Now that the professional cheerleaders (Mayor, Chamber President, Economic Development) have told us how great it will be to have a mega packing plant in the back yard let’s take a look at just one of many side effects. These are meat packing plant jobs, not IBM computer programmers relocating. If you won’t admit packing plants have social problems connected to them you are lying to yourself and more importantly to us.
A quick look at the school proficiency standard rankings reveals a fact based narrative so don’t bother calling the messenger a racist/ bigot. I’m using the 65% standard most states use and not the phony 41% used in Iowa because students are in a national job market, not state. It’s easy to look good when you set the bar lower than other states.
FACTS & FIGURES:
1st column is % of students meeting reading proficiency
2nd column is % of students meeting math proficiency
3rd column is % of limited English proficient students of total enrollment
4th column is % of students who qualify for free or reduced price lunches
Mason City: 47.06 – 44.52 – 0.9% – 55%
Clear Lake: 57.36 – 52.45 – 0.1% – 22.9%
W Hancock: 53.37 – 59.82 – 7.4% – 41.5%
Algona: 53.55 – 49.32 – 0.2% – 33.9%
Forest City: 53.97 – 53.81 – 0.2% – 38.1%
Osage: 49.81 – 60.38 – 0.3% – 29.5%
Now the scores of schools home to current mega plants:
Columbus: 28.39 – 21.61 – 28.0% – 73.9%
Denison: 39.75 – 42.11 – 53.2% – 71.9%
Marshalltown: 34.63 – 35.47 – 37.6% – 69.8%
Ottumwa: 36.19 – 42.47 – 10.5% – 54.3%
Perry: 39.37 – 38.32 – 20.4% – 76%
Postville: 24.92 – 38.32 – 32.9% – 99.7% (not a typo)
Storm Lake: 35.00 – 32.70 – 39.5% – 74%
Waterloo: 35.32 – 31.94 – 8.6% – 69.5%
So tell me professional cheerleaders what’s your plan on keeping Mason City schools from the failing list? If you have the answer share it with the above districts who rank as some of the worst in Iowa, please, for the children. Once you put a school district somewhere between Columbus and Waterloo, forget about those IBM programmers. IBMers won’t put their children in a distressed school.
It’s easy to be politically correct when using other people’s money and not your kids in a lousy school.
Source: Iowa Dept. of Education & Iowalive.net
http://www.iowalive.net/howandwhyiowagotalowproficiencystandard.htm
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Submitted to NIT by JB Johnson, a North Iowa resident.
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NOTE:
DR. ANITA MICICH, SUPERINTENDENT OF MASON CITY SCHOOLS, SPOKE IN FAVOR OF THE PORK PROCESSING PLANT AT CITY COUNCIL’s FIRST READING FOR THE PROJECT AT A SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING CALLED ON MARCH 22, 2016:
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I lived in Storm Lake before IBP came to town. Moved away right before they came in. When I went back, I didn’t even recognize the place.
A once beautiful community is now a dump. Run down rental housing, cheap bars, crime, poor performing schools, used car lots on every corner, payday loan joints,pawn shops, just a real dump.
Very sad. Mason City is heading in the same direction.
You are correct. Storm Lake is a perfect example of what will happen to Mason City If this thing goes through. I can remember when Storm Lake was a beautiful town, Great tourism and offered a lot to its citizens.. I have friends that live there and they say the public school system has more non english-speaking students and students that speak English. The property value of their home has dropped every year for the last five years because of the declined of quality of life in that town.
You just described MC right now.
OMG You people would bitch if it was gold plated hogs who shit diamonds. Get a grip. No company is ever going to come here in the future if this fails to go through.
Glad you want a business here in north Iowa that will lower the quality of life and the property value of your house. Best thing is the mayor gets to make the decisions for all of us.
Watch the school board video. Appears the board and Staff are not on the same page. Well Anita is a great actress. I will give her that.
Of course she is in favor of the pork plant. They get paid extra for every additional child. Also, the more taxpayers the more she can rip off the public. Eliminate her job and some of the other management and they wouldn’t need any more money.
LVS- She will be getting more money out of you and me also. We will be helping to pay the fees for free and reduced lunch, bilingual teachers and other special needs for fhe the children of the immigrant workers that are going to come and work at this plant will need. Just look at the increased cost on the school system in Storm Lake or Marshalltown. Your property taxes are going up and the school will be getting more money from us. Anita will probably even get a raise out of this deal.
“This plant is going to be a good thing for our city”….those are actually your words LVS not mine.
In my view they had this hog factory planned years ago, and they are negligent not telling the citizens about the hog factory, giving them the opportunity to sell their houses, now no one will be able to sell their house, their houses will be worthless.
Micich doesn’t even have a residence here, she has a residence in Des Moines and only rents a apartment in the area. she retires and goes back to the “stink” free des moines and could give a rats ass about mason city.
Please watch this video, Spy Drones Expose Smithfield Foods Farm Factory https://youtu.be/ayGJ1YSfDXs?list=PLWHY68pmpiSTYQpgddl7M8jJo6gKYfGC_.
@Mint-Very interesting. What do you propose that we do about it. People eat the pork so you can not stop feeding people. How do you propose that they raise the hogs. I agree it is inhumane the way they are raised today, but I worked the farms when I was young and remember the smell and mess of hogs on the old family farms. It was smaller but there were a lot of them.
Micich is a rich snob.
Dr. Micich is nothing more that a highly paid transient bureaucrat that sees nothing more than the so-called tax dollars this plant will generate so she can feather her own nest.
She will be long gone when the nasty negative effects of this plant are visited on Mason City and the surrounding area. She will be down in Florida sucking up the sun on our dime laughing all the way to the bank.
All the while, the rest us will be enjoying the expensive stinking fallout from this wonderful hog plant.
I love how Micich calls it “our community”. LOL
She doesn’t even live here.
All that glitters is not gold.
Thank you Mr. J. B. Johnson of Britt, Iowa. This is definitely a game changer. Mason City City Council had better take a step backwards before jumping off the bridge.
This is going to have some serious long term negative implications for Mason City and the surrounding area. There is more then nasty oder problems looming for the area.
Money is not everything.
This is the information that I was wanting. No longer interested in seeing this come to town.
Finally, some real facts to strongly consider! Thank you for your honest sharing of this important information.
This is very important information it shows the rest that there will be a very large expense that will have to be paid by all of us for employees of this plant to educate their children. Before we jump in lets get a real calculation of what these items will cost all of us.