March, 2017 | Sucker Punch News - Part 4

‘Alternative’ Education: Using Charter Schools to Hide Dropouts and Game the System

Posted by Editor on March 5, 2017 in Education 0 Comment

“School officials nationwide dodge accountability ratings by steering low achievers to alternative programs. In Orlando, Florida, the nation’s tenth-largest district, thousands of students who leave alternative charters run by a for-profit company aren’t counted as dropouts.”

Where Alternative School Enrollment May Signal Problems

Posted by Editor on March 5, 2017 in Education 0 Comment

“Nearly 2,000 school districts house “alternative” schools intended to serve students with disciplinary or academic problems. Using federal data, we show the relative size of the alternative school population in each district. The color of the bubble reflects several factors that taken together are warning signs that a district’s alternative middle/high schools are of poor quality or that a district may be using alternative schools to improve accountability measures.”

How the Trump Administration May Be Skirting Its Own Ethics Rules

Posted by Editor on March 5, 2017 in Executive Branch 0 Comment

“The hiring of three former lobbyists to work in the White House raises questions about how the Trump administration is enforcing the president’s executive order on ethics.”

CIA Cables Detail Its New Deputy Director’s Role in Torture

Posted by Editor on March 5, 2017 in Executive Branch 0 Comment

“Gina Haspel, President Trump’s choice for the CIA’s number two position, was more deeply involved in the torture of Abu Zubaydah than has been publicly understood, according to newly available records and accounts by participants.”

Big Pharma Quietly Enlists Leading Professors to Justify $1,000-Per-Day Drugs

Posted by Editor on March 5, 2017 in Education, Pharma 0 Comment

“As it readies for battle with President Trump over drug prices, the pharmaceutical industry is deploying economists and health care experts from the nation’s top universities. In scholarly articles, blogs and conferences, they lend their prestige to the lobbying blitz, without always disclosing their corporate ties.”

Autocracy: Rules for Survival

Posted by Editor on March 5, 2017 in Executive Branch, Russia 0 Comment

“I have lived in autocracies most of my life, and have spent much of my career writing about Vladimir Putin’s Russia. I have learned a few rules for surviving in an autocracy and salvaging your sanity and self-respect. It might be worth considering them now.”

Kansas Supreme Court Orders Governor to Fund Public Schools

Posted by Editor on March 5, 2017 in Education, Taxes 0 Comment

“The bad news keeps piling up for Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and his radical budget-cutting experiment. The state Supreme Court ruled that the Republican governor and state legislature had—yet again—failed to adequately fund public schools by hundreds of millions of dollars per year. The court ordered lawmakers to devise a plan that would meet constitutional standards by the end of June and mandated a new formula to increase government spending on the state’s public education system.”

White House Confirms Conversation with FBI About Trump and Russia

Posted by Editor on March 5, 2017 in Executive Branch, Russia 0 Comment

“Reince Priebus, FBI director James Comey and deputy director Andrew McCabe had a conversation which appears to violate justice department rules.”

DHS Report Disputes Threat from Travel Ban Nations

Posted by Editor on March 5, 2017 in Executive Branch, Muslim Ban, Terrorism 0 Comment

“Analysts at the Homeland Security Department’s intelligence arm found insufficient evidence that citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries included in President Donald Trump’s travel ban pose a terror threat to the United States.”

Why Kansas’ Fiscal Implosion Is Bad News for Trump

Posted by Editor on March 5, 2017 in Taxes 0 Comment

“An ambitious effort by a Republican governor to drastically cut Kansas taxes is crumbling—and that’s a bad omen for Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress who are hoping to slash tax rates at the national level.”