We Also Discussed the rate of disparity from a piece in Waging Non Violence

 One out of two’ or ‘one for all’?

by Ken Butigan | December 22, 2011

Last week the news brokethat nearly one out of every two Americans is poor or low income.

According to a new study by the Census Bureau, 49.1 million people in the United States are below the poverty line, while another 97.3 million are “low-income” (gauged by a new “supplemental measure” devised by the bureau to provide a more accurate picture of poverty) for a total of 146.4 million, or a whopping 48 percent of the U.S. population.

There has been some back-peddling on these findings from the Census Bureau since the original story was published by the Associated Press, but its explanations—which focus on a lack of clarity about the new supplemental measure—seem to raise more questions than they answer, especially since it has now shied away from defining “low-income.”  (The confusion deepens in light of the fact that its past definition—which one news report says is still operative—was, indeed, anyone making less than 200 percent of the poverty level.)

However this definitional skirmish plays out, it is a safe bet that this somber assessment is more or less accurate.  If this is the case—that nearly half the 99% is poor or low-income—the crisis that has borne down on us for the past four years is deepening.

While the Census Bureau has backed away from typifying what this might mean (“We’re not characterizing what it’s like to be below 200 percent of the poverty line.  We don’t have any information to characterize what that would be like, ”Kathleen Short, the bureau economist who directed the report in question, told the press) millions know exactly what it signifies in light of the job losses, foreclosures, and spiraling cost of health care they have suffered.

We Also Discussed the North Carolina Sterilization Payout Fracas.

Watch North Carolina Drops Payment to Sterlization Victims on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

We support the victims and believe that the North Carolina Senate and House deserve one box upside them head. These women were forced sterilized and we are sure they truly deserve to be compensated like any other crime victim. Their human rights were violated and they deserve to be recognized.

And We  discussed the issue of Jamaicas’ Ineffective Budget Planning process.

We all agreed that,  It takes brains much bigger than ours to know what this all means;  but we really know that somebody out there knows the truth and eventually they are going to reveal ut to us on the reasoning.

Who funds a Bob Sled Team when you are in the caribbean ?  instead of planning resurgence into it’s economy ?

We posed the question of why so many Jamaican Medical Personnel choose to leave Jamaica and practice elsewhere in the world ?  This is crazy to us since we’ve learned that the NHS actually helps to fund these educations.

Our hope is that Jamaicas’ Education Minister Mr Ronald Thwaites will stand up to his own words, when he says that Jamaica needs to come to terms with it’s economic/education disparities.

WE agree that no country should ever ignore the basic needs of it’s citizens, economy and future.  Most especially impoverished Jamaica.  Mostly we hope that by finding a way to nationalize a Nursing Corps for the country, the tax base and health needs will stabilize each-other.

 If nurses are working, they will pay taxes.  If they can’t find livable wages they will continue to immigrate to greener economies, as is the case presently.  Teachers face much the same fate and we hope that they are the next corps to be nationalized by the country.  Jamaica cannot afford to continue participating in this one way brain drain.

This is an interesting piece from the Jamaica Gleaner

(Jamaica Gleaner) Jamaica’s tough-talking Education Minister Ronald Thwaites has urged non-performing public school teachers to leave the education system.

Thwaites fired off the strident edict during a Gleaner Editors’ Forum on education at the company’s North Street, Kingston, offices last week.

“The teachers who are not turning up for class, who are turning up but not going to class, the teachers who are not preparing for class, they must pack their bags and go,” Thwaites emphasised.

The education minister also suggested that if shirking educators are not willing to clean out their desks and head for the exit, an escalation of existing accountability measures being carried out by the ministry will purge the public education system of the poor-performing teachers.

“I believe that with the strengthening of the regimen of accountability for our teachers, you are going to find an improvement in the quality, and, frankly, a winnowing of the chaff,” said Thwaites.

The education minister also told the forum, which was attended by senior officials from the Ministry of Education, that he supports a brand of performance-based pay for secondary-school teachers which is not based solely on passes in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC).

The clergyman/politician argued that performance-based pay must take into account the level of the student when he or she comes into contact with the teacher and the level of that student at the end of the school year.

“Performance is going to be judged in a variety of ways. Can we state it clearly? We want to lift the pedigree of the teaching profession. We want to reward those who are doing their work diligently and effectively, not by the crude way that it has been suggested that unless your class gets 90 per cent CSEC passes, you’re a failure. You can’t say that,” reasoned Thwaites.

When asked if he believed the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) would oppose any thrust to purge the system of underperforming teachers, the education minister said even though the JTA is a trade union, he has found that the organisation is given to reason and is very “interested” in maintaining “the professionalism of the teaching order”.

“We are asking for teachers to take responsibility for students where they find them and where they leave them,” said Thwaites.

STICK WITHIN PARAMETERS

Paul Adams, president of the JTA, told our news team that the professional body would not oppose the dismissal of any teacher as long as it is done within the parameters outlined in the Education Regulations, 1980.

“The code of regulation, section 55, outlines the conditions under which a teacher may be removed or face disciplinary action,” he said.

Section 55 of the regulations states that a teacher in a public educational institution may have disciplinary action taken against him or her for improper conduct while in school, neglect of duty, inefficiency, irregular attendance, persistent lateness, lack of discipline, and such other conduct as may amount to professional misconduct.

Adams also said that the JTA wholeheartedly supports the provisions contained in the Education Regulations.

“We participated in the formulation of the code in 1980, (so) we stand by every element of the code,” said Adams.

Meanwhile, Grace McLean, the acting permanent secretary in the education ministry, revealed that an accountability matrix has been introduced for the literacy and numeracy tests administered at the grade-four level.

She explained that the matrix forms a part of the ministry’s “broader accountability framework” that “starts with the minister and goes right down to the students because they (too) have a responsibility”.

McLean added that the ministry is streamlining all the measures it has designed to “hold people accountable”. The acting permanent secretary also pointed out that eight strategic priorities have been identified under the national education strategic plan which will be filtered throughout the system and used by principals to implement school-improvement plans.

Thwaites also revealed that the ministry is offering training opportunities, primarily to secondary-school teachers, in specific areas, including literacy, numeracy and science education. The education minister said he did not believe the ministry was asking the teachers for too much.

(end of clipping)

We also thought that you deserved to see what’s on the mind of folks in Town (Kingston)

This is Part of Thursday Talk

Breathing space

1. Quote of the Week: “Someone needs to tell Opposition MP and the former culture minister, enough already. We know she thinks she’s God’s gift to culture, but the Jamaican electorate voted her out of office, so she needs to give the new minister some breathing space.”

How come?

2. It’s a case of too much in your face for some, as they are asking how come the one who left under a cloud of suspicion concerning the administration of the national event is now acting like the ‘sainted virgin’ with all the answers.

Cops or internal probe?

3. Some in the party are not satisfied that the internal investigation will unearth the truth, so they are calling for the Fraud Squad to be called in. Others are opposed to any such move on the grounds that what any independent investigation would uncover would irreparably damage the party and its political fortunes way beyond the current and next political cycles.

War chest

4. Word is some are still in a daze as to just how the JLP lost the last general election, as it is now emerging that businesses and other private-sector entities donated a campaign war chest of $682 million.

Not enough

5. Some are now saying the removal of GCT from electricity rates is not enough, the Government, particularly the minister, should move post-haste to break the JPS’s monopoly and the odious rates they charge customers, and the stranglehold it has on the Jamaican economy.