Patt Morrison for Wednesday, May 18, 2011

PATT MORRISON SCHEDULE

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

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 – 1:30

OPEN

 

 

1:30 - 1:58:30

My two-year-old is smarter than yours: the race for higher performing kindergartners

Is your two year old under performing? Are you worried about their chances of getting into a really good kindergarten?  Never fear, Junior Kumon preschool enrichment program is here!  Your two year old will be whipped into academic shape in no time.  Little Jane or Johnny, for $200 to $300 per month, will be tutored by “assistants” (they don’t refer to them as teachers) who will sharpen their reading and math skills and get them performing on par in no time.  Eager parents are signing up in droves and many see results.  Junior Kumon has taken New York by storm—enrollment has tripled there since 2007 and nationwide it has grown by 30 percent.   However one stubborn fact remains, research indicates that there is little to be gained from tutoring programs aimed at young children--one professor of psychology at the University of Berkeley says, "The best you can say is that they're useless." But executives at Kumon say, "the earlier you start, the better” and “age three is the sweet spot.”  Have parents become a little over zealous in terms of putting their kids on the competitive track to academic success, or is this a symptom of the high stakes, highly competitive world we live in today?

 

Guests:

Dr. Mary Mokris, education specialist, Kumon Math & Reading Centers

CALL HER @

 

•           Dr. Mary Mokris is an education specialist and director of special curriculum projects for North America. Dr. Mokris began her career at Kumon ten years ago as the director of a company-owned Kumon Center instructing 200 math and reading students in Atlanta before moving to Kumon's headquarters in Teaneck, N.J., to begin the company's professional instructional magazine, Voices.

 

Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, a psychologist at Temple University and an author of “Einstein Never Used Flash Cards”

 

 - OR - 

 

Alison Gopnik, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley

 

 

 

 

2:06 – 2:30

LAUSD librarians, fighting for their jobs, get a grilling

The Los Angles Unified School District (LAUSD) is facing major budget cuts and as a result, layoff notices abound. But an argument could be made that no one has had to fight harder to keep their jobs than 85 school librarians.  Librarians may not be the type you’d expect to have to go toe-toe to with heavy hitting LAUSD lawyers to keep their jobs, but in a downtown basement last week, librarian after librarian took the hot seat to do just that.  LAUSD wants to get rid of the librarians, but if the librarians can prove that they have taught classes in the library within the last five-years, they will be eligible to be transferred to teach in the classroom and remain on payroll. So the showdown over whether there was any teaching going on between the four walls and all those books ensued. LAUSD lawyers asked questions like “Do you take attendance?” and “Do you issue grades?” The librarians countered with statements like, “I teach all subjects, all day. In the library.”  While the librarians fight for their jobs one thing remains unclear, what will happen to the library without the custodians of all those books? Will self-serve kiosks be able to replace the expert advice and the stern “Shhh! Use your inside voice!” we’ve come to expect and rely on at the library?

 

Guests:

Hector Tobar, columnist, Los Angeles Times; author of the column “The Disgraceful Interrogation of L.A. School Libraries (May 13, 2011)

CALL HIM @

 

BOTH TEACHERS WERE INTERROGATED

Roza Besser, teacher-librarian, Portola Middle School

CALL HER @

 

John Hamrick, teacher-librarian, Fulton College Prep in Van Nuys

CALL HIM @

 

NOTE FOR PATT:

LAUSD DID NOT MAKE ANYONE AVAILABLE FOR THIS PROGRAM 

 

 

 

 

2:30 – 2:58:30

The entitlement problem child Medicare: is it going broke & why won’t people sign up for PCIP?

It seemed like a well meaning element of the controversial Affordable Health Care Act:  until the full reform plan kicks into gear in 2014, give a chance to people with preexisting medical conditions—people who have the most difficulties finding insurance—a chance to apply for low-cost coverage.  But after nearly a year in practice, only 18,313 people (as of March) have signed up for the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan, even though there are potentially millions of Americans who would be eligible for the program.  Why hasn’t the program picked up traction?  At the same time the debate over Medicare’s future rages in Washington and the news for the giant, troubled entitlement health care program isn’t good:  the annual Medicare forecast, produced by Medicare’s chief actuary, predicts that the main trust fund will be depleted by 2024.  We get the latest financial report card of Medicare, especially as the health care reform bill kicks into gear, and ask why more people haven’t signed up for a program that could be so beneficial for the hard-to-insure.

 

Guests:

David Sayen, Medicare’s regional administrator for California

CALL HIM:

• Sayen is the administrator for District 9, with jurisdiction over California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and the Pacific Trust Territories.

 

 

Jim Capretta, research fellow specializing in health care policy at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative-leaning think tank in D.C. He is also the former associate director of the Office of Management and Budget (2001-2004)

CALL HIM @

 

• Capretta claims that, of Americans with pre-existing conditions, more are actually insured than uninsured - that it’s largely the young and healthy who are uninsured, creating a perverse incentive for those with pre-existing conditions to join PCIP since it requires them to go 6 months without insurance before they can join the program and many can’t afford to do that, health-wise

 

Jonathan Serviss
Senior Producer, Patt Morrison
Southern California Public Radio
NPR Affiliate for Los Angeles
89.3 KPCC-FM | 89.1 KUOR-FM | 90.3 KPCV-FM
626.583.5171, office
415.497.2131, mobile
jserviss@kpcc.org / jserviss@scpr.org
www.scpr.org