Texas Superintendent John Kuhn tells the story of two districts in adjacent districts, which are unequally funded but held to the same standards. Who should be held accountable? Look to the folks at the top, who make the crucial decisions about have and have-not schools and districts.
This video came out a year ago and has been viewed nearly two million times.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The funding disparity described in the video, not only applies to Texas. It applies to all systems that use real estate taxes to fund schools. This process creates a tiered system of “haves” and “have nots.” This funding system often short changes districts with poor, minority students that often have the greatest needs. No amount of standardized testing or privatization can compensate for this disparity, and more testing never changes outcomes for students. It takes quality programming and well trained teachers that are valued to do that. Expensive standardized testing wastes public money that could be used to better help students.
So very true, retired teacher.
Have a wonderful holiday!
This season makes us thankful for our blog host, Dr. Ravitch, an exemplar of the best that our nation’s leaders can be. The following is from Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If”, which is engraved on the entrance to Wimbledon.
…If you can watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build’em up with worn out tools;
…If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: Hold on!
…If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue
Or walk with Kings-nor lose the common touch,
…If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you…
Yours is the earth and everything that’s in it,
And- which is more- You’ll be a Woman, my daughter!
Thank you, Linda!
Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Happy New Year to you, Mary and your families.
Dear Diane, I am a more conscious and informed educator because of you and your ability to capture the essential truths around and within our educational systems. Thank you for sharing your gift as an information gatherer and writer!
I moved in 2006 from teaching in Seattle, WA to helping develop a new teaching program in NYC. The teachings from that transition and my experiences working within the NYCDOE continue to inform me as an educator today.
During my time in the city (2006-2017) I was also greatly informed by your book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System. I couldn’t get the information you presented on those pages, coupled with what I was experiencing as a teacher in the classroom-out of my mind. The words and images were taking the shape of a multimedia performance piece. I silenced my voice by talking myself out of the need to develop an artistic expression highlighting our countries right and responsibility in providing our children with good quality, free education. Who am I to think I can take on and develop a project like this? I silenced my voice and told myself that I am nobody.
I now work in Ithaca, NY teaching at the most underdeveloped and economically deprived rural school within this economically varied district. The same inequalities plaguing our nation’s educational system exist here too. The plague that continue to further marginalize the already marginalized students and their families by inflating the power-hungry fat cats at the top and with the empty rhetoric of, “Leading With Love” and a deep history of racial inequities and white guilt.
I can no longer be silenced. I have a responsibility to use my voice and speak up! I must create an artistic expression that helps to bring awareness to our educational system and the need for visual transparency from the top-down.
Would you be willing to help me and allow me the opportunity to use your words and research in the development of this project?
I look forward to a shared conversation.
With respect and gratitude, Taura McMeekin Sent from my iPhone
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Taura,
Please feel free to use anything I have written.
Our education systems are overburdened by social breakdown. No amount of cosmetics can fix that.