WE PLEAD BUSY...AND DUMB.

Gotta go with hockey vs. lax, given the map.

Well, as Mrs. DG has summed up my home state of Ohio for years, “Nobody out there can read, but they spend a hell of a lot of time and money on their football teams.”

Yep, college hockey. It’s basically a college hockey vs. college baseball map.

Although I was educated in Alabamastan, even I’m smart enough to be suspicious of any report card that gives Kansas an A for education. If teaching children that evolution (and by extension DNA, most modern medical research, etc.) isn’t real is the USCoC’s idea of model education, maybe we shouldn’t be putting a lot of stock in this map.

I’m just sayin’…

Was there another post up here earlier that has now disappeared, or am I totally hallucinating?

The Kansas school board in question was voted out, and replaced by a board that approved the teaching of evolution, Pete. So for the moment, that’s old news.

Plus they’ve only got 643 people of school age in the whole state. Can’t be that hard to focus on educating one high school.

But that’s a recent occurance… I assume this map is based on data that is ages old… and if the USCoC is consistent, completely made up.

This falls under “We may be dumb but we keep your weekends entertaining” category.

Looks like the key for that map for the most part is the whiter the population the more chance of a green color on the map.

WTF does the US chamber of commerce know about anything anyway?

Florida graded out as a “D”? I’m not sure whether I should be surprised or sad.

I remember doing my own experiments regarding intelligence levels and college football fans. It was called “tailgating”.

Is it funny to anyone else besides me that WV resembles a bloody tear drop of stupidity being shed by Pennsylvania and Ohio?

The data are merely the states’ scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, organized into quintiles. (The CofC website has all the data-geeking background you’d want.)

If you used SAT scores, you’d probably get about the same map.

re: Arkansas

Thank god for Mississippi! (did I spell that write?)

And if you look at the map (with the very obvious exception of California), red = low tax (relative) states and green = high tax (relative) states. Also, red mostly equals areas of population growth (both migration and immigration), while green mostly equals places people want to get the hell out of (or those with sense).

Of course, 98.4% of all statistics are made up.

i’m sure this has something to do with the new white flight – private schools.

i’m sure this has an effect upon the new white flight – private schools.

please ignore comment #15. and this one. pretend that #16 is # 15, and subtract two from every subsequent post.

This is actually a map of distribution per capita of hot women. The South’s got ‘em. I’ll take that over smarts anyday

It’s also a good map showing the WOOOOOOOO! Belt.

This is determined by the population’s cumulative ability to make a badass WOOOOOOOOO!!!! sound.

readin, writin…that shit dont matter, bring on the footbaw

“WTF does the US chamber of commerce know about anything anyway?”

Apparently the Chairman knows how to dick folks out of money, attempt to overturn the “Enron” law, and just be an all around sneaky motherfucker. I’m glad this is the guy to tell me about education.

http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/12/12/173738/74

I see the stain of Jim Harrick still taints Rhode Island

#18, hear hear. No wonder the missus won’t countenance relocation.

Actually, I think that BamaTaxman is onto something there. You could also make the argument that the red states are at various emerging points in state GDP growth, and that low GDP states not only have iffy education, they don’t have professional teams… another source of the popularity of college football.

Of course, that doesn’t fully explain Texas, but I am assured that they are unique in all areas.

Equally, it suggests that just as soon as Los Angeles gets a pro team, Trojans tickets will be easier to come by…

Most of all, it just underlines how completely pathetic California education is: 8th largest economy in the world and Johnny, Juan, Quan, JaMarcus, etc. can’t read…..

“65% of all statistics are made up right there on the spot.
84.6% of people believe them whether they’re accurate statistics or not.
Now I don’t know what you believe, but I do know there’s no doubt, I need a-nother double-shot of something 90 proof, I got too much to think about…”

Interesting point about the Wooooo belt.

When I go to national conferences, I’m surprised at the lack of “wooing” that occurs when the opportunity for applause arises.

I always throw a couple in as I believe it makes speakers feel that they have really reached their audience in a way that simple applause does not.

1. has a good point on college baseball – The redder the state on the map, the more likely you are to win the College baseball world series.

I can’t vouch for hockey programs west of North Dakota and Nebraska, but if we give Michigan a green in exchange for a Texas red, the analysis is pretty clear.

I see the stain of Jim Harrick still taints Rhode Island

No, that would be teaching jobs that are political sinecures. I’ve never seen anything like the infighting to get local political jobs in Rhode Island, because the main goal appears to be the ability to dispense a city or state job that comes with a pension.

Bama Buck—

Just to amuse ourselves, we scream out “ROOOOOOLLLLLLLL TAAAAAAAHHHD” at every sporting event we go to just to get a reaction.

You wouldn’t believe how many people seem frightened at this.

You wouldn’t believe how many people seem frightened at this.

In fairness, they probably weren’t expecting that at the Gwinnett County spelling bee.

what the hell is going on in alaska?

It’s too cold to learn and it’s always hopping like those Smirnoff Ice ads, that’s what is going on in Alaska

In fairness, they probably weren’t expecting that at the Gwinnett County spelling bee.

Something tells me the Gwinnett County spelling bee wouldn’t last much longer than 2 rounds, with little Susie’s winning word being “roof,” or some such. Poor kids.

Being educated in Alerbamer it’s nice to now add NM and DC to MS as states we thank God for of now. mmmmm

What the hell is Rhode Island’s excuse?

DC Trojan—don’t fence us in man. We gotta be we.

OC Phil – now that’s just an ignorant racist statement, GD biggot. You know damn well that the Big Ten commish clearly said it was fast defensive linemen that weren’t smart. Gees…..

I resemble the remarks about Alabamma.

DCTrojan.

And if it wasn’t March 7 (only 30-something days left in tax season) I could have possibly finished what I started. Thank you for finishing my thought.

Yes, there are “TWO AMERICAS” (spoken with REAL heavy reverb).

1. -

Thumbs up on the Todd Snider.

Stranko, I believe it’s a combination of rampant corruption and Peter Griffin

Those are gentleman’s C’s, thank you very much.

Alabama’s red. Tennessee is orange. Coincidence?

Rhode Island’s excuse, as best I can see, is that most of its population is urban. I would have suspected North Carolina would have been better.

As for Texas…an article I read in a hospital waiting room from Texas Monthly was about how HS’s in Texas are huge so they can pool football talent. This isn’t even a joke. They all want to win so they sacrafice the other 99% of the kids for the Permian Panthers. One idea to combat this was to have the kids in the same building but to educate them seperately, so its like 3 HS’s with one athletic team…which then messes up extra cirricular and fitness possibilities for a lot of other kids, so HERE HERE Texas.

1. That’s even more fun at church events.

1. While handing functions over to the private sector sounds like a good American thing to do, it has not worked out very well in the past. That governmental system is called fascism (a word most people would misdefine these days).

1. I remember about the defensive linemen. As far as being racist, I just noted the correlation. I’m not saying WHY that would be the case. Though I think in the case of California the large influx of non-English speaking immigrants has to be a huge factor in the grade of “F” from the CoC.

DC Trojan #23,

Perhaps a positive “re-framing” of your thought would be that we can go tete a tete with those SEC boys in another arena besides the gridiron.

I’ve been listening to a lot of Tony Robbins lately.

Have to defend Kansas here. We don’t believe in evolution because Kansans refuse to believe that the Humans are in the same genetic/evolutionary tree as the infamous Bama Man. Also though we may have an A in education we still love our K-State football and KU has the fattest coach in the nation, despite the known link between Southern-ness and Obesity.

Re: #32, I’d wager a large sum that the cream of Gwinnett County schools would whip BuckeyeDan’s local public schools in any academic endeavor or major sport.

As for the overall system grades, there’s another strong correlation related to school population, especially when you note that most of the Southern state’s have B’s or higher in the crucial area of academic rigor. Let’s just call it the. . . ummm. . . white elephant no one will publicly acknowledge in such matters.

I can’t believe Florida isn’t worse, what with the huge amounts of immigrants in the south and boondock dwelling rednecks in the norht.

People forget Alabama was on probation for 5 years and lost 20 something scholarships – otherwise that gap between the Big Ten and the SEC would’ve been a little wider.

Go Buckeyes!

OC Phil, #44 – I knew you weren’t being racist. I was trying to carry on your joke and the Big 10 commish’s comments.

BEST. POST. EVER.

Rhode Island’s excuse, as best I can see, is that most of its population is urban.

Not at all, it’s just that they made a terrible mistake in switching to phonics. If you’ve ever heard a Rhode Island pre-teen ask the question, “Are you serious, Dawn got pierced ears?,” you’d understand why they are completely fucked now.

Being educated in Alerbamer it’s nice to now add NM and DC to MS as states we thank God for of now.

Well technically we’re more like Guam than a state, but you’re welcome. It takes years of effort to fuck up a school system as badly as DCPS.

Perhaps a positive "re-framing" of your thought would be that we can go tete a tete with those SEC boys in another arena besides the gridiron.

Well, that would be one way to look at it. Since they’re probably ill-educated enough to buy into the law of attraction, maybe they can attract literacy with a good vibe.

OK, seriously, how the fuck is Alabama worse than South Carolina? I went to what was considered one of the top 10 academic high schools in SC, and they were using government textbooks that were eight years old (I say, a whole hell of a lot changed between 1990 and 1998).

Of course, my dad went all the way through (West End HS in B’ham, then UAB) and never had to learn algebra. I’d like to think UAB’s standards are a little higher these days.

I wonder if there is any correction to the scholarship numbers that should be made for players that leave early to go to the NFL. Do SEC schools have more players bolt early (which would somewhat justify the higher rated recruiting classes)?

The funny thing is CA has so many great universities and yet its elementary, middle school, and high schools are horrible. It seems almost a paradox how this situation can continue.

53:
You have to take Algebra in HS to get in to UAB now, but once you get there, you can just take it again and get all the math credit you need if you’re a non-science major.

I’m from AL, and I fled to GT to get a real education.

#55…CA does have many fantastic public elem/mid/high schools, in primarily wealthy white/asian towns which funnel property taxes to schools. Problem is, there’s a heck of a lot more little towns (LA comes to mind) which can’t afford to properly fund schools, or funds them well but builds them on top of old oilfields which leak toxins into the soil. And methane. And is located on a fault.
Plus, the huge (and young) immigrant population. Plus, the rest of Southern California (minus Orange County).

Somehow I went to private school in Massachusetts but ended up with less than a 3.0 at GT. What gives?

Well, I come on here with a heavy heart. Once again, as a native Georgian, my state just can’t seem to break out of the dumb belt. And what I can’t understand, what I’ve been counting on for years are all the people from Massachussettes, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Ohio, Michigan, and plenty of other rust-belt/ice belt states that have moved here in droves over the past 20 years. I thought that just by sheer numbers they would raise our averages (2000 Census revealed that 53% of the population of metro-Atlanta were not even born in the state of Georgia). Wrong. Seems like only the yankees with dumb kids are moving down here.

Georgia curricula is still based on what would be good for Johnny and Susie to know to help daddy on the farm (general curricula). Not to get on my soapbox here, but I’ve often thought that someone with truly radical education ideas could go to an “Orange or Red” State – just blow up the status quo and try something new… nowhere to go but up anyway.

The funny part is that, aside from Arkansas, Texas is no less honest in their reporting of the data, at least according to the other map, than the southern states. Hooray Arkansas.

1. - and to avoid social situations with women, right?

1. - that’s pretty much the heart of the problem all over… it’s not about race, it’s about money (though they’re hard to separate sometimes). The rich move out to the suburbs and take all their tax revenue with them since state legislatures won’t grow the balls to take all the money in at the state level and make sure each kid gets equal access to education.

Not to mention the Geniuses in Bama, where there are still County and City school systems, like the population of any county really needs to be paying $100K plus to both County and City School superintendents (don’t get me started on more than one city school system in a county) and then their related staffs. In the same county you can have kids going to high school with 1500 other kids who all have access to lots of teachers, AP classes, extracurricular activities, and then other kids going to high school with 300 other kids who don’t have squat.

CalFanMos #57,

Local property taxes no longer provide much of the funding for local schools. The state of CA has changed greatly in the last ten to fifteen years when it comes to funding education. But other inequities abound. E.g. one of the elementary schools in my upper middle class OC hometown had a fundraiser/fair to raise money for extracurricular activities. They had more parental volunteers than they needed and they raised $50,000. Poorer and/or immigrant communities would not be able to raise that money and would not likely have that type of parental support.

Money can’t buy happiness or a good educational system. The LA school district used to have a deal where they would take people who had a math, science or English degree and put them straight into the classroom. I signed up and spent two years teaching High School in East LA. Maybe truely massive amounts of money could “fix” the situation there but moderate to large influxes of money are not going to change the basic situation.

Most of the issues in education are not racial but class. And the problems are intertwined throughout the whole community. Schools are expected to take a kid whose parents had 3 or 4 years of elemenary education and who have doubts about the kid even being in high school and expect the school to educate him as well as the kid whose parents both have graduate degrees. That is never going to happen. When I taught in East LA I encountered parents who were openly hostile to their kid doing homework instead of earning some money (and not to mention the fathers who really didn’t want their daughters at school with all those boys around). Throw in the gangs and other broader social problems and there is no real way to solve the problems of those communities in the schools alone.

I took some education classes at night went I did the high school teaching and one of the things I learned (besides the fact that most education classes are bullshit) is that there is nothing new under the sun. All the same debates we have now (back to basics vs innovation, rote memorization vs creative thought, etc) were being debated just the same back in the 1950’s and 1930’s and 1910’s.

SeaTrojan: Newport Beach?

OC Phil: money is never going to be enough; it’s got to be money and behavior. You can’t make people succeed if they don’t want to, but you can give the ones who are interested a better skill set to make it happen.

I don’t know if you could replicate this enough to be successful, but it is a model that works…

1. Something tells me the Gwinnett County spelling bee wouldn’t last much longer than 2 rounds…

Hey, I’m a product of Gwinnett County Schools, dammit.

And I have a master’s degree now.

And $75,000 in student loan debt.

…

Oh, God – I am stupid.

“Somehow I went to private school in Massachusetts but ended up with less than a 3.0 at GT. What gives?”

I would guess beer is the cause. Engineers love the brew.

Brian,

in reference to your piece on recruiting- what about the athletic department discouraging kids from even trying to get more challenging degrees? I have heard many stories of athletes being told thier chances of on field success is ‘not good’ if they actually tried to get an education while in college. No one tells them they cant take classes, but if your scholership is dependent on athletic performance this coersion is powerfull.

Schooled in Georgia and now live in Florida; not a difficult transition.

If your state needs education money, do what Florida did; start a state lottery to help fund education, cut general fund education money now that you have lottery funds, then use the lottery money for something else!

"Somehow I went to private school in Massachusetts but ended up with less than a 3.0 at GT. What gives?"

You should have gotten all Cs – perhaps you could be president too; oh wait, your last name isnt Bush – never mind.

1. - Hey! Give us some credit damnit. Jeb stole that beautimous plan from brother G-Dub who stole it from ol Leatherface Richards.

DC Trojan: What a bunch of amazing humainarians!

That is a great program and it is doing very good things on a small scale. It also hinges on parent buy in, which is one of the big problems overall (of course lots of parents in the inner city or rural areas want their kids to do well but just don’t know how to make it happen). Scaling that kind of thing up to the point that it could “solve” the problems of the inner city was what I was thinking of when I talked about massive amounts of money that would be needed.

err….humanitarians.

Wazzu, that scam, I mean scheme started before the Jebster’s tenure – 1988. Apparently Bob Martinez was the thief. Was that Keith ‘Leatherface’ Richards of the Stones? Talk about aging poorly …

and New Jersey gets an A?

oc phil,

I said “upper middle class”, not “rich”. Los Alamitos/Seal Beach; home of Mike Patterson’s Los Alamitos Griffins. I think Ife Ohalete went there, too. A veritable “pipeline” for the Trojan dynasty.

I can’t believe SW hasn’t been on to give us shit for being so stupid and rubbing it in that Ohio ranks a B. I swear I can hear him talking about how he’s so smart, he now dates only Biznitches (he says that means business bitches to you and me)

SeaTrojan #62

This is very true; MOST districts are revenue-limited as well as basic aid, meaning that they get most of their money from the state. However, some districts located in wealthy areas are solely basic aid (meaning they receive very little funding from the state), because other taxes have been levied against their particular municipality to make up (and greatly exceed) it. As for donations, yes, they help, but the majority of funding, particularly for core programs (books, materials, building crap hiring teachers, maintenance, etc…) comes from local taxes. Donor led funding is important, but mostly for extra curricular stuff. My high school, for instance, had “sports boosters” wherein people buy crap and donate to the sports programs.

1. I went to catholic school, not one of those fancy pants places that cost more than college. My cousin went to public school and ended up at MIT so that’s no indicator.

2. For #67 I was talking about HS sports not college recruiting.

3. I’ve been substitute teaching and I notice that pretty much it comes down to the parents being the largest variable. The ones that care the most have the smartest kids on avg. The ones with more time to care are the ones who make a solid living.

4. I do love the beer but that’s not why I didn’t do better.

1. I’m pretty sure he is talking about Ann Richards, not Keef. California did the exact same thing with the lottery money scam.

Actually I’ve seen some bad pictures of Keith in the last couple of years, but he was generally looking better in the 90’s and early 00’s than he did back in the 70’s.

1. Seal Beach has some parts that are actually nicer than some parts of Newport. Big parts of NB used to be more middle class and there are a lot of old folks who got rich pretty much just based on the property values.

 I went to a beach school a bit farther south and our football team’s role is to get the snot kicked out of them by teams like Mission Viejo and Matter Dei that do feed into the USC athletic pipeline.

oc phil,

Technically, I grew up in Rossmoor which is sandwiched between SB and Los Al. I guess “upper middle class” is a relative term. The house my parents bought in 1968 for 30 grand would now sell for at least 850 gr. It’s definitely a nice neighborhood but considering the size of the property, that’s insane. And you’re right about Squeal Beach. Most of those beachfront homes (north of the pier) go for 5 million.

Mater Dei and Mission Viejo are probably two of the few HS’s more loathed than mine. Thank God my team finally knocked off MD a few years ago. I like them about as much as I like ND, and yet I was baptized a Catholic. Go figure.

Mater Dei and Mission Viejo are probably two of the few HS’s more loathed than mine. Thank God my team finally knocked off MD a few years ago. I like them about as much as I like ND, and yet I was baptized a Catholic. Go figure.

It’s a funny old world – my parents weren’t convinced that Mission Viejo HS was such a great bet, so they packed my brother off to Mater Dei, despite not being Catholic. (I had gone to a little Catholic prep school in Ojai and that lulled them into a false sense of what they were getting him into).

Incidentally, my brother hated Mater Dei, but still has a reflexive spitting reaction whenever someone mentions Rancho Santa Margarita HS, so I guess some of the programming stuck…

Brian,

mistaken identity.I thought you were brian from Mgoblog. I was refering to the piece posted at that site, and refered to in this post. My mistake.

“my parents weren’t convinced that Mission Viejo HS was such a great bet”

Well they are on the side of Satan.

“so they packed my brother off to Mater Dei, despite not being Catholic”

I’ve known enough MD alumni not to be overly impressed with the place. I’ve had to deal with public/private school issues for my kids and that was never in the conversation.

“Incidentally, my brother hated Mater Dei, but still has a reflexive spitting reaction whenever someone mentions Rancho Santa Margarita HS”

I’m like that with NFL teams, when the Rams left they became my second most hated team, because I still have to hate the 49ers more.

Did I mention I hate Esperanza, too? They’re my ucla to MD’s Notre Dame. CIF Southern Section talk on a SEC blog. It’s late, nobody’s minding the store.

Wow….My state of Ohio is green….You people must be really really really fucking stupid….No offense…

Is the Bishop’s School even on MD’s or Missions radar?

I’ve known enough MD alumni not to be overly impressed with the place. I’ve had to deal with public/private school issues for my kids and that was never in the conversation.

Yeah, from what I heard it’s an “interesting” place – they don’t make any attempt to conceal the class / race effects on discipline, and it doesn’t seem to be that rigorous academically.

CIF Southern Section talk on a SEC blog. It’s late, nobody’s minding the store.

That’s the danger of going national with your audience.

Since when was California in the South? It’s as red as Alabama.

Pants McPants,

+1

1. What did Espiranza ever do to anybody? I’d expect their natural rivals to be in Huntington Beach rather than Los Alimitos. But then I grew up in the South County and half the schools down there now didn’t even exist back when I went to Dana Hills.

1. The OC Weekly ran a really bad story about Mater Dei awhile ago dealing with the usual Catholic church sex issues. Apparently they have had a history of teachers getting in trouble and then hushing it up. That gets the Mrs all fired up whenever MD is mentioned around here.

I had a student who graduated from MD who got busted for dancing naked on top of a moterhome at a Jimmy Buffet concert. On the other hand he went off to grad school at UNC, so he could be a positive data point for the academics at MD.

1. I’ve lived in both California and Ohio. That map is really stupid.

oc phil,

Esperanza is Los Al’s rival dating back to their Empire League days. They both moved to the Sunset League in the early 90’s. Each team is good at spoiling the other team’s season.

The OC Weekly ran a really bad story about Mater Dei awhile ago dealing with the usual Catholic church sex issues. Apparently they have had a history of teachers getting in trouble and then hushing it up. That gets the Mrs all fired up whenever MD is mentioned around here.

Shocked. I’m shocked.

I had a student who graduated from MD who got busted for dancing naked on top of a moterhome at a Jimmy Buffet concert.

Well, there’s never any excuse for a going to a Jimmy Buffet concert, so hooray for law and order! (That was supposed to be the disturbing part, right?)