Texas graduation rate worst in nation, again

[Snazzy]

Texas graduation rate worst in nation, again
By JASON SPENCER
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

For the second straight year, Texas has the lowest percentage of high school graduates in the nation, according to a U.S. Census Bureau study released Tuesday.

Seventy-seven percent of Texans age 25 and older had a high school degree in 2003, the same percentage as a decade earlier, when Texas ranked 39th in the country. So while other states have seen their graduation rates improve -- a record 85 percent of Americans have high school degrees -- Texas is treading water.

....


http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topstory/2654323

[hadrons]

1. this answers a lot of questions ....

[molly]

13. LOL!!!!

[WindRavenX]

2. This must be the education reform that W was talking about!

...and I'd say it was a great bloomin' success :puke:
Education president my ass...

[struggle4progress]

6. Oh! It is! It's wonderful! Who needs an education to flip burgers?

Anyway, David Brooks says education just polarizes us!
<edit:> http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=59468

[NashVegas]

14. Ah, That Texas Miracle

turning out the dead-end wage workers of tomorrow.

[Wink]

3. We want to use this as a model for the nation?

Just like the civil rights and environmental standards of Texas? Wouldn't it be wonderful if the entire nation was as wonderful as Texas?

[0007]

4. .....a product of Ron Paige's Texas educational program

and now Secretary of Education for junior.

Another loser who knows how to 'cook the books.'

[JayS]

35. Sadly, things have been this way for a long, long time.... n/t

n/t

[izzie]

5. Where can we get the whole list?

Has their ever been a study on unions, church, home schooling, and all that on this? I swear in states that have unions they seem to be better rated and where the right wing nuts are redoing books etc. they seem to be on the low end. But this may be how it fillers through my brain. I would like to see if I am just reading it as I wish to see it.

[JayS]

10. It would not take much of a study. Lack of money is one big...

...reason. The other is that some cultures here do not value education.

[Solly Mack]

7. "Is our children learning?"

[struggle4progress]

15. Seldim it is ast.

[Solly Mack]

21. Maybe they should stop putting food on their children

and use books instead...thwap thwap thwap....

[saigon68]

28. A year ago I cudnt spell gradiate

Now I are One !!!

[DFWJock]

8. Clearly,

this is Bill Clinton's fault.

[tlcandie]

9. Florida must be number 6 since we are back to back with this Texas

education policy! They do not want educated teachers to teach the children in Texas...only teachers who are excellent in TAS testing! Forget being prepared for the real world...just get them to pass the TAS test and outta here! :puke:

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

11. Well, Drinky Mcdumbass said he would do for the country

what he did for Texas. Apparently this is the one time he told the truth.

[bushisanidiot]

12. No Child Left Uneducated Seems to be working like a DREAM!

president dumbass leads by example again..

[AspenRose]

16. Finally, a list New Mexico isn't at the bottom of

*muahahahahahaha*

Usually it's NM, MS and WV duking it out for the bottom three of ANY positive comparison.

Very interesting.

[kitkatrose]

23. I'm just glad it's not TN.

We're probably in the bottom 10 though. :(

[denverbill]

17. Yeee-haahh. Look at all them 'red' states.

South Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, West Virginia, Texas.

Guess that explains Republicans aversion to education.

[AspenRose]

18. "Fancy Pants Elitist!"

Heh heh heh. ;-)

[Demonaut]

19. is this comparison a bit unfair? Texans aged 25 and older???

shouldnt we be looking at 2003 high school graduates?

[TahitiNut]

22. It probably reflects ...

... the number of people who flock to Texas after escaping the painful experience of high school ... where they'll feel 'normal.' :evilgrin:

[napi21]

20. I sure don't mean this as a slam, but

I suspect the top 5 states hold that spot at least partly because of their low population. It's a lot easier to have 90% of a small number than say, NY or Cal.

As far as TX & SC.....I've lived in both of those states. Lots of people just don't care about their kids succeding in life. One fellow workir of mine in SC told his 16 son to just damn quit school, he wasn't going to amount to anything anyway, so go get a labor job with the crew don the street. Pretty sad.

[TrogL]

27. Huh??

It's a lot easier to have 90% of a small number

If we were talking of a small sample like a couple of hundred, I might agree with you. One student either way could throw the percentages off. But we're talking thousands here.

What are you talking about?

[The_Casual_Observer]

24. Ron Paige and chimp what a pair

Ever notice that paige is never willing to do interviews or comment when any bad news comes up? I suppose if he did he would be working 24 hours a day.

Paige/chimp "no child left behind"is simply another bush fraud that didn't work in Texas and has, of course, failed in the grand scale nation wide.

[Fleshdancer]

25. We don't need no education

Well if we Texans are going to be bad at something, then we damn well will be the best at being the worst!!!

on edit: Growing up, I spent my elementary years at a public school in Northeast Austin. My parents decided to move to a different school district because my teachers were sending home notes filled with mispellings and incorrect grammar. The elementary school was put on academic probation as soon as I left.

I entered middle school not knowing how to divide and never learning about sentence structure.

And by the way, the Texas Education Agency's budget was slashed this year by about 40%.

[CO Liberal]

26. IQ Goes Down as GOP Registrations Go Up

Right???

[Zynx]

29. Although Wyoming and Alaska were at the top.

[Name removed]

31. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[AspenRose]

32. Now how do you expect to raise the minority #s in the GOP

with THAT kind of an attitude?

Oh YEAH, you don't WANT them in the GOP! My bad.

'Moran!'

[mbperrin]

33. Why would you think all Hispanics are in the country illegally?

Go back to 1971 for Odessa, Texas, when the district was 98% white, and the graduation rate was 50%, about the same as now. In fact, only half of all Odessans over the age of 22 have a high school diploma, 12% have a bachelor's degree, and 2% have a graduate degree of any kind.

Why? Because for 65 years, the oil industry required only a strong back to work, and poor kids want to make money. (And this is a poor area - wages are 75% of the Texas average, which is only 60% of the national average to begin.)

Poverty, poverty, poverty, combined with an irrelevant regime of oppressive high stakes testing, that's what makes low graduation rates!

[CO Liberal]

34. Looks Liike I Missed a Doozy of a Message

Too bad I was in a teleconference......

[xxqqqzme]

30. there appears 2 B a connection

between freezing your ass off 3 months of the year and not.


I know, I know, U can freeze your ass off in WV. I lived there for 10 years. The education system there was horrible. The principal @ the high school, where my 'X' taught, openly encouraged kids 2 drop out if he viewed them as trouble makers or if they had the 'wrong' family name.

We home schooled our kids until we moved.

[MountainLaurel]

36. Let's goooooo Mountaineers!

Looks like we'll have to change the unofficial state motto from "Thank God for Mississippi!" to "Thank God for Texas!"

[One_Life_To_Give]

37. Not Good

As bad as Texas is. New Hampshire is nothing to be proud of. And we expect these people to cast ballots?