Arnold's best idea EVER (Schwarzenegger Brings a Tank to School)

[JCMach1]

Source: LA Times

Arnold's best idea EVER.

Arnoldtank_2When you're looking for creative ways to deal with failing schools and budget cuts ... bring in a tank! From the Sacramento Bee:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has a new rewards program for schoolkids: Stay in school, take a tank for a spin.

The Republican governor is bringing home an Austrian army tank he loaned the Motts Military Museum in Columbus, Ohio, and he said Wednesday he plans to use it to drive around inner-city children who do well in school, say "no" to drugs and avoid gangs in the Los Angeles area.

Standing outside the Northwood Elementary School in North Sacramento, where he promoted his plan to assist 97 troubled school districts, Schwarzenegger said he plans to take kids for a ride one day a month...

Read more: http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2008/02/arnolds-best-id.html

---

Another link: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g5-YTDft8csq9tAvnMdl4lIYIaQAD8V3FTJO4

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he asked an Ohio museum to return his Austrian army tank because he was concerned about the upkeep and wants to offer rides to schoolchildren.

Schwarzenegger, a native of Austria, said he plans to offer the rides to inner-city children in the Los Angeles area as a reward for staying in school, avoiding drugs and working hard.

Warren Motts, founder and director of Motts Military Museum, said Schwarzenegger acquired the M47 American-made tank from the Austrian government and had it shipped to Florida. He transported it to a Columbus, Ohio, shopping mall in 1999 when he opened a Planet Hollywood there.

Schwarzenegger lent the tank to the museum, located in Groveport, in 2000.

"I'm pleased we had the opportunity to have it and let people see it," Motts said Tuesday. "It was neat to have a Hollywood connection."...

[Submariner]

1. He must be smokin' some good shit to come up with that idea

[Lasher]

2. OK the strike is over. The jokes can stop writing themselves now.

[comtec]

3. So much to say about this....

Honestly... It's not the dumbest thing he's done (vetoing state-wide universal health coverage has that dubious honor)
It doesn't really take care of the problem, and it;'s just a stunt, but it could drive (no pun intended) a few kids not to drop out.
However it is really arrogant to think that kids drop out of school for no better reason than they just feel like it.
Some, but certainly not most, drop out for that reason, but I'd say the majority have RL issues they can't overcome, such as poverty!

The best incentive, of course, is FREE JR. COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE, and complete free ride for EVERYONE pulling a 3.9 or better GPA!
By making those first two years free you can see if they are better in college than HS for the 'under performers' (I was one of those) and if they pull a 3.5 or better during that time they should be given the next two years at a 4-year college.

IF he wants to encourage national/.state guard enlistment, make sure they can NOT BE TOUCHED BY THE PEZ'DENT FOR IRAQ!

Oh well... and an Austrian tank?
didn't we win a war against them?

[reformedrethug]

4. So what programs

are you willing to cut in the state budget to pay for this "free" college idea of yours? Just because the child is not paying for it does not make it free, the taxpayers are picking up the bill so with a state allready in a budget crisis what programs are you willing to cut to fund this idea?

[Mithreal]

5. America no longer invests in every American

Why invest in higher education when there are so many investments that are more easily privatized? Prisons are a great investment and easily privatized and lack of education has precisely nothing to do with likelihood of going to prison, right? And why reward anyone stuck in poverty for doing good in school with carrots like a "free" education when the stick should be good enough, right? Encourage despair, struggle, and death in multi-generational poverty and if that stick isn't long enough, well then they would never have succeeded anyway and been worth the carrot, right? Someone's getting those carrots though, I can guarantee that. Some short sighted people even think the stick is cheaper than the carrots, my god, how wrong could one be. Everyone knows that college education means SIGNIFICANTLY higher lifetime incomes and higher incomes result in higher taxes paid, higher spending, better local economies overall. Seems like this kind of investment could pay for itself if we just did the math and looked not just at today but to all of our futures. Nah, screw it, investing in people is no longer America's business. :sarcasm:

Pull your own self up by your own boot straps because we will not be our neighbor's keeper and if that doesn't convince them claim that there is no money to invest in them, they'll buy that one, the poor and despairing have been taught to expect so little that survival seems good enough. :sarcasm:

[comtec]

8. i'm looking to cut the tax cut

re-instate property taxes (roll back prop 13) and demand we get our tax money from Washington, something we haven't had in ages!

I'd also stop enforcement of the "just say no" policies, and arresting pot users. That alone will save and bring in millions if not a billion or 4. Enforcing the tax code on the rich alone will pay for most of the educational system.

If someone who owns pot commits an actual crime, then prosecute that crime. this piling on because someone has pot (esp the people who have actual legitimate medical needs) in itself is a waste of money that could go towards stopping real crime.

I would start a program that allows people to buy licenses to own X ounces of pot, and a license system where you are allowed to grow X plants. You pay your taxes on all sales, and I guarantee the "pot crime" rate will plummet, and the tax coffers will start filling.

Of course I also realize you are just a brainless freeper who can't stand equality for all, esp the poor students who will benefit from these program, but it is a reasonable Q, so I have lowered myself to answer it for the people with real interest in an answer.

[Skittles]

17. how about that piece of SHIT war?

how about THAT for starters?

[salin]

6. Most absurd headline (due to an absurd story) I have read in a while.

a real wtf story. Working with urban youth, I can not think of a one who would make the decision to stay in school because... they might get a chance to ride in a tank. At best it might serve as an incentive for a student who is often absent to get to school on the day of the tank rides, but that is about it.

On the other hand, if the idea was to try to promote the idea of "coolness" of selecting the military as a career, in an era where urban youth enlistments have been declining (as has been the case since a year or so after this war began, that suddenly enlisting was losing its magnet as an alternative way "out of poverty" via a career that does not involve college) - that is a slightly less absurd goal for such a program (going to school to give tank rides) as the goal and the activity are related. Of course that isn't what is being claimed to be the point of the program.

[JCMach1]

12. I almost had a seizure when I read it... Repug madness to the Nth

[Demeter]

7. Okay, My Head Officially Exploded

Somebody finish the day off for me.

[Catch22Dem]

9. Why is this a bad idea?

Let's be real, this is the kind of shit that actually does work with kids. It's a lot easier to ignore inner-city youth, I'll just say that.

He's had plenty of dumb ideas (like buying a tank in the first fucking place) but I won't ding him on this one.

[rfranklin]

10. It's one step from this to "enlist and you can ride one all the time"

It would probably be as effective for the state to buy a few carnival rides for kids to enjoy.

[zanne]

11. ROFLMAO!

This one is too good to keep on DU LBN. The emailing starts now! By the end of the day, all my friends and family will get to see AHHNOLD in his tank

[JCMach1]

13. I hear NEVERLAND is for sale!

[bahrbearian]

15. So now California is going to pay for the upkeep ?

Who pays to transport it ? Its all about Arnnies ego and pocket book.

[raebrek]

14. Maybe the idea started out a little differently.

Arnold: I think I should go visit some schools to help promote education. I could drive around in my hummer and tell the kids how good I think they are doing and maybe give them a ride.

Advisers: Some of those schools are in rough neighborhoods.

Arnold: Well, I used to have a tank....hmmmmm.....where did I put that.

Raebrek!!!

[zbdent]

16. eww ... now they have to sanitize that tank ...