Los Angeles Board of Education

John & Ken (640am) Eviscerate LAUSD`s iPad Program

Published by Papa Giorgio

Money from current and future taxes taken from property owners originally meant to fix dilapidated schools and build new structures is being “sequestered” to buy overpriced iPads that will cost well over 1-Billion dollars. Here is tyhe story via Daily Caller:

Los Angeles public schools officials were forced to admit this week that their iPad program would end up costing even more money than previously believed — and Common Core’s infamous textbook company Pearson is partly to blame.

Outgoing superintendent John Deasy has long wanted to supply every student in the district with an iPad device — at the cost of $1 billion to taxpayers. Trouble set in quickly as schools began implementing the plan, however. The devices are expensive, and many low-income parents worried that they would be on the hook for damages. Teachers also had to enable the security settings so that the devices couldn’t be used at home, though some students were able to circumvent those barriers. Dozens of iPads have already been lost, broken or stolen. (RELATED: LA schools give every kid an iPad—what could go wrong?)

But little could prepare iPad skeptics for the latest revelation: LA schools must pay an extra $60 million each year starting three years from now in order to re-license the English and math curriculum software on the devices. This contradicts earlier statements made by district officials that the software would not need to be rented multiple times.

The new information leaked out during a recent school board meeting.

“We’ll need to purchase licenses after three years if we want to continue to use the content,” said Hugh Tucker, deputy director of facilities contracts, according to The Los Angeles Times.

This drew the ire of school board member Monica Ratliff.

“OK, stop right there,” said Ratliff. “At the end of three years, that content is going to disappear or we’re going to be violating something by attempting to use this content?”

Tucker told her that this was indeed true.

Recent News Stories Put To Artistic Prose (Immigration, Oil, Sovereignty)

Published by Papa Giorgio

(These are old stories I decided to keep in my “repairing” old posts)

This rash politicization of education is being met with resistance, but here’s what supporters of the proposed curriculum had to say:

According to its press release, “The Los Angeles Board of Education also requested that Superintendent Ramon Cortines ensure that civics and history classes discuss the recent laws with students in the context of the American values of unity, diversity and equal protection for all people.”

“America must stand for tolerance, inclusiveness and equality,” said Board President Monica García, according to the release. “In our civics classes and in our hallways, we must give life to these values by teaching our students to value themselves; to respect others; and to demand fairness and justice for all who live within our borders. Any law which violates civil rights is un-American.”

Very telling that “rule of law” was not one of the “American values” mentioned.

Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann was quoted in Politico hammering the administration for pulling away from Israel.

From Politico:

“We have to ask if the Obama administration remains committed to the state of Israel and the right of Israel to exist and defend herself. The Obama administration, through its word and its actions, has been sending the world mixed signals at best.”

She continued:

“It appears that from the time the Obama administration came into office they have been stepping away from Israel…”

(Michele Bachmann strong words for Obama over lack of support for Israel)

The Dutch government is condemning Israel’s defensive action against the Hamas/Al Qaeda terrorist vessel that entered its waters. However, one Dutch politician is standing against the tide.

From the Dutch News, June 1:

MPs from across the political spectrum, even those traditionally supportive of Israel, have said they were shocked by Israel’s actions.

However, PVV MP Geert Wilders said it is ‘cheap’ to attack Israel. ‘I am certainly not going to make a cheap attack on Israel by howling in the woods with the rest of the wolves,’ he told tv show Nova.

Israel was fully justified in entering the ships to see if they were also carrying weapons, he said.

(In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders stands virtually alone in defense of Israel flotilla attacks)

President Barack Obama Wednesday sought to break the political siege imposed by the US oil disaster, lacerating Republicans for gutting corporate regulation and exploding deficits.

The GOP immediately blasted back, accusing the president of trying to distract attention from the ongoing catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico.

“Good speeches can’t improve failing policies,” said House Republic Whip Eric Cantor. “America needs more than speeches and words — we need action to begin to erase our deficits and free our children from our debt.”….

(GOP Blasts Obama for Attack Speech as Spill Worsens in Gulf)

Many reasons, but this one goes unmentioned: Environmental chic has driven us out there. As production from the shallower Gulf of Mexico wells declines, we go deep (1,000 feet and more) and ultra deep (5,000 feet and more), in part because environmentalists have succeeded in rendering the Pacific and nearly all the Atlantic coast off-limits to oil production. (President Obama’s tentative, selective opening of some Atlantic and offshore Alaska sites is now dead.) And of course, in the safest of all places, on land, we’ve had a 30-year ban on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

So we go deep, ultra deep — to such a technological frontier that no precedent exists for the April 20 blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.

There will always be catastrophic oil spills. You make them as rare as humanly possible, but where would you rather have one: in the Gulf of Mexico, upon which thousands depend for their livelihood, or in the Arctic, where there are practically no people? All spills seriously damage wildlife. That’s a given. But why have we pushed the drilling from the barren to the populated, from the remote wilderness to a center of fishing, shipping, tourism and recreation?

Not that the environmentalists are the only ones to blame. Not by far. But it is odd that they’ve escaped any mention at all.

The other culprits are pretty obvious. It starts with BP, which seems not only to have had an amazing string of perfect-storm engineering lapses but no contingencies to deal with a catastrophic system failure.

However, the railing against BP for its performance since the accident is harder to understand. I attribute no virtue to BP, just self-interest. What possible interest can it have to do anything but cap the well as quickly as possible? Every day that oil is spilled means millions more in losses, cleanup and restitution….

….Well, when you anoint yourself King Canute, you mustn’t be surprised when your subjects expect you to command the tides.

(A disaster with many fathers)