We give thanks to God before our meals. We start all of our public and private meetings asking God for wisdom and guidance. Yet we won't allow God into our schools. Where do our children learn good from bad and right from wrong; all the things that shape their lives for the future. They say that 62 percent of Americans think it is okay to give out birth control devices in schools and instructions on how to use them. God would not approve, so we don't let him into our schools. We allow subjects to be taught from books that we would not allow in our homes. But a Bible is not one of the books that is used to teach our children, good from bad. ...more

November 25, 2007

The question might sound a little like "Guess who's buried in Grant's tomb?" But really, how long should it take to get a four-year college degree? ...more

November 21, 2007

The debate this fall over how to bankroll Florida's public universities has dealt mostly with raising tuition and new fees. But universities also got a little-noticed new source of money meant to boost their abysmally low graduation rates. ...more

November 5, 2007

The Highlands County School District should be thankful that none of its schools have ended up on a dubious federal list of "drop out factories," schools where no more than 60 percent of the students who start as freshmen make it to their senior year. But that's no cause to celebrate. Even though the dropout rate at Highlands' schools is nowhere as bad as the 150 state schools gracing the list, a greater percentage of students are dropping out of high school in Highlands. ...more

November 5, 2007

SEBRING — Florida ranked second in the nation with 51.1 percent of its public high schools showing excessive dropout rates, but no schools in Highlands or surrounding counties made the list of "Dropout Factories." The state's public high schools have some of the worst student retention rates in the country, with half qualifying as "Dropout Factories," four times the national average, according to a new analysis of U.S. Education Department data conducted by Johns Hopkins University. The term dropout factory, coined by Hopkins researcher Bob Balfanz, describes schools where no more than 60 percent of the students who start as freshmen make it to their senior year. ...more

November 3, 2007

Florida is joining 18 other public college systems nationwide in a plan aimed at graduating more low-income and minority students from its public universities. ...more

November 1, 2007

More than 50 Highlands County students were issued suspensions of their driver's licenses last school year for having an excessive number of unexcused absences. ...more

September 13, 2007