Thank you!! I wish I knew this ages ago

Woah, did not know, thanks. Is it a one time thing or age limited?

Sorry, it’s free with what?

This is a pretty good point. So there are different levels of literacy I’ve noticed. Sometimes, I’ve seen it referred to as just broadly unable to read and/or write a simple, short sentence while I’ve also seen it specifically clarified as below a specific grade level. There are also more official levels that can be read about more and you can read more about what each level is defined at. I remember coming across a pdf a while ago that broke up what each state’s literacy rate by each level was. Alabama was still ranked very low.

I imagine to get a rough estimate, you could say that you should try to account for immigrants by checking the proportion of illiterate people per population of both state and then also state minus immigrant population to see both. However, it doesn’t truly give us a very good idea because inaccurate immigrant count might lead to inaccuracies in known population and because I don’t know if it’s fair to says majority of all immigrants can’t read or write a simple sentence in English. There are lots of citizens who are immigrants and a fair amount of the citizenship test involves being able to read and study beforehand for example.

Edited a word.

Yep! Well aware. I didn’t say Alabama has the lowest literacy rate. I actually specifically stated they’re bottom 10 or bottom 7.

I never said it’s one or the other. I was talking about Alabama versus jersey specifically because that is what’s in the charts. Context.

Edit: also, weird to say I’m imagining that parts of Alabama aren’t literally known for that and it’s documented that they have low literacy rates. They’re in bottom 10 if not bottom 7 if I remember correctly. This is easily verifiable lmao.

I agree it’s expensive but also, you couldn’t pay me to live in some parts of Alabama. Places where my partner (whose family is originally from down there) says is such a mess, it looks like a third world country. If I had to raise a family somewhere, I’d pay more to live somewhere where there aren’t more people on meth than people who are literate. You get what you pay for.

The rent is too high and the place is pretty empty usually when I go in

It would be so cool to trap neuter and release them but honestly I haven’t had the time to look that up. I feel like I’ve seen so many pregnant ones though

That time they found a dead body in the Lincoln park pond is my first thought but if you go to the back part of the park where the big football field is, there’s a parking lot next to it before you get to the bridge. Next to the parking lot is a fenced in area with lots of cats that are cool to just sit and watch.

The worst is when they swerve around you fast without looking and almost hit those same pedestrians or cyclists. Like damn, I hope the five seconds that saved you was worth it.

I wish there were more resources for special education, both for the teachers and the students. A long time family friend taught for about 35 years and she’s still in the loop with the education board because she has a lot of friends and families in education in JC still. She tells me a lot about lack of resources and lack of promotional awareness for the resources that are available which I’m Ake it hard for parents. This is bigger than just JC, I’m sure all places have similar issues but I wish JC could tackle it better.

I think the majority consensus is that throwing money at the schools won’t fix it or make it better necessarily. A lot of us want transparency on how the budget is being used. I don’t mind paying up for taxes as long as it’s going towards something productive and not just into the pockets of people who do nothing for the schools. I have lots of friends and family who’ve worked in the JCPS system and they all say they haven’t seen any signs of the budget being invested in the children.

To;dr: I just want transparency on how this budget is being spent. A breakdown would be cool and no, I’m not against taxes. I’m against random idiots pocketing large salaries for contributing nothing while teachers and children suffer in inadequate classrooms.

Goddamn, that sucks. Hope he went home okay.

Was that the thing that happened Halloween night? I work next door and was wondering what happened.

Any time I go anywhere in NJ and say I’m from JC, they say, “oh I feel sorry for you.” Ugh

Probably because we came real close to electing a governor who would have taken it away. We can’t be complacent about this.