Winners

At a time when it seems like kids need guidance more than ever, we applaud the parents and children who will be recognized on Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to noon at the Polk County Courthouse during the seventh annual Adoption Saturday event. Adoption Saturday coincides with National Adoption Day, a nationwide effort to finalize adoptions of children from foster care during National Adoption Month. To date, more than 12,000 children have found permanent families through the program. Last year, 41 Iowa children were adopted at the event in Des Moines and nearly 1,000 people attended. Adoption professionals will be on-hand to provide information about local and international adoption agencies and the need for foster parents. The event is open to the public and free to attend. Local businesses have donated refreshments and University Photo will be on-hand to take photographs of the new families. But the real enjoyment will be watching dreams come true for local children and parents.

Des Moines lost one of its most devoted philanthropists last week when Maddie Levitt died at the age of 82, but fortunately there are people, places and things that remind us of her legacy throughout the community. Levitt’s greatest contribution was her support of Drake University, where she served on the school’s governing board since 1987 and as national chair of Campaign Drake in 1994 and 2002, helping to raise more than $320 million, including her own gift of $5 million. Over the years, she won numerous philanthropic awards including the Outstanding Voluntary Service to Community and Country Award by the United Way of America, a Humanity Award by the Variety Club and a Doctorate of Human Letters from Drake.

On a lighter note, you might have seen 9-year-old Jake Wulf of Odebolt on television last week after he showed talk show host Ellen Degeneres how he flushed out a plan for a foot-activated toilet seat lifter called the “Privy Prop,” designed to raise and lower the toilet seat. The fourth grade student enrolled in his school’s Talented and Gifted program, said he got the idea during a visit to the doctor’s office where he noticed the lid to a small trash can, which opened and closed with a foot-powered lever. He credits his mother, who reportedly has told him “thousands of times over the years” to lift the toilet seat for inspiring the invention, which not only should make life easier around home for Wulf, but if manufactured, could save thousands of marriages.

We’re sure the soldiers and the families of those who serve agree with us by saying the Des Moines Public Schools were right to reinstate the tradition of displaying plaques to honor local students who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Schools prominently display trophies and awards students earn for academics and sports, and students who serve our country deserve the same recognition.

Losers

A report released by John Hopkins University suggests that Des Moines high schools like East, North and Lincoln are “dropout factories,” but Dr. Nancy Sebring, superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools says that’s not true. The university, using a federal government formula to calculate graduation rates, found that the overall graduation rate in Des Moines is 84 percent, with the city’s five high schools spanning in rate from 81.8 percent (East), to 90 percent (Lincoln), to 90.2 percent (North), to 93.4 percent (Hoover) and to 94 percent (Roosevelt). Sebring says the study “seems to be more about garnering headlines than in sharing meaningful information,” adding the formula doesn’t include student mobility, freshmen that don’t receive enough credits and who are labeled as second-year ninth graders or students who take more or less than four years to complete high school. Nonetheless, Sebring said anything less than 100 percent merits a need for improvement and she’s right. For example, the graduation rate in 2006 for Scavo was 50 percent while the rate at other special programs such as PACE and Bridges was 70.3 percent. Ultimately, however, the teenager who doesn’t graduate from high school stands to lose the most in this scenario being argued by education experts, no matter what formula is being used to calculate graduation rates.

Is America winning the war on drugs? Government statistics say otherwise. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration each year conducts a survey on drug use and health, which contains detailed information about drug use in this country. Last year, the group found, 20.4 million Americans 12 years and older, constituting 8.3 percent of the population, used illicit drugs. That’s an increase of 700,000 from 2005 and more than 7 million people from 1996 (13 million, or 6.4 percent of the population). Experts say many Americans have fallen to the crack cocaine or methamphetamine epidemics that rage in different parts of the country. Others, they say, can’t shake their heroin habits, while young people experiment with club drugs like Ecstasy or snort OxyContin. Across the country, the study says, the most affected group is 18 to 25 year olds, in which one out of five has used an illicit drug in the last month. Overall, in 2006, one in 10 Americans and more than one in four young adults used marijuana. Also, more than seven million people used cocaine and more than 14 million abused a prescription drug. CV

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