Educating Detroit

The only thing surprising about this story is that it’s surprising to anyone: "Low level of literacy adds fuel to unemployment crisis."

Rochelle Riley’s article in the Detroit Free Press points out that “One out of three working-age adults in Michigan — 1.7 million people — cannot read well enough to be hired for a job that will support a family.”

Let me remind you again that the Detroit Public School System alone has been spending over $1.2 billion a year to educate – and I use the term loosely - fewer than 84,000 students. For that investment of capital they only manage to graduate some 25%  of students entering high school; and apparently even some of them remain functionally illiterate.

It looks like the Detroit school district may be joining some of the other local icons into bankruptcy court. Even with the help of emergency financial manager Robert Bobb, an educational turnaround specialist brought in by the state, the district has only managed to cut the projected annual deficit from $410 million to a more reasonable $285 million. To achieve this there were additional layoffs among the 13,880 employees, (that’s 1 employee for every 6 students, for those of you educated in the DPS) of which only 5,500 are classroom teachers. It’s unclear exactly what the remaining 8,380 employees contribute to the overall excellence of the system, as investigations have documented payroll fraud, including but not limited to the identification of some 250 “ghost” employees. With the degree of corruption and ineptitude embedded in the DPS system, bankruptcy is probably inevitable. The only real salvation for the district’s children however lies with the introduction of vouchers and/or charter schools. Yet, as I noted in "A Short History of Detroit,” teachers continue to lobby to maintain the status quo, and even staged a walk-out when a philanthropist offered $200 million to start 15 charter high schools.

That’s not to say that the teachers are the primary problem. That honor goes to the corrupt School Board, who ostensibly sets policy, academic curriculum and budgets. Like every other public body in Detroit that I can think of, the School Board is filled with self-serving political hucksters who feel they are owed a place at the public trough. Taking their “share” is simply a self-implemented reparations program. (Apologies to the honest, hard working members, There’s bound to be one or two.)Even now, as the system spirals into oblivion, they remain trenchantly obstructionist.

Tell me again, citizens of Detroit, why is it you want the government to be in charge of  your health care? I hope it’s not because it will be “free.” The Detroit Public Schools demonstrate the product quality you can expect, as well as how costly “free” can be.

 

Technorati Tags: Detroit Public Schools,Robert Bobb,Detroit school bankruptcy,illiteracy,drop out rate

Blue Dog Night

That look of terror in the eyes of the blue dogs is real. 

On the one hand, they have their constituents – who hate the Health Care Reform bill – to contend with. And on the other, they have Maxine Waters, who doesn’t think they have any business “voting their conscience”:

 

Also noteworthy in this clip is the “non-partisan” question posed by the MSNBC talking head. Go to the head of the journalism class.

Technorati Tags: Blue Dogs,Health Care Reform,Maxine Waters

My Cash, Your Clunker

There’s no end to the items to be filed under “You can’t make this stuff up.”

For example there’s this from a WSJ article on cashing in your clunker (emphasis mine)

The EPA reviewed its mileage ratings for about 30,000 different models, to comply with a requirement in the cash-for-clunkers legislation that miles-per-gallon ratings be accurate up to four decimal places, the EPA said in a statement Wednesday. That review coincided with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s efforts to produce a 136-page-long rulebook for the cash-for-clunkers program.

Four decimal places? You cannot be serious! This from a government that’s taken to rounding our deficit down to the closest trillion?

And 136 pages of rules? I'm sure no one in Congress read them.

Update: As of July 31, (one day after original post), the Cash4Clunkers plan is officially out of funds. The program, originally scheduled to run from July through November has already run through the $1 billion funding that was the estimated cost of the program and has shut it down.

Yeah, let's let Congress estimate the cost of the Public Option Health Care Plan.

Technorati Tags: cash for clunkers,auto industry,EPA,revised milage.

Exercising Her 2nd Amendment Rights

I don’t think even the NRA would support Madge’s right to bare arms.

 

That is one serious meat shortage. Get that girl a hamburger. And a milkshake.

Technorati Tags: Madonna,second amendment,NRA,right to bear arms.

Wm. Shatner Is “Rocket Man”

Shatner’s Palin Poem is getting more air time, but this one is infinitely better.

They just don’t make ‘em like this anymore:

Combined with the clarity of the Canadian astronaut who opined: "This is probably just a perception, but I just have the feeling that the glaciers are melting, the snow capping the mountains is less than it was 12 years ago when I saw it last time," I think we can safely say that the operative phrase in the video comes at 2 minutes, 47 seconds: “All this science I don’t understand!”

I'm pretty sure "perception(s)" and "feeling(s)" were good enough for Einstein.

PS. Wm Shatner is also Canadian. Coincidence?

Technorati Tags: William Shatner,Rocketman,Global warming hoax,melting ice caps.Einstein