Credit where credit is due

Goldwater Institute

Matthew Ladner

Goldwater Institute Daily Email

January 26, 2011

 

Pima Community College Chancellor Roy Flores recently announced that he wants the college to consider new admissions requirements. What he had to say on the subject to his governing board was right on target:

 

"Right now, the college does not require a high school diploma or its equivalent, a GED, or SAT scores that indicate that you’re ready for college. As a consequence, we’ve been accepting people who really aren’t ready.

And while the impulse may seem to be right—that is, to be ‘open door’ and to allow anyone who wants to walk in the doors to come to college—that’s not what ‘open door’ means.

‘Open door’ means that if you’ve completed the first 12 years in high school or can demonstrate that you’ve completed it in another fashion, or are ready for college, the door’s open.…We’ve accepted individuals who have really not been ready for college, who were not successful in high school and have not been able to bridge the gap between middle school and grade 13—that is, college readiness."

In 2009, Saturday Night Live described Arizona college and university admission standards as “slightly more selective than the Burger King Kids Club.” We need to do right by both students and taxpayers by raising our standards. I commend Chancellor Flores for his courage and intellectual honesty.

 

Dr. Matthew Ladner is vice president of research for the Goldwater Institute.

Learn More:

Goldwater Institute: Sacred Cow University Budgets

Goldwater Institute: Please ignore the academic catastrophe behind the curtain

Arizona Daily Star: Pima chancellor wants new admissions rules

 

 

 

[Billy Bowlegs]

I say o'l chap.  You are not for the dumb them up routine. 

 

I do wonder who created the dumb them up routine to begin with - think maybe it is the Federal Govrnment.

 

You, Pima Community College, take them even thought they can't get through the 12th Grade and Read and Write legibily (or speak english) and get them all ready for Government Jobs, maybe president.

 

Thanks Chancellor Roy Flores for your stand.

 

[Paul Powell]

Stingray

Don't put them in the military send them to the factories to put things together, you know put tab "A" into slot "B" and stuff like that. Put them where they can learn. Better yet send them back to school from the start as in first grade and forget this no child left behind stuff, if a child needs to be held then hold them back it works just as well as pushing them ahead. Right now we have kids that have and are graduating from high school that do not even know how to read or write some cannot even spell their name on a job app. some cannot even read a job app. I have seen this my self.

[Billy Bowlegs]

Paul;

 

You have that all wrong.

 

It is now chineese; "Please to put the square thingamajig into the appropriate receiving round hold."  Fasten with the approprite clip.  Of course, the clip is missing from the package and there are no round holes on the item to be stuffed.

 

If you do not believe me about this chineese crap visit the following web site:  http://ia.ita.doc.gov/ftzpage/letters/ftzlist-map.html

every location listed (270+) will soon become a set-aside american soil region for a Chineese Factory with it's own Chineese town.  At least that is what your government plans.

 

Apparently, the Federal Government is trying to gear up the education system to teach Chineese since they are ineffective with English.

[Paul Powell]

Billy

which nation are you from you almost sound like you are from some where in Arizona or some where else. And as far as this current government goes they have all the respect of a rattlesnake and we both know how bad a bite from one of those can be.I been hit 4 times by them  not fun at all. and NOT to be trusted at all.

[Billy Bowlegs]

From the nation of the whole United States of Georgia - the movie Uncle Remus.

Let me give China Credit where Credit Due.  After all they need some.

I bought 12 5.5" carriage bolts for a project (bolt, washer, and nut).  Drilled the holes and started attaching the fence.  Six of the 12 bolts were worthless - screw the nut on with fingers about 1/4 inch.  Could not tighten down to hold the fence (another inch of threadding), and could not remove the nut with wrenches.  Remember, a carriage bolt has a round head with gripper shoulders that bite into the wood.  Wrung one off with nut attached to broken end.

IMPORTANCE OF RECANT STORY:  50% Product Failure from China.  That cost me several hours of daylight working time and severely pissed me off.

 

Second Recant:  I have a triple axel trailer to haul a 15,000 lb. dozier.  Replacing the wheel seals to keep the bearings greased.  Hubs made in China.  One axel had hubs milled correctly and the off the shelf NAPA Seal fit.  (One axel greased and safe).  The other four hubs were milled off by 1/10,000 smaller and the NAPA Seal (cost of $12.95) crumbled under the ballpeen hammer tapping to get the seal into the hub.  (Destroyed only one seal - and it was not returnable in that damned condition). 

Spend two days searching all of Jacksonville Florida for Hub Seals for the trailer.  Not a single seal in the entire Duval County area.  I have now wasted about 30 hours of daylight working time.  Solution - take the Hubs to a machine shop and pay $50.00 each to have them reamed to the size of the Standard NAPA Seal, or set straddle legged around the hub with a drill and a damned drum sander (1" diameter), tear the skin off most of your nuckles, and ream the 1/10000 to make the NAPA Seal fit.

Moral of this Recant Story:  To Hell with CHINA - I have declared war on CHINA as an Individual.  To Hell with the US Government.  I try my best to find other products and not Chineese (especially light bulbs).  This is the credit I give the CHINEESE.

 

Now, you know where I am from and a lot about my attitude.  I too have had rattle snake incidents but was quick enough after stepping on top of one to get out of there.   The second really big one must have been asleep when I put my hand down inside the coils to pull a weed.  I landed 5 rows (30" apart) from where the snake was - side straddle jump a little over 12 feet. And, I have never won a broad jump or track meet.

 

[Sandra Lee Smith]

You never had the right incentive before either, Billy.  That adrenalin is amazing stuff!  I did things while on a rescue with an volunteer ambulance service I could NEVER have done otherwise too.

[Billy Bowlegs]

Remember the old movie back in the 1950's.  Black and White.  Captured solider tries to bribe a Japaneese Solider with a ball point pen.  Japaneese Soldier looks it over and says, "Made in Japan, NO GOOT, NO GOOT".

 

Made in Chine - No Goot No Goot.  One twist of the hand with a Chineese phillips bit, snaped two in less than a minute.

 

 

[Christine Ulferts]

If anyone fell for that line of bull crap that the messiah dished out last night, then their not ready for college! Lies and more lies!  To bad his nose doesn't grow every time he tells lies!  It would be bigger than his ears!

[Paul Powell]

If that happened his nose would be halfway around the planet by now. and still growing. Remember he lies even in his sleep if he even sleeps, vampires and were wolves don't sleep, so he is either a vampire or a ware wolf.

[Sandra Lee Smith]

I likely could have done so about 45 or so years ago when a lot of that was still fresh, or reasonably so, in my mind; but I couldn't pass it today.  I've forgotten all those rules of grammar and conversion units I simply haven't used in all those decades.  But I did fairly well on SAT's ACT's , National League of Nursing exams {called leagues} and state boards.  I really would have fallen down on the KS state history, more because I studied NY state history, since that was where I went through school, although we got some of the more general history as it applied nationally, in US history classes.  However, I did my training in one of those old-fashioned, hands-on hospital schools of nursing; that they don't even count as education now; if you look at the lists offered when they ask what level of education you completed on things.  We took as much time in classes as the 4 year BS programs, and it's not even counted now, which I find offensive.  And when we came out of school, we could be turned loose as charge nurses on floors after maybe a couple of days' orientation to the specific hospital's procedures/paperwork, whereas the 4 year grads usually need 6 months post graduation of orientation and training before they can be, and the 2 year grads require a year or more extra on the job training.  So I understand what you're saying entirely.  We keep cutting off our own noses to spite our faces in the education department.  And Obama's little diatribe on the subject last night was positively nauseating, IMO.  What we NEED to do is clean out the "dead wood" in the whole system; bad teachers, absurd and frivolous courses that teach nothing of real value, and especially the unions and administrators sucking up money for no good reason, funnel that back into HONEST US history, with one year of world history/geography, solid ENGLISH literature and grammar, REAL sciences {not fake junk like the global warming scams}, and sound math; music is very helpful for learning math too, and should be included for  that reason, and kids should be introduced to some real music as well, just for a change.  But most of the extracurricular sports need to be cut entirely, and get RID of the poor and  unqualified who claim to be teachers, and the so called "cultural" education.  Sex education needs to revert to the parents' decisions about their children.  And we need to revitalize the trade schools indeed because not every kid IS college material, and should not be shoved in that direction.Colleges too, need to clear out the so called sports programs, except a phys ed class, just for reasons of health.  But so much expense is wasted on those teams it's ridiculous.  Their business is EDUCATING the leaders of the future.  Technicians should be training at technical schools; not everyone needs or should have a list of degrees behind the name and a debt the size of California's when starting his life because of schools.  Especially schools that don't really TEACH the kids anything at all!  Then maybe kids could pass that test and the rest of the ones that are presented, and actually perform in the workplace as well.  {okay, getting off the soap box, and putting it aside now...:-)}