H.S. Dropout crisis: ‘The house is on fire.’
By Josh Richman
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 4:07 pm in education, George Miller, U.S. House.
Witnesses today urged the House Education and Labor Committee to act quickly on a legislative solution to the nation’s high-school dropout epidemic. Here’s committee chairman George Miller, D-Martinez, giving an opening statement at the hearing:
“Some may think twice about using the word ‘crisis’ to define what’s happening in our high schools. But the truth is, we aren’t just facing a crisis – the house is on fire,” he said. “The new McKinsey report says the achievement gaps in this country are the same as having, and I quote, ‘a permanent national recession.’”
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May 15th, 2009 at 9:40 am
I am delighted to see that Congressman Miller is still fighting the “good fight” not only against the dropout crisis but also the against the disproportionate numbers of these dropouts representing minorities as unacceptable. I wrote Congressman Miller ON APRIL 2, 2009, via a fax, to his four (4) offices in the 7th Congressional District about a prime example of what is wrong in California: The cutting of Cal-SAFE and the erroneous placement of this very special program for pregnant and parenting teens and their children, e.g. impact on two generations. I am again pleading that Congressman Miller review those materials and champion this issue on behalf of a VERY SUCCESSFUL drop-out prevention program, Cal-SAFE, to ensure its continuity for a vulnerable population that cannot vote but is worthy of the kind of attention Congressman Miller spoke about in his “House is on Fire” speech. I urge him to also take this up with Speaker of the House Pelosi and Senator Boxer as this program meets the sex equity and other access and equity language throughout the Federal No Child Left Behind.
Again, I applaud Congressman Miller for his continued, unwavering support for the quality public education for all and retention of our next generation in public schools – typically, the last bastion of democracy in any country on earth.
May 19th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
The public schools in this country are anything but “the last bastion of democracy”. They are instead islands of repression in a sea of our democracy.
They provide liberal Democrats a platform to repeatedly brainwash children to particular liberal viewpoints: against Christianity “a fable, just made up stories” according to one of my nephews elementary school teachers; in favor of Islam (2 weeks of dress-up and acting like Muslims); in favor of gay marriage (a full day in high schools with one side of this issue only allowed); in favor of environmental extremism and socialism; in favor of larger government; painting American history as one of oppression and evil; undermining American exceptionalism.
The California public school systems provides no choices for poor parents other than to home school children. If you truly support democracy for people, you would apply this to school choice and instead permit individuals to select what school they send their children to, and reroute state funding appropriately through a voucher system.
Democracy and California public schools are not related in any way what-so-ever.