I just don't get it....

More things that I cannot understand what passes for logic in the minds of their advocates: What conceivable benefit can charter schools and vouchers have on the public good of education for all?

Regardless of the individual merits of any particular charter school, the promotion of charter schools collectively is key to the ... strategy for destroying public education, because voucher-funded charter schools will siphon money and the best students from public schools.

That, in turn, will degrade public schools, at which point advocates for charter schools and privatization will point to public schools and say, "look! Public schools are a failed experiment. We need more vouchers, more charter schools!"

I have elided the imputed conspiracy from the statement because I don't think it's really meaningful to the discussion.

It should be axiomatic that you don't solve a school's problems by shipping its best and brightest students somewhere else. Leadership in schools isn't just from the teachers. Start the reform discussion there, not in seeking to set up new ways to institutionalize discrimination.

What He Said....

John Cole at Balloon Juice:

And before the real bullshit starts, I have an Obama 2012 sticker on my car already and am a member of Team Obama at the DNC, with an auto withdrawal every month from my checking account. I am voting for the guy in 2012 no matter what, because even though he has many flaws, he will be head and shoulders above whatever swamp thing crawls out of the primordial ooze of lies, homophobia, racial resentment, fearmongering, religious triumphalism, and class warfare that will be the GOP primaries.

Abortion.

Abortion is a medical procedure. It should be a matter for medical professionals, a woman and any personal advisors, religious or secular, she chooses to consult. When government criminalizes a medical procedure, you get this, which is clearly, without any question, WRONG:

http://www.aclu.org/blog/reproductive-freedom/pregnant-women-need-support-not-prison

The facts of this case are heartbreaking. On December 23, 2010, Shuai, a 34-year-old pregnant woman who was suffering from a major depressive disorder, attempted to take her own life. Friends found her in time and persuaded her to get help. Six days later, Shuai underwent cesarean surgery and delivered a premature newborn girl who, tragically, died four days later.

On March 14, 2011, Shuai was arrested, jailed, and charged with murder and attempted feticide. Had Shuai, who is being represented by National Advocates for Pregnant Women and local attorneys, not been pregnant when she attempted suicide, she would not have been charged with any crime at all.

Some discussion at Balloon Juice, wherefrom I found about it:

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/03/31/yes-dear-i-do-remember-when-women-were-people-too/#more-64834

No one who has either suffered major depression, nor anyone who has loved someone thus afflicted would see the state of Indiana’s actions as anything other than vicious.

Yes, that would be me, too.

I urge anyone to read the ACLU post completely. Comment here will be responded to with as much civility as I can muster, which is usually quite a lot. But you don't have to use profanity to blister paint, so if you think you can defend this, be prepared.