The best thing about The Voice (Italy in this case): People are judged on what they do, not what they look like or what background they come from. What a concept. This kick-ass rockstar jam is presented by a woman with an unlikely background. Check it out:
Today a new international study on teachers was released by the OECD. Sounds like a snoozer, right?
Except there’s some really interesting data. The 2013 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) was released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). They surveyed teachers around the world to get a sense of what teachers are seeing in their classrooms.
When you look at the data about the US it’s pretty shocking. American teachers love their jobs but only 34% feel that they are valued by society. Teachers deserve more respect and they realize that the constant attacks from people like Michelle Rhee helps devalue them in society.
In fact, when you look at the TALIS data it shows that countries where teachers feel valued have higher levels of student achievement.
More importantly, countries that do better than the good old US of A have more teaches on a permanent contract. So while Robert Gibbs and Ben LaBolt join a national right-wing campaign to strip teachers of a permanent contract, the OECD shows that is the exact wrong thing to do.
But the most alarming thing about the TALIS survey is what it shows about poverty. Sadly, 64.5% of teachers teach in schools with 30% poverty or more. That’s the highest among industrialized countries. Mexico only has 44% of teachers teaching in schools with 30% poverty or greater. Think about that: we’re worse than Mexico on poverty in schools.
Why does this matter? Because poverty matters! Poverty affects student achievement. It affects what the teacher is able to do.
So while people push anti-teacher, Vergara style lawsuits to strip teachers of basic workplace rights, the OECD is saying do the opposite.
This international study confirms what true progressive are already saying. Cut back the testing, give teachers respect and job security, a deal with poverty.
An unfortunate statistic about British women has gone viral all thanks to one video.
Tender, a British charity that works to promote healthy relationships based on equality and respect, took a note from a research paper published in the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency. The statistic shows “a match day trend that the risk of domestic abuse rose by 26% when the England team won or drew, and a 38% increase when the national team lost.”
I always appreciate moments like this where we can discuss the global epidemic of violence against women. I wish it was as simple as it being the fault of passion around the World Cup game, but sports is just an excuse. Abusers abuse. Whether they’re drunk or sober; angry about the World Cup or about someone on the road that cut them off; abusers will find any excuse to abuse.
I want to preface this by saying I don’t write personal stories. I don’t like the focus of a story to be on me, but something came up today that necessitates it. My home ABC affiliate in Oklahoma City, KOCO-TV, is covering a story tonight about a meme that we posted on our Facebook page. The one below:
I made this meme. And I was born, raised, and still own a home in the Oklahoma town where I grew up. I go home several times a year, I talk to my mom several times a week, and bless his heart, my PaPa calls me almost every day.
The OKC Bombing happened at a time in my life where I was just beginning to become conscious about the rest of the world, about politics, about a great number of things. Looking back on it, I think watching it on TV every night, night after night… hearing the survivor stories year after year impacted me in a way that I’ve never quite been able to reconcile. A teammate of my step-brother’s baseball team lost his father that day. We later both sang in our high school choir. I remember my friend Melissa being scared and crying because she couldn’t find her dad. That was his office, and it took her much too long to find out he was out in the field that day.
My mom’s first big job as a grown-up that she held for many many years was in the OKC offices of the FDIC, so Mom always banked at the Federal Employees Credit Union at the bottom of the Murrah building. So when I opened my first bank account at 11 years old, it was at the same credit union. It’s now called Allegiance and is located on Meridian, but I’ve never gone to another bank and I never will no matter where in the world I am living or how inconvenient it is to get a check deposited from half way across the country….
We read the 168 names year after year after year. They were our family even if we didn’t even know them. They were ours. They were Oklahomans.
My point is this, and I speak to other Oklahomans, when you see mass shootings on TV now do you feel a special kinship with the survivors and families of the victims? Do you, like me, know and feel their tragedy and loss and think about why we know that feeling so well? And finally, do you ask yourself what the difference would be if McVeigh killed 168 people with a gun instead of with a bomb? Would McVeigh still have been considered a terrorist if he used a gun instead? Why don’t we call Jared Loughner who shot Gabby Giffords a terrorist?
At a 50,000 person march on London’s Parliament Square expressing opposition to recent austerity measures by the coalition government, comedian Russell Brand spoke more truth about the struggle of working families than U.S. Republicans have this legislative session!
While Brand is talking about his hometown of Grays, Essex, he could just as easily be talking about parts of Ohio or Detroit where job losses have crippled vibrant cities where working families once thrived.
“Where I grew up … I felt like there were low expectations, low possibilities for people. People like me didn’t have a lot of opportunity. And I was presented with a marvelous glistening spectacle. I remember as a kid when they built Lakeside Shopping Center I felt it would be the best thing that happened in my town and my community. Little did I realize that what that would do is suck the life out of the town center, destroy the tithe of community and along with the erosion of jobs in that area … it brought to it’s knees a community of proud working people. This is an issue that affects the 100%.”
Pelosi considers Colbert a friend… Colbert considers Pelosi a nemesis. The two tangled on the Report this week. Pelosi appeared in efforts to encourage Colbert Nation viewers to support the Middle Class Jumpstart, because “when women succeed, America succeeds.” The crowd went wild! Because… who doesn’t love a populist message that supports women and families, right?
“When will you start jumping on the middle class?” Stephen wanted to know.
The goal is to pass a bill to stop giving tax breaks to corporations who ship their jobs overseas and instead give tax breaks to companies who keep good paying jobs right here at home. The second piece of this plan is to build roads, bridges, broadband networks, and water systems by closing tax loopholes for special interests in the tax code.
In true Colbert form, the conversation then devolved into that line few can cross with the former House Speaker.
“Do you have naked photos of John Boehner doing something?” Stephen asked with a smirk. “And if you do, is the tan uniform?”
Part 1:
Part 2:
Via the House Dems site on Middle Class Jumpstart:
Senator Elizabeth Warren has a new autobiography out about growing up in Oklahoma and how the economy was such that it allowed for the American Dream. Warren’s book tour has focused on how that isn’t the way things are now a days, where families can’t pull themselves up from their bootstraps anymore because they can’t even afford bootstraps. Or an education to know what bootstraps were used for back when the American Dream was alive and well.
Good progressive and populist message. This should have been a total puff piece for Matthews. But Matthews, a man from working class roots himself, passionately implores Warren to give America the hope and the answers, and she delivered in true Elizabeth Warren style:
Matthews: “What can and will the Democratic Party do (since this is the party that wants to do it) to restore the hope of a meaningful, family building employment, that seems to be gone in so much of the country?”
Warren: “Well, you know, this isn’t magic. We actually know how to do this. We did this for nearly half a century, coming out of the great depression until about 1980. We made the investments together that helped build opportunity for all of us.”
“I went to a commuter college that cost fifty dollars a semester. It opened a million doors for me. How could I go to a school that cost fifty dollars a semester? Because I grew up in a America that said, we collectively, all of us, are going to make those investments in education so that any kid, who works hard, who plays the rules, who tries to get out there and make something of herself, is going to have a fighting chance to make that happen.”
Megyn Kelly totally turned the tables on Dick Cheney in her recent interview with the former Vice President about Iraq.
Kelly: “Now with almost one trillion dollars spent there with 4,500 American lives lost there, what do you say to those who say you were so wrong about so much at the expense of so many?”
BOOM!
To make matters worse – the big Dick is still claiming they thought there were weapons of mass destruction! Seriously? I thought we covered this!
Cheney: “We inherited a situation where there was no doubt in anybody’s mind about the extent of Saddam’s involvement in weapons of mass destruction. We had a situation where, after 9/11, we were concerned about a follow-up attack. It would involve not just airline tickets and box cutters as the weapons, but rather something far deadlier, perhaps even a nuclear weapon.”
You inherited a situation? Huh. Interesting. The reasonable question is, why on earth is Fox going after them so hard on this? Is it because Republicans want to try and hang Iraq around the neck of President Obama?
President Barack Obama is speaking at the Working Families Summit on Monday afternoon, but before the summit began, his weekly Saturday address dealt with the issues that matter most to working families. (transcript below):
Hi, everybody. As President, my top priority is rebuilding an economy where everybody who works hard has the chance to get ahead.That’s what I’ll spend some time talking about on Monday, at the White House Summit on Working Families. We’re bringing together business leaders and workers to talk about the challenges that working parents face every day, and how we can address them together.
Take paid family leave. Many jobs don’t offer adequate leave to care for a new baby or an ailing parent, so workers can’t afford to be there when their family needs them the most. That’s wrong. And it puts us way behind the times. Only three countries in the world report that they don’t offer paid maternity leave. Three. And the United States is one of them. It’s time to change that. A few states have acted on their own to give workers paid family leave, but this should be available to everyone, because all Americans should be able to afford to care for a family member in need.
Childcare is another challenge. Most working families I know can’t afford thousands a year for childcare, but often that’s what it costs. That leaves parents scrambling just to make sure their kids are safe while they’re at work – forget about giving them the high-quality early childhood education that helps kids succeed in life.
Then there’s the issue of flexibility – the ability to take a few hours off for a parent-teacher conference or to work from home when your kid is sick. Most workers want it, but not enough of them have it. What’s more, it not only makes workers happier – studies show that flexibility can make workers more productive and reduce worker turnover and absenteeism. That’s good for business.
At a time when women make up about half of America’s workforce, outdated workplace policies that make it harder for mothers to work hold our entire economy back. But these aren’t just problems for women. Men also care about who’s watching their kids. They’re rearranging their schedules to make it to soccer games and school plays. Lots of sons help care for aging parents. And plenty of fathers would love to be home for their new baby’s first weeks in the world.
In fact, in a new study, nearly half of all parents – women and men – report that they’ve said no to a job, not because they didn’t want it, but because it would be too hard on their families. When that many talented, hard-working people are forced to choose between work and family, something’s wrong. Other countries are making it easier for people to have both. We should too, if we want American businesses to compete and win in the global economy.
Family leave. Childcare. Flexibility. These aren’t frills – they’re basic needs. They shouldn’t be bonuses – they should be the bottom line.
The good news is, some businesses are embracing family-friendly policies, because they know it’s key to attracting and retaining talented employees. And I’m going to keep highlighting the businesses that do. Because I take this personally. I take it personally as the son and grandson of some strong women who worked hard to support my sister and me. As the husband of a brilliant woman who struggled to balance work and raising our young ladies when my job often kept me away. And as the father of two beautiful girls, whom I want to be there for as much as I possibly can – and whom I hope will be able to have families and careers of their own one day.
We know from our history that our economy grows best from the middle-out; that our country does better when everybody participates; when everyone’s talents are put to use; when we all have a fair shot. That’s the America I believe in. That’s the America I’ll keep fighting for every day. Thanks, and have a great weekend.
Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) must be feeling the pressure of his election, because he totally lost his cool in the Republican’s fake IRS hearing Friday morning.
“This is unbelievable,” Congressman Ryan shouted at IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. “That’s your problem. Nobody believes you.”
Koskinen responded, “I have a long career. That’s the first time anyone’s said I don’t believe you.”
“I don’t believe you,” Ryan yelled back.
Most Americans seem to be “over” this idea of using Congress as a political tool to fulfill partisan attacks and bully the White House and all of the agencies. At least the historically low approval rating of Congress seem to indicate that.
The facts about what the IRS did are more than clear: the IRS subjected political groups to greater scrutiny, but as it turns out, they were harder on liberal groups than they were on tea party groups.
So simmer down Congressman and stop wasting taxpayer’s time and money on your political games.