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...cases, closure. The results are undeniable. New York State recently released graduation rates for the class of 2009, and they show a record number of city students receiving diplomas, including black and Hispanic students, who have historically been more likely to drop out. In the past four years, we've cut the dropout rate in half. The President calls for similar accountability measures in his plan, including performance pay and mandated school-improvement strategies. He's also in favor of requiring states to develop systems to evaluate teachers in part on the basis of student performance. This will...
...gives states incentives to close schools after all other strategies to improve achievement have failed, Obama's new proposal is more ambiguous. It will permit states to shy away from making these tough choices--even though replacing failing schools can transform entire districts. In New York City, we've phased out more than 90 schools during the past seven years; these decisions haven't been politically popular, but the schools that replaced them have dramatically higher graduation rates than their predecessors...
...Hampshire's Senate seats. I made a documentary about her hardscrabble run against incumbent Judd Gregg. Fueled by bacon, catnaps and a deep belief that "democracy is not something you have--it's something you do," Doris campaigned tirelessly. Filming her was the most exhausting thing I've ever done--and the most inspiring. When snows threatened to keep her from reaching D.C. on schedule, she skied the last 90 miles...
While fear is a common denominator, not everyone worries about the same things. Tom Metzger, who founded White Aryan Resistance in 1980 after breaking with the Ku Klux Klan, ridicules talk of a military invasion. "Ninety percent of that stuff is nonsense," he says. "We've got 10 million Mexicans flooding into this country, and the militias are worried about repainted helicopters." For their part, many militia groups aggressively weed out racists, and a few even have minority members. According to its leader, Fitzhugh MacCrae, New Hampshire's Hillsborough County Dragoons includes blacks, Latinos and Asians, and favors good works...
Increasingly these local-control activists are finding common cause with the militias. "Both have an antifederal outlook," says Dan Barry of the Environmental Working Group in Washington. "They run into each other because they have similar priorities." Indeed, their complaints are often indistinguishable. "We've been pushed so far by rules and regulations, the feds are in our pockets so deep, people are outraged," says Ronny Rardin, a commissioner in New Mexico's Otero County. The land-reform rebels have also been developing an appetite for militia-style conspiracy theories. "The New World Order will be running our lives through...