Posted on 10/08/2023 6:11:36 AM PDT by CFW
For generations, American politicians and experts have lamented the dropout crisis. They warn that quitting school leads students to poverty, prison, and discontent. For many Baltimore schoolchildren, however, recent test results show leaving school might be their best option—or at least, it wouldn’t hurt.
Last year, Baltimore’s public schools spent $22,000 per student, a record figure slated to rise over the next decade under the state’s $30 billion education-spending plan, the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. City schools have also raked in $799 million in Covid relief.
The latest test results suggest that students and taxpayers shouldn’t waste their time and money on Baltimore’s public schools. The federal Department of Education’s National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), commonly known as The Nation’s Report Card, ranks Baltimore City Public Schools as one of the worst public school systems for academic achievement. In fact, only one large school system consistently underperforms Baltimore—Detroit.
According to the 2022 NAEP test, only 10 percent of fourth-graders and 15 percent of eighth-graders in Baltimore’s public schools are proficient in reading. While these dismal figures are essentially unchanged from a decade ago, the number of students scoring at the “basic” level or possessing “partial mastery of prerequisite knowledge and skills that are fundamental for proficient work at each grade” has fallen precipitously since 2013. Then, 45 percent of fourth-graders and 61 percent of eighth-graders ranked at or above basic in reading; by 2022, respectively, only 30 percent and 50 percent did so.
[snip]
Things have gotten so bad that Baltimore kids might be better off watching Sesame Street reruns than venturing into Charm City’s failing schools.
(Excerpt) Read more at city-journal.org ...
However, old episodes of Schoolhouse Rock might be a better choice.
Government schools in blue zones fulfill only two purposes: enriching the lazy teachers and union bosses, and breaking down the American family values.
Oh well, as long as they get their CRT indoctrination, everything is cool.
People often forget that one of the best alternatives to formal education is the military. True, it’s not for everyone, but it is an alternative for many. A friend of my son’s went into the Army and stayed for 20 years as a medical technician. He’s “retired” from the Army at age 39 and is working as a full time EMT while drawing retirement income from the Army and doing very well.
I have been saying this for years.
If an alien ship hovered over the U.S. and sucked up every government school, what would happen.
Within hours karate, dance, daycare centers, volunteer fire departments, etc., would be organizing schools and day care open for working parents. This exactly what happened in my state during the Covid shutdowns.
And if all Public Employee’s nationwide were required to send their children to the Public school system, or face serious penalties, including removing the children from the family home and put into foster care, it would be fixed overnight.
Homeschooling continues to rise nationwide:
https://reason.org/commentary/homeschooling-is-on-the-rise-even-as-the-pandemic-recedes/
We home-schooled our girls until high school, where their dad
was a teacher, then later “the office” where misbehavers were sent.
Meanwhile, Peppermint Patty (in the “Peanuts” reruns on GoComics.com) was told by her father that she could attend a private school so she attended Ace Obedience School (Snoopy gave her a brochure) and graduated. Now her public school is wondering why she has not been coming to school. She has hired Snoopy as her lawyer. We’ll see how that turns out in the coming days.
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