I'm not going to pretend I know everything -- let alone, much at all. Russian and Dewy both seem to have good foundations here. Good stuff, reading this, even if there is a little bit of pissing contest going on.

Let me elaborate on the educational aspect. Someone mentioned earlier that government does not create bad students. I agree, but they can create dangerous and poor-performing schools. The zoning in EBR is completely fricked and the bussing system should not be the cause of such.

The three-headed beast of Flaming Dr. Taylor, Dr. Ramos, and Dr. Hagan were formerly in the Detroit area (run off by the way) and now EBRPSS's superintendents. Ramos has been in big metro areas in the northeast for many years (of the three, he seems the most legit, but still full of shite). These men have the mentality that Baton Rouge can operate like those large inner-city schools can. The problem is Baton Rouge is SMALL on a scale with Detroit suburbs and NYC schools. It's not even worth a comparison. They do not understand the mentality of the poor inner-city Baton Rouge kid. This is not Manhattan.

A model of a poorer inner-city BR kid who attends Tara, for instance, lives in St. Jean Apartments; has no public transportation; has plenty of gov't assistance to spend at grocery, etc. He may go to the mall here and there and get rides to places he wants to go. His M-F commute to Tara High and back, on a yellow bus, is all he knows. Tara is NOT his school. The neighborhood far from represents him and most children from that neighborhood do not feel Tara represents them. Detroit and NYC and even Atlanta have public transpo systems that Baton Rouge will NEVER have, even if their schools are miles/even hour away. These kids can ride the trains and get off where they choose. EBR kids ride to point A and back. Hence, there is no culture nor learning of other environments. There really aren't any to learn of anyway, but when you bus a poorer student back and forth from a place he'll never learn to have any pride in back to his subsidized dwelling (which he takes too much pride in), he learns nothing of cultural value or intellectual or artistic means. There is no subway to ride and get off at various stops and see other cultures in action and how they live. There is no self-gained intelligence from learning to ride a public transportation system (CATS does not count). The school bus certainly teaches nothing. The student goes to a school in a mostly white neighborhood (Tara is a great example of this while of course Belaire is not); eats his best meals; sees friends and enemies; rides a bus home and hangs out with other similar peers and do-nothings/simpletons/idiots/criminals.

One cannot be a good student without school pride. One cannot likely have school pride when he doesn't even know the area and the community that he attends school in. Tara has students from Gardere mingling with kids from the North avenue areas mingling with St. Jean kids mingling with Mayfair kids. That spells trouble. My friend works at Tara and says there is an average of 1-2 fights per DAY. Ignorant students who receive no other cultures but their own won't get along. Just like all the Asians that attend public school are deemed "Chinese", the neighborhood and turf issues are the labels that matter. Sometimes they mix well and sometimes they do not.

This whole St. George thing is fine by me if it makes the schools better. We need educated people working lower-paying jobs. At this rate, we will have to build a freaking wall around, not only St George, but Airline at Old Hammond and east from the rest. MEANWHILE, WE HAVE A TOP-NOTCH UNIVERSITY SITTING IN THE MIDDLE OF SOME OF THIS MESS.

I do not know much about the rest of the St. George vs. BR issues, but I do know that the EBRPSS leadership and John White do not see eye to eye and neither has much vision to begin with. Someone needs to treat EBRPSS like a small city and not like it's Brooklyn. Brooklyn schools may have 4 times more criminals due to population, but they're cultured well beyond those who reside in the EBRPSS and many may figure out a way of that lifestyle because of all a big city has to offer (Detroit excluded from this). What does a kid with little intelligence and no home life have in Baton Rouge?