Day: November 16, 2005

*sigh* Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet…

But sometimes, the bullet, she bites back. heh

As you can see (unless you’re a first-time reader :-), I’ve changed my blog template. The old one had become inexplicably corrupted a couple of weeks ago, things were crowded and messy, oh, heck, it was just time for a change.

This template (bones obtained here and totally screwed up by me, no doubt-heh) was pretty much what I was looking for–3 columns, barebones layout. Pretty simple, really. I still have quite a bit of work getting some of the scripted blogrolls to display properly, and you’ll notice a lot of archived (and even some from as recent as… the beginning of this week!) posts will look a bit wonky–especially if any graphics have been inserted that were sized for the old layout in absolute sizing instead of percentages. Because of Blogger glitches, I’ve also used three or four different ways (different softwares, different uploading techniques) to keep things going over the last couple of weeks, especially. Those Blogspot glitches seem to have cleared up with the last coupla server changes, so maybe future posts will be better, and I may even have time to go back and fix a few of the more recent ugly posts.

But posting is going to be intermixed with tweaking over the next few days (or week), so expect a slightly bumpy ride, eh?

🙂

Note: from here on out (until I change my mind… again), all Open Posts will include “O.P.” in the subject line.

I’ve blogged on the “65¢ Solution” before, but as it’s gaining momentum, I thought it about time to touch base with the idea again. (But do CLICK through that link above to this one, too, ‘K?)

Following up, even a cursory read reveals the typical problem with good ideas: feature bloat, leading to an invocation of the

“Nationally, 61.5 percent of education operational budgets reach the classrooms. Why make a fuss about 3.5 percent? Because it amounts to $13 billion. Only four states (Utah, Tennessee, New York, Maine) spend at least 65 percent of their budgets in classrooms. Fifteen states spend less than 60 percent. The worst jurisdiction — Washington, D.C., of course — spends less than 50 percent.”_1_

Of course, as per my assertions here and elsewhere , I believe that a large part of the wasted dollars in public education are monies spent on school administrators. An optimistic guesstimate would be that perhaps 1 out of 1,000 public school administrators is not an absolute idiot. Most are idiots and actively harmful to the process of teaching/learning.

“… according to the National Center for Education Statistics, the category of support services outside the classroom includes crucial student services such as librarians, school nurses and transportation.”

So while, yes, I do believe the 65% Solution is a good idea on paper, the way it’s working out is just more of the same old educaca: shuffle non-essential crap into the “classroom instruction” definition so that administrators can claim to be meeting a goal of spending a certain percentage of their funding on classroom instruction. (Sports? Classroom instruction?!?!?! Gimme a break!)

Linked at Cao’s Blog, Adam’s Blog, Don Surber, Stop The ACLU, Stuck on Stupid, Diane’s Stuff, MacStansbury, TMH’s Bacon Bits, Euphoric Reality, Peakah’s Pub, and Basil’s Blog.

Here’s what I like most about the recent spate of Open Trackback posts: discovering new (to me) bloggers. I think what I may do over the next few Open Posts is feature one or two that have “discovered themselves” to me via tracking back to my Open Posts.

He describes himself as

“… a middle aged happily married guy. Still a Registered Democrat but I’m really disapointed in my party right now. A complete News and History Junkie with lots of opinions.”

Did he say “news and history junkie”? Well, check out The Real Ugly American. He has something to say. And he’s definitely a news and history junkie. Try this post out for size: Headlines 11.07.05. There’s bound to be something significant you missed that he has a link to in that post. And that’s just one. From last week. Or how about his Democrats React to Suggestion of Supporting Iraq / Open Trackbacks, posted Monday

? Get over there and read it!

I love this stuff!

One more, and then it’s time for YOUR posts. Just include a link to this post and trackback to here. Your blognames, links and summaries will fill the rest of this post.

Freedom Folks. Funny stuff. Why I trust polls. Droll. Very, very droll. I could read this kinda stuff every day. In fact, I think I will!

Check my (left) Sidebar for the

Check my (left) Sidebar for the Open Trackback Alliance and Open Trackback Provider blogrolls and hit ’em all!

Linked at Cao’s Blog, Adam’s Blog, Don Surber, Stop The ACLU, Stuck on Stupid, Diane’s Stuff, MacStansbury, and Basil’s Blog.

Oops! Oh-Wah. Oh-Wah tah. Oh-Wah tah-goo. Oh-Wah tah-goo Siam. Yep. Still not enough of the Holy Brew in me yet. One of the folks I link to above got a “sorta multiple trackback” cos I accidentally )stupidly) posted a duplicate of this post with auto-trackback (for one link, only) enabled. No, I do not know which one cos in my coffee-deprived state, I deleted the doop post before checking.

*sigh*

Apologies.

Oh-Wah tah-goo Siam.