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California schools fail to teach children to read or write, suit says
SF Gate ^ | 12/5/2017

Posted on 12/07/2017 2:09:18 AM PST by Altura Ct.

California has broken its promise to millions of schoolchildren with an education system that is failing to teach students to read or write, advocates charged Tuesday in a lawsuit seeking a statewide right of “access to literacy.”

The suit was filed on behalf of current and former elementary school students and their families in two districts in Los Angeles and Stockton, and a charter school in Los Angeles County. The lead plaintiff is a 7-year-old second-grader who can’t spell words like “need” and “help,” lawyers said.

They said students in one charter school class couldn’t read their social studies lesson and had to listen to an audio version. Some Stockton students “start crying when asked to read out loud in class,” the lawsuit said. And one student said his brother didn’t learn to read until he was held in juvenile hall at age 16.

Statewide, the picture is equally grim, the suit said: Among the nation’s largest school districts, California has 11 of the 26 lowest-performing districts in literacy and basic education.

“California is dragging down the nation,” said attorney Mark Rosenbaum of the nonprofit Public Counsel, which filed the suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court along with the San Francisco law firm of Morrison & Foerster.

In response, the state Department of Education, a defendant in the suit, said California “has one of the most ambitious programs in the nation to serve low-income students.”

The state spends more than $10 billion a year on programs for English learners, students from low-income families and foster youths, said the department, headed by Superintendent Tom Torlakson. It said it will provide further support next year to 228 school districts, including those of the three schools in the suit.

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society
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1 posted on 12/07/2017 2:09:18 AM PST by Altura Ct.
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To: Altura Ct.

The “public schools” doing exactly what John Dewey deigned them to do—create ignorant useful idiots for slavery of the State.

Get your children out of pubic skools before it rots your child’s brain—so they “think” like a socialist (group-(non)-thinker) and have no ability to have a Christian worldview—that only worldview which created the Age of Reason, Modern Science and the US Constitution.


2 posted on 12/07/2017 2:15:14 AM PST by savagesusie (When Law ceases to be Just, it ceases to be Law. (Thomas A./Founders/John Marshall)/Nuremberg)
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To: Altura Ct.
The lead plaintiff is a 7-year-old second-grader who can’t spell words like “need” and “help,” lawyers said.

If the 7 y/o can spell "diversity" and "sanctuary", isn't that more important than reading and math?

3 posted on 12/07/2017 2:31:06 AM PST by Pollster1 ("Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed")
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To: Altura Ct.

Here we have yet another example of what took place in the Soviet Union and East Bloc finding it’s way into North America. The teachers’ unions and others running public schools do their quotas and are rewarded by the paternalistic and authoritarian hierarchy regardless of the results achieved.


4 posted on 12/07/2017 3:02:25 AM PST by OttawaFreeper ("If I had to go to war again, I'd bring lacrosse players" Conn Smythe)
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To: OttawaFreeper
Just double everone's taxes and give more money to the teacher's union...its a funding problem.🤣
5 posted on 12/07/2017 3:35:28 AM PST by Bonemaker (White Southerners have been under attack since 1860.)
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To: Altura Ct.

Well, now the elites can quit dragging down the southern states as being “illiterate”, California has now stolen that crown.

Of course....”cool”, is the only thing that matters to these people, and “yo don’t need no school, to be cool”.


6 posted on 12/07/2017 3:42:31 AM PST by FrankR (On the knees is not a good place to be...a man on the knees is only half a man.....)
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To: Altura Ct.

It doesn’t matter if they can’t read or write, as long as they vote Democrat. In fact, reading and writing often makes students LESS likely to vote Democrat, since reading exposes them to ideas from outside the brainwashing in the schools. The whole purpose of the liberal ‘education’ system is to turn out Democrat voters.


7 posted on 12/07/2017 3:56:04 AM PST by norwaypinesavage (The stone age didn't end because we ran out of stones.)
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To: Altura Ct.

But, they are all trained how to wave their fists, and yell “racist” at everyone they disagree with. That’s the really important thing.


8 posted on 12/07/2017 4:17:47 AM PST by euram (4)
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To: Altura Ct.
Hallelujah!

I would frequently tell my students (public or private) that they should tell their parents to start a class-action suit against the school system for requiring them to take advanced math classes without a sufficient level of numeracy to know how many times 6 goes in 18 (true story).

9 posted on 12/07/2017 4:29:22 AM PST by Aevery_Freeman (High taxes + Government = Disorganized Crime)
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To: Aevery_Freeman

“Our golden Road to Illiteracy” Regna Lee Wood, National Review, Oct. 18, 1993 p.56
In 1930, 80 per cent of blacks over age 14 could read. In 1990, 56 per cent of blacks over age 14 could read.
As more and more money is spent on education, illiteracy is increasing. And I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it didn’t end up with virtually the whole revenue of the western countries being spent on education, and a condition of almost total illiteracy resulting therefrom. - Malcolm Muggeridge


10 posted on 12/07/2017 5:03:02 AM PST by Vehmgericht ( stop)
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To: savagesusie

This Dewey is not the same one with the decimal system.


11 posted on 12/07/2017 5:06:59 AM PST by Lisbon1940 (No full-term Governors (at the time of election!)
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To: Altura Ct.

Comments from site:

“All of the teachers are Democrats and most of them cannot read or write. So what do they expect?”

“I kid you not, the democrats want to keep people stupid so they can control them.”

“Teaching kids to be social justice warriors instead if math science and reading”


12 posted on 12/07/2017 5:19:14 AM PST by proxy_user
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To: Altura Ct.

Influx of illegal aliens, combined with the leftist bigotry of low expectations, tossed into the salad of ignorant and bigoted people and BAM! Your kids learn nothing! School is nothing but day care. Pathetic what leftists do to a place.


13 posted on 12/07/2017 5:37:51 AM PST by vpintheak (Freedom is not equality; and equality is not freedom!)
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To: Altura Ct.

all that lottery money gone to waste . .


14 posted on 12/07/2017 5:51:03 AM PST by ßuddaßudd (>> M A G A << "What the hell kind of country is this if I can only hate a man if he's white?")
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To: savagesusie

The reason Johnny can’t read is because Johnny’s mama doesn’t care to review his homework or see that he gets to school and Johnny’s daddy is unknown. Johnny is better off in public school for 8 hours a day than on the streets.


15 posted on 12/07/2017 5:51:18 AM PST by bgill (CDC site, "We don't know how people are infected with Ebola.")
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To: bgill

That is ridiculous. Any school that can’t teach a kid to read should be liable for malpractice.


16 posted on 12/07/2017 5:58:17 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: bgill

That is ridiculous. Any school that can’t teach a kid to read should be liable for malpractice.


17 posted on 12/07/2017 5:58:28 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: Vehmgericht
Mostly it has to do with people's attitude. When learning to read was a privilege, people wanted it. When it became a right, people wanted merely access to it (without really caring about doing it.) Now that it's a requirement, kids want nothing to do with it. It's not forbidden fruit anymore, it's spinach.

If you made Nike Air Jordans required wearing apparel as part of a school uniform, in a few years they'd be the most hated shoe of that generation.

18 posted on 12/07/2017 6:01:03 AM PST by A_perfect_lady
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To: Altura Ct.

Can’t completely blame the schools. Much of the blame goes to the student body and their parent(s).


19 posted on 12/07/2017 6:04:35 AM PST by umgud
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To: 9YearLurker

Not when the kid is out of control and refuses to sit at his desk or make any attempt to learn. Learning starts at home. Discipline starts at home.


20 posted on 12/07/2017 6:05:00 AM PST by bgill (CDC site, "We don't know how people are infected with Ebola.")
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