Texas and Louisiana are not just neighbors, we go waaaaay back.
Take our high school graduation numbers. According to 2007 US Census statistics, 79.1% of Texans over the age of 25 have a high school (or equivalency) diploma. This is only marginally worse than Louisiana, where 79.9% of residents have a 12th grade education.
These numbers are the absolute worst in the nation. Only Third Coast neighbor, Mississippi, has a lower percentage. Go Rebels!
Because of these atrocious figures, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has essentially raised the white flag. He's given up. Screw it, he says, we're a state full of morons.
With the stroke of his pen, Jindal made statewide academic standards easier, much easier. 'Cause Lord knows reading, 'riting and 'rithmitic are really hard."Under the new law, students 15 and older could leave the standard curriculum and instead take a "career track" if they have parental approval. They would face easier requirements for graduation and a curriculum less geared toward college preparation. It would also allow eighth graders to advance to ninth grade without passing the state's high-stakes standardized test."
In a state where 28% of adults are functionally illiterate, things just got EASIER. Doesn't that seem, um, counterintuative? And to think Jindal wants to run for President? Maybe if he makes the rest of America dumber, he thinks might have a fighting chance.
Now don't mishear: there is nothing wrong with having a good, honest blue-collar gig. Southeast Texas would be nothing without the hard working men and women that do these tough jobs. But when 6 out of 10 young Americans can't locate Iraq on a map -- you've got more educating to do, not less.
Opponents of the measure say that this could "become a 'dumping ground' of sorts for kids who with more attention and remediation could, in fact, go on and succeed in school and receive a regular high school diploma."
Sure, the state's dropout rate would decline, but getting a diploma would be a whole lot simpler. The message, in other words, is: "aim lower."
Which makes sense. Louisiana is, after all, home to the only porn star currently running for U.S. Senate. Porn star is a blue-collar job, right?
Friday, July 3, 2009
High school too hard? Move next door
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27 Gator-baiters:
I can identify two people from Louisiana who did not graduate from high school who could write a check for fifty million dollars if they chose to. Anyone who is familiar with facts can ascertain that the percentage of black folks skews these numbers. I think the schools should be divided, with separate but equal schools for blacks and whites.
Look at the bright side: we are turning out superior athletes and highly skilled cheerleaders.
Yeah, give the blacks Central and Ozen and put all the whites at West Brook. Oh wait, too many baby-daddies, so the whites were outnumbered at West Brook and went to Lumberton.
There's just no way to not get racist comments in Southeast Texas, is there? There are plenty of uneducated white people in the white flight towns surrounding Beaumont. In my graduate classes at Lamar, the majority of the students are...wait for it....Indian. Not white, not black, not Hispanic, but Indian. So....before you go to the tired racial comments, take a look in the mirror.
Before you make anymore comments about the education in Louisiana, perhaps you'd like to check to see that MANY of the programs that the fine SBOE in Texas has now implemented... i.e. the new 4 by 4 plan-- four maths, sciences, Englishes and historys... was implemented in Louisiana and they discovered that this is not for everyone. This is why, for your information, they implemented the career diploma, which I really do agree with whole heartedly. Not everyone is geared up for 4 years of core classes, and LA has the right idea of awarding those that are not college bound a different type of diploma. Check your facts first. And by the way, Louisiana is among the top 5 states that have a graduation test called the LEAP and the GEE, that the US Department of Education feels as though the test is a good and valid test. Want to know where the ever so fine TAKS ranks? Try 48th...now sling stone at Louisiana....
Amen THJ. Can we build the black schools in Africa?
Did you hear they cancelled the Nativity scene in Louisianna this year. They were unable to find 3 wise men or a virgin.
Mitch's Mom - STFU. That is all.
Sad to know that brave men & women have died for this country defending our right of *Freedom of Speach* & the pitiful examples of it posted here. What a waste!
It is never a waste to fight for any kind of FREEDOM,speach or otherwise!!!Once you stop fighting for freedom of any kind,you have lost the war.We American's are losing rights every day,because one group or anouther gets offended.If we don't watch it we will lose everything our founding Father's fought for.HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!INDEPENDENCE MEANS EVERYTHING!!!!!!
Amen and praise the Lord Riverdancer. You get a hallelujah from me on that.
This was a thousand years ago when I was a teen, but my parents moved to La. from Tx. while my brothers and I were in high school. They required less credits than we did here and we all got put forward an entire grade due to the "excess" credits we had.
Wading through this racist trash on the Fourth of July makes me sick.
I need a good laugh, think I'll google Sarah Palin instead...
You know what I think is funny LAST?
That your man Obama condemns the peaceful ouster of a wannabe socialist dictator in Honduras but doesn't support the peaceful protesters of an oppressive religious regime in Iran.
I think that's a real freakin' riot.
Don't you?
(Yeah, I've realized by now that you're too chickens***t to respond)
Patrick,
No, there's no way, unfortunately. Too many cowards. Notice no one uses their names--probably afraid of what will happen to them.
Like *S* is her real initial? lololol
All I can say is oh my! All of these racist comments make me not miss SETX. Most of these posts are rampant with ignorance! Learn how to spell, muster up some tolerance, and then you can point whatever fingers you want. The truth of the matter is, I knew just as many white people in my high school that would probably put some Louisiana illiteracy to shame. It's not the whites, the blacks, hispanics, or any particular race bringing down the education system, it's all of the politicians and school board members who don't know anything about running a classroom. Standardized testing is NOT the way to go and a US Education Department accredited test means absolutely nothing. As someone who has had experience in both the Louisiana school system and the Texas one, I'd much rather go through Texas. Even before Jindal passed this bill, Louisiana schools have had lower standards. The new 4 by 4 plan is a great idea, in my opinion. It raises the bar for all students, which is something that we severely need, and it provides, at the very least, a small foundation of common sense and critical thinking skills that some people are severely lacking. Are you saying common sense isn't for everyone? It's not as if the regular or recommended course of graduation is painfully difficult. The fact that people are struggling with the simple basics is mind boggling to me and the proof that Louisiana is wrong. They should implement a new plan that will raise the bar for those who are in primary schools and do what they can for those in secondary. And BTW, Texas has a career geared program that gives you training in a certain professional path, that's integrated along with your regular diploma--it's called CATE. Not only does it prepare a student for a specific type of job, but it prepares them for college, as well.
What is so funny about a military coup in central America which has declared martial law, suppressed the press, imposed a curfew, arrested anbassadors, cut off electricity, cut off the internet, and installed their own president by force? I agree Zelaya may have socialist tendancies, but he was working through the system in calling for unconstitutional elections for constitutional changes. He was their ELECTED leader. After all the miserable years of military dictatorships in that country, no wonder the governments of the world decried yet another military coup. And what would you have Obama do in Iran, you want more WORDS so you can say he's only about talk, an armed invasion, what would you have him do?
Sorry if I don't always check back to respond. My bad. But the racism rampant on this blog, along with all the anonymous posters, gets me digusted sometimes for days on end. At least with S. we have a consistent name to respond to. I refuse to respond to anyone I must refer to as "ANONYMOUS (time they posted)" like anon 7:58.
we're not racists, we just don't like black people
Good spiel, Last.
It's simply a matter of rule of law. Honduran President Zelaya refused to follow a Honduran Supreme Court that ruled he could not hold a referendum on whether he could get an assembly to change the constitution of Honduras so he could further his own self interest in serving another term as their president.
Imagine, if you can, what would/should happen if our President did the same in this country. Especially since he is an alleged CONSTITUTIONAL LAWYER.
Gotta get those gears turning and read something other than the Nation for information.
Your fight against racism is unfortunately pointless on this forum. You can keep trying but personally I wouldn't waste time on the likes of trash like THJ and Woodyard. Their words speak for themselves.
S., My (dear) friend! I'm toking some incredibly uplifting White Widow tonight.
Please join me!
Oh, and lastly, Last, I'd like to add that I'm happy you didn't try and excuse Obama on, as far as I'm concerned, he most egregious sin so far since he took office in his lack of support of the peaceful demonstrators in Iran.
As the mullahs are now burying and imprisoning the last of the protesters it was an opportunity long in coming that was wasted. Obama may as well have given his consent and approval.
Do you have any Asahi on ice?
Iran's politcal history is more complicated than simple freedom fighters losing an election. One of the most nationalistic nations on the globe, they have been fiercely independent since ancient times as the Persian Empire. They resent outside influence, as evident by the last revolution, which deposed a US-puppet dictator. The Bush doctrine of imposing American values and beliefs, by force if necessay, on countries perceived to be threats to ours is a failed policy that got us in this mess to begin with. We need more peace in the world, not war. Glad the cowboy approach to foreign policy looks more like Daniel Boone than Davy Crockett nowadays.
This situation in Iran is long in the making.
They are fighting oppression.
Maybe the Bush Doctrine and frustration over a stolen election finally pushed them into the streets.
I hope you live long enough to see the policies of the "best and brightest" fail.
Why would you want him to fail when so many lives are at stake? We tried the cowboy approach with diasterous results, then voted a change in leadership. Misplaced loyalty to an ideology, when men and women are dying to protect a UNITED States of America. God Bless our troops.
I was not clear on this point.
I meant Obama's policies and legislation on health care, cap and trade, and other environmental policies.
His actions on the war on terror as far as Afghanistan is concerned is one of the few things I think he has gotten right. And also slowing the removal to of our troops closer to the Bush Administration in Iraq until the job is finished. He so far is letting the generals do their job.
I don't care how pretty the paper you try to wrap up his failure to support the Iranian revolutionaries, it was still a turd. It stinks to high heaven and has been the low point of his administration thus far.
It was a sin.
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