Year-end school facts | The Honolulu Advertiser

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Year-end school facts | The Honolulu Advertiser | Hawaii's Newspaper

Posted on: Thursday, January 3, 2008

Year-end school facts

Advertiser Staff

Who were we and who are we becoming? Here is a look at some of the latest facts and figures about our families and schools:

Fifty-one percent of respondents to a greatschools.net survey say that the No Child Left Behind law should not be renewed.

U.S. News and World Report found that only about 45 percent of American high school students study a foreign language. Of those, almost 70 percent study Spanish.

The typical family with a teenager has saved only $6,625 for their child's college education, according to Money Magazine.

The New York Times reports that more than 300,000 children are physically spanked at school each year, most commonly with a thick wooden paddle. Seventy percent of this physical punishment occurs in Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama.

— Gannett News Service

CALIFORNIA SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER WANTS POLLING STATIONS OFF CAMPUS

Fearing for student safety, a Palm Springs school district board member wants Riverside County elections officials to keep polling stations off campuses.

Don Aikins says he doesn't like opening schools to the public on Election Day because it risks student safety, noting "on those days, the campus is just wide open." Ten to 12 of the district's 26 schools are used as polling places.

Aikins cited shootings at a Cleveland high school in October, Virginia Tech in April and Columbine High School near Denver in 1999 as reasons to ratchet up security on campuses.

California law requires that schools be used as polling places when needed.

— Associated Press

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