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TOPEKA – Gov. Sam Brownback is proposing that evaluations of Kansas teachers be posted online for the public to see. Are they highly effective, effective, progressing or ineffective?

The proposal, which is part of the Kansas governor’s plan to overhaul school financing, is only now coming to light. But if its first hearing Thursday was any indication, the idea will be a tough sell.A governor’s representative defended the plan, saying it would identify and reward the best teachers and encourage more engagement between teachers, parents and students.But Rep. Jana Goodman of Leavenworth called the plan a veiled attempt to blame all student performance outcomes on teachers.“Most schools know who the good teachers are,” said Goodman, a Republican. “This is too much.”Rep. Ronald Ryckman, a Republican from Meade, said it should be up to local school boards and administrators to fire bad teachers — not an online symposium.“I just think that would be a disaster,” he said.Under Brownback’s proposal, the ratings would be based 50 percent on growth in student achievement, 40 percent on input from supervisors, peers, parents and students and 10 percent on contributions by the employee to the profession…………… continues on Kansas City Star

Barely a day after Google, Wikipedia and dozens of other websites united in protest of two anti-piracy bills in Congress, the U.S. Justice Department and FBI shut down the file-sharing site Megaupload a week ago in what the department called one of the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought.

“This domain name associated with the website Megaupload.com has been seized pursuant to an order issued by a U.S. District Court (sic),” reads a banner that appears at the site’s Web address.

In a display of international cooperation, police in New Zealand arrested four people, including German millionaire and Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom (born Kim Schmitz). They were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of copyright infringement and conspiracy of racketeering and money laundering, and could face up to 20 years in prison. A handful of other suspects remain at large.

Megaupload allowed users to anonymously uploa…………… continues on Daily Nebraskan