OT: Top states for doing business

[Smoked Toag]

THE best way to improve public schools would be to OUTLAW private schools. If every kid in every place had to go to public schools, it would DRAMATICLY improve the public schools. It's no surprise that most of the best public schools in Mississippi are in areas where there aren't that many private schools. Sadley that probably isn't legal. I'm prepared for the incoming flak, but that IS the truth.

Nobody will ever disagree that taking private school kids and putting them in the public school would improve the public school. That’s obvious.

But the question is, what is the best way to educate your kids. That’s not always the public school, even in a good public district.

 

[Bill Shankly]

Gulfport-Biloxi is as nice or nicer. I’d put it up against any. Incredibly well-run. Of course, you’re just talking about terminals here, because that’s all the public ever really thinks about. The terminal is the ONLY nice thing about Birmingham, and that’s because it’s brand new. I would still not consider that airport nice overall.

If someone is traveling to Starkville, Tupelo, Meridian, Hattiesburg or the Coast, you really should be encouraging them to use those local airports, especially GPT. Memphis is appropriate for NW MS.

As someone who lives in the GTR-Tupelo region......I have flown from both, many times. We still use GTR. It is a commercially successful airport. It costs a bit more at times, but it's worth it to stay local. Tupelo used to be the same. It's NOT now. It is a government propped up mess. Unless you are going to Nashville and aren't connecting onward, its flat out useless. You are better off driving to Memphis or Birmingham.

 

[Smoked Toag]

As someone who lives in the GTR-Tupelo region......I have flown from both, many times. We still use GTR. It is a commercially successful airport. It costs a bit more at times, but it's worth it to stay local. Tupelo used to be the same. It's NOT now. It is a government propped up mess. Unless you are going to Nashville and aren't connecting onward, its flat out useless. You are better off driving to Memphis or Birmingham.

Fair enough. At least you are trying them. Most people don’t even know they exist.

 

[Bill Shankly]

Nobody will ever disagree that taking private school kids and putting them in the public school would improve the public school. That’s obvious.

But the question is, what is the best way to educate your kids. That’s not always the public school, even in a good public district.

If there were no private schools, it would be amazing how much better the public schools would be. Take a look at NE Mississippi. When the private school becomes THE place to be it destroys the local public school. When the public school is the only place to be.....it is still supported really well almost everywhere. Private schools are one of the worst things that have happened to Mississippi since integration. That is NOT debatable.

 

[Smoked Toag]

If there were no private schools, it would be amazing how much better the public schools would be. Take a look at NE Mississippi. When the private school becomes THE place to be it destroys the local public school. When the public school is the only place to be.....it is still supported really well almost everywhere. Private schools are one of the worst things that have happened to Mississippi since integration. That is NOT debatable.

Segregation academies, sure. But not all the private schools are that. Hattiesburg didn’t have a private school until recently. Didn’t Tupelo recently get one?

Nashville is full of private schools.

It’s not as clear cut as you say. You talk as if you’ve never been out of rural MS.

 

[Bill Shankly]

Fair enough. At least you are trying them. Most people don’t even know they exist.

We have a flight next month out of GTR. It still works fine. Tupelo's problem stems from when Memphis was a big Northwest hub. They had a NW connection to Memphis back then, but people in the region would rather take the relatively short drive up to Memphis to get a direct flight to pretty much anywhere in the US and quite a few international destinations. DIRECT flights are a HUGE attraction, there is no denying that. That killed traffic out of Tupelo. Now that Delta bought out Northwest, and Memphis is no longer a hub, Tupelo only has a GOVENMENT SUBSIDISED connection to Nashville. Last time I checked you have to claim your bags, recheck them, and go BACK through security to make a connection in Nashville, on a separate ticket. I'd rather drive to Memphis, GTR, Birmingham, or Huntsville than do that.

 

[Bill Shankly]

Segregation academies, sure. But not all the private schools are that. Hattiesburg didn’t have a private school until recently. Didn’t Tupelo recently get one?

Nashville is full of private schools.

It’s not as clear cut as you say. You talk as if you’ve never been out of rural MS.

Tupelo has two now, with the usual result. In Mississippi, ALL private schools are essentially segregation academies. Facts are Facts. You talk as if you don't live in Mississippi anymore.

 

[Smoked Toag]

Tupelo has two now, with the usual result. In Mississippi, ALL private schools are essentially segregation academies. Facts are Facts. You talk as if you don't live in Mississippi anymore.

Tupelo’s district was fine. Still is. Why are people leaving it?

 

[Bill Shankly]

Tupelo’s district was fine. Still is. Why are people leaving it?

It is, but you know the answer to your question as well as I do. You can add snob appeal to the usual reason.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

Northpoint Christian (formerly SBEC) isn’t a segregation school. Many of them were formed because of integration, I won’t disagree with that but saying all of them are is incorrect.


And yes I did attend SBEC but my kids attend public school. They could go there if I chose to but I don’t because the public school here is great. If the school system wasn’t up to the standard I’d like, they would be at Northpoint or somewhere else. It’s as simple as that.

 

[greenbean.sixpack]

I travel quite bit as well, and I do not consider the roads in MS to be an asset. Your point might be that it's easy to travel throughout the state on those roads though. I understand that point, but the roads themselves are clearly underfunded. Goat's comments are correct.

BTW, I originally said 'roads', but we can expand out to 'infrastructure' and no one defends it. You're correctly being critical of bridges in other posts, and Jackson's airport is a disaster. Have you been in New Orleans' lately by chance? It's very nice now. Birmingham's is too. I had a co-worker from CO traveling to Meridian earlier this year. I told him to fly into one of those two instead of Jackson and the added 'windshield' time was justified. Honestly, unless you're going into 3 or 4 counties in central MS, i would recommend everyone use out of state airports when traveling to MS. We compete against those cities for resources; that stuff matters.

What is wrong with the Jxn Airport? I fly out of it often as do friends and family members. It is very efficient and parking and picking up/dropping off passengers is a dream. It doesn't have a ton of direct flights, but the airport runs well. I realize the airport board may be full of idiots and grifters, but day to day operations is good. The fares may be a little higher than competing airports, but all in all it is a good airport. We flew to Germany a couple years ago, NOLA was several hundred cheaper, but by the time we drove down there, paid to park, etc., it made more sense to fly out of Jxn.

 

[Smoked Toag]

It is, but you know the answer to your question as well as I do. You can add snob appeal to the usual reason.

So you're telling me that anyone who sends their kids to a private school in Tupelo is either a racist or a snob?

What about the ones around me that send their kids to Park Place (relatively new Christian school) over Brandon or Pearl (two more great districts)?

That's a very baby boomer-ish and binary way to view the world.

 

[Smoked Toag]

What is wrong with the Jxn Airport? I fly out of it often as do friends and family members. It is very efficient and parking and picking up/dropping off passengers is a dream. It doesn't have a ton of direct flights, but the airport runs well. I realize the airport board may be full of idiots and grifters, but day to day operations is good. The fares may be a little higher than competing airports, but all in all it is a good airport. We flew to Germany a couple years ago, NOLA was several hundred cheaper, but by the time we drove down there, paid to park, etc., it made more sense to fly out of Jxn.

Most people don't understand airports. Or infrastructure in general. And I agree with you completely about JAN. They could fix a lot just by disbanding that board and allowing the executive staff to just report directly to the City of Jackson. Just not needed. Same for Birmingham.

 

[patdog]

And yet, I bet none of them would look as much better percentagewise as Mississippi would.

 

[johnson86-1]

THE best way to improve public schools would be to OUTLAW private schools. If every kid in every place had to go to public schools, it would DRAMATICLY improve the public schools. It's no surprise that most of the best public schools in Mississippi are in areas where there aren't that many private schools. Sadley that probably isn't legal. I'm prepared for the incoming flak, but that IS the truth.

Yea, because history has shown that lack of competition is what really drives people to improve things. Think how rich the US would be if we stopped having all these entities compete against each other and just had one government provided option for everything.

 

[johnson86-1]

Tupelo has two now, with the usual result. In Mississippi, ALL private schools are essentially segregation academies. Facts are Facts. You talk as if you don't live in Mississippi anymore.

Man, people in tupelo are so stupid. Amazing it took them decades after integration to figure out that they should start their own segregation academies.

 

[mstateglfr]

Northpoint Christian (formerly SBEC) isn’t a segregation school. Many of them were formed because of integration, I won’t disagree with that but saying all of them are is incorrect.


And yes I did attend SBEC but my kids attend public school. They could go there if I chose to but I don’t because the public school here is great. If the school system wasn’t up to the standard I’d like, they would be at Northpoint or somewhere else. It’s as simple as that.

Interesting. Wikipedia and a book about Memphis city schools call it a segregation academy as it was formed during desegregation. Wonder how many schools are in a similar boat- created during the 20 years that segregation academies were formed, but not formed due to integration laws and yet still lumped in the boat with segregation academies.

 

[mstateglfr]

To the extent that happens, I think the magnitude of that problem will be much lower than the current problem of trapping a lot of students into effectively criminal environments better at producing more violent criminals than at providing an education to students.

How often are kids trapped in a criminal environment that produces criminals better than educated kids? That sure seems like a heavily biased way to look at education. Like seriously cherry picked and seriously dramatic.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

It got labeled as that because of the timing which is totally valid but I can promise you that wasn’t the intention of the people who started it.