Austin, Texas, Police Chief, Art Acevedo, discusses the link he sees between illiteracy and crime in this short video clip.
What he states in the video is very true.
There have been an ample number of studies over the past couple of decades supporting what he has observed first-hand in his 24 years of law enforcement.
However, students in Main Street USA schools continue to struggle with not only reading but also basic math.
What is missing in education today is an emphasis on the basics -- reading, writing and arithmetic -- and ensuring that students have mastered these skills.
A review of reports generated by the National Center for Education Statistics reveals that this issue remains a problem needing to be properly addressed.
Some have proposed longer school days, or shortening summer vacation, however these do not address the real crisis being faced. Learning to read. Learning to perform basic math functions.
Until those in charge are able to wrap their wits around the most fundamental steps involved in educating youth, America will continue to spend untold billions of dollars in both public (i.e., taxpayer) and private funds in remediation activities and the outcome of an illiterate society (i.e., crime, violence, lost job production, etc., etc.).
Wake Up America!
Over For Now.
Main Street One
Showing posts with label crime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crime. Show all posts
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Fumo: Only Fifty-Five Months ? ? ?
Former Pennsylvania Democrat State Senator Vincent Fumo, who was found guilty of 137 counts of fraud, obstructing justice and tax violations, received only a fraction of the prison time that was anticipated.
And many people are not happy about it.
Pat Meehan, former U.S. Attorney, was quoted on nbcphiladelphia.com as saying, "The original [sentencing] guidelines were calculated at 22-26 years and a four and a half year sentence just seems remarkably out of kilter with all of it."
Out of kilter? Understatement.
It seems that Fumo’s medical problems may have helped rescue him from a lengthy sentence, as he takes several medications. (See my earlier post about what can happen when a person has to take several meds.)
It also has been mentioned that his years of public service entered into the lighter jail-time.
Regardless, Fumo was guilt of 137 COUNTS and I do not believe that any Main Streeter who was found guilty of that kind of criminality, even if they had medical issues similar to Fumo, and even if they had a sterling reputation otherwise in the private sector, could have gotten off this lightly.
Another note. Fumo’s attorneys had argued that if their 65 year-old client were to receive a sentence of over 20 years that it would essentially be life imprisonment. (So?)
That didn’t seem to matter much with Bernard Madoff who received a 150-year sentence, which is a more-than-life sentence but not a death sentence. (His attorney argued that no more than 20 years would be sufficient punishment, due to his age, 71.)
Realistically, there is not much comparison between the crimes Madoff committed and those of Fumo. But the point is for Madoff, age had absolutely no bearing. For Fumo it did (coupled with his sterling public service, before he went corrupt, I suppose.)
Interesting note: Fumo succeeded Democrat Buddy Cianfrani in 1978 when Cianfrani was convicted of racketeering, bribery and obstruction of justice.
While Fumo may have received some time, it was not enough to fit the crime.
Over For Now,
Main Street One
And many people are not happy about it.
Pat Meehan, former U.S. Attorney, was quoted on nbcphiladelphia.com as saying, "The original [sentencing] guidelines were calculated at 22-26 years and a four and a half year sentence just seems remarkably out of kilter with all of it."
Out of kilter? Understatement.
It seems that Fumo’s medical problems may have helped rescue him from a lengthy sentence, as he takes several medications. (See my earlier post about what can happen when a person has to take several meds.)
It also has been mentioned that his years of public service entered into the lighter jail-time.
Regardless, Fumo was guilt of 137 COUNTS and I do not believe that any Main Streeter who was found guilty of that kind of criminality, even if they had medical issues similar to Fumo, and even if they had a sterling reputation otherwise in the private sector, could have gotten off this lightly.
Another note. Fumo’s attorneys had argued that if their 65 year-old client were to receive a sentence of over 20 years that it would essentially be life imprisonment. (So?)
That didn’t seem to matter much with Bernard Madoff who received a 150-year sentence, which is a more-than-life sentence but not a death sentence. (His attorney argued that no more than 20 years would be sufficient punishment, due to his age, 71.)
Realistically, there is not much comparison between the crimes Madoff committed and those of Fumo. But the point is for Madoff, age had absolutely no bearing. For Fumo it did (coupled with his sterling public service, before he went corrupt, I suppose.)
Interesting note: Fumo succeeded Democrat Buddy Cianfrani in 1978 when Cianfrani was convicted of racketeering, bribery and obstruction of justice.
While Fumo may have received some time, it was not enough to fit the crime.
Over For Now,
Main Street One
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Are You As Smart As . . .
One of the things that I do is to provide after-school tutoring for students not doing well in reading and mathematics. It is extremely disheartening to see high school students reading and spelling and performing math at low elementary grade levels. However, it is also encouraging to know that virtually any student can be assisted with proper remediation education.
As I am a researcher I enjoy surfing the web to discover new and old facts, ideas, opinions, etc. In the area of education, I ran across something several years ago that I think will amaze anyone. It is the final exam for 8th grade students in Salina Kansas – from 1895.
Believe me, I was not prepared for the questions on this exam.
Here is one example, the first question in the one-hour Grammar portion:
Give nine rules for the use of capital letters.
A question from the 45 minute section on U.S. History:
Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?
That one is slightly easier but many people cannot correctly identify each of the individuals named.
How about one more from the one-hour Geography section:
What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
How did you do with these three 1895 8th grade questions?
Would you like to attempt the full five-plus hour exam. Here is a link to one site that has the questions and also, on another page, provides the answers. http://www.barefootsworld.net/1895finalexam.html
I have given this exam to individuals with doctorates in education, masters degrees in business, attorneys, medical doctors, politicians, and others and no one has scored much higher than 50% correct, if that (even taking into account a few obviously outdated questions). Some even gave up!
So, why am I posting this you may be wondering…
Well, we, as a Nation, are becoming less smart. It has been happening over the last century very gradually.
Is that a problem?
Yes, in many ways. One of the most prominent is that illiteracy, for one, drastically affects us economically.
The American Library Association estimates that illiteracy costs America over $225 Billion annually in crime, welfare payments, lost taxes, job incompetence and remedial education. A study by the National Institute of Justice strongly suggests that illiteracy is a primary cause of crime, with estimates that well over 65% of adults in prison are functionally or marginally illiterate and that 85% of juvenile offenders have problems with reading, writing and basic math.
In future blogs, I will take up the history of reading and how, from the research I have done, it appears we ended up in this mess. And, yes it is a mess. We keep throwing billions upon billions of dollars trying to fix the problem when what we really need to do is get early education back to basics.
A final note: Taking that 1895 8th grade final exam from Salina, KS, gave new meaning to the expression, “My grandparents only had an 8th grade education.”
Over for now,
Main Street One
As I am a researcher I enjoy surfing the web to discover new and old facts, ideas, opinions, etc. In the area of education, I ran across something several years ago that I think will amaze anyone. It is the final exam for 8th grade students in Salina Kansas – from 1895.
Believe me, I was not prepared for the questions on this exam.
Here is one example, the first question in the one-hour Grammar portion:
Give nine rules for the use of capital letters.
A question from the 45 minute section on U.S. History:
Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?
That one is slightly easier but many people cannot correctly identify each of the individuals named.
How about one more from the one-hour Geography section:
What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
How did you do with these three 1895 8th grade questions?
Would you like to attempt the full five-plus hour exam. Here is a link to one site that has the questions and also, on another page, provides the answers. http://www.barefootsworld.net/1895finalexam.html
I have given this exam to individuals with doctorates in education, masters degrees in business, attorneys, medical doctors, politicians, and others and no one has scored much higher than 50% correct, if that (even taking into account a few obviously outdated questions). Some even gave up!
So, why am I posting this you may be wondering…
Well, we, as a Nation, are becoming less smart. It has been happening over the last century very gradually.
Is that a problem?
Yes, in many ways. One of the most prominent is that illiteracy, for one, drastically affects us economically.
The American Library Association estimates that illiteracy costs America over $225 Billion annually in crime, welfare payments, lost taxes, job incompetence and remedial education. A study by the National Institute of Justice strongly suggests that illiteracy is a primary cause of crime, with estimates that well over 65% of adults in prison are functionally or marginally illiterate and that 85% of juvenile offenders have problems with reading, writing and basic math.
In future blogs, I will take up the history of reading and how, from the research I have done, it appears we ended up in this mess. And, yes it is a mess. We keep throwing billions upon billions of dollars trying to fix the problem when what we really need to do is get early education back to basics.
A final note: Taking that 1895 8th grade final exam from Salina, KS, gave new meaning to the expression, “My grandparents only had an 8th grade education.”
Over for now,
Main Street One
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