Patt Morrison for Thursday, 4/8/10

PATT MORRISON SCHEDULE

Thursday, April 8, 2010

1-3 p.m.

 

CALL-IN @ 866-893-5722, 866-893-KPCC; OR JOIN THE CONVERSATION ONLINE ON THE PATT MORRISON BLOG AT KPCC-DOT-ORG

 

 

1:06 – 1:39

OPEN

 

 

1:41 – 1:58:30
California’s Race to the Top proving to be one big marathon
Education officials announced the first of three rounds of Race to the Top results last month, choosing to award only a small portion of a $4 billion pot to just two states. They left some sore losers in their wake, including California, which competed tirelessly for a piece of the education pie.  Those loser states are now claiming the scoring by anonymous judges is inscrutable and are questioning whether even the possible reward of millions-of-dollars warrants starting over from square one.  The scoring certainly favored states that were able to get 100% support from school districts, and that worked against California, where the number was painfully low.  Still, California legislators were able to jump through hoops to qualify California for the running and are now considering what further concessions they’ll need to make to get teachers and districts on board.  Patt talks with legislators and teachers’ union representatives about how far California is from beginning yet another race to the top, and still without any guarantee of winning.

 

Guest:

State Sen. Gloria Romero, D-East Los Angeles; Chair of the Senate Education Committee

 

MORE GUESTS TBD

 

 

 

2:06 – 2:30

Can David Frum single-handedly make the Republican Party more moderate?

Probably not, at least not based on what’s happened in the aftermath of David Frum’s comments on the health care reform debate.  As far back as summer of 2009 Frum, the former speechwriter for George W. Bush, challenged certain Republican tactics in opposing health care and other Democratic initiatives.  As healthcare reform crept closer to reality Frum again warned that the promised “Waterloo” defeat of the national health bill would actually be a defeat for Republicans—Frum wrote, “For them [conservative media broadcasters], it's mission accomplished. For the cause they purport to represent, it's Waterloo all right: ours.”  For “betraying” the Republican cause Frum was forced out of his scholar position at the American Enterprise Institute and roundly criticized by conservatives.  Is it possible to drag the conservative movement into more moderate territory, and can Frum pull it off?

 

Guest:

David Frum, founder & editor of the political blog FrumForum.com; former economic speechwriter for President George W. Bush

CALL HIM:

 

 

2:30 – 2:58:30

The debatable powers of breastfeeding: will more milk save lives & money?

It’s long been conventional wisdom that breastfeeding is the single most important thing that mothers can do for their infants, in terms of disease prevention and encouraging healthy growth—but that wisdom is fraught with anxiety and debate about how vital breastfeeding, how long it should be done and the magnitude of the promised health benefits.  A new study from the journal Pediatrics quantifies those health benefits, finding that the lives of nearly 900 babies would be saved each year, along with billion of dollars, if 90% of U.S. women fed their babies breast milk only for the first six months of life.  The findings suggest that there are hundreds of deaths and many more costly illnesses each year from health problems that breastfeeding may help prevent.  Only 12% of mothers follow government guidelines recommending that babies breast feed exclusively for the first six months—should breastfeeding become a national health policy priority?

 

Guests:

Dr. Melissa Bartick, internist, professor at Harvard Medical School and lead author of the breastfeeding study published in the journal Pediatrics

CALL HER:

• Dr. Bartick also chairs the Massachusetts Breastfeeding Coalition.

 

 

 

Jonathan Serviss

Producer, Patt Morrison Program

Southern California Public Radio

NPR Affiliate for Los Angeles

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626.583.5171, office

415.497.2131, mobile

jserviss@kpcc.org / jserviss@scpr.org

www.scpr.org