Announcements of Interest
Today, Tue. Sept. 20, 2011, the PRC approved the KCEC request for a rate hike, voting 3-2 in favor (Marks, Block, &Lyons). Two dissenting commissioners said they voted against the KCEC request because (paraphrasing here) the COOP has mismanaged its diversified enterprise program (Propane, Internet) and expected the PRC and (members) to bail them out.
At the same time, the PRC said part of the approval would include mandates for KCEC to spin off the Internet division as they have Propane; to report to the PRC about the financial condition of its diversified programs on a regular basis; and the Coop shall reduce board expenses.
Coop Activist Jerome Lucero called the decision a win-win for both sides. Read The Taos News for details–though no reporter attended the meeting.
On Education
Read the following selections from national magazines if the subject of education interests you.
In Harper’s September 2011 issue: “Getting Schooled: The Re-Education of an American Teacher†by Garret Keizer is a revealing analysis of the hard work associated with teaching, its accomplishments and frustrations vis-à -vis the socio-economics of poverty in America. The sympathetic layperson learns that while the teachers cannot overcome social ills, he or she can make an incredible difference in the lives of children, who become adults. And, one learns, how hard a good teacher works, the time put in before and after school hours.
In “The New York Review of Books,†Sept. 29, 2011, there’s a piece by Diane Ravitch who examines “What’s wrong with `School Reform’?†in which she reviews two different books or approaches to current education.
In the first, “Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America’s Schools by Steven Brill, one learns how the so-called reformers are associated with the Bush-Obama privatization program. “No Child Left Behind†is a straw man meant to push the public schools toward failure by instituting impossible goals. So the reformers are busting unions, administrators, and democratically elected school boards in a kind of long drawn out political putsch. In this way, the elitist democrats and republicans have figured out how to profit on the backs of the poor while feeling so good about their altruistic impulses in destroying the public schools.
In “As Bad as They say? Three Decades of Teaching in the Bronx†by Janet Grossbach Mayer, we learn how a dedicated teacher, born and raised in the Bronx, where she teaches, can adapt her curriculum and methods to the students. She helps them survive soul-destroying family and social ills and educates, at least, some of them. The anecdotes bring tears to your eyes.
In Taos, unfortunately, the chief organizing principle at TMS, witness the articles posted here, is “politics,†not education. “Who’s on first?†Administrators and school boards consistently undermine the teachers and coaches: Meritocracy gives way to political preferences in hiring. The experienced observers know that once you step into the muddle at CRAB Hall, you feel dirty, not unlike the pilgrim in Dante’s Inferno, who participated in sin by observing and occasionally administering the punishments to the condemned per his guide, Virgil.
This writer observed a successful program at Principal Bob Benavidez’s Ranchos Elementary School a few years ago so we know it could be done—given the right leadership and cooperation. And I am certain that some teachers readily succeed. But the lack of cooperation—we’d rather fight than switch—is the political tragedy that affects the education of children in Taos.
From Peaceful Skies Coalition:
URGENT PUBLIC HEARING TUESDAY NIGHT IN TAOS!!!!!
Help stop the “Special Ops” low altitude flights over our community.
Air Force will appear in Taos for a “meeting” Tuesday, September 20th
at The Kachina Lodge, 413 Paseo del Pueblo Norte, Taos, New Mexico
from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM. COME EARLY to a 5:30 anti-flyover demonstration in the
Kachina Lodge parking lot!!!
To learn more visit the Peaceful Skies website:
http://www.peacefulskies.org/
From Los Alamos Study Group:
Dear friends and colleagues —
We would like to invite you to a briefing (with slides) and discussion regarding the current status of nuclear weapons issues in Congress, especially as they relate to the giant plutonium complex proposed for Los Alamos, on Wednesday evening, September 21, at the Cloud Cliff Bakery in Santa Fe, 1805 Second St., from 7:00 to 9:00 pm. Cloud Cliff’s fine artisan bread, and tea, will be served.
Study Group Director Greg Mello, who was in Washington for meetings last week with key congressional staff and analysts, will provide a half-hour briefing with most of the evening available for Q&A and general discussion. Other Study Group directors will also be present. We will not provide unpublished views traceable to specific organizations or individuals.
We will provide a short legal update also.
The Memphis Express
Poet and UNM-student, Jennifer Acampora, has been invited to read her work at an ekphrasis event (a pairing of visual artists and poets) this October, in Memphis, Tennessee. As is often the case with poets, richness in metaphor and imagery does not cover the cost of a plane ticket. Please come to a literary fund-raiser to assist Jennifer with lift-off, Thursday, Sept. 22n,d, 6:30pm. There will be readings by local poets and writers, including: Bonnie Lee Black, John Biscello, Gary Feuerman, Francesca Grano, Jomo Chiteji, Ned Dougherty, Robin Powesland, and Jennifer. Wine and Hors d’oeuvres will be served.
Event location: Dania Roges’s salon: Hair: 208 Central Station, Suite 503, Paseo del Pueblo Sur (north of Dara Thai & west of LaBell Cleaners). Go in back to parking lot, down walkway on right. Call us at 751-7009, or 770-3646 (on the night of the event).