Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.

The false promise of education reform

Bob Braun continues his excellent string of columns on education, reminding his readers that comparing education spending district to district can be a foolish and misleading enterprise just as the assault on public education and the call for massive restructuring of schools is foolish and counterproductive.

  • Send me an e-mail.
  • Read poetry at The Subterranean.
  • Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. it can be ordered here.
  • Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Thoughts on Feingold — from Wisconsin

I have been keeping an eye on the Senate polls — in particular, those in California and Wisconsin where two of the most liberal members of Sentate are up for re-election. It is looking more and more like Barbara Boxer is going to hold on (though it is incredibly close).

In Wisconsin, however, Russ Feingold, the conscience of the Senate, is down in the polls. So I asked my friend Rob Stolzer, an artist who teaches at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, for his thoughts on the race. Here is what he had to say:

I haven’t followed things all that closely yet, as there weren’t any real races for Dems in the primaries, outside of Lieutenant Governor. I know that Ron Johnson (not the old Giants running back, unfortunately) is leading Feingold in the polls right now, but it’s still pretty early. Many folks believe he got a big initial bounce from winning the GOP primary.

Here’s the thing about Wisconsin: it’s largely a conservative state, but has large pockets of liberalism. Former governor Tommy Thompson described Madison as an island of liberals surrounded by conservatives. Madison, Milwaukee, Appleton, and many of the university cities are far more left-leaning than the rest of the state. It’s always been enough to pull Feingold through, but it’s usually very close. Folks on the right will say that Feingold is either a do-nothing senator, or too liberal, and needs to go. They’ll also say that he’s living off of McCain-Feingold, and that’s it for him. Personally, I see a senator who sticks to his guns and has paid a political price for it. He was the only one to vote against the Patriot Act, refusing to be a knee-jerk reactionary. Feingold also voted against the Finance Services Reform bill, which was highly touted by Dems. I saw him at a town hall meeting at a local high school a few months ago, and he stated that he wouldn’t support the bill because it didn’t go far enough. He wanted to see the Glass-Steagall Act reinstated, which went much further in it’s reforms.

I find it interesting that in Wisconsin, with such a small Jewish population, that we have two Jewish senators. I’ve run into folks who have never met a Jew before they met me, and yet, we have two Jewish senators. Like many other states, I’m seeing more of the extremes of the parties, though the GOP is louder right now.

Personally, I think Feingold will retain his seat in the senate. Madison is large enough to withstand the battering of the conservative chatter.

Let’s hope he is right.

  • Send me an e-mail.
  • Read poetry at The Subterranean.
  • Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. it can be ordered here.
  • Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

More on the Newark grant and what it means

I should have passed along this column from The Star-Ledger’s Bob Braun, who has been covering Newark schools for years. He sums up the basic concerns as well as anything I’ve read so far.

  • Send me an e-mail.
  • Read poetry at The Subterranean.
  • Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. it can be ordered here.
  • Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Public education, private money — what comes next?

I want to applaud the grant from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to Newark schools — the city desperately needs the cash infusion — but the use of private money only underscores the dysfunction built into our educational funding system.

The fact is that urban schools are in desparate need of money (the per pupil estimates that the state provides are misleading because they gloss over the very real and costly challenges that districts like Newark face — security, higher maintenance and utility costs associated with older facilities, etc, special ed, basic skills and ESL programs), and to begrudge the city this windfall would be callous.

But the grant allows the state — and by the state I mean both the people who run the state and all of us who live here — to pretend that we have no role in ensuring that Newark (and New Brunswick and Jersey City and Camden, etc.) have enough money to pay for good teachers, clean and safe buildings, etc. Instead, we are looking at a private grant that will allow Mayor Corey Booker and Gov. Chris Christie to move ahead with so-called merit pay (so-called because it has nothing to do with merit and everything to do with undercutting the teachers union), charter schools and vouchers, aid to private schools — reforms that have more to do with dismantling public education than anything else.

So, I am happy for the children of Newark who will get some short-term help, but have to wonder what this is going to mean for the kids in Camden and Trenton who won’t be seeing a dime, but who will be dealing with the fallout of the Newark experiment.

  • Send me an e-mail.
  • Read poetry at The Subterranean.
  • Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. it can be ordered here.
  • Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

One of the worst TV shows I’ve ever seen

Yes, Outsourced is as bad as you might expect and as offensive as this writer says (we are watching it on DVR and I’m not sure why).

  • Send me an e-mail.
  • Read poetry at The Subterranean.
  • Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. it can be ordered here.
  • Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.