/now/society/recovery.html

As the debate over President Bush's request of $87 billion heats up, Bill Moyers sits down with scholars Samantha Power and Simon Schama for a lively discussion of America's policies abroad and for their take on how reconstruction in Iraq is going. Power, who is professor of public policy and founding executive director of the Carr Center for Human Rights at Harvard University, won a Pulitzer Prize for her book, A PROBLEM FROM HELL: AMERICA AND THE AGE OF GENOCIDE. Schama is a professor of European cultural and environmental history and the history of art at Columbia University, and is best known for his Emmy-nominated television series A HISTORY OF BRITAIN.
http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/schamaandpower.html

Check your local listings.
http://www.pbs.org/now/sched.html

I just started another thread in the Media forum, too.

This is such an important topic more time should have been spent addressing it. Houston miracle my ass.

is far more serious than we have given it credit for

El RUSHBO on later


WOW Samantha Power is SWEET

I was impressed by Samantha Power too!

As for the Houston dropout story, the guts of it is:

1. Create incentives for people to be rewarded if certain numbers look good.

2. Accept the numbers at face value.

3. Be surprised when people cheat.

Pretty similar to the scams going on the financial industry, except that those folks get more highly rewarded.

Numbers that don't correspond to reality, but offers rewards for the people who create them, just lead to a Gross & Corrupt National Product.

BushCo has been operating like this for some time -- if you don't like the way certain numbers look, fudge 'em, change 'em, hide 'em, don't keep track of 'em, etc. etc. Examples: the US gov't never kept track of how many non-Americans are dying in the war in Afghanistan. Didn't want to know. Certain domestic numbers that would look bad aren't being kept anymore.

It's all a sign of the craziness we're living in (don't like the vote totals -- change 'em for chrissakes!). There's reality. And then there are fictions we are expected to swallow and act upon as if they are reality.

in mp3 format week after week.

It's an important community service!

Thank you very much!!!

:toast: :toast: :toast: :toast: :toast:

I saw it earlier. What a scam the "no child left behind" promise is. This administration has no shame. Everything they do is smoke and mirrors to consolidate their power and greed. The cynical nod they give to education and other social problems is disgusting. Cheating and lying about their failures is dispicable especially since, as one educator put it, it's destroying a child's future to make their programs look good.

:kick: