Hasta La Gadget!

Public education today faces an existential crisis. Over the past two decades, the movement to transfer public money to private organizations has expanded rapidly. The George W. Bush administration first wrote into federal law the proposal that privately managed charter schools were a remedy for low-scoring public schools, even though no such evidence existed. The Obama administration provided hundreds of millions each year to charter schools, under the control of private boards. Now, the Trump administration, under the leadership of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, wants to expand privatization to include vouchers, virtual schools, cyberschools, homeschooling, and every other possible alternative to public education. DeVos has said that public education is a “dead end,” and that “government sucks.”

DeVos’s agenda finds a ready audience in the majority of states now controlled by Republican governors and legislatures. Most states already have some form of voucher program that allow students to use public money to enroll in private and religious schools, even when their own state constitution prohibits it. The Republicans have skirted their own constitutions by asserting that the public money goes to the family, not the private or religious school. The longstanding tradition of separating church and state in K-12 education is crumbling. And Betsy DeVos can testify with a straight face that she will enforce federal law to “schools that receive federal funding,” because voucher schools allegedly do not receive the money, just the family that chooses religious schools.

Advocates of the privatization movement like DeVos claim that nonpublic schools will “save poor children from failing public schools,” but independent researchers have recently concurred that vouchers actually have had a negative effect on students in the District of Columbia, Indiana, Louisiana, and Ohio. Charters, at best, have a mixed record, and many are known for excluding children with disabilities and English language learners and for pushing out students who are troublesome.

This is a time when honest, nonpartisan reporting is needed to inform the American public.

But this month the Public Broadcasting System is broadcasting a “documentary” that tells a one-sided story, the story that Betsy DeVos herself would tell, based on the work of free-market advocate Andrew Coulson. Author of “Market Education,” Coulson narrates “School, Inc.,” a three-hour program, which airs this month nationwide in three weekly broadcasts on PBS.

Uninformed viewers who see this slickly produced program will learn about the glories of unregulated schooling, for-profit schools, teachers selling their lessons to students on the Internet. They will learn about the “success” of the free market in schooling in Chile, Sweden, and New Orleans. They will hear about the miraculous charter schools across America, and how public school officials selfishly refuse to encourage the transfer of public funds to private institutions. They will see a glowing portrait of South Korea, where students compete to get the highest possible scores on a college entry test that will define the rest of their lives and where families gladly pay for after-school tutoring programs and online lessons to boost test scores. They will hear that the free market is more innovative than public schools.

What they will not see or hear is the other side of the story. They will not hear scholars discuss the high levels of social segregation in Chile, nor will they learn that the students protesting the free-market schools in the streets are not all “Communists,” as Coulson suggests. They will not hear from scholars who blame Sweden’s choice system for the collapse of its international test scores. They will not see any reference to Finland, which far outperforms any other European nation on international tests yet has neither vouchers nor charter schools. They may not notice the absence of any students in wheelchairs or any other evidence of students with disabilities in the highly regarded KIPP charter schools. They will not learn that the acclaimed American Indian Model Charter Schools in Oakland does not enroll any American Indians, but has a student body that is 60 percent Asian American in a city where that group is 12.8 percent of the student population. Nor will they see any evidence of greater innovation in voucher schools or charter schools than in properly funded public schools.

Coulson has a nifty way of dismissing the fact that the free market system of schooling was imposed by the dictator Augusto Pinochet. He says that Hitler liked the Hollywood movie “It Happened One Night” (with Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable); should we stop showing or watching the movie? Is that a fair comparison? Pinochet was directly responsible for the free market system of schooling, including for-profit private schools. Hitler neither produced nor directed “It Happened One Night.” Thus does Coulson refer to criticisms (like Sweden’s collapsing scores on international tests) and dismisses them as irrelevant.

I watched the documentary twice, preparing to be interviewed by Channel 13, and was repelled by the partisan nature of the presentation. I googled the funders and discovered that the lead funder is the Rose Mary and Jack Anderson Foundation, a very conservative foundation that is a major contributor to the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, which advocates for vouchers. The Anderson Foundation is allied with Donors Trust, whose donors make contributions that cannot be traced to them. Mother Jones referred to this foundation as part of “the dark-money ATM of the conservative movement.” Other contributors to Donors Trust include the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity and the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation.

The second major funder is the Prometheus Foundation. Its public filings with the IRS show that its largest grant ($2.5 million) went to the Ayn Rand Institute. The third listed funder of  “School Inc.” is the Steve and Lana Hardy Foundation, which contributes to free-market libertarian think tanks. 

In other words, this program is paid propaganda. It does not search for the truth. It does not present opposing points of view. It is an advertisement for the demolition of public education and for an unregulated free market in education. PBS might have aired a program that debates these issues, but “School Inc.” does not.

It is puzzling that PBS would accept millions of dollars for this lavish and one-sided production from a group of foundations with a singular devotion to the privatization of public services. The decision to air this series is even stranger when you stop to consider that these kinds of anti-government political foundations are likely to advocate for the elimination of public funding for PBS. After all, in a free market of television, where there are so many choices available, why should the federal government pay for a television channel?

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Last July, Verizon announced that it planned to buy the bulk of Yahoo’s internet business. Today, Verizon announced that the $4.48 billion acquisition of Yahoo is now complete. As a part of the completed deal, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer will step down.

One of the scariest movies I remember seeing growing up was the original Hellraiser  Pinhead creeped me out something fierce. If you are a fan of the franchise, you will want this Pinhead 6-inch stylized figure that comes complete with real metal pins sticking out of his head.

This Hellraiser III-inspired Pinhead figure from MezcoToyz comes with two sets of arms and hands along with a knife and his puzzle cube in the Lament Configuration.

If you dare allow this thing into your home, you can get one for $28.99(USD) at ThinkGeek. I always wondered why Pinheads skin didn’t fall apart into in little squares since he had all those cuts on his face.

Microsoft finally unveiled its Project Scorpio console a couple of days ago. It’s the most powerful Xbox that the company has ever built and Microsoft says that it’s also the most powerful console ever made. The Xbox One X is capable of powering 4K games which is something that the PlayStation 4 Pro can do as well, but Microsoft doesn’t see Sony’s souped up console as a competitor to the Xbox One X.

Microsoft’s Xbox chief Phil Spencer explained in an interview with Eurogamer that the company sees the PlayStation 4 Pro as a competitor to the Xbox One S and not the newly announced Xbox One X.

Referring to the Xbox One X as a “true 4K console,” Spencer said that the new console is in a league of its own so it can not be compared. He pointed out that the GPU performance, the amount of RAM, and the speed of RAM that the Xbox One X offers is significantly greater than any other console on the market right now.

It’s true that the specifications that the Xbox One X touts are not matched by the PlayStation 4 Pro even though it can run games at 4K resolution as well. Whether or not the selection of 4K games for Xbox One X will be diverse enough to make people switch remains to be seen.

The Xbox One X is due to release on November 7th. It’s going to cost $499. To you that might feel a bit expensive but Microsoft is proud of the price that it has selected for the Xbox One X.

Microsoft Doesn’t See PS4 Pro As An Xbox One X Competitor , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Razer has launched a new wireless gaming headset for two of the most popular gaming consoles on the market. Razer’s new Thresher Ultimate headphones are available for both the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4. The versions for each console is decked out in color highlights that are representative of the consoles, so that’s blue for the PlayStation 4 and green for the Xbox One.

The Razer Thresher Ultimate headphones for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 don’t use Bluetooth to connect wirelessly to the console, they rely on 2.4GHz wireless instead. This enables them to provide a range of 150 feet as well as a direct line of sight of almost 70 feet if obstructions are getting in the way.

The range that the Thresher Ultimate provides will be good enough for most gaming setups. Unless you’ve got a freakishly big space to play games in, rest assured, you won’t face any issues with regards to the range.

The headset features a double headband design with the padded cushion providing a comfortable wearing experience while the aluminum band provides structural durability. The ear cushions even have indentations in them so that it’s easier for users with glasses to keep them on for longer periods of time.

A retractable microphone is onboard as well for those who like to communicate with their fellow players while they’re playing online. Volume and microphone controllers are located on the bottom of the ear cups.

Razer is going to start shipping the Thresher Ultimate later this month for $250.

Razer Thresher Ultimate Headphones For Xbox One And PS4 Announced , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.