Rant: Over indulgent parents strike again

On Mon, 19 Jan 2004 22:32:55 -0600, toto
wrote:

On Mon, 19 Jan 2004 14:03:09 GMT, Bownse wrote:

No it talked about how a business could spend at will and a public
institute couldn't. The difference was that the private company can
spend itself to death and the public on simply goes back to the pork
barrel and roots around for more.

Speaking of that. Businesses will raise capital and keep their plants
in repair. If they don't, they will soon have a problem in terms of
producing their product.

Here's what the schools in the inner cities and rural areas look like,
however when it comes to aging infrastructure and disrepair.
How are schools supposed to raise the capital to repair and
replace their infrastructure given the state of it? Note also that
schools have a problem doing the repairs because they can't
find new land to build on in many places and they can't just
close the school and tear it down to replace it without making
arrangements to accomodate the students in another school
or rented space.

This is a pdf file. It's the United States General Accounting Office
report to Congress on the condition of the schools in 1995. The
money was not appropriated and so conditions have deteriorated
in the 8 years since this report was giving to Congress.

http://www.carpet-health.org/pdf/GAO_Report02.pdf

February 1, 1995

The nation has invested hundreds of billions of dollars in
school infrastructure to create an environment where
children can be properly educated and prepared for the
future. Almost exclusively a state and local responsibility,
this infrastructure requires maintenance and capital
investment. However, public concern is growing that
while laws require children to attend school, some
school buildings may be unsafe or even harmful to
children’s health.

Recently, for example, a federal judge would not allow the
schools in our nation’s capital to open on time until thousands
of life-threatening fire code violations were corrected. Similarly,
noncompliance with asbestos requirements kept over 1,000
New York City schools closed for the first 11 days of the 1993
school year. Although such situations may be well publicized,
little information exists documenting the extent to which the
nation’s schools may lack the appropriate facilities to educate
their students.

*************
Based on estimates by school officials in a national
sample of schools, we project that the nation’s schools
need about $112 billion to repair or upgrade America’s
multibillion dollar investment in facilities to good overall
condition. Of this, $11 billion (10 percent) is needed
over the next 3 years to comply with federal mandates
that require schools to make all programs accessible to
all students and to remove or correct hazardous substances
such as asbestos, lead in water or paint, materials in
underground storage tanks (UST), and radon or meet other
requirements. About two-thirds of America’s schools
reported that all buildings were in at least overall adequate
condition, at most needing only some preventive
maintenance or corrective repair. However, about 14
million students attend the remaining one-third of
schools that reported needing extensive repair or
replacement of one or more buildings. These schools
are distributed nationwide. Also, problems with major
building features, such as plumbing, are widespread even
among those schools reported in at least adequate
condition. Almost 60 percent of America’s schools
reported at least one major building feature in disrepair,
needing to be extensively repaired, overhauled, or replaced.
Most of these schools had multiple problems. In addition,
about half reported at least one unsatisfactory
environmental condition in their schools, such as poor
ventilation, heating or lighting problems, or poor physical
security. Most of these schools also had multiple
unsatisfactory environmental conditions. Some district
officials we spoke to told us that a major factor in the
declining physical condition of the nation’s schools has
been decisions by school districts to defer vital
maintenance and repair expenditures from year to year
due to lack of funds.

**********
On the basis of our survey results, we estimate that the
nation’s schools need $112 billion to complete all repairs,
renovations, and modernizations required to restore
facilities to good overall condition and to comply with
federal mandates. (See fig. 1.) This amount includes $65
billion—about $2.8 million per school—needed by one-third
of schools for which one or more entire building needs
major repairs or replacement. Another 40 percent of
schools (those in adequate or better condition) reported
needing $36 billion—about $1.2 million per school—to
repair or replace one or more building features

**********
New York has extremely diverse school facilities—while
conditions are generally bad, some schools are models
for 21st century learning. The “best” school we saw—a
$151 million state-of-the-art science high school—was
only blocks away from an example of the “worst”—another
high school in a 100-year-old building that had served as
a stable, fire house, factory, and office building. This high
school’s elevators do not work, its interior classrooms
have no windows, it has little ventilation and no air
conditioning, and its heating depends on a fireman’s
stoking the coal furnace by hand. Overcrowding and
generally poor condition of the school buildings—many
over 100 years old and in need of major renovation and
repair—are New York’s main facilities problems. Since
the fiscal crisis in the 1970s, maintenance and repair of
the city’s school buildings have been largely neglected.
Twenty years of neglect compound problems that could
have been corrected much more cheaply had they been
corrected earlier. As the city seeks the funds for repairing
leaking roofs, plumbing problems that cause sewage to
seep into elementary school classrooms, and ceilings
that have caved in, its school enrollment is dramatically
increasing. After losing more than 10 percent of its
population in the sixties, a vast migration of non-English
speaking residents in the last 3 years has resulted in
overcrowding in 50 percent of New York’s schools. One
school is operating at over 250 percent of capacity.
Because classrooms are unavailable while under repair,
in some cases improvements are postponed. The New
York City schools’ maintenance, repair, and capital
improvement budget is approved annually by the city
council. While the state provides some loan forgiveness,
the city is largely responsible for all of the costs. Each
school is allocated a maintenance and repair budget
based solely on square footage. As a result, schools—
even new schools—frequently cannot repair problems
as they arise, which often leads to costly repairs in the
future. In 1988, the estimated cost of upgrading,
modernizing, and expanding the school system by the
year 2000 was over $17 billion. The total capital backlog
at that time was over $5 billion. The capital plan for fiscal
year 1990 through fiscal year 1994 was funded at $4.3
billion—barely 20 percent of the amount requested.

**********

One Chicago Elementary School principal reports that
"Heat escapes through holes in the roof. Windows leak.
(the ones that are not boarded up) and let in the cold
winter air so that children must wear winter coats to
class."

In New Orleans, the damage from Formosan termites
has deteriorated the structure of many schools. In
one elementary school, they even ate the books on the
library shelves as well as the shelves themselves.
This in combination with a leaking roof and rusted
window wall caused so much damage that a large
portion of the 30 year old school has been condemned.
The whole school is projected to be closed in one year.

At a Montgomery County, Alabama, elementary school,
a ceiling weakened by leaking water collapsed 40
minutes after the children left for the day.

Water damage from an old (original) boiler steam
heating at a 60 year old junior hig school in Washington
DC has caused such wall deterioration that an entire
wing has been condemned and locked off from use.
Steam damage is also causing lead-based wall paint
to peel.

Raw sewage backs up on the front lawn at a
Montgomery County, Alabama junior high school due
to defective plumbing.

A New York City high school built around the turn of the
century has served as a stable, fire house, factory and
office building. The school is overcrowded with 580
students, far exceeding the buildings 400 student
capacity. The building has little ventilation (no vents or
blowers), despite the many inside classrooms, and the
windows cannot be opened, which makes the school
unbearably hot in summer. In the winter heating depends
on a fireman's stoking the coal furnace by hand.

In Ramona, California, where overcrowding is
considered a problem, one elementary school is
composed entierly of portable buildings. It had neither
a cafeteria nor auditorium and used a single relocatable
room as a library, computer lab, music room and art
room.

[I would imagine the bathrooms were those portapots
you see on construction sites - no running water there
either]

Last year, during a windstorm in Raymond, Washington,
the original windows of an elementary school built in 1925
were blown out, leaving shards of glass stuck in the floor.
The children happened to be at the other end of the room.
The wooden school is considered a fire hazard, and
although hallways and staircases can act as chimneys
for smoke and fire, the second floor has only one external
exit.

In rural Grandview, Washington, overcrowded facilities are
a problem At one middle schooo, the original building was
meant to house 450 studends. Two additions and three
portables have been added to accomodate 700 students.
The school has 7 staggered lunch periods. The portables
have no lockers nor bathrooms and are cold in the winter
and hot in the spring/summer.

In a high school in Chicago, the classroom floors are in
terrible condition. Not only are the floors buckling, so
much tile is loose that students cannot walk in all parts
of the school. The stairs are in poor condition and have
been cited for safety violations. An outside door has
been chained for 3 years to prevent students from falling
on broken outside steps. Peeling paint has been cited
as a fire hazard. Heating problesm result in some rooms
having no heat while other rooms are too warm. Leaks
in the science labe caused by plumbing problems prevent
the classes from doing experiments.



--
Dorothy

There is no sound, no cry in all the world
that can be heard unless someone listens ..

The Outer Limits

On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 09:19:49 GMT, "Margaret M."
wrote:

"toto" wrote

*snipped 12 KB of non motorcycle related drivel*
Dorothy

Dorothy, hon, do you have a life? Where do you find time to type
these lengthy novels? I barely have time to buzz through a newsgroup,
scan the headers, pop into a few threads and post a sarcastic line or
two. And *I* don't have a job. I'm a housewhore. Do you sleep?
Eat? Make love? Shower? When...for God's sake?
Mag

On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 10:13:21 -0700, Alan the Horse
wrote:

On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 09:19:49 GMT, "Margaret M."
wrote:

"toto" wrote

*snipped 12 KB of non motorcycle related drivel*
Dorothy

Dorothy, hon, do you have a life? Where do you find time to type
these lengthy novels? I barely have time to buzz through a newsgroup,
scan the headers, pop into a few threads and post a sarcastic line or
two. And *I* don't have a job. I'm a housewhore. Do you sleep?
Eat? Make love? Shower? When...for God's sake?
Mag

Dearest Dorothy, you are a pathetic loser. Go away, trolless. Spend
a little time with your neglected children.

rec.misc.driving snipped

--
Al | '98 FLTRI
Brennan | '98 T509 EN
owl tuna| '83 GR650
hot mail| '57 6T

On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 09:18:06 -0600,
(Matthew Russotto) wrote:

In article ,
toto wrote:

Recently, for example, a federal judge would not allow the
schools in our nation’s capital to open on time until thousands
of life-threatening fire code violations were corrected.

Sure. I remember that. The school district ignored the problem
because they figured they're the school district and no one could
close them down. So they got worse and worse. Had little to do with
money (most of which was probably going up the mayor's nose), and a
lot to do with arrogance and mismanagement.
--
Matthew T. Russotto
"Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice, and moderation in pursuit
of justice is no virtue." But extreme restriction of liberty in pursuit of
a modicum of security is a very expensive vice.

On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 17:21:48 GMT, Rosalie B.
wrote:

x-no-archive:yes


(Matthew Russotto) wrote:

In article ,
toto wrote:

Recently, for example, a federal judge would not allow the
schools in our nation’s capital to open on time until thousands
of life-threatening fire code violations were corrected.

Sure. I remember that. The school district ignored the problem
because they figured they're the school district and no one could
close them down. So they got worse and worse. Had little to do with
money (most of which was probably going up the mayor's nose), and a
lot to do with arrogance and mismanagement.

This was well after Marion Barry.

There may well have been mismanagement and arrogance, but I don't
think it was because the school district thought no one could close
them down. They just didn't physically get it done in time and
thought they could slide.

The District has lots of problems both with personnel, leadership and
money - not JUST in the schools, but in the police force, the
emergency services, the medical services and hospitals, the water and
sewer departments, the DMV, the roads - just about every area except
parking tickets which they seem to be able to do.

grandma Rosalie

On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 16:22:11 -0600,
(Matthew Russotto) wrote:

In article ,
Rosalie B. wrote:
x-no-archive:yes


(Matthew Russotto) wrote:

In article ,
toto wrote:

Recently, for example, a federal judge would not allow the
schools in our nation’s capital to open on time until thousands
of life-threatening fire code violations were corrected.

Sure. I remember that. The school district ignored the problem
because they figured they're the school district and no one could
close them down. So they got worse and worse. Had little to do with
money (most of which was probably going up the mayor's nose), and a
lot to do with arrogance and mismanagement.

This was well after Marion Barry.

No, it wasn't. The _first_ shutdown was 1994, the year of Mayor
Barry's comeback. The shutdowns continued through the comback
administration. The lawsuit was filed in 1991, and the problem
existed long before then.

--
Matthew T. Russotto
"Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice, and moderation in pursuit
of justice is no virtue." But extreme restriction of liberty in pursuit of
a modicum of security is a very expensive vice.

On Wed, 21 Jan 2004 04:04:18 GMT, Bownse wrote:

Stephen! wrote:

"Margaret M." wrote in news:Tb6Pb.93252
:


Since he enjoyed reading to the other kids (he
had been reading to his baby brother for 2 years)



When I hit kindergarten the teacher got ****ed off and called my mother...
Bitched her out because I "wasn't supposed to be able to read yet..."

I've been reading since 2½... The teacher felt it was "her job" to teach
me to read...

Funny thing was my mother had nothing to do with it.. I learned on my own
by watching Sesame Street and picking up a book... By age three I had read
the entire Webster's College Edition cover to cover...

No fair! You have the advantage when getting your rally pack! I didn't
start reading until 3 or 4! No wonder I missed the Keller bonus even
though I rode right past it!

(Robyn Kozierok) wrote in message ...

I agree with this. And I think it is similar to having a child
study martial arts, not only so they will be able to defend himself
should that be necessary, but also, and often primarily, to help
the child exude an air of self-confidence that will help him be
less likely to be bullied in the first place.

My experience says that true self-confidence comes from being in
a place right for you, and following your natural talents. Of
course, these talents have to be developed. It's nice to see
schools do this. Often, they don't.

It's hard to be confident when surrounded by knife-wielding thugs,
unless you happen to be one of them.

However, I also think it is a fine line between suggesting changes that
are "harmless" and help reduce bullying and suggesting changes that
unreasonably ask the victim to change his personality. If a boy is
very sensitive and prone to crying readily, getting him to stop that,
if it's even possible, would probably reduce his being bullied, but
is that a reasonable change to ask?

If a boy is very sensitive - to an alien environment filled with
strangers under no compulsion to accept or tolerate him, that just
happen to be his age, with no consideration of interests, abilities,
or talents.

(Brent P) wrote in message news:bUCOb.82811$nt4.125309@attbi_s51...

Imagine a highway with artificially low speed limits (dumbing
down), and speed limits rigidly enforced (poor or no tracking),
and no enforcement of hit-and-run laws (bullying), and where
truck drivers (jocks) are above all the laws.

We are heading towards that with automated roads, electronic
enforcement, etc. Everyone but the special elites, those who can
bully their way, etc will be left at 55mph or not even allowed
to drive.

Speed limits are also profitable to enforce.

Also imagine the highway being the only one in the area (public
school monopoly), and people being legally forced to use that
highway (compulsory attendance).

I have imagined it. It's the direction we are headed in many facets
of life in the USA. To me, it's all same general fault in thinking,
from the school hallways on up.

It comes from an erosion of morality (secular not religious) and
personal responsibility. Mob rule comes next. Hordes of people
demand a right to driving (or education) without taking the
responsibilities, which means the talented and responsibile ones
suffer most.

In article ,
Roger Dodger wrote:
(Robyn Kozierok) wrote in message

If a boy is
very sensitive and prone to crying readily, getting him to stop that,
if it's even possible, would probably reduce his being bullied, but
is that a reasonable change to ask?

If a boy is very sensitive - to an alien environment filled with
strangers under no compulsion to accept or tolerate him, that just
happen to be his age, with no consideration of interests, abilities,
or talents.

I think you are saying that an inappropriate school environment
causes oversensitivity?

I know a preteen boy in a wonderful school where his classmates do not
happen to be his age, and where interest, abilities and talents are
honored. Still, several times per year, he will be reduced to tears
over some disappointment -- a much anticipated activity unavoidably
postponed or cancelled, for example.

This boy is *not* a victim of bullying in his current environment,
because it is not tolerated and there is a lot of time spent on
encouraging kindness, etc. But his parents worry about him becoming
a victim in other environments in the future. The fact is that a
highly-sensitive individual is not always able to conceal or control
his tears, and this can make him a victim of bullying. Ideally, all
children should be in great environments like the one he is in where
bullying just doesn't happen, but I'm not really sure how realistic
that is.



Robyn (mommy to Ryan 9/93 and Matthew 6/96 and Evan 3/01)
--
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