When Florida makes the news it is typically not good.

 Hurricane’s, voting processes, and the occasional poodle-attacked-by-gator all seem to top the list.

 So what is on the list this week at The Slow Bleed? 

According to state figures, 72.4 percent of students who enrolled in ninth grade managed to graduate last spring. That means about 37,000 students dropped off the radar and out of school.

The only thing worse is that in a state-by-state study, Florida is not the worse. Here are states that fall below Florida when it comes to graduation… 

• Tennessee
• Alabama
• Mississippi
• Georgia
• New York
• South Carolina

 And the (worst) winner is…

•  Nevada.

If your state did not make the list, just give it a few more years. With absolutely no priorities for education in this country these statistics are not going to get any better. 

Up this week…

If you could change one thing the US is doing right now; such as our policies on Immigration, War in Iraq, Education, Homelessness, Healthcare, etc, etc. What would you change? 

When I was in sixth grade I lost both a spelling competition and a sport competition. It pretty much meant that I was not a top student intellectually or physically. The spelling competition was your run of the mill type — I couldn’t spell “equalize,” so I was out. The sport competition was the then coveted Presidential Physical Fitness Test where you accumulate points. I did “pass” the test, but not at the highest level possible (damn pull ups).

When I was a kid, there were winners and losers. There were people who were not picked quickly for a game of pickup football (some of us were never really “picked” at all — just the last one standing). Although our feelings may have been hurt, these experiences still manifested real life — yes, Virginia, there are losers. The losers either tried harder or found something they were good at. In any case, we all turned out OK .

Today, of course, is much different. We all get to be winners. There are no losers, no second place, no runners-up, no chance for anyone’s precious developing ego to be crushed by mean-spirited adults and peers.