In today’s New York Times, Nicholas Kristof offers a list of “gifts with meaning” for Christmas giving.
He can’t avoid making a gratuitous slap at public education.
He writes:
We’re seeing painful upheavals about race on university campuses these days, but the civil rights issue in America today is our pre-K through 12th grade education system, which routinely sends the neediest kids to the worst schools. To address these roots of inequality, a group called Communities in Schools (communitiesinschools.org) supports disadvantaged kids, mostly black and Latino, in elementary, middle and high schools around the country.
I’m all for sending money to Communities in Schools, but it is an outright lie to say that our K-12 education system “routinely sends the neediest kids to the worst schools.” Some of our nation’s most dedicated teachers and principals are working in schools in the nation’s poorest communities. The children they serve include disproportionate numbers who have disabilities and who don’t speak English. Many live in unsafe neighborhoods, seldom get routine medical care, do not have food security or even a home. Almost all so-called “failing schools” are located in neighborhoods that are racially segregated and impoverished. Why would Kristof smear the professionals who work there in a spirit of service?
I got an email from the celebrated children’s book author Jean Marzollo, who wrote that she was outraged by Kristof’s derogatory comments about the schools:
My anger came from what I thought was a sweeping insult to the people who work in his so-called “worst schools.” When visiting schools over the years as a children’s book author, I have met many wonderful teachers, principals, and other staff members in his so-called “worst schools” that serve our “disadvantaged kids, mostly black and Latino.” The word “routinely” is a bit insulting, too, because it implies that people in charge of schools don’t care.
I wish Mr. Kristof had said that “…the civil rights issue in America today is our pre-K through 12th grade education system, which for various legal and financial reasons sends our neediest kids to schools with the highest populations of poor kids. The fundamental problem of our neediest kids and our neediest schools is poverty.”
The civil rights issue of our time is to reduce poverty and eliminate segregated neighborhoods, so that all children have the opportunity to have a good life and the opportunity to go to a good school.
Of all the people writing for the New York Times today, Nicholas Kristof should understand the link between poverty and low academic outcomes.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
She’s absolutely right!
40% of America’s children live in poverty. 20% of black kids live in poverty.
NIck Kristoff characterizes school because he is a moron, and a stooge of the AIC https://greatschoolwars.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/eic-oct_11.pdf
Let’s here what Bernie has to say about teachers, schools and poverty… and BY THE WAY — SEND THIS LINK to all teachers an parents who think that Hillary is the ONE… because it is Bernie who has always supported public education.
Hillary is a fan of charter schools — always has been. She recently came out with a statement calling for charter schools to be more transparent and “accountable,” and saying charters don’t have a great record taking/retaining the neediest children. Nice mini-admission. But, make no mistake, she will continue to beat the drum for charter schools ALONG with her support for public schools. We will be no better off under Hillary than we are under Obama. Unfortunately, Bernie’s education positions are murky. Someone needs to work on him.
I have been working on him, for months, sending links to my writing at Oped on the subject, and complete synopsis of what is afootthe legislative takeovers, the 30year war on teachers. I wrote to his campaign managers, to his press secretary to his offices, to his friend sad to his BROTHER AND WIFE… never got a reply, BUT here in this video he says many of the things I wrote to him and sometimes verbatim, so maybe I did get though… and in every missive I told him to contact Diane to get the best run-down of the facts. He needs to say what he says here, on national media and in many places.
Dorothy, the charter school advocates and deformers are certainly very unhappy with Hillary Clinton now. For example:
https://www.edreform.com/2015/11/hillary-clintons-comments-on-charter-schools/
I greatly doubt that she will get any donations now from Broad or Gates or anyone who advocates charters and deform.
While Bernie has not taken a stand at all on education, and his recent education votes in the Senate (on ECAA amendments) were right in line with the deformers.
Kristof doesn’t understand the connection between poverty and achievement but neither did Bob Greenberg (in fact he denied it), DD or any members of the LB Board.
Another cornerstone of your campaign “while my opponent poured money into elitist curriculums like IB he left impoverished students with no avenues to achievement. I have spent much of my career working with these students at the NIKE school only to have DD close it with my opponent’s approval.
Sent from my iPad
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There is no link between poverty and achievement because…KIPP. (That’s how folks in Kristof’s milieu think).
The civil rights issue of our times is that poverty is being used by our wealthiest and most powerful as a political . . basketball!
The people who keep denying the connection between poverty and achievement have been, in my experience, people, who because they were working class, felt poor but who were not. Generally, they received a lot of economic support in one way or another and had relatively well-educated parents. They may have experienced, briefly, having relative little money compared to their peers, but they were never in poverty. I call them on it.
Until you must sleep under your mother’s bed, lived in a garage, helped old lady’s at the grocery with their carts for a quarter in order to buy shoes, never been to a doctor, stop whining about how you pulled yourself up by the boot straps. If you have been to public school, lived on subsidized rent, had at least one parent working for above minimum wage (or even minimum wage in the sixties), and had a parent who went to eighth grade, stop whining about how poor you were. You started well above the pack I sometimes taught.
“If you have been to public school, lived on subsidized rent, had at least one parent working for above minimum wage (or even minimum wage in the sixties), and had a parent who went to eighth grade, stop whining about how poor you were.”
Man, you’re tough! They were poor! The difference probably laid in their ability to expect better and the support (and luck) to actually make it. They have probably been seduced by the welfare queen fairy tale, and there are those who have become dependent on social service who have no clue how to change the narrative. You can understand, though, the unwillingness among some who have traveled close to the edge to carry someone who they don’t see as having made any effort to take care of themselves.
Who owns the major media companies? No more needs to be said, except when are people going to stop supporting the people who are making their lives hell and destroying the future for our children and grandchildren.
Dr. Ravitch, agreed on this post.. However, Mr. Kristof is spot on in column linked below, which is possibly the most effective way to decrease poverty which does overburden the public school system.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/13/opinion/nicholas-kristof-politicians-teens-and-birth-control.html
Politicians, Teens and Birth Control
Please see comments posted here:
https://dianeravitch.net/2015/11/14/reader-how-should-you-live-an-ethical-life/
and here:
https://dianeravitch.net/2015/11/05/myra-blackmon-zero-tolerance-makes-matters-worse/
Along with the explosion of unplanned pregnancies, absent fathers, cycle of poverty (impoverished young mothers giving birth to future young impoverished parents), politicians, school leaders have imposed the following on the public school system:
(From “I’m saying it” on http://live.dallasnews.com/Event/Talk_DISD )
“This was shared on Facebook and I so agree. My take is, when do we say enough and put the responsibility back on the family? America’s first schools appeared in the early 1640s. They were designed to teach young people—originally, white boys—basic reading, writing, and arithmetic while cultivating values that served a new democratic society. The founders of these schools assumed that families and churches bore the major responsibility for raising a child.
During the 1700s, some civics, history, science, and geography were introduced, but the curriculum was limited and remained focused for 150 years.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, however, America’s leaders saw public schools as the logical place to select and sort young people into two groups—thinkers and doers—according to the needs of the industrial age. It was at this time that we began to shift non-academic duties to the schools. The trend has accelerated ever since.
From 1900 to 1910, we shifted to the school responsibilities related to:
Nutrition
Immunization
Health (Activities in the health arena multiply transportation
From 1910 to 1930, we added:.
Physical education (including organized athletics)
The Practical Arts/Domestic Science/Home economics (including sewing and cooking)
Vocational education (including industrial and agricultural education)
Mandated school transportation
In the 1940s, we added:.
Business education (including typing, shorthand, and bookkeeping)
Art and music
Speech and drama
Half-day kindergarten
School lunch programs (We take this for granted today, but it was a huge step to shift to the schools the job of feeding America’s children one third of their daily meals.)
In the 1950s, we added:.
Expanded science and math education
Safety education
Driver’s education
Expanded music and art education
Stronger foreign language requirements
Sex education (Topics continue to escalate.)
In the 1960s, we added:.
Advanced Placement programs
Head Start
Title I
Adult education
Consumer education (purchasing resources, rights and responsibilities)
Career education (occupational options, entry level skill requirements)
Peace, leisure, and recreation education [Loved those sixties.]
In the 1970s, the breakup of the American family accelerated,
and we added:.
Drug and alcohol abuse education
Parenting education (techniques and tools for healthy parenting)
Behavior adjustment classes (including classroom and communication skills)
Character education
Special education (mandated by federal government)
Title IX programs (greatly expanded athletic programs for girls)
Environmental education
Women’s studies
African-American heritage education
School breakfast programs (Now some schools feed America’s children two-thirds of their daily meals throughout the school year and all summer. Sadly, these are the only decent meals some children receive.)
In the 1980s, the floodgates opened, and we added:.
Keyboarding and computer education
Global education
Multicultural/Ethnic education
Nonsexist education
English-as-a-second-language and bilingual education
Teen pregnancy awareness
Hispanic heritage education
Early childhood education
Jump Start, Early Start, Even Start, and Prime Start
Full-day kindergarten
Preschool programs for children at risk
After-school programs for children of working parents
Alternative education in all its forms
Stranger/danger education
Antismoking education
Sexual abuse prevention education
Expanded health and psychological services
Child abuse monitoring (a legal requirement for all teachers)
In the 1990s, we added:.
Conflict resolution and peer mediation
HIV/AIDS education
CPR training
Death education
America 2000 initiatives (Republican)
Inclusion
Expanded computer and internet education
Distance learning
Tech Prep and School to Work programs
Technical Adequacy
Assessment
Post-secondary enrollment options
Concurrent enrollment options
Goals 2000 initiatives (Democratic)
Expanded Talented and Gifted opportunities
At risk and dropout prevention
Homeless education (including causes and effects on children)
Gang education (urban centers)
Service learning
Bus safety, bicycle safety, gun safety, and water safety education
In the first decade of the twenty-first century, we added:.
No Child Left Behind (Republican)
Bully prevention
Anti-harassment policies (gender, race, religion, or national origin)
Expanded early childcare and wrap around programs
Elevator and escalator safety instruction
Body Mass Index evaluation (obesity monitoring)
Organ donor education and awareness programs
Personal financial literacy
Entrepreneurial and innovation skills development
Media literacy development
Contextual learning skill development
Health and wellness programs
Race to the Top (Democratic)”
Nicholas Kristof is a clueless, ignorant, fool and idiot and totally out of touch with the reality of growing in a community mired in poverty and violent street gangs.
Kids who live in poverty are not forced into failing schools. Those schools are the community schools where those kids live. They are often underfunded compared to public schools in affluent committees.
The cause of schools labeled failures because of test scores will not be remedied because an Eva. Brown or Rhee moves in with their non-nonsense authoritarian suspension academies.
Those children will still live in poverty and soon those who are the most traumatized by that pvoerty will find themselves on the street with the suspension academies doors locked to them and the only option the street gangs affiliated with the Mexican drug cartels.
But Eva, Brown and Rhee will ignore the kids they dumped and act as if they never existed while they brag about increased test scores and wave a banner proclaiming victory over the public schools they replaced just like G. W. Bush did on that aircraft career after Saddam Husein was toppled by U.S. Troops in Iraq and we all know how accurate that victory speech was. What happened in Paris this week is just more evidence of Bush’s claimed victory in the Middle East.
Meanwhile street crime and violence will grow along with prison populations in the U.S. and Eva, Brown and Rhee will pay themselves seven to eight figure incomes because they think they deserve it.
Thanks, Lloyd.
Any honest analysis of the available data confirms your view. The economic inequality in our society is the primary cause, the test results are the effect.
Teachers do their best (just about every one I know, with some exceptions, and I taught in both public and private schools for over a quarter century).
Forgive me, but imagine what the Common Core Math would require a child to do to define what over a quarter of a century means. The answer might be twenty five minutes or a century.
Well, if it’s any comfort to you, Communities in Schools (I followed the link) seems to be an org that offers additional supports to schools- most of the success stories seem to revolve around hiring a coordinator and ADDING outside support to the schools in areas like mentoring or counseling or follow-up. I didn’t read them all but one of the success stories involves a girl who was able to stay in school because they got her to a dentist, another is about finding an adult mentor for a boy who was doing poorly and at risk to drop out.
So, the organization he supports doesn’t seem to adhere to the line he wrote, where these are somehow inherently bad schools or the school is solely responsible for all of the factors you mentioned. I don’t know why he chose to present it like he did but his intro seems to have nothing to do with what Communities in Schools actually does.