Actually, I am, contrary to my screen name, a glass half empty kind of guy.

__________________
"If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself."

Kathleen Parker -- National Review


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9xmvhQl2-Q

So has a decision been made yet?

I'm all for yanking the passes of kids who don't attend. Come on ... How difficult is it to attend school 85% of the year? That's all theat Septa and the school district are asking. Maybe it'll encourage the PARENTS to actually give a s**t and wake their kids up in time to make it or to take an interrest?

Mr. Brightside wrote:No Mr. Brightside, I would not be okay with the school district blindly handing out passes. I'm also not okay with the school district trying to pull this off without addressing what would happen with the affect students.

Mr Brightside wrote:I still believe their only doing it for financial reasons. Someone prove to me something different. What's so shocking about me saying they should expand on it if their going to do it?

Mr Brightside wrote:Well with your logic I guess they might as well just kick the kid out of school all together and save even more money. I think it's wrong that lawyers for the school district are making 6 figures while some teachers are barely getting by. It's appalling that the new C.E.O is making about half a million dollars a year, but I don't control what happens with the money.

Mr. Brightside wrote:And I would say that the behavior you mention is some of the same stuff I see in Abington everyday, minus the subway cars. I'm not saying that these kids aren't a bit over the top but I take issue with people taking notice after "certain" people end up getting killed in the subway. Nobody had anything to say about the teens on the subway until someone died.

Mr Brightside wrote:Obviously one where I'm not cowering in fear because black teens get on the sub.

Mr Brightside wrote:I'd love the opportunity to know how it feels to get taxed up the whazoo! I'm all for switching for a month if you like.

Mr Brightside wrote:
I can understand that. I'd like to send my future kids to private school but they way things are looking Roman would probably cost about 10k a year by then! And the waiting list and critieria for some of the magnate schools is so overwhelming, it seems better to just pay for private if you can afford it.

__________________
I am very disappointed in you.
-Mayor Michael "Nut" Nutter.

I didn't have any school tokens one morning so I was about to put $2 in the machine when the bus driver stopped me and said that since I was a student the actual fare was only a $1. To this day I don't see that mentioned anywhere on Septa literature but it did make sense to me at the time.

__________________
I am very disappointed in you.
-Mayor Michael "Nut" Nutter.

When Street was mayor I thought there was a policy that said if the students cut school the parents would suffer the consequences. I'm not sure if it was prison time or a fine.

__________________
I am very disappointed in you.
-Mayor Michael "Nut" Nutter.

Parents of students who are chronically truant can be brought to truancy court. One of the penalties is indeed a fine. The problem is getting a case to truancy court. There are no more truant officers. It's up to individual schools to put someone in charge of pursuing the offenders. In a school where there are many chronic truants this is a real issue. Someone who already has a role in the school that is supposed to occupy their time, is given the added burden of keeping on top of truants. Another case of asking a school to do more with less. Even just one or two cases in elementary school can take a lot of the designee's time, time that should be going to help the kids who are actually in school.

My child gets free transportation and I can certainly afford to pay something. Maybe we should have free, reduced, and full-price transpasses like we do lunches.

By the way, that two-mile rule is as the crow flies, not the actual way to school. Some kids will actually log in more than two miles. I walked about a mile to school in an era in which I knew several people on every street on my route. Heck, most of the streets had my relatives on them. There were also crossing guards on every corner that was deemed dangerous, not just the corner closest to the school. Unfortunately, this is a different world. I would not want a small child walking. But, frankly, I'd like to know how many small children this ruling affects. I would bet most of the kids affected are in high school. They can walk.

First off, learn to use the f'in quote function so that you're getting your attributes right. You have me quoted as saying things that you wrote.

Until SEPTA can come up with a technologically feasible fix so that these passes won't be abused (like limiting kids to lines that link them from home to school and to times when they would normally be traveling) I don't care that the habitually truant are denied passes. It's another prime example of how our tax dollars are wasted and how kids are not held to any set of reasonable standards. Kids need to learn that their actions in life have consequences.

I don't give a **** if they're doing it for financial reasons. If there's a budgetary crunch, it seems logical to me that the first people who should feel the pinch are the ones who refuse to take advantage of the educational opportunities being offered to them. Just one generation ago, lots of good folks (white and black) laid down their lives so that kids would have educational opportunities. It's increasingly distressing for me to see so many kids trivializing those tremendous sacrifices ...

On one hand you criticize the revocation of passes from habitual truants (saying money is the motivating factor) while suggesting that the district should set heightened standards that would definitely result in more kids being rendered ineligible to receive such passes. It's nonsensical.

YES -- Kids who refuse to show up on a regular basis and who, when the do show up, serve as a constant disruption and negative influence on other kids who might be otherwise motivated to learn should be tossed out. You should talk to someone who actually teaches in one of these troubled schools.


My thought is that at this point you need to be thinking about the kids who are trying to take advantage of the educational opportunities that are available. They're the victims in all of this.

A few partners who are primarily responsible for representing the school system are making a six figures. That's not shocking at all. An ASSOCIATE who works for an upper echelon firm makes at least $130,000 base plus bonuses to start. Firms that are at the top of the market pay their first year associates close to $200,000 per year after you factor in their bonuses. I guess you don't want the school board to have quality representation.


The superintendents of many Philadelphia-area suburban school districts make that much, if not, more. Those suburban superintendents have 1/100 of the student population that Philadelphia has, 6x the resources, and infinitely fewer headaches. Should Philly really be shopping for bargains?

I resent your implication that recent events have somehow distorted my view of the world. I've been riding mass transit in this city for almost ten years and in that time I've witnessed lots of stupid behavior that far exceeds anything happening in Abington. Your statement serves to further demonstrate how disconnected you are from reality. The only question left to ask is whether your ignorance is willful. This city has whole generation that is in deep trouble. Most kids who grow up in Abington will be infinitely better prepared to become contributing members of society. That should bother you.


You denying that there's a problem here will not help anyone.

That's comical; I'm not cowering in fear from anyone. Are you showing any subconscious biases here? No one has mentioned black teens on the subway until now. I was very conscious not to assign a race to the bad actors. As is typical in this city, most of them are black. Ignoring that fact won't change reality. But I've seen and heard some priceless things coming out of the mouths of white kids as well.

You just really want to paint a certain picture of me, don't you.

Put in the requisite hard work and you won't have to switch with anyone. My education cost me a considerable sum of money. Same for my wife. Between us, we have more than $2,000 and month in student loan payments (and that's spreading things out over 30 years). Because the wage tax is a flat percentage of what we make, people like my wife and I bear a grossly disproportional burden. That's not fair -- and it will be one of the factors that eventually drives us out of the city.

And the kicker is that most people can't afford it. We need to be doing better for working and middle class families who place a value on education. I personally think that the answer is more magnet schools and more schools geared specifically for those with disciplinary problems.

__________________
"If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself."

Kathleen Parker -- National Review


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9xmvhQl2-Q

The two mile rule I am not all that concerned about. It's 20 blocks, but if we really want to help the older kids out with this, then we could start subsidizing bicycles, flashers and helmets for them so that two miles won't seem trivial.


The truancy provision though MUST be implemented. Not only will it save tons of money because a large number of students are chronically truant, but it will also alleviate a crime, both serious and QOL that we have on SEPTA.

In fact, I would like to see the truancy requirement percentage raised to 90% attendance, but that's just me. No exceptions to the truancy provision.

Truancy is not the same as excused absences, so don't give me the sob story about a child who will get their Transpass taken away because she has been absent from school for her chemotherapy.

This is for the little twats who sit around Chestnut Street, Market East and South Street most of the day and revolve around the sneaker and urban clothing stores... all paid for with our property tax money.

If you want a free Transpass... GO TO SCHOOL.

__________________
WHYY pays their CEO $750,000 a year. So WHYY should I renew my membership? Seems they have no problems finding money and spending it unwisely.


And this is why you should donate to PACCA, not PETA:

In September, PETA made headlines in Vermont and across the nation for asking Ben & Jerry's ice cream to use human breast milk in their ice cream, instead of cow milk

And the kicker is that most people can't afford it. We need to be doing better for working and middle class families who place a value on education. I personally think that the answer is more magnet schools and more schools geared specifically for those with disciplinary problems.[/quote]

I disagree. It's misplaced priorities to me. If the working and middle class families who have moved into my neighborhood really valued education, St. Barts would not have had to close the school. Many of these people have late model cars and have pizza and other take out food delivered several times a week. If they have money for that, why can't they pay for a transpass for their child to go to school?

__________________
"The streets are safe in Philadelphia, it's only the people who make them unsafe!" Frank Rizzo

"Public opinion is a weak tyrant, compared with our own private opinion." Henry David Thoreau, 1854

"Either you're part of the solution, or you're part of the problem." Eldridge Cleaver

In NYC the NYPD has a Truancy Squad which rounded up the little miscreants. I take it there is nothing similar here?