Cable News Ratings for Thursday, October 11, 2012

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1. Letmethink

   Posted October 14, 2012 at 12:41 PM

   ^under the bus

2. Faith3

   Posted October 14, 2012 at 12:46 PM

   Letmethink,

   Thanks for sharing your experience. My one question, wouldn’t it make sense to give students who need mental/emotional/behavioral health resources logical? Schools that have these resources for students have fared better in my area.

3. Hoppy

   Posted October 14, 2012 at 12:49 PM

   Whether it’s fair or unfair isn’t the point. The fact is that charter schools, parochial schools and private schools do a better job of teaching, so those who have a choice will usually choose them. I might sympathize with children who truly want to learn and are hampered by being forced into classrooms full of those who don’t, but I certainly don’t blame those who can make a better choice.

4. Faith3

   Posted October 14, 2012 at 12:57 PM

   Hoppy,

   False. They don’t do a better job teaching students but yes they do have cherry picked students that will do better on standardized test for reasons already discussed. In the meantime, should public school teachers and schools be punished for things that are not always under their control? The areas no school has proven effectiveness in raising standardizes test scores are for low income students, minorities or students with a second language. It’s been easy for our schools to show outstanding results in all other areas.

5. Jeff

   Posted October 14, 2012 at 12:58 PM

   The American cemetery in Normandy was an extraordinary experience. Very sad, so many graves of such young heroic men. A very touching letter attaches to a wreath left under the flag at the main entrance, from a British High School saying thank you and we will never forget your sacrifice. Back to Paris tomorrow, more museums Rodan and Monet. Almost 10:00pm, have to catch up on sleep.

   So glad that the cocky right wing is celebrating a win already, with more insane conspiracy theories and lies. Means the upcoming comeback is going to hurt SO much more.

   Its chilly here, missed 90 degrees and the Shuttle Endeavor transport in LA today, but this more than is a good reason. Have a great weekend.

6. Letmethink

   Posted October 14, 2012 at 12:59 PM

   Faith, you can not imagine the specialist and resources these students had available to them. Even with all the money, professional help and teachers that sincerely wanted to help, I saw more failures than successes. As I said, I have no answers, I can only tell you what the problems are as seen from the “inside”
   The students that I worked with over the years that did the very best were from China and Vietnam. I attribute their success to their families. They value education. They were the most delightful and rewarding students and parents I worked with in my 30 years in education.

7. Faith3

   Posted October 14, 2012 at 1:09 PM

   Thank you for your input letmethink,

   It has been proven that families (no matter income, race etc) that are involved will more than likely have well educated kids. Now image being in the first school you described with no help to take the disrupted child to a behavior specialist. The entire classroom suffers and so does the child. I worked in a system that refused to cut that resource. Not only did it help those other students in the classroom but it also helped the one who needed to be removed for help.

8. Letmethink

   Posted October 14, 2012 at 1:13 PM

   Faith, just a thought. I believe that teachers can teach better when they have willing and respectful students. You know the old saying “Success breeds success.” The more success the teachers and students have, the more they are encouraged and eager to work harder and achieve even more. It is demoralizing as a student and a teacher to meet with failure day after day. After seeing fist hand what public education has become, I have encouraged my children to send their children to private school. I believe there have been many studies lately about the extraordinary number of teachers who send their children to private school. Another old saying, “Two thousand ants cant be wrong” Money is not the answer. I believe Doug stated the stats from Washington DC–more money spent per student than any where in the US and the worst results.

9. Faith3

   Posted October 14, 2012 at 1:20 PM

   Well DC spends a large portion of funds on transportation and infrastructure for decaying buildings and not so much for resources toward students. It counts where and what money is being spent on when looking at costs. Schools that are fortunate to be able to put money toward resources have shown results or at least have in my neck of the woods. As described in my last post, such resources help everyone involved. A win win situation for everyone.

10. Letmethink

    Posted October 14, 2012 at 1:23 PM

    That is good news Faith. I am very glad that you have seen it working in your school Yes, the school I first taught in was a mess. The students who did want to learn had to have a lot of self discipline and desire to succeed. Doug sounds like such a student. How do we instill that desire to achieve in a student–the desire to learn and achieve regardless of their situation? If we could bottle that and sell it, we could solve the problem post haste.

11. Faith3

    Posted October 14, 2012 at 1:28 PM

    True letmethink,

    The student I am referring to had some mental health issues that were cheaper to assist in house than fund out of district. In the meantime, many people are far removed from the realities of such schools and the desperate need for such resources for all to survive and thrive.

12. RealityChick

    Posted October 14, 2012 at 1:29 PM

    @Mark
    I am for self-deportation. I would be happy if the money-grubbing illegal leeches would go back to where they came from and I am glad Romney believes that, too. You want a war on why not to vote for Obama…you got it. Let’s start with the gun walking, huh Mark? Why did he cover up the death of the boarder agent?

13. Letmethink

    Posted October 14, 2012 at 1:29 PM

    Faith, just one more thing and I need to sign off for the night. I googled the stats for the breakdown of money spent for students in DC. I could not find that a large portion of it went to buildings and infrastructure. I am not questioning your stats I just could not find it. Could you please direct me to your source as I had not heard that before and would like to look into it later.

14. Letmethink

    Posted October 14, 2012 at 1:34 PM

    I should have said a proportionately larger amount of funds went to infrastructure than most school districts.

15. Faith3

    Posted October 14, 2012 at 1:38 PM

    I’m on an IPhone but will transfer to my PC.

16. Faith3

    Posted October 14, 2012 at 2:05 PM

    snip from The Price of Neglect: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/30/AR2007123002242.html

    The Army Corps of Engineers came to the District in the late 1990s on an expensive mission: launch a massive overhaul of decrepit school buildings, which eventually included spending $80 million to replace ancient heating systems with brand-new boilers to last 25 years or more.

    Since then, 40 of the 55 renovated heating systems have broken down or needed major repair. Public schools officials failed to maintain the new equipment, leading to problems such as damage from mineral deposits that built up because the water was not properly treated, repair records and interviews show.

    It would have cost just $100,000 a year to remove harmful minerals from the water flowing into all of the more than 400 boilers in the public schools. But maintenance officials say there was never enough money for it in their budget.

    As a result, heating systems old and new have been breaking down all over the school district. Administrators had to sink more than $10 million into emergency repairs this year alone, prompted by cold classrooms at 71 schools in February that displaced hundreds of children.

    The failing boilers are a testament to the school system’s longstanding inability to keep its buildings in shape or make the best of huge infusions of money. This decade, records show, the schools have spent more than $116 million to replace or overhaul heating and air-conditioning units, including the Army Corps projects. This winter, officials trucked in temporary boilers for seven schools where the systems have failed.

    The District’s water is “hard,” or heavy with minerals such as magnesium and calcium carbonate. Left untreated in a steam boiler, it leaves deposits that can clog pipes and corrode the inner workings.

    At Spingarn Senior High School in Northeast, the Corps put in four new boilers and pipe work in 2001 for about $3.9 million, records show. The units now sit in pools of rusty water, beyond repair.

    “Calcium carbonate killed those boilers,” said Howard W. Hubbard, Spingarn’s heating engineer. The school district is leasing a temporary boiler, installed on a semitrailer in the parking lot, at a cost of about $100,000 for the school year.

    Over the years, Hubbard said, he ordered bags of water treatment chemicals from the central office but received them only about half of the time. “We never got the resources to fully do our job,” he said.

    James Jackson, a manager in the school system’s facilities maintenance division, said that whatever funding was available was spent first on problems threatening “life, health and safety” in the district’s 150-plus buildings.

    “We never said, ‘Don’t do water treatment,’ ” said Jackson, who has been with the division for 19 years. “If the money was gone before we could do water treatment, then we couldn’t do it.”

    The maintenance and repair problems in the District’s schools go far beyond heating systems. Students, teachers and administrators in many buildings have endured broken bathrooms, leaking roofs, lead-tainted drinking water, asbestos contamination and rodent infestations, school records show. In some cases, repair requests have gone years without a response.

17. Mark

    Posted October 14, 2012 at 2:13 PM

    @RealityChick
    —————————-
    I am for self-deportation. I would be happy if the money-grubbing illegal leeches would go back to where they came from and I am glad Romney believes that, too.
    —————————-
    Actually at the Republican Primary debates he was for self deportation, since then he’s flip flopped on those comments. I just want to see somebody ask him about Self Deportation so he can get caught in yet another flip flop on camera. Once again this is another issue Romney seems to have taken many sides of the debate at some point, so no matter what answer he gives you can find another clip somewhere him saying the exact opposite.

    —————————
    You want a war on why not to vote for Obama…you got it. Let’s start with the gun walking, huh Mark? Why did he cover up the death of the boarder agent?
    —————————
    Does Obama covering up that effect my pocketbook or life in general? If you think that is a big issue I or anybody else should care about when casting a vote, more power to you. I can go back to every president and find something insignificant(Iran Contra with Reagan, BJs in the whitehouse for Clinton, 9-11 with Bush) they covered up, in general people don’t give a crap so why should we now? Oh yeah becasue it’s Obama

18. Sicilian Papa

    Posted October 14, 2012 at 3:11 PM

    @

    The ladies

    The ladies are out in force today. I see the discussion is about education. Sadly, a subject I know little about. The only thing I can’t figure is what Ratboy could possibly contribute to the conversation. I will be back later to lower the level of the debate.

    Everyone enjoy the debate. I’m watching the Patriots, Giants and the Yankees against the Tigers (Ratboy) up here in Conn.

19. lbsles

    Posted October 14, 2012 at 3:23 PM

    “Denies, Deceives, Delays” Truth on Mideast

    Sen. Lindsey Graham on Sunday leveled conspiracy charges against the White House for attempting to cover up the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the Libyan embassy that killed a U.S. ambassador.

    Graham said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” he knows for a fact the administration was told within 24 hours of the incident it was carried out by al-Qaida operatives.

    “They’re trying to sell a narrative, quite frankly, that the mid East, the wars are receding, and al-Qaida’s been dismantled,” the South Carolina Republican said. “And to admit that our embassy was attacked by al-Qaida operatives and Libya, leading from behind, didn’t work, I think undercuts that narrative. They never believed the media would investigate. Congress was out of session. It just caught up with them.”

    !If the administration is not misleading the public, then it’s response to the attack is “incredibly incompetent,” Graham said.

    “They’re very political when it comes to foreign policy,” he said. “When something goes bad, they deny, they deceive, and they delay, and the truth is, we’re not safer. Al-Qaida is alive. [Osama] bin Laden may be dead.”

    President Barack Obama told late-night television host David Letterman two days after the attack it was the result of a controversial video, Graham said.

    http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Graham-Obama-Libya-attack/2012/10/14/id/459891?s=al&promo_code=1061B-1

20. lbsles

    Posted October 14, 2012 at 3:24 PM

    Gingrich Insists Obama’s Libya Cover-Up Worse Than Watergate

    Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich blasted the Obama administration’s handling of the terrorist attack in Benghazi, tweeting that the growing scandal is bigger than Watergate.

    “No one died at Watergate! The Obama lies about Benghazi and Biden’s deliberate lies Thursday night should be a bigger scandal than Nixon,” declared Gingrich.

    Gingrich said it is clear that Vice President Joe Biden was lying about the incident during Thursday’s debate with GOP vice presidential challenger Paul Ryan.

    “It is clear the Obama team decided to have the vice president lie about an event that killed four Americans, including an ambassador,” Gingrich tweeted.

    He believes that the facts surrounding the Sept. 11 terrorist strike that claimed the lives of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others should be a major focus of the remaining two presidential debates.

    “Now had over a month of dishonesty and cover-up from Obama team about Benghazi,” Gingrich wrote on Saturday. “Getting to truth should be number one goal next two debates.”