Despite high-minded political posturing and programs like NCLB, the truth is these youngsters are forgotten and abused. They're warehoused in decrepit facilities, curricula offerings ignore their needs, testing is unrelated to learning, teachers don't teach, the whole scheme is swept under the rug, and "educating" the unwanted is "standardized" to produce good workers with pretty low skill levels for the kinds of jobs awaiting them. Kozol refers to "school reform" as a "business enterprise with goals, action plans, implementation targets, and productivity measures," and above all what marketplace potential there is.
Separate and unequal is the current inner city school standard. Unless it's exposed, denounced and reversed, (and there's no sign of it), millions of poor and minority children will be denied what the "American dream" increasingly only offers the privileged. And no one in Washington cares or they'd be doing something about it.
Disturbing New Dropout Data
A new Editorial Projects in Education (EPE) Research Center report released April 1 is revealing, disturbing but not surprising. It states only 52% of public high school students in the nation's 50 largest cities completed the full curriculum and graduated in 2003 - 2004. This compares to the national average of 70%. Below are some of the findings:
-- 1.2 million public high school students drop out each year;
-- 17 of the 50 troubled cities have graduation rates of 50% or lower; in Detroit it's 24.9%; Indianapolis is 30.5%; Cleveland at 34.1%; Baltimore - 34.6%; Columbus - 40.9%; Minneapolis - 43.7%; Dallas - 44.4%; New York - 45.2%; Los Angeles - 45.3%; Oakland - 45.6%; Kansas City - 45.7%; Atlanta - 46%; Milwaukee - 46.1%; Denver - 46.3%; Oklahoma City - 47.5%; Miami - 49%; and Philadelphia - 49.6%;
-- Chicago barely came in at 51.5%;
-- the data show public education in the 50 largest cities' principal school districts in a virtual state of collapse;
-- dropout rates for blacks and Latinos are significantly higher than for white students;
-- dropouts are eight times more likely to end up in prison; family income is the main problem; in cities most affected, it goes hand in hand with a lack of good jobs and a sub-standard social infrastructure;
-- key to understanding the overall problem nationwide is the gutting of social services, widening income gap between rich and poor, exporting manufacturing and other high-paying jobs abroad, and politicians and business exploiting the needs of the many to benefit the few;
-- NCLB "reform" is called the solution; Democrats and Republicans are complicit in promoting it, and no one in government explains the truth - the report reveals a sinister scheme to end public education, say it causes poor student performance, and privatize it so the "market" can provide it to well-off communities and merely exploit the rest for profit.
Why else would the (Bill) Gates Foundation have funded the study and Colin Powell's America's Promise Alliance have sponsored it. APA is partnered with business, faith-based (Christian fundamentalist) groups, wealthy funders, and organizations like the American Bankers Association, right wing Aspen Institute, Business Roundtable, Ford Motor, Fannie Mae, Marriott International, National Association of Manufacturers, US Chamber of Commerce and many other for-profit ones and NGOs.
Educational Maintenance Organizations
It's a new term for an old idea that's much like their failed HMO counterparts. They're private-for-profit businesses that contract with local school districts or individual charter schools to "improve the quality of education without significantly raising current spending levels." They're still rare, but watch out for them and what they're up to.
An example is the Edison Project running Edison (for-profit) Schools. It calls itself "the nation's leading public school partner, working with schools and districts to raise student achievement and help every child reach his or her full potential." In the 2006-2007 school year, Edison served over 285,000 "public school" students in 19 states, the District of Columbia and the UK through "management partnerships with districts and charter schools; summer, after-school, and Supplemental Educational Service programs; and achievement management solutions for school systems."
I am a 72 year old, retired, progressive small businessman concerned about all the major national and world issues, committed to speak out and write about them.
The author has problems with every aspect of our education system except two: unions and the maintaining the status quo. It would have been nice to hear his take on the role unions play in determining every aspect of running our schools. It would have been nice to hear a comment on the fact that the rise of unionism in the schools parallels the decline of education in this country.
His viewpoints coincide with those of the unions. It is clear that the teacher's unions are not acting in the best interest of the children of this country. They oppose every reform, good or bad. If we truly want to improve education in this country then we have to limit union input into the educational system.
Charter schools can be a good thing. My son transferred to one after he stood up to a teacher trying to indoctorinate him in the public schools. I was called in for a 'teachers meeting' and sat in a room full of progressive, like minded unionized robots who were interested only in making my son toe THEIR line. In stead of using what my son said as a basis for dicsussion the teacher turned the class loose on him like a pack of rabid dogs because she did not agree with what he said. My son stood up for himself and recognized what happened and kept on arguing. This was not permitted in our Fascist school systems. Submit or else, so I was called in so I could help him see the errors in his ways. Big mistake on their smug, know-it-all part. He was in a charter school the next week. The charter school he went to was entirely different. Teachers cared about the students and worked hard to ensure they succeeded. Why? Because their salary increases and their jobs depended on it. They did not have a union protecting their smug political attitudes and teaching incompetence. Teachers, students, and parents at the charter school worked on one goal, the education of that student. A marvelous school. I would suggest to the author that he go visit a local charter school and a local high school and see what the differences are if he can in one visit. Talk to the parents instead of reading so called research by politically motivated and union financed or influenced groups.
All charter schools are not perfect by any means. But in my case I am glad that I had a choice. If I hadn't been working I would have home schooled my son. It is too bad others who are trapped in union run school systems do not have a choice if their school in a cesspool of educational incompetence. The unions don't want people to have that choice because it will be their death knell and they know it. The author knows it too because that is why he finds nothing but fault with all reform efforts. He wants children under the thumb of teacher unions. Teacher unions fight against reform like NCLB because they do not want to be held accountable for educating the children they deal with. I would have loved to have worked in a job where I wasn't accoutable for what I did. Be responsible? It isn't the Progressive/union way. The author wants to make the President responsible for want goes on in the classroom or whether school XYZ is successful or not. That is flat out ridiculous. The teachers, the administrators, the parents and the students are responsible, not some out-of-touch politician sitting in Washington no matter what his or her party is.
President Bush and Senator Kennedy should be given a little credit for trying to do something to end the evil stranglehold unions have on the educational system. No one else dares to buck the unions. The Progressives sure won't so you will not see any meaningful educational reform if a Democrat gets elected. More money for education (teacher's unions) doesn't equal reform. $25,000 / child is spent in Washington DC and they have one of the worst educational systems in the US. Money is not the answer. Accountability is. Non-unionized schools are.
by
Mad Jayhawk (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 224 comments)
on Monday, April 7, 2008 at 7:03:55 PM
There is no connection (unless you want to create one in your mind) between the teacher who promotes certain views in the classroom and the Unions. BTW, the comment above does not say what particular views of his son were considered and why the teacher was so upset. Big deal, really. BTW, the schools are not 'run by the unions'. They are run by school boards and those boards are elected by the local taxpayers. THAT is the problem. Public education in the US is paralysed because of the local taxes' funding. It has to be national, standardised, equal and have the same level from top to bottom. As for the non-unionised schools- private or charter- so be it if you can afford those. But unions themselves as the ones of professional people are a blessing as soon as the schools are in sorts toys of the local governments.
Returning back to the comment above: Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. You always find what you seek. Wrong method of teaching can be interpreted as 'union bias', etc. The US public education suffers from one and only one disease- IT IS NOT PUBLIC!
That's the issue. And no homeschooling can correct that.
by
Mark Sashine (46 articles, 19 quicklinks, 235 diaries, 3359 comments)
on Tuesday, April 8, 2008 at 8:57:19 AM
