Disappearing Students Syndrome (DSS): A phrase created by me to describe a phenomenon taking place across the United States, affecting both privately and publicly funded schools, from Kindergarten all the way through University levels.
Incomplete list of publicly announced education layoffs & school shutdowns, January 2016:
Arizona: Phoenix based rip off artist Apollo Education Group (owner of University of Phoenix,Western International University, Axia College, and College for Financial Planning) eliminated 70 jobs, as part of their plan to “re-engineer” the for-profit education operation due to crashing revenues. (possible due to the federal Department of Education accusing Apollo Education of lying about job placement rates)
California: In Berkeley, after 33 years Black Oak Books shutting down, the owner lamenting “I wish I could have kept it open, but, in the end, you have to say ‘it’s not working.’” It must be noted that current owner Gary Cornell has been subsidizing the rent payments out of his pocket, store revenues are not high enough, and he said the city’s minimum wage increases are the final straw. University of California Berkeley’s Campus Shared Services quietly laid off 28 people, back in December. Local Teamsters Union members are now making sure the public knows about the layoffs. After 65 years privately funded Pinecrest Schools shutting down all their San Fernando Valley campuses (Woodland Hills, Thousand Oaks, Moorpark, Canyon Country and Simi Valley) at the end of this school year! Administrators blame increased operating costs and increased competition from publicly funded charter schools.
Colorado: Westwood College suddenly halted enrollments and announced it will shutdown its Denver campuses by the end of March! Administrators blame crashing enrollments, but it could also have to do with the fact the state sued Westwood, accusing it of making false claims about students being able to find jobs after they graduate.
Connecticut: Post University eliminated 15 jobs and reclassified another 15. One teacher said her ‘reclassification’ included a 53% cut in pay! God refuses to stop the shutdown of two of ‘his’ schools; Saint Vincent De Paul in East Haven and Saint Gabriel in Milford. The schools managed to survive The Great Depression and numerous recessions, but for some reason they can’t survive what I call Disappearing Students Syndrome. Saint Vincent is reportedly down to just 89 students.
Delaware: More job killing by DuPont, this time 2-hundred highly educated people (many with doctorates) at the Central Research and Development division at the Experimental Station in Wilmington now unemployed: “As part of this restructuring, we are redesigning the existing Central Research & Development operating model to assess and seed new, transformational science-based ventures as the next step in the evolution of corporately funded R&D for DuPont.”
Florida: The Venice public library shutting down by the end of the month due to unsanitary conditions that never go away despite numerous attempts to repair the building. The National Deaf Academy shutting down between March and April after being hit with lawsuits alleging child abuse (administrators refused to give an official reason).
Idaho: The University of Idaho’s McClure Center for Public Policy Research discovered that one third of Idaho high school grads surveyed see no reason to ‘Go-On’ to college or university because the job market doesn’t justify the cost of higher education. The study also discovered that while 53% of females go on to higher education only 38% of Idaho males ‘Go-On’. That means Idaho’s ‘Go-On’ gender gap rate is higher than the national average. University of Idaho shutting down their Caine Veterinary Teaching Center. Apparently the university plans on teaching veterinarian skills directly through livestock owners, news reports say the university veterinarian faculty are being laid off. Even God couldn’t stop a Christian student from ripping off the Mormon Brigham Young University-Idaho of $6-thousand 2-hundred, using a university credit card. Of course that ‘christian’ student wasn’t very smart because you can trace credit card transactions, and that’s how he got caught. A new study is blaming low Gem State high school graduation rates on internet classes! The state Board of Education reported that ‘virtual schools’ can barely graduate 20% of their online students!
Illinois: Chicago Public Schools announced yet more mass layoffs, 227 non-teaching jobs being eliminated! God refuses to stop the shutdown of three of ‘his’ Christian schools; Saint Agatha Catholic Academy, Saint Peter elementary and Seton Academy. It’s blamed on The Rapture, I mean what I call Disappearing Students Syndrome. God refuses to stop the shutdown of ‘his’ Oak Park Saint Edmund Catholic School, due to crashing enrollments. In Evanston, after 35 years Howard’s Books shutting down by the end of February. The owner say it “makes sense” to shutdown because “The chains hurt the independents, and then Amazon comes along and hurts the chains.” The Western Illinois University laid off 30 people due to the failed state ‘lawmakers’ failing to come up with a budget.
Indiana: Bargain Books shutting down its Mishawaka store. Company administrators admitted their profit margin is much higher with their internet sales than with brick-n-mortar ops.
Iowa: British empire based education publisher Pearson suddenly began laying off employees in the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City area, as part of their plans to eliminate 4-thousand jobs globally! Perhaps U.S. textbooks being published by the mortal enemy of the United States is one reason for the dumbing down of the U.S.? After all British English is not the same as U.S. English (grammatically or with the spelling and pronunciation of words).
Kentucky: People suffering from the coal industry shutdowns revealed it costing former employees a lot of money to re-train: “If they switch everything from coal to gas, that retraining program that they’re doing now is going to take five to six years of training. Woth Eastern Kentucky Power down there, if they switch everything to gas…if they change all that then everybody is going to have to through more school after they already went through their apprenticeship and pay their $600 for their book and pay for that gas going to that school.“-Dakota Cones, interviewed by WOWK
Maryland: The Baltimore School Board approved the shutdown of four schools; Westside Elementary School, Maritime Industries Academy High School, Baltimore Community High School and the Maryland Academy of Technology & Health Sciences. The school board is considering shutting down a fifth school as well. The shutdowns are blamed on poor academic performance and what I call Disappearing Students Syndrome. Baltimore County Public Schools shutdown Deep Creek junior high school due to lack of heating.
Michigan: In Lansing, God refuses to stop the shutdown of ‘his’ 150 years old (surviving The Great Depression and numerous recessions) Trinity Lutheran School from shutting down. Parents criticized the church leaders saying they never considered outside sources of funding and the decision to shutdown came without warning. Beecher School District needs to cut costs and will do so with layoffs, pay cuts and even contracting out jobs that are currently in-house. Local news reports say the school district has less than 1-thousand students.
Missouri: Better Learning Communities Academy being shutdown due to low academic achievement and money problems. University of Missouri Saint Louis warned of mass layoffs in order to deal with a $15-million USD shortfall ($2-million more than reported two months ago), no layoff numbers given, yet.
Montana: University of Montana has begun mass layoffs, eventually 192 full-time jobs will be eliminated!
New Hampshire: God’s River University is so desperate for students they are now offering a guarantee of employment upon graduation! If the student can’t get a job after six months of graduating from a bachelors program (undergraduate) then the university will pay for their masters program (graduate)!
New Jersey: God refuses to stop the shutdown of his Mother Teresa Catholic School, in June. Enrollment is down below 1-hundred students.
New York: The Federal Reserve Bank’s New York office posted the results of their investigation into the viability of college/university educations. They found that of those people who graduated between 2009-13 about 45% were working jobs that do not require higher education (typically low paying)!
North Carolina: The Books-A-Million Bookland in the Signal Hill Mall shutdown. Haywood County in big trouble, they’ve reduced their operating budget by $2.4-million USD and will have to shutdown at least one school, conduct layoffs and reduce pay for remaining employees! It’s blamed on the loss of state school funding (due in part to crashing enrollment) and half a million dollars in tax collections being diverted to other counties that are in bigger trouble than Haywood!
Ohio: Digital Works shutdown their high-tech skills training programs in Logan, Lynchburg, Middleport, Portsmouth and West Union. The training program was started in 2013 with taxpayer funding, that taxpayer funding ended in 2015.
Oregon: In Hillsboro, Jacobsen’s Books & More shutting down because the owner is tired of being told by looky-loos “I’ll just go buy it on-line.” For the second time in one week, Aequitas Capital Management announced layoffs. This time 1-hundred people, almost all the remaining employees, will be laid off! Company bosses blame significant financial problems after it was revealed the loan agency was involved in questionable student loans.
Dumbing Down the United States, 4th Quarter 2015
