local news
Education
Tatoo Expo
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“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
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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
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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