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With all of this said, does this more of a case for Upstate NY to go to county wide school districts and in the case of highly populated counties, zoned county wide school districts? I ask this because you can take Buffalo out and enter in Rochester or Syracuse with a similar narrative. To a lesser degree, Albany High and the mid major city SD's have similar issues, with a few exceptions. Buffalo Public School essential is two districts in terms of high schools, as about half have graduation rates of 70-95% and half in the 30-55% range. There may be a good HS in both Rochester and Syracuse, with another HS with a good program that isn't as bad as the others. There's also charter options within each of these cities that are OK to good. So, it can be a bit complex.
There's also the economic aspect in terms of taxation and attracting companies to the area. Going the county wide route may lower the tax burden on residents and companies that are currently in the area.
Lastly, you have the socio-economic factor in terms of not only class, but race/culture. With the areas in Upstate NY being relatively segregated in a comparative sense, I think the least that could be done is to offer open enrollment in a way that doesn't disrupt where people live, but still allows children to have the opportunity to attend school where they want if space is available and they have a way to get to the school. It can be a slippery slope as the Twin Cities in Minnesota, which has open enrollment statewide, has seen segregation increase in its schools: Minnesota That may be the best option, unless some county district could go to the way Louisville/Jefferson County KY went with by voluntarily busing kids for balance purposes. Louisville Magazine - Louisville, Kentucky - Homepage - BUSING IN THE BALANCE
What I mean by zoned county districts is to take the side of the city and create a district with the adjacent suburbs or those on the same side of town. For example, maybe there could be an Erie County South District with the Southtowns and South Buffalo forming a district. It is something that could be adjusted, but I think it would or could be less disruptive this way.
Buffalo had excellent schools until the creation of magnet schools... which was, in some ways, a way around right out 100% desegregation. The other way was to close many all majority and all minority schools and "blend" the kids in large schools -- either early childhood or middle. That was in the late 1970s. I was already teaching in Buffalo for quite a while and was in one of the schools that was closed to be "blended" with another. [Both schools that got "blended" were angry at losing the neighborhood school -- and both neighborhoods were none the better for losing the schools! Many kids I had taught on the West Side were yanked and the families moved out of the city... one boy, about 5 years later, ran into me and told me when they tore down the school, all the kids went and got bricks, "to remember"... then he told me "when they closed the school, they destroyed my neighborhood".] Neither of those was an "acceptable solution" to changing the schools. Adding to that, closing the Voc. Ed. schools [which were very good] was another idiotic thing to do... kids left school with a trade they wanted... and in another 10 years, finding a qualified mechanic, plumber, electrician or other tradesman? We'll be just like areas people flee to: no one qualified.
I do not know how you can suggest a county school system when city people don't want to pay more in tax... and when suburban districts do not want an overload of students. Your scenario would leave the city dwellers on lower taxes and getting better schools. (that'd make a few people here really happy). Bottom line? You get what you pay for. Buffalo decided in the 1970s to not invest in kids. They now have the result. You can't not invest in the kids.
Erie county and much of upstate NY is very highly segregated based on both class and race so you'd have riots at the idea of a county school system. Suburban districts would not want to see their test scores decline at the expense of their real estate and tax bases (although this is already happening in first ring suburbs).
You also have to remember that the 60's and 70's decline was also the outsourcing of manufacturing and semi-skilled labor. The new service jobs paid less and in order to insure that children had access to higher paying jobs, those with means created exclusive communities. The real problem here stems from severe wage inequity. I'm not arguing that there shouldn't be some wage inequity, but under the present system, schools will never be "fixed" because the higher paying jobs all require a "good" education. There simply are not enough higher paying jobs to go around and thus, if you are born poor, you will likely be idled or only be eligible for low paying work. If you are born to wealth, you will likely be given access to to higher paying work via credentialing (which BTW is very expensive). Of course there are exceptions. As the middle class is eroded a few will climb to wealth but many more will decline into lower wage positions (again, presently occurring in first ring suburbs). Of course, a meritocracy seems fair but ultimately you can tighten the noose based on income.
Also, those "city people" who don't want to pay more in tax? City owner occupancy is about 35%. So spare me the "don't want to pay more in tax". The investors(who are also landlords that live outside of Buffalo) don't want to pay more in tax. If the tax rates went up, so would rents. The real issues are poverty and crime.
Look at north of the border where these things exist but to a much smaller degree. They don't have a "good school vs. bad school" mentality. But taxes up there are higher for everyone.
If you want to fix schools, start first with home ownership and support for home ownership (In Canada there is no tax deduction for mortgage interest). This will stabilize communities. Next, start a jobs program where entitlement programs are dismantled but provide for transitions to work. There are many people who are able to work but have no marketable skills (and will be beyond the point of acquiring said skills) but there are plenty of jobs that could be created that require few skills. There's a ton of dilapidated housing stock that could be demo'd, for instance. Then people could be slowly trained to rehab houses. These programs would NEVER get funded because that would undermine virgin green-space development in suburban areas and the profits associated with real-estate as well as higher paying semi-skilled construction work would be threatened (under the present paradigm).
People in suburban areas pay higher taxes to keep their communities exclusive and then complain about it. It's hysterical really.
Finally, I would like to repeat. I don't care where people live, if you want to live in the suburbs and like to drive. Fine. If you want to live in the city and put up with the associated problems and benefits, fine. But stop using the "schools" to justify where you live. It's a dead argument. Financially (no one on the MB has disputed this) it makes little to no sense. Given LIKE FOR LIKE (socioeconomic) city schools are on par or exceed everywhere else. You can make the straw man (i.e. Not everyone goes to City Honors for example) argument about separating by class but this exists outside of Buffalo as well.
Until you solve the poverty in the city and some of the first ring suburbs and get someone with some fresh ideas who's not corrupt (remember Superintendent of Buffalo Public Schools Dr. James Williams?) Buffalo is going to continue to not attract the same kind of famlies that it needs to rebuild and maintain a stable, quality public education system.
Until you solve the poverty in the city and some of the first ring suburbs and get someone with some fresh ideas who's not corrupt (remember Superintendent of Buffalo Public Schools Dr. James Williams?) Buffalo is going to continue to not attract the same kind of famlies that it needs to rebuild and maintain a stable, quality public education system.
How do we go about solving that give the business taxation within the state and the unwillingness for people to change the structure through voting and/or consolidation of services? For instance, Wake County NC consolidated schools due to the business community being concerned about flight from the city of Raleigh and the economy at the time, as well as the aspect of school integration. It wasn't popular initially and the federal government had to step in for the consolidation to happen. In turn school performance is pretty good in Wake County, but there is a downside to this in terms of low teacher pay and the disruption of students/families in terms of school attendence(i.e.-long bus rides, children moved out of school to achieve balance, etc.). So, I think there needs to be some changes in terms of districts and with disruption minimized.
Until you solve the poverty in the city and some of the first ring suburbs and get someone with some fresh ideas who's not corrupt (remember Superintendent of Buffalo Public Schools Dr. James Williams?) Buffalo is going to continue to not attract the same kind of famlies that it needs to rebuild and maintain a stable, quality public education system.
Buffalo has been corrupt since Supt. Joseph Manch left. That was not long after I started. (actually, it was probably corrupt before that, but until then, he worked with parents and teachers for a good system) Reville jumpstarted the horror of the system as it is now and every succeeding supt. has made it worse.
What bothers me? The fact the Board PAYS for nationwide searches to find these bunglers.
You keep the bunglers at the top, nothing will change.
1) Try and design assessments that minimize the inclusion of external "fact" and "knowledge". Children of poor families are not any more or less intelligent than children of wealthy families. They WILL, however, almost always score worse on present standardized testing. Design tests that minimize the impact of these factors and really measure the success of a school. Nobody has yet invented such testing.
2) Buffalo has a wealth of families that have created stable and successful communities. Because the population of Erie County as a whole is shrinking if individual entities compete against one another, the whole community loses. That is why the "competition" model is a poor one both for schools / communities. Much more could be accomplished by working together.
1) Try and design assessments that minimize the inclusion of external "fact" and "knowledge". Children of poor families are not any more or less intelligent than children of wealthy families. They WILL, however, almost always score worse on present standardized testing. Design tests that minimize the impact of these factors and really measure the success of a school. Nobody has yet invented such testing.
2) Buffalo has a wealth of families that have created stable and successful communities. Because the population of Erie County as a whole is shrinking if individual entities compete against one another, the whole community loses. That is why the "competition" model is a poor one both for schools / communities. Much more could be accomplished by working together.
Yes these standardized tests totally favor the rich
The current questions always look something like this of course:
A) Your father trades in his mistresses BMW for a Mercedes that costs $75,000 and has equity of $15,000 in the BMW. How much will he pay for Mercedes.
But they should look like this:
B) Your single mother gives Willie on the corner $100 in food stamps. In return she gets: a) $100 cash b) 2 cartons of Kools c) 3 rocks of crack
Yes these standardized tests totally favor the rich
The current questions always look something like this of course:
A) Your father trades in his mistresses BMW for a Mercedes that costs $75,000 and has equity of $15,000 in the BMW. How much will he pay for Mercedes.
But they should look like this:
B) Your single mother gives Willie on the corner $100 in food stamps. In return she gets: a) $100 cash b) 2 cartons of Kools c) 3 rocks of crack
That's funny. But if a question points out that a boat is traveling from bank to bank and one student struggles because for them the context of "bank" is a place where money is deposited and for others a "bank" is the shore of a river. One kid will lose time trying to contextualize the answer and will score worse. Spare me that the tests don't track income and credentialed levels of parental education. Even funnier? The highest ranked school, Nardin, doesn't even give the upper level science Regents exams. How can they have such a good rating if the kids don't even take the test? Oh right, the rankings don't account for this. They are sponsored by the diocese to recruit kids. Additionally, isn't that a problem then? Wouldn't a good indication of readiness for college be challenging those upper level exams? Well I'll tell you that I've seen kids rock those exams and get creamed their first years in school and kids that don't do so well rock their first years in college. While the Regents results may track by income, college success doesn't necessarily track Regents results.
Sorry, I've got to go now, I think I see a suburban resident pulling up their BMW to buy some rock in my ghetto.
Sorry, I've got to go now, I think I see a suburban resident pulling up their BMW to buy some rock in my ghetto.
Therein lies part of the problem... I live in the suburbs and I don't even drive a BMW!! I must be doing something wrong.
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