EDUCATION | Report: “[T]eacher policies often work against the goal of improving teacher quality. Overall D.C. gets a D minus, Maryland a D and Virginia a D plus.” (WAMU, 1/29) – Report here.
HAITI
- Update from the Red Cross (wire, 1/28) – “To date, 79 percent of the funds have been committed or spent on food and water”
- Disturbing article: “thousands of children orphaned and consequently vulnerable to being preyed upon by child traffickers and Haiti’s shameful tradition of keeping child slaves…” (Time, 1/27)
CENSUS 2010 | Ex-convicts in District flock to apply for census jobs (WaPo, 1/29) – “Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) has introduced a bill that would ban felons from being census takers.” Because we prefer our ex-convicts unemployed and desperate!
WAGES | Obama Proposes New Tax Credit for Nonprofit and Other Employers (Chronicle, 1/28) – a proposal to help small employers–including nonprofit groups–hire workers and raise wages. [And the Chronicle redesigned its website.]
ENVIRONMENT | District bill would create fund for green upgrades (WBJ, 1/29)
INTERNET! | Why We’re In the Age of the Citizen Philanthropist (Mashable, 1/28) – in which I learned a new term: “slacktivism.”
TRANSIT | Va., Md. get nearly $140 million for rail projects (WaPo, 1/29)
GIVING BACK | ‘Athletes have a responsibility to the world we live in’ (USAToday, 1/28) – Who doesn’t, really?
RE: Census – Agreed that we don’t want ex-convicts unemployed and desperate…but putting them (or at least certain types of them) in intimate settings with unprotected citizens is a legitimate concern, isn’t it?
Yes. From the article: “people with felony convictions for serious crimes — murder, sex offenses, grand theft and child molestation — are automatically ineligible to work for the census.”
Ah, good. I only read the Daily headline. Lesson learned.