Selfish demands
There was an old-fashioned display of civil disobedience in Chicagoland last week-- what one might call "a teaching moment"-- and the results appear to have been outstanding. Fourteen hundred students from the city's public schools, mostly poor residents of the inner-city, were bused on the first day of classes to the wealthy northwest suburb of Northfield and to the campus of New Tier Township High School. The protest was designed to draw attention to the gross inequities in school funding in the state of Illinois, an issue with resonance in states all over the country, including the one bordering to Illinois' west.Largely financed by property taxes, Chicago public schools spend an estimated $10,400 per student each year on education, and in New Tier Township, it's an estimated $17,000 per student. The New Tier school boasts four music orchestras, a rowing club, advanced placement classes in French, Chinese, Spanish, German, Japanese, and Latin, as well as a class called "kinetic wellness." In the city, the dropout rate is 50 percent.
The protest, organized by Rev. James Meeks, a member of the state senate, was described as "very selfish" by Chicago Mayor Daley, who played both the 'children as pawns' and 'the children should be in school' cards with the media, but out in Northfield, staff and volunteers seemed to accept the protest in kind. Roughly 100 local men and women took to the gymnasium, along with the protesters, and symbolically signed the visiting kids up for classes at New Tier. Snacks and water were also provided on a day that saw warm local temperatures.
Disparities in funding between school districts have been an accepted part of life in America for generations and it's wholly unacceptable now as it has always been, and we still wait for either the Democratic or Republican Parties to take up the cause of leveling the most important playing field of all. The inherent unfairness of the current system stretches nationwide, is the predominant catalyst for the cycle of poverty, and makes fools of anyone who would attempt to argue that all boys and girls have the same opportunity for success in this country.
posted by CM @ 8:18 PM
5 Comments:
CM, how is the fact that some schools have more money than others (in the amounts referenced in the linked article) a catalyst for the cycle of poverty?
How would you propose to “level the playing field”? Should every school district be forced to spend the same amount of money per student? If money is so important here, how much money per student would it take to break the cycle of poverty? Fancy activities and new buildings don’t do much to help kids learn how to survive in the real world.
Relative differences in money spent per student (in the amounts referenced in the linked article) have little to no effect on the cycle of poverty and opportunities for success (success = getting a job good enough to stay out of poverty). What is taught in high school and college is 99% worthless crap. Most of what you need to achieve enough success to stay out of poverty is to get the diplomas that enable you to check the boxes on job applications. The 50% dropout rate is the key. Who hires a high school drop out after all? More money won’t do much to reduce the dropout rate unless you start paying kids daily to show up at school.
This protest is nothing but a shake down for more property tax money to be funneled to the public schools and unionized teachers who vote.
TA
My old Iowa roommate went to New Trier. That is all I got.
They shoulda hauled those kids to Evanston, now they really spend the bucks.
The roommate with all that kinetic wellness?
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I don't quite share your pessimism, TA, on the value of an education in America if properly given. Ending the cycle of poverty, to continue boostering that phrase, requires ending the cycle of hopelessness. What does it say to a kid about his or her life potential when he or she sees these disparities in educational environments? That knot in that kid's gut becomes exactly what fuels the cycle. It shouldn't be material-based, but it ties directly to sense of worth. Teaching self-esteem is principally important, it's not New Age gobbledigook, and kids are smart enough to understand when the adults around them give a damn and when they don't.
Money can't solve this by itself, I realize, but these schools have to at least have the resources. Studies everywhere show a positive correlation between money spent and educational results. It might be difficult to prove that its the key ingredient in the equation, but it would be even harder to disprove. Test scores predominantly lower as the tax base lowers, there's no disputing it. Pooling the property taxes and the state appropriations and dispersing on a per-student basis seems like a simple enough solution.
I'm a taxpayer, too, and I'm tired of my dollars getting wasted, but the biggest waste (aside from the corporate giveaways and the war machine) comes from spending on mortgage bailouts and the like, and on the eternal roundup of criminals, after having made virtually no effort to invest in these kids before they've run themselves out of options.
With Ralph Nader and Ron Paul meeting today in Washington, I'm sure they'll come to an understanding on this.
Yeah - the first night on campus, the roomate who walked to the porn shop to rent a couple of titles as well as one those old huge vcrs that weighed 20 pounds. What great Mammaries. DOH! I mean memories.
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