It’s a frightful Friday, as shaky markets around the globe have us on edge. Today’s editorial, “Winter Regents saved — for now,” welcomes the return of January Regents exams in 2012 for schools statewide, thanks to private donations. But, we say:
This unique solution — using private donations to pay for mandatory public-education tests — hardly offers a permanent fix. But it gives students on both ends of the spectrum a chance to excel — at least for 2012. And it allows some breathing room for state education officials, and the elected leaders who determine state funding for education, to determine the true value of January tests.
Meanwhile, the dismal economic picture (hardly burnished by better-than-expected jobs numbers) grabbed media attention, including these opinions:
Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein, in today’s column, “Stabilizing into a crisis,” says the complex causes of the economic turmoil befuddle most Washington politicians:
Whatever weak recovery we might have hoped for is being hindered by global commodity prices, consumer deleveraging, fears of flagging demand in emerging markets, earthquakes in Asia and much more. Globally, it’s been an almost uninterrupted run of crises and bad luck. Meanwhile, Washington just spent two months arguing over whether it would pay its bills or spark an unnecessary financial crisis.
New York Times Op-Ed Columnist Paul Krugman writes that “Washington has been worrying about the wrong things” in today’s column, “The Wrong Worries.” He says:
It’s not just that the threat of a double-dip recession has become very real. It’s now impossible to deny the obvious, which is that we are not now and have never been on the road to recovery.
In other opinion:
The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, in its editorial, “SUNY networks show promise,” lauds the State University of New York’s newly formed Campus Alliance Networks, a collaboration among campuses to allow shared services and trim administrative costs. The editorial says:
This kind of collaboration is overdue within SUNY, and one that local school districts should look at emulating, given the new property-tax cap, and districts’ fears of laying off more teachers and dropping programs.
