This week in “news that shouldn’t shock you,” Republicans are trying out a new way to destroy–or at least maim–Obamacare. It is abundantly clear that Healthcare.gov was launched with some technical matters still to be resolved; however, because shutting down the government didn’t work out the way they planned, certain House Republicans are using this week’s hearings to employ more scare tactics in order to accomplish their goal. The perseverance on behalf of Republicans to get rid of Obamacare is making some of us in #nerdland wonder if we are watching law makers in action–or Wile E. Coyote.
On Saturday’s Melissa Harris-Perry, our host and panel will take a deep dive into just what went wrong with the healthcare exchange website, and how President Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius plan on fixing it.
Now that the government has reopened its doors, President Obama is refocusing his attention back to immigration. As of late, most of the media attention surrounding immigration has focused on the Senate’s immigration bill. But what has not received the same attention is how difficult our current immigration process is or the costly measures and often inhumane steps the government takes to detain undocumented immigrants. Join us Saturday as #nerdland takes a look into just what goes into applying for a green card. Also, this startling fact: the obligation mandated by Congress to keep 34,000 people a day in detention. Read this column by our guest Silky Shah before Saturday’s show!
If you were enrolled in public school any time after 2002, then you probably remember the onslaught of standardized tests you took because of George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind policy. You probably rolled your eyes as you sharpened your #2 pencil wondering what this test was for, or if it even mattered. As it turns out, those juvenile grumblings may not have been made in vain. One of the experts at the forefront of No Child Left Behind and other such policies, education scholar and historian Diane Ravitch, has made a 180-degree-turn regarding her former convictions on how to assess public schools. In her new book Reign of Error, Ravitch rejects the high-stakes testing she once promoted as well as the privatization of public education through charter schools. Ravitch will join Nerdland on Saturday for an in depth conversation on the state of public schools in America, where the problems lie, and how we can solve them.
Be sure to read what we’ve linked above, and watch Melissa Harris-Perry Saturday at 10 a.m. EST on MSNBC! Also, don’t forget to join us on Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag #nerdland.
Rachel Zuckerman