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Florida: GOP bill draws teachers' anger***The GOP-dominated Senate Governmental Oversight and Productivity Committee on Tuesday approved Fasano's proposal (SB 1652) to limit payroll deductions only for the cost of collective bargaining and grievance adjustment. The committee split along party lines, with six Republicans supporting the measure and three Democrats opposing it. "This bill is telling me to shut my mouth," said Maureen Dinnen, president of the teachers union, who was visibly shaking with anger after the vote. "We voted to support candidates who were chosen based on their educational positions."***

Bad faith abounds in debate about the war***A FEW DAYS AFTER the United States attacked Iraq, I traveled to Chicago to address a group of high school history teachers. I urged them to conduct debates about the war, so that students could arrive at their own views of it. Afterward, one of the teachers pulled me aside. ''Thanks so much for your talk,'' she said, smiling graciously. ''Unless we debate the war, our students won't know that it's an enormous mistake.'' Like the teacher, I regard the attack on Iraq as an enormous mistake. But her comment contains its own cynical error: It presumes anyone who debates...***

CNN helps impending war take shape in classrooms*** With links to ready-made lesson plans from sources like CNN and National Geographic, Doyle said the district can put constantly updated teaching tools in every class…………….Only one of the 19 students in Waldo Rodriguez's 12th-grade government class at Miami Senior High believes the United States should invade Iraq, but almost all believe it is inevitable. When the discussion turned toward Bush -- or, more accurately, against him -- Rodriguez focused the conversation on the separation of powers. The president is commander-in-chief, he said, but Congress funds and declares war. Impending war shaping studies in classroom Economics classes discuss how stock... ***