Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Polls On Spanking

According to an ABC News poll conducted in October of 2002 and released in November of that year, "The public by a 2-1 margin approves of spanking children in principle, and half of parents say they sometimes do it to their own kids..."



A study done by ICR Market Research shows the steady hold of Americans since 1990 to the principle of spanking as a disciplinary tool. This study includes the above 2002 ABC News Poll
http://www.icrsurvey.com/Study.aspx?f=ABC_Spanking_1102.html

Do you approve or disapprove of spanking children?
Approve Disapprove No opin.
10/29/02 65 31 4
2/26/97* 65 32 3
4/22/90 65 25 10
9/4/46 74 24 2

Another question asked in the 2002 poll was "Do you ever spank your child/any of your children, or not? The numbers are: 50% Yes, 45% No.

Friday, March 23, 2007

Definition: Rebuttable Presumption

Definition of Rebuttable Presumption from Black's Law Dictionary (8th Edition - 2004)

"An inference drawn from certain facts that establish a prima facie case, which may be overcome by the introduction of contrary evidence."

Getting Down To Facts - Education Report: California

Last week a report on California's education system was released consisting of 1700 pages of studies, analyses and commentary on work done by scholars from numerous institutions. The work on the report was led by a group from Stanford University and was funded by the Gates and Hewlett foundations among others.

The report was "designed to provide California's citizens with comprehensive information about the status of the state's school finance and governance systems. The overall hypothesis underlying this research project is that improvement to California's school finance and governance structures could enable its schools to be more effective." (Project Overview)


On Wednesday Pacific Research Institute published an article by K. Lloyd Billingsley looking at how different people and groups are responding to the report and paying careful attention to the CTA's position.


For the record: Desperate times for education
Published 12:00 am PDT Monday, March 19, 2007
Sacramento Bee
Story appeared in EDITORIALS section, Page B4


Peter Schrag: More money! Fewer rules! Tastes great! Less filling!
By Peter Schrag -
Published 12:00 am PDT Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Story appeared in EDITORIALS section, Page B7


Daniel Weintraub: Teachers union could block public school change
The Sacramento Bee
Published 12:00 am PDT Thursday, March 22, 2007
Story appeared in EDITORIALS section, Page B7