Jackson Jambalaya

Like most people reading this, I am happy to see this going up but skeptical at the same time. I wonder what % of the kids who graduated are ready for either college or work.

Are these figures from currently attending school graduates. When I worked at the schools, I felt the reporting was greatly inaccurate.
The yearly Cohort Report counts students who have left the district and rarely counts them as drop outs. They make the secretaries call every last known number and or forwarding school, GED program to try and insure these students are not drops out. The secretaries are pressured into finding any evidence of the grads and often drop outs get reported as graduates.

Typical. All you education haters have nothing to say about this good news. You just focus on the negative.

I personally don't hate education in MS. From my first-hand knowledge & observation...these are my thoughts...
1) we shouldn't be paying Ms. Wright/Wrong over $300,000/year until ever measure in our state leads the nation. She will then be worth every penny of it. Until then, her board should reduce her salary in half.
2) She has manipulated the system to get her cronies contracts. We should eliminate all those contracts (previously covered on this blog).
3) Her leadership staff salaries need to be cut by about 50%. She's increased the salaries of her leadership (all those deputy supt positions). Those salaries are ridiculous in our state. Many make in excess of $130,000/year to do office jobs of nothing. Come on Ms. Wright, that's just Wrong. They should all be reduced to the $75,000/year range. That would be the Wright salary for our state. We don't live in New York City & our cost of living isn't comparable.
4) Not all, but many teachers in our state are just lazy. They bitch about having to come in early & take work home. Hello, real world calling, please hold the line. We all do that & no, I don't get 2 weeks of at Christmas, a week off at Spring Break, weeks off in the summer, etc. They probably should be paid more, but oy if their students perform at higher levels. Until then, they're paid more than enough. I'll restate-not all teachers are lazy, but let's be real-more than 1/2 that I've met with my children (who I moved to private school when one had a teacher that couldn't write correctly).

There. I've said what everyone is thinking. The haters can now start hating.

To the teachers, principals, and superintendents of Mississippi, congrats on the hard work in keeping kids in school.

To the haters, I hope life get better for you too.

If you can't do something as simple as graduate high school then life is going to be rough and miserable. All this money is spent and people cry about "the children" but it is really quite simple.

1) Show up for school
2) Shut up and listen
3) Do your homework

If that is ALL you do then you will graduate. It's that simple.

Unfortunately, most kids don't want to even be in class. Their parents (assuming they have two in the house) can't even run their own lives much less give good advice or disiplinne their own kids.

Are teachers part of the problem? Depends on the school. Like everyone, I had teachers that were great and others that were probably illiterate. My dad was a teacher. Loved having summers and holidays off. If these teachers want more pay maybe they should get out of the stupid unions and demand merit-based pay.

There are no teachers' unions in our fine state. The legislature will never allow it. There are only organizations which cannot do what unions do -- negotiate contracts, call a strike, etc. I wonder why?? Just kidding...we all know why!!