“I never looked at any of my relatives as compulsive gamblers,” writes Mike Morsch in Illinois Issues (November), “and I’m pretty sure I know what the answer would be if I suggested to any of them that they enroll in the state’s Self-Exclusion Program,” which lets gamblers ask to be kept off riverboats. “They would immediately lay odds on the over-under number of people who actually would enroll in the program.”
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The Chicago Public Schools spent almost $6,500 per teacher on professional development last year, “but the money yielded little discernible improvement in teaching, according to a first-ever, comprehensive inventory of professional development activities in the system,” writes Alexander Russo in Catalyst Chicago (November). School budget expert Karen Hawley Miles finds that, as in other districts, “the central office has not developed clear standards for instructional quality and has scattered professional development programs throughout the bureaucracy without any clear lines of accountability for results.”
The horror of praising McDonald’s. In the November issue of Conscious Choice editor Rebecca Ephraim agonizes over what attitude to take toward McDonald’s given its “newfound leadership in encouraging animal welfare”: “Granted, McDonald’s is spurring a national movement for animal welfare among fast food and supermarket chains. Perhaps, then, its action should not be summarily dismissed even if the motive is based on profits rather than philanthropy.” She didn’t consider whether it should be applauded all the more for basing its policy change on profits, a dependably long-lasting motivation, rather than some fleeting do-gooder sentiment.
