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Why would the voucher system, in Detroit of all places, improve absolutely anything? Why do you think schools in Detroit have a 25% graduation rate and HOW would a "free market" alternative solve said issues?
Because the teachers don't care they know they have jobs for life. If they thought they may lose their jobs because of the abysmal job they are doing they may try more creative solutions. If you or I failed at 75% of our job our customers would run fast and far away. These children are captive to the teachers unions.
Lets try a real world example. If there was only one restaurant allowed in your town and it could not be removed regardless of what it did what would be their incentive to provide excellent service. Now picture the same scenario where the town was opened up to many different restaurants. What do you think would happen to the quality of the product of the original restaurant?
Of course not all the fault lies with the teachers but enough to warrant drastic change.
Most of the time inner city means black so I'll take a stab at it.
On a ride home one day after classes I was listening to a program on NPR about the culture of anti intellectualism in African American culture.
Kids are made fun of because they succeed in the classroom and they are seen as "acting white," as if academic achievement is something reserved for those who are white.
I've seen this in my own high school where really intelligent kids failed to apply themselves in class because they were more worried about what others thought about them than their own success.
All throughout elementary and middle school I had a lot of people make fun of me, call me a "nerd," teacher's pet, etc but I had my eyes focused on my goals and my parents told me that education is power and your ticket to success.
Sadly not everyone had parents that taught them this nor did they have parents that made sure they did well in school. My parents never had to threaten me with punishment to make me do well, I was pretty much self-motivated. The $50-100 for an A/B also helped as well.
Some kids fail to believe in themselves and just give up.
Because the teachers don't care they know they have jobs for life. If they thought they may lose their jobs because of the abysmal job they are doing they may try more creative solutions. If you or I failed at 75% of our job our customers would run fast and far away. These children are captive to the teachers unions.
Lets try a real world example. If there was only one restaurant allowed in your town and it could not be removed regardless of what it did what would be their incentive to provide excellent service. Now picture the same scenario where the town was opened up to many different restaurants. What do you think would happen to the quality of the product of the original restaurant?
Of course not all the fault lies with the teachers but enough to warrant drastic change.
I can somewhat see that.
I was lucky enough to have teachers that cared but many of them did reach their breaking point with a few students. You can't make students care.
I have seen really good teachers become disinterested in their students as a result of their students not caring.
I used to help out in the attendance office at my school and I would go around picking up attendance. I remember walking into an English class that had regular students in it, I knocked on the door and when I came in the teacher said, "Don't worry, you're not interrupting anything. They don't care about school. Do you?" No one even dared challenge her.
I know some kids had pretty bad home lives: homelessness, not enough food to eat at home, drug use, etc and it's hard to concentrate on school when you have all these things going on at home.
One of my teachers once remarked that with all the demands placed on schools, she sometimes wondered if it was better to just keep the kids at school so they wouldn't have to worry about all the things going on at home.
I live in a really nice suburb with little to no crime, however we had no HS until after my freshamn year, so I chose to go to Catholic HS in Waterbury,CT. Waterbury's public school are horrible. A large number of the fellow classmates were from Waterbury public schools, there was an equal mix of white,black,latino, puerto rican, asian. WE were very mixed, with about 100-125 students per grade.
We had a 100% graduation rate, very few students were ever kicked out. In graduating class of 100, 98 went to college, 1 to the air force, and one went into the peace corps. Tuition was less than 6,000 a year, and our teachers made less than public school teachers.
The difference was that our teachers, and principle cared, and I think the fact that they were not teaching for a test helped a lot.
I live in a really nice suburb with little to no crime, however we had no HS until after my freshamn year, so I chose to go to Catholic HS in Waterbury,CT. Waterbury's public school are horrible. A large number of the fellow classmates were from Waterbury public schools, there was an equal mix of white,black,latino, puerto rican, asian. WE were very mixed, with about 100-125 students per grade.
We had a 100% graduation rate, very few students were ever kicked out. In graduating class of 100, 98 went to college, 1 to the air force, and one went into the peace corps. Tuition was less than 6,000 a year, and our teachers made less than public school teachers.
The difference was that our teachers, and principle cared, and I think the fact that they were not teaching for a test helped a lot.
Agreed.
I remember so many weeks devoted to state testing...
I think if public schools had more freedom to experiment, we could see some positive effects. Charter schools have shown success in many areas because they are free from a lot of the bureaucracy public schools have.
Without testing however, I would just want to know how we would measure a child's progress and if they are where they need to be based on their age, not necessarily grade level.
Schools are a function of the communities they serve. If said community is largely composed of shattered households who do not value education, the results are obvious.
Why there is still a debate about this is beyond me. Its not genetics, race, bad facilities or lack of money. Its bad culture, particularly a culture of bad parenting characterized by instability.
There's still a debate about it because the communities you speak of don't want to take responsibility for their part in the equation. And they have "leaders" like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton telling them they don't have to.
There's still a debate about it because the communities you speak of don't want to take responsibility for their part in the equation. And they have "leaders" like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton telling them they don't have to.
If we want to do what is best for all people at the lower end of the 'skills' scale we should stop demanding that they graduate from high school. We should set up a different kind of school that concentrates on basic life skills and some trades training. For these people life is an uphill battle. Craming them through high school for which they are ill equiped for is counter productive.
Even worse: Telling everyone that they have a "right" to go to college, and then pushing the idea that a 4-year degree is good for everybody. It's a waste of time and money for probably at least 1/3 of the students who enroll in a 4-year degree program.
There's still a debate about it because the communities you speak of don't want to take responsibility for their part in the equation. And they have "leaders" like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton telling them they don't have to.
Hmmmm. Now I am know great fan of Rev. Jackson but...
"His "Six Point Excellence Plan" requires parents to take their children to school, meet the teachers and exchange phone numbers, read to children, take kids to school and pick them up in the evening, and go to "a church, temple or synagogue," he said.
"This is a parent, teacher, minister joint venture," he said. "It puts the child in a triangle of love," and ultimately will help address the chronic high school dropout problem.
Jackson used his trademark rhyming to explain to the youngsters before him the importance of rising above obstacles in search of success. It worked, said Mariana Martinez, a sophomore at the school.
"It reminded me of what my mother always says to me, 'never give up, always have hope,'" she said. "They think we're not going to make it, but I'm sure we will."
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