Joyful Warriors
It is the joyful warriors versus the same old, same old. See the featured photo. See this from AP:
ROMULUS, Mich. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris declared herself and her new running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, “joyful warriors” against Donald Trump on Wednesday as they spent their first full day campaigning together across the Midwest. They got an unusual glimpse of how hotly contested the region would be when they overlapped on a Wisconsin tarmac with Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance.
The Democrats visited Wisconsin and Michigan, hoping to shore up support among the younger, diverse, labor-friendly voters who were instrumental in helping President Joe Biden win the 2020 election.
Harris told the day’s first rally in Eau Claire, “As Tim Walz likes to point out, we are joyful warriors.” Contributing to that feeling, the Harris campaign said it had raised $36 million in the first 24 hours after she announced Walz as her running mate.
The vice president said the pair looks at the future with optimism, unlike Trump, the former president and Republican White House nominee, whom she accused of being stuck in the past and preferring a confrontational style of politics — even as she criticized her opponent herself.
Here is the entire read: Harris and Walz Say They’re ‘Joyful Warriors,’ Narrowly Avoid Confrontation With Vance on Tarmac (usnews.com).
Meanwhile, the same old, same old are making fun of the Vice President’s first name, they are name calling, throwing out scare tactics, and questioning the Governor’s military service record. It is just the same old, same old.
_____
Is this a good thing or a bad thing? See this from the Chron:
Houston ISD state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles said Wednesday that the number of schools that earned a D or F rating in the Texas Education Agency’s accountability ratings dropped by about two-thirds compared to the unofficial ratings the district calculated last year under revamped, harder standards that were protested by districts across the state.
The TEA typically assigns annual A to F ratings to each public district and campus based on standardized test performance, student growth, and progress on closing racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps, although it hasn’t done so for all campuses since 2019 due to COVID-19 and legal challenges. The agency plans to release official scores on Aug. 15 based on performance data from the 2023-24 school year.
HISD reported that 41 schools earned D or F ratings in 2024, which is down from 121 in the unofficial 2023 ratings, and the number of A- and B-rated schools increased from 93 to 170, according to preliminary data. In 2022, prior to the most recent overhaul of the state accountability system, 10 HISD campuses received Ds or Fs.
And this:
Miles said he attributed the district’s decline in D and F schools this year to what he described as improved quality of instruction, additional training for campus leaders, efforts to implement a stronger curriculum and a “high performance culture.”
“The (TEA’s) exit criteria calls for zero campuses that have a D or F rating, so we took a big chunk out of the 121, and if we continue to work hard and work well, we’ll get that 41 down to single digits at the end of this school year,” Miles said
Here is the entire read: HISD D and F-rated schools drop in 2024 TEA accountability ratings (houstonchronicle.com).
The article doesn’t quote any of the anti-takeover folks. I am all for improvement so we can get our HISD back. Does this mean Superintendent Miles is doing a good job? Oh, well.
_____
I got my car back yesterday from the body shop. Nice.
_____
We won yesterday and are back in first place in the AL West. We have today off. This weekend we are at Fenway.
