Michelle Hinchey, the 31 year old daughter, of the late Maurice Hinchey, will be running for the state senate, opposing Republican State Senator George Amedore. Maurice Hinchey represented the Hudson Valley for 40 years in the state assembly and then Congress.

Ms. Hinchey will run in a district that takes in the City of Kingston and most of Northern Ulster County plus Lloyd and then counties north of Ulster County.

I believe the Hinchey name has power, She would be seeking election 2020 when Donald J. Trump will be heading the Republican ticket (in New York State). I believe he will be defeated by landslide proportions in New York State, which would help Ms. Hinchey to defeat George Amedore.

Marlboro High School gets high state honors
Marlboro high School has received top grades for its academic performance. This reflects on the work of the staff, Superintendent Michael Brooks, and high school Principal Ryan Lawler.

I would like to add the name of former high school Principal Roseanne Judon. She had the ability to identify talented teacher candidates. How would I know The students, when I asked them who, for instance, were their favorite high school teachers, told me.

Suddenly I was hearing names of a lot of new high school teachers. I learned who hired them: Roseanne Judon.

If the schools of a district in an exit interview of graduates, ask the students, who was their favorite or favorites high school, middle school and elementary school teacher or teachers, soon the same names, or in some schools, a lot of teacher names will come up.

Forty years ago when I was asking the same question of New Paltz and Highland students, the New Paltz students only named one elementary school teacher, while Highland named a lot of them. The state results for the two schools confirmed this, as year after year Highland Elementary school outperformed New Paltz.

A reason was that Highland’s K-6 principal, Don Baines, had a knack of identifying good teachers. He was a son of a minister, and he said of many of his teachers, “they are good people.”

A possible reason New Paltz had problems, was local politics was getting in the way of its education program, and the wives of people, who had connections, were getting jobs. Most of these should not have been allowed near young students.

CNA is a BOCES course with a great future
Recently I met a former a former Highland High School student, who said, “Do you remember me? I responded, “No.” She reminded me that she had played for the Highland girl’s varsity basketball team six years ago. I asked her what was she doing, and she said, “Nurses assistant.”

I responded, “CNA?” (certified nurses assistant). She had taken the Ulster BOCES course as a high school senior. I asked her knowing what she would say if she had ever been unemployed even one day since she took the course? She has never been unemployed for even one day. She is employed as a nurse’s assistant at Woodland Ponds in New Paltz and is a nursing student at Dutchess Community College. We remembered the good old days when the late Hank Passante and Tom Murphy attended her games. Tom lived at Woodland Ponds.

I write this because the Ulster BOCES CNA program has been a great job producer for so many students, either when they are in high school or after they graduate. While in high school the program does not cost them anything, while if they take it as a post graduate it costs $1,625. Either way it is a bargain.

Ulster BOCES has sent out its career catalog for this year and in it is the NA (Nurse’s assistant) program, along with over 100 other programs. I encourage parents of high school students and post graduates to look at the BOCES job producing catalog.

The reason I know about the CNA program is that one of my goddaughters took it 15 years ago as a student at New Paltz High School. She has as you might know, never been unemployed a day in her life, is married and has two daughters.

US a leader in incarceration and lax gun laws
Social Progress Index (SBI) (Michael E. Porter) reports that America is not a safe country to live in and a cause could be extremely liberal gun laws. Liberal is my word. At the same time it is the world incarceration leader of 660 people per 100,000 and in gun deaths per 100,000. The U.S. has seven times the gun deaths of other high income countries, and 25 times more gun violence than other developed counties. The leadership in both areas can both be attributed to the Republican party. In terms of incarceration the prison population has quadrupled since 1980.

In terms of incarceration, New York State ranks 33rd with 480 per 100,000. Oklahoma is the leader with 1,079 per 100,000. Massachusetts has 324 per 100,000. The national rate is 850 per 100,000. Among the trailing incarceration states are Texas 1,050 per 100,000 and the home of El Paso, and Florida, with 900 per 100,000. New York and Massachusetts, which are leaders in tough gun laws and low rates of incarceration, suggest that it is tough gun laws, and not incarceration, keep the people of the states safe or unsafe. States like Texas, Oklahoma and Florida should have billboards saying, “Come on down to get murdered.”

It should be noted that in terms of incarceration, the United States is an equal opportunity leader. Here are the female incarceration rates of the United States and like counties: USA, 550 per 100,000; Canada, 110; France, 110; Spain,133; and England, 146. They also have much tougher gun laws than the United States.

The United States may have unequal enforcement of its laws as blacks are 13.3 percent of the population, while Whites are 77 percent of the population, but there are more blacks in prison and jail than Whites. In terms of marijuana arrests in New York State black’s represent 14 percent of the state’s population, 86 percent of people arrested for having marijuana are black.

Marlboro and Highland enrollments decline
According to data from the New York State Education Department the enrollments of the Highland and Marlboro school districts continued to drop, albeit slightly between the 2016-17 school year and the 2017-18 school year. Highland ebbed from 1,756 to 1,725, a small drop of 31 students, while Marlboro slid from 1,891 to 1,872, a tiny decline of 19 students.

For 2017-18 Marlboro’s biggest class was the 5th with 163 students, followed by the third with 156 students and the 12th with 155 students. The smallest classes were kindergarten, 122, 9th, 125, and lst and 4th with 130 students. Thirty-nine percent of Marlboro students were economically disadvantaged. Marlboro’s enrollment includes 1,263 Whites, 390 Latinos, 138 Blacks, 50 Multi-racial, and 31 Asians.

Highland’s biggest class was the 6th with 145 students, followed by the 12th, 143, and 8th, 141 students. Highland’s smallest class was 7th with 113 students followed by kindergarten, 119, and 1st, 116. Forty percent of Highland’s students were economically disadvantaged. Highland’s enrollment includes 1,222 whites, 237 Latinos, 123 blacks, 75 Asians, and 66 biracial. Highland has had a number of Asian valedictorians and salutatorians. Seven of the Highland students have a parent who is a member of the Armed forces.