The B&R Sunday Skim

Obamacare’s seven tax hikes on the middle class
The limits on the FSAs and HSAs give away the game.  If Obama and his lackeys really cared about people’s health, they wouldn’t take away one of the main ways that people can actually manage their bills. Even if you have insurance, the dental and eyecare coverage aren’t great.  I know several otherwise nice-looking men who had their bad teeth pulled when they were younger and are used medical savings accounts or a payment plan at U-D’s dental school to get dentures. You can have a good resume, but if you’re missing teeth, employers don’t want you.
Richard Dawkins to atheist rally: ‘Show contempt’ for faith
Atheists commenting on the rally’s coverage are trying to spin it as a harmless gathering, a rally against a society biased against them, etc.  They’re glossing over the fact that treating people with contempt based on their religion is intolerance.  
Cheating our children: Suspicious school test scores across the nation
A lot of (non-union) administrators had to be involved in order to fake attendance and “fix” scores.  My over-the-shoulder reader wants to add that she had high school classmates who had their grades “adjusted” by the principal/superintendent over the protests of their teachers.  They were then eligible for college sports scholarships.

Buried in the bottom of the story is this little gem: “Improbable scores were twice as likely to appear in charter schools as regular schools. Charters, which receive public money, can face intense pressure as supposed laboratories of innovation that, in theory, live or die by their academic performance.“

The Michigan legislature is pushing charter schools, cyberschools, and hybrid schools as cheaper alternatives to regular public schools, but it has yet to figure out standards of accountability.  I was talking about this to a parochial school teacher last week, because an extremely poor teacher of our acquaintance has been hired by an hybrid school (part in-building class, part online).  We wondered how many years it will take for her lack of skills and lbad work ethic to be noticed in that sort of situation.