Latest news with #MichaelPorter
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
SHS mathematics teacher named SPS District Teacher of the Year
Stillwater Public Schools named Stillwater High School mathematics teacher Michael Porter as its District Teacher of the Year, according to a district press release. The district made the announcement in a special May 2 ceremony that honored 10 other site-level Teachers of the Year. Porter was selected by a district committee and chosen by a vote among his colleagues. Porter will have a chance to represent SPS in the Oklahoma Teacher of the Year competition, according to the release. Porter is an alumnus of Oklahoma State University and has been teaching mathematics for 34 years. He is a club sponsor and a former coach. SHS Principal Walter Howell said Porter is a pillar of the high school and SPS. 'He's a trusted colleague who means so much to so many people at SHS,' Howell said in a statement. 'He's a huge supporter of our students and cares deeply that his students are well prepared for their next step, whatever that may be.' Howell said the thing that he admires most about Porter is his positive attitude. 'I have never, and I repeat, never seen him in a bad mood,' Howell said. 'He exudes the attitude that we all want in a teacher. He loves his job and he loves our students. I am honored to work alongside him.' Porter said he is blessed to be a part of the SHS family. 'I am surrounded by outstanding teachers and principals. The entire staff truly cares for each other,' Porter said. 'It is a remarkable culture we have built.' Porter focused on the achievements of Stillwater students instead of the honor he received. 'The real stars of the show are our amazing students,' Porter said. 'Stillwater is famous for academics. We have an entire trophy case full of academic state championships. But it's not limited to just excelling in the classroom, these kids are good at everything.' He pointed to the wrestling team bringing home another state championship, SPS musicals, the FFA program, the SHS aviation program, the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America program qualifiers, the Pioneer Pathfinder program and Stillwater Makes A Change. 'At Stillwater High School, the standard of excellence is set very high,' Porter said. 'I am honored to be a part of it, and as I say all the time … It's a great day to be a Pioneer.' At the May 2 ceremony, the Stillwater Public Education Foundation awarded site-level honorees $200 through the Larry Gish Memorial Fund, and each honoree also received a gift basket with items and gift cards from local businesses. 'The Wilson Auto Family presented Porter with the keys to a new Chevy Equinox, which he will drive for two years,' the release reads. 'Wilson also contributed $1,000 to each site Teacher of the Year and $4,000 to the district winner, a portion of which covers insurance and vehicle registration.' Other site-level SPS Teachers of the Year honorees include: – Courtney Parks, Library Media Specialist, Highland Park Elementary – Zach Boydston, Physical Education, Richmond Elementary – Hannah Day, Kindergarten, Sangre Ridge Elementary – Annie Ortiz, Enrichment, Skyline Elementary – Caleb Davis, Fifth Grade, Westwood Elementary – Karen Holman, Third Grade, Will Rogers Elementary – Rebekah Jimenez, ELL, Stillwater Middle School – Madeline El Ouarraqe, Special Services, Stillwater Junior High – Carmen Ryan, Virtual Secondary, Stillwater Pioneer Virtual Academy – Scott Petermann, Social Studies, Lincoln Alternative Academy
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Starmer's economic policies have collapsed into an incoherent mess
What, exactly, is the point of Sir Keir Starmer's Government? This isn't a rhetorical question. It's not a rhetorical set-up for a cheap joke about 'raising your taxes to subsidise Indian workers', or 'establishing representation without taxation for as many migrants as possible'. I mean that if you sat down and grilled the Prime Minister, I'm not sure he'd be able to give you an answer. After less than a year in office, the Labour Party is drowning in a sea of rapidly proliferating targets and rebrands. We already have six milestones, six first steps and five missions by which to measure and judge the Government, and after last week's local election drubbing another reset appears imminent as Sir Keir attempts to stuff Nigel Farage back into his box. As Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter remarked, strategy is choosing what not to do. If everything is your first priority, nothing is. And if you attempt to chase every car that passes by, you'll end up in a dizzy mess exactly where you started. So far, that appears to be the fate of Sir Keir's Government. With few principles beyond a blind adherence to a maximalist interpretation of international law to guide it, Downing Street has no way to coherently assess trade-offs, or to maintain a course towards long-term objectives. The result is an operation that is constantly on the back foot, reacting to the world around it with slapdash policy decisions that fail to cohere into a programme for Government. The India trade deal is an excellent example of the chaos that results. Taken on its own, it's probably mostly fine. There's still a chance that the Government is attempting to pull a fast one on migration, but assume for a moment that it isn't. Then you have a deal that will raise GDP by about 0.1pc, and boost real wages by cutting the prices of a few imports. It's a minor victory that could be sold as a big one, appealing to precisely those Reform voters who want to see the Government capitalising on Brexit. But it's also a deal that gives Indian workers posted to Britain a three-year tax break on National Insurance contributions just as the UK is raising the tax burden to its highest level since the Second World War. Those defending the deal have claimed it's simply a way of avoiding the same work being taxed twice, which entirely misses the point. If these workers are in Britain, earning British incomes, making use of British infrastructure and institutions to earn their incomes, then they should be paying British taxes, and doubly so at a point when Rachel Reeves is imposing £36bn in tax rises to try and make the books balance. India is desperate to send educated workers overseas because it can't provide enough work for them domestically – its graduate unemployment rate is roughly 13pc – and because their labour has rapidly become one of its most important exports. Personal remittances to India are equivalent to roughly 3pc of its GDP, roughly four times higher than inwards direct investment, and sufficient to cover its external trade deficit. From India's point of view, relieving its ex pats of the burden of UK taxes – and let's remember, that's what National Insurance actually is – is a great deal that allows it to continue collecting its own social security contributions and frees up income to be brought back with the worker when their posting ends. From the Treasury's point of view, a paper co-authored by the Confederation of Indian Industry put the cost in the region of £500m or so a year in 2020. Given that National Insurance revenue has risen roughly 25pc since then, the deal could end up being a £625m a year sweetener tied to making it easier for migrants to work in Britain. This, remember, in a week where Labour is preparing a migration crackdown in an attempt to ward off Reform, in a period when concern over fiscal pressures is seeing departments ordered to scrimp and save at the public expense. The problem isn't so much that the deal is a bad one, so much as it's one that it's hard to sell alongside other elements of the Starmer agenda. When policy in each field is being made in response to immediate pressures, there's no common theme. In the coming weeks we are apparently expected to sign a 'limited' deal with Washington granting relief from some of Donald Trump's 'liberation day' tariffs. A more ambitious deal is off the table in part because Downing Street wants plans for a closer deal with Europe, which will in turn be limited by fears of too openly walking back the Brexit vote. Torn between two outcomes, Sir Keir will choose neither. Over and over, the same pattern plays out. The prime minister who set out to cut red tape has created 27 quangos while drafting employment-destroying regulations. The leader who slammed a Tory experiment with open borders has ended up renting houses for illegal migrants. And a europhile who wants closer ties to the EU has ended up torn between that goal and capitalising on opportunities with trade with the US, making political concessions without fully realising the potential economic benefits. Returning to Porter, what is Sir Keir choosing not to do? He isn't willing to confront the courts and the activists on illegal migration. He isn't willing to bite the bullet on NHS reform, or address the broken university fee system driving the sector off a cliff, or address the government failures bankrupting councils. He isn't willing to commit to Europe or to the globe. In short, he's choosing not to make big decisions. It's less a matter of a Prime Minister triangulating between constraints than it is veering from decision to decision with no real plan, a manager without an objective to reach. Strangely, the core of the problem may be that Sir Keir is too conservative in a very loose sense of the word, instinctively attempting to preserve the systems he's inherited rather than attempting to reshape them. Indeed, where possible he appears to take his cue from 'the rules' rather than making decisions for himself. So a budget black hole is no barrier to forking out billions to give away a vital strategic asset, and the definition of 'woman' is made clear by the stroke of a judge's pen. But this is clearly inadequate for the challenges facing Britain. When you're headed for the rocks, the challenge isn't keeping the ship of state on an even keel. It's finding a new direction. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Bloomberg
02-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
The US Is Turning Into an Emerging Market
For as long as any of us can remember, emerging-market companies have tried to learn from US companies. Diversified conglomerates have turned to the US to master the art of corporate focus. The heads of family companies have sent their children to Harvard Business School. Ambitious managers read the writings of Western business gurus such as Michael Porter and Gary Hamel. Now US companies need to return the compliment. The US is rapidly shedding its Western skin and turning itself into an emerging market. And nobody knows better how to navigate the pitfalls — and exploit the opportunities — of such a market than companies that have been doing it all their lives: Think of Mexico's Grupo Bimbo SAB, founded in 1945, which endured national and international turmoil to emerge as one of the world's leading bakeries; India's Tata Group, founded in 1868, which has survived colonialism, national liberation and the neoliberal revolution; or Turkey's Koc Holdings AS, founded in 1926, which has thrived in one of the world's most turbulent corners.
