This info is from the New York Times’s article here. I just played with it in excel.
Have you ever wondered where all the money comes from in the US election? Well, here’s seven of the top raising candidates and how much of their super pac money is coming from donations greater than one million dollars.
(more…)
Category: Politics & News
-
Who’s Buying Your Candidate?
-
Trades Shortages and Unemployment Rates
The BC government has announced $75 million in funding for trades training programs for the next year. This is because:
“Our goal with the Skills for Jobs Blueprint has been to ensure British Columbians are first in line for jobs in our growing, diverse economy,” said Premier Christy Clark. “And as we move closer to realizing the generational opportunity of LNG, thousands more of those jobs are just around the corner.” (source)
Which makes you think there’s a major skills shortage in BC. Except there isn’t. Not for trades anyway.
(more…) -
Soft Skills and Standardized Tests
The governor of New York recently proposed that 50% of teachers evaluations be based on the results of standardized tests. I’m not going to go into great detail about how much of fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose of standardized tests that is. The short version is that standardized tests give the most useful information when it’s not too specific, so for example looking at a district by district sample, or by selecting randomized classrooms from the entire state/province to give an overall picture. Other people have explained what a problem it is to hold teachers responsible for things they don’t have full control over. I’m not going to go into that today. Instead I’m going to focus on the labour market.
-
Secret witnesses in Canadian courts?
If you haven’t seen it yet bill C-44 (the Protection of Canada from Terrorists Act) is an interesting read (see more here: http://openparliament.ca/bills/41-2/C-44/). It does a number of things, mostly putting in law things that are already happening. One portion of it is highly problematic, though others might take issue with different provisions, and that would be subsection 18 – the secret witness section. Here’s the complete text of that section before we get into the problematic part:
-
For the New Board of Education
Although I was not elected (not even close) I’d like to give my thoughts to the new Board of Education in Abbotsford School District, SD34. Please take ideas from all of the candidates platforms. I mentioned during the forum that it’s important to cast a wide net to bring in a lot of ideas so that the best can be examined. Please use the ideas of all of the candidates, or at least examine them.
To that end, I’d like to propose four points for you to look into.
-
Time for Inside Higher Ed to End Anonymous Comments
There have been many cases against anonymous comments.
Popular science removed their comments entirely for a good reason, as referenced in a New Yorker article:
“The editors argued that Internet comments, particularly anonymous ones, undermine the integrity of science and lead to a culture of aggression and mockery that hinders substantive discourse.”
Huffington post brought up To Kill a Mockingbird:
“Lee’s basic claim is this: We are capable of doing far worse things to one another when we do not have to own up to the things we do.”
The cases for anonymous comments tend to focus on the lack of effect restricting it will have as people are still willing to say terrible things in public under their own names.
-
Thoughts on the 2014 Election
My thoughts on the 2014 Abbotsford municipal election. Actually just about the SD34 Board of Education Trustee election.
I’d like to start by thanking the 3500 people who voted for me. It was a great experience and my first time putting myself out there in a city context. I hope to run for School Trustee again in four years.
It’s interesting to look at the election results and compare them to the campaigns run. As expected the incumbents were re-elected (generally the majority of incumbents get re-elected for school trustee, though it is by no means easy), but the interesting thing is the numbers for the non incumbents.
-
2014 School Trustee Platform
The campaign season has wrapped up and I did not make it in. But I wanted to keep my platform here for people to see.
Brief Bio:
Noah Arney grew up and attended school in Abbotsford and returned to establish a family after receiving his Bachelor of Education from UBC. He has worked in education for six years at both the secondary and post-secondary levels; working primarily with Aboriginal learners.
During his post-secondary education Noah was active in student government and institutional committees at UFV and is now interested in pursuing a more active role in the community through service to the Board of Education.
Noah hopes to bring to the school board his expertise as an educator and his commitment to current best practices in education.
Platform:
The current Abbotsford School Board has done some very good things over the last three years, the strategic plan is a sound document and I would love to be part of the implementation of it, and the increase in the Aboriginal student graduation rate to being within 5% of the general graduation rate is an accomplishment that should be lauded and continued to be worked on. But there are some areas that I feel need to be revisited.