- This One Photo From 1998 Includes Everyone Involved in the Fed Chair Decision (Neil Irwin at Wonkblog)
. - Learn to Stop Worrying and Love (Moderate) Inflation (Noah Smith at his blog)
. - Did Forever 21 Reduce Worker Hours Because of Obamacare? (Jon Cohn at TNR)
- The Case for Getting Drunk at Work (Matt Yglesias at Slate)
Author Danny Vinik
Common Core Standards Still Relatively Unknown
A new poll from Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup today finds that an alarming number of parents with kids in public school have never heard of the new Common Core standards that are changing student testing throughout the country. This is a big deal. The standards have been implemented by 45 states plus the District of Columbia, though a growing political backlash could reduce that number in the near future. And yet, less than half of parents know about it:
Almost two of three Americans have never heard of the Common Core State Standards, arguably one of the most important education initiatives in decades, and most of those who say they know about the Common Core neither understand it nor embrace it.
That’s not good. A majority of parents believe that the Common Core Standards will make the U.S. less globally competitive. But it’s tough to evaluate those beliefs when “many said — erroneously — that the standards are based on a blending of state standards, that the federal government is insisting that all states adopt the standards, and that there is a plan to create standards in all academic areas.” This is a revolutionary change in American school testing and just about no one knows about it.
And it’s not like these standards were just passed yesterday. The proposal was agreed upon by the National Governor’s Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers in June 2009. Four years later, parents are still unaware of it, even though new testing has been implemented. New York’s sharp drop in test scores this years was a result of them. As I noted at the time, Mayor Bloomberg should be praised for accepting the standards while knowing that he would take blame for the reduced scores. As this poll proves, parents are going to see those scores and blame the Mayor, not realizing that they are the result of a tougher, better test.
But Bloomberg is a special case. He’s no longer up for reelection and isn’t seeking higher office so the political consequences of accepting the blame is limited. Other mayors will find themselves in different situations. They will see steeper political consequences and may react by blaming the test or worse, pulling out of it. The best way to combat this is to educate the public about Common Core. At the very least, parents need to be aware of the new standards. If not, mayors are going to feel increased political pressure to withdraw from the program so that test scores rise back to their previous levels with the easier tests. That may be good politics, but it’s not good policy. Ultimately, students pay the price.
Cliff Kincaid is Mad That Fox News Said Romney Was Going to Win
As I noted earlier, I spent today at a conference put on by right-winger Cliff Kincaid’s organization, America’s Survival. It was titled “The Crisis in American Journalism and the Conservative Response.” It was predominantly a red meat event. Kincaid narrated five different Powerpoint presentations himself throughout the day with various other journalists also speaking.
Combatting the apparent liberal media bias was a major topic of conversation amongst all the speakers. Crime blogger Tina Trent lamented the rise in college-educated journalists while author Paul Kengor released his new book titled “All the Dupes Fit to Print: Journalists Who Have Served as Tools of Communist Propaganda.” Needless to say, the crowd ate all of this up.
Cliff Kincaid spoke frequently at the conference.
The most interesting part of the event was the repeated anger directed towards Fox News. There was plenty of lambasting of liberal media outlets, but Kincaid went after Fox News in particular, devoting an entire Powerpoint presentation to it. While his grievances varied, Kincaid focused on the network’s increasing acceptance of gay marriage stance. He criticized Megyn Kelly for her support of it and directly told Shep Smith that it’s time he came out of the closet. “Fox News postures as a conservative voice.” he said.
Other conservative voices are posing as well, Kincaid noted. Former MSNBC host and a new host for CNN’s Crossfire, S.E. Cupp took the most heat for her being an atheist and a libertarian. Instead of earning her new position, Kincaid suggested not so subtly that her body may have had something to do with it. “What do you think they hired her for?” he said as he pointed to a picture of Cupp with her feet on top of the desk. “Think those legs have anything to do with it?” The crowd laughed.
Kincaid continued on to mock Fox for hiring Mark Sanford after his extramarital affair cost him his Governorship.* Even Sean Hannity, who Kincaid described as the most conservative voice at the network, didn’t escape criticism. Hannity did an interview with Playboy Magazine in June, something Kincaid was very disappointed with.
At the end of the segment, Kincaid’s anger changed from being directed at the actions of different hosts to the content those hosts put on air. “Fox News made us believe that Romney was going to win the presidency,” he said. He then listed through a number of hosts who had made poor predictions, starting with Karl Rove. But Kincaid made no mention of the numerous “biased” journalists who compiled the polling and predicted an Obama victory. Outside of the Fox bubble, that was the popular prediction. That fact may not gel with Kincaid’s assumption that all mainstream media is heavily slanted towards the left, but it’s true. In November 2014, maybe he’ll pay more attention to the polls and those dissecting them than to the Fox News reporters who got 2012 so badly wrong. I won’t hold my breath.
*Sanford is back in Congress, of course, having won a special election earlier this year.
Danny Vinik 