Below The Beltway

Apparently, things are going so peachy in Pasco County, Florida’s school system that they can concentrate on the real problem — substitute teachers practicing wizardry doing magic tricks:
LAND O’ LAKES - The telephone call that spelled the end of Jim Piculas’ career as a substitute teacher in Pasco County came on a January day about […]

From the pages of today’s Washington Post, a case of sex offender insanity gone wild:
In his seven years, Randy Castro has been an aspiring soccer player, an accomplished Lego architect and a Royal Ranger at his Pentecostal church. He also, according to his elementary school record, sexually harassed a first-grade classmate.
During recess at his Woodbridge […]

Stephen Moore makes an interesting observation about what some might call the spoiled generation:
A few weeks ago I gave a talk on the state of the economy to a group of college students — almost all Barack Obama enthusiasts — who were griping about how downright awful things are in America today. As they sipped […]

Apparently, American teenagers don’t know much about history:
Fewer than half of American teenagers who were asked basic history and literature questions in a phone survey knew when the Civil War was fought, and one in four said Columbus sailed to the New World some time after 1750, not in 1492.
The survey results, released on Tuesday, […]

Another President’s Day has arrived and another story about the ignorance of America’s youth:
Today is Presidents Day, so it’s an appropriate time to see who has a good handle on national history or government. If you think, however, the nation’s college students have the most knowledge on the subjects, think again.
College freshmen earned an average […]

Apparently, more Americans can identify the Simpson family than the contents of the First Amendment:
CHICAGO - Americans apparently know more about “The Simpsons” than they do about the First Amendment.
Only one in four Americans can name more than one of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment.
But more than half can name at […]

Susan Jacoby has a piece in today’s Washington Post about the all-too-familiar topic of the dumbing down of America. In which she identifies the three factors which have lead to what she calls not only a decline in knowledge, but a decline in the desire to even learn things among the average American.
First, she cites […]

Not content with doing what the state Constitution actually authorizes them to do, the Virginia Senate now wants to regulate school lunch menus:
RICHMOND, Jan. 29 — The Virginia Senate voted unanimously Tuesday to phase out the use of artery-clogging trans fats in food sold at public schools, from the cheese pizza in the cafeteria to […]

Apparently, there is what the Washington Post is calling an “academic gap” between minority and non-minority students in one of Virginia richest and fastest growing counties:
In one of the wealthiest counties in the country, minority advocates are urging the Loudoun County School Board to redouble efforts and resources to boost achievement of black and Hispanic […]

Apparently, it’s to protect that most-important family vacation:
A unique Virginia law designed to help the tourism industry is extending summer vacations in the Commonwealth while pupils in the District of Columbia and Maryland began the school year this month.
Virginia is the only state in the country that prohibits public schools from opening before the Tuesday […]