Today on AirTalk, we look at federal Race to the Top education grants and teachers union refusal to sign on to applications. We'll also consider the role of climate change in modern life and politics. Jeff Goldblum and Theresa Rebeck talk about "Seminar," now at the Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles, and on FilmWeek, Larry and the critics review this week's releases. Later, the makers and subjects of "Burn," a documentary about Detroit firefighters, discuss their film.
California schools skip federal grants due to lack of union support
The Los Angeles Unified School District is going ahead with their application for federal grant money from Race to the Top, without the essential support of the teachers union. Race for the Top grants give up to $40 million to public schools. But unions who oppose the grants argue that the program’s test score-based teacher evaluations and strict guidelines stifle creativity and are bad for both students and teachers.
Several districts in California and nationwide have not applied for the grants because their teachers’ unions refuse to support the program. Some districts have gone ahead with the application process without the required signatures from union representatives, while others have withdrawn completely.
Supporters of Race to the Top grants argue that the millions of dollars in federal funding is crucial for students and schools in need of a boost, and that the teachers unions are doing their students a disservice to protect their own jobs. Opponents say that the program’s score-based evaluations and the long-lasting effects of implementation make for less creative, less productive classrooms, and the wrong kind of learning. They also point out that the grants require districts to commit their own funds to the program and to continue to maintain them past the four-year grant period - which could be unsustainable for strapped schools.
Should the unions sign on to support the grant applications? How should grants like Race to the Top measure success? How would your child’s school benefit from Race to the Top money -- would you rather they had the funds, or do you trust the teachers?
Guest:
Tami Carlson, president, Glendale Teachers’ Association
Tim Martin, president, Riverside City Teachers’ Association
Peter Cunningham, Assistant Secretary of Education
Bloomberg Businessweek boldly claims, 'It’s Global Warming, Stupid'
This election cycle, climate change has been mostly ignored – Mitt Romney has avoided the topic except to joke about it, while President Obama has shied away from his contributions to alternative energy resources.
The presidential candidates haven’t been the only ones to ignore global warming and climate change issues – the topic seems to have slipped from the forefronts of American minds. But with Sandy sweeping the Eastern seaboard and leaving a trail of destruction in her wake, the climate change debate is back, leaving many wondering whether global warming influenced the storm.
Bloomberg Businessweek is answering with an emphatic yes, and other publications are following suit. Devastating natural disasters are not new to the modern age, but human impact is worsening their impact – an already-powerful hurricane combined with global warming is a perfect storm.
What kinds of adaptations are necessary to prevent and protect against future climate change disasters? Should the government be investing more in this issue?
Guest:
Paul Barrett, Assistant Managing Editor, Bloomberg Businessweek
Jeff Goldblum leads an onstage 'Seminar' at the Ahmanson
Lovers of literature and the inner workings of the minds that craft it can revel in the wordfest that is “Seminar.” The play, written by Pulitzer Prize finalist Theresa Rebeck, stars Jeff Goldblum in the role originated by Alan Rickman on Broadway.
Goldblum, under the direction of Sam Gold, plays a brilliant but unconventional literary luminary teaching a private course to four young aspiring writers. Despite having lived with the play for the past seven months, Goldblum says he is continually exploring his character, the mesmerizing, manipulative Leonard, and making new discoveries on an almost daily basis.
Smart, sexy, and provocative, the comedy explores the depths of what it means, and what it costs, to be an artist. Goldblum joined Larry in studio to talk about the play and what's next for him once the production wraps on November 18.
Interview Highlights:
On how he prepared to fully embody his character, Leonard:
"I love this material, Theresa Rebeck is a brilliant playwright. This piece of material is wonderful and its challenging and needed all my studying. I like to study anyway, so I got some students and some teachers that I work with and I started to work with it every day and we started to put it on. I've got a guest house in my backyard and I made a little set like the set and we put it on and showed a couple of people once a week who had never seen it before and had focus groups. I've been studying it…So its a great class for me, you rarely get a piece of material like this that's so juicy and beautifully written."
On how much he's learned about his character during the play's run:
"I'm still challenged, I am going to eat up these last couple of weeks that we've got because its so complicated and mysterious and poetical, that at least for me to fill it all in is a very delicious little assignment. There are references to the character's past and what happened exactly. You finally find out that I'm wounded and sabotaged myself in some ways. To make that real and to make it personal and invent in a detailed way about it, it's just challenging to me. I love it and like I said I woke up this morning thinking about that one element about this stuff that I'm teaching them and it started to make a little more sense to me, and that's not for lack of trying I've done this every day for the last seven months, since I found out I got the job. So I'm going to be sad to see it go."
On what he's working on after they play wraps:
"I do a couple of movies the day after I finish this. I go off to Paris to do this movie that Rorer Michele is directing who I worked with in "Morning Glory," who did "Notting Hill," and a couple independent movies that I've seen, "Venus" with Peter O'Toole…Then I come back and I play with my Jazz band here, the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, we have a gig at Crustacean on New Year's Eve, please come you're heartily invited to that. I'm a pianist I sing a little bit and I've got great musicians who play with me, so we're going to play that and then I go off and I do Wes Anderson's next movie the Grand Budapest Hotel in Germany in January."
On his side gig as a Jazz pianist:
"I'm from Pittsburgh, my dad was a doctor, but they were fans of theater and bring home Errol Garner records and Jazz records and they gave us piano lessons and it kind of took with me, especially when I discovered jazz and I started to play around Pittsburgh in cocktail lounges when I was 15, 16. I always wanted to be an actor, but I've kept a piano with me and started to play out and about here in L.A."
For ticket information visit the Center Theater Group website.
Guests:
Jeff Goldblum, actor currently starring in Seminar at the Ahmanson
Theresa Rebeck, playwright, television writer, novelist; her play "Seminar" is playing at the Ahmanson Theater through November 18
FilmWeek: Flight, Wreck-It-Ralph, This Must Be the Place and more
Larry is joined by KPCC film critics Henry Sheehan from dearhenrysheehan.com, Lael Loewenstein from Variety and Charles Solomon from amazon.com to review the week’s new film releases including Flight, Wreck-It-Ralph, This Must Be the Place and more. TGI-FilmWeek!
Flight:
Wreck-It-Ralph:
This Must Be the Place:
Guest:
Lael Loewenstein, film critic for KPCC and Variety
Henry Sheehan, film critic for KPCC and dearhenrysheehan.com
Charles Solomon, film critic and animation historian for KPCC, author for amazon.com
Detroit firefighters feel the 'Burn'
Ever since 9/11, Americans have been well aware of the intrinsic connection between a city and its firefighters. In no city is this relationship more dramatic and indicative of a town’s character than in Detroit. Since 1950, the population of Detroit has dwindled from an original level of 1.8 million citizens.
Today, it’s half that size, and racial tensions, social problems, struggling businesses and abandoned houses are on the rise. The conflation of all these different aspects results in quite a bit of fires, as Detroit has one of the highest rates of arson in the entire world. For some comparison, Los Angeles’s population of 4 million experiences about 11 structure fires each day, while Detroit’s 713,000 see 30 such fires.
Tasked with the job of handling these fires fall to fire crews like Engine Company 50, one of the country’s busiest firehouses and the subject of a new documentary from filmmakers Tom Putnam and Brenna Sanchez. “Burn: One Year on the Front Lines of the Battle to Save Detroit,” is an in-depth look at the lives of firefighters who put their health on the line every day for Detroit. They receive a modest pay, and haven’t seen a raise in 10 years. Their stories are as tragic as they are inspiring, and provide a frank and raw examination of real American heroes.
Guests:
Brenna Sanchez, Co-Producer & Co-Director, “Burn”; Sanchez is a Detroit native, based in Los Angeles
Tom Putnam,
Co-Producer & Co-Director, “Burn”Brendan Milewski aka “Doogie”
, firefighter from Engine Company 50 in Detroit featured in the movie