Utah flirts with abolishing Senior Year

We all knew a few of "that type" of student. The ones who worked hard all thru high school and as soon as they were accepted to college, they stopped trying at all. Of course, most of "that type" learned too late that colleges (1) keep an eye on early admissions, and (2) are able to rescind an acceptance if they see grades slacking off. Still, at least one legislator in Utah is exploring the option of eliminating the Senior Year of high school altogether or at least making it optional. But it is not with the good of the students in mind - it is an attempt to close a serious budget gap.

The sudden buzz over the relative value of senior year stems from a recent proposal by state Sen. Chris Buttars that Utah make a dent in its budget gap by eliminating the 12th grade.

The notion quickly gained some traction among supporters who agreed with the Republican's assessment that many seniors frittered away their final year of high school, but faced vehement opposition from other quarters, including in his hometown of West Jordan..."You're looking at these budget gaps where lawmakers have to use everything and anything to try to resolve them," said Todd Haggerty, a policy associate with the National Conference of State Legislatures. "It's left lawmakers with very unpopular decisions."

Should we ban chocolate milk from schools?

When I was a kid, I hated milk. It was a mostly irrational hatred, but the white stuff simply had no appeal to me. There were only two ways to convince me to drink milk: soda milk or chocolate milk. Now, facing the obesity epidemic, some are arguing that chocolate milk should be banned from schools. I will admit that cutting sugary drinks (i.e. soda and lemonade) from my diet did make a huge difference in my weight.

While milk has been the keystone of America's school lunches since the federally subsidized program was established in 1946, the role of chocolate (and other flavored) milk has become a focus of late following a 2006 rule that required schools to establish comprehensive "wellness programs." Public school districts in Berkeley, Calif., and Boulder, Colo. — two of America's more progressive towns — have removed the drink from their list of daily offerings, opting for low-fat, organic white milk instead. That's a perfect way to force kids to shun milk completely, says the dairy industry.

My own opinion is that banning chocolate milk is likely to backfire and cause kids to drink soda instead. That's what they really want, after all, thanks to persistent advertising. Thus, the kids are left without the nutritional value of milk entirely. But I am interested to see what Mod-Bloggers think.

Obama: Make the School Year Longer

If President Obama had any hope of recovering his approval rating among teens, he probably just lost it when he announced support for making children go to school longer each day and each year. The reasoning given is that schoolchildren in other developed nations have longer school years, and are learning more than Americans.

"Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas," the president said earlier this year. "Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom."

"Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

This is not a new idea. When I was in high school, they were talking about year-round schooling and experimenting with alternative school schedules. Very few showed any concrete results. Then again, it does seem strange that we're still observing school schedules based on the corn harvest in parts of the country where you can't find a corn stalk.

Learning is Fundamental

It is amazing how much one's perspective on school changes after graduation.