1/2 chapter left, then back to ktm!

Month of May:

• Polish Debbie's book (which is going to be a bestseller!)
• Write Introduction to "Writing Supplement" with Katie B
• Deal with annual school-board-and-budget mishegoss (we're in the 4%!)
• Either finish basal ganglia project or STOP thinking about basal ganglia
• Finish semester at Learning Center

Intense.

Speaking of the election, this year's outing features:

• a 5.7% spending increase in a 1.26%-inflation environment
• a budget that breaks the tax cap
• a 4.85% tax increase that will actually be 7 or 8% 
• multiple "She lies!" accusations flying around town
• mayoral interventions on behalf of aforementioned 5.7% spending increase
• fear mongering 
• smoke blowing 
• etc.

On the bright side, I'm thinking the best of the 4 candidates may actually get elected, which would be a big change after the last two elections. We'll see.

And the district isn't doing get-out-the-vote robo calls this year. That's fantastic.

Still. I don't want to go through another Irvington school board/budget election, ever. But I figure we've got two more to go before we can get to Riverdale. Or wherever else we decamp to.

Bonus content: subtraction is harder than addition

Early College

We just found out that someone from my son's high school will be going to Simon's Rock, which is part of Bard College. Does anyone have any comments about this college or how well early college works? Simon's Rock appears to be the only early college that's accredited.

It seems to me that a better (cheaper) way would be to take a lot of AP classes in high school and find a college that accepts those credits. Then again, don't many colleges give you only one semester credit for a full year AP class? Does anyone know of colleges where you can graduate a year early just because of AP classes? Would it be better to take classes from a local community college than to take AP classes? Do some high schools pay for college classes?

I suppose that colleges do not like accepting high school credits because that's kind of like saying that some of their courses are at a high school level. Then again, they might not like accepting credits from community colleges either. However, many state universities have specific paths that allow community college students a (no loss) transfer path after two years.

I can see that in some cases, AP classes are not as strong as those in college. However, I think that many high school students can handle very high level college classes. For my son, I see AP classes as ways to show that he is a strong college prospect, not as a way to graduate college early. But what if students take online classes provided by a college like MIT? Will MIT allow that student to graduate early or to just get advanced placement? Is a college degree all about time or some particular level of learning? A degree is based on degree requirements and number of credits, but colleges don't seem to give away those credits as easily as advanced placement.