How far have we really come?

Today I came across a really interesting article while looking at the New York Times home page. As many families have been dealing with either sending a new freshman away to college or saying goodbye again to a junior or senior in the past couple of weeks, an article titled, “50 Years After Integration Ole Miss Grapples With History” caught my eye. Just the name of the article really interested me, and I wasn’t that surprised when the article did too. The article, written by Campbell Robertson discussed how University of Mississippi is reflecting on its racially segregated past and the new ceremonies and plans for the future.
            Exactly 50 years ago, an African-American student enrolled in classes and marked the end of the racially segregated campus. While ‘Ole Miss’ has been celebrating how far the university has come in that period of time, many people feel like not enough attention is being paid to what is was like before the campus was integrated. Professor Eagles, when addressing the 50^th anniversary asked, “whether an institution of higher learning should be acclaiming an event…rather than focusing more intently on the history that preceded it.” It is really interesting to me that the professor brought this up, during a week designated for celebration. Perhaps he just wanted to remind the student body of University of Mississippi that there still is a long way to go in making the campus completely and one hundred percent racially integrated?

The college and university experience in the United States is so very different from countries all over the world. In many countries, the college you chose is the one closet to your house, and you commute to classes everyday. In many other countries, you are lucky if you even get to attend college classes. It seems like only in America do you go live away from home, stay in a dorm and really get the college experience. However, especially in the south at colleges like ‘Ole Miss’, college was not accessible for African-American students because of racial segregation. It seems like the United States has come so far, but this article seems to really question that. I’m also now starting to wonder, how far has the United States really come?  

Chicago Teachers Strike, Week 2

The Chicago Teachers Union continues its strike into the second week, leaving about 350,000 students out of school for the 10^th day. I have been following the news closely these past couple of weeks, trying to stay updated with how each side is fighting and what progress (or lack of) has been made. In the most recent news, Rahm Emanuel, the Mayor of Chicago is going to court to make the teachers get off the picket line and back into the classrooms. A really interesting, well-informed article I found on the Huffington Post describes every event involving CPS and CTU and why Emanuel is about to take it to court. The article, written by Sophia Tareen and Michael Tarm, says “The request, filed in Circuit Court of Cook County, argues the strike is illegal because state law bars the union from striking on anything but economic issues and that the work stoppage is focused instead on such issues as evaluations, layoffs and recall rights.” So basically the Mayor is arguing that the strike is about more than just the longer schools day. Mr. Emanuel is also saying that this strike is a “public health and safety issue” because over 80% of CPS kids rely on the school for most of their meals. Another big issue with the CTU strike, is that child care is very hard for working parents to find and it is causing parents to have to take off work. As I mentioned in my article last week, many summer plans for kids will have to be canceled because of how the school year will have to be extended when the strike finally does end. Both sides of the strike still have many problems and contracts to go over so the strike could be continuing to even the end of the week.

I have many friends who go to CPS schools such as Walter Payton, Northside College Prep, Whitney Young, Lane Tech, and Lincoln Park High School who I have talked to about what its like from a students perspective to be out of school. Many of them were in agreement when they said that being out of school was fun for about the first three days because they could relax and it was almost like a long weekend. But now coming into its 10^th day, some of them even said that they are ready to go back to school. Some of my friends also said that there is not much to do during the day and especially the ones in AP classes at school are anxious because everyday they aren’t learning the material in class, the more they will have to cram when the AP test days come in May.

Overall I think that everyone loses because of the strike, even though I understand it is important for the teachers to strike if they feel like they aren’t getting paid enough for the hours that they are working. Hopefully both sides will come to an agreement soon so  we can get Chicago students back into school. 

CPS Strike

This week, one of the major news headlines is something that is affecting thousands of kids only fifteen miles away from my house. According to this CNN article, "the nations third-largest public school system entered Sunday without a contract with teachers and with a strike looming." Most Chicago Public Schools started only this past Monday, September 4th but with Mondays school day starting in less then 12 hours and no contract, parents and students are planning on no school for the upcoming week or two. No school "for about 400,000 students" will cause big problems, the first being that children won't be able to get an education for the day. This is extremely important for children who live in neighborhoods where going to school is an escape for about eight hours. Secondly, especially for the younger children, parents will need to stay home from work. Lastly, depending on how long the strike lasts, the last day of school could be in early July which disrupts children's summer break plans and schedules. 

The reason for the strike is because of the amount of money the CPS teachers are getting payed. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel successfully managed to extend all of CPS school days, however the teachers are arguing that because of the extended time in school, they need to be getting paid more. According to this Chicago Tribune article, "the union rejected the district's last known offer of 2 percent increases each year for four years, saying teachers deserve more because of the longer school day that Emanuel successfully pushed." I agree with the CPS teachers. I think teachers should be getting paid more, especially if they are going to be working longer hours. 

One of the most unique things about America is it public school systems. However in the past ten years or so because of the lack of funding many of the public schools have begun to fail. In order to combat this, people like Rahm Emanuel have tried to fix them with longer school days and a longer school year. But in order to start fixing problems like these, teachers need to be on board for them. Because if they aren’t then it is going to cause even bigger problems like the one CPS is facing today. What do you think, should CPS give in to the teachers request of a pay raise? 

As the presidential election day draws closer, so much more of the news is being devoted to politics and the campaigns by both parties. As I was browsing through the mainly political and left winged biased online newspaper, The Huffington Post, I came across an article that really shook something in me (to see the full article, click here). Michael Moore, a prominent filmmaker and political activist was interviewed and quoted saying, “Mitt Romney is going to raise more money then Barack Obama. That should guarantee his victory.” This is especially shocking coming from Moore who is known to be a huge supporter of President Obama. To read more about Moore and his political activism, click here.

I believe Moore has a good point about the role money plays in all types of elections from local government all the way to the presidential election. Money is funneled into television ads supporting a candidate, election head quarters, and paraphernalia such as t-shirts and bumper stickers. All of this is crucial to getting somebody elected and the candidate that fundraises the most money is given much more of a chance of winning.

Mitt Romney has already been given the advantage over Barack Obama because Romney’s policies benefit huge corporations more so they are more likely to give top dollar to Romeny’s campaign so he gets elected and instills these policies. According to opensecrets.org a website that puts lists together of the top company contributors to various campaigns. According to this website, Goldman Sachs has donated over $676,080 to Mitt Romneys campaign.

I believe that the way money plays a huge role in campaigns directly relates back to the United States and the way we elect important government officials. For example, if there were rules against the amount of money in campaigns allowed, I believe that we would truly be able to see what every candidate stands for and what they will do once they become president. Without the money the election becomes much more clear and fair to every candidate. That way the policies of one candidate wont be swayed to certain companies that will donate a lot of money. However, money allows candidates to get the word out about their campaign. It could go either way. Should money be allowed in elections or not? Or to what extent?