States we never expected to have a good word for. From the Kentucky Supreme Court’s September decision striking down that state’s anti-sodomy laws as unconstitutional: “‘Equal Justice Under Law’ inscribed above the entrance to the United States Supreme Court, expresses the unique goal to which all humanity aspires. In Kentucky it is more than a mere aspiration” (Civil Liberties, Winter).
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Deja vu all over again. “Chicagoans concerned with progress under school reform should know that Head Start almost died an early death because of standardized tests,” warn Judi Minter and John Ayers in Chicago Enterprise (January-February). “Politicians oversold the idea with simplistic notions that Head Start would increase an average participant’s IQ one point a week. Then, only several years into the program, when the tests showed limited growth on narrow cognitive tests, a phaseout of funding was urged and under way. Proponents of the program argued that Head Start was succeeding in areas that were hard to measure–curiosity, motivation, leadership potential and general competence that would pay off later. They asked for more time and more relevant analyses.
Well, it would certainly be nicer than a machine gun. Sara Lee Corporation CEO John H. Bryan, quoted in BVA Voice (December), newsletter of Business Volunteers for the Arts/Chicago: “Chicago is the one American city that could be defined most of all by the cultural and artistic life it offers its people.”
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration/Carl Kock.
