Southeastern Ohio farming community suffers educational crisis
Guernsey County in southeastern Ohio is having serious problems with the educational budget. Education is under fire by the Bush administration on a national level and by the administration of Republican Gov. Bob Taft on a state level. The state is asking teachers and administrators to resort to fundraisers and high-ticket prices for sports games in order to fund activities. Teachers have to buy many of their own job materials because of the loss of state subsidization. A health teacher at Cambridge High School was once noted telling her students to use the cheap construction paper because her department could no longer spring for nicer-looking and slightly more expensive poster boards for a class project.
DREAM Act renews hope for immigrant students
By the end of this school year, an estimated 65,000 undocumented youth will graduate from our nation’s high schools. Children are brought to the U.S. by impoverished hard-working parents seeking a better life for their families in the world’s richest economy.
Bush guest worker plan criticized
“I do not believe any guest worker program ought to contain amnesty,” President Bush emphasized at a press conference at Kansas State University Jan. 23. Bush made it clear in extended remarks that harsher enforcement policies and vastly extended temporary work permit programs were his priorities. His statements indicated his opposition to legalization proposals by immigrants’ rights groups that include a “clear path to citizenship,” which conservatives label as “amnesty.”
Black Caucus: Together we can take America back
Working together, ordinary Americans can take back the country’s economic, political and human rights agenda, members of Congress told activists and community leaders at a Jan. 28 community forum sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus Political, Education and Leadership Institute.
Pennsylvanians press for minimum wage increase
The signs filling the Capitol Rotunda here told the story: “We Want Fair Wages,” “Help the Working Poor,” and “Vote Now!” For the third time in seven months a broad coalition of labor, community and religious groups brought hundreds of workers, unemployed and their supporters to the state capital to bring their message to state legislators. Workers in steel, health care, education, hotel and restaurant and other industries joined community activists from across the state.
Young communists hold national school
Over a dozen members of the Young Communist League USA participated in a seven-day National Youth School facilitated by four leading members of the Communist Party USA here during the week of Jan. 8-14.
Gibran exhibit visits Arab American museum
The Arab American National Museum will feature an exhibition of works by Lebanese American poet and artist Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931). The exhibition, “To Discover Beauty: The Art of Kahlil Gibran, Selections from the Collection of the Telfair Museum of Art,” will be on view from Feb. 1 through April 30.
Dirigo works! Maine citizens fed up with attacks on Dirigo Health
Maine’s Dirigo Health Plan is working! Supporters gathered at the Maine Statehouse in Augusta on Jan. 12 to rally support for the program that Gov. John Baldacci, Democrat of Bangor, is fighting hard to preserve.
Labor, religious groups defend immigrant rights
Labor, religious and civil rights groups are urging that supporters of immigrant rights should focus now on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is likely to begin debate on immigration legislation in February.
