MASON CITY – Mason City School District critic Jack McCourt said this week he’s not buying that taxes on property owners will only go up $7.45 per $100,000 of valuation and he went on to say that “kids can’t do math.”
“The top two people who run the school system don’t know how to do math, either,” Mr. McCourt said.
Watch the video:
httpv://youtu.be/CPA_8mohiwQ
If anyone considering moving to Mason City saw this rant, they would run the other direction.
LVS…Mason City has been long held back by people like yourself and Jack McCourt. Our schools are in need of people who will step up and help to make a difference. The government is doing less these days. The schools where the parents and community have stepped up are the schools that have excelled. Mason City has spoken. We are putting our kids first. If that doesn’t sit well with you there are other places for you to live. One more thing, there were flyers, signs, ads, and announcements for weeks before the election. Your “Mason City hid the election” defense simply doesn’t hold water.
@Anonymous-I was here long before you were and I’ll be here long after you are history. We will not sit by and watch you destroy our city with your spend thrift way. If students are not being taught the proper subjects and being told how the real world works you are the one at fault. Don’t try to tell me, I have seen it first hand and my nephews tell me the same thing.
Which “proper subjects” are you refering to? This just in…the world is not flat and there are more than 9 planets. Technology is a wonderful thing. You’re certainly entitled to your opinion, but if you choose to sit idle while the real world passes you by that is your choice. Try not to slow down everyone else.
@Anonymous-I know a hell of a lot more about the real world than you will ever know. I spent most of my life traveling around it. You think living here in the U.S. makes you special but believe me it doesn’t. There is a reason our kids are being out done by other country’s and it is people like you who think they know it all. Our schools are a waste the way the are being run. Throwing more and more money at the problem will not fix it and with attitudes like yours it will just get worse.
I graduated highschool (recently) without knowing how to do long division, subtraction, and multiplication. Lots of my peers also accomplished this. It would have been nice if they slowed down the pace in these math classes, but we were always told that the class moves fast so know what your doing otherwise, you’ll be lost the whole semester…boy were they right.
Why didn’t you go to your teachers and say you didn’t get it? They have tutors available, I believe, who could spend time with you explaining it. We learned that stuff in 3rd Grade. I don’t know how you could fake 9 years of school not knowing how to do it.
your right, we were taught those basics back in middle school or elementary, lots of people forgot or never really understood. I forgot how to do it because of the fact that we never used it, we always had calculators. At the high school many kids are embarrassed to go get help. I went into my teachers when I didn’t understand, and still couldn’t quite get. I eventually just gave up because I knew I would be able to pass with a lower grade and still, not know most of it.
Jack says, near the end of his rant, that all school nurses can do is put on a band aid. There are students who are diabetic, who need close monitoring. There are also students who have seizures while at school. It is not uncommon for students to bring these, as well as other medical issues with them. Mason City schools are understaffed with regard to nurses. If your child had a potentially serious medical condition would you want a medically trained professional to keep watch, or a secretary (who now can’t to his/her job, because of doing the nurse’s job). Jack’s speech writer did not think this comment through very well.
I’ve heard a lot of comments about our kids not being educated like they were in the old days. I think todays kids know a whole lot more than we did, and have had a much better education than we did. Yes, there are some who don’t do so well, but there have always been a few kids like that. No matter how much our taxes go up, I feel it will be money well spent.
@Jack, evidently they didn’t teach proper grammar when you went to school in the 1950s.
I guess it takes real nerve to go on camera and condemn the school system, when you lack some of the basic skills of grammar yourself.
I’m just throwing this out there but for all of you who are over 65, disabled, or on a fixed income you can sign up (at the court house) to have your tax’s reduced. If you qualify it can knock off $100+.
I have an example. When we lived in the southeast part of town, we had a young girl, 7th, 8th, or 9th grade, that delivered the paper. At that time they would still come to your house to collect for the monthly paper. Every month when she would come to collect, I would hand her a $20 dollar bill. She would take the 20, and with a dumbfounded look, say, how much would that be. She just couldn’t make the change in her head. I then was dumbfounded, because it was repetition, and both her parents were teachers. Now, with all the computers, calculaters and electronic equipment, Jack McCourt might be on to something…
Every generation thinks this liar things of the next generation. Once people knew the square roots and logarithms also. They could recite the great poems, the preamble, rattle off all presidents to. In today’s world the don’t need to know all that because computers do it for them. Most of us couldn’t grow a garden if our life depended on it, but once upon a time, almost everyone could. Should gets know simple math, probably, but it isn’t the end all be all.
And yet Allen points out a student who cannot function in today’s society. And will grow to an adult unable to function in society.
allen points out a student that can’t make change. But I bet that same student knows his/her way around a computer. Just because you don’t know something doesn’t mean you can’t be a contributing member of society. Who here knows how to do everything?
Little history-here’s a little history for you. The kids coming out of high school today can’t read or understand a tape measure, can’t tell time unless it is digital, can’t make change in their head, can’t read a map. They need a GPS to find their way home from school. They can’t read or do anything but print for writing. How do you expect them to get by when the power goes off. They have no training in anything other than computers. Not all kids are college material and they need basics like reading, writing and basic math. Even if they are qualified to get into college most can’t afford it. You academics need to get your heads out of your butts and come to the real world.
“The kids coming out of high school today can’t read or understand a tape measure, can’t tell time unless it is digital, can’t make change in their head, can’t read a map. They need a GPS to find their way home from school. They can’t read or do anything but print for writing.” Do you have any facts to back this up? You are saying all kids can’t do these things. My 8th grade grandson and my 4th grade granddaughter can do all of what you say kids can’t do. The kids today are more and better educated than we ever dreamed of. lvs times are changing and education has to change to keep up with the times. But I do believe you are really selling the kids short.
????I am telling you I have seen it and had to train a lot of otherwise very smart children when they came to work at the plant. They are very good on the computer but lack in the day to day education that they need to get by. They try to train every child to go to college and then if they don’t make it for what ever reason they are unprepared to go into the workforce. I know times are changing and I worry about that. What do you do when the power goes off and you can’t charge your battery’s anymore??
@Allen: 40 years ago, our paper girl couldn’t make change either. My dad took the time to teach her how to do it. He worked with her every week until she could do it right every time. I never knew about this until this gal wrote to me on FaceBook and told me how she remembered my dad and the time he spent helping her learn how to count change back. So maybe it does take a village!
Don’t worry, Jack. Now that the schools are getting more money things are bound to get better.
If not, they will call for more money, then more, then more…….
The school system needs to work within their budget, poor management. Not enough people get out to vote and taxes will continue to go up. I figure mine will go up over $100 with these levies.
Jack is a joke. I went to school with his kids, and if I recall, they couldn’t do math either. Not being critical, but they weren’t top-notch students.
Thanks for the entertainment Jack and NIT! Still laughing!!!
your taxes are only going up if you choose to stay in Mason City. Many have had enough and are moving on.
Jack doesn’t know Jack! How many kids is Jack really exposed to? Lots of kids working in town didn’t go to school here and are from other communities. I bet any kid in school can do the following better than Jack:
Operate a computer or any tech, speak a foreign language, Sing, Trigonometry, Physics, Chemistry, Advanced Literature, etc.
Ever see the show “Are you smarter than a 5th grader?” I’d love to see Jack take on one of our 5th graders.
I challenge Jack to list his evidence for his assertion that Mason City kids can’t do math? How does he account for all the success our graduates have had in college and in the work world.
Another thing I’d like to know is why Jack has such and axe to grind with kids and schools. He kind of sounds like a bitter old man.
@Superhowey-Who are you to insult the man for standing up for what he believes in? If they had not rigged the vote so most seniors didn’t know about it they would have lost. people are tired of paying more and more money just so it can be wasted by the school. What part of less students and less facility’s mean less money required is so hard for you to understand??
“Rigged”? You had to be living under a rock to not know that this vote was taking place. It was in NIT, the Globe, and KIMT at least a week prior to the vote. The polling places weren’t hidden or secret. They were, in most cases, in the same places as you would go to vote for any election. If you choose to be ignorant about what is going on in your community, that is your buisness but don’t make up some conspiracy theory about the vote being “rigged”. Can you say, “sore loser”?
@mcsupporter-I thought you would say something like that. Almost every senior I talked to knew nothing about it until the day of the vote just like you people planned. Most of these people do not get the rag (GLOB) (they can’t afford it) and it wasn’t on the radio and TV until the day before the vote. Now you are going to raise their taxes and a lot of them live on only social security and are just barely hanging on. I hope you are real proud of yourselves. 60K and 70K teachers and 100K administrators got a raise and the seniors got screwed.
voting in the whole united states should be only twice a year. November and May. This is a deliberate way to confuse and eliminate some voters. If you dont believe me then shove it.
lvs if the seniors that you are talking about didn’t know about the vote then they also wouldn’t be informed enough to cast an educated vote. I am a senior and I know a lot of senior citizens in Mason City. All knew about the vote and most voted yes.
?????-Thank you to you and your senior friends for voting & supporting our kids.
My house is valued at $95,000 and I figured my taxes would go up $76.00 p/ year.
LVS, If you are right about the assess value of your house being 95,000. Your taxes will go up more than what people were saying. But not $76. It will be about $35 dollars, plus the ISL which really no one really understands, but it should be around 7-10 dollars, so it is $45 r so. Which is higher than the school made it sound. The reason I say, made it sound, is I think the only time they gave sound numbers is the hike in the ISL, about $7. They didn’t give sound numbers when it came to the PPL.