VOL 2 No. 36
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FORT BEND FAIR. BALANCED. INFORMATIVE. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2009
P. O.BOX 623, SUGAR LAND, TX 77487-0623
Community gears up to tackle school dropouts
Meadows Place Mayor Charles Jessup, left, Sugar Land Mayor Jimmy Thompson and Missouri City Mayor Allen Owen put their sneakers on to symbolically show their readiness for the Sept. 12 Dropout Recovery Walk.
By SESHADRI KUMAR The Dropout Recovery Walk 2009-2010 will take place Saturday, Sept. 12 from 8 a.m. to noon. The walk is a county-wide effort by school districts in Fort Bend County and will benefit high School students who have dropped out of school or who are likely to dropout due to varying circumstances. The volunteers will make home visits to select students and provide them with information on re-enrolling in school and completing high school graduation. Area school districts have trained volunteers who will be able to target the potential dropouts in their homes and the school districts have a list of the students who have dropped out. Some volunteers will make phone calls instead of walking door-to-door.
Participating volunteers represent a cross-section of the community, including businesses, nonprofits, local government and schools. Volunteers will travel in teams to deliver the message about the value of earning a high school diploma. The Dropout Recovery Walk is being observed on the same day in the greater Houston area school district. Stafford MSD has been participating in the walk for the last two years and Lamar CISD for the second year. Fort Bend ISD is joining the walk for the first time this year. Achieve Fort Bend County is a new not for profit agency that is coordinating this year’s dropout recovery walk. Lucia Street, president of Achieve FortBend, told a gathering of community members last week that Achieve FortBend is a county wide initiative committed to dropout prevention and recovery. Achieve FortBend is a diverse group of business, community and education leaders whose focus is to provide resources to reduce dropout rates and provide opportunities for those without high school diplomas. Missouri City Mayor Allen Owen, who is the current chairman of the Council of Mayors and City Councils, representing 18 cities in the county, said all mayors are concerned about dropout and truancy which contribute to an increase in crime. In the Missouri City Mu-
nicipal Court, for example, he saw 800 truancy cases in one month and the fine for each case is $240. Owen said he learned from the Mayor’s youth council members that 16 years ago their concerns were drugs, teenage sex and violence. Today their concerns are truly eduction, lack of good teachers and some are concerned about the lack of adequate homework, Owen said. Highlighting the need for preventing school dropout the mayors’ council adopted a resolution in support of the Dropout Recovery Walk. In Texas 119,000 students drop out annually resulting in a loss of $377 million, the resolution said. One out of every three students in Texas from the freshman class leaves school prior to graduation without a high school diploma. Every nine seconds in America a student becomes a dropout and two-thirds of inmates in state prisons are dropouts, according to facts gathered by Achieve Fort Bend. High school dropouts are 72 percent more likely to be unemployed compared to graduates. Achieve Fort Bend has set up several task forces to establish different initiatives for achieving the goals, Street said while accepting the resolution. For more information, visit www.achievefortbend.com or call 281-340-1991.
A teaching moment Lucia Street, left, receives a resolution in support of Achieve Fort Bend’s initiatives to prevent school dropouts from Mayor Allen Owen, who chairs the Council of Mayors and City Councils in Fort Bend County.
The White House posted President Barack Obama’s remarks on its web site on Monday. He was scheduled to deliver the talk Stafford Municipal School District Superintendent H.D. from a school in suburban Arlington, Va. Tuesday. Obama tells the students that all the work of parents, educaChambers, left, and Stafford Mayor Leonard Scarcella lend tors and others won’t matter “unless you show up for those their support to the Dropout Recovery Walk. schools, pay attention to those teachers.” “What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country,” Obama says. “What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation 3200, which ran into a few thou- are there enough doctors to can meet our greatest challenges in the future.” Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s department has taken sand pages, Dr. Crumb said treat them? Why then can’t insurance heat for proposed lesson plans distributed to accompany the the current course of healthcare reform has to be stopped. companies approve payments speech, besides the criticism from a section of parents. On Sunday, the secretary acknowledged that a section about “Our medical system is very for less expensive, alternative good. Dismantling the current medicine instead of sticking writing to the president on how students can help him meet education goals was poorly worded. It has been changed. system to an unknown system to the traditional medicine? “We just clarified that to say write a letter about your own Olson in his remarks outis not the best way,” Crumb lined three major objections goals and what you’re going to do to achieve those goals,” said. In any healthcare system, to the current helathcare re- Duncan said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” In Fort Bend ISD, the decision to show President Barack the private sector needs to be form proposals. It increases the debt by $1.5 Obama’s Back-to-School Message was a campus-based deciinvolved, he said. Dr. Parr said the current trillion, per low estimates, sion. The school administration sent a communication to all camsystem needs some tweak- will increase taxes on small ing, but it does not need to be businesses and introduce a pus principals on Sept. 2 stating that they should work with public option, which would their Campus-Based Leadership Teams to determine the best thrown out. Questions from the audi- eliminate competition and end decision for their campus. For those campuses that choose to show the President’s mesprivate sector insurance. ence included: Olson said tort reform sage, they have been encouraged to work though their Social Where will the poor go for would go a long way in bring- Studies department/classes. treatment? However, as Fort Bend ISD has done in the past, if any parWhy can’t health insurance ing down the healthcare costs. companies which make huge He cited Texas as a model. ents or students request to be excused from viewing the mesDefensive medication or sage, the campus honored this request and provided an opprofits reduce the premium? Why is the healthcare cost treatments given out of fear portunity for those students to engage in another constructive of lawsuits cost $214 billion activity on the campus during the broadcast. soaring? A parent letter was provided to all secondary principals to How would those with pre- a year. Over a quarter of the existing conditions get afford- tests, referrals and consulta- send home with students that would allow a parent to opt-out of tions are made out of fear of having their student view the message. Elementary campuses able insurance? sent the letter with an opt-in, or opt-out, option. Why is there such a “waste” lawsuits. Within the past 24 hours, the district has received numerous The health insurance should in Medicare? If 50 million more unin- be made portable across state calls and emails from parents expressing their opinion about sured are added to the system, See PANEL, Page 3 the President’s address. See SPEECH, Page 4
Panel debates role of government in healthcare By SESHADRI KUMAR The message was loud and clear, but the crowd was not chaotic. Everybody wanted some change, but all of them wanted to ‘keep’ what they know instead of buying into the ‘unknown’ aspects of ‘healthcare reform’ as touted by Congress in H.R. 3200. There was no “Obama bashing” or placards displaying Nazi symbols and antiObama slogans. Unlike the other town hall meetings held by elected representatives, this one, on Sept. 1, was hosted by Lifetime Fitness and Houston Association of Health Underwriters, with the support of some ‘grass root conservative community organizers.’ The basketball court inside the Lifetime Fitness in Sugar Land was the venue as about 500 people attended the forum. On one side were medical doctors and on the other sat representatives of the medical
insurance industry. In between was U.S. Rep. Pete Olson, Republican representing Dist. 22. No representatives from the Democrats attended. The medical panel included Dr. John Pozzi, Dr. Charles Crumb, Dr. Greg Howard, Dr. Kulvinder Bajwa, Dr. Thomas Parr, Joannie Parr, a CPA and Bruce Gingrich, owner of Lifecheck Drug, a pharmacy chain. The health underwriters included Lonnie Klene, president Klene and Bratsakis, Rand Wall, president, Lone Star Health Plans, Jay Donnella, independent healthcare consultant, Ken Janda, president, Community Health Choice, and Jo Middleton, Colonial Life. Mike Gibson and his wife Tina, both local Republican activists, helped in organizing the forum. Former Sugar Land Mayor Dean Hrbacek moderated the discussion. Citing the stack of H.R.
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