IS IT TRUE we encourage you to read todays FEATURE ARTICLEÂ in the CCO concerning in depth information about the EVSC that the main stream media doesn’t have the desire to write about? Â …we shall have two articles in todays FEATURE ARTICLE section thats worthy of your intellectual focus?
IS IT TRUE Mayor Winnecke and the Evansville City Council have finally agreed to a budget for 2015?…the agonizing brinksmanship did eventually result in $5 Million in cuts that included both Roberts Park and Spotshotter but fell far short of the $11 Million that Councilman Conor O’Daniel expressed a need for?…given the misleading and surprising misunderstood declining balances in our cash positions, it is no wonder that a few tickets to Fantasyland made it through the budget process?…we will know if this was the right thing to do this time next year when the audited results for 2014 are made available, but projecting a 30% increase in property tax revenues is about a disingenuous as a promise in the dark from a twitter-pated teenager, and as out of touch with reality as flying a hot air balloon to Mars?…in the meantime we all need to buckle our seat belts for an election year of fun and games nonsense?…in the near future the CCO will look into just how well Mayor Winnecke has achieved the goals from his first administration?…we do know there is no master plan in sight so on that account an F is looming unless something changes in the next month?
IS IT TRUE Indiana’s community college system, also known as IVY TECH is grappling with a $68 million deficit, is facing scrutiny over its graduation rates as it works to shore up its role as the linchpin needed to close the state’s skilled-worker gap?…Ivy Tech said an annual study by Community College Week ranked it tops in degrees conferred, 8,940 awarded in the 2011-12 academic years, an increase of 12 percent over the previous year?…despite the high number of degrees, many more students are failing to obtain the diploma in a desired amount of time?…just 4 percent of students at Ivy Tech graduate within two years and only 23 percent earn diplomas in six years, according to state data?…that’s making state officials wary of pumping more money into the system if the results don’t improve?…given the recognized fact that only 4 out of each 100 students who enter Ivy Tech actually graduate on schedule this should serve as a real challenge for our former Mayor who was rewarded with the IVY TECH Chancellorship because of his political connections and not his academic credentials? …he finally has a job that has a tangible need for serious improvement and rather than cutting deals and playing politician we hope to see that 4% graduation rate become his main focus?…without a competent workforce with the credentials to prove it Indiana is facing a future of low wage jobs for people without skills?…it is Ivy Tech that should be at the forefront of fixing that problem?
IS IT TRUE  during his mayoral campaign, New York’s Bill de Blasio did not give high priority to the crucial issue of how and when the city should intervene to abolish or remake failing schools?…he actually went to some lengths to distance himself from the successful strategy of his predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, who improved graduation rates and college acceptances in poor neighborhoods by shutting down schools that were essentially dropout factories and starting afresh with smaller schools, new teachers and new leadership?…Mr. de Blasio favored a vague plan to give more “support†to failing schools and close them down as a last resort?…the difference between Bloomberg and de Blasio lies in the accountability that Bloomberg demanded and the touchy feely lack of it under de Blasio?…mercifully the City of Evansville is not in charge of the EVSC, but similar choices are on the doorstep of the EVSC none the less?…over the course of the next few years some of Evansville’s failing schools need some real accountability that has not been enforced for many years?…it will be interesting to see if the EVSC has the courage to make the kinds of changes to build a broad platform of success for all of our children or if chronic legacies of failure will continue to be appeased?
IS IT TRUE in what was about the stupidest stump speech ever, federal Health and Human Services official Joanne Grossie told lawmakers that people shouldn’t view the cancellation of insurance policies due to Obamacare as losing insurance. It’s really an “invitation†to get another policy?…she went on to say, “If you got one of the notices that your policy was going to be discontinued because it didn’t adhere to the law, it meant that now you could go into the health insurance marketplace,†she said. “So, I just want to remind you that you weren’t losing insurance; you were just losing that insurance plan and were now being invited to go into the health insurance marketplace?”…that puts things in a whole new perspective, the administration’s new logic can be applied to a wide range of situations in both politics and daily life?…now we can assume that wages haven’t been stagnant thanks to President Obama’s economic policies, we’ve merely been “invited†to live an increasingly frugal lifestyle…we Weren’t fired from our jobs, we were “invited†to look for other employment opportunities?…Your spouse didn’t divorce you either, you were merely “invited†to return to the single life?…The fact that federal officials offer farcical answers in response to serious questions shows this administration’s disdain for, or cluelessness about, the general public….we must never forget that Obama promised that we could keep our coverage if we liked it?..That invitation got lost in the maelstrom that characterizes the continuing Obamacare implementation fiasco?