Posted on 07/30/2008 8:40:50 AM PDT by JulianaJohnson
Supporting more money for the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is not the same thing as being a supporter of public education.
This distinction is lost on both the media and our political class as witnessed by PR stunts like the one pulled by Illinois State Senator James Meeks yesterday.
Meeks wants to bus Chicago public school students up to New Trier High School in Winnetka on the first day of school to protest the disparity in funding levels.
While it may be that per pupil expenditures for the Chicago Public Schools (roughly $11,000 per student) exceed the national average, exceed the state average and exceed the averages of each of the collar counties in the metropolitan region, Meeks believes that because another district is spending more then, by definition, Chicago is not spending enough.
Senator Jimmy One Note has conveniently chosen not to address the districts that spend considerably less for considerably better results and the Chicago media are polite enough not to press him on this matter.
Meeks has also been spared having to explicate how only 6% of Chicago public school students will go on to earn a bachelor's degree by the age of 25. That appalling result comes with a $4.6 billion annual price tag.
While Meeks is busing kids up to Winnetka to protest, perhaps a delegation of ordinary Illinois taxpayers should be bused down to Meeks' district office to protest the squandering of our money.
In fact, there is no amount of money that can fundamentally change the performance of the Chicago Public Schools unless the money is tied to structural changes.
But Meeks and the CPS brass already know this. A 2006-2007 internal CPS report found that charter schools within the Chicago public school system outperformed their relative neighborhood schools on 84% of student performance measures. The problem is that only 4% of Chicago public school students have the opportunity to attend those charter schools.
So it is with an unintentional tinge of irony when Meeks observes, "I am happy for the children who have an opportunity to experience New Trier on a daily basis. Shouldn't all children have the same opportunity?"
Shouldn't they indeed, Senator. And yet, the paradox of speaking the language of opportunity which is intrinsically born out of competition while defending an ineffectual monopoly is lost on Meeks.
The opportunity he seeks, that we all seek, for Chicago public school students will only be realized through choice in education.
Watching Meeks conjures up the memory of Mikhail Gorbachev as the Soviet Union was nearing its final resting place.
As General Secretary of the Communist Party, Gorbachev was tethered to the dictates of that ideology even while as President of the Soviet Union he attempted to institute market reforms (glasnost, perestroika) on the margins because he understood that the Soviet political-economic system as constituted was unsustainable. History reconciled that incongruity for Gorbachev.
I anticipate a similar fate for Senator Meeks and the Chicago Public Schools.
Yes it is probably true capitalism cannot save egalitarianism anymore than the commies could.
The only thing these ignorant, minority-only liberals see is not whether the funding is enough, but how much mo’ money they think they can get. $11,000 is more then enough to do the job - and if their children weren’t dumped into the school systems with no discipline, complete ignorance, and no real societal skills from day 1 by neglectful “parents” they’d have a shot of being educated.
Yes, it's pretty hard for schools to socialize and teach feral children.
The KIPP schools seek out and do wonders with these kids from dysfunctional families.
Imagine that! Open up the market a little, tiny bit and in flows people who actually want to **FIX** the problem!!!
I have included your name on the list because, in the past, you have posted to me about education issues. I surely don’t wish to bother you, but I don’t want you to miss these education articles, either.
I will call this ping list:
“The All Opinions Welcome Government Education Ping List” ! “
Government Education Ping List
For those who are interested in a full and open discussion about government education.
I don’t know if you’ll agree with this,
but I think even public schools should be able to exclude, remove, expell children that are disrupting the education of others.
Now, indeed, what do we do with... I love your term... “feral children”?
The only idea that I have would be to impose some sort of penalty, I’d say physical pain of some sort (if I was king), on the parents. That would give the parents some incentive to civilize the little barbarians. And if they couldn’t, then there would be the Old Testament solution (just kinda kidding here)-
Deu 21:18-21
18 If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, 19 his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. 20 They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a profligate and a drunkard.” 21 Then all the men of his town shall stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.
I totally agree, and surely do wish we had that power!
The only idea that I have would be to impose some sort of penalty, I’d say physical pain of some sort (if I was king), on the parents. That would give the parents some incentive to civilize the little barbarians.
We could force them to homeschool, but we might end up with more drug dealers than we currently have. ;-)
Truly, some days orphanages and juvenile halls don't sound so bad...
He wouldn't be able to understand these words.
Can someone connected with the Official EIB Obama Criticizer please turn the above statement into something a bit more "publik screwl" for the Rev. Meeks to understand?
I think it would start with the word, "Yo".
The problem is that public education isn't about education at all. Its about money. In order for schools to get money, students must attend school. Students must attend so many days, in order for schools to get money. If they're expelled or suspended, no federal money.
The more students, whether learning, attempting to learn, or raping and pillaging, the more money.
Depends on your state, and perhaps even on your district. In some places, even if the child is suspended or expelled, they have to be given a free public education, which means that tutors must go to their homes and basically homeschool them.
If your district does that, they still get the federal money for the student, but it costs a lot more because an individual teacher must go to that student's home.
NCLB has made it more difficult for at least high schools, because dropout rate is one of the things that is considered, and if a child has been expelled, s/he has basically dropped out.
Bingo!
Government schools need three things: Students, money, and voter support in the voting booth.
Every time a child is taken out to be either homeschooled, privately schooled, the government schools lose a student, the money attached to that student, and support in the voting booth.
Hopefully, homeschooling will continue its 7 to 15% yearly increase. Hopefully, more parents ( especially California and Massachusetts) will remove their children to privately school. Hopefully, we will see the growth of tax credits. Hopefully we will see a tipping point and a property tax revolt in the voting booth. Hopefully, our liberal/Marxist government schools will collapse like the Berlin Wall.
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