Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Waktu Dengung dan Background Noise

Waktu Dengung (RT, Reverberation Time)
Pada tahun1898, Wallace Clement Sabine menemukan metode penentuan koefisien absorpsi rata-rata ruangan berdasarkan pengukuran waktu dengung. Waktu dengung (T60) didefinisikan sebagai waktu yang diperlukan oleh tekanan suara dalam ruangan utnuk mluruh 1/1000 dari tekanan suara mula-mula, tatau tingkat tekanan suaranya berkurang sebanyak 60 dB, sejak sumber suara dihentikan (berhenti memancarkan suara)
Jika Volume ruangan semakin besar, maka waktu dengungnya juga semakin besar. Demikian jika bahan material dari bangunan itu memiliki koefisien dan luasan yang lebih besar, maka waktu dengung yang didapat semakin kecil. Parameter waktu dengung (RT) auditorium berbeda-beda tergantung penggunaannya. RT yang terlalu pendek akan menyebabkan ruangan terasa ‘mati’ sebaliknya RT yang panjang akan memberikan suasana ‘hidup’ pada ruangan (Satwiko, 2004:91). RT untuk jenis speech auditorium disarankan berada pada 0,60-1,20 detik, sedangkan untuk music auditorium disarankan berada pada 1,00-1,70 detik (Egan, 1976:154). Bahan penutup bidang permukaan interior yang berkaitan dengan angka koefisien absorbsi dan refleksi, sangat berpengaruh dalam menentukan besaran RT suatu auditorium (Doelle, 1972:63). Ruangan yang keseluruhan permukaan dalamnya bersifat menyerap energi suara (RT sangat pendek) disebut ruang anti dengung (anechoic chamber), sedangkan ruangan yang keseluruhan permukaan dalamnya bersifat memantulkan suara (RT sangat panjang) disebut ruang dengung (reverberation chamber).

Background Noise

Dalam setiap ruangan, dirasakan atau tidak, akan selalu ada suara. Hal ini menjadi dasar pengertian tentang adanya bising latar belakang (background noise). Bising latar belakang dapat didefinisikan sebagai suara yang berasal bukan dari sumber suara utama atau suara yang tidak diinginkan. Dalam suatu ruangan tertutup maka bising latar belakang dihasilkan oleh peralatan mekanikal atau elektrikal di dalam ruang seperti pendingin udara (air conditioning), kipas angin, dan seterusnya. Demikian pula, kebisingan yang datang dari luar ruangan, seperti bising lalu lintas di jalan raya, bising di area parkir kendaraan, dan seterusnya. Bising latar belakang tidak dapat sepenuhnya dihilangkan, akan tetapi dapat dikurangi atau diturunkan melalui serangkaian perlakuan akustik terhadap ruangan.
Bising latar belakang ini selalu ada pada setiap ruangan. Besaran bising latar belakang ruang dapat diketahui melalui pengukuran Tingkat Tekanan Bunyi (TTB) di dalam ruangan pada rentang frekuensi tengah pita oktaf antara 63 Hz sampai dengan 8 kHz, dimana hasil pengukuran digunakan untuk menentukan kriteria kebisingan ruang dengan cara memetakannya pada kurva kriteria kebisingan (Noise Criteria – NC).

piezoelectric material

A. KERAMIK
Keramik memiliki karakteristik yang memungkinkannya digunakan untuk berbagai aplikasi termasuk :
• kapasitas panas yang baik dan konduktivitas panas yang rendah.
• Tahan korosi
• Sifat listriknya dapat insulator, semikonduktor, konduktor bahkan superkonduktor
• Sifatnya dapat magnetik dan non-magnetik
• Keras dan kuat, namun rapuh.
Dua jenis ikatan dapat terjadi dalam keramik, yakni ikatan ionik dan kovalen. Sifat keseluruhan material bergantung pada ikatan yang dominan. Klasifikasi bahan keramik dapat dibedakan menjadi dua kelas : kristalin dan amorf (non kristalin). Dalam material kristalin terdapat keteraturan jarak dekat maupun jarak jauh, sedang dalam material amorf mungkin keteraturan jarak pendeknya ada, namun pada jarak jauh keteraturannya tidak ada.
1. Sifat Termal
Sifat termal penting bahan keramik adalah kapasitas panas, koefisien ekspansi termal, dan konduktivitas termal. Kapasitas panas bahan adalah kemampuan bahan untuk mengabsorbsi panas dari lingkungan. Panas yang diserap disimpan oleh padatan antara lain dalam bentuk vibrasi (getaran) atom/ion penyusun padatan tersebut. Keramik biasanya memiliki ikatan yang kuat dan atom-atom yang ringan. Jadi getaran-getaran atom-atomnya akan berfrekuensi tinggi dan karena ikatannya kuat maka getaran yang besar tidak akan menimbulkan gangguan yang terlalu banyak pada kisi kristalnya. Hantaran panas dalam padatan melibatkan transfer energi antar atom-atom yang bervibrasi. Vibrasi atom akan mempengaruhi gerakan atom-atom lain di tetangganya dan hasilnya adalah gelombang yang bergerak dengan kecepatan cahaya yakni fonon. Fonon bergerak dalam bahan sampai terhambur baik oleh interaksi fonon-fonon maupun cacat kristal. Keramik amorf yang mengandung banyak cacat kristal menyebabkan fonon selalu terhambur sehingga keramik merupakan konduktor panas yang buruk. Mekanisme penghantaran panas oleh elektron, yang dominan pada logam, tidak dominan di keramik karena elektron di keramik sebagian besar terlokalisasi.
Contoh paling baik penggunaan keramik untuk insulasi panas adalah pada pesawat ruang angkasa. Hampir semua permukaan pesawat tersebut dibungkus keramik yang terbuat dari serat silika amorf. Titik leleh aluminium adalah 660 0C. Ubin menjaga suhu tabung pesawat yang terbuat dari Al pada atau di bawah 175 0C, walaupun eksterior pesawat mencapai 1400 0C.

2. Sifat Optik
Bila cahaya mengenai suatu obyek cahaya dapat ditransmisikan, diabsorbsi, atau dipantulkan. Bahan bervariasi dalam kemampuan untuk mentransmisikan cahaya, dan biasanya dideskripsikan sebagai transparan, translusen, atau opaque. Material yang transparan, seperti gelas, mentransmisikan cahaya dengan difus, seperti gelas terfrosted, disebut bahan translusen. Batuan yang opaque tidak mentransmisikan cahaya.
Dua mekanisme penting interaksi cahaya dengan partikel dalam padatan adalah polarisasi elektronik dan transisi elektron antar tingkat energi. Polarisasi adalah distorsi awan elektron atom oleh medan listrik dari cahaya. Sebagai akibat polarisasi, sebagian energi dikonversikan menjadi deformasi elastik (fonon), dan selanjutnya panas.
Seperti dalam atom elektron-elektron dalam bahan berada dalam tingkat-tingkat energi tertentu. Absorbsi energi menghasilkan perpindahan elektron dari tingkat dasar ke tingkat tereksitasi. Ketika elektron kembali ke keadaan dasar disertai dengan pemancaran radiasi elektromagnetik. Dalam padatan elektron yang energinya tertinggi ada dalam orbital-orbital dalam pita valensi dan orbital-orbital yang tidak terisi biasanya dalam pita konduksi. Gap antara pita valensi dan pita konduksi disebut gap energi. Bila range energi cahaya tampak 1,8 sampai 3,1 eV. Bahan dengan gap energi di daerah ini akan mengabsorbsi energi yang berhubungan. Bahan itu akan tampak transparan dan berwarna. Contohnya, gap energi CdS sekitar 2,4 eV dan mengabsorbsi komponen cahaya biru dan violet dari sinar tampak. Tampak bahan tersebut berwarna kuning-oranye. Bahan dengan gap energi kurang dari 1,8 eV akan opaque, sebab semua cahaya tampak akan diabsorbsi. Material dengan gap energi lebih besar 3,1 eV tidak akan menyerap range sinar tampak dan akan tampak transparan dan tak berwarna. Cahaya yang diemisikan dari transisi elektron dalam padatan disebut luminesensi. Bila terjadi dalam selang waktu yang pendek disebut flouresensi, bila didalam selang waktu yang lebih panjang disebut fosforisensi. Hamburan cahaya internal dalam bahan yang sebenarnya transparan mungkin dapat mengakibatkan bahan menjadi translusen atau opaque.
Banyak aplikasi memanfaatkan sifat optik bahan keramik ini. Transparansi gelas membuatnya bermanfaat untuk jendela, lensa, filter, alat masak, alat lab, dan objek-objek seni. Pengubahan antara cahaya dan listrik adalah dasar penggunaan bahan semikonduktor seperti GaAs dalam laser dan meluasnya penggunaan LED dalam alat-alat elektronik. Keramik fluoresensi dan fosforisensi digunakan dalam lampu-lampu listrik dan layar-layar tv. Akhirnya serat optik mentransmisikan percakapan telepon dan data komputer yang didasarkan atas refleksi internal total sinyal cahaya.

B. Material Piezoelektrik
1. Piezoelektrivitas
Piezoelektrisitas adalah sebuah fenomena saat sebuah gaya yang diterapkan pada suatu segment bahan menimbulkan muatan listrik pda permukaan segmen tersebut. Sumber fenomena ini adalah adanya distribusi muatan listrik pada sel sel kristal. Nilai koefisien muatan piezoelektrik berada pada rentang 1 – 100 pico coloumb/Newton.
2. Awal mula Bahan Piezoelektrik
Kata piezoelektrik berasal bahasa Latin, piezein yang berarti diperas atau ditekan dan piezo yang bermakna didorong. Bahan piezoelektrik ditemukan pertama kali pada tahun 1880-an oleh Jacques dan Pierre Curie. Kata piezo berarti tekanan, sehingga efek piezoelektrik terjadi jika medan listrik tebentuk ketika material dikenai tekanan mekanik. Mereka mengombinasikan pengetahuan mereka akan piroelektrisitas (kemampuan bahan-bahan tertentu untuk menghasilkan sebuah potensial listrik saat bahan-bahan itu dipanaskan atau didinginkan) dengan pemahaman akan struktur dan perilaku sebuah kristal. Keduanya kemudian mendemonstrasikan efek piezoelektrik pertama dengan menggunakan kristal turmalin, kuarsa, ratna cempaka, dan garam rossel. Dari uji coba tersebut diketahui bahwa kristal kuarsa dan garam rossel memperlihatkan kemampuan piezoelektrisitas paling besar saat itu.
Piezoelektrik adalah material yang memproduksi medan listrik ketika dikenai regangan atau tekanan mekanis. Sebaliknya, jika medan listrik diterapkan, maka material tersebut akan mengalami regangan atau tekanan mekanis.


3. Efek Piezoelektrik
Efek piezoelektrik terjadi jika medan listrik tebentuk ketika material dikenai tekanan mekanik. Pada saat medan listrik melewati material, molekul yang terpolarisasi akan menyesuaikan dengan medan listrik, dihasilkan dipole yang terinduksi dengan molekul atau struktur kristal materi. Penyesuaian molekul akan mengakibatkan material berubah dimensi. Fenomena tersebut dikenal dengan electrostriction (efek piezoelektrik

4. Karakteristik Material Piezoelektrik
Material Piezoelektrik adalah keramik yang terpolarisasi, seperti material quartz (SiO2) atau barium titanate (BaTiO3) yang akan menghasilkan medan listrik material berubah dimensinya akibat gaya mekanik. Keramik yang terpolarisasi disini yaitu beberapa bagian molekul bermuatan positif dan sebagian yang lain bermuatan negative dengan elektroda-elektroda yang menempel pada dua sisi yang berlawanan. Pada saat medan listrik melewati material, molekul yang terpolarisasi akan menyesuaikan dengan medan listrik, dihasilkan dipole yang terinduksi dengan molekul atau struktur kristal materi. Penyesuaian molekul akan mengakibatkan material berubah dimensi. Fenomena tersebut dikenal dengan electrostriction (efek piezoelektrik)
Barium titanate dan zirconate titanate merupakan material piezoelektrik buatan manusia. Di alam ada banyak material alami yang dapat memberikan efek piezoelektrik, seperti berlinite, kuarsa, turmalin, dan garam rossel. Material jenis ini antara lain yaitu lapisan tipis rhombohedral lead zirconium titanate (PZT) sebagai actuator untuk MEMS, lapisan tipis aluminium nitride (AIN) sebagai filterfr atau resonantor (orde GHZ) berbasis efek surface acoustic wave (SAW), komposit piezoelektrik seperti serbuk keramik PTCa yang didispersikan dalam epoxy digunakan sebagai actuator pembalik (listrik menjadi energy mekanik)

C. Aplikasi material Piezoelektrik
Aplikasi yang selama ini dianggap paling sesuai menggunakan efek piezoelektrik adalah sumber energi bertegangan tinggi, sensor, dan motor piezoelektrik.
Ke depannya penggunaan efek tersebut untuk perangkat elektronik akan lebih bervariasi disebabkan kecenderungan manusia untuk memperkecil segala alat aplikatif agar terkesan lebih efisien. Bahkan, efek itu menjadi pelopor dari penanaman chip ke dalam tubuh manusia karena sumber energi yang dihasilkan harus didapatkan langsung dari gerak dalam tubuh itu sendiri.
Pada tranduser ultrasonik:

Transduser adalah alat yang mengubah suatu bentuk energi kedalam bentuk energi yang lain. Transduser ultrasonik mengubah energi listrik menjadi energi mekanik, dalam bentuk suara dan sebaliknya. Transduser akan mengeluarkan gelombang ultrasonik dengan frekuensi di atas 20 kHz. Transduser ultrasonik 40 kHz akan membangkitkan gelombang dengan frekuensi 40 kHz, transduser akan aktif jika diberi sinyal dengan frekuensi dengan 40 kHz. Transduser ultrasonik terdiri atas dua macam yaitu pengirim (transmitter) Tx dan penerima (receiver) Rx. Transduser ultrasonik terbuat dari material piezoeletrik, yaitu terbuat dari material quartz (SiO3) atau barium titanat (BaTiO3) yang akan menghasilkan medan listrik pada saat material berubah bentuk atau dimensinya sebagai akibat gaya mekanik. Fenomena tersebut dikenal dengan efek piezoelektrik.
Bahan piezoelektrik yang digunakan pada transduser ultrasonik mengubah sinyal listrik menjadi getaran mekanik dan mengubah kembali getaran mekanik menjadi energi listrik. Elemen aktif adalah inti dari transduser yang mengubah energi listrik menjadi energi suara dan sebaliknya. Elemen aktif pada transduser ultrasonik biasanya adalah sebuah material terpolarisasi yaitu material piezoelektrik.
D. Kelemahan dan Kekurangan material Piezoelektrik
Adapun kelemahannya adalah piezoelektrik bukanlah suatu dielektrik yang bagus. Ada sedikit kebocoran muatan pada material piezoelektrik. Karena fenomena ini, ada suatu konstanta waktu penyimpanan tegangan pada piezoelektrik setelah diberikan suatu gaya. Konstanta waktu ini tergantung pada kapasitansi elemennya dan pada resistansi kebocorannya. Konstanta waktunya berada pada orde 1 detik. Karena efek ini, piezoelektrik kurang bermanfaat untuk mendeteksi besaran static seperti berat suatu benda. Aspek penting lainnya dalam penggunaan piezoelektrik adalah adanya kenyataan bahwa material piezoelektrik dibuat melalui proses kristalisasi kisi-kisi (laticce) dalam susunan tertentu. Hal tersebut dilakukan dengan memanskan kristal samapi diatas suhu Curie sambil menerapkan tegangan pada elektrodanya. Jika kristal telah dipanaskan mendekati suhu Curie, material tersebut dapat menjadi “ de pole “ yang dapat menghasilkan pengurangan sensitifitas piezoelektrik. Untuk beragam material, suhu curie ini berada antara 50 – 600 ° C. pemanasan dibawah suhu Curie dapat membatasi penggunaan sensor ini.
Meskipun demikian, elemen piezoelektrik juga mempunyai beberapa kelebihan penting dibandingkan mekanisme sensing yang lain. Pertama dan yang utama adalah fakta bahwa piranti tersebut membangkitkan sendiri tegangannya. Karena itu elemen ini tidak memerlukan daya dari luar untuk operasionalnya. Untuk suatu aplikasi di mana konsumsi daya sangat terbatas, piranti piezoelektrik sangat berguna. Tambahan lagi, efek piezoelektrik memiliki hukum penyekalaan yang menarik sehingga bermanfaat pada piranti yang kecil. Kekurangan utama sensing piezoelektrik ini adalah sensitifitasnya hanya bagus untuk sinyal yang berubah-ubah terhadap waktu. Sensing piezoelektrik tidak dapat beoperasi untuk aplikasi-aplikasi yang membutuhkan sensitifitas terhadap besaran statik. Meskipun demikian, jika ada sinyal yang berubah terhadap waktu, perlu adanya pemikiran yang serius pada penggunaan elemen sensing piezoelectric.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

MISTER GOLAZO DE HOY

Today's Mister Golazo is another South American! Paraguay's striker Oscar Cardozo scored the decisive goal at the end of the penalty shootout following extra time in the 2010 World Cup round of 16 match Paraguay versus Japan on June 29, 2010 at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria, South Africa. Paraguay won in the penalty shootout 5-3.

Hearing a survivor in Budapest

After so many years of studying and learning about the Holocaust, on Sunday we learned some interesting perspectives about the Holocaust in Hungary from scholar, Laszlo Csosz. As it turns out, each country was so different in what happened to Jewish populations. The Hungarian deportations of 1944 started in the countryside--but did not continue with total deportation of the Jews of Budapest. About 70,000 of them remained in two different ghettos in the city and were liberated by the Russians. The tradgedy of the 1/2 million Hungarian Jews who were being deported to Auschwitz as the Allies were driving west always makes the losses of the Holocaust seem even more tragic and appalling. Add to this that we learned that students today are not required to learn about the Holocaust and do not hear the many survivors who do live here in Budapest. It made out presentation by a local survivor very poignant as she travels to Germany to speak to schools but does not speak in Hungary. Even so, the sun was shining and we were priviledged to hear Eva's story.

Laurie Warshal Cohen

See a photo of Eva of with the group at the Holocaust Center in Budapest on our facebook page.

Senator Webb's Letter - The Condensed Version

In my latest piece, "Next Letter Writing Campaign - Aiming For Specific Targets," I referenced the various letter writing campaigns that have taken place over the past few months. I also included links to responses I've received from my own networking and advocating, one of which was a letter I received after writing to Senator Jim Webb (D-VA). Sen. Webb's state houses the insidious Sallie Mae's headquarters. They used to be down the road from me, and it was quite difficult to even drive past their loansharking biz. Oh, on top of that, here's a list of his campaign contributors. Wow. Shocking. Sallie Mae is on that list. You can read Senator Webb's entire response here. Not surprisingly, it was more than just disappointing. One reader provided this short analysis. They did it quite well and crudely: "Summary of Jim Webb's letter: "I want you to think I'm on your side, but you're on your own. Piss off."

Need I say more?






Next Letter Writing Campaign - Aiming For Specific Targets



The indentured educated class has carried out several successful letter writing campaigns over the past several months. The primary focus has been to send Roberto Rodriguez in the White House letters. (We've also written to the Department of Education. Sadly, they have really failed to do their job and respond). The last letter writing campaign to the White House was via email. I did that for a specific reason: after 9/11 there were those anthrax scares, and many of you may recall that several Senators' offices were targets of these letters filled with the deadly poison. That's when - naturally and understandably - the White House and others in D.C. had detectors put in place for these sorts of things. That means that if you send out handwritten notes by "snail mail," it can take a very long time for them to arrive. So, the fastest way to get things to the right people is to send letters via email. Of course, if you wish to send your own notes by post, I encourage you to do so. But it's good to be aware of the delay and the reasons for it.

Here's a quick breakdown of the dates and links for the previous letter writing campaigns, as well as a few links to letters I sent off as an advocate:

(a) May 24, 2010 - the final announcement for sending off the letters to the White House;
(b) March 4, 2010 - Sen. Webb's response to my letter;
(c) February 5, 2010 - my call with the White House;
(d) February 3, 2010 - update on the first letter writing campaign to the White House.

That's actually the short-list, because I frequently email the Department of Education and have made a point to send countless follow-up emails to the White House.

While we've had some luck, I am enormously dissatisfied with this approach. Therefore I want to shift our attention to Senators and Representatives, and that can entail those at the state level, too. Currently, I am drafting a list of names of specific individuals whom I'd like the indentured educated class to make an appeal. Moreover, many of you have been involved in writing to your representatives on a regular basis, so if you have emails for actual people (i.e., the higher education policy staffer in Sen. X's office), please let us know. It's important to receive your feedback and suggestions, and I urge you to provide us with comments below.

If you're in, please send me a quick email (ccrynjohannsen at gmail dot com). I receive hundreds of emails a day, so please include this in the subject (that way, I can group them in the right file and make sure you're not left out): COUNT ME IN! (June 29, 2010). Please make sure to include the date. Thanks! 

I will draft the letter and then request your feedback. This method allows more people to volunteer, and it also provides everyone with the opportunity to give me suggestions.

Stay tuned.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Class size top parent concerns for fourth year in a row

For the fourth year in a row, ever since the DOE parent survey has been given, smaller classes are the top priority of parents among the ten choices offered.

Despite this fact, class sizes increased this year at an unprecedented rate, and are expected to increase next year as well.

They are larger now in nearly every grade than before the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case was settled, in which the state’s highest court said the class sizes in our public schools were too large to provide children with their constitutional right to an adequate education.

Perhaps that’s why parent satisfaction with the chancellor was more than thirty points lower than their satisfaction with teachers.

Clearly the chancellor is not listening to what parents want, and they realize that.

Positive Effects of Comprehensive Teacher Induction

Today, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. released the final report of its IES/U.S Department of Education-funded randomized controlled trial (RCT) of comprehensive teacher induction. It shows a statistically significant and sizeable impact on student achievement in mathematics (0.20 standard deviations) and reading (0.11 standard deviations) of third-year teachers who received two years of robust induction support. That's the equivalent of moving students from the 50th to 54th percentile in reading achievement and from the 50th to 58th percentile in math achievement.

As a basis of comparison, I note that in 2004, Mathematica conducted a RCT of Teach for America (TFA). In that study, it compared the gains in reading and math achievement made by students randomly assigned to TFA teachers or other teachers in the same school. The results showed that, on average, students with TFA teachers raised their mathematics test scores by 0.15 standard deviations (versus 0.20 standard deviations in the induction study), but found no impact on reading test scores (versus 0.11 standard deviations in the induction study).

In another recent Mathematica report (boy, these folks are busy!), the authors note that "The achievement effects of class-size reduction are often used as a benchmark for other educational interventions. After three years of treatment (grades K-2) in classes one-third smaller than typical, average student gains amounted to 0.20 standard deviations in math and 0.23 standard deviations in reading (U.S. Department of Education, 1998)." In that report -- an evaluation of the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP), Mathematica researchers found a very powerful impact from KIPP: "For the vast majority of KIPP schools studied, impacts on students’ state assessment scores in mathematics and reading are positive, statistically significant, and educationally substantial.... By year three, half of the KIPP schools in our sample are producing math impacts of 0.48 standard deviations or more, equivalent to the effect of moving a student from the 30th percentile to the 48th percentile on a typical test distribution..... Half of the KIPP schools in our sample show three-year reading effects of 0.28 standard deviations or more."

Is it appropriate to compare effect sizes among RCTs or, for that matter, among research in general? I am told that it is, although certainly considerations such as cost effectiveness and scalability have to enter into the conversation. Implementation issues also must be attended to. With regard to teacher induction, the issue of cost effectiveness was addressed in a 2007 cost-benefit study published in the Education Research Service's Spectrum journal and summarized in this New Teacher Center (NTC) policy brief.

Disclosure: I am employed by the NTC which participated in the induction RCT, and I helped to coordinate NTC's statement on the study.
The NTC is "encouraged" by the study. However, NTC believes that "it does not reflect the even more significant outcomes that can be achieved when districts have the time, capacity and willingness to focus on an in-depth, universal implementation of comprehensive, high-quality induction. It speaks volumes about the quality of induction and mentoring provided and the necessity of new teacher support that student achievement gains were documented despite [design and implementation] limitations to the study."


UPDATE: Read the Education Week story by Stephen Sawchuk here. And the Mathematica press release here.



Federal Tax Rates by Income Quintile

Recently updated by CBO.  Click on the graphic to enlarge.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

MORE FOR MISS AMERICA 2011




This weekend saw the election of several more state representatives to Miss America 2011. Among those crowned were Miss Louisiana Kelsi Crain, Miss North Carolina Adrienne Core, Miss Virginia Caitlin Uze, and Miss Maryland Lindsay Staniszewski.

MISTER GOLAZO DE HOY

Today's Mister Golazo of the 2010 World Cup is Argentina's gorgeous Gonzalo Higuain. He scored the second goal during the World Cup round of 16 soccer match between Argentina and Mexico at Soccer City in Johannesburg, South Africa, Sunday, June 27, 2010. Argentina won the match and advances to the final eight.

Negative learning from high "value-added" teaching?

A new study on teacher “quality” shows that post-secondary teachers who did best in terms of their students' value-added test scores did worst in terms of their students being able to succeed in more advanced course work.

The authors hypothesize that this is the result of “teaching to the test” which hurts the ability of students to engage in “deep learning.”

This is one more piece of evidence revealing how the incredibly simple-minded approach of Bloomberg/Klein/Duncan/Gates and the rest of the Billionaire’s Boys Club to teacher evaluation may have destructive long term impacts.

Their excessively narrow view of learning attempts to impose a narrow and damaging model on teaching.

North Korean economic history

There is a new book (in Swedish) about North Korea. It is written by Villy Bergström, a respected Swedish Social Democratic economist, and Benjamin Silberstein. Silberstein is a young guy who is obsessed with North Korea, has read everything about the country, and probably known as much about the hermit Kingdom than anyone in Sweden.

The book is largely based on two trips Bergström took to North Korea, one in 1971 (at the height of North Koreas success), and one in 2002 (when the country was near starvation). The diaries from the trips are quite fascinating; I could not put the book down once I started reading it. The cult around Kil Il Sung is unbelievable.

Some random observations on the book:

• Apparently North Korea in 1971 had a reasonable standard of living. In particular we can believe this observation through the fog of propaganda as Bergström compares his visit in 1971 with his visit in 2002. One reason was massive aid from the Soviet Union. Villy Bergström is a skilled economists, and tries to estimate the standard of living indirectly (the official figures are of course pure lies), for example through observing electricity production, how healthy the population looks and how they live and are dressed. In 1971 people seem well fed, but in 2002 some beg food.

According to Maddison (who sadly passed away recently), Bergström is right. In the early 1970s North Korea was about as rich as South Korea, (about 2500$ per capita in 1990 dollars). The subsequent development is known to anyone.

Here is per capita income (as best estimated) in North and South Korea, between 1950-2008.


• We can also speculate that centrally planned economies do better the first few decades. When the revolutionary fervor is still high the incentive problems are mitigated. During the initial phase the country can grow through brute capital accumulation (forced savings) and by pushing everyone into the labor force. When they target a few heavy industries, such as steel production and military hardware, the information problem is less severe. But after a while the socialist economy inevitably runs out of steam, and starts to stagnate. They have never been able to solve the information problem to produce decent consumer goods.

• Even though Villy Bergström was a leftist, he showed a lot of integrity in his 1971 diaries, as he questioned the cult around Kim Il Sung and the lack of democracy. Apparently the Swedish left was very upset with him when he originally published the diaries.

• Bergström in 1971 gets to meet some North Korean economists. He asks if they study Keynes. “Of course” They reply. “The Kim Il Sung version!” The Korean economist also study Adam Smith and Ricardo, combined with critique of these classical economists written by Kim Il Sung…

• Villy Bergström writes beautifully. The skill to write well in Swedish is lost in my generation of economist, who only work in English. Since English is our second or third (in my case fourth) language, there is a natural limit for our ability to express ourselves. This makes it less likely for a broader audience of Swedes to read work done by Swedish economists. Quite sad really.

• The book is weakest in its analysis of foreign policy. While Villy Bergström is immune to North Korean economic propaganda, he completely accepts their lies about foreign affairs and the war (perhaps because of the Vietnam War atmosphere). He thus accepts the premise that the Korean War was a war of aggression by the U.S, “American imperialism” against “little North Korea”.

First of all, there is no serious historical dispute that North Korea attacked South Korea (supported by Stalin and Mao), not vice versa. The U.S would never have allowed South Korea to attack North Korea (and South Korea at any case had a very weak military). Second, the Korean War was largely between the U.S and allies and China, not betweeen the U.S and "little North Korea".

Bergström even believes absurd stories the North Koreans tell him about how Americans G.Is would come to North Korean villages, systematically round up hundreds of men, women and children, put them in a basement, pour gasoline on them and lit them on fire to burn to death. Sure, if North Korea propaganda say so, it must be true, who cares about historical evidence? Also, not a word is mentioned about the people who actually committed atrocities, the North Koreans (who murdered tens of thousands of civilians) and the South Koreans. Only America, the generally innocent party, is hated and lied about.

I like Swedes, but I will never accept their rancorous anti-Americanism.

• The chapters written contemporaneously are much more balanced in the historical foreign policy describtion.

• In 2002 about 20% of the North Korean population was members of the communist party. In George Orwell’s “1984”, 15% of the population is members of The Party (of which 2% are members of The Inner Party). Orwell was nothing if not insightful.

• Typical of Social Democratic ideology, Villy Bergström attributes everything to policy. He for example favorably notes that the North Korean school children have more advanced mathematic training than Swedes. Sure, there is absolutely no other explanation other than education policy why east Asians would be better at math than Swedes. Never mind that we notice the exact pattern in Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and among South Asian immigrants in the U.S (and Sweden...), despite different policies.

A richer theory of the world would account for, say, culture, and not automatically assume every social pattern is due to political decisions.

• The book is hints at how crazy the ideological atmosphere was in 1971. As I wrote, Villy Bergström was a brilliant economist, and considered a centrist Social Democrat. Yet he writes in one point, favorably comparing North Korea with other nations:

“[Classical] liberalism and capitalism in South Korea has led to fascism and an upper class in ruthless luxury, with a destitute, hopelessly stagnant proletariat. This has happened in South Korea, Taiwan, South Vietnam, Pakistan, South America and southern Italy”.


Pakistan and South America in the 1970s were hardly free market systems. And are South Korea, Taiwan (and more recently Vietnam) really examples of economic ‘stagnation’?!?

And why focus only on one region in southern Italy, when we want to judge policy? Doesn’t all Italy have roughly the same policy? If we observe that most of Italy does well, and a couple of corrupt, low trust, low cooperation regions in the south do poorly, is the most reasonable explanation to blame capitalism?

According to Maddison, between 1946 and 1971 Italy had an average per capita growth of 5.6%. Would you call that stagnation? Bergström thinks the standard of living in southern Italy was the same or lower than North Korea, even though according to Maddison Italy at the time had 4 times higher per capita GDP (of course the south is poorer, but it is not really enlightening to compare the richest part of North Korea with the poorest part of Italy, and even there Italy wins with a big margin).

• The authors are impressed that North Korea recovered from the war by 1971. But it seems to me countries recover from war faster than people think. Conditional on institutions and human capital, physical capital is easily rebuilt.

• In 1971 the Swedish Social Democrats had brilliant economists like Villy Bergström, ideologically committed to their cause. Today people as smart and rational as Bergström rarely become Social Democrats. Much of the he talent in the working class has already moved upwards to becoming middle class, and no longer identifies with the workers movement. The academics they have are not top-economists, but cultural Marxists (feminists, multi-culturalism cooks, postmodernism etc). The decline in talent is perhaps the biggest problem facing the Social Democratic party.

• The anecdotes about Kim Il Sung worship are worth buying the book alone. It makes a great companion to “1984”, comparing Orwell’s fiction/fact with North Koreas bizarre mix of fiction/fact.

Links

Here are a few things readers sent me while I was away:
  1. Economics is harder than most bloggers think.
  2. Merle Hazard's latest song, Legal Tender.
  3. A Cash Award for Nice Professors.
  4. Ten Commandments for Fiscal Adjustment.
  5. The BP Coffee Spill.

Rotunno and JFK High School Investigations: A History

The blog JD2718 has provided a disturbing history of investigations into alleged cheating and corruption at JFK High School. It was written by Lynne Winderbaum, former UFT chapter leader at JFK and Bronx district representative.

What I find especially concerning is that several of the investigations were never officially closed and there only appear to be consequences for those who brought their concerns to the investigators.

As a member of the NYC school board, I will be asking the chancellor and DOE general counsel to respond to these accounts.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

ZEN ON SUNDAY

Miss France 1991, Mareva Georges, and top 10 finisher
at Miss Universe 1991

Hire This Teacher!

Welcome to a special new series of the Education Optimists: the Promising New Teachers Award! We aim to identify, praise, and help place a few incredibly talented young women and men who are seeking the opportunity to work for schools across the country.

Our inaugural choice is Stephanie Ake of New Hope, Minnesota.

Stephanie is a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's School of Education with a degree in elementary education. She has also completed three years of extraordinary training and service as the nanny to the children of the Education Optimists!

Stephanie has numerous qualities and dispositions that make her a stellar teacher. She is caring, patient, responsible and understanding -- skills necessary to manage a classroom of young children. She is reliable and trustworthy, always on time, always prepared, always ready. She is one of the most organized, and dependable people we have ever met, and at the same she is flexible and calm. It was a testament to her skills that when it came time to choose a preschool and a teacher for our son, Liam and I found ourselves comparing every candidate to Stephanie.

Stephanie seeks a teaching job in the Twin Cities area teaching preschool through 5th grade. We give her our highest recommendation. Please feel free to email her opportunities directly (ake@wisc.edu) or contact us with questions.

My Latest

Click here to read my article in the new issue of National Affairs about the recent debate over fiscal stimulus.

Ten Days without the Internet

Sorry about my recent absence.  I have spent the past ten days in Italy (mostly in Florence) on a family vacation.  The hotel there, while wonderful in most ways, offered an internet connection that was so slow as to be effectively useless.  But I am now back in town, ready to deal with the several hundred email waiting for me and to work off the extra three pounds from all that wonderful pasta and gelato.  I will also return to posting here more regularly.

MISS NORWAY 2010

Norway elected its representatives to Miss Universe and Miss World tonight. Melinda Elvenes won the right to compete in Miss Universe 2010, and Mariann Birkedal will compete for Miss World 2010.

Photos from Budapest - day 1

New photos on facebook today from our visit to Castle Hill in Budapest, the labyrinth of caves under the hill, archictecture in Pest, and more...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=184847&id=140140310737&saved#!/album.php?aid=184847&id=140140310737

MISS EL SALVADOR 2010

El Salvador has new royalty. Elected in a glittering televised gala on Thursday night were Sonia Cruz, who won the title of Nuestra Belleza El Salvador Universo and Gabriela Molina, who won the title of Nuestra Belleza El Salvador Mundo.

More on Anthony Rotunno and the culture of "empowerment" at DOE

See the comment below our previous posting, from a student at Pleasantville high school in Westchester; where Anthony Rotunno was recently hired to be principal.



As reported yesterday in the Daily News, Rotunno was the subject of a scathing new audit from the NY State Comptroller's office, accusing him of allowing his staff to raid thousands of dollars of funds from student bake sales and more when he was principal of JFK HS in the Bronx. More on this in today's Daily News:



Pleasantville School District officials said it wasn't until they saw the Daily News' front-page story Friday that they learned Rotunno was in charge of a school where staffers ran a giant swindle. "Reference checks were extremely positive and no wrongdoings of any nature were reported," the statement says….

But Kennedy PTA President Robert Bosolet Sr., said he long suspected staffers were plundering the students' account. "Each year, there were always kids complaining that they did fund-raising, and they never saw a dime from it," fumed Bosolet, whose triplet sons graduated this year.

"Every time an event happened, and we asked where did that money go, we were never provided with that information."Bosolet said he e-mailed his concerns to the Department of Education, but he couldn't provide evidence.

A DOE spokesman said it "hadn't received a credible accusation of financial mismanagement at the school" prior to the audit.

Yet see our previous posting about years of allegations of cheating on Regents scoring and fake credits at Kennedy that occurred under his watch, and/or the even more devastating account by Lynne Winderbaum, former UFT Bronx HS representative, about Rotunno’s egregious misconduct reported to DOE and going back as far as 2003, with the Chancellor looking the other way each time. Instead, it was the whistleblowers who lost their jobs as a result.

I guess Klein and the educrats at Tweed didn't think that any of the numerous reports of misconduct, nor the findings of this devastating audit that finally prompted Rotunno's dismissal in May, meant that they had the obligation to offer any warning to Pleasantville -- no less refrain from offering positive referrals.



As the Comptroller said yesterday, in rightly laying blame on Rotunno for the financial corruption at the school, "The Kennedy principal did not establish basic accountability for student funds."



Question: if Rotunno was rightly found to be responsible by the Comptroller for the misappropriation of funds that occurred repeatedly under his watch, shouldn't Klein be held to at least the same standard, by having allowed this sort of corruption to go on, year after year, and failing to take any attempt to prevent it?



MISTER GOLAZO DE HOY

¡GOL DE URUGUAY!

Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez celebrates his second goal during their 2010 World Cup second round match against South Korea in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, June 26, 2010. His second golazo won the game for Uruguay and put the South American nation in the final group of eight for the 2010 World Cup championship. Luis, who plays professionally for Ajax Amsterdam, is Beauty School's first Mister Golazo of the 2010 World Cup! Who will be Mister Golazo tomorrow? Another sinfully beautiful South American?

MISS TAHITI 2010

The new Miss Tahiti 2010 is Poehere Hutihuti Wilson, 21. She won the title last night in a glittering gala celebrating the 50th anniversary of the pageant, beating out 11 other women. This year, two former Miss Tahiti winners, both named Mareva, were judges - Miss France 1991, Mareva Georges, and Miss France 1999, Mareva Galanter. The pageant took place at the To'ata Palace in Tahiti's capital Papeete.

Friday, June 25, 2010

The Perennial Scholarship Controversy

PSD scholarships – to scrap or not to scrap
SAT, 26 JUN 2010 06:11

By Ken Vin Lek

KUALA LUMPUR: Every year around the months of May and June, hundreds of “straight A” SPM students receive the news of not being offered the “illustrious” Public Service Department (PSD) scholarship.

Thousands of complaints are made by various parties, the issue becomes politicised and many people start crying out about the injustice and inequality existing in the system of allocating scholarships.

Recently, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak announced that PSD scholarships would be phased out over time, and he was promptly supported by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Nazri Aziz, who said that the move is an effort to “reduce brain drain” and that the government “lacked capacity” to fund students.

FMT has made an indepth study into the arguments surrounding the PSD scholarship issue, and we leave it to the public to make up their mind on what’s right and what’s wrong.

Many parties have questioned the suitability of using the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) as a benchmark for PSD scholarships.

PJ Utara MP, Tony Pua, questioned the process of awarding scholarship at SPM level and instead suggested that students be picked based on their pre-university qualifications.

“The problem now is, we have too many top scorers for only 1,500 scholarships on offer. We should use pre-university qualifications as the benchmark as it is of a higher threshold and students would have then gained admission into top-class universities.”

“What we are doing now is, we are pre-determining whether one is suitable for courses like Medicine and Law based on the SPM results without the students receiving any offers from universities to pursue these subjects,” he added.

Pua also criticised Nazri for linking the phasing-out of scholarships to an effort to reduce the brain drain.

“It is nonsense to say that phasing out scholarships can actually reduce the brain drain. We all know foreign institutions are capable of developing talented leaders in their various fields,” he said.

For full article with in-depth analysis, click here.

Make a Widget Translate Header on Top Right Corner

Make a Widget Translate Header on Top Right Corner - Before learning tentnag follow these tips, my friend had chechk this article yet? 
Blog buddy wants to be known to everyone? Indonesian people have guns just dropping by, but also an outsider. Then how to pamper people outside? Guns pake us their language? Put only "Translator Widget."
Translator of the most popular widget is from google translate. My friend once tried to make it? Then how do I make it? Well, it's easy. 

First, open the page "Google Translate" Click Here



Second, get the code. . As * save the code *
I would ask my friend about where you want to put the widget google translator?In the sidebar? Footer?In this post I will share tips google translator widget is placed on strategic locations, namely at the top right corner of the blog header buddy ^ _ ^
How?
follow these steps,Open an account buddy bloggersOpen Design / DesignChoose Edit HTMLThen find the code <div id='header-wrapper'>Place the following code just below the code above<div style='float:right'>
 
Widget CODE TRANSLATOR here</ Div>



Arrived in Budapest!

Check out our photos on the Holocaust Center's Facebook Page -

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=184847&id=140140310737&saved#!/album.php?aid=184847&id=140140310737

You don't have to be signed into facebook to see them. Or better yet, sign into facebook and become a fan of the Holocaust Center's page so that you can follow our trip!

Arrived in Budapest on Friday evening and ate dinner at the delicious Cyrano restaurant in walking distance from our hotel.

Dinner consisted of Gulash soup or Indian carrot and corn soup, paprika chicken with egg gnocchi (or lentils for the vegetarian), and a wonderful fruit/ginger yogurt.

Our hotel, Budapest Panorama Central Hotel, is really a floor of an apartment-like building. Each floor of the building looks at the Center courtyard. The rooms are small but lovely. The owner of the hotel even provided a bottle of wine for each room.

Anthony Rotunno, and the culture of "accountability" at Tweed: read "anything goes"

Today's Daily News reports that Anthony Rotunno, who retired as principal of Kennedy HS last month, allowed staffers to improperly spend money from student bake sales on parties, among other financial improprieties, according to a new audit from State Comptroller DiNapoli:

In a particularly egregious abuse, Kennedy staffers blew more than $7,000 on four retirement parties at suburban eateries, the audit found.

"This was the students' money," DiNapoli said. "They raised it selling cupcakes and asking for donations. The students worked hard to raise this money. Whoever is responsible should be punished."

The audit, covering the period July 2007 to June 2009, found that Kennedy staffers misused or stole $91,216.

The report pins blame squarely on Rotunno's shoulders. "The Kennedy principal did not establish basic accountability for student funds," the report says.

Not mentioned in the article is how Rotunno was a long favorite of DOE, whose job was protected by them, despite questionable practices of long standing. Here is an excerpt from a 2004 puff piece in the NY Times, lauding his “tough guy” approach to turning

Behind this makeover was Mr. Rotunno and his formula for fixing a school of 5,000, a mix of infusing fun and school spirit into the school day and a determined effort to weed out students standing in the way of improvement…. teachers -- some of them Kennedy graduates still cherishing memories of the school's glory days of science awards and Ivy League acceptance letters in the 1970's and 80's -- generally agree: the school has turned the corner.

But actually teachers despised Rotunno, and in 2005 charges were made by many English teachers at the school that he had improperly student Regents scores to passing. When the DOE finally finished their “investigation” they concluded that he did change scores, but that this was perfectly okay. So much for accountability at DOE!

Here is what the much-missed former education columnist Michael Winerip wrote in 2006 about the resolution of these allegations, backed up by written evidence of changed scores:

[David Cantor] said that the inquiry had looked only into whether the principal, Anthony Rotunno, had the right to change the Regents grades and found that he did….

So far, only one person has been punished, Maria Colon, Kennedy's union representative, who was the first to speak out publicly about the changed scores. She was removed from Kennedy and assigned to a holding room pending a hearing on her case. Her crime? She allegedly used a school fax to send a Newsday reporter documents revealing the scoring changes.

A few months later, Winerip wrote a follow-up column, called "Cheapening the Cap and Gown," about new accusations made by guidance counselors that Rotunno had allowed kids to graduate without the required credits:

Ms. Werner [a guidance counselor] said, "They started giving out credits like candy." Global history is a four-term course spread over two years, and Ms. Diaz and Ms. Werner say they saw transcripts for students who had failed four terms of global history and were given credit for all four courses after passing the global Regents exam.

This reporter obtained copies of transcripts (with names blanked out) from a teacher who requested anonymity for fear of retribution. In one case, a student who failed three semesters of global history classes starting in January 2003 was given credit for those courses after passing the state global history Regents exam with a 65 in January 2005. A student who failed freshman English 1 and 2 in 2002-03 was given credit for those courses after passing the English Regents with a 68 in January 2005.

In an interview in February, Mr. Rotunno said the policy was not new, just a clarification of an existing policy that went back to the school's beginning.

Despite these new allegations, Rotunno stayed on, and the guidance counselors who spoke up in defense of standards lost their jobs.

The culture of so-called “accountability” at DOE, meaning principals can basically do anything as long as they produce better test scores and higher graduation rates, may have made Rotunno believe he was invulnerable in other ways as well.

Unfortunately, a policy of nearly unregulated credit recovery has been instituted throughout the city; and giving out credits “like candy” is now encouraged as the primary means to improve your school’s statistics, save your own job, and possibly get a bonus besides. (See this article about credit recovery as practiced at Tilden HS, which is closing.)

The new audit is just one more in a growing list of revelations from the State Comptroller, the City Comptroller, and the Special Commissioner of Investigation Condon, showing millions of dollars of stolen and misused funds because of lax financial oversight by DOE, the results of Tweed’s “anything goes” attitude towards principal “empowerment”.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Leadership, empowerment and accountability according to the Chancellor...not to mention tax fraud

Richard Brescia, former Director of Performance Management and Talent Development at DOE, pled guilty to tax fraud.



Meanwhile, check out the following, still posted on the DOE website as of tonight:



Chancellor's Fellowship Program

In every great organization, leadership talent matters. Over the past eight years, the Department of Education has improved student achievement by creating a set of core values based on leadership, empowerment, and accountability. Accountability is the cornerstone of great leadership and the best leaders empower others to do their best. Sustaining success is clearly dependent on having the highest quality leaders in the city’s classrooms and schools. Equally important are the leaders in the DOE’s central offices.



In 2008, the DOE launched the first Chancellor’s Fellowship Program as the Chancellor’s personal commitment to developing the most outstanding managerial talent in the DOE’s central and administrative offices. Due to the success of the inaugural program, the DOE will again sponsor the Chancellor’s Fellowship in 2009-2010…..

…..To submit an application, applicants must download the Candidate Application, enter their personal information, complete the application electronically, save the file, and email it to Richard Brescia at RBrescia@schools.nyc.gov by October 9, 2009.

Assembly member Gottfried on the pro-charter mailing sent out by ERN without his consent



See Assembly Member Gottfried's response to Jan Carr's email to him, about the pro-charter school flyer she received in the mail sent by the charter lobbyists Education Reform Now in his name:



I am appalled about the "Education Reform Now" mailing, because it utterly misrepresents my position.



I do not support charter schools, and have spoken out frequently against them. I support a long list of proposals to rein them in, make them treat teachers and students more fairly, provide transparency, prevent crowding out public schools, etc. etc. I voted for the charter school bill because it includes many of those important changes. For me, the part of the bill that increased the limit on the number of charter schools was a regrettable price to pay for the valuable parts of the bill. I felt we were destined to lose the fight to keep the number down anyway.



The "Education Reform Now" people supported the bill for the opposite reason. I understand they have sent out these dishonest mailings in the districts of many legislators who voted for the bill for the reasons I did.



The implication of what you wrote above is that these flyers were mailed out without his permission; AM Gottfried, is that an accurate interpretation of your statement?



Yes. I understand that the mailer was sent in the name of ERN, not in my name. The prominence of my name and photo give the impression that it was “in (my) name.” The mailer was sent without my involvement, knowledge, or consent or that of anyone on my behalf. If I had had any prior knowledge of it, I would have vehemently objected to it.



Have you seen the flyers? Exactly how do the claims on the flyer mistake your position? Have you been in contact with ERN about this issue, asking them to halt their mailings?



I have been in Albany since the mailer hit, and so I have not actually seen it. I have been told that it implies that I support charter schools, which is not true. My chief of staff called ERN and expressed my strong objection to the mailing and asked that they halt further mailings of this nature.



One more question, and I hope you do not take this as a slight on your integrity or honesty. There has been alot of discussion on the NYC Education list serv and elsewhere about the piles of money ERN and Democrats for Education Reform have offered elected officials and candidates, under their names and also those of the hedge fund operators whose contributions they "bundle" . Some candidates have reported publicly and in private that they were offered $200,000 to support charter school expansion.



See for example, the statements of Steve Behar, running for Assembly in Queens; and Tony Avella, a candidate for the State Senate, who reportedly has also told supporters he was offered a lot of money to change his position on this issue but refused.



Have you been promised and/or received any substantial contributions from these groups or individuals? And if you are in the future, would you accept these donations?



I have not been offered, promised or received any contribution from these groups. If any individual contributor to my campaign is associated with such a group, I am not aware of it. If in the future anyone were to offer me a campaign contribution under circumstances suggesting that they were doing so because they thought I support charter schools, I would correct their misunderstanding. While I may accept a contribution even though I disagree with a donor on an issue, I would not accept a contribution from a single-issue organization such as these where I strongly disagree with the organization.



Thanks so much for clarifying your position,



Thank you for asking. Richard Gottfried



Parents who have received a similar pro-charter mailing in the name of your legislators; please reach out to them and ask them these or similar questions. The influence and money of the charter school industry is frightening.