Subsidiarity
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The Common Core State Standards
I remember when I first heard about the movement to develop a national common core for K-12 public school curricula, I thought, "Why not?" Why not set standards that will give a high school diploma some meaning? Why not set up a national curriculum that insures that every kid has a solid grounding in history,
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Blue Millennials in Red States
From the NYT this morning about under 30s in Montana: Billie Loewen and Heather Jurva, editors at the student newspaper, speak of a Depression-era mentality that is pushing their generation to back Democrats. Saddled with student debt, they worry about health care and are terrified that they will not find good jobs. “You might be just
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Finding the Balance between Centralization and Localism I
I was listening to something the other day, and the guy was making a point I had never considered. Empires for the most part, whether ancient or modern, are not particularly intrusive regarding local cultures and customs. Empires more often than not live with local cultural pluralism so long as locals pay their taxes and
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Governing Principles for the Development of Local Humanistic Learning Communities
Jonathan in an interesting response to my post last week about Humanistic vs. Technocratic Education suggests that I might be surreptitiously introducing my own social engineering scheme. I don't think so, but I'm willing to get more specific about the guiding principles that I think will make easier–no guarantees–a more humanistic approach. And always when
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Centralization and Subsidiarity
I was listening to something the other day, and the guy was making a point I had never considered. Empires for the most part, whether ancient or modern, are not particularly intrusive regarding local cultures and customs. Empires more often than not live with local cultural pluralism so long as locals pay their taxes and
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Obama the Subsidiarist
Frank Rich's column this morning makes much the same point about Clinton's campaign I made in this post last week: for all her vaunted experience and management expertise, the two most prominent opportunities for Clinton to demonstrate her executive competency were her heading the healthcare task force in her husband's administration and now her running
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Is Alito a Wingnut?
Alito's appointment worries me because of the way his appointment fits into the larger trajectory of the right wing agenda. I don't know that he's a wingnut, but I'm satisfied from what I've read and heard that he is an ideological power conservative who follows the law when it is clear, but when there is