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We are at IRA Minneapolis this week. We've got author signings at our Red Brick Learning booth all three days--come by booth 1526 and say hi!

By Edward Zelinsky

Many important decisions are embedded in the federal budget proposed by President Obama. Among these are the President’s embrace of the defined contribution paradigm. That paradigm promotes retirement savings through individual accounts such as IRAs and 401(k) accounts.

The Internal Revenue Code currently provides a savers’ income tax credit for lower income individuals who contribute to IRAs and 401(k) accounts. The Obama budget proposes to expand this credit and make it refundable. In addition, the Obama budget proposes to establish administrative infrastructure in the Department of Labor as the first step toward requiring employers without pension or profit sharing plans to enroll their employees in workplace IRAs.

Together, these two proposals commit the Obama Administration to the existing system of individual accounts as the prime means of encouraging private retirement savings.

Some observers had predicted a retreat from individual accounts in light of the Crash of 2008 and the consequent decline of most participants’ 401(k) and IRA balances. However, the Obama budget indicates that such a retreat is, so far at least, not occurring. Indeed, the Obama budget, if adopted as proposed, commits the federal government even more deeply to the individual accounts of the defined contribution paradigm.

Something similar happened after the fall of Enron. Enron’s demise devastated the 401(k) accounts of many Enron employees who held large quantities of Enron stock in such accounts. Some observers predicted that this debacle would force reconsideration of the individual accounts of the defined contribution paradigm. But, like Holmes’s dog that did not bark in the night, no such reconsideration occurred.

Similarly, the Obama budget signals that, in the wake of the Crash of 2008, the federal government remains committed to individual accounts for retirement savings. President Obama proposes to double our bet on IRAs and 401(k) accounts, both by enriching the tax-subsidy for low income persons who contribute to such accounts and by making such accounts universal in the workplace.

This decision puts President Obama in potential conflict with his allies in the union movement. Today, the last bastions of the traditional defined benefit plan are the unionized work forces of state and local governments. Taxpayers thus find themselves paying taxes for lucrative defined benefit plans for unionized state and local employees. And now the Obama budget makes clear to these taxpayers that their retirement savings future is financing their own 401(k) accounts — even as these taxpayers fund often rich defined benefit pensions for government employees.

President Obama has not embraced President Bush’s rhetoric about an “ownership society.” However, there is in substance great continuity in the retirement savings policies embodied in President Obama’s budget and the prescriptions of the Bush Administration. The Obama budget, by expanding the savers’ income tax credit and moving toward universal IRAs in the workplace, embraces the defined contribution paradigm.

I’ve blogged a bit about the upcoming election. Tonight’s final Presidential Debate will most likely focus on the economy (Rightfully so considering the DJII’s 733 point drop, the fact that people are losing their jobs left and right, and that states, like Massachusetts, are facing unprecedented budget deficits). However, as educators, it’s important [...]

I decided to transfer my old, messy, and incomplete book list that I kept on my Wiki to a GooglePages Website. I think I managed to record every single book I read aloud to my students this year by breaking out my read alouds into four categories: Reading Workshop Demonstration Texts [...]

Not literally, but I’m transporting my kids there through read alouds and through a PowerPoint Presentation I created of various neighborhoods and landmarks in Manhattan. The books we’re reading today, as part of Picture Bookpalooza, are: 1. Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey 2. Mr. Belinsky’s Bagels 3. The Doorman 4. This is [...]

Last week I was traveling yet again, this time to Atlanta for the International Reading Association (IRA) conference. I have a soft spot for IRA, as it was the very first conference I attended, back when it was held in San Francisco. I think it was back in 2002--I was just an assistant editor and it was all new and exciting for me. This year, I was quite excited to check out Atlanta. My father has a PhD from Georgia Tech and was finishing up when I was born. We moved away when I was about 9 months old, so I have no memory of it, and haven't been back since. From the little I saw of it, it was a cool city, but I'll have to go back when I have more time to explore--I didn't end up leaving the downtown area all week.

It was quite different from last year's under-attended conference in Toronto. We had a heavily-trafficked booth, partially because of our booth location (right near the entrance), and perhaps also because everyone who skipped out last year came this year. This, added to the fact that one of our colleagues wasn't able to make it at the last minute, leaving us short-handed and scrambling, resulted in all of us being busy from morning till night. I found myself with barely a spare minute all week.

I hadn't quite been prepared to see the extent of the damage from the tornado that hit the downtown area in March. Some of the hotel rooms in the Omni were damaged, although mine was untouched. Jerry Spinelli said that one of the windows in his room was held together by duct tape. "But it seemed study," he said--he had pushed on it. (!) Thank goodness it held.

Here's the view from my hotel room. You can see some damage in the building on the left.
And here's a closer photo of another building with extensive damage (I think this is actually one of the towers of the Omni).
Here are a few pics of the booth:We had seven authors/illustrators at the fair: Jerry Spinelli, Gail Giles, Joan Steiner, and Jerry Pinkney for the first half, and then Wendy Mass, Chris Gall, and Sherman Alexie later in the conference.

I'm not going to give the detailed play-by-play of this year's conference, and I didn't end up taking as many pictures as I usually do, but here are a few highlights:

I had met fellow editor Stacy Whitman for the first time at last year's IRA, and we managed to meet up again this year for some ice cream in the CNN center food court. Here's Stacy, and she has a wrap-up of the conference and more pics on her blog here.
Because we were short one staff member, the only session I was able to attend was the one with Wendy Mass and Pam Muñoz Ryan, which was excellent. I hadn't heard either one speak before, and found both to be passionate, heartfelt, and poised.
Later that day I ran into Lisa Yee while on the floor. Earlier in the conference, I had asked someone if "Lisa Yee had taken out her Peepy" which I realize sounds a bit weird. But here we are, and yes, she took out Peepy. Lisa is holding up her iPhone which had almost this exact same picture on it (except, of course, without the iPhone)--too bad it didn't show up.
Wendy had three signings after her panel, one at our booth, one with Scholastic, and then one at the Anderson Book Shop booth. I got a call from her during her last signing. "You have to come over here and see what's going on," she said. She wouldn't tell me more. I made it over and took a double take. There was quite a crowd, cameras flashing, women squealing. Do you recognize the gentleman sitting next to Wendy?
It's Jeff Foxworthy! Needless to say, Wendy didn't get much attention at that particular signing (but at least her other two signings were great). She was a good sport about it, though, and came away with a signed book for her kids, and a story to tell.

It was a conference full of author signings (back to back to back to back on Tuesday), dinners, cocktails, authors, editors and other publishing folk, and of course books books books. I didn't have too much time to walk the floor, but I did manage to snag the new Sharon Creech (Hate That Cat) and Andrew Clements (Things That Are--although I haven't read Things Not Seen yet).

We ended the fair on a high note, with a signing by Sherman Alexie on Thursday morning. The last day of the fair is generally quiet, so it wasn't quite the frenzy that we were expecting (although a few die-hard fans started lining up over a half hour before the signing), but Sherman stayed in the booth for a full hour and a half signing away. And for you fans out there, you'll be happy to know that his follow-up to The Absolutely True Diary of the Part-Time Indian should be out next Spring.
Thankfully, I don't have any more work travels until ALA at the end of June, although the hectic schedule isn't ending. I'm scrambling to edit all of my Spring 2009 novels right now so that they can go into copyediting by the end of the month. And this afternoon is our library preview for our Fall 2008 books (read about some of our previous ones over at Fuse #8 here and here). Stay tuned to find out who our surprise guest will be.

The Soldiers Are Everywhere Originally uploaded by teachergal We’re reading Number the Stars in Interactive Read Aloud right now. The kids love the book, even though they’re disgusted with the way the Nazis treated the Danish Citizens in Copenhagen. Hence, after reading Chapter Seven today, [...]

The panel on Wednesday morning was so much fun - a real diverse group of styles, genres, personalities, etc. It's always great to finally meet authors whose work you've long admired.

The presentation was titled: Engaging Girls with Adolescent Literature: Let's Hear It for the Girls - moderated by Claudia Katz of National-Louis University in Skokie, Illinois.

(left to right) Kelly DiPucchio, Wendi Corsi Staub, Shannon Hale, Lisa Klein, Rachel Vail, me

Rachel Vail (left) and me

(l to r) Shannon Hale, Lisa Klein

We’re at the International Reading Association’s national conference in Atlanta this week! Stop by the Red Brick Learning booth (#2817) to see the new products we’re working on with Red Brick Learning.

We’re launching our new Reader’s Theater at IRA. We are also doing a special punch card. Attendees can hear about our four featured products (one of which is Reader’s Theater) and enter to win a complete set of products of their choosing. We hope we’ll see you there!

I am in Atlanta, enjoying the post-podium high of a panel presentation: Reach Don't Preach! with Teri Lesesne, Tanya Lee Stone, Laura Ruby, and Sonya Somes.  

We had a wonderful time!

(If anyone who took a picture, please email!  I always forget my camera.)

The audience had so many great questions--I felt like we could have talked for another hour.  It was really inspiring--talking to teachers on "the front line," trying new things, looking to recognize their students and mentor them.  They had great stories--about the effect of books in the classroom.  It was great to meet so many readers interested in YA fiction.

And the thai food at SPOON, is worth the taxi-ride across town!

I go home tomorrow...hopefully, to warm weather!

 

We did a Poetry Pass for the first time during Interactive Read Aloud yesterday. I wanted to do it so that I could get the kids writing about a ‘heavy’ poem I presented them with, which is one of the texts in our voice/silence text set. They did a simply amazing job with responding, in [...]

Linda B. Gambrell, President of the International Reading Association, has a great column in the April/May 2008 Issue entitled “Closing the summer reading gap: You can make a difference!” It’s a great column on ways teachers can help their present classes stave-off summer reading loss. (Something I fear every September when a new [...]

I heard the clicking of heels on the hallway floor. The clicking was getting closer. It was Kate. She had come to talk about our upcoming Voice/Silence Interactive Read Aloud Text Set, for which we haven’t decided up on yet. We talked for a few minutes, both of us sitting atop [...]

Tomorrow’s Interactive Read Aloud includes Alan Say’s Book Grandfather’s Journey. Since our IRA Theme for the past two months has been immigration, I thought it would be nice to end out the unit with a book that the kids compile on their families (sort of as an unofficial independent writing project). I’m giving [...]

Still laughing....

The comments are a riot too!