Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Tom Fuentes & Raghu Mathur to appear in Lake Forest parade

On Monday night, SOCCCD trustee Tom Fuentes announced that he and district Chancellor Raghu P. Mathur will have a car in Lake Forest's Fourth of July Parade.

Evidently, the pair will have a "theme": "Continued ruthlessness & opportunism in your community colleges"

This is the duo's second appearance in the city's annual parade. Last year, the pair raised eyebrows when they embraced the theme: "You'll never get rid of us. So FU."


For information about the parade, go to Lake Forest Parade

The overall theme of this year's exhibition: "America on Wheels."

Community College fees lowered; the evolution battle

STATE BUDGET: From the Mercury News (Provisions in the 2006-2007 California state budget):
California lawmakers approved a $130.9 billion state budget Tuesday night. Here are some of the key provisions of the 2006-2007 spending plan that is expected to be signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger:
.....
COMMUNITY COLLEGES - Cuts community college fees from $26-per-credit to $20-per-credit. Spends $130 million to keep University of California and California State University fees at current levels....

THE EVOLUTION BATTLE. This morning's New York Times presents an engrossing article about a Georgia school teacher and her struggle--against parents and against school administrators--to teach evolution. Some excerpts (Evolution's Lonely Battle in a Georgia Classroom):

OCCASIONALLY, an educational battle will dominate national headlines. More commonly, the battling goes on locally, behind closed doors, handled so discreetly that even a teacher working a few classrooms away might not know. This was the case for Pat New, 62, a respected, veteran middle school science teacher, who, a year ago, quietly stood up for her right to teach evolution in this rural northern Georgia community, and prevailed.
.....
On April 25, 2005, during a meeting about parent complaints with her principal, Rick Conner, she recalled: "He took a Bible off the bookshelf behind him and said, 'Patty I believe in everything in this book, do you?' I told him, 'I really feel uncomfortable about your asking that question.' He wouldn't let it go.' " The next day, she said, in the lunchroom, "he reached across the table, took my hand and said: 'I accept evolution in most things but if they ever say God wasn't involved I couldn't accept that. I want you to say that, Pat.' "
.....
Four days after her encounter with the principal, Ms. New was summoned to a meeting with the superintendent, Dewey Moye, as well as the principal and two parents upset about her teaching evolution. "We have to let parents ask questions," Mr. Moye told her. "It's a public school. In a democracy people can ask questions."

Ms. New said the parents, "badgered, got loud and sarcastic and there was no support from administrators."

Babs Greene, another administrator, "asked if I was almost finished teaching evolution," Ms. New recalled. "I explained to her again that it is a unifying concept in life science. It is in every unit I teach. There was a big sigh."

"I thought I was going crazy," said Ms. New, who has won several outstanding teacher awards and is one of only two teachers at her school with national board certification....

Fortunately, the state of Georgia and its standards backed up Ms. New, though her supervisors needed to be persuaded of that fact.

According to at least one expert (see the article), only 20 states have "sound" evolution standards. Georgia is among them.

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...