Links and Minifeatures 05 15 Monday (late)

Carnivals:



RINO Sightings Recommended: Politburo Diktat (debunking Intelligent Design) Strata-Sphere (surveillance programs and 9/11)



Carnival of Personal Finance

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Judge grants preliminary injunction against high school exit exam

The ruling could affect 47,000 seniors, about 11 percent of the class of 2006, who have yet to pass both the English and math sections of the exam.

(snip)

"They have not offered any evidence that would support that the reason why they have not yet passed the (California High School Exit Exam) is because of some failure by the state," the state lawyers wrote. "To the contrary, the reason why these students have not yet passed the CAHSEE is due to their lack of English skills, as established by their own admissions."

Let's see. The can't pass an English test and claim they should graduate anyway because they have poor english skills?



The state doesn't come off any better by saying, in effect, "these kids had a wonderful education but couldn't pass the test because they had poor english skills." Question: What were the schools supposed to be doing for these people six and a half hours a day for twelve or thirteen years? If proficiency in English wasn't a major part of it, we need to abolish every such school district.



A pox upon both their houses. The alleged students for sabotaging any value that diploma may have had for others. The alleged schools for failing to teach them one of the major tools for prospering in the United States.



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Sorry about not having any new articles for a few days. My wife and I had a discussion about the time (and money for hosting) that I've been spending here, so expect to see some changes soon.



I wrote two articles today, and they're set to go tomorrow and Wednesday. Tuesday's subject is inducements to use a particular lender for a purchase, Wednesday's goes over some refinancing math as to whether or not it pays off. I have at least two more articles incubating on the front burner (appraisal fraud and more on the limitations of believing the initial paperwork), that I hope to post by Saturday at the latest.



I'm also going to try to do more Links and Minifeatures this week than last. Getting off to a bad start, I know.