School shooting #74, supercomputer abuse, tenure, students loans, and pride of various sorts: Required Readings, 6.11.14

In the United States, it’s another day and another school shooting, the 74th since Sandy Hook in December 2012. In an unintentional theme, many of today’s Required Readings address legal or government action of some form.

In academia, the National Science Foundation banned a researcher for using $150,000 worth of NSF-funded university supercomputer time to mine about $8,000-$10,000 in bitcoin.

South Carolina’s solicitor general OKed the flying of a Confederate flag at the public Citadel military college. A law passed in 2000 protects “monuments and memorials honoring the gallantry and sacrifice in this state’s various wars.” So that’s what they’re calling it these days.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has ruled that teacher tenure laws are unconstitutional and deprive students of their right to an education.

President Obama has announced a new initiative to relieve the burden of student loan debt. But Pay as You Earn may not be all it’s cracked up to be.

On a much more pleasant note, our friends on Capitol Hill could learn a great deal about how to treat their fellow humans by driving across town to Wilson High School. First, when their principal came out as gay at a school Pride Day event, students responded with cheers and support. After Westboro Baptist added the school to a protest tour of D.C., several hundred counter-protesters—students and community members alike—answered the Phelps family’s hate. Thank you Wilson for making D.C. proud during Pride.

Required Readings are a list of links that you might find interesting! Look for them to appear every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. Have some links you’d like to share? Submit them on our contact form!

Image by David Lee

3 Comments

  1. The tenure article was interesting to me as I am aware how tenure works in a college setting, but not in K-12. The constitutionality angle is iffy to me but what I found interesting was that tenure could be awarded after two years. It takes college professors around six years for most institutions, and is a fairly involved process. There may be an actual argument there unless the process is rigorous, etc. (which I expect it actually is).

      1. That would be an excellent reason to make the process shorter, though the premise that this allows “bad” teachers to remain employed for life is now extremely shaky.

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