Collectivism Rears Its Ugly Head - Honors Night Cancelled in Rhode Island School

A middle school in East Greenwich, Rhode Island has cancelled the time honored tradition of "Honors Night".  It might hurt the feelings of some:

“members of the school community have long expressed concerns related to the exclusive nature of Honors Night,” 

Isn't that the point?  I mean really.  The honor roll is for students that worked hard and achieved a certain grade point average.  At least that is what I always led to believe.  I guess it has changed since I left school. Oh, but have no fear the students will indeed get their moment in the sun with "team based" recognition during graduation ceremonies.   

“This will afford us the opportunity to celebrate the individual and collective successes of all students and their effort, progress, and excellence,”

What I would like to know is did the collective do the homework and studying for the students that were able to make the honor roll this year?  If not, aren't they get recognized for something that they didn't actually do?  

This collective nonsense is killing this country.  We are not preparing students for the real world.  When you out looking for a job, it isn't a team.  It is you.  When you are out working that job, it is your work ethic that will make a difference in your pay scales, your job titles, and all else that goes with working in the real world.  Even if you are in a "team" environment, you still have to pull your own weight or you will get kicked to the curb.  Do you think if you are working in job that has this collective work environment that your "teammates" are going to be happy if they are working overtime to get the job done and you are walking out at five minutes to five?  Not likely.  

This school is teaching these children that their hard work doesn't really matter.  That is what we are teaching children in schools these days?  No wonder our education system is failing.   

The Dumbing Down of The Black Community Continues

I came across an article today on our very sad public education system in our country.  What is the most bothersome about the article is how little respect for the black community this administration seems to have.  I think I have made it quite clear that I am no fan of Bush's No Child Left Behind initiative.  Well it seems that we have left it behind.  But the one thing that I will say in favor of it is the fact that it did not discriminate based on color.  The present day expectations, not so much.

Here are the very sad numbers:

In D.C. the expectations for white students is that 94% will be proficient in math, while the expectation for the black community is expected to be only 71%.

In Tennessee the black students are only expected to be at 64% in English 2.

In Minnesota we are hoping for a whopping 62% in math.

The list continues.  Why aren't we expecting all students, regardless of color to be proficient in both math and English?  We spend a fortune on public education in this country and yet we are saying it is perfectly acceptable that blacks can lag behind.  In some cases we are saying that one-third of black students can not be able to complete a high school math problem and not be able to read and/or write a paragraph in proper English.

Oh Al Sharpton, paging Al Sharpton.  Why aren't you outraged at this?  What this administration is saying is that blacks are not able to be held to the same standards as everyone else in the country.  That they just can't do the work.  I am sorry, but I refuse to accept that.  This is about low expectations.

One parent in Alabama:

"I think having a low bar means they can just pass them on. I think it's dumbing our race down and preparing our boys for prison."

While that may seem like an exaggeration,  it really isn't.  When you take a look at the demographics of people who are in the prison system, the numbers of people who don't graduate high school is very high.  From the Bureau of Justice Statistics:

• 68% of State prison inmates did not receive a high school diploma
• About 26% of State prison inmates said they had completed the GED while serving time in a correctional facility.

We are giving up on members of our society, especially those of color.  We are expecting less and less, all the while the calls for income inequality, more welfare, more food stamps, and other entitlement programs grow louder and louder from the left.  Hey, I have an idea, lets stop saying that blacks aren't capable of learning math and English, lets set the bar high and see what happens.

Sadly, the black community will be still thinking that President Obama has the back the black community.  He is their messiah, here to right the wrongs that have been done to them by a racist society.  Never mind that this mindset is part and parcel of the democrat party, that blacks can't do as well as whites or Asians.  We can expect less of them.

After all, it certainly helps the party if blacks are kept in the same position that many find themselves in today.  We wouldn't want them to do better now do we?  They might just start to figure out that government is perfectly happy in keeping them dumb-downed.  It allows the size and scope of government to grow and grow.  It is good for business.  Who cares if it is bad for people?  They are besides the point.

Better Not Read the Bible During "Read to Yourself Time" in Second Grade

A second grader is alleging that her teacher took away her bible during the classroom "read to yourself time".  After all why would you want a child reading something as dangerous as a bible?  She may learn a few things about values.  We wouldn't want that now would we?  

One parent feels it was the right thing to do.  After all it is "pushing" religion on her child.  Really, how so?  This is quite time.  The little girl pulls her bible out of her backpack, sits quietly at her own desk and reads it.  How is this pushing this onto someone else?  Now if her child was forced to read it against their will, then an argument can be made, but that isn't what happened.  

The parents have decided to not be identified and went to The Liberty Council to address the issue with the school system.  It is very possible that they should have gone to the principal first before involving an outside organization, but sadly many people are attacked for their religious views in this country and called bigots and haters for espousing biblical based beliefs, such as traditional marriage.  

In any event no teacher has the right to tell a child that during a free reading time that the bible isn't appropriate reading material.  That is something for a parent to decide.  

Sorry I am unable to embed video, but you can see the news report here.  

Kindergartner Told Not To Pray in Lunchroom Because it is "Not Good"

These parents are considering homeschooling.  

My wife and I were shocked when our 5-year-old daughter began to tell us that someone on staff at her school saw her praying – told her to stop – and said “it is not good”. This is Kindergarten. She was praying to herself for her food, following the biblical values we are working hard to instill in our children. We are so proud of our little princess and as you can see – we continue to affirm her that prayer IS GOOD and that NO ONE can tell her she can’t pray. No doubt we will homeschool going forward.

We live in the United States of America – the land of the free, yet our traditional values and religious freedoms are under assault. This is just a small example.

This isn't about your personal views of religion.  It is about her views and her rights.  She was hurting no one by praying silently over her meal.  She was simply taking advantage of the rights that all Americans have to freely exercise their religious views.  

I just wish people would stop denying that religion is under attack in this country.  It most certainly is.  

Parent's Night for Blacks Only - Apparently White Parents Don't Have Questions or Concerns About Their Child's Education

This happened in Portland, Oregon 

Do these idiots not realize how racist this is?  I guess not.  

H/T KXL 

Only Bad People Want a Good Education for their Children

So says Allison Benedikt of Slate Magazine.   Seriously, she said that.

This article had me laughing out loud.  Of course I was laughing in a way that is really just to cover my utter shock, disbelief, and total dismay.

I am not an education policy wonk: I’m just judgmental. But it seems to me that if every single parent sent every single child to public school, public schools would improve. This would not happen immediately. It could take generations. Your children and grandchildren might get mediocre educations in the meantime, but it will be worth it, for the eventual common good.

Apparently it is perfectly fine for at least a few generations to get a lousy education because down the road it will help all.  Now that is logic isn't it?  Insert primal scream here.

Now correct me if I am wrong, but I thought liberals thought there was nothing better than education.  Matter of fact don't they say that public schools are a human right?  I seem to remember former congressman and convicted felon Jesse Jackson, Jr. talking about that on the floor of congress.  Yeah matter of fact there is video of that conversation, oh and don't forget the constitutionally protected iPad too.

What is really funny about this entire article is that by the end she completely contradicts herself:

I went K–12 to a terrible public school. My high school didn’t offer AP classes, and in four years, I only had to read one book. There wasn’t even soccer. This is not a humblebrag! I left home woefully unprepared for college, and without that preparation, I left college without having learned much there either. You know all those important novels that everyone’s read? I haven’t. I know nothing about poetry, very little about art, and please don’t quiz me on the dates of the Civil War. I’m not proud of my ignorance. But guess what the horrible result is? I’m doing fine. I’m not saying it’s a good thing that I got a lame education. I’m saying that I survived it, and so will your child, who must endure having no AP calculus so that in 25 years there will be AP calculus for all.

Again, correct me if I am wrong, if she is doing just fine without AP classes and no organized soccer teams, why wouldn't future generations do "just fine" as well?  I mean why would anyone need it regardless of what generation they come from?  It would seem to me that everyone will be able to find their dream job, such as working at Slate Magazine even though they learned virtually nothing after 17 years of education.  Now I did take AP Calculus and I don't work at Slate.  So apparently my "better" education didn't really help me that much did it?

She believes that if all children go to public school we will have a better school system.  Lets think about that for a minute.  Because it seems what she is saying is that people are stuck living in the neighborhoods with horrible public schools don't care that their kids are receiving a bad education.  Because after all if they did they would push for change right?  Oh wait, they are pushing for change and the unions stand in the way of those changes and much-needed reforms.  She never mentions that part of the equation.  I guess she didn't get algebra in her crappy public school either.  You know the thing that has you put all parts of the equation together to come to the correct solution.  There are millions upon millions of parents who are fighting to make changes in their local schools only to be met with hostility and resistance.  We have the NAACP suing to keep open the worst performing school system in the country all the while the lawyer filing the suit sends her child to boarding school in another state.  She knows her kid will be cheated if she attends those schools.  She has money, to heck with the poor and struggling middle class that can't afford the same.

Also remember that there’s more to education than what’s taught. As rotten as my school’s English, history, science, social studies, math, art, music, and language programs were, going to school with poor kids and rich kids, black kids and brown kids, smart kids and not-so-smart ones, kids with superconservative Christian parents and other upper-middle-class Jews like me was its own education and life preparation. Reading Walt Whitman in ninth grade changed the way you see the world? Well, getting drunk before basketball games with kids who lived at the trailer park near my house did the same for me. In fact it’s part of the reason I feel so strongly about public schools.

I totally don't get how getting drunk at trailer parks makes her feel strongly about public schools and that leading to the willingness to allow at least two or three more generations to have a substandard education, but that's just me.

Education reform is a passion of mine.  I would love to see every child in this country have the best education possible.  The problem is that, as of today, the last thing that will get us there is the public school system.  We are failing in virtually every measure and it will become a national security issue when people in this country can't compete on the world stage.  The system needs serious reform, unions and the government have far more power over the system than any PTA will ever have.  The current system doesn't allow those types of changes nor does it give parents many options when trying to push for change.

No one is a bad parent for wanting their child to get the best possible education that they can give to their child, for this woman to say that they are makes me wonder if she has any children of her own.  If so, doesn't her great job at Slate pay her enough to live in a neighborhood that has a better school system than say the ones in Harlem or the south side of Chicago?  I would venture to say the answer to that question is yes.

But I have to say I really appreciate one line in the article:

 Don’t just acknowledge your liberal guilt—listen to it.

Ah, the reasoning behind most of what liberals do.

Detriot Leaders Speak and Place Blame

An acquaintance of mine works on Capitol Hill for a congresswoman.  Today she met with some leaders of Detroit to discuss the upcoming bankruptcy of the city.  This is especially personal to her since she grew up there.  Here is a snap shot of what they had to say:

I am so depressed for the children of Detroit. I met with their "leaders" today and instead of admitting their students can't read, the schools suck, the streets are unsafe, and their liberal big government policies have DESTROYED a once great city, this "leader" blamed 1) the banks 2) The GOP 3) John Engler (Michigan had a DEM governor for 8 years) 4) Archor 5) white people and 6) the suburbs. When I reminded him DPS taught us Ebonics and maybe that's why kids can't read or get jobs he went on to tell me: "Ebonics is a language just like Mexican Spanish" yup, you heard it folks, the "leader" in education for DPS equates improper English to a foreign language and then said, "it's white people's fault for not seeing this as a value and instead see it as ignorance." Lastly, this man said Detroit should be able to "tax" the workers in Detroit at 25% if they live outside Detroit since it is evil white suburbanites "taking" money from the city. Detroit has NO hope. We should take each kid out of DPS and give them refugee status cause Detroit is a third world HELL HOLE

Tragic.

Conservative Student Being Bullyied by Leftist Teachers - Video

He is correct, keep politics out of the classroom.  That should be a place that kids are taught critical thinking, not someone else's beliefs.  

Everybody Gets a Pony - Honors Ceremony Cancelled to Celebrate Mediocrity

Ipswich Middle School in Massachusetts has decided in their infinite wisdom that honors ceremonies are just too harmful to the kids who didn't make the cut.  I mean feelings being important as they are these days, it all makes sense right?  After all, why would we want children who didn't do their homework on time, didn't study for their tests, or not pay attention in class to feel badly right?  That just isn't "fair".  Fairness being the new buzz word of late and all, so I guess it has to filter down to our students.

The statement reads in part:

“The Honors Night, which can be a great sense of pride for the recipients’ families, can also be devastating to a child who has worked extremely hard in a difficult class but who, despite growth, has not been able to maintain a high grade point average,”

I fully understand that some children, no matter how hard they work, will not make the cut.  This can happen for a variety of reasons, especially when you start introducing standardized multiple choice tests into the equation.  I am a person who doesn't do well on multiple choice tests.  In college I explained this to my professors and most allowed me to answer questions that I didn't quite comprehend in a written format.  So I get it.

What I don't get is that why are we asking those that did work hard and were able to maintain their GPA's to suffer?  What we are actually telling these children is that a strangers feelings are more important than your hard work.  This isn't how the real world works.  In the real world you are judged based on your own performance.  Does this principal believe that when these children get out into a working environment that they won't be viewed based on their own performance?  Look, it is very possible in a work environment that someone tries and works hard, but is just unable to perform the necessary tasks that the job requires, and will eventually lose that job.  What this man is doing is setting up unrealistic expectations of what faces these children as they grow into mature adults.  The world isn't fair.  Bad things happen to good people.  Good things happen to bad people.  That is life.  What you do is keep your own sense of integrity and morality, and work as hard as you can.  Some of the best things that come in life are the things that happen to you after you fail at something.  Those failures and how you handle them become the very essence of the person that you are.  This principal is cheating these kids of that experience at a young age.  That of course makes it harder for them to learn that lesson as they grow older.

Parents in this school must stand up to this man and demand that their children be taught the hard lessons in life.  You will not always get your way, you will not always succeed the first time at everything you try.  The rewards that come in life normally come to those who work hardest for them.  It is about time that we, as a society, stop giving these children the idea that everyone gets a pony simply because they exist.

Quote of the Day - Michelle Rhee Edition

Here’s the question we Democrats need to ask ourselves: Are we beholden to the public school system at any cost, or are we beholden to the public school child at any cost?

Michelle Rhee on her transformation of supporting school vouchers.

Sadly, we already know the answer to this question.

The NRA Goes All Orwellian

There, I said it.  I am so astonished, flabbergasted, and appalled at the presser that Wayne La Pierre and the NRA held today.  While he started out just fine, it just got creepier and yes Orwellian as it went along.  

A federal program that puts an armed guard in every school across the country?  Uh, no.  The security of a particular school system is a local/state issue, not a federal one.  Smitty over at The Other McCain accused me of being so federalist.  My reply, you're damn skippy I am.  What conservative can get behind this suggestion?  This is something that the left would do, not the right.  Not the gun part, but the federal government control part.  I mean the irony of all this is so thick you can cut it with a knife.  Some on the right are heralding this as the great cure-all, and the left is screaming about it.  Neither of things are true.  

First and foremost, I am 100% against forcing a teacher to become a gun toter.  Many teachers would not want to do this, and as an American citizen that is their right.  The second amendment says nothing about every American must bear arms, it says the government can't infringe upon that right.  Even if the teacher was someone who liked guns, I still think it is a bad idea.  All the students would know that the teacher is armed and I believed it could be a huge distraction; especially in schools were violence is an everyday part of life for the student body.  What I would be willing to go along with would be highly trained and certified guard of some sort.  I know where I live the police department has a unit of people who are hired out to all kinds of locations, even to some jewelry stores in the area.  But only if the school system wants this type of thing.  I don't think it should be forced on a federal level.  This is something that state/locality should decide upon.  I know here in Virginia there is discussion if our Constitution would even allow the commonwealth to force this on every school system.  A bill is expected to be put into our legislature next month.  We will see how it goes.  

But the thing that really takes the cake for me is the national database of the mentally ill.  What???????  Does he really think that a person like me deserves to have my name put into a national database simply because I have a chemical imbalance in my brain?   I have been very open and honest about my mental illness on this blog.  It didn't start out that way, but over time I have come to realize that in a very small way I could try to lift the stigma that surrounds mental illness.  

Mental illness isn't really a science.  There is no blood test to determine if you have it or not.  It is more of an art when it comes to getting a proper diagnosis.  Which, by the way, is part of the problem.  There is no way to determine who is going to become violent.  The vast majority of mentally ill people are not in any dangerous to other people.  They are in many ways self-destructive, but not dangerous.  The differences between the two is huge.  

I have been having a discussion about this on my Facebook page and have been told that I am already in a database about my MDD.  True, but that is for purposes of insurance.  While the police/government could get access to that information if they really needed to, but it would take a court order to do so.  The differences between a private company having this information for those type of purposes and the federal government creating one that they alone have access to don't compare in any way, shape, or form.  

Am I going to have to start wearing a scarlet letter to identify myself to others too?  

I have already seen comparisons between La Pierre and Hitler around the intertubes.   I am sorry, but that isn't so far off.  Hitler didn't like the mentally ill either.  I am was not considered a good person to continue breeding, heaven knows I shouldn't create any more mentally unstable people to mess up the landscape and the perfect utopia that due to be created in the imagination of that madman.  

Under no circumstances should anyone be heralding the idea of a national database about mental illness.  If you are, ask yourself, who gets to determine who is mentally ill or not?  Does a woman who goes through postpartum depression get added?  Postpartum depression is something that last a few months and is curable (yes curable) by a short round of meds.  Many women don't even go the route of meds, they push their way through it.  Does a person who experiences a bout of depression after a divorce get added?  Do we add all the over medicated children we have across the country too?  Does he have any idea how this hinder getting medical treatment for such illnesses?  Did he even remotely think this through?  We already have a huge problem with stigma about mental illness in this country.  This would make an already big problem even more unmanageable.  

This is a violation of our freedoms and rights of epic proportions.  It needs to be ridiculed for what it is.  A Orwellian overreach of government.  Wayne La Pierre should be deeply ashamed of his performance today, deeply and profoundly.  SMDH.

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Teacher Locks Child in Closet - Then Leaves Him to go Home for the Day

yep, our public schools are working "just fine".

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Education Reform - Do What Works, Not What Feels Good

Any thinking person in this country has to admit that our public education system is broken.  We only rank #21 in the world for the population with the most high school and college graduates.  The system is stuck on stupid and continues to go down hill.

The literacy rates among fourth grade students in America are sobering. In a recent report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, one out of three students scored "below basic" on the 2009 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) Reading Test. Among these low performing students, 49 percent come from low-income families. Even more alarming is the fact that more than 67 percent of all US fourth graders scored "below proficient," meaning they are not reading at grade level.
Reading proficiency among middle and high school students isn't much better. On the 2009 NAEP Reading Test, about 26 percent of eighth graders and 27 percent of twelfth graders scored below the "basic" level, and only 32 percent of eighth graders and 38 percent of twelfth graders are at or above grade level.

No matter where you fall on the political spectrum you must realize that this is quickly becoming an issue of national security.  We cannot continue to perform on the world stage if we can't get fourth graders reading at grade level.  Public schools are not going anywhere and they must be fixed.

The problem becomes how do we fix them.  Conservatives and liberals have different views on how this should be accomplished.  Typically conservatives are for school choice and allowing the money to follow the child.  Liberals are putting more money into the system.  Neither one of these solutions on their own will solve the problems that we have.  We need to move beyond political ideology to find the solutions that are right for the local population of school aged children.

One of the latest trends in education is college prep courses for everybody.  Some children are not going to go to college, and it is not always about money.  Some kids just are not cut out for post-secondary education.  A case in point, I have a family member who had some issues while in high school.  Nothing major, but enough that he could have easily gone down the wrong path.  After graduation and shortly after 9/11 he decided to join the marines.  He signed up for a four-year stint and was given some educational incentives.  After serving his four years and spending some time in Iraq at the onset of the war, he decided to get out of the marines and go to college.  He believed that is what his mother wanted him to do.  His mother wanted him to be happy and a well-adjusted adult.  He went to college for one semester and dropped out.  He then flitted around doing some interesting jobs; including fishing in Alaska.  What he realized is that he liked the structure that the corp provided for him.  He is back in the marines, happily married and a daddy of a beautiful baby girl.  The military is something that works for him.   He has served in a theater of war, he understands what he has committed to.  It may not be everyone else's choice of a career, but for him it is a fit.  He is happy, so his mother is happy for him.

But we continue to push the narrative that a college education is mandatory.  It is not, nor is it the best thing for every kid.

Over time, it morphed into the theology that every child should go to college (a four-year liberal-arts college at that) and therefore every child should be required to pursue a college-prep course in high school. The results have been awful. High school dropout rates continue to be a national embarrassment. And most high school graduates are not prepared for the world of work. The unemployment rate for recent high school graduates who are not in school is a stratospheric 33%. The results for even those who go on to higher education are brutal: four-year colleges graduate only about 40% of the students who start them, and two-year community colleges graduate less than that, about 23%. "College for everyone has become a matter of political correctness," says Diane Ravitch, a professor of education at New York University. "But according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, less than a quarter of new job openings will require a bachelor of arts degree. We're not training our students for the jobs that actually exist." Meanwhile, the U.S. has begun to run out of welders, glaziers and auto mechanics--the people who actually keep the place running.

One of the solutions for our educational system is being played out in Arizona.

Two years later, with the $2.4 million agricultural- and technical-sciences building up and running, Martin says, "It's without doubt the best program we have. It's an alternative way to teach them math, science and reading. They love it. They're attentive, working hard, hands on." McBride imports veterinarians from around the country to visit the reservation and work with the 226 students, who assist in both operating theaters, prepping animals for surgery and learning how to suture, draw blood and give injections. The veterinary clinic has become a valued resource on the reservation, but more than that, the academic results have been spectacular. "Nearly every one of these kids passed the state comprehensive test we give to 17-year-olds in Arizona," Martin told me. "Less than about 40% of my non-vocational-education students passed.

Clyde McBride pushed and pushed to get this program into place at one of the reservations.  These kids are doing well, they are excited to learn and are happy to be in school everyday.  They are learning, but more importantly they are gaining a work ethic that will follow them for the rest of their lives.  Some of these kids are college bounds kids, but they have a step up on many others who go to college, for one thing they have already been given a skill that will be useful to their professional lives.  They have direction in their lives.  They are not in college to go to parties and "find themselves".

School systems are beginning  to see that doing away with career path education programs was a mistake that was made 40 years ago.  They were considered racist, as many in the programs were people of color.  It wasn't that the programs were wasteful, they were just not done properly.  There are many high schools popping up all over the nation that are giving career skills to students.  Not all of these schools are in poor urban areas or have a majority of minorities in them.  One of my local high schools has a career track for students.  I am not sure of all the different offerings that they have, but one is in retail fashion and the other is in hairdressing.  Both will give high school students a marketable skill that they can use immediately following graduation to find themselves a job.  I have not been to this hairdresser in quite some time, but I used to pay $300 to have my hair highlighted and cut.  She and her now husband paid for their rather large wedding themselves.  He is a chef.  My only point being that obviously they made a good living in order to pay for that wedding and still own a home.

What sense does it make for students to take out tens of thousands of dollars in loans when so many don't graduate?  College has become like a rite of passage instead of what it should be; a means to an end.  The end result being an education that will give that person the ability to obtain marketable skills and a job.  Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that college is a waste of time, but it certainly is not for everyone.  There is a student loan bubble getting bigger all the time and sooner or later this bubble is going to burst.

We need to stop thinking in terms of a one size fits all mentality that post secondary education is mandatory for all.  It isn't.  There are plenty of jobs that are good paying and do not require a 4 year college degree.  We need to change the paradigm of education in this country and realize that what worked in the 70's is obviously no longer working.  We need to look at the programs around the country that are successful and adapt them to different community needs.  Obviously a school that offers vet clinic services isn't going to work in the inner city.  But other programs will.  Inner city communities need bus drivers, truck drivers, mechanics, machine operators, construction workers, and a variety of other skilled workers.  It is time that we stop being so snobby and realize that those jobs help make America run too.

Rahm Emanuel Now in the Crosshairs - Closing of Under Performing Public Schools Raises the Hackles of Jesse Jackson

Rahm Emanuel is about to experience for himself that the racebaiters of the world don't care about your politics.  He is planning on closing 17 poorly performing public schools.  Not something that is sitting well with the likes of Jesse Jackson.

“I cannot wait another year and allow a child to be caught in a school system that, for five years running, has been on the watch list or the troubled list with no prospect of getting off of it. … Nothing to me is worse in the sense of discrimination than leaving kids in a system that, year-in-and-year-out, has been scored as failing.”

Not that you are apt to hear me say this often, but he is right.  These schools need to be closed and these kids have the right to get a better quality education.  Jackson on the other hand is calling it:

“educational apartheid,"

No, Mr. Jackson apartheid is keeping these black children in a failing school that gives them little to chance of becoming a productive adult.  It would be apartheid to keep them there.  Jackson is under the impression that just spending more money will solve the problems.  Chicago spends more money per pupil then they do for the students in the public school system where I live.  We have a 90% on time graduation rate and almost 92% rate of students going onto a post-secondary education.  The problems go beyond money.

Someone actually took the time to write down the costs associated with the low graduation rates for the city of Chicago (which is just above 50%) and the results of what it costs the community are staggering:

15% of high school dropouts were in the jail system in the year 2010-2011 overall and rise to 25% for blacks.  More than 50% of the prison population in Illinois are high school dropouts.

Nearly 48% of 18 to 64-year-old high-school dropouts in Chicago did not work even one week last year. The statewide number, 42%, is not much better and is four times higher than the figure of those with bachelor's or higher degrees.

If those numbers are not enough:

The study, based on U.S. Census data, suggests that dropouts nationally will be a net drain on the government, collecting an average of $70,850 more in benefits like food stamps in their lifetimes than they'll pay in taxes. In comparison, the typical high-school grad will make a net positive contribution of $236,060.

About 33% of dropouts will collect food stamps, twice the share of graduates, and fewer than half will own a home. And such bleak figures tend to be passed down to their children.
"Children living in families headed by high-school dropouts face a substantially above average probability of encountering cognitive, health, housing adequacy and nutrition problems that will limit their future, their chances of securing a bachelor's degree by their mid-20s are close to zero."

Now, I don't believe that every person should go to college.  Some people are not cut out for it and they would prefer to do jobs that don't require a college degree.  But they will still usually need some sort of training or education in order to find a job that will allow them to live above the poverty line.  While that is not true in all cases, it is true in many.

So it seems that Jesse Jackson would prefer that these kids just stay in these schools, increase the odds of them dropping out and have a much harder time leading lives that will bring more financially security to them.   He plans on filing a lawsuit to stop the closing of these schools.

There are no words for the stupidity of what Jesse Jackson is doing.  People need to wake up and realize that the likes of Jesse Jackson has lost all relevance and his ideas of what constitutes fairness not only are outdated but dangerous to the community that he says he is trying to help.

This report details the costs to society as a whole in just one state.  multiply this by 50% and it is not hard to see why we are broke.  Our broken educational system is not just drain on us financially, it is becoming a national security issue.  It was just 40 years ago that we had the highest rates of high school and college graduates in the world.  We now rank at 21st.  That is how far we have fallen is such a short time.

Again, you not likely to see this again real soon - Kudos to Mayor Emanuel for having the courage to take on the unions and Jesse Jackson to do what is right for children instead of what is easy.

Cry Me a River – Michigan Teacher Upset She Can’t Retire at 47 with Full Benefits

Yes, you read that correctly.  Terri List, a teacher in Michigan, is upset that with the new law in place she can't retire at the age of 47 with full health benefits.  She is so upset that is ready to advise her students not to become a teacher in the state of Michigan.  You see they have to start putting in 5% of their annual income (her current salary range is between $70-80K per year).  She is being asked to contribute approx. $3750 per year over her career so that she will get full health benefits for life.  Something that very few people receive anymore.  Only the chosen few.  

She can actually retire in two years at the age of 47 and get $60K per year in retirement pay.  She would also be free to get herself another job that gives health benefits if she doesn't want to pay for them herself.  Which at $60K she should be able to afford.  In order for her to qualify for free health benefits for life she will have to stay at her current job until the age of 60.  Her pay scale would be expected to reach $90K per year by that point.  Which of course will also increase her yearly retirement pay, it increases at 3% per year.  Which would give her an additional $39,000 per year.  

“By the time I’m 60, I would have put in 43 years of service, earning a salary at the top of the pay scale. How does that save the district money? You could hire two people for the cost of one and encourage young people to join the profession. Right now, I would not recommend to my pupils to become a teacher in Michigan.”

Boy, they start them young in Michigan.  She starting teaching at the age of 17?  I sincerely hope Ms. List isn't a math teacher.  

“Wow. They have reached the politicians’ level of entitlement, she thinks she is entitled to retire at 47? Holy smokes. I don’t know what more to say to that. A government employee thinking that 47 is a reasonable expectation to retire shows just how deep inside their own bubble they live, insulated from the real world.”

Leon Drolet, Chairman of Michigan Taxpayers Alliance.