Posted on 07/20/2005 8:15:22 PM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
Stop the presses! Within just a few days we've had a scandal involving a world-class presidential guru bumped off the front pages by a prime-time presidential announcement of a nominee to the Supreme Court.
No one would argue that these aren't big stories. But an issue that is even more important to the long-term future of the U.S. gets very short shrift from the media. In an era when a college education is virtually a prerequisite for maintaining a middle-class lifestyle, an extraordinary number of American teenagers continue to head toward adulthood without even a high school diploma.
This is not a sexy issue, and certainly not as titillating for journalists as the political witchcraft that Karl Rove has used to enchant George W. Bush. But consider the following from the book "Dropouts in America: Confronting the Graduation Rate Crisis," a collection of essays edited by Gary Orfield, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education:
"Nationally, only about two-thirds of all students - and only half of all blacks, Latinos and Native Americans - who enter ninth grade graduate with regular diplomas four years later."
In much of the nation, especially in urban and rural areas, the picture is even more dismal. In New York City, just 18 percent of all students graduate with a Regents diploma, which is the diploma generally required for admission to a four-year college. Only 9.4 percent of African-American students get a Regents diploma.
Over all, the United States has one of the highest high school dropout rates in the industrialized world, which can't be comforting news in the ferociously competitive environment of an increasingly globalized economy....
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
And what's even more alarming, Bob, is that there are many people who have paid thousands of dollars in tuition, spent four years taking courses, received a bachelor's degree, and still don't know anything.
I can give you one reason for this: too much homework. I'm now hearing stories of students doing three or even four hours of homework at night. It's creating burnout.
Does the NYT have to put this kind of cr*p in EVERY unrelated article? (Or does he get around to blaming Bush for the dropout rate later in the article? I refuse to log on to read the rest of it, based on that phrase.)
I bet he's still against vouchers too.
I don't know about you....but if that happened to me on the job, I'd quit!
Francis Bacon knew what was what!
Intelligent minds often ponder the fact that they are conquered by illiterate. [TC 2005]
Creating (with a few bright exceptions) a perpetual underclass of straight-ticket DNC voters. Yay. The NEA is right pleased with its self.
Most of the dropouts, and quite a few of the graduates, live with their boyfriends or girlfriends, and have one or more babies. The living arrangements may be permanent or transitory.
I'll be the first to complain about all that is wrong with our public schools, but I'm amazed that we import millions of uneducated 3rd world immigrants from south of the border and then set around and scratch our heads wondering why this percent or that percent of school children are failing.
When I was in high school, a small percent of students were failing. We had one security person who was also our gymn coach. Today, that same school is is a closed campus with its own mini police force. The gang members are in charge and only a small percent of students perform.
The local media and political hacks are all blaming the school for the students failure rate and screaming that only more money can solve the problem. Multiply this around the nation and it's not hard to see why kids are failing at the rate they are.
Why don't they talk about the American kids who are bumped out of good colleges by foreigners and illegals the colleges and Universities love to educate virtually free of charge.
Teacher unions and Federal programs didn't exist and the graduation rate was over 98%. Only four girls became pregnant, a few accidental deaths, additional deaths due to illness but no shootings or stabbings.
Things have changed!
Two points:
Bacon was right in that a good education in trades is necessary to society, and a good education in trades would cut the demand for illegal labor; because...
The basic premise in the original article is that a college education is necessary for middle class existence. And that is hogwash.
The guy who roto-roots my pipes makes more in a year than I do with a Master's. My friend who tends bar makes at least as much. Another friend gets by quite nicely just doing back yard mechanics based on voice references. I also work with a small fleet of law school grads, some who passed the bar, and none of whom are willing or able to practice.
The problem is that there is real big money to be made in the college business, teachers unions that need a growing system to sustain their power, and a deeply entrenched ego bias that says one MUST have a degree: even if it's in sports nutrition or aboriginal mythology.
And, to repeat, that's hogwash.
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