December 1, ed.

I loved the picture of Fernando Chavez on the cover. How cute!

The article "Class--Size Limits Targeted for Cuts" is just another example that if you skew the right data you can make it say anything. I would be willing to say that you would have to be a "complete moron" to honestly believe that class size doesn't matter. Now having said that, it is possible to have a class of 60 successfully taught by 4 full time teachers if it's done right. That still uses the same personnel recourses that four 15 student classes require. I thought it especially counter intuitive for the Japanese and Korean classes of 33 and 36 respectively to be thrown in as some kind of example of large classes are working just fine. Talk about apples and oranges--or more like lizards and chimpanzees! Clearly these are homogeneous classes in cultures that prize self-discipline, conformity and respect for your teachers. And you can bet that they are using a direct instruction model not a cosntstructivist one. That doesn't even remotely resemble classes in this country.
Whenever you have to use completely unrelated examples to try to support an argument--you know it's weak.

The article "Calif. Supreme Court Upholds In-State Tuition Law" is just another example of supporting the unsupportable. If it is illegal to be in this country without documentation, than any argument that supports benefits for such persons are clearly flaunting the law. If a person is discovered to be in this country illegally there is only one legally supportable action--deportation. To somehow suborn illegal acts is morally and ethically wrong. If we decide to change the law that makes them "legal" great that we can proceed to provide them with benefits afforded to "legal residents".