Texas State Senator Proposes Cuts for Public School Funding, But Proposes State Funded Textbooks for Private Schools – Senate Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden filed a constitutional amendment on Monday that, if approved, would make it the state’s responsibility to provide free textbooks to students in private schools.
The effort comes as the state faces a massive budget shortfall that Ogden is particularly involved in trying to fix. That shortfall may prevent the state from providing textbooks to public schools as scheduled.
Stopgap Federal Spending Bill Slashes Education – The stopgap federal spending bill almost certainly spells the end of federal funding for more than a dozen education programs, at least until the end of the current fiscal year, and quite possibly forever.
The list of funding cuts includes:
- National Writing Project—$25.6 million
- Teach for America—$18 million
- Reading is Fundamental—$24.8 million
- National Board for Professional Teaching Standards—$10.7 million
- New Leaders for New Schools—$5 million
- Arts in Education—$40 million
- We the People—$21.6 million
- Close Up fellowships—$1.9 million
- Exchanges With Historic Whaling and Trading Partners—$8.6 million
- Thurgood Marshall Legal Educational Opportunity program—$3 million
- B.J. Stupak Olympic Scholarships—nearly $1 million
Conservative Government in Canada Tries to Make It Legal to Lie on the News So They Can Start “Fox News” Type Channel – After the public discovered that the Conservative Harper government was attempting to change the rules that prevented media outlets from broadcasting false or misleading news, their reaction was swift and decisive.
No freaking way.
The Harper government was quietly attempting to change this rule to make broadcasting false news illegal only in cases where it could be proven that the broadcaster “knew” the news was false prior to broadcast. Coincidentally – or not – the change was being discussed just in time for the launch of a brand new right wing television news station in Canada.
Sun News, the brainchild of Harper’s former chief of staff Kory Teneycke, nicknamed “Fox News North,” was expected to provide vitriolic political rhetoric and right-wing attacks in much the same vein as Fox News in America.
Toxic Sludge on Your Food – Millions of pounds of toxic sludge are routinely disposed of on farmland used to grow food, where it is touted by the sludge industry as natural “fertilizer.” Sewage sludge contains everything the sewage treatment plant was able to remove from the sewage – plus every new chemical and pathogen formed in the mad synergy of this chemical soup, including virulent, antibiotic-resistant bacteria created through horizontal gene transfer.
H.R.254, the Sewage Sludge in Food Production Consumer Notification Act, would prevent food and animal feed from being grown on land spread with toxic sludge. The bill isn’t perfect, as it would only apply to the application of sewage sludge in the year before planting. But, it’s a good start, and could lead to the phasing out of farmland disposal of sewage sludge.
Regards,
Jim
Andy Hailey