Comment Archives: stories: News & Opinion: News Blog
Re: “Could charters chew up the Rochester school district?”
Thank you RochesterParent for making the case more clearly and cogently than I generally do.
It doesn't matter if the students are picked by lottery. Simply entering the lottery indicates a higher level of "give a crap" than those who don't. Taking 3.000 of those kids out of the public schools basically reduces the percentage of students in the district whose parents do care enough (or are knowledgeable enough) to perform this advocacy for their children.
I suppose that eventually there will be 80 charter schools and what's left will be a few public schools where the students who are the worst problem children, or whose parents don't/can't advocate effectively will rot until they are 16, when they drop out to live on society's margins.
If public schools could expel problem children the way charter schools can, if public schools could claim hardship to prevent having to have a major special ed program, if public schools had the parent involvement that charter schools do, they'd be doing as well as charter schools.
I know that in some areas the charter school experiment has been a failure due to a variety of reasons, but here, the conditions I just outlined have helped charter schools to become successful enough. God knows our school has about 10 middle schoolers we would love to expel. Our school would run far better and the scores would improve immediately if we could. We can't, so we will be judged a failure for making an effort to educate some seriously difficult children who have arrived in middle school without the skills to do 5th grade work.
Let us not forget that my evaluation is tied to some extent to these children's ability to do middle school level work. I've spent my year trying to get them to that level.
Analogy: try to get a high school baseball player to be able to play in the major leagues. The kid's the right size, the kid's at his physical prime, but the kid does not have the experience or skills to do that. Is it the coach's fault the kid can't cut it in the major leagues? Or is it the decision of the person who foisted that kid on the hapless coach?
Carry the Analogy: Take a mid-level baseball team. Ship all the best players to other teams. Now try to make the playoffs. That is what charter schools are doing to the RCSD.
Re: “Could charters chew up the Rochester school district?”
I don't know if charters are good or bad per se, but you're assuming that this is a zero sum game due to our slow population growth. Every year plenty of middle class parents exit the city for the suburbs because they rightly or wrongly believe that their children won't have an opportunity for a quality education if they stay. If charters provide that opportunity then the overall pool of students within the city is larger, not smaller.
Re: “PETA bringing campus tour to UR”
Bill Benson,
Apologies for leaving out the date. The post has been corrected.
Jeremy
Re: “PETA bringing campus tour to UR”
I take it we're supposed to guess the date of this event since it wasn't mentioned in the article?
Re: “What did Rhee know about cheating in DC schools?”
Thanks ID for pointing that out.
Tim
Re: “What did Rhee know about cheating in DC schools?”
Tim, correction: Rhee did teach for three years - and there's a scandal there, too, regarding the testing results. That seems to have been hushed up, but her claims of her teaching excellence are suspect here as well. But Rhee had never been an assistant principal, a principal, a central administrator of any stripe (no directorship, assistant superintendent) - nada, zip - before being appointed chancellor at the age of 36.
Re: “Is support for gun control slipping?”
The left is showing it's true colors by this giant gun grab. Why not enforce the laws on the books and focus on helping the mentally ill? Because democrats don't care about safety and are exploiting this to achieve their long desired goal of disarming Americans.
Wolves in sheep's clothing.
Re: “Rochester parents want more music and arts in the schools”
Thank you for reporting on the School Budget hearing. I am a parent of a child at School 23 and I would like to restore our school's music program. Our children deserve a more robust music instruction program. Music and art are not "extras" but are vital to creating self-confident, wise, and appreciative future citizens. --GretaN
Re: “Governor proposes new anti-bribery laws”
Cuomo will try to cram this legislation through before the public has a chance to read or comment on it just like his gun control law. He even said he needs to 'strike while the iron is hot'. He has to do this and get it out of the public eye before there are any investigations into what other Democrats may be involved.
Re: “Teachers warn of the end of public education”
Conti's letter is full of empty self-pitying blather about freedom and autonomy — for himself and his ilk, of course, but not for you or your children, or for the taxpayers who pay the freight. It is the teacher unions and allied ideologues who fight tooth and nail to deny students and families the slightest degree of freedom or autonomy or self-determination. You have to laugh at their whining about the perils of conformity and "one size fits all" when they fight savagely to preserve an archaic and unproductive government monopoly.
Now they're going to quit rather than be held accountable? Pardon me, but that sounds like a solution, not a problem.
Re: “Governor proposes new anti-bribery laws”
Another example of Cuomo rushing to pass laws based upon media attention. We don't need fast laws, we need good laws. We don't need a hysterical Governor acting like chicken little. Under Cuomo NY has experienced the demise of 39,453 NY state businesses last year, Cuomo is raiding $1.75 billion from the reserves of the off-budget State Insurance Fund (SIF). Coumo can not even hold on to his democratic majority which is in the middle of a corruption scandal and “show-me-the-money culture” and “pay-to-play politics.” He has disenfranchised the Northern and Western part of New York with his SAFE Act.. He can’t make a decision, either way with respect to fracking. New York has the highest taxes in the nation, is the most indebted state, with 33 percent of income dedicated to borrowing. It is ranked as the least "business-friendly" state in the country and if that were not bad enough NY has the distinction of being the least free state in the union and is called the “Nanny State” with politicians legislating what we eat and drink. Municipal governments from Nassau County to Yonkers to Syracuse are teetering. And during Mr. Cuomo’s time in office, unemployment has risen above the national average. 9% of the state’s 2000 population left for another state between 2000 and 2011 — the highest such figure in the nation," the study by George Mason's libertarian-leaning Mercatus Center found.
Re: “Teachers warn of the end of public education”
I blogged about this a number of days ago (http://askingquestionsblog.blogspot.com/20…); a lot of us (teachers, that is) have been saying this for some time, but Mr. Conti's letter maybe will finally get some people to take the complaints seriously. Thank you, Mr. Conti.
Re: “Slaughter: train station construction starts in August”
Clint – Slaughter aside, if we want to talk about what the Framers had in mind the answer is a VERY restricted democracy. They created an executive that was elected for 4 years, not by the people, but by a group of electors appointed by states. They created a senate comprised of members serving for 6 years, again elected by the states not the people. They created a federal judiciary comprise of individuals nominated by the executive to serve for life and confirmed by the senate. Again, participation by the people was zilch.
The only involvement in the national government by those white males who were permitted to vote was the election of a House of Representatives who served for a mere 2 years.
That you view voters repeatedly electing who they wish to a public office as a “problem” is telling indeed. As telling as are the views of those who believe that democracy is better served by term limits than by continuing to permit the voters to exercise their elective franchise as they see fit.
Your disagreement with Slaughter’s decisions is well established. That those decisions were “against the interests of the district.” is of course merely your opinion. As is your belief that she and she alone wields semi-divine power to control the fiscal floodgates of federal largess.
I suggest it boils down to this. In your opinion, as in the opinion of many others, democracy only works when your party’s candidates get elected.
Re: “O'Brien says upstaters shouldn't have to pay for Indian Point closing”
Since Downstate has been subsidizing Upstate for over 30 years now, O'Brien is way off base here. We're all New Yorkers. Ted, what did Bill Clinton say at the DNC last year? "We're all in this together." This comes off as dumb posturing, something we don't need. If he and others want to highlight the prohibitive costs of nuclear energy, fine - there is certainly enough to be said about that. But let's do so without this kind of divisive politics and posturing.
Re: “Police chief responds to problems with city's red-light camera program”
MJN - I know it's been a month. I didn't see your response.
First, I recommend spending an hour or two perusing thenewspaper.com, you'll come away as pissed off at the way government treats its citizen drivers as I am.
Second - Admittedly, until the City of Rochester decides to start enforcing the tickets with more than just strongly worded letters, they aren't "unconstitutional" in the strictest sense. However, it is still creepy as hell.
Third - Court decisions: Sixth Amendment violation decision: http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/37/3714.a…
Due process violations: http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/38/3802.a…
Certainly there are cases on the site wherein courts have accepted some red light systems as well, but the execution of these systems, in the main, is a tale of corruption, graft, or otherwise poor judgement due to using private industry to do public safety jobs. From all I've heard and read, the city is learning from past mistakes, and the current lack of effective enforcement (requiring people to be fearful enough of a letter with the photo and the police shield to send money is not as effective as a personal stop by a cop) only leads me to believe that it is nothing but a money-grab.
While going through the articles on that website, be sure to pay particular attention to the articles about how cameras actually compromise traffic safety and that there are a whole bunch of other, more cost-effective and less intrusive/less constitutionally questionable methods to increase safety.
Re: “Is support for gun control slipping?”
Full disclosure: I do not own a gun, and I think my wife still has a .22 rifle that hasn't been out of the closet in years.
How about a website that tracks auto deaths, or smoking-related deaths, or any number of other causes of death? The numbers do NOT warrant a response. How many millions of guns and gun owners versus how many deaths? Such a tiny percentage. And don't give me any crap about one death being too many. If that were the case airplanes, swimming pools, ginsu knives and water balloons would all be outlawed.
It is about rights.
Period.
Why do we insist on continuing to give away our rights?
Our rights are being eroded a little at a time, all in the name of "safety" or "protecting the children". With the exception of cannabis in Colorado and Washington, when was the last time anybody in this country earned MORE freedom? The fact that both of those were referendums voted in by the people is quite telling. The government has us under pretty much daily surveillance. I can't go to work without being seen by at least 10 light-pole cameras and risking tickets at 2 red-light intersections. The NSA hoovers up any and all electronic communications. They don't do much with it now... but they can. The TSA ignores the 4th amendment, as does stop-and-frisk. My students go to school only after going through metal detectors and then spend the day under unblinking gaze of something like 50+ cameras. We've ceased to be citizens and have become cogs in the machine and revenue sources for the government.
The current hue and cry for more regulation of this or that "danger" just shows that most people are sheep who care more about security than liberty. They deserve neither.
(Anyone who wants to know how Hitler or Mussolini came to power needs to simply look around at our nation in the last few decades. We've slowly gone from being a vibrant, growing, powerful people to a nation of simpering cowards in a fascist-lite environment. Only the continued existence of the First Amendment has kept us anything like free... certainly can't give credit to the 4th or 9th.)
Once more for emphasis:
It. Is. About. Rights.
Re: “Slaughter: train station construction starts in August”
I hit the wrong key when writing ...term of office of senate is 6 years! Should not write in the dark..LOL
Re: “Slaughter: train station construction starts in August”
MJN,
Interesting response! So, lets go back to the assumption of the framers. The members of the House were supposed to to Washington for two years and represent their district's interests. They, it was feared, would be subject to populism so, a more deliberative body, the Senate was to go there for 8 years to temper their populism. Representative Slaughter, to be sure, has been elected over and over...therein lies the problem! She killed Ren Square because of a dispute with RGRTA and, because she wanted an intermodel facility.
My point is this, that the County, City, and transit authority wanted Ren Sq. The REPRESENTATIVE was charged with the responsibility of enabling the project at the instruction of the local government, not, killing it because of her ideas!
The Representative has voted time and again with her party and against the interests of the district. Trade policy helped kill Kodak, and she voted for it. But, back to the issue at hand...the corner of Main and Clinton. Bill Johnson has said that that was the problem that was essential to the redevelopment of downtown...Maggie Brooks agreed! Louise killed it and the 243 million that went with it.
So, Senator Schumer, a member of the Senate, the body charged with balance and legislating, got the money, and she sent it away. It is hard to celebrate the 10 cents on the dollar that instead will be used to build a train station that no local official asked for except the Member! I hope this answers your question!
Re: “Is support for gun control slipping?”
The majority already speaks in the fact that 80% of us do NOT own guns. And yes, we need gun control. The idea that these laws only inconvenience law abiding citizens just isn't true. There are plenty of non-criminals who are stupid and careless and in need of control. The mother of the Sandy Hook shooter was not a criminal, but she sure was stupid and careless to continue to have guns in a home with a mentally ill son.
Re: “What did Rhee know about cheating in DC schools?”
Any employee who whines about being held accountable for his or her job performance should be terminated. Only in the dysfunctional alternate universe of government-run "education" could such an ironclad principle qualify as either "reform" or a matter of controversy.