'Until we get equality in education, we won't have an equal society.'
                                 -Sonia Sotomayor 

Until we get equality in education, we won't have an equal society.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/sonia_sotomayor_454926

Until we get equality in education, we won't have an equal society. Sonia Sotomayor
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/sonia_sotomayor_454926

Until we get equality in education, we won't have an equal society. Sonia Sotomayor
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/sonia_sotomayor_454926

This week the news reported that Mayor de Blasio had ended the Renewal program. It was his plan to improve schools that were having trouble. He didn't want to close schools that consistently did poorly like Mayor Bloomberg had. Bloomberg didn't just close schools, he built new smaller ones around the city, with some mixed results. de Blasio put more resources into the schools that needed more resources to make things better. It didn't work. 

When I get into a conversation with different people who stop by my sign to talk about school things, I frequently point down at the sign where it says 'read' and say if this was the acknowledged center of everything, which you'd think it would be but is never said to be, then things would fall into place. Sometimes I say it would be like plugging a new number into a spreadsheet. Everything would change. They'd then know what teachers and other staff to hire. There would be a direction. A plan. I even say sometimes that it would improve discipline. You could say Shh, people are trying to read, rather than be quiet because I said so.

Maybe you could call schools reading academies.  

In today's Times:

White House Bars 4 U.S. Journalists From Trump’s Dinner With Kim in Hanoi

President Trump and Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader, at a dinner on Wednesday in Hanoi, Vietnam. The White House prohibited several journalists from covering the event.CreditEvan Vucci/Associated Press

Image

President Trump and Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader, at a dinner on Wednesday in Hanoi, Vietnam. The White House prohibited several journalists from covering the event.CreditCreditEvan Vucci/Associated Press

By Michael M. Grynbaum and Katie Rogers

• Feb. 27, 2019

WASHINGTON — The White House on Wednesday barred four American journalists from covering President Trump’s dinner with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, in Hanoi, Vietnam, after two of the reporters called out questions to Mr. Trump at an earlier appearance.

It is highly unusual for a presidential administration to retaliate against reporters by restricting their access, particularly at a closely scrutinized foreign summit meeting. Given the backdrop — a United States president meeting with the totalitarian leader of a country with no independent media — the move sent a starkly different message from those delivered in such settings by Mr. Trump’s predecessors, who often sought to encourage expressions of press freedom when meeting with representatives of autocratic regimes.

Shortly before the dinner was to start, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, informed the group of journalists traveling with Mr. Trump that only photographers and television-camera operators would be allowed to attend the event, excluding reporters for several print and radio news outlets.

Ms. Sanders cited the “sensitivities” of the meeting and “shouting” by reporters at a previous appearance by Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim, during which a reporter for The Associated Press, Jonathan Lemire, asked the president to comment on the congressional testimony of Mr. Trump’s former lawyer, Michael D. Cohen.

Mr. Trump and his aides frequently complain about journalists’ habit of asking questions during his formal appearances with world leaders, deeming the practice — traditionally a standard procedure for White House reporters — impertinent and discourteous. In one case last year, a CNN reporter was barred from a Rose Garden news conference after aides objected to her calling out questions to Mr. Trump; the inquiries at issue then also involved Mr. Cohen.

In Hanoi on Wednesday, several American photojournalists objected to Ms. Sanders’s plan, telling her they would not photograph Mr. Trump’s appearance if other reporters were not allowed in the room.

The White House ultimately agreed to allow in one print reporter, from The Wall Street Journal. Reporters from The A.P., Bloomberg News, The Los Angeles Times and Reuters — whose reporter Jeff Mason asked an earlier question about Mr. Trump’s commitment to denuclearization — were kept out.

“Due to the sensitive nature of the meetings, we have limited the pool for the dinner to a smaller group,” Ms. Sanders said in an emailed statement. She added, “We are continuing to negotiate aspects of this historic summit and will always work to make sure the U.S. media has as much access as possible.”

The action was quickly denounced by American news organizations and press advocates.

“The Associated Press decries such efforts by the White House to restrict access to the president,” Lauren Easton, a spokeswoman for The A.P., said. “It is critically important that any president uphold American press freedom standards, not only at home but especially while abroad.”

The White House Correspondents’ Association issued a statement calling the administration’s move “capricious.”

“This summit provides an opportunity for the American presidency to display its strength by facing vigorous questioning from a free and independent news media, not telegraph weakness by retreating behind arbitrary last-minute restrictions on coverage,” Olivier Knox, the association’s president, said.

Tussles between journalists and presidential aides over access are common. But when previous presidents traveled abroad, the White House typically advocated journalists’ rights, at times defying foreign officials who tried to bar American reporters from asking questions at events.

Mr. Trump is fond of referring to journalists as “the enemy of people.” In recent months, the White House has sharply reduced the number of press briefings it gives and has cracked down on reporters who call out questions during the president’s public appearances. Reporters have publicly and privately been warned by White House aides that it is inappropriate to ask Mr. Trump questions in that context (never mind that Mr. Trump often answers).

Last fall, the White House signaled that it would issue new rules of decorum for reporters after a confrontation between Mr. Trump and the CNN correspondent Jim Acosta, whose security pass was temporarily revoked after he refused to cede the microphone at a news conference.

Mr. Trump himself seemed more receptive on Wednesday to journalists chronicling his activities in photos rather than words.

“Everybody having a good time?” he asked when reporters were eventually ushered in to observe his dinner with Mr. Kim. He singled out a photojournalist for The New York Times, Doug Mills, telling Mr. Kim that Mr. Mills was “one of the great photographers of the world.”

“Make us look very good!” the president added, as the shutters snapped.

MAD still exists.

Cold with wind this morning on Chambers Street. The cold goes right through you as they say. You hold the sign like you mean it. People smile with warm faces going by all bundled up.

 I most often say 'Do the Right Thing' is my favorite movie ever.