Two different sets of news items caught my attention this morning. A piece about food banks going short of food because of the demand (30% more hungry Americans than one year ago). Several states are allowing prison inmates to glean fields for leftover veggies for food banks, planting crops with donated seed for food banks and putting work release prisoners in food banks and kitchens where they help for free and get trained to be cooks, fork lift operators and sanitation specialists. A win/win situation. Everybody benefits. Some stated are killing the farm programs because they cost too much to patrol. One inmate featured in the story was a 28 year old that now works for a food bank who worked in the food bank release program. He was serving a 23 month sentence for possession of marijuana. Why are prisons overcrowded and underfunded? Why are so many Americans hungry?
In New York City a 10 year old girl and her father were given a ticket (now rescinded after the publicity) and told to get out. Of where? A park where she was selling lemonade for fifty cents a cup. Fined. Moved on. Am I the only one that sees something wrong with this picture?
Case two: Charlie Crist is by far the most popular governor in Florida for a long time. He remains over 60% favorable in the polls. Yesterday he announced the latest results of Florida's school testing program and proudly stated that 90% of the schools now score either "A" or "B" in the ranking. One school went from "F" to "A" in one year. He called it nothing short of miraculous. Or maybe suspect? Or even fraudulent?
Second piece of this puzzle? In today's news Florida rank ahead of Mississippi and Kentucky and the District of Columbia in ACT scores (tough to beat them in education isn't it?), Florida's students did worse than last year, and by some measures Florida ranks dead last in public education statistics. We do have the highest dropout rate, though. And community colleges are overflowing with students in the "developmental education" courses (for you not in the trade, read that "remedial",)
Crist has overseen the gutting of education in the state since his election and he is popular. Am I the only one that sees something wrong with this picture?
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2 comments:
Rest easy Woody, you're not alone on this one!
Ditto what Reba said. Iowa has a long tradition of great funding for public schools, and has been relatively untouched by the recession... relatively, meaning, we're only in deep trouble, and not "on the roof."
And.
Iowa is slashing education as deeply as everything else. The state DoE is consolidating grade school districts as fast as they can buy the long-haul (and locally-grown ethanol burning) school buses in which to ship the kids hither and yon. And the rumor coming from the university budget office is that the funding for this year will be worse than last year... and last year bled us dry.
On the bright side: Florida's moved up! That, or Kentucky's moved down. Either way: statistical win! Crist is doin' great! Feh.
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