Saturday, April 26, 2008

CALLING ALL AFRICAN AMERICAN LEADERS IN DALLAS

Our African American (black) community in Dallas is in a state of needed repair. In conversations with many of our leaders, we all come to the same conclusion, and that is that we need to come together and began to work on the problems in our community. There is no way that one group can have all of the answers to our problems and can lead us to our desired state. It is going to take the collective knowledge of many that have chose to remain in the inner city.

We are struggling as a community with the following issues,just to name a few:

1. Education
2. Housing
3. Business Ownership
4. Core Values
5. Incarceration

Let us show that we can be a collective body that can deal with all of the issues that are facing our community by coming together and addressing these issues one by one.

God Bless

Pete Peterson - Young and Involved

I often hear politicians say that there need to be more involvement of young people in the process and I have often said some of the young people that have been included are of the same old cloth of the one's that brought them in.

Pete Peterson has impressed me from the first day that I saw him. He is a dedicated father and husband and is working to see that his children get a good education. He leads the site based management committee for Maynard Jackson Middle School and he has spoken out against conditions at the school both physical and instructional.

THANK YOU PETE PETERSON FOR BEING THE TYPE OF YOUNG PERSON THAT THE COMMUNITY CAN FILL COMFORTABLE WITH YOUR LEADERSHIP.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Dallas Independent School District (DISD) 2008 Bond



While we are contemplating the question of voting Yes or No on the May 10, 2008 Bond Election, we should be asking ourselves very tough questions about the way our taxes are continuing to rise supporting Bond Programs for all public agencies and specifically DISD.

For DISD there are still many questions that are unanswered:

1. Why is the school district not maximizing the the use of the buildings they currently have? There are several schools that are underutilized.
2. As of this date the financial audit report has not been completed.
3, No full accounting of the 2002 bond expenditures or project c completions to the public. This bond was also 1.3 billion.
4. The attempt to educate or inform the public about the elements of the proposed bond have been Less than acceptable.
5. There are continuing report of ineffective management of internal financial systems.
6. The report that there is a shortage of 52 million dollar in the budget for teachers salaries.
7. The cost of education continues to rise for the taxpayers with little improvement in student performance. Remember a national report shows the DISD with a 44% graduation rate.

PLEASE DO NOT FORGET TO VOTE. LIVES WERE LOST FOR YOUR RIGHT TO VOTE.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Thought For The Week

Say what you mean and mean what you say.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

DISD Graduation Rate 44 percent


America's Promise Alliance, a national organization, released a report that showed seventeen of the nation's 50 largest cities had high school graduation rates that were lower than 50 percent. The report also shows that nationally about 70 percent of U.S. students graduate on time with a diploma and that more students in suburban and rural public high schools are more likely to graduate on time.

Dallas Independent School District's most recent dropout numbers show only 7 percent. There is a vast difference in the numbers and the school district only disagreed but had no explanation. They did say that they were working with Dallas Achieves on retention of students, but did not say if the direction was based on 7 percent or 44 percent dropout rate. One number is moderate and the other is at an alarm state.

Dallas ISD is always working on plans and changes, and they should be for improvement, but the results rarely seem to be adequate. Why? Why? Why?