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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 10, 2011)
local news Education Tatoo Expo continued from page 1 “I share the sense of urgency felt by state and local education officials across the nation. Unfortunately, more questions than answers surround the secretary’s waivers proposal,” said House education committee chairman John Kline of Minnesota. Under the law, states were required to show that a higher proportion of students were reaching proficiency each year - approaching the goal of 100 percent by 2014. Many had planned to achieve their biggest leaps in the later years because they counted on the law being rewritten by now. The law was passed in 2001 and was up for reauthorization in 2007, but former President George W. Bush was unable to get Congress to address the law’s problems during the waning years of his presidency. Obama waited a year into his pres- idency to introduce a blueprint for rewriting the law. A handful of states had already filed waivers begging for flexibility, while others simply said they were going to ignore the requirements of the law this year. Recent high-profile cheating scandals in Atlanta, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., have called attention to the heavy reliance on statewide standardized testing. al law “does not give you a comprehensive view of progress being made.” “I think ultimately the people understood that the more they got into and the more the years passed and those percentages began to escalate, that there were significant structur- al problems built into it,” said Deal, who voted for No Child Left Behind in 2001 while in serving in Congress. Montana Schools Superintendent Denise Juneau said she welcomes the waiver pro- posal as long as it offers relief from the 2014 deadline. She said her state isn’t afraid of high standards and education reform but needs enough time to reach those standards and the ability to institute change in a way that works for Montana. “They can set the bar wherever they want. They just have to let us have the flexibility to get there,” Juneau said. Through the waivers, schools will get some relief from looming deadlines to meet testing goals. Details on the waivers will be provided to states next month. Democrats in Congress lined up behind the White House’s plan. “Given the ill-advised and par- - Arne Duncan tisan bills that the House majority has chosen to move, I understand Experts say many districts feel pressure to Secretary Duncan’s decision to proceed meet the standards to avoid penalties under with a waiver package to provide some interim relief while Congress finishes its the law. On Monday, states including Montana, work,” said Senate education committee Minnesota, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Virginia chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, in a written and Georgia announced their plans to file statement. Duncan said that the plan for temporary for waivers. Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal said the feder- relief from some aspects of the federal law “We have a federal law that’s an impediment, that’s getting in the way as a disincentive for the great work states are doing,” Photo BY SuSan Fried 82 percent of U.S. schools could be labeled failures next year if the law is not changed The Seattle Tattoo Expo kick off its 10th anniversary Year with a free art show on Thursday, aug. 11 at Caffe Vita on Capitol hill. The art show will highlight artists from this year’s Expo while displaying various pieces of framed, one- of-a-kind artwork by artists including San Francisco’s henry lewis is an american painter and tattooist. Tickets for the 2011 Seattle Tattoo Expo are currently available online at www.seattletattooexpo.com would not undermine what Congress is still discussing in terms of revising federal edu- cation laws. The long-awaited overhaul of the law began earlier this year in the House, but a comprehensive reform appears far from the finish line. “What we do in terms of flexibility can be a bridge or transition,” Duncan said. “We all want to fix the law. This might help us get closer to that.” “I can’t overemphasize how loudly the outcry is to do something now.” Bank continued from page 1 The FDIC said the three executives pushed for expansion of WaMu’s risky lending even though they knew or should have known that its loan standards and con- trols were inadequate. Investigators accused the company and its banking executives of securities fraud, claiming the bank’s lending standards and practices were misrepresented Pleads continued from page 1 Jeremy Morlock, fired at an Afghan after Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs, who has been por- trayed by the Army as the ringleader, tossed a grenade toward the man. Winfield didn’t admit to killing the Afghan. The charge stems from Winfield’s failure to intervene and prevent the other soldiers from car- rying out the attack against the Afghan in U.S. custody. “It was my job to do that, sir, and I failed to do that, sir,” Winfield told the judge. Winfield admitted he fired his heavy weapon in the direction of the Afghan but only to deceive Gibbs. He said he feared Gibbs because the squad leader had threatened him if he alert- ed authorities about the civilian killings. Still, Winfield said he didn’t have an immediate fear for his life or serious bodily harm if he had refused to participate in the Winfield said he could have raised doubts to dissuade Gibbs from carrying out the attack, yelled for help or walked away. Winfield will testify as a pros- ecution witness against the remaining defendants. Gibbs’s court-martial is scheduled in October. Morlock was sentenced to 24 years in prison after pleading guilty to three murders. After Winfield learned about the first killing, he sent Facebook messages home to his family expressing his disgust, and told them he was being pressured to join the plot. His father called Joint Base Lewis-McChord, where Winfield’s unit is based, but the Army took Winfield was one of five 5th Stryker Brigade soldiers accused in the three civilian deaths during patrols last year in Kandahar Province in Afghanistan killing. He also told the judge he knew his squad leader’s instruction to fire on the Afghan man was an unlawful order. no action until months later when investiga- tors heard about the plot from someone else. “Should I do the right thing and put myself in danger for it. Or just shut up and deal with it,” he wrote his parents after the first killing. “There are no more good men left here. It eats away at my conscience everyday.” Winfield’s father told the AP last fall that his son had tried to blow the whistle on the plot, and the story prompted an Army inves- tigation into the way the warning was han- dled. The sergeant at Lewis-McChord who took the call told the investigators he didn’t report the call up the chain of command because there was no standard operating procedure for doing so. august 10, 2011 The Seattle Skanner Page 3
