Tuesday, June 25, 2024

Virginia's All In: School funding questions asked and go unanswered.

 


The Daily Press wrote an opinion today. Pandemic funds were used in 2024 to promote Glen Youngkins's All-In approach to helping students catch up. The Daily Press fails to peel back the onion if it were as to the real causes of student achievement decline, and I address that in the last few sentences of my opinion. The hard questions were not discussed in the opinion, and I suspect it is because Virginia legislation may have or may not have earmarked funds for the same program in 2025. Federal funds may have needed to be earmarked for 2025 to implement the same programs as in 2024. The Daily Press now seems to be asking for volunteers without calling out the legislatures who failed to fund the program in 2025. The question is why? Is the Daily Press unwilling to dig deeper knowing it was the Democrats in legislation that did not fund 2025? I would like to know the answer please. 

Al con, 


It's a lovely article and opinion. However, there are many concerns, and of course, the Editors should have mentioned an essential piece of information. The Editors wrote, "School Districts should take advantage of the All-In programs when the next academic year starts." The (All-In) funds from 2024 are all but spent as detailed, in your opinion. Did the Democrats, who control the legislation in Richmond, include money in the 2025 educational funding for All-In practices such as tutoring, absenteeism, and literacy? Are the Daily Press editors now asking for volunteers to keep this program alive? Are you asking teachers who are overworked and need more pay to volunteer now? Are you asking teachers to produce the miracle of teaching two grades in one year to help kids when, in some cases, they don't even show up for school? Please review and tell us if the State Legislature has earmarked money for the All-In in 2025. You could ask the convicted felon in Richmond for his take. When will the Daily Press staff step up and be literacy volunteers? Where is the Daily Presses program to help others, or are you here to point fingers? Then, of course, one should be mindful of the parent's responsibility to ensure their children get the extra help. Someone has to provide a place to live. Someone has to give a good breakfast. Someone has to make sure the child goes to school. Someone has to make sure homework is done. Someone must ensure the child takes their education seriously and listens to the teachers. With quality parental involvement and funds provided, All In will succeed. With quality parental involvement, the whole system can succeed.




Saturday, June 1, 2024

The war on poverty and how to climb out of this hole created.

 


Ms. Tingley, a retired school superintendent and college professor, wrote a rebuttal to the war on poverty in the Williamsburg Gazette on 6-1-2024. She attacked with a typical liberal attack of "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is hard." She is right. It is hard without some skills you can offer for employment besides flipping a hamburger. The truth is some could not flip a hamburger if they wanted to or cook one to the proper degree as needed for a healthy meal. Urbanization is one of the direct causes of this phenomenon and, of course. Some high schoolers don't know the difference between a straight-blade screwdriver and a Phillips. How can they survive with little education? I offer my ideas on the war on poverty through the leanse of Been There Done That. We have forgotten how we got here through high school shops, future Farmers of America, and community skill centers in every town.

Ms. Tingley is correct when she writes concerning the war on poverty. The war on poverty has failed due to today's partisan politics. We seem to keep doing the same things to prevent poverty and expecting different results, and that is a form of madness. Ms. Tinsley writes, "We don't all get to start at the same starting line."  All are 100% true. We should acknowledge the luck of the draw and the family we are born into; not one of them is the same nor provides the same outcome and opportunities. Ms Tingley writes about how "life is hard." Well, who said life was supposed to be easy? Life is hard. for all of us. Yes, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is hard. Who said it was easy? For a child in poverty, the best chance of breaking the cycle is the parent's love of education and realizing that education is the most important and best way out of poverty. Someone has to be there to tell the child to go to bed. Someone has to say to the child to do their homework. Someone has to teach the child to respect and mind the teachers. Someone has to remind the child that through hard work, rewards are plenty. Someone has to put food on the table. Someone has to give their life and be willing to go without and give the child a chance. A sacrifice must be made. Without the sacrifice of the child born of your own flesh and blood, the child will follow the parent into poverty as, indeed, the sheep follow each other over the cliff when the wolf attacks. 

Through our love of our fellow man, we have created unintentional consequences concerning human life where the survival of the fittest, a natural law of living on this rock, has been compromised. To end poverty is relatively simple. Urbanization of our communities has left many without the skills to survive when we give without asking for anything in return. The idea of everyone getting a college education (Obama) was an unrealistic vision and a political lie for votes.  

I grew up poor, leaving a broken family unit in a pickup truck, bag of clothes, and tent at age 20. I relied on my rural skills of hunting and gathering food right there in front of me. I had the skills to survive. My trade work at that age came from my time working rural farm jobs as a young adult, and of course, I was an accomplished welder at the age of 14; my time in Future Farmers of America and Shop in my high school years afforded me the skills needed to survive and have never asked the government for one darn dime. Today, I am a millionaire who is still living off those same skill sets. I was determined to put myself through night school college. To end the war on poverty, we must return to our rural roots; shop class reintroduced at the middle school level of k-12 will go a long way to defeating this unnecessary enemy created by our love of our fellow humans. 










Virginia's All In: School funding questions asked and go unanswered.

  The Daily Press wrote an opinion today. Pandemic funds were used in 2024 to promote Glen Youngkins's All-In approach to helping studen...