The Brian Lehrer Show

Open Phones: Teacher Tenure and Test Scores

State legislators failed to link teacher tenure to test scores, another blow to Mayor Bloomberg's agenda. Should teacher tenure be determined by student achievement? If so, how?

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NYT: Legislators Balk at Tying Teacher Tenure to Student Tests

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Iraq on Capitol Hill

Fawaz Gerges, professor in Middle East and International Affairs at Sarah Lawrence College and author of The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global, offers analysis of the Crocker and Petraeus testimony in yesterday's Congressional hearings. Michael Hirsh, senior editor at Newsweek's Washington Bureau, joins in to comment on Obama's call for diplomacy in Iran, and how Obama and Clinton differ in their plans to stabilize Iraq.

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Debating the Internet

Lee Siegel, author of Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob, and Nicholson Baker, author of Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization, preview their debate at the New York Public Library over whether the internet offers more freedom or just more surveillance.

More about the April 10th debate at the NYPL
Nicholson Baker on The Charms of Wikipedia

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Torching Your Bridges

As the Olympic torch makes its worldwide tour, protesters are seizing the opportunity to speak up about China's human rights abuses. We check in with KQED reporter Kelly Wilkinson, on the torch's visit to San Francisco. We also hear from BBC World Affairs Correspondent Paul Reynolds on the history of Olympic protest.

We want to hear from you: Should the U.S. boycott the Beijing Olympics? Should the President just boycott the opening ceremonies? Or should the Olympics be left out of politics?

Comment below!

Pictures of the Torch in San Francisco from the KQED Flickr Pool

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China Steps Out

Richard Baum, professor of Political Science at the University of California - Los Angeles, and former Director of the UCLA Center for Chinese Studies, looks at what these Olympics - and the growing protests - mean for China's place on the world stage.

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Upside to High Prices?

Some people draw a straight line from cheap, subsidized corn prices to the obesity epidemic and the accompanying high rates of diabetes and heart disease. Anna Lappé, co-founder (with her mother, Frances Lappé) of the Small Planet Institute and author of Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen and Nina Planck, former director of New York's Greenmarket and author of Real Food: What to Eat and Why, discuss whether or not higher food prices means we’ll eat healthier food.

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