I brought a Georgia finish carpenter here to work on the Captain Kain house on Oak Street recently. He’d followed construction and had been on the Gulf Coast and in New Orleans since Katrina. Weary of laboring under National Guard protection almost four years after the storm, he was thrilled to come to Vicksburg.

Last Thursday, though, about 3 p.m., he was almost beaten to death near the corner of Speed and Oak streets by three men who robbed him.

The beating was so severe it ruptured his spleen, requiring emergency surgery. The thugs netted $17.

This is all I have to say about it at present, except I now better understand what I thought was a silly concept of replicating the old homes of Vicksburg in a new subdivision.

Stacey Douglas

Vicksburg

Boat missed on tea parties

When The Vicksburg Post arrived on April 16, I was expecting to see a little better coverage of all the “tea parties” that were taking place in dozens of cities and every state in the United States. I believe there were five or six in Mississippi.

I found a rather small coverage on the third or fourth page and, as expected, it was played down as not too important. Kudzu got much better coverage, write-up and a photo, all on the front page, no less.

I believe the final word on it is there were over 700,000 involved in the movement nationwide, but I guess someone at the Post felt kudzu was more important. Like I have said before, there is a dead snake in the creek.

If it were not for the Fox News Channel, we would never get any of the news that most would believe to be important.

R.G. Hollowell

Vicksburg

New yardstick for schools

When the Mississippi Board of Education passed the new accountability rating system at its meeting, members made a tremendous commitment to the children of our state.

For too long, Mississippi has ranked at or near the bottom on education, per-capita income, health and quality of life comparisons among states. The reasons that Mississippi consistently appears near the bottom of these lists are intertwined. Improving all of them begins with improving education. The board made a bold step forward when it approved the most stringent rating system in our state’s history.

For years, communities have been perplexed when their schools received the highest ranking possible in the state, but the state as a whole still ranked near the bottom when compared to student performance in other states. If we believe, as the board clearly does, that Mississippi’s children can perform as well as any children in the nation, then our standards should be just as high as theirs. With the new system in place, our standards are on par with standards in other states. When schools fall into the highest category, Star Schools, communities will know that those schools are not just outstanding in Mississippi. They would be considered outstanding if they were placed in Massachusetts, California or New York. When schools fall in the second-highest category, High Performing, communities will know that their schools are performing at the national average. With the new system, there is greater transparency in school, district and state performance than there has ever been.

The board has set a very bold goal of reaching the national average on national assessments by 2013. This new rating system is a bold step forward in reaching that goal. Reaching that goal will bring our state much closer to moving up on all of the other lists mentioned before: health, per capita income and quality of life.

The board has taken a dramatic step forward and its members are asking teachers, principals, superintendents, local school board members, students and parents to go boldly with them. It will not be easy. The curriculum and assessments are more rigorous than they have ever been. Although, our students will be performing at a much higher level than before, the results may, at first glance, seem to decline.

When the ratings under the Level 1 (Low-Performing) to Level 5 (Superior-Performing) system were last released in 2007, approximately 25 percent of our schools fell into the highest category. We are not likely to see 25 percent of our schools named Star Schools. However, Superior-Performing under the previous system did not equate to performing well above the national average as the Star School rating does. As a state, we must stand behind our schools and give them the support they need as they move through this transition and work to prepare our students to compete for college and career opportunities with students from other states and countries.

Even more than state support, our schools need local support. Communities that have excellent schools are the ones that demand excellence and provide the support necessary to achieve excellence. Teachers and school leaders cannot rise to the new expectations alone. Business and community leaders must join hands with the schools to achieve excellence.

Finally, our children and their parents must join with the schools and raise their own expectations of themselves and their capabilities. In too many cases, children are not given the gift of high expectations and therefore never reach their full potential. Each child has special gifts, talents and abilities and should be expected to use these to the fullest to help themselves and their classmates, families and communities. I hope that all children and parents will believe in themselves enough to work their very hardest and make whatever sacrifice is necessary to succeed. Working together, we can achieve excellence and move Mississippi forward.

Hank M. Bounds

Superintendent of education

Jackson