Free Republic

<p>New claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, a government report showed on Thursday, but not enough to change perceptions that the labor market was strengthening.</p>

The White House today predicted that unemployment would likely stay above 9 percent through the 2012 election as President Obama campaigns for a second term, and will not drop below 6 percent until 2016. “In sum, economic growth and job creation, while positive, have not been strong enough to bring down the unemployment rate to an acceptable level,” according to the Mid-Session Review released today by the Office of Management and Budget. “We are still seeing sustained and steady growth, so we are not forecasting a double dip recession,” Council of Economic Advisers Member Katharine Abraham told reporters on a...

SACRAMENTO -- Raising questions about racial bias in California's public schools, state schools superintendent Jack O'Connell on Tuesday said low expectations for black and Hispanic students contribute to their persistent achievement gap with whites and Asians. O'Connell said teachers and administrators need "a renewed sense of urgency" to close that gap and must evaluate whether they hold all students to the same standards. "Let's approach the job as if our own child were attending a low-performing school," O'Connell said in his annual state of education address. "We wouldn't be patient with our own children lagging behind. We must not be...

Dumbing down: the proof As a service to Spectator readers who still have any doubts about the decline in educational standards, we are printing these exam papers taken by 11-year-olds applying for places to King Edward’s School in Birmingham in 1898. ENGLISH GRAMMAR1. Write out in your best handwriting:— ‘O Mary, go and call the cattle home,And call the cattle home,And call the cattle home,Across the sands o’ Dee.’The western wind was wild and dank with foam,And all alone went she. The western tide crept up along the sand,And o’er and o’er the sand,And round and round the sand,As...