[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Originally Posted by Pairadocs

stuff

Painting the canvas with a pretty broad stroke there. In my graduating class in 1978, 1/8 of the senior girls didn't graduate because they were pregnant. In the same year's graduation class in a more rural part of our state, around 1/6th of the males didn't graduate, because they were expected to work on their family farm and you can't do that and be in a classroom at the same time, and the world wide web hadn't been invented yet.

In rural areas all over the country, kids are expected to NOT finish school, and stay on the family farm. In some of the poorer parts of this country, kids are expected to NOT finish school, and get minimum wage jobs to help their families financially at home. When it's time for them to fall in love and get married, they have NOTHING. No savings, because daddy drank it all. Or mama shot it all into her veins. Or big brother spent it at the track.

Not all kids CAN graduate school, because not all families are in a position to provide a home life to support their kids graduating school. Some people are truly and sincerely stuck at the bottom. They don't even know what it would be like to dream of getting out of the bottom, because all the people who are out - want to keep their own position, and do everything they can to ensure that the ones on the bottom stay there.

This isn't true for all poor people. It's not true for all rural people. And it's not true for all suburbanites. But it is a significant demographic that is never represented in these conversations, because they're the the ones you can't conveniently dump the blame on.

[Number 10 GI]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

Painting the canvas with a pretty broad stroke there. In my graduating class in 1978, 1/8 of the senior girls didn't graduate because they were pregnant. In the same year's graduation class in a more rural part of our state, around 1/6th of the males didn't graduate, because they were expected to work on their family farm and you can't do that and be in a classroom at the same time, and the world wide web hadn't been invented yet.

In rural areas all over the country, kids are expected to NOT finish school, and stay on the family farm. In some of the poorer parts of this country, kids are expected to NOT finish school, and get minimum wage jobs to help their families financially at home. When it's time for them to fall in love and get married, they have NOTHING. No savings, because daddy drank it all. Or mama shot it all into her veins. Or big brother spent it at the track.

Not all kids CAN graduate school, because not all families are in a position to provide a home life to support their kids graduating school. Some people are truly and sincerely stuck at the bottom. They don't even know what it would be like to dream of getting out of the bottom, because all the people who are out - want to keep their own position, and do everything they can to ensure that the ones on the bottom stay there.

This isn't true for all poor people. It's not true for all rural people. And it's not true for all suburbanites. But it is a significant demographic that is never represented in these conversations, because they're the the ones you can't conveniently dump the blame on.

That happened a lot back in the early part of the 1900s. I grew up on a small farm in southwest Iowa and graduated from high school in 1965 and I don't remember a single farm kid dropping out of school. Education and graduating from high school was stressed pretty hard at that time. There were a few that were junior thugs that dropped out but they were town kids and were in jail within 5 years. In the mid west for the last few decades the family farm doesn't really exist, it is mostly large farmers that have bought neighboring farms or rent the land, and corporate farms. I believe you will find the majority of school drop outs are inner city kids in large cities.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Originally Posted by Number 10 GI

That happened a lot back in the early part of the 1900s. I grew up on a small farm in southwest Iowa and graduated from high school in 1965 and I don't remember a single farm kid dropping out of school. Education and graduating from high school was stressed pretty hard at that time. There were a few that were junior thugs that dropped out but they were town kids and were in jail within 5 years. In the mid west for the last few decades the family farm doesn't really exist, it is mostly large farmers that have bought neighboring farms or rent the land, and corporate farms. I believe you will find the majority of school drop outs are inner city kids in large cities.

Nevada has the highest dropout rate in the country. Vermont has the lowest.

There's apparently a thing called "dropout factory" schools, that's the term used to describe schools that have a persistent problem with a high dropout rate. 32% of minority students are districted to attend dropout schools. Only 8% of white students are districted to attend dropout schools.

Seems to me that schools containing primarily minority students are not being educated the same as schools containing primarily white students. It's not the fact that minorities are minorities - because the ones who are districted to attend non-dropout schools do as well in them as the white kids do. And white kids in the dropout factory schools trend as badly as the minorities attending those schools do.

[Prpcmom]

Originally Posted by T186021

Painting the present employment environment with a broad brush may be unfair, as jobs reopen many employees cannot return to work due to issues related to child care, medical care, job locations, limited work hours, and changes in the job requirements. Before the lost of their jobs many employees paid payroll taxes weekly which funded the social programs that are assisting them. Businesses are receiving stimulus money and loans that are being forgiving, why not also support the individuals. This is a complex problem in our society but one that WE can solve together.

Thanks for this. Those of you who think workers are not returning to work because of all the unemployment benefits should try living on the amount of those benefits before complaining! And then, go help out the social services agencies that hear the concerns of the workers, as I have. There are MANY reasons why workers can not go back to work, don’t criticize until you know what is really going on! And, you should realize restaurant staff who get tips are paid BELOW minimum wage, as allowed by law, they DEPEND on tips just to get to minimum wage. What I’m seeing is that people want to get back to work but when they have to take care of someone in the family that is still affected by the after-effects of COVID-19, that can impact their ability to work. Or if they can’t get the vaccine because they don’t have access to the internet to get one of those precious appointments and need it because of underlying health factors, that can impact their ability to go back to work too. So, please learn more about the people you are criticizing for not going back to work, walk in their shoes, as the saying goes.

[Stu from NYC]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

Nevada has the highest dropout rate in the country. Vermont has the lowest.

There's apparently a thing called "dropout factory" schools, that's the term used to describe schools that have a persistent problem with a high dropout rate. 32% of minority students are districted to attend dropout schools. Only 8% of white students are districted to attend dropout schools.

Seems to me that schools containing primarily minority students are not being educated the same as schools containing primarily white students. It's not the fact that minorities are minorities - because the ones who are districted to attend non-dropout schools do as well in them as the white kids do. And white kids in the dropout factory schools trend as badly as the minorities attending those schools do.

Question

How dangerous are these dropout schools for teachers and students?

Possible that teachers do not want to teach there as they are in fear?

[Road-Runner]

Originally Posted by maggie1

It seems as though some of our citizens are not as satisfied to stay at home and collect free money. The unemployment rate has fallen to 6%. Let us all be a little more positive in our future; this pandemic has caused much more than death totals, it has divided us as a nation, and continues to do so. We will survive.

People are only counted as unemployed if they're 1) Out of work and 2) Looking for work. The labor participation rate is what actually matters the most and as a country we're still down around 60%, at least that's what the number was a while back, haven't heard it mentioned in months. So 40% of working age citizens are not working, that of course includes anyone retiring before regular retirement age (~ 65) but also shows a lot of the country living off the efforts of others..

[Road-Runner]

Originally Posted by EdFNJ

"The state determines your weekly benefit payments based on your previous earnings during employment. In 2020, you can receive a maximum of $275 per week for 12 weeks. You are entitled to a maximum benefit amount of $3,300." This means a lot of people aren't even getting $275/week.

$275 x 12 = $3300

I'm pretty sure everyone who lost sufficient income is getting the $275 week unemployment bonus. If someone was already not working prior to the pandemic, I'm not sure why they would qualify for extra 'pandemic' relief other than the $1200, $600 and $1400 checks the government already paid out to them.

[Viperguy]

The market can and should adjust wages. If a restaurant can't find workers they can voluntarily raise their wages (Unless they are a corporate store). In North Dakota (I heard) during the employment boom pre-covid, they had to pay upwards of $25/hour for fast food workers. Federal minimum wage is a joke and simply a political ploy for votes.

[Stu from NYC]

Originally Posted by Viperguy

The market can and should adjust wages. If a restaurant can't find workers they can voluntarily raise their wages (Unless they are a corporate store). In North Dakota (I heard) during the employment boom pre-covid, they had to pay upwards of $25/hour for fast food workers. Federal minimum wage is a joke and simply a political ploy for votes.

Why anyone would want to be satisfied working at a minimum wage job is beyond me.

Did it as a teenager and knew it was temporary. Many businesses are looking for people and not all at min wage salary.

Get training and keep looking for something better while working at min wage.