Monday, October 13, 2008

ALERT: Pig Lipstick vs Education?

I wanted to alert you that on Tuesday, October 21st, at 7 pm, the Teachers College at Columbia University will host "Education and the Next President," a debate between Linda Darling-Hammond, education advisor to Democratic nominee Barack Obama, and Lisa Graham Keegan, education advisor to Republican nominee John McCain. Susan Fuhrman, President of the College, will moderate the debate which will take place in the Cowin Conference Center.



The event will be live-streamed by Education Week & edweek.org at http://www.edweek.org/go/tcdebate and by the Teachers College at www.tc.edu/edadvisorsdebate. The Webcast is being supported by the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP).



For more information on the debate, please see this link:
http://www.tc.columbia.edu/news/article.htm?id=6695



Thanks to one of our readers for the heads up on this information. As regular readers probably have guessed, I have already sent my list of ten questions on special education law and policy to the moderator as a suggestion. You can find the ten questions in previous posts. If any of you learn of further policy positions on special ed by the candidates (there are two on Obama's website that were not mentioned in their "response" to our questions), please let me know.

4 comments:

  1. What the heck does your post title have to do with the debate? What do you equate "pig lipstick" with here?

    I'm trying not to be overly sensitive to the phrase, but am confused as to what it has to do with the candidates education platform.

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  2. Hi Anony,

    The piglipstick reference is to a prior post on this blog - "Is Piglipstick More Important Than Special Education." The post reflects my frustration that neither campaign gave me a serious answer to questions I sent them (repeatedly by email and snail mail) about special education law and policy. Sorry about the inside joke.

    Jim Gerl

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  3. You probably have these, but both candidates have position papers on Autism Spectrum Disorders.

    Obama: http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/AutismSpectrumDisorders.pdf

    McCain: http://www.johnmccain.com/content/?guid=24dc9c37-e739-4aa3-8a88-ebae650a2f11

    Most importantly, in the Obama statement, he says that he supports full federal funding of IDEA:

    "Obama is a strong supporter of the
    Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and supports full federal funding of the law to truly ensure that no child is left behind."

    McCain is somewhat less specific:

    "As President, John McCain will work to advance federal research into autism, promote early screening, and identify better treatment options, while providing support for children with autism so that they may reach their full potential."

    So, let's try a rhyme. This sped mama is voting for....

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  4. Thanks Mamacate,

    I think I'll add these links in a post for all to see.

    Jim Gerl

    ReplyDelete