UK Independent Private Schools
Sparticus links to this site with the following comment: "Recent research suggests that the average cost of a private education is £7,500 a year. This is three times what is spent on the child receiving a state education. If they gain power the Conservative Party have claimed that they will encourage parents to take £5,500 out of state coffers to pay for private education. The plan forbids its use on any school with fees higher than this. It is difficult to see how this will work. With private schools costing up to £9,000 a year and new ones needed capital to set up, few new schools would emerge to take up the offer." What I wonder is, with costs ranging at three times that of a public education, where do private schools get a reputation for efficiency. More...

Hand Scanners to Keep Tabs on Students at Boca Middle School
The hand scanners will be used by teachers to take attendance. Though I don't really see how it really improves anything; my recollection of attendance is that it was over in a couple of minutes (in other words, more quickly than it will take a class of students to line up to have their hands scanned). More...

WordPress Plugin: FOAF Output
The Semantic Social Network marches forward. This link is to a Friend of a Friend (FOAF) plugin for the open source blogging tool, WordPress. More...