BY HANK REICHMAN The following is the abstract describing a report issued this month by the National Bureau of Economic Research, “Do School Spending Cuts Matter? Evidence from the Great Recession,” by C. Kirabo Jackson, Cora Wigger, Heyu Xiong (bold face added): Audits of public school budgets routinely find evidence of waste. Also, recent evidence…
BY HANK REICHMAN January 2018 marks thirty years since the Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier decision was handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court. On Wednesday, January 31, the Student Press Law Center (SPLC) will sponsor the first Hazelwood Day of Action — “a day to raise awareness about the Hazelwood decision, publicize its destructive legacy for student…
POSTED BY JOERG TIEDE The AAUP is circulating the following petition on behalf of Laurie Rubel. Please sign and share with colleagues. The attacks directed at Dr. Rubel are an example of disturbing trends we will address during an upcoming week focused on the problem of targeted harassment. Together with the Brooklyn College chapter of the…
POSTED BY KELLY HAND The new issue of Academe considers the state of the academic profession in a political climate that has exacerbated existing threats to higher education. Articles focus on challenges to academic freedom and collective bargaining, the recent upsurge in harassment campaigns targeting faculty members, and faculty activism. Follow the links in the table of…
BY BRIAN C. MITCHELL There has always been a historic tension between America’s colleges and universities and the government, whether at the state or federal level. It’s unavoidable. Once the government began to fund students and institutions in the late 20th century, its leaders believed that they had a right and responsibility to oversee the…
BY HANK REICHMAN In the AAUP report “National Security, the Assault on Science, and Academic Freedom” issued last month readers will find the following: Dr. Eugene Gu is a surgical resident at Vanderbilt University whose research seeks to transplant healthy fetal organs in utero to fetuses with fatal congenital diseases so they can survive to…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH This is an excerpt from the essay “Most of You Have No Idea What Martin Luther King Actually Did,” by Hamden Rice. It was originally published in 2011, and it has been reprinted by Daily Kos: The [source of]main suffering in the South . . . was that white people, mostly…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH The first 2018 issue of the Boston Review [http://bostonreview.net/] is devoted to the appreciation of, reflections on, and reconsiderations of the many elements of the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The contents include the following contributions: FORUM MLK Now, Brandon M. Terry King in Context, Barbara Ransby…
BY TIRIEN ANGELA STEINBACH Tirien Angela Steinbach is the executive director of the East Bay Community Law Center, the community-based clinic for Berkeley Law School, where she graduated from law school in 1999. Since its founding in 1988 by law students at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law, EBCLC has become the largest provider…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH “Let’s not judge the president on what he says.” New GOP Senate Candidate Rep. Jim Renacci (R-OH) In case you are wondering whether the context might somehow make the comment less dubious, here is an excerpt from an article written by Darrel Rowland and Jessica Wehrman for the Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Rep.…