A little bit of help
    Natchez-Adams County public school students could use more than a bit of help in raising test scores. The district’s scores have been poor for years. Even though the district is one of the best funded in the state, it has made little progress in graduating competent students.

    My suggestion is this: each middle and high school student should be provided with a laptop at school expense. Each school should have its own wireless network.

Students would be encouraged to surf the net, submit papers and essays by the net, and get homework and research through the net.

    There’s also beaucoup software available for math, language arts, and reading that can dovetail with instruction and assignments, many good remedial programs.

    If we’re going to prepare our students for real jobs, then they have to be computer literate, and that doesn’t mean operating a cash register at Burger King.

    Cost of such a program would be more than $1 million. And you have to train the teachers as well. You’d be surprised at how many teachers are not computer savvy.

    A computer in the classroom today is the equivalent of a pen and notebook in the 1960s.  You’d better have one! And computer labs are the dinosaurs of the past.

    Right now there is very little coming out of the district that would lead the mass of underperforming students to higher achievement. We can’t allow the district to spend $43 million a year and continue to put out a poor product.

 

After all these years…
    Mayor Hyram Copeland has earned some criticism, mostly for high utility rates, and overly grandiose building plans. The good mayor has also gotten his share of barbs for the hiring of so many city employees.

    If you look at the overall record, you still have to say Copeland is the best mayor the region has had in the past generation. More has been done for less. Streets and drainage have been upgraded. Riverfront development, something the naysayers said would never be done, is a reality. At least one industry has appeared in the industrial park. Taxes are still low. Community spirit is high.

    Copeland is the perfect politician, able to listen to contrary views and weld a consensus. He has his own vision, but is able to adjust to changing times and the political winds, a sign of maturity.

    The mayors’ dreams of building a recreation facility and a municipal complex should be fairly complete by 2012-2013. And don’t forget; they are plans for a marina and a port, too.

    Copeland says he’ll run for re-election in 2012. I would be surprised if he has an opponent. And if he does, the incumbent mayor will be able to dispatch his rival with ease.

 

Concordia education needs revamp
    Despite Superintendent Blankenstein’s good efforts, Concordia public schools are in a mess. The district’s test scores are lagging and the Ferriday nightmare has never been really solved. For example, recent test scores show more than 60-65% of Ferriday students score below Basic. Translate Basic to mean miserably and nearly incompetent and unskilled. So far, Blankenstein has not tried the reforms of her predecessor, Kerry Laster.
    You remember Laster. She was kicked out by the school board for attempting to do a good job, i.e. making changes.

    The schools have problems with parents who don’t care and kids who don’t care. But Concordia taxpayers are spending more per pupil than Adams County taxpayers. The district is rich with cash. And there’s simply no excuse for poor performance.

    In the end, to change the district for the better, and get it off the state’s troubles list, some principals, administrators and teachers have to be replaced. And that’s verboten in government schools. A job in the local schools is a job for life. That’s one reason why public schools here and across the nation are in trouble.