http://www.houstonpress.com/news/hisd-sa...ts-8147469

At the bottom of all this is the rule requiring magnet schools to compete at the 6A level. There must be a counterintuitive reason for that, because on the surface that's a profoundly stupid rule.

(02-11-2016 09:34 AM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  At the bottom of all this is the rule requiring magnet schools to compete at the 6A level. There must be a counterintuitive reason for that, because on the surface that's a profoundly stupid rule.

The rule makes sense on one level. If a school draws across the school district, it has to play at the highest level of that district. If you decided to put a small school, say 4A, in the center of Houston. Then let it recruit all the best basketball players in the city. It could dominate 4A. So they have to play 6A. This is what some fear will happen if other HISD non-traditional schools applied for athletics. Especially (from this article):

Rumors were flying, she says, that the Mickey Leland College Preparatory for Young Men hoped to boost its enrollment by applying for similar status to Carnegie and coaches were worried that it really could become an athletic titan, Khosla says.

In that case the problem is that the law allows magnet schools to set aside their founding purpose in order to build really good athletic teams. IMO, any magnet school that drops its academic focus needs to stop receiving my tax dollars. Gotta side with HISD on this one.

(02-11-2016 09:43 AM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  In that case the problem is that the law allows magnet schools to set aside their founding purpose in order to build really good athletic teams. IMO, any magnet school that drops its academic focus needs to stop receiving my tax dollars. Gotta side with HISD on this one.

That has never happened at CVHS. They are consistently ranked in the top ten nationally for academics. My son played baseball for four years there. They would get killed by 20 by schools like Bellaire, Westside, and Lamar. But they could be competitive elsewhere. And they wanted to play. We, the parents, paid for the program. I bought cases of baseballs. We built the field and fit it on a tiny urban campus. Sports did not detract from the focus. Sports enhanced it.

Dallas Skyline is a "magnet school" too... Hence the reason for the rule.. Agreed that this is an annoying application of it.

Reading this reminds me of two parallels:

Organizations need to figure out how to be more efficient (in terms of money) and more competitive to stay in the game. Hence the glory of capitalism. This is where we have come up short in our athletics department at Rice and why we have been left behind....

I read an article about how UH is not pleased with the fact that there will be a UT Houston. I am happy for it as it will bring more collaboration. Having a UT in Houston should not be an issue for UH as long as UH figures out how to stay competitive and efficient and give reasons for people to choose UH over the proposed UT Houston.

(02-11-2016 07:49 PM)seniorowl Wrote:  Reading this reminds me of two parallels:

Organizations need to figure out how to be more efficient (in terms of money) and more competitive to stay in the game. Hence the glory of capitalism. This is where we have come up short in our athletics department at Rice and why we have been left behind....

I read an article about how UH is not pleased with the fact that there will be a UT Houston. I am happy for it as it will bring more collaboration. Having a UT in Houston should not be an issue for UH as long as UH figures out how to stay competitive and efficient and give reasons for people to choose UH over the proposed UT Houston.

Maybe it is time for our state to look at higher education consolidation, UT Houston, merging the UH (main campus) with UT Health Science Center at Houston, gives the University of Texas system what it wants, an increased presence in Houston. UH gets the backing and oversight of the UT system and the emergence of a real rivalry, similar to UC Berkley and UCLA. UH (err UT Houston) now has the opportunity to rise above the original campus in Austin. UT-H now has a med school, dental school, school of pharmacy, law, nursing as well as the PhD programs across the board.

Well they did it. 5-4 vote to rip sports out of CVHS.

(02-11-2016 07:49 PM)seniorowl Wrote:  Organizations need to figure out how to be more efficient (in terms of money) and more competitive to stay in the game. Hence the glory of capitalism. This is where we have come up short in our athletics department at Rice and why we have been left behind....

The problem is that we hAvent really embraced the capitalistic side. We are like PIA or Air India with delusions of grandeur and self importance while wasting government or institutional money to support this delusion.

The more I think about it, Air India and Rice Athletics seem to historically follow the same philosophy. More money and 787s and an EZF (respectively) are the missing link. Meanwhile Etihad is laughing their way to the bank.

(02-11-2016 10:36 PM)loki_the_bubba Wrote:  Well they did it. 5-4 vote to rip sports out of CVHS.

The also voted to rename my old middle school.

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/...825090.php

(02-11-2016 09:46 AM)loki_the_bubba Wrote:  

(02-11-2016 09:43 AM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  In that case the problem is that the law allows magnet schools to set aside their founding purpose in order to build really good athletic teams. IMO, any magnet school that drops its academic focus needs to stop receiving my tax dollars. Gotta side with HISD on this one.

That has never happened at CVHS. They are consistently ranked in the top ten nationally for academics. My son played baseball for four years there. They would get killed by 20 by schools like Bellaire, Westside, and Lamar. But they could be competitive elsewhere. And they wanted to play. We, the parents, paid for the program. I bought cases of baseballs. We built the field and fit it on a tiny urban campus. Sports did not detract from the focus. Sports enhanced it.

Seems like a great application for promotion/relegation. Why not let performance on the field sort the schools into the appropriate competition level?

(02-11-2016 07:49 PM)seniorowl Wrote:  Reading this reminds me of two parallels:

Organizations need to figure out how to be more efficient (in terms of money) and more competitive to stay in the game. Hence the glory of capitalism. This is where we have come up short in our athletics department at Rice and why we have been left behind....

I read an article about how UH is not pleased with the fact that there will be a UT Houston. I am happy for it as it will bring more collaboration. Having a UT in Houston should not be an issue for UH as long as UH figures out how to stay competitive and efficient and give reasons for people to choose UH over the proposed UT Houston.

If PUF money is going to continue to be divvied out in such uneven fashion, it is hardly a competitive playing field and unfair another institution to come into the market. The system is completely rigged for Texas and A&M. UT's plan of expansion completely undermines all the hard work put in by Dr. Khator over the last few years.

(02-11-2016 08:31 PM)exowlswimmer Wrote:  

(02-11-2016 07:49 PM)seniorowl Wrote:  Reading this reminds me of two parallels:

Organizations need to figure out how to be more efficient (in terms of money) and more competitive to stay in the game. Hence the glory of capitalism. This is where we have come up short in our athletics department at Rice and why we have been left behind....

I read an article about how UH is not pleased with the fact that there will be a UT Houston. I am happy for it as it will bring more collaboration. Having a UT in Houston should not be an issue for UH as long as UH figures out how to stay competitive and efficient and give reasons for people to choose UH over the proposed UT Houston.

Maybe it is time for our state to look at higher education consolidation, UT Houston, merging the UH (main campus) with UT Health Science Center at Houston, gives the University of Texas system what it wants, an increased presence in Houston. UH gets the backing and oversight of the UT system and the emergence of a real rivalry, similar to UC Berkley and UCLA. UH (err UT Houston) now has the opportunity to rise above the original campus in Austin. UT-H now has a med school, dental school, school of pharmacy, law, nursing as well as the PhD programs across the board.

(02-12-2016 12:45 PM)Mademen Wrote:  If PUF money is going to continue to be divvied out in such uneven fashion, it is hardly a competitive playing field and unfair another institution to come into the market. The system is completely rigged for Texas and A&M. UT's plan of expansion completely undermines all the hard work put in by Dr. Khator over the last few years.

Wouldn't consolidating the Houston institutions into a UT-Houston create something like the Alabama-UAB mess at the UT governance level, at least for athletics? (Or would UT regents behave better, not having the venal son of a legend among them?)

(02-12-2016 01:21 PM)Almadenmike Wrote:  

(02-11-2016 08:31 PM)exowlswimmer Wrote:  [quote='seniorowl' pid='12993899' dateline='1455238198']
Reading this reminds me of two parallels:

Organizations need to figure out how to be more efficient (in terms of money) and more competitive to stay in the game. Hence the glory of capitalism. This is where we have come up short in our athletics department at Rice and why we have been left behind....

I read an article about how UH is not pleased with the fact that there will be a UT Houston. I am happy for it as it will bring more collaboration. Having a UT in Houston should not be an issue for UH as long as UH figures out how to stay competitive and efficient and give reasons for people to choose UH over the proposed UT Houston.

Maybe it is time for our state to look at higher education consolidation, UT Houston, merging the UH (main campus) with UT Health Science Center at Houston, gives the University of Texas system what it wants, an increased presence in Houston. UH gets the backing and oversight of the UT system and the emergence of a real rivalry, similar to UC Berkley and UCLA. UH (err UT Houston) now has the opportunity to rise above the original campus in Austin. UT-H now has a med school, dental school, school of pharmacy, law, nursing as well as the PhD programs across the board.

(02-12-2016 12:45 PM)Mademen Wrote:  If PUF money is going to continue to be divvied out in such uneven fashion, it is hardly a competitive playing field and unfair another institution to come into the market. The system is completely rigged for Texas and A&M. UT's plan of expansion completely undermines all the hard work put in by Dr. Khator over the last few years.

Really Mademan, hard work or self promotion? UH has reinvented itself several times, JC then a University run by HISD, a private university, a state university, finally a university and a system. Khator has neglected the other schools under her charge (as UH system chancellor). Admiral McRaven's proposal for the UT system to look at their footprint in Houston and explore options is something the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board should have done long ago, but at least someone with a fresh set of eyes is looking at collaboration between institutions. If UH doesn't want to collaborate (the various UH system schools don't even play well together) let Rice consider becoming part of the University of Texas system under a public private partnership (Cornell model) and take the lead!

Khator has the PR and branding side down pat. She's wonderful at that. The actual cake under all that icing? Not so sure she's been too focused on that.

This was dumb. Carnegie was a middle of the pack baseball team. The kids enjoyed playing. As the poster above said, they got killed by Bellaire, Lamar, and Westside, but they won a few of the others. They had a few decent players, but no one goes to Carnegie for Baseball or Volleyball (the girls sport offered). Just goofy.

(02-12-2016 07:51 AM)loki_the_bubba Wrote:  

(02-11-2016 10:36 PM)loki_the_bubba Wrote:  Well they did it. 5-4 vote to rip sports out of CVHS.

The also voted to rename my old middle school.

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/...825090.php

The ridiculous renaming was Lanier. Jeff Davis ok, I get. Lee, yeah probably, though he was a terrific officer before the Civil War. But Lanier-this was not a confederate naming, it was for his post Civil War fame. So much of this has just gone too far.

(02-15-2016 10:08 AM)texowl2 Wrote:  

(02-12-2016 07:51 AM)loki_the_bubba Wrote:  

(02-11-2016 10:36 PM)loki_the_bubba Wrote:  Well they did it. 5-4 vote to rip sports out of CVHS.

The also voted to rename my old middle school.

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/...825090.php

The ridiculous renaming was Lanier. Jeff Davis ok, I get. Lee, yeah probably, though he was a terrific officer before the Civil War. But Lanier-this was not a confederate naming, it was for his post Civil War fame. So much of this has just gone too far.

Albert Sydney Johnston
Texas revolution hero
Mexican war hero
Opposed secession

(02-15-2016 10:08 AM)texowl2 Wrote:  

(02-12-2016 07:51 AM)loki_the_bubba Wrote:  

(02-11-2016 10:36 PM)loki_the_bubba Wrote:  Well they did it. 5-4 vote to rip sports out of CVHS.

The also voted to rename my old middle school.

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/...825090.php

The ridiculous renaming was Lanier. Jeff Davis ok, I get. Lee, yeah probably, though he was a terrific officer before the Civil War. But Lanier-this was not a confederate naming, it was for his post Civil War fame. So much of this has just gone too far.

American Civil War
North = Good
South = Evil

That explains how racial equality was achieved in 1865 when the North won, right?