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The Obama Doctrine and The Obama Doctrine RIP,  both in the Atlantic. PDF version updloaded.

Countries for and against the strikes in Syria 

An alternate map from a site trying to make a point.

National Security Council on Wikipedia

Poll on Air Strikes in Syria

A new HuffPost/YouGov survey shows that 51 percent of Americans back Trump’s recent action in Syria, while 32 percent oppose. Another 17 percent said they were uncertain.

With 83 percent, an overwhelming majority of Trump supporters agree with the president’s military action, just 11 percent disagree.

 

Dilbert on the Syrian Gas Attacks

Watch now as the world tries to guess where Trump is moving military assets, and what he might do to respond. The longer he drags things out, the less power the story will have on the public. We’ll be wondering for weeks when those bombs will start hitting Damascus, and Trump will continue to remind us that he doesn’t talk about military options.

Then he waits for something bad to happen to Assad’s family, or his generals, in the normal course of chaos over there. When that happens on its own, the media will wonder if it was Trump sending a strong message to Assad in a measured way. Confirmation bias will do the rest.

Blog post from Scott Adams after the attack

After telling us how smart Trump would be to do nothing, he tells us that Trump would appear weak if he did nothing, so he was brilliant to do what he did.

What’s an American President to do? If Trump does nothing, he appears weak, and it invites mischief from other countries. But if he launches 59 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian military air base base within a few days, which he did, the U.S. gets several benefits at low cost.

Progressive education

Tax plans for School Choice in Congress

Requirements for Home Schooling in Maine

Maine Charter Schools: 10 schools authorized

Testing – A statement of assurance that indicates that the home instruction program will include an annual assessment of the student’s academic progress using one of the types of assessment in accordance with existing regulations. To include:

i. a standardized achievement test; or

ii. a test developed by the school officials of the administrative unit in which the student resides; or

iii. a review and acceptance of the student’s progress by an identified individual who holds a current Maine teacher’s certificate; or

iv. a review and acceptance of the student’s progress based on, but not limited to, a presentation of an educational portfolio of the student to a local area homeschooling support group whose membership for this purpose includes a currently certified Maine teach or administrator; or

v. a review and acceptance of the student’s progress by a local advisory board selected by the superintendent of the administrative unit in which the student resides.

Review of taking the GED. TL;DR it is HARD

Link to a practice exam. 1169 page PDF.

New York Times interactive display of School Outcomes

Earlier post on the topic, here

Resources for comparing schools:

Here and

Here

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter with a half-million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. . . . This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.^[1][5]

Elon Musk’s Home School — and here

Spending on education vs GDP

United States GDP on education 5.6% Finland 6.8% Wikipedia here

Battle Hymn of of the Tiger Mother

Managing Student Growth

HR 610 at GovTrack. Links to text and related, earlier versions.

Version at Congress.gov

Summary:

The bill establishes an education voucher program, through which each state shall distribute block grant funds among local educational agencies (LEAs) based on the number of eligible children within each LEA’s geographical area. From these amounts, each LEA shall: (1) distribute a portion of funds to parents who elect to enroll their child in a private school or to home-school their child, and (2) do so in a manner that ensures that such payments will be used for appropriate educational expenses.

To be eligible to receive a block grant, a state must: (1) comply with education voucher program requirements, and (2) make it lawful for parents of an eligible child to elect to enroll their child in any public or private elementary or secondary school in the state or to home-school their child.

No Hungry Kids Act

The bill repeals a specified rule that established certain nutrition standards for the national school lunch and breakfast programs. (In general, the rule requires schools to increase the availability of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat or fat free milk in school meals; reduce the levels of sodium, saturated fat, and trans fat in school meals; and meet children’s nutritional needs within their caloric requirements.)