"Families in poorer communities don't have $200 to support keeping programs and staff at their children's schools but San Diego Unified Chief of Staff Bernie Rhinerson said that doesn't mean they're getting a lesser education."
Oh, really? Does Bernie Rhinerson think parents are that stupid? He really expects us to believe that while all these schools (north of the I-8, mind you and many in predominantly white, wealthy neighborhoods) have access to librarians (meaning school libraries can actually be OPEN) and technology (that poorer schools don't have), the educations is not in any way lesser. He should be fired for saying such nonsense.
The inequality here is disgusting. The non-profit arm of my daughter's wonderful but always-struggling public school just bent over backwards to hold a golf event, dinner and silent auction that earned net proceeds of $4000 and I'm supposed to believe that our school has the same resources as the Scripps Ranch school—that I bet money has air conditioning while temps in my kids' classroom frequently top 95-degrees—that intends to raise $180k? This is totally offensive on so many levels. I'm nearly speechless. I don't even know where to begin to take this article apart. But I'm sure gonna start.
This is issue of eliminating busing was called "emotional" by your reporter, and this is certainly true of the board members who voted for it. These are people who are making a radical decision based mostly on ideology and little to no concrete analysis of the long term effects of doing away with transportation. When mentioning that at least ten schools will be over capacity after the phasing out of busing, your reporter should have offered Lincoln High as evidence: the school could receive an influx of up to 1200 students. How does a school accommodate that? Ms. Jackson said yesterday that this is a "worst case scenario" and that the school board really doesn't know how many kids will go back to Lincoln, further illustrating the purposeful lack of understanding by her, Mr. Evans and Mr. Barnett.
Making sure working parents didn't have the time to give input, the school board held their last minute meeting yesterday in an air conditioned room (temps didn't even top out at 70 degrees in this city), while my kid and her classmates suffer through triple digit temperatures during spring, early summer and fall. The school board has the nerve of talking about saving money, but has no idea who is riding the bus and hasn't enforced payment by parents who use the system (yes, parents pay for using the bus). The school board claims eliminating busing will save teacher jobs, but at my daughter's school (and others like it), where nearly half the students are bussed, more teachers will be laid off as student enrollment plummets.
These Days should offer up a full hour on this topic alone and shed a spotlight on what the school district is doing (I didn't even get into re-segregation) at the expense of San Diego's most disadvantaged kids, because let's be real: They're the ones who will suffer the most. They always do.
This "solution" is going to create more problems than it solves and the sooner parents understand this, the better.
Hey! It's Cassandra Wilson! (I sort of dug that moment.)
I have been watching Treme, remaining hopeful, feeling like I'm being presented with a very literal post-Katrina New Orleans. The show is heartbreaking at times, maddening at others. It makes me want to visit while simultaneously making it clear I'm an unwelcome outsider (shout out to Skittles!). The story lines are scattered and the acting is, with exceptions, lukewarm. I hate to say it but, Treme seems to be getting weaker with each successive episode. I couldn't figure out if the Mardi Gras episode was well done and depressing, or really awful and depressing. Either way, the result of that episode was that I completely forgot to watch it on Sunday night. Not a good sign.
I've said it recently and I'll say it again: I'm in a short story state of mind. I propose:
"Alone With You" by Marisa Silver; "The Boat' by Nam Le; or please, oh please, there is something for everyone in... "A Kind of Flying" by Ron Carlson (my hero! le sigh).
I attended an anti-war protest of an estimated 500,000 people in Washington D.C. in 2004. When I came home and told people what I'd done over the weekend, I was repeatedly asked, "What protest?"
And yet the media is giving the Tea Party day-to-day coverage. Fine if KPBS wants to get on this bandwagon. However, I think it's irresponsible for Gloria Penner and Tom York to be dismissive of the fact that the Tea Party is largely composed of angry white people who believe themselves to be marginalized by the ever-changing demographics of America. The undercurrent of racism and ethno-centricity is not some small part of what the Tea Party is and it was offensive to hear Penner to carelessly blow over one particular caller who pointed this out and to hear York nearly exclaim that this movement has legitimacy.
I was relieved when Andy Donohue very evenly pointed out that it was Bush who put us in "two unpopular wars" as one caller itemized in his talking points, as well as the fact that it was Bush who signed off on the bailouts for Wall Street. Which begs the question: Where was the Tea Party outrage and mobilization when the last president was spending us into oblivian? Why, all of the sudden, have these issues become a problem for them? This is the kind of responsible media coverage I'd like to hear when I tune in to find KPBS following the pack on the topic of the day. Listening to Penner ho-hum today was disappointing.
One of your callers, a doctor, was exasperated at the term "medical marijana" and claimed there is no such thing because marijana is "toxic." He conveniently ignored the fact that pharmaceuticals are *all* toxic but expressed his outrage as if Vicodin and Prozac and the like are health foods or something. In addition, he mentioned that physicians who recommend a patient use medical marijuana receive "$300" for doing so. Again, he failed to mention the kickbacks doctors like him receive from companies like Pfizer for prescribing their medicines over a competitors generic offering.
It's one thing to discuss the regulation of medical marijuana and the challenges to doing so, but it's quite another for an MD to spout hypocritical, ridiculous arguments for why it shouldn't be made available available to those who need it, while very much on the dole of Big Pharma.
So...the second place winner has an entire series in the show? She has four out of the 111 photographs selected from a pool of 16,000 and one judge felt her "Bureaucrats" series was not only worthy of inclusion at the expense of other artists but also award winning? The first of her four isn't even in focus, which works for some shots but in this one, I think it's sloppy.
I have to say, I am not compelled. The first place winner is terrific. But I sort of have to agree with GeorgeR on this one. I'm not feeling the impulse to run down to the Lyceum.
I had a photo pass and battled it out at The Crocodiles and well, that was enough jostling for me. Who knew professional photogs had such sharp elbows to go with their fierce game faces?
Anyway, I decided to skip the shots and go for the show. I gotta be honest: I wasn't loving all the angsty indie-rock. At least I think it was angsty. It's so hard to tell when you can't hear the lyrics over guitar noise. Maybe I'm just old and uncool. Or maybe I just have taste.
I was diggin' Ra Ra Riot---fantastically bizarre visuals to go with music that---along with all the young 'uns in the crowd wearing neon Raybans and Flashdance shirts---took me right back to 1980-anything. And let me just say this: The only thing better than a man in a one-legged unitard is TWO men in one-legged untiards.
Sharon Jones killed it. She took of her strappy silver kitten heels and got down with some traditional African dance. You would never guess she's in her mid-fifties the way she was moving her bod. Her drummer stood up and helped her put her shoes back on so she could close with "100 Days, 100 Nights." The Dap Kings were solid, if not a bit serious, and at one point, one of the Thievery Corp boys (the guitarist?) joined her on stage.
Of course, Thievery Corporation stole the show (yes, even from Public Enemy). There wasn't one bit of my clothing that wasn't drenched in dance sweat. Mostly my own, but prolly some of the guys' next to me, too. Pretty gross but tolerable under the circumstances. The best part of their show was the uber-sexy Brazilian singer writhing in her gold bustier, daaaaangerously close to spillage, if you know what I mean. It was fantastic.
66° A Few Clouds
Parents Try To Fill Funding Void At Some San Diego Schools
Oh, and P.S. Aren't these some of the schools benefitting from the fuzzy math Joanne Faryon reported on in June?
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2011/jun/08/...
Someone needs to be publicly and loudly making these connections.
September 29, 2011 at 10:08 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Parents Try To Fill Funding Void At Some San Diego Schools
"Families in poorer communities don't have $200 to support keeping programs and staff at their children's schools but San Diego Unified Chief of Staff Bernie Rhinerson said that doesn't mean they're getting a lesser education."
Oh, really? Does Bernie Rhinerson think parents are that stupid? He really expects us to believe that while all these schools (north of the I-8, mind you and many in predominantly white, wealthy neighborhoods) have access to librarians (meaning school libraries can actually be OPEN) and technology (that poorer schools don't have), the educations is not in any way lesser. He should be fired for saying such nonsense.
The inequality here is disgusting. The non-profit arm of my daughter's wonderful but always-struggling public school just bent over backwards to hold a golf event, dinner and silent auction that earned net proceeds of $4000 and I'm supposed to believe that our school has the same resources as the Scripps Ranch school—that I bet money has air conditioning while temps in my kids' classroom frequently top 95-degrees—that intends to raise $180k? This is totally offensive on so many levels. I'm nearly speechless. I don't even know where to begin to take this article apart. But I'm sure gonna start.
September 29, 2011 at 7:04 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
SD Unified To Send Final Layoff Notices
This is issue of eliminating busing was called "emotional" by your reporter, and this is certainly true of the board members who voted for it. These are people who are making a radical decision based mostly on ideology and little to no concrete analysis of the long term effects of doing away with transportation. When mentioning that at least ten schools will be over capacity after the phasing out of busing, your reporter should have offered Lincoln High as evidence: the school could receive an influx of up to 1200 students. How does a school accommodate that? Ms. Jackson said yesterday that this is a "worst case scenario" and that the school board really doesn't know how many kids will go back to Lincoln, further illustrating the purposeful lack of understanding by her, Mr. Evans and Mr. Barnett.
Making sure working parents didn't have the time to give input, the school board held their last minute meeting yesterday in an air conditioned room (temps didn't even top out at 70 degrees in this city), while my kid and her classmates suffer through triple digit temperatures during spring, early summer and fall. The school board has the nerve of talking about saving money, but has no idea who is riding the bus and hasn't enforced payment by parents who use the system (yes, parents pay for using the bus). The school board claims eliminating busing will save teacher jobs, but at my daughter's school (and others like it), where nearly half the students are bussed, more teachers will be laid off as student enrollment plummets.
These Days should offer up a full hour on this topic alone and shed a spotlight on what the school district is doing (I didn't even get into re-segregation) at the expense of San Diego's most disadvantaged kids, because let's be real: They're the ones who will suffer the most. They always do.
This "solution" is going to create more problems than it solves and the sooner parents understand this, the better.
.
May 11, 2011 at 10 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
TV: HBO's 'Treme' Continues to Disappoint
Hey! It's Cassandra Wilson! (I sort of dug that moment.)
I have been watching Treme, remaining hopeful, feeling like I'm being presented with a very literal post-Katrina New Orleans. The show is heartbreaking at times, maddening at others. It makes me want to visit while simultaneously making it clear I'm an unwelcome outsider (shout out to Skittles!). The story lines are scattered and the acting is, with exceptions, lukewarm. I hate to say it but, Treme seems to be getting weaker with each successive episode. I couldn't figure out if the Mardi Gras episode was well done and depressing, or really awful and depressing. Either way, the result of that episode was that I completely forgot to watch it on Sunday night. Not a good sign.
June 15, 2010 at 2:54 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
One Book, One San Diego Wants Your Input For Next Book
I've said it recently and I'll say it again: I'm in a short story state of mind.
I propose:
"Alone With You" by Marisa Silver;
"The Boat' by Nam Le;
or please, oh please, there is something for everyone in...
"A Kind of Flying" by Ron Carlson (my hero! le sigh).
June 1, 2010 at 7:03 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Taxes And Tea Parties In S.D.
I attended an anti-war protest of an estimated 500,000 people in Washington D.C. in 2004. When I came home and told people what I'd done over the weekend, I was repeatedly asked, "What protest?"
And yet the media is giving the Tea Party day-to-day coverage. Fine if KPBS wants to get on this bandwagon. However, I think it's irresponsible for Gloria Penner and Tom York to be dismissive of the fact that the Tea Party is largely composed of angry white people who believe themselves to be marginalized by the ever-changing demographics of America. The undercurrent of racism and ethno-centricity is not some small part of what the Tea Party is and it was offensive to hear Penner to carelessly blow over one particular caller who pointed this out and to hear York nearly exclaim that this movement has legitimacy.
I was relieved when Andy Donohue very evenly pointed out that it was Bush who put us in "two unpopular wars" as one caller itemized in his talking points, as well as the fact that it was Bush who signed off on the bailouts for Wall Street. Which begs the question: Where was the Tea Party outrage and mobilization when the last president was spending us into oblivian? Why, all of the sudden, have these issues become a problem for them? This is the kind of responsible media coverage I'd like to hear when I tune in to find KPBS following the pack on the topic of the day. Listening to Penner ho-hum today was disappointing.
April 16, 2010 at 9:37 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
My Cultural Thumbprint By Encinitas Artist Cheryl Sorg
This is wonderful.
Lucky you!
January 26, 2010 at 12:21 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Medical Marijuana Laws Are Hazy
One of your callers, a doctor, was exasperated at the term "medical marijana" and claimed there is no such thing because marijana is "toxic." He conveniently ignored the fact that pharmaceuticals are *all* toxic but expressed his outrage as if Vicodin and Prozac and the like are health foods or something. In addition, he mentioned that physicians who recommend a patient use medical marijuana receive "$300" for doing so. Again, he failed to mention the kickbacks doctors like him receive from companies like Pfizer for prescribing their medicines over a competitors generic offering.
It's one thing to discuss the regulation of medical marijuana and the challenges to doing so, but it's quite another for an MD to spout hypocritical, ridiculous arguments for why it shouldn't be made available available to those who need it, while very much on the dole of Big Pharma.
September 24, 2009 at 12:50 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Photography Exhibition Brings International Attention to San Diego
So...the second place winner has an entire series in the show? She has four out of the 111 photographs selected from a pool of 16,000 and one judge felt her "Bureaucrats" series was not only worthy of inclusion at the expense of other artists but also award winning? The first of her four isn't even in focus, which works for some shots but in this one, I think it's sloppy.
I have to say, I am not compelled. The first place winner is terrific. But I sort of have to agree with GeorgeR on this one. I'm not feeling the impulse to run down to the Lyceum.
September 3, 2009 at 12:09 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Street Scene Photos, Including Flavor Flav's Bling and Various Shoes!
I had a photo pass and battled it out at The Crocodiles and well, that was enough jostling for me. Who knew professional photogs had such sharp elbows to go with their fierce game faces?
Anyway, I decided to skip the shots and go for the show. I gotta be honest: I wasn't loving all the angsty indie-rock. At least I think it was angsty. It's so hard to tell when you can't hear the lyrics over guitar noise. Maybe I'm just old and uncool. Or maybe I just have taste.
I was diggin' Ra Ra Riot---fantastically bizarre visuals to go with music that---along with all the young 'uns in the crowd wearing neon Raybans and Flashdance shirts---took me right back to 1980-anything. And let me just say this: The only thing better than a man in a one-legged unitard is TWO men in one-legged untiards.
Sharon Jones killed it. She took of her strappy silver kitten heels and got down with some traditional African dance. You would never guess she's in her mid-fifties the way she was moving her bod. Her drummer stood up and helped her put her shoes back on so she could close with "100 Days, 100 Nights." The Dap Kings were solid, if not a bit serious, and at one point, one of the Thievery Corp boys (the guitarist?) joined her on stage.
Of course, Thievery Corporation stole the show (yes, even from Public Enemy). There wasn't one bit of my clothing that wasn't drenched in dance sweat. Mostly my own, but prolly some of the guys' next to me, too. Pretty gross but tolerable under the circumstances. The best part of their show was the uber-sexy Brazilian singer writhing in her gold bustier, daaaaangerously close to spillage, if you know what I mean. It was fantastic.
August 31, 2009 at 4:53 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )