State Senator Meeks (Chicago, Naperville, Oak Park: home equity, best schools, college)

[Anthera]

Originally Posted by cdc3217

Although I thought some districts (I read this somewhere about Stevenson, actually) would allow some number of out of district kids to register and pay an out of district fee to attend their school. I have no evidence, so if some can put this in the urban myth category please do.

NT has always allowed out of district students to enroll as paying students if space is available. Meeks is not attempting this, he wants the NT taxpayers to pick up the costs.

[Humboldt1]

Meeks is making this not just about economics, but race too, involving the churches to make his point. I think it is pathetic how black politicians use their churches for their own political gain. God seems to be lost somewhere in the shuffle and it becomes all about race and money. I look forward to his failure.

Did they have donuts or bagels awaiting kids and their families for their registration at New Trier?


What a bunch of crap trying to strong arm the families of New Trier. Amazing how he didn't pull this stunt at Evanston, which has more money spent per pupil?

[Shrimps]

Originally Posted by Humboldt1

Did they have donuts or bagels awaiting kids and their families for their registration at New Trier?

Meeks leads CPS boycott :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Education (http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/1139689,meeks090208.article - broken link)

[sbd78]

I really don't think funding is the problem with Chicago Public Schools. According to the Interactive Illinois Report Card, City of Chicago District 299 students actually received slightly more funding than Naperville District 203 students, which is known for being one of the better performing districts in Chicagoland.
CPS district 299:
Interactive Illinois Report Card
Naperville district 203:
Interactive Illinois Report Card
CPS actually gets more funding than many other districts in Illinois. The funding issue is just a scapegoat for the real problem, which is the unstable home environments and poverty many of the CPS kids are raised in.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by sbd78

I really don't think funding is the problem with Chicago Public Schools. According to the Interactive Illinois Report Card, City of Chicago District 299 students actually received slightly more funding than Naperville District 203 students, which is known for being one of the better performing districts in Chicagoland.
CPS district 299:
Interactive Illinois Report Card
Naperville district 203:
Interactive Illinois Report Card
CPS actually gets more funding than many other districts in Illinois. The funding issue is just a scapegoat for the real problem, which is the unstable home environments and poverty many of the CPS kids are raised in.

Maybe a more productive bus trip would be to take the parents of the CPS kids to a New Trier parent/teacher conference so they could witness involved parenting in action? I think school funding has to be revised but the poor performance of many CPS schools runs much, much deeper than mere funding. Most of the problem comes from inside the communities themselves.

[Nysee53]

New Trier doesn't have space for out-of-district students right now. I was very dissapointed to see that they actually went through with this, but I was happy NOT to see 2,000 kids. It is really sad he chose New Trier just because of the low minority population. Evanston and several other high schools spend more per pupil than New Trier, it was just trying to play the race card.

[Humboldt1]

Other than take a long walk off a short pier

As the problem with many of the impoverished CPS kids comes from their upbringing and lack of good parenting as SPD stated:

CPS actually gets more funding than many other districts in Illinois. The funding issue is just a scapegoat for the real problem, which is the unstable home environments and poverty many of the CPS kids are raised in.

It would be more productive for Meeks to have these kids adopted by some of the parents at New Trier. The problems start at home, not due so much to spending per pupil. When Naperville district 203 spends less per pupil than CPS district 299 and still does a good job educating children, it is not about funding.

Also, in that article it states that 3% of New Trier funding comes from the state, while 46% of the funding for CPS comes from the state. CPS receives far more dollars per pupil than New Trier.

Until poor blacks living in Chicago accept responsibilty for their actions and stop blaming others for their problems, clowns like Meeks will continue to preach their nonsense.

I find it interesting that many Hispanics were against this protest. My Hispanic pastor actually told members to go to school and not participate in the protest. This is mostly a Puerto Rican church on the west side that meets in Clemente High School. Clearly, the poor and working-class Hispanics were not on board with Meeks. It was never about haves and have-nots. It was about race.

[concerned resident]

Right on Humboldt- it is always about race in the blame game with these Black ministers and reverends.

[Lookout Kid]

There's a difference between a "conservative view" and overt racism. If you don't agree with that, then you are condemning conservatives.

Why is Meeks playing the blame game? Because it's easier to blame others for your problems than it is to look in the mirror and see that your problems are your own fault. This is happening all over American society today, and isn't the sole territory of minorities. In fact minorities are often blamed for the ills of society beyond any sort of reason or logic. It's called scapegoating, and it goes both ways.

[ndfmnlf]

Until poor blacks living in Chicago accept responsibilty for their actions and stop blaming others for their problems, clowns like Meeks will continue to preach their nonsense.

The traditional way to build wealth in this country is to own a house and gain equity from it. That has been the favored method of the middle class. Unfortunately, blacks have been unable to build the wealth they need to maintain stable home environments and raise their children according to how you prescribe. The cause is institutional racism.

For example, redlining in the form of mortgage discrimination is a fact. Redlining - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia And when black professionals do find the chance to buy a home in a decent neighborhood, the whites flee the neighborhood, causing property values to plummet, denying blacks the chance to gain equity. You yourself said so in a previous post. You said that these black doctors and lawyers who gain a foothold in white neighborhoods are merely the initial wave that opens the floodgates for the rest of the barbarians to move in, so it's a good idea to flee before it happens.

The poverty of blacks (and hence the poor performance of their children in school) can be directly attributed to the historical discrimination that blacks suffered in the hands of the white establishment throughout much of this country's history. Black parents have little wealth to pass on to their kids. They have little to no housing equity, thanks to redlining. So how can you sit here and pontificate about the poor home environments of blacks causing poor quality schools?