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This is a thinly disguised article to grab the wealth from suburbia and redistribute it to the cities.
That already happens in our state...the inner city schools have the highest per pupil spending, partially funded by taxes from the suburbs and they are STILL horrible schools. It's not the money--yes, you need enough money for schools to do their job but ultimately it comes down to the students in the school and if you have 70+% of your kids showing up having not eaten since lunch the day before or maybe they stayed up 1/2 the night to take care of siblings...doing well on a math test just isn't a priority...
That already happens in our state...the inner city schools have the highest per pupil spending, partially funded by taxes from the suburbs and they are STILL horrible schools. It's not the money--yes, you need enough money for schools to do their job but ultimately it comes down to the students in the school and if you have 70+% of your kids showing up having not eaten since lunch the day before or maybe they stayed up 1/2 the night to take care of siblings...doing well on a math test just isn't a priority...
My school got a lot of money for low income kids. It was mostly spent on worthless "professional development" that no one wanted, an extra resource teacher here and there, who would teach some silly science lab or something else the students didn't care about, and a bunch of "reform" programs that everyone hated. Meanwhile the students were hungry and didn't have enough food or warm clothing.
My school got a lot of money for low income kids. It was mostly spent on worthless "professional development" that no one wanted, an extra resource teacher here and there, who would teach some silly science lab or something else the students didn't care about, and a bunch of "reform" programs that everyone hated. Meanwhile the students were hungry and didn't have enough food or warm clothing.
Why is this the responsibility of the schools? This is a social welfare issue, not an education issue, yet people seem to think that schools need to be the be all, end all for social problems....and WHY these low income schools are dragging down test scores. Like I said, if they removed these schools from the tallies, our number would soar. Schools already have free breakfast and lunch programs for low income students...what more do you want them to do?
Also, just so you understand, money earmarked for educational resources can't be used to feed kids, they are separate funding sources. I sure hope you aren't a teacher too because professional development is important....
Also, just so you understand, money earmarked for educational resources can't be used to feed kids, they are separate funding sources. I sure hope you aren't a teacher too because professional development is important....
While professional development is important these funds would be better used by purchasing more adults, such as tutors and aides, to help educate the kids.
After 2 decades of experiencing "professional development", I've come to the conclusions that 90% of it was absolute bilge - completely worthless and a painful waste of my time. Money - and time - was/is completely wasted on in-service that could have been better spent on more useful things. I mean it - some of these were painful to sit through, knowing how much better my time could have been used, and how much better the system's money could have been spent. But no one asks us what type of professional development we the teachers would like and need. I contacted our directer of professional development once, asking if she knew of any classes, software, in-services, etc., that would train the science/math teachers to make computer animations as visual aids for hard-to-understand concepts. No answer. Asked again, and another teacher - coincidentally - emailed the same thing. No answer.
But we did get a mass e-mail later on a required in-service (5th one now) training us in PARCC assessments.
How does a profession take back their profession? How is it that we have absolutely no power/influence over policy? We did we do to merit such disrespect? This saddens me beyond belief.
I believe it's a problem that quite a few of these failing-but-over-funded inner city schools (including the one in the capital city of my home state) have become yet another negative reflection of the status quo.
All of the school funding in the world isn't going to have a reasonably cost effective return in such areas, and these funds are ultimately relegated to being money sinks for the taxpayers. Many of these children are going home every day to households & communities steeped in various forms of criminality, drug use/dealing, poor hygiene, near-abandonment, violence, as well as perpetual self-victimization and government reliance. Worse yet, in my opinion, is that we've allowed these problems to become so large that, under the current system(s), there is virtually nothing that can be done to meaningfully address them. It truly saddens my heart.
Why is this the responsibility of the schools? This is a social welfare issue, not an education issue, yet people seem to think that schools need to be the be all, end all for social problems....and WHY these low income schools are dragging down test scores. Like I said, if they removed these schools from the tallies, our number would soar. Schools already have free breakfast and lunch programs for low income students...what more do you want them to do?
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Did you read the article? It talks about how Finland has incorporated a lot of these social welfare issues and reformed their schools.
This is a thinly disguised article to grab the wealth from suburbia and redistribute it to the cities.
Actually in a lot of places the wealthier parts of the metropolitan area are in the city proper.
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