Arkansas Blog

" . . . as a percentage of personal income, Arkansas' proportion was the highest . . . "

That couldn't be a result of the push to build new facilities, could it? Around here it seems any building 30 to 40 years old is being torn down and replaced.
Maybe in some cases this was the best option, but from what I've seen and heard about some of the buildings I'd like to introduce the concept of regular maintainance, and perhaps renovation, to school officials. Rewire. Install new plumbing and mechanical systems. Add insulation.
Do those of us who live in homes of that vintage usually tear them down and start over? I wouldn't; the thought of taking on another mortgage forestalls that.
(As an example, I don't see a push to tear down Central High in Little Rock.)
But of course, we're not talking about school officials writing personal checks to cover the bills. Makes a difference, I guess.
Better we spend that money on TEACHING the little mutts, including teaching them not to kick holes in the walls (or pee on them), destroy plumbing fixtures and rip outlets from the wall.
Many of us train our puppies better than that. Too bad some parents don't seem to be capable of doing their part.
OK, OK, so I digressed . . .

Talk about good news/ bad news.

It's great that we're investing so much and making education a priority.

It's bad news that our income is so low that we can't afford to spend as much per child as do many other states.

Especially those Godless, tax-loving, communist, liberal, Hillary-loving freaks in the Northeast.

We haven't been getting our money's worth. More tax money in, standardized test scores down to flat for the past 20 years. Grade inflation and social promotion keep parents in the dark. When will the education establishment embrace accountablity and stop the fraud?

Let me guess, LRSDobserver--your definition of "accountability" involves tying funding or pay to test scores?

That's going to do nothing but increase grade inflation and social promotion. It's going to make it impossible to lure good educators to the schools that need them the most.

Arch..., don't project. I suggest that, as in all other forms of human endeavor, results can be measured and standardized test scores, not grades or grade promotion, are the best way in this case.

By the way AT, this report is inaccurate. The NYT got it wrong and you should check your source before you quote.

Speaking of corrections and abbreviations, did you notice that every map in Tom Schaller's _Whistling Past Dixie_ made the same AR/AK mistake?

The New York Times is perhaps the most overrated newspaper in the country. From getting beaten on Watergate in the 70s to deeply flawed, source-stroking, lousy excuses for reporting more recently to a style of writing that confuses a 60-word lead with priceless prose, the Times is far from a paragon of quality journalism.

It's amazing, however, how some newspaper editors fawn over Times alumni, much like they fawn over graduates of pricy Ivy League journalism schools. Journalists are not like racehorses...there's really more to it than breeding. Some of these recent J-school graduates have egos the size of Donald Trump's combover and fancy themselves "journalistes" but rarely do the legwork to break any major stories and sometimes can't report their way out of a paper bag.

A Mark Twain quote really applies here: " 'Classic': a book which people praise and don't read."

Much like The New York Times.

ARK. BLOG: I agree with plenty of what you say. I bow to no one in my disdain for their Whitewater coverage, to name but one. But I still think the newspaper is indispensable. Much of it is very good. And it provides a great deal of broader reporting on national and international issues that rarely makes the cut in local papers.