MORE CONSERVATIVE THAN JEB BUSH? -- Just A Minute Radio for Monday 101213

            Excellent to see you made it today… we’re glad you’re on the team.

 

            I’ve checked the calendar today and the winter solstice arrives a week from *tomorrow* at 6:38 PM EST… And I thought it might bring a bit of cheer for you to know down south here compared to Boston for instance… we get about 50 minutes more daylight on the shortest day of the year than they do up there. Don’t you feel privileged? Every little bit helps. J

 

            Of course that turns around six months later and up there in “Bean Town” they get about 74 extra minutes of daylight during their longer summer days – nearer the north pole remember – than we do down here at say the mouth of the Savannah river where the sun goes down quicker than it does in Boston harbor.

 

            Well… there’s nothing we can do about that is there.  The news we bring today is Florida under their newly elected Governor will likely be leading the charge toward improving schools nationwide because Ms. Michelle Rhee – former Chancellor of Public Schools in D.C. is starting up a new organization called “StudentsFirst.org.” and let us pray she has great success with it. She’s able to get a lot more encouragement from the new Governor Rick Scott than Washington’s Mayor Adrian Fenty was able to offer once he lost his election in the Capitol city.

K-12

            One of the really sagging statistics in America is the score our American students are getting compared to students overseas.  The last figures I heard about put us down about 18^th on the inter-national scoreboard compared with much higher scores especially from Asia than in the U.S.

 

            What does that mean?  A lot of things – but mainly it means the educational unions are having a field day when it comes to their personal benefits and all that compared with the sagging scores of students – this despite the fact U.S. schools spend far more per-pupil than most overseas nations. How do we go about improving it?  The best way seems to be for parents to take enough interest in their children’s schooling… and where that is unsuccessful to make alternative routes to quality education more readily available for children in failing schools than it is now. Some years back when Daniel Patrick Moynihan was active in educational affairs and state scores compared with money spent became available to the general public – Moynihan…who later became a Senator from New York state said it looked as if the best policy for U.S. education to follow would be one of “benign neglect.”  That got a lot of laughs – but it looks as if the results are coming home to roost.

 

            The biggest gripes from the States seem to come from two areas… Education – and costs of medical care. Defense is costly in more ways than one – but think of the costs for experiencing defeat in any of these areas.  That’s why we need people of good character and quality – not leftist ideas.

 

            Cordially, IN HIM

            Jack

 

       PS – I have three present or retired pubic school teachers in my family.

Delayed audio link:

 

http://www.wmuu.com/blog/category/audio/just-a-minute/

 

 

“JUST A MINUTE”

MORE CONSERVATIVE THAN JEB BUSH?

Just a Minute: Newly elected Florida Governor Rick Scott looks to match the conservatism of Jeb Bush in educational and economic reform. Mr. Scott is selecting an economic and education team that would be a credit to former governor Bush.

The most noted of the new names to Florida education is Michelle Rhee, most recently chancellor of the Washington, D.C. public school system. Although she served under Democratic Mayor Adrian Fenty, until he lost the recent election it looks as if she will not be serving as Florida’s education commissioner but she’s started up StudentsFirst.org, a grassroots organization aiming to encourage school reform nationwide.

Ms. Rhee has gained accolades among conservatives for her challenge to teacher’s unions, intent to close underperforming schools and ridding the system of tenure that hides poor performance of teachers. It looks like Governor Scott intends to make education and economic reforms keystones in his new administration. 

Welcome news!

            <> I’m Jack Buttram.

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