D'ya know what'll help kids perform better in schools?

Disco Stu wrote:

Anecdote: I got one of those useless college degrees, yet in high school I ranked fifth in my class. Didnt do me much good, as I wait tables now. Darn! If only! If I went to medical school I'd be almost out of residency by now! But I owe too much to be going back

I'm stuck with Geog as my major, oh well, plenty of jobs in sustainability which happened to be the track I chose way back when.

Stuey wrote:

Anecdote: I got one of those useless college degrees, yet in high school I ranked fifth in my class. Didnt do me much good, as I wait tables now. Darn! If only! If I went to medical school I'd be almost out of residency by now! But I owe too much to be going back

You taking out loans for a degree in Table Waiting has nothing to do with any flaw in our educational system, nor does it have anything to do with the original topic.

Reidmar wrote:

Disco Stu wrote:

Anecdote: I got one of those useless college degrees, yet in high school I ranked fifth in my class. Didnt do me much good, as I wait tables now. Darn! If only! If I went to medical school I'd be almost out of residency by now! But I owe too much to be going back

I'm stuck with Geog as my major, oh well, plenty of jobs in sustainability which happened to be the track I chose way back when.

>Geography
>Not geology

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At least this guy gets points for effort? Most conservatives just want to hack away at welfare programs without any justification, but at least this guy is trying to tie it to some fact-based outcome. This is probably the most creativity the Republican party has demonstrated this entire election cycle.

Owlish wrote:

At least this guy gets points for effort? Most conservatives just want to hack away at welfare programs without any justification, but at least this guy is trying to tie it to some fact-based outcome. This is probably the most creativity the Republican party has demonstrated this entire election cycle.

Of course, this election cycle is not quite three months old, so there's plenty of time for creative stupidity to raise its head.

Disco Stu wrote:

In all fairness, a lot of public assistance money can be used to buy drugs.

But then, it's not the kids fault if the parent is meth-addled. Just steal their card and voila! Food!

If I recall correctly, benefits can be sold for half of what they are in cash. $200 in benefits will get you $100. People pretty hard-up will sell their food stamps, to say, pay their phone/electricity/rent and possibly even drugs, but at the same time I don't personally believe in taking the benefits away or making a drug test mandatory for welfare recipients because the kids can steal the card and buy food with it (or the parents wallet, mind, but assuming this is the only cash??)

How the fuck do you sell your food stamps?! They come on an EBT card! They did that so people couldn't use stolen food stamps--you have to be the intended recipient to activate it. About use of welfare payments for drugs, when Florida made everyone applying for welfare get a drug test, the cost of the dwarfed the savings from denying aid to druggies. They didn't even see a reduction in applications.

I'm going to address the rest of this until I can back up what I say with links instead of making bold statements and apologizing for being unable to provide supporting evidence. Hopefully, I will find something less painful to read than the 2012 paper on poverty and learning disabilities in front of me.

ETA: I just wanted to search PubMed for anything it had on poverty and IQ so I could link to one thing. It's not that I formed my views first and then went to look for evidence. If I bookmarked everything that ever caused me to form an opinion, my bookmarks would be unnavigable by now. And I'm going to finish this stupid review of the literature even if it kills me. If anyone needs help writing an educated character with no idea how to write without the reader a headache, databases like PubMed are great for this.

StrungOutOnLife wrote:

[
How the fuck do you sell your food stamps?!

The easiest way is: You buy me $5 of cigarettes and I'll buy you $10 of milk and cereal with food stamps. That's basic barter. Then you get to fraud involving the retailer who does the same thing on a larger scale. The receipt may say you bought $100 of eligible groceries, but in reality you walk out with $50 of beer and cigarettes.

Hang on, so you lose 30% for poor grades, but only 20% for not coming. So you'd be better off making sure your kids stay home on test day.

Ghost in the Machine wrote:

StrungOutOnLife wrote:

[
How the fuck do you sell your food stamps?!

The easiest way is: You buy me $5 of cigarettes and I'll buy you $10 of milk and cereal with food stamps. That's basic barter. Then you get to fraud involving the retailer who does the same thing on a larger scale. The receipt may say you bought $100 of eligible groceries, but in reality you walk out with $50 of beer and cigarettes.

Fascinating. Also sounds like grounds for having your hungry child taken into foster care.

And has it not occurred to this genius that good grades don't mean the same thing at every school? Especially when the curricula are set for kids who showed up to kindergarten roundup without knowing their colors, shapes, numbers or letters.

StrungOutOnLife wrote:

Ghost in the Machine wrote:

StrungOutOnLife wrote:

[
How the fuck do you sell your food stamps?!

The easiest way is: You buy me $5 of cigarettes and I'll buy you $10 of milk and cereal with food stamps. That's basic barter. Then you get to fraud involving the retailer who does the same thing on a larger scale. The receipt may say you bought $100 of eligible groceries, but in reality you walk out with $50 of beer and cigarettes.

Fascinating. Also sounds like grounds for having your hungry child taken into foster care.

And has it not occurred to this genius that good grades don't mean the same thing at every school? Especially when the curricula are set for kids who showed up to kindergarten roundup without knowing their colors, shapes, numbers or letters.

Anecdote: I came from a broken home, yet when I entered kindergarten at a private school on a scholarship nonetheless, I was the only child that knew how to read and was otherwise very, very bored. I was physically behind compared to other kids because all I did was sit around all day, but at the same time, it didn't affect me any. If anything, people assumed my family situation was okay, that nothing was happening all because I was getting A+ after A+ and only kids that fail have problems.

[/anecdote]

Ahhhahahahahaha!

Quote :

A Tennessee lawmaker has relented and agreed to drop his bill linking academic performance to the family’s welfare benefits after an 8-year-old girl shamed him by following him around the state Capitol.

On his way to vote on Thursday, state Sen. Stacey Campfield (R) was confronted by 8-year-old homeschooler Aamira Fetuga, who presented him with a petition signed by people opposing his welfare bill, according to the Tennessean.

Snip

Quote :

“Why do you want to cut benefits for people?” 8-year-old Fetuga asked after she caught up with him on a Capitol escalator.

“Well, I wouldn’t as long as the parent shows up to school and goes to two parent-teacher conferences and they’re exempt,” the state Senator explained.

The confrontation continued during what appeared to be long, uncomfortable walk to the Senate floor for Campfield.

“Using children as props is shameful,” he grumbled at one point.

Totally unlike what you were trying to do, of course.

Anyway, it looks like he's given up on the idea for now.