Cellphones a tool in India’s fight against corruption, By Rick Westhead, May 24, 2010, Toronto Star: “In many remote corners of the developing world, cellphones have become a valuable tool to battle poverty. Farmers use them to get timely weather forecasts and tips about fertilizers. And when their fields are harvested, they rely on contacts in nearby markets to send SMS messages that help them decide where to take their produce for the best prices, cutting out greedy middlemen. Now, government officials in the central Indian state of Bihar hope the cellphone can tackle a new challenge: battling government corruption. In early 2009, officials with Bihar’s ministry of health told an international development agency of their concern that frontline health-care workers might bolt their jobs. Bihar has 72,000 accredited social health activists – volunteers who are paid commissions for ensuring children are born in hospitals and properly vaccinated. But the activists typically aren’t paid for months and, even then, only get a portion of their earnings because local managers demand kickbacks of as much as 40 per cent in exchange for their paycheques…”
Day: May 27, 2010
High School Graduation Rate – Oregon
‘Not acceptable:’ Nearly one-third of Oregon high school students drop out, By Betsy Hammond, May 25, 2010, The Oregonian: “Only two of every three students in Oregon’s class of 2009 graduated from high school in four years, while more than 14,000 dropped out along the way, the state education department reported Tuesday. State Superintendent Susan Castillo said she hopes the startlingly low success rate galvanizes Oregonians to provide — and demand that schools provide — more student support. She said she plans to shine a light on districts including Hillsboro and Tigard-Tualatin that, without extra funding, use systematic approaches to get standout results. ‘As a state, this is not acceptable, absolutely not, and we have got to have a coordinated effort on this,’ she said. ‘Whether you have kids or not, this matters to you. When students are not getting the education they need, we all pay the price.’ This year represented only the second time, and the first time that will count toward school performance ratings, that Oregon measured high school graduation rates in a new, more accurate way. Under the old method, which allowed thousands of teens who didn’t earn diplomas to slip away without being counted, Oregon would have posted an 85 percent graduation rate for the class of 2009. Federal rules will require all states to use the new method for the class of 2011. Oregon is ahead in making the switch, so state-by-state comparisons can’t be made yet…”
Exhaustion of Jobless Benefits
Thousands in Mass. could lose jobless aid next week, By Robert Gavin and Matt Viser, May 27, 2010, Boston Globe: “Nearly 100,000 Massachusetts residents would lose unemployment benefits by the end of July if Congress fails to extend an emergency program that has allowed laid-off workers to collect checks for up to almost two years, according to state labor officials. The program, enacted as part of last year’s stimulus bill, is set to expire Wednesday, and with concerns about the federal deficit mounting on Capitol Hill, it is unclear when Congress will act on a $145 billion spending bill that extends emergency benefits through November. If the emergency benefits expire, state officials said, unemployed Massachusetts workers would start losing benefits at the estimated rate of 10,000 a week, starting next week…”