Odds and ends, 11/1/07

If you want to see how the presidential candidates compare on health insurance plans, check out the Kaiser Family Foundation site.

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Here's something I hadn't heard of before. This is from a news release issued by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction pertaining to that state's dropout rate:

State law requires school officials to record the reason for a student's decision to drop out of school. Recently, there has been a rapid increase in the number of students who report they are dropping out of high school to enroll in a community college. In 2003-04, 7 percent of dropouts reported community college enrollment as the reason; in 2004-05, the percentage was 9.6. In 2005-06, 12.1 percent or 2,692 students gave community college enrollment as the reason for dropping out. A majority of dropout events continue to be related to attendance issues. Other reasons identified include students moving with school status unknown (9.5 percent) and academic problems (6.5 percent).

I'm not familiar with the situation in North Carolina, and I don't know how many kids here drop out of high school so they can enter community college. The question is, if you're moving on to a higher form of education, are you really dropping out? And are you doing a bad thing?

As for me, I can't see how you are. I would say a good number of seniors at Huntington High are ready for the next level. They're in school because they have to be there to get that diploma. Maybe they should just drop out and enroll in community college, a four-year college or a university, if that's allowed.

That might not be best for the school, but it could be good for the kids.

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From a news release from an Ohio council in aging:

American businesses can lose as much as $34 billion each year due to employees’ need to care for loved ones 50 years of age or older.

Hey, that's me. I didn't realize you became so fragile at age 50.

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Final thought:

We receive more syndicated column material than we can run. Last week, this came in a Thomas Sowell column:

High school seniors who want to go to a selective college in the fall of 2008 should already be making arrangements to take the tests they will need before they apply ahead of the deadlines for such schools, which are usually in January or February.

One of the consequences of taking these tests is that, if you do well, you may be deluged with literature from colleges and universities all across the country.

Some students may feel flattered that Harvard, Yale or M.I.T. seems to be dying to have them apply. But the brutal reality is that the reason for wanting so many youngsters to apply is so that they can be rejected.

Why? Because the prestige ranking of a college or university as a "selective" institution is measured by how small a percentage of its applicants are accepted. So they have to get thousands of young people to apply, so that they can be rejected.

Does this really happen? I have no idea, because neither Harvard, Stanford, Yale or Crown City A & M ever tried to recruit me. If it does happen, it's too bad there's nothing we can do. It sounds like fraud to me.