Education's hidden scandal

Paul E. Peterson in the Charlotte Observer.

... dropout rates have actually increased since 1990, rising to 30 percent of all 17-year-olds.

Among blacks the dropout rate is running somewhere between 50 and 60 percent, a sad fact that remains one of the best-kept secrets in American education. Because few people know the facts, in a recently issued book Michael Dyson scolds Bill Cosby for (accurately) lamenting the fact that only about half of blacks graduate from high school. Dyson "corrected" him, saying the dropout rate is only 17 percent, an inaccuracy that earned Dyson warm praise from a New York Times book reviewer.

The reviewer's error only shows how successful the public education cartel has been in misleading the public. To hide actual dropout rates, most school districts report as dropouts only those who entered the year as seniors but did not remain in school until the end of that year. All other dropouts over the preceding three years -- and all the summers in between, when most dropping out actually occurs -- are statistically ignored.

His World is Flat

David Hazony in Policy Review reviews The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman.

Partnership in Practice

Amy Sherman in American Outlook says "Plenty of evidence suggests that governments can collaborate successfully with faith-based organizations to make dramatically positive changes in people's lives."

Reporter's Privileges and Responsibilities

Ronald Goldfarb in Washington Lawyer looks for a balanced policy between the press's wish not to divulge sources and the public's right to know.

Arbitration Scorecard

Michael D. Goldhaber in American Lawyer/Focus Europe takes An inside look at more than 100 major disputes from the secret world of arbitration.

Enigma in Beijing

Thomas A. Metzger in Hoover Digest says China may have embraced capitalism with enormous zeal--but it remains unlikely to embrace American-style democracy anytime soon.

Attn: bin Laden

Stefan Beck in The New Criterion reviews Incendiary by Chris Cleave.

Judge Roberts on Trial

I still haven't received my print copy, so either my mail is slow or this is a late hit from Ronald Dworkin in The New York Review of Books October 20, 2005.

When Scalia tried to defend this view [Originalism] in a discussion of his judicial methods at Princeton some years ago, the objection was made that originalism, so understood, ignores a crucial distinction between what the framers intended to say and what they expected would be the effect of their saying what they intended to say. 2 The framers might have set out their own particular views about what counts as cruelty in punishment, what counts as a denial of equal protection in legislation, and so forth in the constitutional clauses they wrote. But they did not. Instead they chose to lay down general moral principles. So true fidelity to their intentions requires judges to ignore the framers' concrete opinions and do their best to apply these principles as moral principles: to decide, for themselves, that is, what punishments are in fact cruel and what treatment is in fact equal.

If some people think "general moral principles" means "deciding for themselves," that might be a reason why the Ten Commandments is so controversial in courthouses.

Caveat Empty

Exxon Mobil Corporation issued a report, The Outlook for Energy: A 2030 View, which forecasts a peak in world oil production in five years. Alfred J. Cavallo says in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists that this report

... is more credible than other predictions for several reasons. First and foremost is that the source is ExxonMobil. No oil company, much less one with so much managerial, scientific, and engineering talent, has ever discussed peak oil production before. Given the profound implications of this forecast, it must have been published only after a thorough review.

Some Americans in London

An amusing look at some of the unusual Americans who have called London home.
Britain Today: Part IX, The New Criterion September 2005

Senate Confirms Roberts As Chief Justice

Jesse J. Holland of the Associated Press reports

The Senate voted 78-22 to confirm Roberts _ a 50-year-old U.S. Appeals judge from the Washington suburb of Chevy Chase, Md. _ as the successor to the late William H. Rehnquist, who died earlier this month.

All of the Senate's majority Republicans, and about half of the Democrats, voted for Roberts.

(via Drudge Report)

Feingold is a party of one

Craig Gilbert reports in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on how Senator Russ Feingold's vote recommending confirmation of Judge John Roberts as Chief Justice of the United States might affect Feingold's potential candidacy for president.

Planning and Policy Advisory Committee survey

The State Courts Planning and Policy Advisory Committee (PPAC) is in the process of gathering input for its 2006-2008 planning recommendations to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Use the title link to provide your input via the online survey.

(via Waukesha County Bar Association)

Long-Awaited E-Discovery Rules Headed to Supreme Court

The Voice reports,

On September 20, 2005, the U.S. Judicial Conference approved the proposed amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure governing discovery of electronically stored information (ESI). These amendments will be forwarded to the U.S. Supreme Court. If promulgated by the Court by May 1, 2006, the rules will become effective on December 1, 2006, unless Congress enacts a law delaying, voiding or amending them.

and provides a summary of the rules changes.

Anti-Wal-Mart alder ousted in Jefferson

I have heard of the stones crying out, but the trees? Karyn Saemann elaborates in The Capital Times report on a recall election.

A Jefferson alderman who twice this year voted against annexing land for a Wal-Mart SuperCenter has been thrown out of office.

Reaction was swift. Here's Ed Garvey.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: democracy just doesn't work.

Wait, my mistake, that was Kent Brockman. Here's Ed Garvey.

Meanwhile, back at home, the good folks were outhustlted [sic] by the anti-competition folks known as Wal-Mart supporters.

'Wisconsin Lawyers Make a Difference' TV series expands, Bar seeks lawyers who epitomize community service

Our State Bar

...seeks nominations of lawyers or groups of lawyers who demonstrate exemplary commitment to community or pro bono service to feature in a 30-second TV vignette to air in southeastern Wisconsin beginning in January 2006.

It would at least be a nice change to hear "community service" not preceded by "sentenced to."

Supreme Court will hear challenges to campaign law

Craig Gilbert reports in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that one case arose in Wisconsin and presents a legal challenge to the application, though not the constitutionality, of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law.

In the Wisconsin Right to Life case, the organization launched an ad campaign last year knowing it would force a test of the law's reach. The ads asked people in the state to telephone Feingold and U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl and urge them to oppose efforts to block Bush's judicial nominees.

Though the ads didn't criticize either senator, they fell afoul of the law's definition of "electioneering." Under that definition, any radio or TV ads aired within 60 days of a general election or 30 days of a primary, and that name a federal candidate, face disclosure rules and fund-raising limits. Among other things, such ads can't be paid for with corporate money, as the Wisconsin Right to Life ads were.

Because Feingold was up for re-election, the mention of his name triggered the law.

The Politics of Same Sex Marriage

Jonathan Sterne in Bad Subjects

My fear is that debates and crusades around same-sex marriage (and lesbians and gays in the military before that) have obscured the real promise of queer politics: a society where people have maximum freedom of personal affiliation, where they can choose to configure their lives in a wide variety of ways, and where everyone has access to the "goodies" that come with institutions like marriage, without having to conform to their values.

Academic Ranking of World Universities - 2005

as calculated by the Institute of Higher Education at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

16 Univ Wisconsin - Madison

(via The Economist)

The Neglected Home Front

Stephen E. Flynn in Foreign Affairs

Choosing to invest in offensive and defensive capabilities should not be an either-or proposition. In war, nations need both. Given the wealth of the United States, it can clearly afford to protect its most valued assets along with fielding a second-to-none military. But it cannot strike the right balance as long as it persists with treating homeland security as wholly separate from national security.

'Trial By Jury' law-related education event changes venue, Wisconsin Mock Trial Program seeks volunteers

After 16 years at the State Fair, this event will be held this year at Marquette University High School, 3401 West Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, on September 29th from 6 to 8 p.m. It is presented jointly by our State Bar and the Wisconsin Academy of Trial Lawyers (WATL).

"We are currently seeking volunteers for the 2005 - 06 Wisconsin High School Mock Trial Program," says Runaas. [Dee Runaas, State Bar Law-related Education coordinator] "The Mock Trial Program is an excellent opportunity for legal professionals to be involved in community service and help young people develop problem-solving skills. The program continues to expand annually, and as a result there is always a need for more volunteers."

Confronting the Culture

Lori Robertson says in American Journalism Review that The culprit behind the recurring clusters of plagiarism and fabrication scandals isn't just irresponsible youth or a few bad apples or the temptations of the Internet. It may be the newsroom culture itself.

Trafalgar then & now

How the English-speaking world is--and isn't--celebrating Admiral Nelson's famous victory.
Britain Today: Part VIII, The New Criterion September 2005

The Lawsuit That Sank New Orleans

David Schoenbrod in today's Wall Street Journal
(via PowerLine)

Legislature, UW System not on same page

Megan Twohey reports on University of Wisconsin System budget issues in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Compared with Minnesota and Illinois, Wisconsin has lower family incomes and fewer large employers. Legislators here are more inclined to make a fuss over the six-figure salaries and lifetime employment enjoyed by many university officials.

"A lot of people in Wisconsin are working for $10 or $12 an hour," Schultz [state Senate majority leader Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center)] said. "When they hear about some of these personnel practices that have gotten a lot of attention, they're like, 'Why am I paying for this?' "

Doyle to reveal Tower Automotive plan

John Schmid reports in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that
Gov. Doyle has announced package of economic development incentives, his second such proposal since he took office. One site he hopes could benefit is the large Milwaukee facility of bankrupt Tower Automotive, once A. O. Smith's. Schmid also reports on the context of the initiative.

David J. Ward, president of Northstar Economics, a Madison-based public-policy group, conducted a study that has alarmed the state's establishment.

Ward traced the state's growth in per-capita income from 1973 to 1998 and found that the state's growth (2.3%) lagged behind the U.S. average (2.8%) by a half-percentage point.

Extrapolating the trend for another 25 years (1999 to 2024) gives Wisconsin an average income of $40,598, which is 83% of the national average of $48,803.

Only 11 states currently have 83% or less than the national average, including Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama and Louisiana.

"Wisconsin is in a slow-growth trap," Ward said.

Separate and Unequal

Nathan Glazer in The New York Times reviews The Shame of the Nation by Jonathan Kozol.

His attack on the disparity in expenditure on education between central cities and well-to-do suburbs is similar. There has been research using the standard tests that questions whether greater expenditures on schools and students produce better educational results, but that research does not discourage Kozol. He expresses outrage at inequities in expenditure, pointing out that New York City in 2002-3 spent $11,627 on the education of each child, while Manhasset spent $22,311, Great Neck $19,705 and so on. There are comparable disparities in other metropolitan areas. (I have often been amused by these per-student expenditure figures, and have performed the thought experiment of calculating how much would be available at these levels of expenditure for the education of, say, a class of 20 children. It comes to some $220,000 for New York City, and one would think that would be more than enough to pay the teacher well, buy books and materials, maintain the classroom and even pay the janitor. One wonders where the money goes. The question is even more provocative when one considers the $440,000 available for a class in Manhasset.)

Godly vs. Secular

Steven Lubet in The American Lawyer says William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow duked it out at the Scopes trial--but not according to popular stereotype.

Not in Our Name

Michelle Fine in Rethinking Schools on "Reclaiming the democratic vision of small school reform"

All too many small schools have the same authoritarian principals, disempowered and uninspired educators, dubious high-stakes tests, and Eurocentric curricula as the large schools they were designed to replace. If large schools too often enact the pathologies of prisons, small schools sometimes embody the pathologies of families.

The Tactical, Numerical, Deterministic Model

The TNDM is a quick-reaction, inexpensive, computer-assisted mathematical simulation of air-land combat. It is suitable for planning, for analysis, and for examining a variety of combat situations, ranging from a small-unit, low-intensity combat action, to multi-day corps or army conventional battles. ...

Before the outbreak of the Kuwait or Gulf War, in January, 1991, planning analyses using the TNDM forecast casualty rates for US forces far lower than published predictions by any other model. In post-war assessments, adjustment of inputs to those actually experienced in the four-day ground war, yielded TNDM attrition results within 5% of the actual historical experience of US ground forces during the period February 24-28, 1991.

(via The Economist)

The Inequality Taboo

Charles Murray in Commentary

The New NASA

The New Atlantis says Mike Griffin Takes the Helm and Transforms the Agency.

Update: On the other hand, Jacob Sullum at Hit & Run asks Is NASA Necessary? (Compare the new proposals with those from forty years earlier.)

Update 2: On September 28, 2005, USA Today reports,

The space shuttle and International Space Station -- nearly the whole of the U.S. manned space program for the past three decades -- were mistakes, NASA chief Michael Griffin said Tuesday.

Two concepts of the moral life

Kenneth Minogue explores the moral life, or lack thereof, of modern Britain, and how it differs from that of past generations.
Britain Today: Part VII, The New Criterion September 2005

Judging Roberts

The confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee John Roberts began. This Infographic presents the key facts Congress has uncovered about Judge Roberts, according to The Onion

Leaving the Law

Joan Indiana Rigdon in the Washington Lawyer relates how discontent drove some lawyers to seek alternative careers.

The French Lesson

Dennis Bark introduces an essay by Olivier Dassault, "a remarkable Frenchman," about France and the French, the value of freedom, and America and Europe.

Land Rights-the Next Battleground

Peter Howson reports from Australia.
Quadrant Magazine June 2005

White do-gooders did for black America

Black poverty is the result of 30 years of misguided welfare rather than racism, says John McWhorter in the Times of London.
(via Arts & Letters Daily)

Supreme court schedules Ethics 2000 open administrative conference

From Order 04-07.

IT IS ORDERED that on November 30, 2005, at 9:30 a.m., at its open administrative conference in the Supreme Court Room in the State Capitol, Madison, Wisconsin, the Court shall discuss the (proposed) Preamble to SCR Ch. 20, (proposed) Terminology, and (proposed) SCR 20:3.8 entitled Special Responsibilities of a Prosecutor.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED any interested persons may file with the court a written submission regarding the subjects identified for this conference no later than November 19, 2005. As this matter has already been the subject of a public hearing, general public testimony will not be entertained at the open conference. The court may direct questions to individuals present at the conference to aid the court's consideration of these matters.

(via WisBar News)

Campaign for the Supreme Court

This Washington Post weblog has a running tally of votes in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
(via SCOTUSblog)

Update: Senators Kohl and Feingold both voted "Yes."

Repeal and referendum on smoking ordinance are rejected at the Big Meeting

Kristian Knutsen of Isthmus on last night's (through 5:06 a.m.) meeting of the Madison City Council.
(via WisBlawg)

National Pride and Prejudice

George W. Liebmann in American Outlook reviews The Return of Anti-Semitism by Gabriel Schoenfeld.

On Death Row in Japan

Charles Lane in Policy Review on Iwao Hakamada's long wait

Farewell, Church of England

The Church of England is under assault--and the enemies are within. Peter Mullen, Chaplain to the Stock Exchange, tells us why the "whole institution is like a psychotic kindergarten," and what must be done about it.
Britain Today: Part VI, The New Criterion September 2005

Testimony of Thomas W. Merrill

before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary regarding Kelo v. City of New London.
(via SCOTUSblog)

The case was the subject of Professor Merrill's presentation to our chapter on May 18, 2005.

Judicial Conference Supports Citing Unpublished Opinions

Tony Mauro reports in Legal Times

Passage of the resolution by voice vote followed "a great deal of debate," said Judge Carolyn Dineen King, chair of the executive committee, at a post-meeting news conference.

She said passage was eased by an amendment introduced at the meeting that would make the change prospective only, meaning that lawyers will be able to cite only those unpublished opinions issued after Jan. 1, 2007. King also stressed that individual circuit courts will be able to set their own rules about the precedential value unpublished opinions can be given.

(via WisBar Legal Community News)

Supreme Court accepts five new cases

Includes a case on the application of Palsgraf v. Long Island R.R. Co.

State Bar welcomes new members, Ninety two lawyers attend swearing in ceremonies

Once again, 100% of lawyers newly-admitted to practice joined the State Bar of Wisconsin.

Gard slams Crooks

David Callender reports in The Capital Times on criticism by Assembly Speaker John Gard of state Supreme Court Justice N. Patrick Crooks.

Gard and some Republicans are upset with Crooks in the wake of several rulings this year that overturned the state's limit on non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering, in medical malpractice cases and made it easier for consumers to sue companies over defective or dangerous products.

Physicians and business leaders contend that the rulings will drive doctors out of Wisconsin because of rising malpractice premiums and drive businesses out because of greater legal liability. ...

Crooks sided with the court's three liberals - Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson and justices Ann Walsh Bradley and Louis Butler - to create a 4-3 majority in those cases.

"They are the poster child for an activist, liberal court," Gard said of the four.

(via Xoff Files)

Human rights and terrorism

In its September 2005 issue, Prospect magazine says The [U.K.] Human Rights Act is a welcome constraint on government. But can it threaten our ability to fight terrorism? David Goodhart debates Roger Smith.

He's white, blue and red all over

Liberal Jack Burditt investigates a NASCAR race crowd for the Los Angeles Times.

Yes, the entire day was an education. For one, the crowd was more diverse than I imagined. Drunk, yes, but diverse.

(via Arts & Letters Daily)

Freedom and Preemption

The Federalist Society's 24th annual National Student Symposium was held at Harvard University earlier this year. The linked video is of a debate on "Freedom and Preemption: Strategic considerations concerning preemptive action in Iraq and beyond: between Professor Alan M. Dershowitz, Harvard Law School, and Mr. David B. Rivkin, Jr., Baker & Hostetler, LLP, moderated by Professor Steven G. Calabresi, Northwestern University School of Law and Chairman, The Federalist Society. The post title links to the first part of the debate, and is continued here.
[REAL PLAYER]

Why Are Lawyer Jokes So Funny?

Channel 3000 reviews Lowering the Bar: Lawyer Jokes and Legal Culture by Marc Galanter, University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School emeritus professor.
(via WisBlawg)

They Rule The World

Michael D. Goldhaber says One-year LLM programs at U.S. law schools are on the rise again, attracting fledgling power brokers from around the world.
The American Lawyer September 2005

An Open Letter to Our Comrades at ANSWER LA

from The Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring

Jewish anti-war activists have long observed, and protested, that anti-Semitism in the left and the anti-war movement impedes our participation, frustrating our cooperation with the wider movement for social change.

Change Links September 2005

Update: ANSWER LA responds in Change Links October 2005.

The letter from the Workmen's Circle is a naked anti-Arab racist diatribe. It is hoping to drive a wedge between our allies and to marginalize the voices of a people whose very existence has become the embodiment of anti-war--the Palestinian Arab people.

Education Policy in Wonderland

Charles Upton Sahm observes as The Campaign for Fiscal Equity collides with reality.
City Journal Summer 2005

The end of virtuous Albion

On some British virtues, once commonplace, that are today increasingly hard to find.
Britain Today: Part V, The New Criterion September 2005

A Tax Policy Conference: State Tax Incentives for Economic Development

Friday, October 7th, 2005 9:30 a.m. - 3:45 p.m. at The University of Minnesota Law School

Co-Sponsored by Minneapolis Lawyers Chapter of The Federalist Society, the Tax Subcommittee of the Society's Administrative Law and Regulation Practice Group, and The University of Minnesota Law School

Disrespecting the "Opinions of Mankind": International Law in Constitutional Interpretation

by Eugene Kontorovich, 8 Green Bag 2d 261-268. From the abstract at Social Sciences Research Network,

If the Declaration reveals anything about the relevance of foreign law to constitutional interpretation -- which is unlikely, as it predated the Constitution -- it suggests that the Founders' interest in the "opinions of mankind" did not involve their opinions on the legality of American actions. Any interest in foreign opinion also turned entirely on the ability and inclination of the foreign states to provide concrete support for America.

Of course, the Declaration of Independence itself does not dispose of the question of whether judges should follow foreign law. However, the cavalier misrepresentation of a basic document of the Founding by justices of the Supreme Court and leading scholars may raise concerns about how faithfully or accurately they would interpret the more esoteric and broader universe of foreign legal materials.

Update: Mary Ann Glendon on Judicial Tourism at Opinion Journal
(via Insight Scoop)

Update 2:Paul Mirengoff & Scott Johnson From Hegel to Wilson to Breyer in The Weekly Standard
(via PowerLine)

Under the Skin

Kay S. Hymowitz reviews Pornified: How Pornography Is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families by Pamela Paul
Commentary September 2005

The Politics of Industrial Relations

The pragmatic Australian electorate will be convinced by workplace results, argues Andrew Norton
Policy Winter 2005

Soak the Rich! (Colleges)

Robert Dunn in The American Enterprise.

A core value of American liberals is the importance of redistributing wealth from the prosperous to others, through highly progressive taxes and transfer payments. Which leads to a question: If redistributing wealth is a good idea for workers, companies, individuals, and families, then intellectual consistency suggests it should be equally valid for institutions like colleges and universities. Right?

(via Arts & Letters Daily)

Premium Discontent at the NYT

Mickey Kaus looks at

TimesSelect, the plan under which non-subscribers will now have to pay $49.95/year to read NYT op-ed columnists.

and sees a missed opportunity.

It seems to me, though, that the NYT is missing an obvious, lucrative marketing angle. It would be a variant of the idea my college friend Mark had for a Reverse Record Store--you'd go and pay them $11.99 and they'd take your money and use it (along with the $11.99 payments of others) to bribe Paul McCartney to not make an album that year. Similarly, imagine TimesDelete: for $19.95 a month, say, TimesDelete's premium subscribers could vote on one op-ed columnist to take an extended vacation. If more people picked Krugman rather than Brooks, Krugman would get his salary plus a bonus on the condition that he maintain a meaningful silence for several weeks. The race would be tight every month, I should imagine, with Republicans and Democrats trying to outvote each other. But you can't play if you don't pay! I'd say this is surefire, supplemental revenue stream would bring in way more than the puny $20 or $30 million dollars a year the Times might hope to make from TimesSelect, especially if the business model were extended to the news pages.

Legislators to stew over mix of issues

Stacy Forster writes on the fall session of the Wisconsin Legislature in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Among the dozens of pieces of legislation are bills that would allow residents to carry concealed weapons; prevent University of Wisconsin System students from receiving emergency contraception; enable doctors and pharmacists to object on moral grounds to performing certain procedures; and create statewide smoking standards for restaurants and other businesses.

and

...a ban on human cloning ...

and

- Legislative leaders are moving swiftly to reinstate caps on pain and suffering damages to medical malpractice victims. ...
- Lawmakers also said they need to fix Doyle's budget vetoes for Medicaid spending, because of pressure that low reimbursement rates put on nursing home operators and pharmacists. ...
- A bipartisan package of top-to-bottom election reforms is expected soon. ...
- The Senate is considering a constitutional amendment that would limit the governor's veto power.

Ready? Cue the Sun...

David Brooks sums up the Roberts confirmation hearings in The New York Times
(via Open Book)

The Real Meaning of Genetics

For years, commentators and experts have looked to the genetic future with fear and trembling or euphoria and optimism. But in fact, the significance of the genetic age will likely be more subtle, if no less profound, than the dream and nightmare of genetic engineering. Eric Cohen provides an ethical overview of modern genetics--looking at what it means for human self-understanding, for therapy and cures, and for how we see life, death, and procreation.
New Atlantis Summer 2005

The acceptable face of the neo-cons?

Acceptable to those to whom neo-conservatism is unacceptable, at best.
Ezzat Ibrahim in Al-Ahram,

For a man whose reputation was made not on extolling the virtues of Western liberal democracy but on proclaiming its complete triumph, now and forever, a degree of equivocation appears to have crept into Fukuyama's commentary. Not, though, that he ever believed the end of history meant nothing would happen. It merely meant that nothing quite as momentous would happen anew, and if history were to begin again, it could only be a repeat.

(via Arts & Letters Daily)

The people vs. the E.U.

The recent referendums in France and Holland rejecting the proposed EU constitution are not a setback but the possible salvation of Europe. Rodney Leach explains why.
Britain Today: Part IV, The New Criterion September 2005

The National Archives Celebrates Constitution Day

For the first time, National Archives programs in honor of Constitution Day, September 17, will extend far beyond one day and far beyond the Rotunda to reach thousands of citizens, teachers, and students nationwide

via webcasts.

Succeeding at Seceding?