Red Alert!

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09_StrayDog2
Okay people this is critical.  The dog pictured here showed up at our house yesterday and must have decided it's a cool place to hang out because he won't leave.  He's well groomed and fed so I'm thinking someone out there is missing him.  Why's this critical?  For the following reasons:

  • We've already adopted two dogs in the last year and if we end up with a third I'll have to refinance just to feed them all.
  • I can hear you saying, "Well just take him to the shelter."  Unfortunately he's a sweetheart of a dog and I can already see the soft spot in my wife's heart for him so the shelter is NOT going to be an option.
  • The kids have already named him Cujo.  That's not good.
  • Riley, our recently adopted black lab, was just starting to settle down and behave and now we have another large male dog that's trying to establish dominance by mounting him every 30 seconds.  I'm afraid that Riley will chew another door frame or two before we get him readjusted.
  • Mia, the little girl in the bunch, will probably need dog therapy if this goes on much longer. 

So, if you know anyone in the Lewisville vicinity that's missing a dog that looks even remotely like the one pictured please have them get hold of me. 

Want an A? That’ll be $86

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UPDATE:  Theo Helm from WSFCS sent me an email with a response to some of my questions and I've posted the full text after the original post.  Thanks to Theo for taking the time to contact me and providing the info.

Our oldest son is a junior in high school and last night when I got home he asked me to co-sign a form with him that states that he will commit to taking an AP exam in May for each of the AP classes he's taking this year.  "No big deal," I thought, "of course he'll take the final for those courses. Why wouldn't he?"

As I read the rest of the form it dawned on me why they were asking us to sign a commitment form: each of the tests will cost us $86 for him to take.  Once I got over the shock I asked myself what the consequences would be if he didn't take the AP exam.  The simple explanation was contained in the next paragraph on the form: his grade would be reduced by one letter grade and he would lose the AP weighting of the course, which means his grade would essentially be treated as a regular honors course.  Best of all his curriculum and requirements would still remain identical to what they would be if he opts to take the exam.  In short if our son does great work all year and decides not to take the test the best grade he can hope for is a B.  Nice.

One issue I have with this whole setup is that I don't remember them telling us at the beginning of the year that AP exams would cost us anything.  Maybe they did and we missed it, but my wife is good about staying on top of those types of things and she doesn't remember seeing anything about it either.  You'd think they would have asked us to sign a commitment form at the beginning of the school year.  By waiting until now they've made it feel like a setup; why wouldn't you pay for the test now that your child is halfway through the school year and he really has no choice but to finish the class.  Would you really want to reduce his score by one full letter grade over an $86 fee? 

Speaking of the fee, last night I wondered where the cost came from and so I did what any good American would do, I Googled "AP exam fee" and found the website for College Board, the entity that administers AP tests and SATs, and found some very helpful information about AP fees here.  Especially interesting to me was this:

Fee reductions of $22 per exam are available from the College Board for students with financial need. In addition, schools forgo their $8 rebate for each fee-reduced exam, making the final fee for these students $56 per exam.

In addition, virtually all states offer exam subsidies to cover all or part of the cost for eligible students. Talk to your AP Coordinator to learn more about state and federal subsidies and other support that may be available to you.

For internal purposes, such as an audit or invoice verification, a state may request from the College Board the names of its public school students who receive fee reductions; in such cases, the state will agree to maintain the confidentiality of such data.

Check with your AP Coordinator to learn more about fee reductions and state and district subsidies.

I'm relieved that there is financial assistance available for children from lower income families, but I'm struggling to come to terms with the whole setup.  What if we don't want to pay for the test based on the simple principle that my child is going to a public school, we pay our taxes and it seems a little absurd that we have to pay $86 for our child to take a test?  Sure, I understand that taking an AP course is optional, but given the academic expectations placed on students by college administrators it would put our child at a severe disadvantage to not take the courses.  Realistically, it isn't optional if we want our kids to be able to compete for a slot in college. 

The College Board website also says that students may get college credit for their AP classes which means that in the long run we might actually save money, so there is that.  Still the whole thing makes me feel like we've once again been caught in the net of the education-industrial complex.  These folks make the Pentagon and Halliburton look like a bunch of pikers.

Response from Theo Helm received via email on 12/2/2009:

Jon: I just wanted to respond to your post about the cost of AP exams.

The school board began requiring students in AP courses to take the exams
in 2003. Its decision was based on three main ideas: 1., the AP exam is an
integral part of any AP course; 2., the College Board encourages students
to take the exams; and 3., it would allow us to monitor how our students
are doing compared to those in other schools, both in and out of our
district and state. The requirement and cost is included in each year's
High School Registration book. It was on p. 10 last year.

Since then (and until this year), students who did not take the AP exam had
one quality point deducted from their grades — meaning that the AP course
showed up on their transcripts as an honors course. We had to change the
way we handled it this year at the request of the Department of Public
Instruction. We were told that a state board policy does not allow us to
change how we weight the courses by deducting the quality point. We were
given the choices of dropping the exam requirement or lowering the final
grade by one letter grade.

In early September, the board voted to lower the final grade by one letter
grade for students because it wanted to continue to require the AP exam
(for the reasons mentioned above). This has the same effect as our previous
policy. A student who didn't take the exam last year and earned an A would
receive 5 quality points (4 points for the A, 2 points for an AP course, -1
point for not taking the exam). That same situation this year would again
result in 5 quality points (A reduced to B for not taking the exam equals 3
points, plus 2 points for an AP course). The one exception is a student who
earns a D in an AP class and does not take the AP exam would now not
receive credit for the class. Kim Underwood did a story about it that
appeared in the Journal on Sept. 9 (click here for the story), and we
posted news about it on our Web site the same day (click here). Schools
sent home a letter explaining this change shortly after the board voted on
it.

So the requirement is not new, but the method of requirement has changed
this year. We would have preferred to keep our previous policy, but the
state board policy would not allow it. We'd also like to be able to pay for
all the AP exams, but (again) unfortunately, we don't have the money to do
it. Instead, we pay for the fourth exam and beyond, and as you pointed out,
other funds are available for those who can't afford to pay for the exam.

I hope this long-winded answer helps at least a little bit. If you have
questions about this, or other school-related issues, just let me know.

Theo Helm
Director of Marketing and Communications
Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools
336.727.2696 phone
336.727.8404 fax
 All e-mail correspondence to and from this address is subject to the
North Carolina Public Records Law, which may result in monitoring and
disclosure to third parties, including law enforcement.   AN EQUAL
OPPORTUNITY/AFFIRMATIVE ACTION EMPLOYER

Wondering What HRDTIME$ Means

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I was heading into work today when a gleaming, canary yellow Hummer pulled in front of me.  Nothing extraordinary about that, but then I saw the vanity license plate: HRDTIME$.  Obviously I don't know the owner, or anything about the owner, but I can tell you that the first words that popped into my head were "What a jack***." 

The rest of my drive into work I speculated as to what the owner was trying to say. Maybe he's made a killing in flipping foreclosed properties.  Maybe he's a franchise owner of a consumer credit counseling concern and has more business than he can handle.  Maybe it has nothing to do with the economy and he's simply sharing an inside joke.  Who knows, but putting a plate like that on the most obnoxiously over-the-top vehicle in the history of man during times like these just seems to be the equivalent of wearing a t-shirt that says "I'm a big fat *******."

Truly Thankful

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Well, this has been one of those weeks that bookmark a life.  Since I haven't asked for her permission to write about her medical condition let's just say my Mom had an episode on Tuesday and it landed her in the hospital and after they've done a bunch of diagnostic work on her followed by a fairly routine procedure it looks like she'll be home on Saturday not much worse for wear.  While it was scary, I think it's one of those life occurrences that is just scary enough to remind you of what's truly important.  It also reminds you that life doesn't care if it's Thanksgiving week when it throws you a curve ball, and even on Thanksgiving Day hospital food ain't very good.

Let me just say that although it was largely spent in a hospital room this Thanksgiving was one in which I truly felt thankful.  I'm thankful to have my Mom around, I'm thankful that she has her significant other Bert around, and I'm thankful that her doctors were as methodical and diligent as they were even though my Mom begged and pleaded for them to release her, even temporarily, for Thanksgiving day.  I'm very thankful for the friends and family that offered support and love and I hope we all get the chance to come together to be thankful together soon.

Finally I'm thankful for the hours that Mom and I got to really talk to each other this week without distraction. That's a rare occurrence these days and I'm just sorry it took a stay in the hospital to give us the opportunity.  Hopefully we won't need another one before we do it again.

Love you Mom.

P.S.  I think Mom is going to be very thankful for Medicare.

When Democracy is Painful

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Because we live in America I guess we have to give just about every natural born numbskull who isn't a convicted felon his or her chance at attaining elected office.  Sometimes that's a painful proposition and I give you Exhibit A: George Hutchins, who claims that he's the Republican answer for North Carolina's 4th District. 

I guess it could be worse, but I'm not sure how.

h/t to Ed Cone for the link.

Forsyth Educators Living in Some Kind of Fairy Tale Universe?

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Kim Underwood has an article in today's Winston-Salem Journal about the Winston-Salem Forsyth County School Board exploring the possibility of laying people off due to budget issues.  The part of the story that caused my jaw to drop was this:

If individual cuts are necessary, the potential list of criteria
presented for the board to consider included evaluations;
student-performance data; length of service, giving preference to
teachers with National Board Certification; and level of degrees.

Tripp Jeffers, the president of the Forsyth County Association of
Educators, which represents the school system's teachers, urged board
members not to include such subjective elements as evaluations and to
rely more on seniority. Board members Buddy Collins and Jeannie Metcalf
expressed reservations about having evaluations and data that included
student performance too high on the list.

"The part that bothers me is the subjectivity of some of these things," Metcalf said.

What kind of fairy tale universe do these people live in?  The rest of us in the working world are evaluated by our bosses, peers, customers, etc. and have our employment tied to these highly subjective measures. Should I expect to continue to be retained, even if I do crappy work, just because I've been around longer than the highly competent person working next to me?  I don't think so. As both a boss (taxpayer) and customer (my children are students) I would like very much for the teachers to be retained based on their performance and not on their ability to breathe the air between the schools' four walls for a longer period of time than anyone else.

Mr. Pollin Was One of the Good Guys

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I grew up in the Washington, DC area during the '70s and '80s and I was a big fan of all the pro sports teams there.  As hard as it may be to remember now, the Washington Bullets were one of the premier NBA teams in the '70s and one of my fondest memories is of my Mom letting me stay up past my bedtime to watch the Bullets' decisive win over Seattle in game seven of the 1978 NBA Finals. I idolized all of the Bullets and to this day I can remember sitting in the Cap Center watching Elvin Hayes knock down one of his patented fade away jumpers, Wes Unseld hammering guys on the blocks and Bobby Dandridge adding a lot of flair with his all court game.  And of course I thought Abe Pollin, the team's owner, had to be the greatest guy in the world for putting this incredible team together.

Pollin also owned the Washington Capitals and over the years the Bullets sank into consistent cellar dwelling status and the Caps became a winning franchise.  In the mid-90s Mr. Pollin decided to move the teams from the Maryland suburbs to downtown DC.  Amazingly he built the then-named MCI Center with $220 million of his own money and he produced a jewel of a facility that became a central part of the revitalization of that part of downtown.  Let me repeat: he built it with his own money.

Mr. Pollin was loyal to a fault, keeping people in jobs long after most owners would have cut them loose, and he expected loyalty in return.  When he didn't get it he wasn't afraid to wield the ax (just ask Michael Jordan).  All in all he seemed to me to be an old-school owner who did things his own way, and although he didn't have any championships to point to after 1978 he earned the respect of everyone in Washington and throughout the sports world.  He wasn't perfect and was known to play hardball, but in the end he was a tremendous asset to his community.

Sadly Mr. Pollin died yesterday at the age of 85.

The ACLU is an Equal Opportunity Ticker Offer

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It always cracks me up to hear pigeon hole the ACLU as some sort of liberal activist group.  I guess they are if "liberal" means defending all peoples' civil liberties no matter which end of the political spectrum they fall on.  Sure, conservatives are ticked about the whole Forsyth County Commissioners' prayer issue, but I suspect they'd support the ACLU in their defense of a Florida student who wants to wear a t-shirt that says "Islam is of the devil." 

For the record I sometimes disagree strongly with the ACLU, but I do think they're very consistent.

One of Those Health Reform Arguments

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One of the arguments I hear about health reform proposals is that it will inevitably lead to socialized medicine and eventually the only people who will get "good" doctors will be those who can afford to pay cash for access to them.  Well I hate to tell you but we've had a "have vs. have not" health system in place here in the US of A for quite a while and I'm pretty sure it's only going to get worse with or without reform.  Check out this piece from a Greensboro blogger (h/t to Ed Cone for the lead):

I recently received a form letter saying that Dr. James Kindl, my physician for the past two decades, is joining MDVIP, "a national network of physicians who focus on personalized preventative healthcare." His letter goes on to say "In order to provide enhanced proactive care, I will be reducing the size of my practice to no more than 600 patients who may join on a first-come, first-served basis."

What his letter doesn't say, and what doesn't become apparent until one goes to his new website and actually tries to sign up for his new practice, is that this members-only service has an annual fee of $1,500, and that this fee only pays for membership; all the usual charges will still apply, billed to your insurance company.

Right now if you don't have health insurance your "safety net" is the emergency room and they must treat you if you show up.  Unfortunately if you have any assets at all the provider will take them in return for services rendered and you'll end up without much to enjoy with your (hopefully) good health.  Of course there are the free clinics but those offer inconsistent care at best.  That's what I mean when I say that we are a nation of haves and have nots with regards to health care. I'm flummoxed by the arguments against reform that say we need to resist "socialized medicine" so we can keep seeing our doctors without interminable waits for service and we can continue to have access to cutting edge medical equipment.

As for the anti-reformers' warning that my taxes will go up with any kind of public option, well I have a hard time believing that the tax burden can be any worse that what my health insurer does to me each year.  Right now my health care burden is about 15% of my gross income and it is only that low because my family has been extraordinarily healthy the last couple of years (knock on wood) and since our premiums tend to rise at a higher annual rate than inflation or my wages then I'm fairly certain that my health care burden will be approaching 20% of my income within a couple of years.

I'm not necessarily arguing for the reforms currently being proposed by Congress, but I'm pleading for the powers that be to do something because we're drowning out here in the real world.  And don't get me started about the impact on small business because we could be here all day.