Good Idea, Let's Lower Drop Out Rates by Passing Dummies

Seriously, I have long since thought that we should just let Mexico have California back.  Go ahead and give it to them.  Of course they have to take the debt with them too.  I am sure there are very nice people living in California; MAInfo and Left Coast Rebel to name just two, but they just keep scraping the bottom of the barrel.  I am at the point that I have to wonder how there is any barrel left to scrape.  


Drop out rates are alarmingly high in the Los Angeles Unified School District, 1 in 3 will not finish high school.  Considering that they are spending somewhere close to $28K per student one would have to say they are doing a bang up job with the taxpayer funds that they are allocated.  


One would think with numbers this abysmal they would try some out of the box thinking in order to get improvement.  Say maybe open more charter schools, maybe do a voucher program to help these students who want a good education to get into a better school system, or even allow students to go to better public schools.  Alas, no that is not what they decided to do.  In their infinite wisdom they have decided that the best course of action is to lower the standards it takes to graduate.  That's right, just pass them along anyway.  You will now be considered passed with a grade of D. Apparently learning something isn't the goal.  Just getting you passed along is good enough.  


As it stands now only 15% of the students from this school system can pass the entrance exams to enter into the Cal State University System, which really isn't so bad when you consider that 50% of them don't bother finishing the prep classes.  So lowering the standards is going to help with that endeavor?  I guess they will worry about those dismal numbers at a later date.  


Good call.  Homeschool anyone?  


Via Drudge.