Teachers for taxes

2| Teachers union pushes new math on taxes

The details: The California Teachers Association is pushing an initiative that would raise the state’s sales tax by a penny and devote all the new revenue to “education.” This comes in a state already highly taxed but with a $40 billion budget deficit. This idea needs to be terminated.

Taxathon in Oregon

3| Governor hits up citizens for more

The details: Gov. Ted Kulongoski, D-OR, asked the state legislature for $2 billion in new taxes and fees he claims is needed to keep government growing and saying that to do otherwise would be to “surrender to fear.” Senate President Peter Courtney, also a Democrat, was more realistic, calling the governor’s plans a “mission impossible budget.”

Tortured logic

4| Thongs, leashes, and dog tricks

The details: While the Guantanamo Bay prison has been a model operation since the spring of 2003, interrogators there went overboard the winter before that in the case of Mohammed al-Qahtani, who was subject to degrading treatment and health risks that twice required hospitalization. What were they thinking?

Love Fest for Hillary

5| Senators ignore conflicts and ethics

The details: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee – Democrats and Republicans – acted like poodles in the confirmation hearing for Secretary of State designee Hillary Clinton. How could nobody even ask about her long history of ethical scrapes?

Fuzzy math

6| Error costs Maryland $31 million

The Details: Bean counters in Maryland’s Department of Assessments and Taxation apparently can’t count for beans. An addition error in 2007 resulted in overpayments totaling $31 million to the state’s wealthiest school districts, money that is unlikely to be recouped.

Adult illiteracy increases

7| Millions spent, fewer can read

The Details: Prince George’s County now has the largest population of Maryland adults who can’t read, according to a 2009 report by the National Center for Education Statistics. Below-basic-literacy rates, which were just 12 percent in 1992, almost doubled to 22 percent by 2003, despite a spike in education spending during that time.

Kaine’s budget cuts target disabled

8| Mental illness funding on chopping block

The Details: Everybody agreed that Virginia needed to beef up mental health services following the Virginia Tech massacre, but now Gov. Tim Kaine is scaling back plans to expand community-based care to help balance the commonwealth’s budget. Delaying the $6 million program, which the General Assembly approved last year, will leave 4,500 families on a waiting list with little hope of getting help any time soon.

Ooops! Where’s that sponge?

9| Hundreds of medical errors made last year

The Details: At least 14 people died in the District of Columbia between July 2007 and June 2008 because of medical errors, three quarters of which occurred in the city’s hospitals. The D.C. Department of Health blames 529 medical mishaps it discovered on paperwork errors, faulty equipment and human error.

Another road block to reform

10| D.C. teachers union fighting 90-day notices

The Details: Washington Teachers Union officials want Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee to tell them the names of instructors who have been given 90 days to improve their teaching performance. It’s the union’s latest tactic in its opposition to Rhee’s much-needed reforms for the poorest-performing public school system in the country.