Is the GOP DOA?

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/04/party-of-nobody.html

It's an interesting question regarding what is happening to the Republican Party and whether or not they will climb out of their current difficulties or be replaced with a different conservative political entity.  [I was a Republican my entire life until a year or so ago.  I decided to switch party affiliations to vote for Barack Obama in the '08 Connecticut primary.]

I ask this out of genuine curiosity - not in any way to celebrate or bemoan this turn of events.  Just like Specter's party change, it would be a big turn of events in all things political.

For instance, is this the path to renewal or a death rattle?

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/04/29/gop-set-to-launch-rebranding-effort/

Early Childhood Education

http://northhaven.ctcitizens.com/story/community-conversation-zooms-early-childhood-education

Maybe this means that cutting all day Kindergarten in this or any budget is off the table in North Haven . . . ?

Raise the Drop Out Age?!

http://nhregister.com/articles/2009/04/30/news/doc49f9da2e8648d307766500.txt

If you don't work in or around a high school, this might sound like a good idea.  Keep the kids in school and they just might learn something.

This is, in fact, a TERRIBLE idea.  There is a small number of students who are little other than distractions and even dangers in the halls of a high school.  They are either completely disrespectful and consciously disruptive of the learning process or they engage in behavior that endangers other students either directly or through negative influence.  

Oftentimes, the only way to get these students back into the learning process is to allow them to leave it, discover the difficulties that creates, and then come back.

Raising the age to 18 only forces schools to keep students longer who are likely only detrimental to what the school is achieving with the rest of the student population.  Call your representatives.  This might be good politics, but it is a lousy practical solution to the challenge of uncooperative students.

Two More Possible Infections

http://nhregister.com/articles/2009/04/30/news/doc49f9d76fc265b067049568.txt

Two more suspected cases of swine flu in CT brings the total possible cases here to five.