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https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/08/27/640323347/the-school-shootings-that-werent
This spring the U.S. Education Department reported that in the 2015-2016 school year, "nearly 240 schools ... reported at least 1 incident involving a school-related shooting." The number is far higher than most other estimates.
But NPR reached out to every one of those schools repeatedly over the course of three months and found that more than two-thirds of these reported incidents never happened. Child Trends, a nonpartisan nonprofit research organization, assisted NPR in analyzing data from the government's Civil Rights Data Collection.
We were able to confirm just 11 reported incidents, either directly with schools or through media reports.
In 161 cases, schools or districts attested that no incident took place or couldn't confirm one. In at least four cases, we found, something did happen, but it didn't meet the government's parameters for a shooting. About a quarter of schools didn't respond to our inquiries.
More details in article.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday August 29 2018, @02:41AM (16 children)
Good survey design: it matters.
Even one school shooting is too much. It is an obscenity in a society on the verge of a nervous breakdown. But sloppy work like this becomes the basis for policy all too quickly and that can create blowback nobody wants.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by captain normal on Wednesday August 29 2018, @02:57AM (10 children)
Well as the AC says above, do you expect any less from Betsy DeVos?
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 29 2018, @03:46AM (9 children)
Your dislike of her is not logical. She is doing a great job. It is really hard to see why you'd hate her unless you are part of the problem.
Do you hate her simply because she was appointed by Trump? This is unfair. (and also Trump is wonderful)
Do you hate her because she is rich? This is jealousy. Not that you'd care, but that is quite the sin. Your hate is harmful to society.
Do you hate her because she opposes the corrupt and selfish union agenda? Well, that would be just evil. Students should come first.
Do you hate her because she fixed up the problem of college rape accusations being made into sham trials without juries and without the assumption of innocence? If so, shame on you for wanting such a perversion of justice.
Do you hate her for being a Christian? Would you like her better as a Muslim believing that most American school children are filth?
Do you hate that she did the womanly thing and actually had 4 children? She has a stake in the future of America. She has skin in the game. Unlike typical leftists, she has a reason to care about the future for the children.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 29 2018, @04:04AM (5 children)
Nice troll, but you forgot the big one: She has no qualifications for the job...except being a rich friend of Trump.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 29 2018, @04:54AM
No qualifications, but .... she's doing a pretty decent job.
But hang on a sec, does she really have zero qualifications? Wait, she actually has a long history of interest in, and involvement in education policy.
Er, guess she is kinda qualified. Oops.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 29 2018, @04:55AM (3 children)
The department has ended up being mainly devoted to managing student loans. Ha, ha, only serious. That is what they do, for real. Maybe the right person comes from Citibank, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo...?
If that is some conflict of interest, then a teacher is a bigger one. Teachers are also at the bottom of college graduates for IQ. We sure don't want anybody involved in teaching.
Part of the job is being opposition to unions. Somebody has to care about the kids, and it sure isn't unions. Pissing off unions is a job requirement.
The top several levels of the federal government are just about purely management. She ran the republican party in her state; she has management skills. The same goes for General Mattis, and we could probably swap them or any other pair of cabinet members without very much harm. Management is management is management: organize people to get shit done.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Wednesday August 29 2018, @05:56AM (2 children)
Why is it that the concept of "pay peanuts, get monkeys" does not apply to teachers? Why is it that the same people who want to suppress teacher salaries continue to decry the skills and abilities of teachers?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 29 2018, @06:37AM
It does. Most parents do not care. School is babysitting. Why waste $140k for someone with a phd in math to teach a 7 year old the colors of the rainbow?
Home schooled kids, even when taught by untrained parents typically score
https://www.nheri.org/research-facts-on-homeschooling/ [nheri.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 29 2018, @07:02PM
If the number of employees needs to be reduced, any same business would pick a low-performer. They'd get rid of somebody who keeps fucking up.
Unions ensure that this doesn't happen in schools. Instead, the most recently hired person must be laid off. Besides the directly bad effect, this discourages good people from entering the profession.
Suppose we doubled the pay of every teacher. Would that improve the teaching? No, it would not. Pay needs to be directed to the best people. Unions prevent this. There is little incentive to do a great job. Unions have fought out attempts to change this.
Unions generally require that a chemistry teacher get nothing more than a Spanish teacher. Unions generally require that a computer science teacher get nothing more than an English teacher.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Whoever on Wednesday August 29 2018, @05:52AM (2 children)
Nice troll. There were several right-wing talking points that are not really connected to reality, but this one:
That really had me laughing out loud. Her money (none of which she earned) insulates her from any of the issues that she is causing. Her children and grandchildren will never study at anything other than a private school. She has zero skin in the game.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 29 2018, @04:42PM
No, she has white skin in the game.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 29 2018, @06:54PM
First of all, her descendants will not all be rich. Eventually they will be numerous and some of them will be poor. She may even get poor great grandchildren.
Second of all, her descendants will suffer if America does badly. Even if they are not poor, they still must live in a country full of typical Americans. It is different for somebody like Merkle, who has no reason to give a damn if Germany becomes like Somalia in 40 years. Merkle will be long dead.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Wednesday August 29 2018, @12:27PM (2 children)
Too much for what? The world is imperfect. There will always be some evil somewhere.
Maybe that society should grow up? Hysteria doesn't make for a good basis for societal decisions.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 29 2018, @04:46PM (1 child)
You didn't vote for Trump, by chance? Just asking.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday August 30 2018, @03:41AM
I didn't vote for Trump by chance or on purpose. Nor am I going to.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 29 2018, @02:24PM
Even one murder is too much. Even one terrorist attack is too much.
The problem with the 'If it saves just one...' logic is that it quickly leads to a situation where our rights are obliterated, as we're already experiencing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 29 2018, @04:44PM
Even in places where you'd expect there to be the stereotypical friendliness and peace, there are school shootings, and stabbings, and bombings. Before they were tracking these things there have been situations like this. The difference is so many get tons of publicity which is what many of these people wanted. In the modern world, there is nothing you can do to stop things like this. Take away guns and they stab. Take away knifes and they bomb. Make it harder to bomb and they simply plow trucks into buildings and people. They will continue to do so until people address the actual problem. The shooting, stabbing, bombing is the symptom. Removing more and more tools (almost all of which have many legit purposes on their own, the exception being bombs) and you stop nothing. Address the mental health, unrest, disassociation, income issues, and then maybe you'll be on to something.
Even still, you will not solve all. Norway has a nearly homogeneous population, high living standards, high health standards, generally low crime, generally strict gun laws, and STILL a nutter with a gun took out 87 people.