[RLK]

The employer hiring the typical black high school graduate (or the college that admits the average black student) is, in effect choosing a youngster who has made it only through the eighth grade."

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That's optimistic. Try sixth grade.

[RLK]

How much money does it take for teachers to assign homework, and for parents and teachers see to it that it gets done?

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What's this parents business whith 70% being born out of wedlock?

[truth_seeker]

I heard that California values a student-day at $40 per student. A class with 25 students would "cost" $1,000 per day.

The total compensation of the teacher might be $100 per day (possibly more). The land and buildings are usually owned free & clear.

So what is the rest of the cost? Administration, books, insurance, etc.

Part of Arnold's "audit" might ought to delve into this subject. Some of the states with the LOWEST per capita spending yield top level results.

And conversely some with the HIGHEST per capita spending yield the WORST results. Wash. D.C. being the prime example.

So the answer is NOT money.

[truth_seeker]

A study recently revealed that students told interviewers what was the Lowest Grade average that was acceptable to their parents:

Asians A-
Whites B-
Blacks C-

People most often get what they expect, in life.

[lainde]

bttt

[George Frm Br00klyn Park]

BLOCKQUOTE>These outcomes are not preordained, and the solution is not more money, as the educationists would have us believe. Were that the case, academic achievement wouldn't be a problem. In the last two decades, educational expenditures have doubled, yet academic performance has declined.
======================================= Guys, Funding for education has increased in obscene amounts, while the "product" being put out by teachers has declined relatively.

On a personal note, my niece says, "If 'they' would let me use a calculator, I could pass the test, but, 'they' won't!" But, while she was "learning" mathematics, use of calculators was encouraged. Thus, the machine takes over the function of the human brain. Happenstance???? NOT LIKELY!!!! Peace and love, George.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

A cry in the black education wilderness***The great disappointment of my ongoing crusade to foment a revolution in black education has been the lack of a response, and even hostility, from black leaders in this community. Naturally, I expected everyone to drop what they were doing and hop onto my education movement bandwagon.

To be sure, black readers in general have responded positively and in droves to the call for a black education movement along the lines of our historic civil rights movement. They have said they agree that this movement must demand rigorous academic standards and a high level of parental responsibility and community involvement to ensure black children's success.

In a comment typical of many I've received, a reader wrote, "We as black people must begin to create a culture of valuing education ... if we are to ever pull our children out of the river of underachievement in which they find themselves. I believe that this can be done, but it will require a new and different determination on the part of the black community, and every black parent in particular, before it will be achieved."

Another reader wrote, "I am just frustrated at our community's complacency towards education and the willingness of so many parents to allow their children to waste their young years on activities that do not help them become competitive in academia. ... I'm making the effort to convert as many [people] as I can. I think I successfully turned my husband around. He was wiling to buy his children-to-be their first car but would not fund their college education. Now THAT had to change."

But I've heard little from Houston's black leadership.***

[mathluv]

The Thernstroms were on O'Reilly last night. On for the opposite side was a Dr. Walters - his answer was more money, poor blacks culturally deprived, etc.

[Publius6961]

The education establishment likes to blame poor parenting and rowdy and lawless students for educational mediocrity. Without a doubt, that's part of the problem, but incompetent, uncaring teachers are also a part of the problem.

The remarkable thing about this article is that the discussion is taking place at all.
I remember well Cultural Literacy and *GASP!* The Bell Curve.

Nothing has changed, indeed, things have gotten worse, and in the process enormous amounts of the State budget has been placed "off limits", and is no small part of California's descent into fiscal hell.

This particular pararaph sums it all up. The deadly combination, societal and educational ebola infecting a huge chunk of of our population and feeding the only inevitable result: disaffection, resentment and cluelessness.

Is it true that "we" spend more on sports, rap music and running shoes than we do on education? In spite of the bloated education budget? That says it all.

I work in a building with around 80 people in it, at a work site with around 400 employees total.
Of our 80 bodies, in a highly technical atmosphere there is one black in a professional technical position and two in support clerical positions, and already the "one" has played the race card in resolving disputes with outside contractors.
In a critically technical environment, only the best qualified survive, and there is no "faking it". The price of admission is ruthlessly uniform and uncompromising.

But more significantly, in addition to the usual banter about sports, camping, cars, guns, you will find discussions about religion, ethics, mathematics, literature, cosmology, in short, all the "useless" disciplines that the clueless eschew. No Gangsta Rap there...

The real life imperative of getting a critical job done professionally and efficiently allows no leeway to worshiping the multicultural god. Life is a bitch.