Everybody can afford a laptop--The computer industry giants could easily provide every student a laptop computer. But apparently they don't see it that way. Massachusetts is now going to require each college student to own a laptop. According to their claim, 70 percent already do. And if the rest can't afford them? Tough situation.

What do they want, the moon?--A Los Angeles Times photo showed Japanese American youth marching in Little Tokyo. The caption read: "Hundreds of people rally in Little Tokyo in Los Angeles Saturday to call attention to a lack of recreational space. Japanese-Americans have been asking for a multipurpose gymnasium for decades."

Skip the needy--"California officials have handed out more than $6.8 billion in school construction funds over the past decade, yet have failed to deliver a single dollar to more than 100 of the state's fastest growing school districts."--News item.

P.S.--"At schools in many of those districts a thousand children are crammed into space intended for 500, lunch periods are staggered for crowd control, and playgrounds have been gobbled up by bungalows."

Pass the Tums-- Rio Hondo elementary school was built for 500 students but has swelled to nearly a thousand. The school cafeteria is so small that the lunch period has been broken into six shifts of 30 minutes each, including entering and exiting. "We really have to push them," the principal said.

Pushout city--More than 10 percent of the public schools in Massachusetts have no libraries. Those that exist are in poor condition.

How inspiring--"The first thing that people [need is] higher expectations for students. That doesn't mean calculus for everybody. It does mean that we will expect everybody to be able to read and write at least a short essay."--Diane Ravitch, education historian.

Something new--If memory serves, this is the first time this column has been devoted to a single subject--the crisis of capitalist education. The crisis is so deep that it now gets wide media attention.  
 
 
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