the brown contemporary

Just when you though healthcare was dead...

2010-02-24T20:30:00.003-05:00

Here are some links gathered from round the web, with a little bit on what to expect from Obama's healthcare summit, and the fallout (or progress) that will ensue:

What we can expect the summit to look like...

Those trusty old Republican rabble-rousers...

How the Dems are regrouping their healthcare strategy...

The White House is dropping the ball on cutting rising healthcare costs...

What the public REALLY wants...

And finally, a call to action for those of you who want reform to pass already!

Live Blogging the State of the Union

2010-01-27T09:08:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone! Hope your semester's starting off well. This is both a reminder and an announcement: the State of the Union address will be on tonight at 9pm, EST. The Contemporary will be live blogging the speech, so stay tuned and come back to this page tonight!

2010 State of the Union

Education Reform and Bipartisanship

2009-03-13T22:51:00.003-04:00

By the looks of David Brooks' column in the NYT today, sensible education reform has the potential to be a bipartisan issue, thanks in large part to Obama's willingness to push effective teacher accountability and merit pay. Read the column here. Here's an excerpt:

Obama’s goal is to make sure results have consequences. He praises data sets that “tell us which students had which teachers so we can assess what’s working and what’s not.” He also aims to reward states that use data to make decisions. He will build on a Bush program that gives states money for merit pay so long as they measure teachers based on real results. He will reward states that expand charter schools, which are drivers of innovation, so long as they use data to figure out which charters are working.

Obama Supports Commonsense Education Reform; Teacher Accountability

2009-03-11T22:37:00.001-04:00

Kudos to Obama for supporting basic teacher accountability provisions and merit pay; consistent national standards will be tough, though.

NEW Contemporary Podcast!!!

2009-03-05T19:30:00.003-05:00

Visit www.browncontemporary.org to listen to our latest political roundtable podcast!! We talk elitism, missles in Poland, and the Divine Chinese dancers and their Providence advertising onslaught!

NCLB's Accountability Illusion

2009-03-01T12:03:00.002-05:00

This new report from the Fordham Institute documents how Annual Yearly Progress measures vary widely across states under No Child Left Behind. Read the report here.

NEW Contemporary Podcast!!!

2009-02-28T02:54:00.002-05:00

Visit www.browncontemporary.org to download our latest PODCAST!!

Put away the video games...

2009-02-24T21:51:00.003-05:00

I can't remember which of the three presidential debates it was when Barack Obama dropped his line that parents need to put away their kids' video games...he just said it again in his unofficial "state of the union;" pandering still very much works. Could video games be good for kids?

My Obama Wishlist (part 3)

2009-01-25T20:06:00.001-05:00

Foster a culture of national service
I’m a devout follower of Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam, who has devoted much of the last twenty years to documenting the decline of civic engagement in the U.S. His 2000 masterwork Bowling Alone is a comprehensive piece showing how Americans, with the rise of suburbs, commutes, and prime-time television, have become more insular and civically disengaged.

Putnam’s research, I’d venture, goes a long way to explaining the eroding of confidence in American political institutions and our society’s relative unconcern for marginalized groups in urban and rural areas. We need a more civically-minded, less material, and more responsible culture, an argument too often solely associated with conservative thought but towards which Obama appears receptive.

The president-elect’s national service plan includes the formation of a green job corps, expansion of the Peace Corps, and tax credits for college students who volunteer 100+ hours per year. He will make good on these promises, but program expansion is the easy part. Obama’s real challenge will be to foster the culture of national service required to sustain these programs, something only a gifted leader can do through leadership.

G.W. Bush pledged in his 2002 State of the Union address to create “a culture of responsibility” through the creation of the USA Freedom Corp. and expansion of both the AmeriCorps and Peace Corps programs. While he enjoyed modest success on the programmatic side, Bush failed to provide the moral leadership needed to change the culture, in part due to his administration’s myriad catastrophes.

Obama, on the other hand, can talk and has walked national service. In his commencement address at Wesleyan in May, Obama said,

Because our individual salvation depends on collective salvation. Because thinking only about yourself, fulfilling your immediate wants and needs, betrays a poverty of ambition. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential and discover the role you’ll play in writing the next great chapter in America’s story.”

Hopefully Obama will provide that missing ingredient, leadership, that can jumpstart the service culture.

Students for Education Reform Meeting!

2009-01-21T16:35:00.000-05:00

Are you interested in pushing for reform of the public education system
in Providence? Want to learn community organizing and help build a
citywide, broad-based education reform coalition?

Come to the first meeting of the Students for Education Reform (SER) to
learn how!

We're meeting on Thursday, January 22nd at 9pm in Sayles 204.

Email matthew_corritore@brown.edu with any questions and we hope to see
you there!

My Obama Wishlist (part 2 of 6)

2009-01-21T14:44:00.001-05:00

Continue unmanned drone attacks in Pakistan
While this policy might only marginally fit into the framework of “a list of policy goals Obama shouldn’t forget about” (hopefully military operations always take some sort of temporal precedence), Obama should nevertheless continue the Bush administration’s robotic violations of sovereignty to attack bad guys in Pakistan.

Sometime in the past, U.S. unmanned aerial drones began entering Pakistani airspace, hovering around, and performing targeting missile strikes on insurgent targets. Six al-Qaida leaders have thus far been killed by the attacks.

Yes, these drone attacks reek of G.W. Bush’s lack of concern for national sovereignty and bilateral cooperation. But the attacks have been surprisingly effective both in terms of killing targets and reducing civilian casualties, especially compared with traditional ground assaults.

Opponents of the attacks have pointed to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari’s vocal denouncements of the policy as evidence that these types of operations are not conducive to the international cooperation required to sustain a global war on terror. But recent reports have concluded that these denouncements are simply the product of a tacit deal between the U.S. and Pakistan; according to DeYoung and Warrick of the Washington Post, Pakistan agreed to allow the attacks as long as it could loudly complain to appease its population. Deceptive? Sure. But an inventive, narrowly-tailored, and effective policy? Yes. Obama should continue these strikes, which may represent the terror-fighting future.

Winter Issue of the Brown Contemporary available!

2009-01-21T14:41:00.002-05:00

Check out the new Winter issue of the Brown Contemporary, Brown's
journal of progressive political thought! Copies are available all
around campus.

Also, read and download the Contemporary online at
www.browncontemporary.org, and check out the Contemporary blog!

We are also looking for writers and editors for our Spring issue!
Email browncontemporary@gmail.com or visit our website for more
information!

4 days...

2009-01-15T22:49:00.000-05:00

My Obama Wishlist (part 1 of 6)

2009-01-14T23:59:00.001-05:00

End “don’t ask, don’t tell” immediately

Proposition 8’s passage in California this November, which affirmed voters’ desire for a gay marriage ban, was a huge setback for the gay rights movement. A popular Obama administration countering with a repeal of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which would effectively end the ban on gays openly serving in the military, would be a meaningful display of support for equal rights.

Obama has pledged to take on “don’t ask, don’t tell” as soon as he secures the military’s support. But the Obama team has in recent months sent mixed signals regarding when it might back efforts to push a repeal of the law through Congress. Anonymous sources from the transition team initially indicated that that might not be until 2010; another anonymous source refuted that claim, saying that the president-elect was simply waiting for the full national security team to be in place. In any case, Obama should immediately upon taking office end “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Now couldn’t be a better time to bolster the gay rights movement.

Excerpt from the Winter 2008 Brown Contemporary article "Dear Obama, Don't Forget About..."

Cosby on 'Meet the Press'

2009-01-12T23:21:00.002-05:00

Bill Cosby and others spoke on Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press about the condition of the African-American community in the U.S. and the significance of Obama's election. Host David Gregory and the panelists had a completely amiable discussion, during which Cosby promoted his new book about the need for effective parenting in low-income, minority communities as a key to success.

Not once, however, did Gregory challenge Cosby's opinions on the causes of the African-American community's economic stagnation. Here is just an example of a controversial remark that Cosby has made in the past, this one from a 2004 speech:

Ladies and gentlemen, the lower economic and lower middle economic people are [not*] holding their end in this deal. In the neighborhood that most of us grew up in, parenting is not going on. (clapping) In the old days, you couldn’t hooky school because every drawn shade was an eye (laughing). And before your mother got off the bus and to the house, she knew exactly where you had gone, who had gone into the house, and where you got on whatever you had one and where you got it from. Parents don’t know that today.

I’m talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit. Where were you when he was two? (clapping) Where were you when he was twelve? (clapping) Where were you when he was eighteen, and how come you don’t know he had a pistol? (clapping) And where is his father, and why don’t you know where he is? And why doesn’t the father show up to talk to this boy?

Cosby has been criticized by African-American leaders and liberals for largely ignoring racism, discriminatory incarceration, and structural accounts of poverty as explanations of the plight of African-American communities, in favor of blaming individuals' behaviors and attitudes.

Now it is up for debate whether Cosby's opinions are valid, but David Gregory absolutely should have addressed Cosby's critics and asked the comedian about his controversial statements during this interview. Viewers got no sense that Cosby was anything but a motivational speaker, which was invariably misleading.

I wish Harry Reid was an adult

2009-01-08T17:11:00.006-05:00

Photo: Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

On Wednesday the unbelievable news came in that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and fellow Senator Dick Durbin had a cordial chat today with Roland Burris, the now apparent Illinois junior Senator. From the NYT:

Following a private 45-minute meeting with the former state attorney general, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, and Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, said that they were open to recognizing Mr. Burris’s appointment as long as he meets a series of conditions.

This is mere days after Reid boldly claimed the Burris wouldn't be seated, as reported in the Washington Post:

Following Burris's selection, Reid and his leadership team issued a statement saying anyone appointed by Blagojevich "cannot be an effective representative of the people of Illinois and, as we have said, will not be seated."

Reid apparently came to his senses after Senator Diane Feinstein, who as head of the Rules Committee publicly supported seating Burris.

This isn't the first time Reid put his foot in his mouth and picked the wrong fight.

So my question is: is this guy an adult? His self-empowering rants include past comments that President Bush is a "liar" and a "loser," and that he "can't stand" McCain, who "does not have the terperament to be president." Jon Ralston calls Reid "a complex politician with a mixed and sometimes contradictory set of traits — unassuming, wry, Machiavellian, meddling, partisan, bipartisan, careless, careful, focused, foggy."

It is not that I have any grave objections to the policy outcomes Reid has overseen during his time as Majority Leader; my objection is that this loose cannon might spoil the non-partisan, level-headed vibe that Obama hopes to use to pass effective, concensual legislation. Mr. Reid, please think before you open your mouth...

Matt's Education Watch: Scaling Tough Love Principals

2009-01-07T12:00:00.002-05:00

Check out this article in the Projo. It tells a story about student achievement that we've seen before: an outstanding principal teacher uses tough love and a lot of elbow grease to turn a school around. This particular article is about Principal Robbie Torchon of Providence's Alvarez High School:

Eighteen months ago, Torchon was asked to open a new high school on the site of a former Superfund site near Reservoir Triangle. His job was to imbue the building with meaning — to create a sense of community where there was none. This was no easy task because both students and staff were plucked from high schools all over the district and many came from Harrison Street, a shell of a high school where students and staff felt abandoned.

Torchon divided the student body into teams of 130 and assigned teachers to one of five teams, which focused on school climate, data assessment, curriculum and school rules and regulations. One team looked at suspension data; another found that in classrooms where teachers were highly engaged, discipline problems were uncommon.

Throughout the first year, Torchon’s mantra was, “You are no longer guests here, you are hosts. Your diploma’s value will be based on the impressions that people have of your school.”

So this approach (lots of parental engagement, using threats of academic probation, etc.) seems to work. But the problem of course is scalability. Torchon says it himself in the article: not all schools can be this dependent on a "charismatic leader." That leaves systematic reforms that guide more effective teacher behavior, so we're talking more teacher accountability.

Activists on the ground are realizing that the logical first step is to convince teachers' unions that, yes, teachers should be explicitly required to at the least make detailed lesson plans to increase transparency.

Call for Articles!

2009-01-07T11:05:00.003-05:00

The Contemporary is looking for new writers and articles for its Spring 2009 edition. Describe your idea for a story and why it would be of interest to the Brown community, and send your idea to browncontemporary@gmail.com.

Writing for the Contemporary is a great way to exercise freedom as a writer. Our articles are typically 1,500-3,000 words in length; we'll consider any topic, but give preference to stories about the Brown community. We like anything that takes an informed, critical look at am important issue.

Read the current and past issues of the Contemporary on our website to see what we're all about. We look forward to reading your story ideas!

Check out the Winter edition of the Contemporary

2009-01-07T11:03:00.004-05:00

Visit our newly updated website to check out the Winter edition of the Contemporary. We hope you enjoy it!