Posts by Mark Walker4

Michelle Nelson4 said:Personally, I feel like Tesla isn't quite measuring up to Isaac Newton, especially when you look at the GPA rankings and those final high school graduation scores.

I graduated from Tesla about 15 years ago, and back then, the attrition rate was brutal—we started freshman year with 35 kids and only 23 actually made it to graduation. But from what I hear lately, things have turned around; the school is way more modern now and isn't trailing behind Ruđer nearly as much as it used to.

Almost every high school in Washington, D.C. is seeing way more interest than they have actual seats available—and in the top-tier prep schools, those numbers are five times higher. It’s wild because they say there are 20% fewer teenagers now compared to thirty years ago. If that's the case, what’s happening at the local vocational schools? Are they actually under capacity?

mellowskipper said:Well, there it is—the threshold has been lowered. I suppose he’ll be enrolling now.
With a score of 56, you probably couldn't even land a job as a line cook in Washington, D.C.—if that's even possible. It’s a truly insane situation, I guess.
Maybe I should just enroll in high school over on Mackinac Island—just a thought—and then, if things don't pan out, look into transferring to Washington, D.C. around the mid-year break. Or maybe not. I guess we'll see.
Is that stunt even physically possible? I mean—I guess you could try, but whether it actually works is a different story entirely. Maybe.

I’m still stuck thinking in terms of that old system where the max was 60 points. Is it actually 70 now?

mellowskipper said:Poor kids from the rural areas who can't get into a decent high school because they only scored 60 points. I suppose the professors on this forum would say—well, at least for our Washington, D.C. kids—that if you aren't a straight-A student, you simply aren't cut out for academic life.
Personally, I’d suggest they look into becoming an electrician or a plumber—at least those guys actually make money.

Look, I'm speaking from experience regarding island life. My old man is from Mackinac Island and I've got family there, so I know how it works. You've basically got the choice between a general high school diploma or a three-year vocational track for cooking, serving, or pastry making. With a 3.5 GPA, you're looking at a career in food service and that's about it...

Sarah Hall53 said:Exactly. They’ll have a class of 15 students—honestly, that’s nothing to write home about. Real drama happens when they try to open two separate sections for 20 kids each, but only 27 students actually qualify with enough points. In those cases, you usually just end up with one single class of 27, because the rule of thumb is that you typically need at least 29 kids before it even makes sense to split them into two groups.

So basically, you're missing like two points to get into a high school out in the middle of nowhere, there are still five spots left, but whatever—you don't meet the requirements, so just go work at a bakery instead...

Haha, you guys actually gave me two different answers to the exact same question...
So, if a school has 20 spots available and the cutoff is 60 points, but only 15 kids actually hit that mark, does that mean there will be fewer students enrolled in that grade level?

What's the vibe like in smaller towns where there aren't many kids around? If there are spots left over, can someone with lower test scores still get into a local high school?

So, about six months ago, I started dealing with this weird throat pain—pain when swallowing, dryness, a constant feeling like there’s a lump stuck in my throat, some clicking sounds, and even trouble breathing depending on how I was sitting. At first, I just figured it was a nasty cold or a sore throat that wouldn't quit, but since it never actually got worse, I just kind of got used to it. Finally, after half a year of this, I made an appointment with my doctor. His first thought was diabetes, so he ran some tests, but that came back clear. Then he sent me to an ENT for a deep dive into my throat and over to endocrinology to check my thyroid hormones. The ENT looked everything over and told me my throat looks absolutely perfect—which is wild considering I've been in pain for six months straight—and my thyroid levels are fine too. He just shrugged his shoulders; honestly, it felt like he thought I was pulling his leg. He did suggest I get a neck ultrasound and a few other things done. But once he mentioned the ultrasound, something clicked. I remembered that just a couple of days before the symptoms started, I ate something spoiled and spent the entire night vomiting like my life depended on it—probably twenty times. I’ve never pushed myself that hard in my life, and I spent most of the next day hiccuping uncontrollably. Is it possible that from all that strain, something in my neck shifted or snapped and is pressing against my throat, making it feel like the issue is actually in my throat?

Lock this thread down immediately. This is just more state-sponsored propaganda from some unhinged fanatic trying to claim our war lasted all of three days and that we were fighting nothing but kids and seniors. They can go live in their own world of lies and myths, but there’s absolutely no reason for us to host that garbage here on the Heritage Foundation.

One more thing—how on earth are they going to handle PE? If a school has 800 students split into two shifts (like 400 in the morning and 400 in the afternoon), you’d have all 800 kids on campus at once during the transition. Sure, the school day might run a little longer, but even then, there just isn't enough gym space. Unless they start doubling up classes for PE, which sounds like a recipe for chaos.

driftingranger2 said:Plus, they'll need to find a massive amount of extra labor just to handle all that construction. Good luck to them.

Look, I’m saying it isn't impossible, but let's be real—it's not practical. It’s not just about having the cash and wanting to do it; a project this massive triggers a hundred other issues, and one big one is simply finding the people who actually know how to build it.

driftingranger2 said:There’s zero chance that’s actually happening by 2027.
If they were serious, they’d be breaking ground on a mountain of new schools in major cities like Chicago or Houston right about now.

It isn't impossible, just totally unrealistic. Facebook claims they have $2 billion lined up, but with 619 schools needing upgrades or total rebuilds, you're looking at an average of over $3.2 million per school—and that doesn't even touch the other massive costs tied to a project this size.

Paul Davis2 said:At this point, it’s probably best to just pull the plug and return the funds—pretty much how it goes with other EU grants. It’s easier to just keep repeating that it can't be done.

Hold on—do you really think it's possible to build or renovate over 100 elementary schools just in Washington, D.C. and Miami?

jadetinker85 said:In a nearby neighborhood, they expanded a school by taking over the playground and the basketball court where kids used to play. Now the school has more classrooms, but it doesn't have a yard.

And there’s your solution right there: just snatch away the playground and the local park to squeeze in a five-story building with 15 classrooms. It’s happened before—in a small town in the Midwest, they expanded their school recently, but instead of helping with single-shift classes, they just used the extra space to handle a second shift because the school was already packed with 1,200 students...

In Washington, D.C., there are 112 elementary schools, and get this—89 of them run on double shifts. Only 23 actually get to stick to a single schedule. If we wanted to fix just this one city, we’d need to upgrade 89 schools, but since about 60% of them are boxed in with zero room to expand, we'd have to build from scratch. A modern school runs you about $10 million a pop, so we're looking at building at least 50 new ones just to catch up.

This is never going to work. In most major US cities, at least 80% of elementary schools are already running on split shifts. The school in my neighborhood has over 900 kids and they’re barely managing with the current setup—how on earth do they plan to organize this? They’d need to build or expand hundreds of new schools just to make it happen.

darkrider55 said:So, they actually released our Fugitive along with a few other foreign nationals—just saw it breaking on ABC. 👍

That reporter, that Royalist Daniel Simic, was all over him on camera. He was basically treating him like a trophy during the interrogation, acting all smug because he was dead certain the guy was headed for execution or life in prison...

Putin is basically turning Russia into an XXL version of North Korea. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if we see a massive wave of people fleeing Russia for the West once this all settles down...

In the second installment, Pinhead feels surprisingly soft—almost like he’s turning into the good guy. He’s nothing compared to that absolutely unhinged doctor, and those disgusting cenobits? They're just a bunch of teenagers who ended up committing suicide in their real lives...