Until The Pain of Change

The Iron County Board passed a resolution during the February
12, 2013 meeting.

From the meeting minutes:

"Peretto made a motion, seconded by Aho,  to approve the
Agenda as presented with the following additions: 1) A
resolution saluting the WIC school district; 2) A resolution
about the Medical Care Facility’s selection of a prescription
drug vendor, and 3) Discussion about travel to attend
seminars. On Voice Vote, the motion carried."

Later in the minutes, the following is found:

"Resolution: Brennan made a motion, seconded by Peretto, to
adopt a Resolution recognizing the West Iron County Public
Schools Earning Academic State Championship. (They ranked
42nd among 560 public and charter schools in Michigan.) On
Voice Vote, the motion carried."


Your humble correspondent had written about this "award"
recently, and subsequently submitted the following letter to the
editor of the Iron County Reporter that the paper published in
their February 27, 2013 issue: But of course, the Iron County
Board appears to be politically driven while handicapped by a
corresponding tunnel vision.

========

"I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but the recently reported
award to West Iron School District (WI) for achievement needs
a reality check. The schools achieved better scores than the state
average in only three of seven measured academic categories
leaving sorely needed improvement. The school district as a
whole is behind most of the state in academic achievement.

Graduation rate: state-76 percent, West Iron -84 percent
(not an academic measurement)

College readiness (ACT proficiency): state-17 percent,
West Iron -14 percent

4th grade math: state-91 percent, West Iron-93.5 percent

8th grade math: state-78 percent, West Iron-63.5 percent

4th grade reading: state-84 percent, West Iron-88.7 percent

8th grade reading: state-82 percent, West Iron-69.8 percent

4th grade writing: state-47 percent, West Iron-69.8 percent

8th grade science: state-78 percent, West Iron-63.5 percent

I agree that the fourth grade deserves commendation, but the rest
of the faculty and students need a substantial nudge to improve
rather than a pat on the back for achievement they have not
earned. We really need to keep politics out of the children’s
education."

======

As a nonpartisan publication we don't expect the county board
to pay attention to us. It is far more important that the electorate
become more aware of the serial ineptness of our elected officials.
The February 6, 2013, issue of the Iron County Reporter published
an opinion letter from Jeremy Jones entitled "The Price of Apathy."


Jeremy wrote: "Personal conviction, history has proved; has time
and again produced tyrants, maniacal and bent on the personal
preposition of selfishness; simply because the populace they have
sworn to protect, and serve, have been silent."

Without the conscience of the populace asserting itself, our
elected officials (I refuse to call them leaders) run off half-cocked
following one another instead of looking after the interests of the
electorate.


There seems to be an almost universal sense in the US that it is
more important to make failures feel better about themselves than
it is to encourage improvement. Many of us did not grow up in
that sort of world and seriously disagree with such sentiments.

One of my friends in Illionis introduced me to a more appropriate
concept some years ago that belongs to the genre I find appealing
as did all generations before me.


"Until the pain of change is less than the 
pain of same, change will not happen."


As publisher and editor in chief of this little news publication, I am
going to adapt that as our banner and hope that more folks in Iron

County Michigan will embrace it as their own.


When you read something in a newspaper, on the internet, or hear
it someplace, it is not safe to believe it unless you verify its
authenticity. This article clearly demonstrates that proposition.

Bill Vajk