I received the following email today from Senator Mitch McConnell.
He really needs to get some people on his staff who can read and understand education research.
It is not that hard.
So should Rand Paul, Lamar Alexander, and the other senators who are pushing vouchers.
He would learn, for example, that students in voucher schools have not outperformed students in public schools anywhere.
He doesn’t mention that in this letter, so maybe he does know it and doesn’t care.
He would learn that voucher schools appear to have a higher graduation rate because they have a huge attrition rate.
For example, in Milwaukee, 56% of the students who started vouchers schools in ninth grade dropped out before reaching graduation.
So, the 44% who did not drop out were more likely to have a higher graduation rate than the public schools that accepted the dropouts from the voucher schools.
Why do these so-called “conservatives” want to destroy their own community’s public schools? There is nothing conservative about that.
Conservatives protect traditional institutions.
Conservatives protect their community.
Conservatives are not anarchists.
Funny they don’t mention that vouchers have never been approved in any referendum. Voters don’t want their public dollars to go to religious or unregulated private schools.
McConnell writes:
We, as conservatives, know that the government is not the best place to do a lot of things. Although, if government must take action, we prefer that the most local level of government addresses an issue.
Sometimes, every level of government creates obstacles to success. I consider it a priority in the United States Senate to remove those obstacles and help citizens, taxpayers and parents succeed.
That is why I am fighting hard for more choice and freedom in our schools.
School choice and parental control are issues I hold dear, which is why I am proud to join my friends Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Tim Scott, Lamar Alexander and others at an important school choice forum.
Every child, whatever their background and no matter where they live, deserves a great education and a chance to succeed in life. Unfortunately, Washington and the entire education establishment are failing our kids.
Every decision that Washington has made in recent years seems to bring more power to the federal government, leaving less control for local schools and parents.
However, school choice is working where it has been allowed to replace the education establishment. Here are a few facts about school choice and the positive consequences of a successful education:
In Washington, the voucher program increased the graduation rate by 21 percent.
By 25, the average high school dropout earns $18,796 per year. On the other hand, the average college graduate with a bachelor’s degree is earning $26,699 per year and will earn nearly 100% more over their lifetime than a high school dropout.
How do we get more young Americans to earn bachelor’s degrees instead of becoming another dropout statistic?
The answer is school choice, and I will continue to fight alongside my colleagues in the Senate to expand the control that parents have over their child’s education.
You can also help by making sure I can keep fighting in Washington. Fighting for choice in education. Fighting for local control of schools. Fighting for parents and taxpayers.
“Fighting for local control of schools” AND vouchers? Looks like they have a playbook…similar talking points by Rand Paul on CNN a few minutes ago.
“Government is not good for a lot of things?” Seems to have worked for his getting rich.
I can hear the eyes rolling of regular readers here.
Does he think these are original ideas? Isn’t this, like, sooo yesterday’s failed experiment?
I would like to hear a Chris Rock sketch on this. Where is Chris? He would know what to say to this.
You are hilarious!
Well, I would expect nothing different from McConnell and the rest of his cronies. They have been distdeborting everything possible for the last 5 years in particular and even prior to that. Nothing shuts them up because their “think tanks” spend all their time trying to second-guess everything that they perceive as a threat to their patriarchal, white, Judeo-Christian, wealthy, pro-war, heartless and hateful agenda. They manufacture “facts”. They defend their decisions via Fox news and Pat Robertson. They ask leading questions that are deliberately misleading. They want to insulate their cohorts from them”other”. And, it seems that they have enough money to manipulate almost every state.
It would be less confusing if we cut through the nonsense. “Conservative” is Southern code for “White Racist.” That’s the way it was when the “Solid South” was run by Democrats and what it still means now that many former Democrats have switched to the Republican Party.
Not ALL of the South is racist. Grow up.
“How do we get more young Americans to earn bachelor’s degrees…?”
“The answer is school choice.” ??
Seriously?
Seriously?
Sounds like the makings of a great SNL skit to me.
Mr.McConnell may have missed his true calling.
Why do they view educating children as a “fight” in the first place?
Good point. It could be coward’s word.
But wait a minute: Since when are voucher students attending private or religious schools subject to a state’s assessments? required to participate in that state’s NAEP testing? In some states there are laws that protect private and parochial schools from having to administer state or national assessments, even though a high majority of them (the non-elite ones, that is) actually receive some level of federal Title I and IDEA dollars and other kinds of state support, such as free pupil transportation paid for by the local school district, state breakfast/lunch subsidies, state assistance with purchasing textbooks, and occasional state assistance with capital repairs.
Surely those private and parochial schools that accept vouchers have higher graduation rates because there’s little more than seat time and reasonable behavior that determines whether their students can graduate. There’s no requirement for these schools to ensure that the curriculum meets rigorous state standards or is aligned to the state’s tests, and no hectic preparations getting ready for the common core and its new assessments. Lower standards (not readily discernible from the ubiquitous grade inflation in nearly all schools these days), no high-stakes testing, and also no state certification rules for teachers, no state department of education breathing down their backs, or impertinent teachers and their unions to contend with.
So is this the kind of magic bullet — choice above all else! — that McConnell, Alexander, and the other Republicans so desperately want? That’s the direct opposite of their cries for “more accountability.” Rather, it offers children and their parents the “choice” of an all-too-often grimmer future than that afforded by even the lowest-performing public schools. And just which of these schools will be willing to serve the toughest and costliest kids to educate? We all know the answer to that: the disciplinary problems, the unmotivated students, the ELL and SPED students, they’ll all be “stuck” in traditional public schools with fewer and fewer resources, less and less opportunity.
Or is “choice” nothing more than a ruse to allow, promote, and further entrench racial and economic class divisions across this nation?
Scary dudes, these Republican leaders — and what’s more, there are plenty of equally scary Dems who agree with them, especially among the influential billionaires and their philanthropic organizations! After all, there’s not much difference between vouchers and the rabid support from politicians of all political persuasions pushing the charter agenda, including Obama supporters right down to the Ron Paul and Rush Limbaugh types. Daily this is becoming an increasingly vicious zero-sum no-win game, with funding of voucher and charter schools clearly taking a toll in starving out traditional public schools and effecting an end to the melting pot ideals of the common school in America.
Good summary of some very bad policy.
But bad policy is now – and has been for about three decades – the official policy of the Republican party.
Sorry, too long to read.
I have an idea.
All pro-public school folks should pretend we are in Back to the Future. We have been taken back to 1963 and we see all of what we see. While Doc fixes the Flex Capacitor, we must sereptitiously solve some very strong threats to public school across the country.
What will we do? How will we dodge Biff and keep our parents from wanting to go on a date with us AND fix the public schools? We can do it. First, we have to dress like we are in the 60s. (Of course we have some liberties as women and minorities that we wouldn’t have but I think it would be/could be a good mental exercise. Roll play is often used in therapy and problem solving.
1963. What are we going to do?
And Role play, rather. For that matter.
Personally I like the thought of “roll play”!
Which part of the 60s do we dress up as the early -thin ties, bobbi sox, beehives and all or the late 60s when the clothing ranged from none to hippiesque. Or perhaps a little Nehru look from the mid 60s.
Well, first of all let me state Mitch McConnell’s face reminds me of a turtle’s face. Secondly, how old is this relic and when was the last time he or his children, or grandchildren for that matter, went to a public school? I’d like to know where he got the research that shows public schools are failing our students. I think he should be required to ‘prove it’ publicly or write a retraction….better yet, an apology to every student and teacher in America.
Well, obviously, whatever school that taught Mitch and his friends failed miserably. He wouldn’t know a fact or truth if either slapped him in the face.
He is right about the federal government causing problems (for public school)–but I don’t see the answer to that being school choice. There are hundreds of answers to deal with that besides school choice.
In my life, I do not ever remember a time when people simply heard what sounded good to them, and it became unalterably true—accurate information and statistics be damned.
I understand the dislike for school choice and do not want to see public schools close. However, I want to note that the parochial schools in my Archdiocese (but I cannot speak for other private schools in my state) are SACCS accredited as a system, follow our state’s curriculum including CCSS for Math and ELA and participate in standardized testing as well. In fact, our students start testing in 2nd grade while my state’s public school students mostly start in third grade. We are expected to show value added each year. (This is my superintendent’s requirements…not the State Superintendent) Now that the Alabama Accountability Act (which I did not agree with because of the way it was passed by the way) has passed, allowing students in “failing public schools” to pay for private schools using state tax credits, private schools are being required to register with the State Deprtment of Education and have a host of rules that they must follow.(Not a bad idea, in my opinion.) I have taught in two Catholic Schools in my city, both inner city and both including students who would have IEPs in public chools that we make accomodations for. Not non-public schools “get away with murder”. I support public schools; I just happened to get my first job offer fom a Catholic School (I applied with my city’s public schools as well) and like being able to teach my faith.
The only thing I worry about with that is if crazy testing starts in public preschool, will private and church preschools follow suit for high ratings.
In the private school I taught in we gave the 8th graders one standardized achievement test. But that was pre-CCSS.
Does yourCatholic school feel proud to have the same standards? Or is it cumbersome?
Do your students get vouchers?
Diane, you write:
“Funny they don’t mention that vouchers have never been approved in any referendum. Voters don’t want their public dollars to go to religious or unregulated private schools.”
How then did the Milwaukee vouchers get approved?
Milwaukee vouchers were enacted by the State Legislature, never submitted to voters. Same true in DC and Cleveland. Whenever voters have been asked to vote on vouchers, they have turned them down, most recently in Florida in November 2022.
We didn’t vote for vouchers in NC but we now have them. We did not vote to remove due process rights from teachers but it has happened.
“How do we get more young Americans to earn bachelor’s degrees instead of becoming another dropout statistic?” so sayeth Mr. McConnell, purveyor of the false dichotomy.
Once again Mitch, like all the other ignorant Ed-reformers is telling us that what is good for our kids is less than what is good for people like him and his grandchildren. Vouchers are great for wealthy people because it would help defray some of the costs of going to the private schools their children already attend.
Mitch speaks of how much more money someone with a college degree will make that a high school dropout (A few years back I would have agreed). Really Mitch, considering the rising cost of a college education that could be a wash soon, especially if politicians like you fail to enact programs that will produce any decent paying jobs for those college graduates. So higher education takes a beating as well.
Of course there is always those college degree required, $7.50 an hour jobs, as a cashier at McDonalds available. Of all the occupations I dreamed of doing when I was growing up a fast food restaurant cashier wasn’t one of them. I also know I never thought of having my heart and brain removed so I could become a politician.
The public education reform game is a circular one. Mitch and his fellow politicians sell out our children’s education to the highest bidder, whether it’s for profit charters schools, test publishers, groups like TFA, or hedge fund operators, it doesn’t matter to them. Then to make the uniformed, apathetic public think our schools are failing they raise the competency requirements of tests like the Common Core to unreasonable levels (sometimes two grade levels above a student’s actually ability considering age and maturity level) and when many students fail they tell us it’s public education and poor teaching that are causing schools and students to fail. Then they doctor the data (or just flat out lie) and stack the deck against public education via media blitzes and say we need vouchers and charters schools to stop the slide to mediocrity. Then the cycle begins again. Lies and more damn lies.
Most charter schools, including KIPP, are on average not as good at educating children, as are public schools, even though they receive more money per student. As we all know many charter schools are just plain garbage. They throw away kids, who don’t perform, back to those BAD public schools and recruit the best students they can find. Mitch also fails to mention that private schools have lower class sizes and can get rid of any student for most any reason as well.
How can he say he is for parental control and school choice when schools in the large cities are being shut down and re-opened as charter schools? Parents are protesting all over the country, but they are being ignored. I think what Mitch means is wealthy parental choice and control. No wonder Chicago decides to build a $400 million dollar prison, instead of keeping schools open. They are taking education away from children, not creating any jobs or opportunity for those that live in poverty and the lower middle class. What better place to get cheap labor? There was a reason the laws where changed in the 70s and 80s; to put more young black men in the private prisons that where being built. These goons are coming back for more, but this time I don’t think they care about race, just income, or lack thereof, levels. Any poor person will do.
RICK ARCHER: You write: “They are taking education away from children, not creating any jobs or opportunity for those that live in poverty and the lower middle class. What better place to get cheap labor? ”
Your criterion by which to judge a government is exactly correct, the extent to which its policies promote economic growth and solid middle class jobs. Unfortunately, it is the policies of the Democrat administration which have suppressed growth by excessive regulation, uncertainty of the economic environment, and especially excessive borrowing to fund expanded government programs such as Obamacare, which have limited economic activity, and thus tax revenues.
You blame Republicans, but they are not the ones to blame. Even in his most recent economic speech, President Obama offers lowered corporate tax rates (to 20%), a good certainly, and would indeed result one would hope in repatriation of some or all of the profits which American corporations are sitting on abroad, but then he wants to shovel that money right out the door again in infrastructure projects, which would be in general a good thing, but in this business climate, what investors are looking for is reduction of the debt load in the country. So, one doesn’t take him seriously. He seems to want the money just to make work for his union supporters or if it doesn’t pass to beat up on Republicans with.
NOTE, he doesn’t want it to do to education per-se, but to infrastructure projects, which would otherwise be a wonderful stimulus for the economy if one thought it would be of general benefit and not just targeted at his political supporters. It is indeed, Mr. Obama, who is doing this, maintaining the supply of cheap labor. If the economy were allowed to expand, then education would indeed lead to good jobs.
Your fulminations are intrinsically correct, but totally misaimed
Just to make it very clear, I blame them all. I blame the regressionists. I blame those who vote for any party whose ideology promotes corporations and not citizens. All of this nonsense is hurting all of us, especially the most needy.
I don’t want to hear about Obama/Liberals/Dems as being the problem, because that is not close to the truth. However, I loathe his/their education policies and other things he/they have not done to help the needy citizens or the middle class of this country. I do think all citizens should have health care, I believe that is our responsibility to each other.
I loathe the Republicans/tea party/ultra-conservatives who real goal is to block everything, while taking away citizen and women rights.
I loathe them all for doing nothing for the poverty stricken children of this country.
So Harlan, I blame them all, but most of all I blame the people who vote for politicians who are funded by the ALEC, the Koch brothers and their ilk.
By the way the debt load has gone down by quite a bit in the last four years. I won’t give him or anyone else credit for that, but budgets (unfortunately not those the affect the rich and corporations) have been cut. The defense budget needs to be cut by another 25%.
As for corporations, I would agree with a 20% tax if they would agree to bring manufacturing jobs back to this country. Some do so much of their business abroad maybe it’s time to take away their tax breaks here in the U.S. and consider them foreign based corporations.
The truly sad fact is that politicians (I can think of a handle that fight the good fight) are only interested in fund raising and getting re-elected. Too bad all politicians are held to the two term limit the presidency is. We would all be much better off.
Let’s agree that both sides are at fault for the issues in this country.
I’m a registered Independent for a reason. What I wrote in my previous comments are the aimed correctly, but you are certainly entitled to your opinion.
In January of this year a Kansas court held that the students were entitled to immediate relief because “school opportunities do not repeat themselves,” and it chastised the state for “experimenting with our children [who] have no recourse from a failure of the experiment.”
Maybe Senator Mitch McConnell should listen closely to the words of his State of Kansas Judicial branch and check all his facts and figures before he goes headstrong into the night.
He represents Kentucky not Kansas.
Same difference isn’t it?
Joanna & Harlan…I don’t mind having the same standards as public schools in my state as long as they are reasonable. . but personally,NCLB was crazy and I am not that fond of CCSS and I’m just praying that we don’t start doing multiple high stakes tests througout the year. Albama has gone with ACT’s Aspire tests and I am not really sure what they involve. (They will be administered for the first time in 2014.) I’m also not sure if my system will use that or someting else. (My system has used Iowa Test Of Basic Skills for as long as I can remember, but unless it has been revamped, it does not go along with CC, so we will have to change, unless it has been revamped. Alabama’s public schools have been using Alabama’s Reading and Math Test Plus for a while now and previously used the Stanford Achievement Test.) It may be that under the new Accountability ACt that we have to use the same tests…I just don’t know. Yes, if Alabama starts crazy testing in preschool, we will probably follow. We may have no choice with the new rules set fourth by the State Department of Education in regards to the lAabama Accountability Act. As for vouchers…the Alabama Accountability Act, just passed in early 2013. It allows state tax credits to help parents pay for a private school tuition or fees to transfer to an out of district public school. Only parents of students zoned for a public school that has been deemed as failing and whose children must have attended public schools the school previous year are elligible. Only four schools (all four inner city middle schools) in my city have beendeemed as failing; an impressive fact considering that mycity has the largest number of public schools in it’s system within Alabama. I know we have had a few parents call about wanting t put their child in my school…I do not know if any have actually registered or not. Parents of such students also have the option of transfeing to a non-public failing school within the district. (This has been an option even before NCLB when Alabama started rating schools several years prior to NCLB.)
It would indeed be a shame if the Catholic school systems chose to or were required to drink the testing kool aid.
I’d like to personally privatize Mitch McConnell and sell him off to the open market or auction him off to the highest bidder. UPS shipping will be waived. . .
1st bid: -50$
Yes, you have to pay me to take him off your hands!
I concur. So receding a chin I have never seen.
Then let’s just put him on clearance or toss him into the poubelle . . . . . . . maybe with such defective merchandise, there’ll be a recall.
I would like to challenge teachers, and their unions, to actively seek to unseat every pro reform, pro vouchet, pro charter lawmaker and governor. And in my small state, Delaware, most of them are Democrats- including our governor. That’s because the Republican party is all but dead, due to the Tea Party influence.
Sadly, MY union, endorses any and every Democrat, no matter how he or she has shafted teachers and public schools.
We have that issue in NC, somewhat, where Democrats were in line with RttT. I think old Blue Dog Dems have just always assumed their elected folks would have public school’s best interests in mind. Not so with RttT.
Assumptions–rarely a good thing.
Mitch should have been out of a job a long time ago. He’s a career politician who doesn’t care about anything except making sure he keeps his job and that people he dislikes will be defeated when running for re-election.
I feel like using my red pen on these phrases! I suppose it’s the least I can do.
“Every child, whatever their background and no matter where they live”
“their lifetime”
“The average college graduate with a bachelor’s degree is earning 26,699 per year and will earn 100% more over their entire lifetime than a high school dropout.”
Yes, let’s saddle our future worker bees with student loan payments and ensure a workforce that will be able to pay federal taxes! After all, lower incomes means less funds in the federal coffers.
This isn’t about what’s best for our children. It’s about maintaining the feudalistic exploitations of the masses. If our leaders were truly concerned about providing Americans with a top-notch education, then college would not be so expensive. Maybe I’m naive here, but it seems to me we are all being groomed for a lifetime of debt.
My son is 25 and a high-school graduate. He did exceptionally well in school. He mastered the mandatory state tests. I couldn’t afford to send him to college and I don’t want him to be overwhelmed with student loans. Maybe he would have a greater chance of securing a higher wage, but most of that will go to paying off student loans, not to mention paying more taxes. Looking at the bigger picture, we can all now understand why there’s such a push for better education.
We the people must pay more taxes!
And the few at the top get richer.
**sigh**
Let’s just come right out and say it: Sen. Mitch McConnell is an unreformed liar.
He says that he wants to “help citizens, taxpayers and parents succeed.” That’s demonstrably false. McConnell, as minority leader in the Senate, has done everything in his power to thwart the efforts of President Obama to improve the economy and help middle- and working-class citizens. McConnell has opposed Obamacare – which would provide health insurance to millions of Americans who don’t have it – relentlessly. He is opposed to the expansion of Medicaid in his home state, which has incredibly high rates of cancer deaths, preventable hospitalizations, diabetes, cardiovascular deaths, child poverty and infant mortality. McConnell is, as one observer described him, “a ruthless partisan obstructionist.”
See: http://www.americashealthrankings.org/ky
Mitch McConnell is the prototypical Republican. He does not represent the interests of the average citizen, but of the corporate and wealthy “elite.” Indeed, as others have noted, “McConnell has, almost as a matter of routine, favored corporate subsidies and tax cuts for the wealthy over safety net support for Americans living in poverty.” It was through the efforts of McConnell that campaign finance reform was overturned in the Supreme Court through the Citizens United case. McConnell believes the oligarchs should rule the country instead of the people.
Mitch McConnell writes that “the entire education establishment” is “failing our kids.” Just another Mitch McConnell lie.
The Sandia Report (Journal of Educational Research, May/June, 1993), published in the wake of A Nation at Risk, concluded that:
* “..on nearly every measure we found steady or slightly improving trends.”
* “youth today [the 1980s] are choosing natural science and engineering degrees at a higher rate than their peers of the 1960s.”
* “business leaders surveyed are generally satisfied with the skill levels of their employees, and the problems that do exist do not appear to point to the k-12 education system as a root cause.”
“The student performance data clearly indicate that today’s youth are achieving levels of education at least as high as any previous generation.”
Reading is considered to be a key to learning and school achievement. Below are PISA reading scores (disaggregated for the U.S., which has an incredibly large, diverse, and increasingly poor student population:
Average score, reading literacy, PISA, 2009:
[United States, Asian students 541]
Korea 539
Finland 536
[United States, white students 525]
Canada 524
New Zealand 521
Japan 520
Australia 515
Netherlands 508
Belgium 506
Norway 503
Estonia 501
Switzerland 501
Poland 500
Iceland 500
United States (overall) 500
Sweden 497
Germany 497
Ireland 496
France 496
Denmark 495
United Kingdom 494
Hungary 494
OECD average 493
Portugal 489
Italy 486
Slovenia 483
Greece 483
Spain 481
Czech Republic 478
Slovak Republic 477
Israel 474
Luxembourg 472
Austria 470
[United States, Hispanic students 466]
Turkey 464
Chile 449
[United States, black students 441]
Mexico 425
The latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores, “collected regularly since the 1970s…paint a picture of steady student achievement that contradicts the popular notion that U.S. educational progress has stalled.”
See: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/academic-achievement-gap-is-narrowing-new-national-data-show/2013/06/27/6c47b764-debd-11e2-963a-72d740e88c12_story.html
The problem in American public education is largely one of poverty. The data show it. Indeed, PISA scores (the scores usually cited by public education critics) are quite sensitive to income level. If one disaggregates U.S. scores the problem becomes clearer: the more poverty a school has, the lower its scores. Alleviating poverty and its pernicious effects, and providing children with high quality environments before they get to school, and following up with health and academic and social policy programs while they are in school, results not only in high-quality education but also in a high-quality citizenry….and in promoting the general welfare of the nation. This is surely not what the “reformers” want. It might – it will – require a cessation to the gaming of the “markets” and the tax system.
And Mitch McConnell doesn’t want to have anything to do with that kind of genuine values-based reform.
My impression is that the connection between poverty and low achievement is a correlation, not a cause and effect relationship. You ASSUME that adequate health care, “high quality environments,” “academic and social policy programs” WOULD result “not only in high-quality education but also in a high-quality citizenry.” I am not aware of any case in which one could legitimately use the word you use: “results.”
A lot of us have faith that the remedies you propose would work and should work, but even where they have been tried, as far as I can tell, they have not.
If I am correct, then we are missing the TRUE cause and effect factor.
Perhaps you could educate me to a situation where the remedies you propose have worked. If not, then your remedy remains merely a pious hope, and we have to look deeper to find the true cause of black underperformance. I am of the FAITH it is underperformance, NOT intrinsic, as racists would have us believe, but how to permit kids to develop and flower as they humanly should remains a mystery.
Mitch McConnell’s email is so weak in argument and details that it is irritating to read. People are smarter than he thinks and many would see through this. Something else bothered me about a post from Diane:
“Milwaukee vouchers were enacted by the State Legislature, never submitted to voters. Same true in DC and Cleveland. Whenever voters have been asked to vote on vouchers, they have turned them down, most recently in Florida in November 2022.” (I guess you mean 2012)
This is madness. I wonder why a state legislature would not have its citizens vote on an issue that effects everyone. Is it because they are afraid it won’t pass? Why are they taking away a citizen’s choice in deciding whether or not vouchers are good for their state by becoming informed. I do not understand this method at all.
Interesting. In North Carolina, our legislators redistricted the Wake County school districts (we were just redistricted after the 2010 US Census), created new districts, and changed when we vote. They attempted (and will try again next session) to wrest complete control over school construction (siting, building, maintaining) from our school district and give it to the Board of Commissioners. Never mind the excellent job done by our award-winning school district staff.
So when Mitch McConnell writes “if government must take action, we prefer that the most local level of government addresses an issue,” it makes me laugh. What planet is he living on?
Pay special attention to this part of the last paragraph:
“You can also help by making sure I can keep fighting in Washington. Fighting for choice in education.”
This is really a fundraising appeal for Sen. McConnell. It is only paying lip service to an issue he thinks his consituents care about. He’s fighting a hugh re-election campaign for 2014 and has some strong competition.
But, like all politicians seeking re-election, he floats out the red herring, making the voters chase the stink and promises to fix that, while willfully and gleefully ignoring the obvious problems that need addressing that could indeed “fix” public education.
Once again, the issue of choice. What the proponents of “choice in public education” don’t understand is that many, many parents cannot make choices for their children. I am talking about the parents of many of my students in inner city Philly. Parents who live in poverty do not research options for their children, they send them to the neighborhood schools. It is sad, but these are parents who might have dropped out of school, they are in jail, involved in drugs, and many other issues that impede sound decision-making. Some of my students live in foster homes, homeless shelters or sleep on a relative’s couch. This is not the fault of the children. I am tired of people assuming that everyone lives in the comfort of a middle class home with involved parents who can “choose” for their children. This is not reality. We need excellent public neighborhood schools if we want to help poor children create better futures for themselves.
You seem to be saying that the real cause of black underperformance is ignorant and exhausted and addicted, and improvident parents. It is my FAITH that good neighborhood schools can go a long way in helping kids. BUT my question is, can you expect better result even with super schools as long as the home is still a psychological shambles? Is the home environment the crucial element is good school performance? Is the home environment the TRUE CAUSE of the social disasters we see happening?
And if it IS the true cause, what remedies do you propose?
A further extension of your argument would seem to be good boarding schools from birth. Is that a solution to the problem of your students in Philly? Sort of treating the children of the poor as effectively orphaned, and providing orphanage schools for them? If weak or even negative parenting is the true cause, it might be cheaper in the long run to simply provide them residential schools from birth. But would anyone accept taking children away from parents? Isn’t having children HOW parents in poverty make their living?
Please don’t suggest extensions to my argument. I am only describing my experiences. Many of the poor children who I teach come from homes where the parents are experiencing issues that you cannot imagine. Yes, those issues affect a parent’s ability to make sound choices. A stressful home environment can definitely affect a child’s ability to be successful in school. We all want our students to be healthy and to get a great public education. From my experience, we can help these children with better in-school services (such as counseling, healthcare, family support centers). The Harlem Children’s Zone in NYC has been successful in providing these services to help their students. Of course, they receive up to 66 million a year in private donations (2010). I teach in Philly, where our counselors have all been laid off. Taking a child at birth and putting him into an orphanage might be your idea, not mine.
Ah yes, the Harlem Children’s Zone. I had forgotten that Superman’s project “worked.”
Could something like that help your kids?
(eyes rolling), what I find so disgusting, is that the *really* think that someone who shelled out “just a few” thousand grand, and earned themselves a bachelor’s degree making, $26,699 is a lot of money? That, in todays income is still poverty level. But then, what do you expect from rePUKElicans?
Julia, I hate the GOP just as much as you do, but let’s not forget the agenda of the DFERs and our current president. The Democrats, for whom I’ve only voted, have become just as corrupt, just as monied, and now are posing themselves in the toxic light of “neoliberalism”. . . . . save for Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and a few others.
Both parties are rotten.