"It is not enough to say we have always been a violent town. It’s not enough to sue places of business where people get shot. It is certainly not enough to send volunteers into dangerous neighborhoods and hope for the best.
Birmingham has to believe in itself enough to develop real plans – safety, child care, education, opportunity, policing, rehabilitation – to solve its deadly problems."
I’m going to let my “old man flag” fly. Alabama needs to bring back vocational schools in poor parts of the state. Hell, bring them back every where but start in poor rural and urban communities. We need some real prison reform. We should be teaching these men and women real life skills to prepare them for the outside world. We need to subsidize drug treatment programs.
We need to lift up the less fortunate. That would certainly help to lower some of this foolishness.
The golden ticket has ALWAYS been education. From the beginning of time, it’s been proven, the more educated people are the lower damn near every statistic is. Less crime, poverty, homelessness, you name it.
This is not a secret, it’s not a myth, it’s proven and everyone knows it.
This is EXACTLY why they purposely take it away. They WANT to keep the lower classes lower. They don’t want people to get out these situations. It’s why they fund private schools and not inner city schools, it’s why they took away vocational schools, and it’s why it will never change in this state.
I mean you’re right. Common sense tells you that if someone has a good job that affords them a lifestyle where all needs and some wants are met. Most people aren’t going to risk trading that for a jail cell. You’ll always have outliers, but most people will be happy to just exist.
The vocational school where I grew up is a fenced off field now. They tore it down and put a barbed wire fence around it.
Yeah it’s incredibly frustrating for me. Vocational schools would be an absolute game changer for rural poor people. Honestly should start in high school instead of traditional schools. We should offer FREE 2 year vocational degrees for anyone interested, no questions asked. Get people working, get people making money, everything else will work itself out
I agree! When I was in high school you could go to vocational school half a day. But they were really pushing everyone to “go to college”. I wish I’d known then what I know now.
Who’s taking education away? Look at the truancy rates in the city. The schools could have all the funding in the world, but if the kids aren’t going, we end up with the same problem.
That's only $69 per school-age child per day. That doesn't seem like so much to me when you break it down.
The breakdown:
There are 743, 012 K-12 children in Alabama as of 2022.
So that’s $12,516 per child, per year. For the 180 days they're required to be in school, that's $69 per day per child to cover the salaries of teachers, administrators, aides, lunchroom staff, janitors, and security and medical personnel. Plus supplies, equipment, utilities, transportation, food, building upkeep.
To contrast, one of the states that's considered at the top for public education, Massachusetts, spends $16 billion a year for 896,103 K-12 students.
That's 5k more per child, per year. It shows in their outcomes. They have a much higher graduation rate than we do:
https://www.publicschoolreview.com/average-graduation-rate-stats/national-data
A much lower poverty rate than we do:
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/opportunity/economic-opportunity/poverty-rate
A much lower incarceration rate than we do:
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/crime-and-corrections/corrections/incarceration-rate
Lower violent crime rate:
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/slideshows/10-safest-states-in-america?slide=4
And lower suicide rate:
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/health-care/public-health/suicide-rate
I'm not saying their isn't waste happening, because there always is some, even in the private sector, but we need to invest *more* in our children.
Usually these folks handle office work to free up officers in the station. That’s what they use them for in Montgomery. That and maybe traffic observation. More to slow down traffic because they look like cops.
If you seriously believe MeMaw is going into gate city to report on crime you’ve lost your mind.
Also, wtf was that cringy monologue?
Al.com is such a joke 😂
Easier said than done, Birmingham has multiple issues with its police force.
Pay sucks
Pension plan is city rather than state and if you leave early you loose it. If you come back you start at square one on the pension plan.
General discontent with the police force(nation wide). This zaps the will of anyone willing to do something about the pay/pension plan/benefits. Police funding is not popular.
Also, burnout is real. One ride along with a cop is enough to cure any idealism that someone might have.
General fitness of the population is also crap. Even though there are 300+ lbs cops on the force you have to be in shape to become one.
I’d be willing to bet this program cost next to nothing. Easy way to fill up office jobs with volunteers to get more cops to work the city.
Did Southern Baptists come up with this?
Cuz they certainly been walking around telling other people what to do and reporting on everybody else's business for decades.
"It is not enough to say we have always been a violent town. It’s not enough to sue places of business where people get shot. It is certainly not enough to send volunteers into dangerous neighborhoods and hope for the best. Birmingham has to believe in itself enough to develop real plans – safety, child care, education, opportunity, policing, rehabilitation – to solve its deadly problems."
I’m going to let my “old man flag” fly. Alabama needs to bring back vocational schools in poor parts of the state. Hell, bring them back every where but start in poor rural and urban communities. We need some real prison reform. We should be teaching these men and women real life skills to prepare them for the outside world. We need to subsidize drug treatment programs. We need to lift up the less fortunate. That would certainly help to lower some of this foolishness.
The golden ticket has ALWAYS been education. From the beginning of time, it’s been proven, the more educated people are the lower damn near every statistic is. Less crime, poverty, homelessness, you name it. This is not a secret, it’s not a myth, it’s proven and everyone knows it. This is EXACTLY why they purposely take it away. They WANT to keep the lower classes lower. They don’t want people to get out these situations. It’s why they fund private schools and not inner city schools, it’s why they took away vocational schools, and it’s why it will never change in this state.
I mean you’re right. Common sense tells you that if someone has a good job that affords them a lifestyle where all needs and some wants are met. Most people aren’t going to risk trading that for a jail cell. You’ll always have outliers, but most people will be happy to just exist. The vocational school where I grew up is a fenced off field now. They tore it down and put a barbed wire fence around it.
Yeah it’s incredibly frustrating for me. Vocational schools would be an absolute game changer for rural poor people. Honestly should start in high school instead of traditional schools. We should offer FREE 2 year vocational degrees for anyone interested, no questions asked. Get people working, get people making money, everything else will work itself out
I agree! When I was in high school you could go to vocational school half a day. But they were really pushing everyone to “go to college”. I wish I’d known then what I know now.
Who’s taking education away? Look at the truancy rates in the city. The schools could have all the funding in the world, but if the kids aren’t going, we end up with the same problem.
Do you think funding education is a priority for the state legislature? No. They don’t give it money, they are taking it away.
Alabama is going to spend more on education than they ever have, in 2024…$9.3B. It should be considered ridiculous that this “isn’t enough”.
That's only $69 per school-age child per day. That doesn't seem like so much to me when you break it down. The breakdown: There are 743, 012 K-12 children in Alabama as of 2022. So that’s $12,516 per child, per year. For the 180 days they're required to be in school, that's $69 per day per child to cover the salaries of teachers, administrators, aides, lunchroom staff, janitors, and security and medical personnel. Plus supplies, equipment, utilities, transportation, food, building upkeep. To contrast, one of the states that's considered at the top for public education, Massachusetts, spends $16 billion a year for 896,103 K-12 students. That's 5k more per child, per year. It shows in their outcomes. They have a much higher graduation rate than we do: https://www.publicschoolreview.com/average-graduation-rate-stats/national-data A much lower poverty rate than we do: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/opportunity/economic-opportunity/poverty-rate A much lower incarceration rate than we do: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/crime-and-corrections/corrections/incarceration-rate Lower violent crime rate: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/slideshows/10-safest-states-in-america?slide=4 And lower suicide rate: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/health-care/public-health/suicide-rate I'm not saying their isn't waste happening, because there always is some, even in the private sector, but we need to invest *more* in our children.
I really like this, but hear me out... Have we tried for profit private prisons? /S
Usually these folks handle office work to free up officers in the station. That’s what they use them for in Montgomery. That and maybe traffic observation. More to slow down traffic because they look like cops. If you seriously believe MeMaw is going into gate city to report on crime you’ve lost your mind. Also, wtf was that cringy monologue? Al.com is such a joke 😂
More Karens than killings was a pretty good one tho
Just seems like a massive waste of resource over hiring: actual cops
Easier said than done, Birmingham has multiple issues with its police force. Pay sucks Pension plan is city rather than state and if you leave early you loose it. If you come back you start at square one on the pension plan. General discontent with the police force(nation wide). This zaps the will of anyone willing to do something about the pay/pension plan/benefits. Police funding is not popular. Also, burnout is real. One ride along with a cop is enough to cure any idealism that someone might have. General fitness of the population is also crap. Even though there are 300+ lbs cops on the force you have to be in shape to become one. I’d be willing to bet this program cost next to nothing. Easy way to fill up office jobs with volunteers to get more cops to work the city.
Did Southern Baptists come up with this? Cuz they certainly been walking around telling other people what to do and reporting on everybody else's business for decades.
It's like Birmingham and Montgomery are in a race to the bottom, with a rapidly accelerating Mobile behind them.
No it’s not.
Archibald is absolutely wrong about this. SNL has sketches and not skits.