“Bellows Falls Union High School Principal Kelly O’Ryan told the school’s budget committee this week that seven freshmen out of a classroom of 14 students were reading at a first-grade or elementary school level.”

It’s not that only half of the high school students can read to grade level. It’s that half of them can only read to a first-grade level.

Also please note that this academic warning was raised by the school principal at a BFUHS ‘budget’ meeting. In other words, it’s a precursor to justify Gov. Scott’s recent warning that the State education budget, which is already at a $23,856 per student cost, will increase 18.5% for next year and equal $28,270 per student.

“BFUHS Director Deborah Wright of Rockingham said the news from O’Ryan about the reading levels was “very upsetting” and the first time the school board had heard about lagging reading scores.”

Either school board member Wright can’t read either, or she’s lying.

“Apparently, there’s a lot we don’t know,” said Wright.

She said she had questions on whether those seven freshmen with the low reading abilities came from the local schools or somewhere else.

Wright and Terry said the low reading scores come at a pivotal time in negotiations, as the unionized teachers have asked for what was termed “a substantial increase.”

If this dystopia isn’t halted now, the only remedy will be a major socio-economic disaster… sooner rather than later.

The post Half of This Freshman High School Class … is Reading at a First Grade Level appeared first on Granite Grok.

This is submitted without comment for your consideration, observation, and discussion. A rare thing. A young traditional woman in a non-traditional age. Is this an outlier or a sign of a revival?

Language warning (she drops one f-bomb),

Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/qNDvmuhLBh

— Travis (@Travis_in_Flint) December 3, 2023

The post Your Thoughts – A Traditional Woman in a Non-Traditional Age. appeared first on Granite Grok.

Joe Manchin has represented West Virginia in the U.S. Senate since 2010, but he will not be seeking another term. Before going to Washington, Manchin served the Mountain State as Governor and Secretary of State. Manchin has been the lone Democrat at the state or federal level in West Virginia, and he sees the future fading for his home state as the Biden Administration works feverishly to shut down the number two industry in his state. He is stepping down from Congress but may challenge President Biden in 2024 as a third-party candidate. He has not announced yet, but all indicators point to him running for the White House.

Coal Mining is the number two West Virginia industry, generating over $7 Billion annually, and second only to the Healthcare industry, which generates $11 Billion. Joe Biden is hell-bent on eliminating coal mining and coal-generated electric plants. Biden’s climate czar, John Kerry, announced this week that the United States is committed to ceasing to build coal electric plants and closing all coal mines by 2035. Nearly one in ten people in West Virginia now or have worked in the coal industry.

John Kerry was in Dubai when he made this dire announcement for the coal industry. Kerry was in Dubai attending a meeting of the Powering Past Coal Alliance, which is a collection of 57 committed to destroying fossil fuels to be replaced by solar panels and windmills. John Kerry has no official position in the Government but yields tremendous power in the Biden Administration’s effort to destroy America. China, a favorite country of Biden and Kerry, is not a member of this Alliance, and they are going in the other direction with Coal. China is mining and buying Coal for their coal-powered electric plants, and they put a new coal plant online every two weeks. We can be confident this topic was not discussed at the recent Summit in San Francisco with Xi Jinping. Kerry sat at that Summit table, but for what purpose?

Manchin has been at odds with Biden since Joe was sworn in as Manchin saw what Biden intended for West Virginia. Biden deceived Manchin when the President made concessions regarding Coal in exchange for Manchin’s support for the Inflation Reduction Act. Manchin knew quickly after he voted in favor of the bill that Biden had, for sake of a better word, screwed him. Manchin has been able to keep his seat in a very Red state, and Trump won in 2020 by 40 plus points. He knows that the people of West Virginia will never vote for his re-election, and it is time to end his twenty-five-year career representing the Mountaineers.

West Virginia is not alone in watching Biden harm their economy and future. Wyoming, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Kentucky are also heavily invested in Coal. Biden loves to tout his record of job creation, which we all know is exaggerated by the epidemic years, but what he is doing to kill jobs in coal mining, oil drilling, petroleum, auto manufacturing, and auto sales/service will be his legacy. Manchin is not going to go down with the ship. He is not a young man at 76 but still sees a future in Washington and knows that a third-party run will spell doom to a Biden re-election. I think he sees that as sweet revenge.

The post Joe Manchin And Dark Days For West Virginia appeared first on Granite Grok.