Do not punish. Rather, encourage. Rand Paul tells Bureaucrat to keep her hands off of everyone's toilets and light bulbs

News.

This is how it is done in New Zealand.

From Mark Rauterkus & Running Mates ponder current events

The toilet has two buttons. One for lighter flushes and the other for larger. That's real choice.

Fight for Public Media at NCMR

Right now, NPR, PBS and your local public radio station are facing unprecedented threats. They're being targeted by extremists in Congress, ambushed by dirty tricks, and vilified on cable news. These attacks fly in the face of the fact that public media in America enjoy broad public support. This April, public media supporters are coming to the National Conference for Media Reform to discuss ways we can rescue public media and build new support for hard-hitting journalism that is free of partisan politics. We'll tackle these issues — and a whole lot more — with people like Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, Salon's Glenn Greenwald, Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz; award-winning journalists David Shuster and Carole Simpson; Free Press co-founders Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols; and people from news organizations like Mother Jones, Oakland Local, Brave New Films, FRONTLINE and The Nation. Want to join us? Register for NCMR 2011 now. Here's what you'll find: The Fighting for Public Media session will feature multimedia presentations from leaders like Paula Kerger of PBS; Laura Walker, president of New York Public Radio; David Fanning, executive producer of FRONTLINE; and Maxie Jackson of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. Public Media's Innovators will demonstrate the apps, tools and programs that are helping to capture the history of our communities in new ways. And the organizers and advocates who fought for more than 10 years to pass the Local Community Radio Act will be there. Meet them and find out how you might build a radio station in your hometown. That's just the top of the list. The full program — which covers technology, media policy, politics, social justice, music and much, much more — is now online. When it comes to the future of news and democracy, it’s clear that there’s a lot to talk about. But there's even more to do. Register for NCMR 2011 now. See you in Boston, Josh Stearns Associate Program Director Free Press P.S. The full program and list of presenters is now online. Check it out! P.P.S. Hotel rooms in Boston are selling out fast. Go here to reserve a room.

Free Press is a national, nonpartisan organization working to reform the media. Learn more at www.freepress.net

PA Education Policy Breakfast

Thursday, March 17, 2011 with Continental Breakfast at 8:00 a.m. and Program from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

Holiday Inn Select - University Center - Oakland

SUBJECT: Governor Corbett’s Proposed Education Budget for 2011-2012

Governor Corbett will deliver his 2011-2012 state budget proposal to the General Assembly on March 8. This Policy Forum will be an early opportunity to get up-to-date information about what is in the proposed education budget, the budget’s relative strengths and weaknesses, and key issues.

Ron Cowell of EPLC will provide an overview of the Governor’s proposed budget for early education, K-12 and higher education. A representative of the PA Budget and Policy Center will provide an overview of the state’s fiscal situation, a reality that shapes the state budget in any year. The overviews will be followed by remarks from a panel representing several statewide and regional perspectives concerning state funding for education and education related items. These speakers will discuss the impact of the Governor’s proposals and identify the key issues that will likely be considered during this year’s budget debate.

While there is no registration fee, seating is limited and an RSVP is required.

You can RSVP on-line at http://www.eplc.org/forum_westernpa.html

I hope you will be able to join us.

In addition, please feel free to share this information with colleagues who may like to attend.

Tea Party Activist, Tom, ponders teachers

Tom Kawczynski 2011

When I started working with members of the Tea Party movement back in 2008, I was joining a movement I thought was about stopping huge corporate bailouts on the taxpayer dime, about protecting choice in health care options, and looking out for the regular person. Those were important fights, and the Tea Partiers took positions that I supported, along with many others.

Today is different.

Teachers are not the bad guys. Read it.

Beyond Books - News, Literacy, Democracy, and America's Libraries - MIT - 6-7 Apr 2011

Assessing the common mission of journalists and librarians April 6-7, 2011 / MIT Center for Future Civic Media

**** EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION RATES END MARCH 1. ****

WHO'S COMING:
http://journalismthatmatters.org/biblionews/whos-coming

DOWNLOAD POSTING NOTICE:
http://www.mediagiraffe.org/wiki/images/c/cb/Biblionews.pdf

REGISTER NOW:
http://www.biblionews.org

For three centuries, in American towns large and small, two institutions
have uniquely marked a commitment to participatory democracy, learning and
open inquiry - our libraries and our free press. Today, as their tools
change, their common missions of civic engagement and information
transparency converge.

Economic and technology changes suggest an opportunity for collaboration
among these two historic community information centers - one largely public,
one largely private.

But How? The capability of newspapers to provide community information is
declining. Library budgets are under challenge. At the same time, informal
sources of local information are rapidly increasing.

On Wednesday and Thursday, April 6 and 7, 2011, Journalism That Matters,
LLAMA, the Office of Information Technology Policy of the American Library
Association, the MIT Center for Future Civic Media, the Media Giraffe
Project at UMass Amherst, the New England News Forum, the Donald W. Reynolds
Journalism Institute and the Cambridge Public Library invite you to join in
a work session for civic information transparency that builds from and
beyond books.

Our intention is to assess shared purpose -- and now shared channels and
technologies -- among librarians and journalists to promote civic engagement
and open access to information. More and more, libraries are becoming
"community information centers" -- an evolution broadly supported in the
recommendations of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of
Communities.

Libraries and legacy media have always shared a common purpose -- helping us
acquire the information we need to be engaged, informed (and entertained)
citizens. They used different tools - newspapers, broadcast stations and
books. Now the tools are converging - web search, data taxonomies, database
creation and analysis, social networks - as librarians and journalists
together foster civic literacy and engagement.

Librarians want to expand public access to accurate information, including
trustworthy local news. So do journalists. How do we expand libraries as
community information centers beyond books - perhaps even beyond their four
walls - facilitating and engaging with journalists? What can libraries and
journalists do - together - to foster improved access to community
information?

Thus, as the tools and mission converge, it's time to ask: "What's possible
at the intersection of libraries and journalism that serves the information
needs of communities and democracy?"

Via a pre-event social network, an evening agenda-setting dialogue, a day of
roundtable planning and closing action commitments, we'll discover what's
possible at the intersection of public spaces, open documents, citizen
reporting and journalistic purpose. Among the questions we may ask:

* What does engagement mean to journalists and librarians?
* What might libraries do to facilitate community social news
networks?
* Must free speech be absolute within a taxpayer-supported
institution?
* How do we define the boundaries between engagement and
partisanship?
* Are libraries poised to become public-access media centers as
cable fades?
* Should a library operate a news collective, non-profit or
citizen-journalism service?
* How can libraries help preserve a free digital information
commons?

STIPENDS AVAILABLE

If you are a graduate student in library or information science, a
technologist or journalist with relevant experience to our purpose, you may
apply for a travel/lodging stipend. Stipend awards will be made based on
need around March 15. To apply, register now and choose the "request
stipend" option.

REPRESENTATIVE COLLABORATORS

Among our growing list of collaborators are(alpha order): Joe Bergantino
(New England Center for Investigative Reporting), Jessica Durkin (New
America Foundation fellow), Mike Fancher (RJI / Seattle Times-retired),
Fabrice Florin (NewsTrust), Renee Hobbs, (Temple Univ.-Media Education);
Marsha Iverson (ALA and King County libraries), Library Leadership &
Management Assn. (LLAMA), Alan Inouye (director, Office of Info Tech Policy,
ALA), Barbara Jones (ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom); Nancy Kranich
(Rutgers Univ., chair ALA Center for Public Life), Lorrie LeJeune and Andrew
Whitacre (MIT C4FCM), Leigh Montgomery (SLA news-division chair-elect,
Christian Science Monitor librarian), Donna Nicely (Knight
Commission/Nashville Public Library), Patrick Phillips (Vineyard Voice),
Josh Stearns (FreePress.net), Colin Rhinesmith (Univ. of Illinois) and Bill
Densmore, (New England News Forum/Media Giraffe Project/Reynolds Journalism
Institute).

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Email jtm@journalismthatmatters.org or call Bill Densmore at the the New
England News Forum, 413-458-8001.

-------------------------------------
Bill Densmore, director/editor
The Media Giraffe Project / Journalism Program
108 Bartlett Hall / Univ. of Massachusetts
Amherst MA 01003
OFF: 413-577-4370 / CELL: 413-458-8001
densmore@journ.umass.edu

-----------------------------------------
Group home for Newswire - Steven Clift's Democracies Online Newswire:
http://groups.dowire.org/groups/newswire

Summary of Governor Corbett’s Proposed Education Budget from Ron C.

FY 2011-12 for Basic Education

The Education budget for 2011-2012 proposed by Governor Tom Corbett on March 8, 2011 has Pennsylvania students bearing most of the burden of his budget cutting ideas. It is very likely that this budget proposal, if enacted, would be harmful to students in early childhood programs, elementary and secondary grades, and higher education.

The effect of the budget proposal would be to starve K-12 programs for resources and drive tuition up at higher education institutions in Pennsylvania. It is important to remember that Pennsylvania starts out with one of the nation’s most inequitable funding systems for K-12 resources across our 500 school districts; has among the lowest levels of state support for K-12; has a $4.6 billion funding shortage to get to “adequate” funding for all students to have the opportunity to become proficient relative to state academic standards (2007 Costing Out Study); and has some of the highest public higher education tuition rates in the nation.

School districts would lose more than $1 billion of state and federal stimulus funding.

* Basic Education Subsidy reduced by $550 million. The $5.226 billion currently being proposed by the Corbett administration represents the 2008-2009 level of funding.

* Accountability Block Grants are eliminated, a loss of $259.456 million. Much of this was used by districts to support early education.

* Charter school reimbursement to districts is eliminated, a loss of $224.083 million. These payments reimbursed school districts for about 25% of their charter school costs.

* Special Education would be flat-funded for the 3rd consecutive year at ($1.026 billion).

* Career and Technical Education was level funded at $62 million.

* Other cuts to school districts amount to more than $50 million.

These other basic education items are eliminated entirely:

* Basic Education Formula Enhancements ($1.984 million)
* Dual Enrollment Payments ($6.959 million)
* School Improvement Grants ($10.797 million)
* Education Assistance Program ($47.606 million)
* Science It’s Elementary ($6.910 million)
* Mobile Science Education Program ($1.6 million)
* Intermediate Units ($4.761 million)
* School Entity Demonstration Projects ($600 thousand)
* High School Reform ($1.762 million)
* Lifelong Learning ($825 thousand)
* Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic ($69 thousand)
* Job Training Programs ($3.442 million)

Additional information and analysis about the budget will be posted on EPLC’s website as it becomes available.

The EPLC Education Notebook (current and past editions) also is available by visiting the EPLC website at http://www.eplc.org/ednotebook.html

Proposed education cuts termed 'catastrophic'

Proposed education cuts termed 'catastrophic'

"You're breaking people's dreams," said Kaitlyn Grzywinski, 19, of Saxonburg, a freshman at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. "This decision will ruin some people's chances of going to college. Cost is a huge factor."

Read more: http://post-gazette.com/pg/11068/1130619-455.stm#ixzz1G73mwonS

Great quote.

Transit Cut protest rally slated for Sq. Hill on Saturday

Pittsburghers for Public Transit (PPT) is having a rally to protest the unfair service cuts proposed by Port Authority. This rally will be held on Saturday March 19th @ 12p in Sq. Hill at the corner of Beacon & Murray. We ask that everyone assemble at this location a few minutes before noon; once the crowd has gatheres we will march with signs to the intersection of Forbes & Murray for a demonstration.

They are hoping for a large turn-out and can use as much support from us as possible to fight these cuts! As members and/or friends of the Black and White Reunion we ask you to join us in supporting this cause because there is not one organization, community, or business in the city of Pittsburgh that does not benefit from transit so please urge all of your members, friends, interns, students- whomever you know to come to this rally and add their voice to this movement. We hope to see you there.
Thanks!!

Pittsburgh school election needs higher voter turnout, group says

I don't think so.

Pittsburgh school election needs higher voter turnout, group says

Pittsburgh school election needs higher voter turnout, group says
Monday, March 07, 2011
By Eleanor Chute, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A+ Schools, a public education advocacy group, today launched a campaign aimed at increasing voter turnout in the upcoming school board primary election in Pittsburgh.

Four seats are up for election this year: District 2, held by Dara Ware Allen; District 4, held by Bill Isler; District 6, held by school board president Sherry Huzuda; and District 8, held by Mark Brentley Sr.

According to A+ Schools, voter turnout in those districts ranged from 14 percent to 26 percent in 2007. The organization has set a goal of increasing voter turnout by 26 percent or 6,000 voters.

"Our community consistently lists education as a top concern, but each year the turnout rates remain pitifully low. If we expect the Pittsburgh Public Schools to improve performance, we -- the voters -- must show the board we are paying attention and hold them accountable by voting," said Carey Harris, A+ Schools' executive director, in a news release.

In the campaign, volunteers and partner organizations will help get voting pledges. A+ Schools also will conduct a candidate forum and publish a voter guide.

The primary is scheduled for May 17. Candidates must file their petitions by March 8.
Education writer Eleanor Chute: echute@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1955.

Read more: http://post-gazette.com/pg/11066/1130341-100.stm#ixzz1FwjYad8k

If you don't know who to vote for, don't vote. It isn't bad to skip questions on a ballot.

What is needed are public discussion and public candidate debates. We should zap ignorance. Vote totals that are elevated only to increase ignorance is -- well -- just more harm than good. It is far worse to ask for uninformed voters to vote than almost anything else.