Wednesday, February 25, 2015


News Clips For The Day


http://www.cbsnews.com/

Whistleblowers: Veterans cheated out of benefits
CBS NEWS
February 25, 2015

The Veterans Benefits Administration provides $95 billion of entitlements each year to veterans, including disability money, pensions to vets and their surviving spouses and death benefits -- even American flags at veterans' funerals.

But a CBS News investigation has found widespread mismanagement of claims, resulting in veterans being denied the benefits they earned, and many even dying before they get an answer from the VA, reports CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews.

The problems at the Veteran Benefits Administration have been uncovered in the wake of last summer's scandal at a Phoenix VA hospital, that rocked the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Dorrie Stafford said a letter, obtained by CBS News, shows how badly the VA claims system is broken.

It's dated July 29, 2014, and thanks Dorrie's husband Wayne -- an Army veteran -- for the disability claim he filed in July of 2004. The decade-long delay is just one problem; the other is that Wayne died in an accident seven years ago, without hearing a word from the VA.

"It upsets me," Dorrie said. "Why would you suddenly, after all these years, send a letter to a dead man?"

Five whistleblowers at the Oakland, California, Veterans Benefits office told CBS News that Stafford's claim is one of more than 13,000 informal claims filed between 1996 and 2009 that ended up stashed in a file cabinet and ignored until 2012.

Informal claims are letters from veterans expressing a desire to apply for benefits, and by law, the VA must respond with an application.

"We were getting letters from elderly veterans and from widows who were literally at the end of their life, begging for help," Rustyann Brown said.

She was part of a team finally assigned to process those claims two years ago and the job began, she said, with a disturbing discovery.

"Half of the veterans were dead that I screened. So almost every other piece of paper that I touched was a veteran who had already passed away," Brown said.

She said that means they died waiting for their first answer from the VA.
But whether the veteran was dead or still alive, brown said VA supervisors in Oakland ordered her team to mark the claims "no action necessary" and to toss them aside. Whistleblowers said that was illegal.

"The VA didn't help them. The VA didn't care about them. They took them, they put them in a file, and they stuffed them away," Brown said.

There were 13,184 veterans who were, Brown said, "begging for help."

When she raised her concerns, she said she was taken off the project. Then, this past summer, Brown and former VA employee Tony Silviero found a cart full of these same claims, ignored, yet again.

"We pulled 15 indiscriminately to look at; just 15," Brown said. "Eight of them were owed money. One was owed $36,000."

She said that was just a few months ago.

Last week, the VA inspector general confirmed that because of, "poor record keeping" In Oakland, "veterans did not receive... benefits to which they may have been entitled." How many veterans is not known, because thousands of records were missing when inspectors arrived.

Lost claims and missing records are a problem nationwide. In the last year, the inspector general has found serious issues in at least six VA benefits offices, including unprocessed claims documents in Philadelphia, 9,500 records sitting on employees' desks in Baltimore and computer manipulation in Houston to make claims look completed when they were not.

Dorrie Stafford now lives with friends in the mountains of Northern California, in a home with no electricity.

"They owed him an answer," she said.

It's an example of what happens when the VA conceals a file. It doesn't just harm the veteran, it could also hurt the family. Typically a surviving spouse is offered an American flag, help with burial expenses or even a modest pension. But none of that happens if there's no file.

"I wasn't even aware there was widow benefits, I really wasn't," Dorrie said.

Even if it was a modest pension of $400 a month, she said it would help.

To the whistleblowers, the lost files also raise serious questions about whether the VA is accurately reporting the true number of disability claims it receives.

Brown said many of the claims she discovered never even made it into the official backlog, and that was a deliberate attempt to hide them -- to make sure they never even appeared in the system.

The VA declined CBS News' repeated interview requests. It did admit to widespread problems in the handling of claims, but blamed that on the transition from a mail based system to a new electronic system. The VA said in a statement, "..electronic claims processing [has] transformed mail management for compensation claims ... greatly minimizing any risk of delays due to lost or misplaced mail."

As for the backlog, the VA promised to fix any problem that comes to its attention. "For any deficiencies identified, steps are taken to appropriately process the documents and correct any deficiencies."




“Informal claims are letters from veterans expressing a desire to apply for benefits, and by law, the VA must respond with an application.... She said that means they died waiting for their first answer from the VA. but whether the veteran was dead or still alive, brown said VA supervisors in Oakland ordered her team to mark the claims "no action necessary" and to toss them aside. Whistleblowers said that was illegal.... When she raised her concerns, she said she was taken off the project. Then, this past summer, Brown and former VA employee Tony Silviero found a cart full of these same claims, ignored, yet again. "We pulled 15 indiscriminately to look at; just 15," Brown said. "Eight of them were owed money. One was owed $36,000.".... How many veterans is not known, because thousands of records were missing when inspectors arrived. Lost claims and missing records are a problem nationwide. In the last year, the inspector general has found serious issues in at least six VA benefits offices, including unprocessed claims documents in Philadelphia, 9,500 records sitting on employees' desks in Baltimore and computer manipulation in Houston to make claims look completed when they were not.... To the whistleblowers, the lost files also raise serious questions about whether the VA is accurately reporting the true number of disability claims it receives. Brown said many of the claims she discovered never even made it into the official backlog, and that was a deliberate attempt to hide them -- to make sure they never even appeared in the system.... As for the backlog, the VA promised to fix any problem that comes to its attention.”

“Five whistleblowers at the Oakland, California, Veterans Benefits office told CBS News that Stafford's claim is one of more than 13,000 informal claims filed between 1996 and 2009 that ended up stashed in a file cabinet and ignored until 2012.” How does something like this happen? Too few clerical workers hired to process informal and formal claims, lack of supervision of those workers, dishonest supervisory staff who rather than admitting the problem wanted to hide it? It went back to 1996, and I'm sorry to say that year was the beginning of Bill Clinton's second term.

There will probably be a major furor over this, and there should be. The workers at the VA would have been under Clinton's watch when the beginning of the claims processing problem started. I assume that they became “overwhelmed,” and that the supervisors in charge didn't want their part in the matter to come to public attention. It's like the hysterically funny Lucille Ball episode when she and Ethel took a job in the chocolate factory. Only this time it's not a bit funny. Even if Clinton didn't directly cause the oversights, his appointees were responsible. I expect a lot more news articles about the VA to pop up now.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/77-year-old-grandmother-lifts-big-at-the-gym/

​77-year-old grandmother lifts big at the gym
By MICHELLE MILLER CBS NEWS
February 24, 2015

Photograph – Willie Murphy deadlifts at the Maplewood YMCA in Rochester, New York
CBS NEWS

ROCHESTER, N.Y.-- At the Maplewood YMCA in Rochester, New York, there's one septuagenarian you won't find working out with the lightweights: 77-year-old Willie Murphy.

At five feet tall, she's a 105 pound powerhouse who can dead-lift more than twice her own weight, bench press 125 pounds, and run through push-ups like there's no tomorrow.

"I'm old -- If I can do it, get with it," said Murphy. "It's not that hard. I'm that new senior and I got it going on."

She earned first place awards in her division at the World Natural Powerlifting Federation's championships. She was named the 2014 Lifter of the Year after taking home gold in the dead-lift, power curl and bench press.

She rarely gives up any edge... maybe to her fan club of five-year-olds at the "Y." But anyone half her age can forget about it.

Holding back isn't in Willie's vocabulary. Neither is quitting, which is why she's such a motivating presence at the gym. She encouraged workout buddy Jim Marron to cross off sky-diving from his bucket list by going with him.

"I wish you could bottle it," Marron told me. "She is the most inspiring person I know."
"What goes around comes around and it makes us all better people to be on the planet," said Murphy.

For Willie Murphy age isn't a number, it's an attitude.




“At five feet tall, she's a 105 pound powerhouse who can dead-lift more than twice her own weight, bench press 125 pounds, and run through push-ups like there's no tomorrow. "I'm old -- If I can do it, get with it," said Murphy. "It's not that hard. I'm that new senior and I got it going on." She earned first place awards in her division at the World Natural Powerlifting Federation's championships. She was named the 2014 Lifter of the Year after taking home gold in the dead-lift, power curl and bench press.... Holding back isn't in Willie's vocabulary. Neither is quitting, which is why she's such a motivating presence at the gym. She encouraged workout buddy Jim Marron to cross off sky-diving from his bucket list by going with him.”

When I see something like this I credit basic personality, philosophy and healthful living. I will remember her when I come to difficult circumstances.





http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2015/02/23/388480482/acidifying-waters-are-endangering-your-oysters-and-mussels

Acidifying Waters Are Endangering Your Oysters And Mussels
Christopher Joyce
Correspondent, Science Desk
FEBRUARY 23, 2015

Crew members pull an oyster dredge in Tangier Sound of the Chesapeake Bay near Deal Island, Md., in 2013. A study found that the Chesapeake Bay shellfishery is a "hot zone" for ocean acidification.
Patrick Semansky/AP

Bad news for bivalves comes this week from scientists studying ocean acidification.

Ocean water in parts of the world is changing. Its chemistry is very slowly becoming more acidic, like lemon juice, and less alkaline, a la baking soda.

The change so far is small — you wouldn't notice if you swam in the ocean or even drank it (not recommended, in any case). But numerous scientific studies show that it could get worse. One reason is that as humans produce more carbon dioxide, a lot is absorbed into the oceans. That makes the water more acidic.

So, shellfish. Why is this bad news for them, and the $1 billion industry devoted to them in the U.S.?

Well, anything that builds a shell depends on calcium compounds in water. If water gets too acidic, it interferes with the chemistry of shell-building. So oysters, mussels, scallops and lots more will suffer in an increasingly acidic ocean. Crabs and lobsters and coral reefs will feel it as well, but mollusks are most vulnerable.

According to research published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change, you can already measure the harmful effects on shellfish in places like the Pacific Northwest.

The study is billed as the first analysis of how shellfisheries in 15 states in the U.S. are likely to fare as this acidification continues. With 17 authors from 13 academic, government and environmental institutions, it examines not just ocean chemistry but local coastal pollution and how that combines with acidification.

And the news for the mollusk industry, as we said, is bad, though not without hope.

Some of the coastal areas could see damage from acidification within a few years. Southern Maine and southern Massachusetts are hot spots, as are estuaries along the East Coast, like the Chesapeake Bay and Long Island Sound. The latter are suffering from a lot of nitrogen pollution already from agricultural and sewage runoff. That pollution exacerbates the effects of acidification.

The study also points to the Gulf of Mexico as particularly vulnerable, in part because so few species of shellfish are harvested there. The more diverse the species, the study authors argue, the better chance a few will be resistant to the Gulf's changing chemistry.

The study also points to coastal communities in New Jersey, Virginia and Louisiana that have relatively less monitoring of ocean acidity under way.

The hopeful note in the research is that there are solutions short of stopping the emission of carbon dioxide into the air. Reducing local nitrogen pollution in rivers and bays along the coasts is one. Raising shellfish where the ocean is less affected is another. There may also be strains of oysters that are resistant to acidity.

"There is plenty we can do to help these at-risk communities while protecting the environment," Lisa Suatoni, an ecologist at the Natural Resources Defense Council and one of the authors, said in a statement.



Ocean acidification
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ocean acidification is the ongoing decrease in the pH of theEarth's oceans, caused by the uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere.[2] An estimated 30–40% of the carbon dioxide released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans, rivers and lakes.[3][4] To achieve chemical equilibrium, some of it reacts with the water to form carbonic acid.

Between 1751 and 1994 surface ocean pH is estimated to have decreased from approximately 8.25 to 8.14,[5]representing an increase of almost 30% in H+ion concentration in the world's oceans.[6][7]Earth System Models project that within the last decade ocean acidity exceeded historical analogs[8] and in combination with other ocean biogeochemical changes could undermine the functioning of marine ecosystems and disrupt the provision of many goods and services associated with the ocean.[9]

Increasing acidity is thought to have a range of possibly harmful consequences, such as depressing metabolic rates and immune responses in some organisms, and causingcoral bleaching. This also causes decreasing oxygen levels as it kills off algae.

Ongoing acidification of the oceans threatens food chains connected with the oceans.[11][12] As members of the InterAcademy Panel, 105 science academies have issued a statement on ocean acidification recommending that by 2050, global CO2 emissions be reduced by at least 50% compared to the 1990 level.[13]

Ocean acidification has been called the "evil twin of global warming"[14][15][16][17][18]and "the other CO2 problem".[15][17][19]




“The change so far is small — you wouldn't notice if you swam in the ocean or even drank it (not recommended, in any case). But numerous scientific studies show that it could get worse. One reason is that as humans produce more carbon dioxide, a lot is absorbed into the oceans. That makes the water more acidic. So, shellfish. Why is this bad news for them, and the $1 billion industry devoted to them in the U.S.? Well, anything that builds a shell depends on calcium compounds in water. If water gets too acidic, it interferes with the chemistry of shell-building.”

Humans do depend on shellfish of all kinds for part of the food supply, and in addition the whole ocean ecosystem is at risk. This article mentions coral reef “bleaching” which has already been in the news during the last 15 years or so, and when one or two parts of the food chain start disappearing, those that live on them will disappear as well. “As members of the InterAcademy Panel, 105 science academies have issued a statement on ocean acidification recommending that by 2050, global CO2 emissions be reduced by at least 50% compared to the 1990 level.”[13] As long as Tea Partiers in Congress try to block all environmental issues, so their friends in the oil and coal industries can make more and more money, this issue will not be addressed. How depressing!





http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/02/25/388912053/france-warns-russia-and-its-allies-not-to-advance-on-ukrainian-port-city

France Warns Russia And Its Allies Not To Advance On Ukrainian Port City
Eleanor Beardsley
Correspondent, Paris
FEBRUARY 25, 2015

Photograph – Ukrainian servicemen stand guard on a street near a burning building after a shelling by pro-Russian rebels of a residential sector in Mariupol, eastern Ukraine, last month.
Reuters /Landov

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said this morning on French radio that if separatist troops advanced on the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, that would constitute a new red line.

"I told my counterpart Sergei Lavrov that such a move would mean Russia wants to make a link with Crimea, and that would change everything," said Fabius.

Then he stated that Europe would have to look at slapping new sanctions on Russia.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has been making the rounds of European capitals, working to get a real cease-fire in place and to get Russian troops out of his country. Russia denies that its forces are in Ukraine and that it is assisting separatists.

At a summit just 10 days ago in Brussels, Belgium, on the day after the second Minsk cease-fire agreement was signed, Poroshenko had seemed hopeful. He said he felt a real unity and support for Ukraine from its European partners.

One French analyst says it is becoming increasingly painful to watch fruitless negotiations with Russia, when it is clear the separatists and their Russian allies have no intention of stopping the fight.

Just days after the February 12 peace agreement was signed, they launched a final assault on the key train hub town of Debaltseve, forcing Ukrainian forces to withdraw.

Now there are reports of shelling around the port city of Mariupol. If the city were to fall to separatists, a land corridor would be created between separatist territory and Crimea, which was annexed by Russia last year.

One Russian newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, has published what it says is a classified Kremlin document from February 2014, which meticulously plans the annexation of Crimea and the destabilizing of eastern Ukraine.

Russia's continued denials of having soldiers or military equipment in Ukraine are becoming farcical, said one French columnist. Another French newspaper asked how it was possible to continue negotiating in the face of the extreme cynicism of Russia and President Vladimir Putin.

Across the Atlantic, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has called the Ukrainian separatists a de facto extension of the Russian army.

Yesterday's discussions in Paris by the four signatories to the Minsk agreement (France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia) produced little but tension and disagreement. The only thing the foreign ministers agreed upon was to bolster a European peace-monitoring mission in eastern Ukraine.




“French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said this morning on French radio that if separatist troops advanced on the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, that would constitute a new red line. "I told my counterpart Sergei Lavrov that such a move would mean Russia wants to make a link with Crimea, and that would change everything," said Fabius. Then he stated that Europe would have to look at slapping new sanctions on Russia.... Just days after the February 12 peace agreement was signed, they launched a final assault on the key train hub town of Debaltseve, forcing Ukrainian forces to withdraw. Now there are reports of shelling around the port city of Mariupol. If the city were to fall to separatists, a land corridor would be created between separatist territory and Crimea, which was annexed by Russia last year. One Russian newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, has published what it says is a classified Kremlin document from February 2014, which meticulously plans the annexation of Crimea and the destabilizing of eastern Ukraine.... Yesterday's discussions in Paris by the four signatories to the Minsk agreement (France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia) produced little but tension and disagreement. The only thing the foreign ministers agreed upon was to bolster a European peace-monitoring mission in eastern Ukraine.”

Nobody wants an all out war with Russia, but that may happen if this goes on. Some legislators in the US are calling for American “lethal” weapons to be provided to the Ukrainian forces, and I hope that happens, because I hate what I've been seeing of Russian behavior. I personally agree with the Republicans that we need to try to protect freedom seeking governments like Ukraine. Our own national security depends on it. I think if we give them weapons the EU will help. I certainly hope so, at any rate.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mummified-monk-found-inside-1000-year-old-buddha-statue/

Mummified monk found inside 1,000-year-old Buddha statue
By AMANDA SCHUPAK CBS NEWS
February 23, 2015

Scientists and hospital staff at the Meander Medical Center in the Netherlands used a CT scanner to reveal the mummified body of a Chinese monk inside a statue of Buddha dating back to between 1050 and 1150 A.D.

The monk had evidently practiced the ancient tradition of self-mummification, in which Buddhist ascetics would starve themselves for a decade and essentially meditate themselves to death. They would go on to be revered as "living Buddhas."

The body found inside the Chinese statue is that of Buddhist master Liuquan.

The statue had been on display at the Drents Museum in the Netherlands. Erik Brujin, an expert in Buddhist art and culture, led the research at Meander, where radiologists put the statue through a CT scanner to reveal the preserved body of Liuquan inside.

A gastrointestinal specialist also used an endoscope to take samples from inside the chest and abdominal cavities of the mummy and found, in place of organs, scraps of paper with ancient Chinese writing and other as yet unidentified materials.

The statue and Liuquan are currently on view at the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest.




“Scientists and hospital staff at the Meander Medical Center in the Netherlands used a CT scanner to reveal the mummified body of a Chinese monk inside a statue of Buddha dating back to between 1050 and 1150 A.D. The monk had evidently practiced the ancient tradition of self-mummification, in which Buddhist ascetics would starve themselves for a decade and essentially meditate themselves to death. They would go on to be revered as "living Buddhas."... The statue had been on display at the Drents Museum in the Netherlands. Erik Brujin, an expert in Buddhist art and culture, led the research at Meander, where radiologists put the statue through a CT scanner to reveal the preserved body of Liuquan inside. A gastrointestinal specialist also used an endoscope to take samples from inside the chest and abdominal cavities of the mummy and found, in place of organs, scraps of paper with ancient Chinese writing and other as yet unidentified materials.”

Something like this has been found in Chile and Peru of mummies whose inner organs were replaced with grass, animal hair, etc. They are believed to be the oldest cases of mummification. To read about them go to the search term “Chinchorro mummies” in Wikipedia. It says “The mummies may have served as a means of assisting the soul in surviving, and to prevent the bodies from frightening the living.[5] A more commonly accepted theory is that there was an ancestor cult of sorts,[6] since there is evidence of both the bodies traveling with the groups and placed in positions of honor during major rituals...” The belief that death is not final apparently goes back a long, long way in time, and probably was part of the religions of many cultures around the world, preceeding what we call “civilization.” Articles like this are always interesting to me. “The human spirit” is ever hopeful and the many things they have believed are fascinating. This article is the first sign I had heard of a belief in life after death in Buddhism. I thought it was just a philosophy based on meditation.





http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2015/02/24/384347319/in-la-missing-kindergarten-is-a-big-deal

In LA, Missing Kindergarten Is A Big Deal
Deepa Fernandes
FEBRUARY 24, 2015

Photograph – Hugo Villavicencio talks to kindergarten students at Lenicia B. Weemes Elementary School about the importance of attending school.
Benjamin Brayfield/Southern California Public Radio/KPCC

In kindergarten, kids are learning really important stuff. Basic reading skills. Numbers and math concepts. And to keep from falling behind, one of the major things they need to do is make it to school every day.

In Los Angeles, the nation's second largest school district, kindergarten absence is a big problem, with some students missing 10, 20, 30 days or more. In 2012, district officials say that almost 10,000 students were chronically absent from kindergarten. Last year that number it improved, but only slightly.

It's a problem around the country as well, and research confirms the academic peril chronic absence creates for the youngest students.

A 2008 report from the National Center for Children in Poverty found that children who missed more than 10 percent of school in kindergarten were the lowest-achieving group in the first grade.

And so the Los Angeles Unified district has mounted a big push, putting educators in schools whose mission is to get these children to school every day.

At Lenicia B. Weemes Elementary School in south LA, that mission has fallen to Hugo Villavicencio. As the school's attendance improvement counselor, his main task is to reverse dismal attendance of its youngest learners. His job is equal parts motivational fun-guy for students ... and coaxing enforcer for slacking parents.

Today he's got a kindergarten class fired up.

"Do you know why I'm here?" he challenges the class.

"Yes!" they shout: "Prizes!"

The students are fixated on his brightly colored Treasure Box, and he's picking attendance-prize winners from a bunch of popsicle sticks with their names on them.

"And the first person is ... LaMaya," says Villavicencio.
"Not here," the students respond.

"What happened to LaMaya?"

"She's absent," a student explains. "She went to the doctor."

Illness and poor health care, lack of transportation, extended trips to home countries, and heavy work demands on parents — these are just a few of the reasons, research shows, that attendance is a problem in many low-income communities.

Maria Ramirez Waight, a kindergarten teacher at Weemes, sees the problem every day. At age 5, she says, these kids are learning important concepts that are the building blocks for future learning.

"And of course when they miss just one day ... you have to constantly go over the things they are missing to try and catch them up," she says. "So you're playing catch-up with certain kids all year long."

Villavicencio agrees: "It takes them four days on average to catch up on what they might have missed on one day."

The school's target, he adds, is that "in the whole school year a student should not be absent more than seven times. Unfortunately, for this school we had less than half the kids reaching that goal."

Mr V., as the kids call him, has finished handing out his prizes for attendance. Now he's on to his second strategy: peer pressure inside each class to get every kid to show up every day.

"Sorry for the interruption," he says to the next class. "Guess what I'm bringin' back?"
The kids shout: "A trophy!"

"Your attendance was so good," Mr. V. tells them, "that I have to bring this back to the champions for the week. Alright, good job!"

In his office, Villavicencio is much less upbeat. He's a data guy, and shows me the daunting statistics: "I'm analyzing the way that we have been so far this school year. And the lowest point was December. December was the month when we had 52 percent attendance."

January, he adds, wasn't much better.

And so begins the much less enjoyable part of his job: phone calls to parents of absent kids.

His first call turns out to be a wrong number. That's not unusual, Mr. V. explains. Pay-as-you-go phones are common for the very low-income families here, and numbers change constantly.

His second call is a wrong number, too. So he tries the student's grandmother. "She has missed more than 30 days, correct," he says into the phone.

The grandmother doesn't know where the mother is, but agrees to pass along his message.

Then, just as he's about to call the next parent on his list, one mother he's been trying to reach, Zaida Ayala, shows up. Her son started kindergarten but almost immediately began missing days.

"I live far and I don't have transportation," Ayala tells me. She explains that she doesn't have a car and the price of riding the bus has gone up.

She knows how important it is for her son to make it to school, and that he's missed too many days.

"That does kind of scare me," she says. "Earlier when he used to miss a lot my son would tell me, Mommy, you have to take me to school every day."

But like many parents in this neighborhood, the demands of work and parenting and making ends meet are huge. Ayala says that while she did not finish high school herself, she wants her son to do better. So, she's looking for a job so she can buy a car.

For Mr. V., the day's not over yet. He's got one last tour through the classrooms, one last shot to get kids to show up the next day.

"Remember come to school every day!" he tells the students as he heads out.
And the students shout back, "Bye, Mr V!"




“In kindergarten, kids are learning really important stuff. Basic reading skills. Numbers and math concepts. And to keep from falling behind, one of the major things they need to do is make it to school every day. In Los Angeles, the nation's second largest school district, kindergarten absence is a big problem, with some students missing 10, 20, 30 days or more. In 2012, district officials say that almost 10,000 students were chronically absent from kindergarten. Last year that number it improved, but only slightly. It's a problem around the country as well, and research confirms the academic peril chronic absence creates for the youngest students. A 2008 report from the National Center for Children in Poverty found that children who missed more than 10 percent of school in kindergarten were the lowest-achieving group in the first grade. ... Hugo Villavicencio. As the school's attendance improvement counselor, his main task is to reverse dismal attendance of its youngest learners. His job is equal parts motivational fun-guy for students ... and coaxing enforcer for slacking parents.... Illness and poor health care, lack of transportation, extended trips to home countries, and heavy work demands on parents — these are just a few of the reasons, research shows, that attendance is a problem in many low-income communities.... The school's target, he adds, is that "in the whole school year a student should not be absent more than seven times. Unfortunately, for this school we had less than half the kids reaching that goal."... Then, just as he's about to call the next parent on his list, one mother he's been trying to reach, Zaida Ayala, shows up. Her son started kindergarten but almost immediately began missing days. "I live far and I don't have transportation," Ayala tells me. She explains that she doesn't have a car and the price of riding the bus has gone up.... But like many parents in this neighborhood, the demands of work and parenting and making ends meet are huge. Ayala says that while she did not finish high school herself, she wants her son to do better. So, she's looking for a job so she can buy a car.”

Hardcore poverty is a major problem in every way – housing, transportation, three meals a day, medical care, and now school. Children from Middle Class families have generally two parents rather than one, and they are well enough educated to teach the kids their numbers, vocabulary skills, colors, letters and a basic stab at sounding the words out on their own. Teen mothers raising their kids alone probably can't do that. Those kids may be discipline problems, too, since they may not be taught to sit down and listen to the teacher. As a result a poor kid very likely arrives in the first grade class missing basic skills. That's why kindergarten was put in place to teach them what they need. Now, apparently, too many parents aren't able to see to it that they go to class. It's very discouraging, since I'm not content to just write off poor people and their kids as a total loss. Neither are the schools, apparently.

Lenicia B. Weemes Elementary School's “Mister V” is putting out a major effort to turn the situation around and get kids back into the classroom. Yesterday when I was blogging an article about our government as a “meritocracy” came up. I failed to mention teachers as potentially being considered for elective office. They are well educated, socially ethical, concerned about people and very hardworking. I can't think of a single teacher of children who has been elected to office, however.

Curious, I looked on the Net for “teachers in public office,” and found only articles on the question of whether it is “proper” for a teacher to run for office or even to “take sides” on issues. This looks like an antifeminist battleground to me. If more men were teachers there would be no such regulations on their freedom of self-expression, political persuasion, activities in the public eye, etc. Only the Florida article indicates that teachers already are being elected to state legislative office. If I had read every word of these articles I might have found evidence of other teacher participation in politics. My question really did open up a can of worms, it seems:

“A TEACHER BECOMES A CANDIDATE – ASCD: www.ascd.org/.../...Association for Supervision and Curriculum Develop....become a political partisan? Is it proper for a teacher to run for an elective public office? Can a teacher afford to "take sides"? What legal restrictions on polit.”;

“TEACHER FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION – http://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/images/9780205484058/samplechapter/0205484050-ch04.pdf – “The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that public school teachers have a right to freedom of expression. However, no right is absolute. Therefore, this chapter examines the scope and limits of teachers’ freedom of speech in and out of school, freedom of association, how they can protect their creative expression, and when schools can regulate educators’ personal appearance.”

“WHY WE MUST SUPPORT TEACHERS RUNNING FOR ELECTED OFFICE
By Opt Out Orlando -- https://optoutorlando.wordpress.com/2014/06/18/why-we-must-support-teachers-running-for-elected-office/ – “In Florida, only seven of the 160 state legislators are public school teachers....”

“TEACHERS' UNIONS IN OHIO TRY TO GET EDUCATORS ELECTED TO STATE OFFICES -- http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/02/14881090-teachers-unions-in-ohio-try-to-get-educators-elected-to-state-offices?lite”