In Texas, it’s illegal for white parents to disregard arbitrary notions of skin color diversity and send their kids to better schools. [subliminal message: Homeschool your kids!]
Apparently the Hearne Independent School District in Texas is predominantly black, and white parents were transferring their kids to the Mumford Independent School District, apparently predominantly white.
If folks are complaining about white students leaving a school district, the implication is that the presence of whites is beneficial to blacks, yet the same people will argue that blacks and whites are equally capable of performing well and, to extend the implication, blacks admitted or hired through skin color preferences are just as qualified as the whites who didn’t get admitted or hired so that someone black could be admitted or hired instead.
If all that makes your head spin, it’s intentional. It’s not supposed to make sense. The system is designed to keep you running in circles so you won’t see the real issues. Few people want to be honest about the reasons behind the skills gap between white and black students and why skin color preferences make the situation worse for blacks in the long run. [subliminal message: Homeschool your kids!]
If racism is holding blacks down, as Jesse Jackson would argue, shouldn’t the absence of “racist” whites in a school district (no white students or staff) improve the performance of black students? Research a few predominantly black school districts and let me know what you find.
Start with the predominantly black, heavily-funded government school system in our nation’s capital. [subliminal message: Homeschool your kids!]
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Our campus recently recieved a visit by the former Commisioner of Education from Vermont, where more students are homeschooled than enrolled in its largest school district.
One of his points was that homeschooling right now offers a way better opportunity for minorities to close the achievment gap.
The Hearne ruling, coming from the opinion of a Texas public educator, is no real surprise. Since the legislature can’t get its head out of the sand to completely change the system, from funding all the way to how schools are administered, another backwards thinking ruling is par for the course.
Hearne is a small town just north of College Station and east of Austin. It’s TAKS scores and national AYP ratings this past school year left much to be desired. It makes absolute sense that parents would want their kids to go elsewhere, because they are getting a terrible education in Hearne.
The court and its proponents can be loquacious as they want, but why on earth are we so content to deny people the right to a better education for the cause of social justice. It makes no sense.
If the shoe was on the other foot…
Man, LaShawn, this article fits right in with an issue in Fort Worth. When I was down there visiting my sister, I read in the paper how this same issue was happening, WITH MIDDLE CLASS BLACKS. The middle and upper class blacks (there is a large population of them in FTWTH) were moving there kids from one predominantely black school district to another predominantely black upper class school district, and the school board was getting concerned.
Don’t people get it yet, public school is becoming an inefficient monopoly that needs to be radically altered.
You know me, home school all the way baby!
Your “submliminal message” needs to be a little more clear. Is homeschool to blame or is it the the solution. Having read your stuff, I’d assume you mean it’s the solution, but some may not be as familiar with your stance on things.
While I generally oppose any sort of segregation (it robs people of the opportunity of knowing a wider range of cultures and ideas) it is refreshing to see it being discussed, rather than presumed. Walter Williams also has some interesting comments on the topic.
Thanks, Danny! – Admin
It’s troubling to me that in a sense that our schools and communities are re-segregating. However I have really come to the conclusion that I can’t be worried about what some white parent does with their child. In fact I really don’t care. I’m not a parent but when I become one, my first priority is to MY child, first and foremost.
As black folks we need to quite being so hypersensitve. If someone white moves because they don’t want to live next to me, then that’s their issue NOT mine. Same if they want to move their kid to another school district. Can’t be worried about it. I would need to focus on doing the best for my kid.
I would suspect based on Texas “Robin Hood” way of the funding the schools that the white parents moving to the new school district are not going to see sky rocketing test scores because they went to this new district. Reason being is that smaller school districts are underfunded compared to the larger districts in the state. That especially applies to a rural school district.
Also, blacks aren’t the majority in either of these districts (I’m taking an educated guess on this one) so I would assume simply based on a larger white population that there would still be a larger group of white students that would not have acceptable test scores than black students.
Dell,
The school board is very concerned (I work in FW) and they should be since a good portion of $$$ comes from the average daily attendance. Nothing they can do about it, though, the kids leaving (and one of them they’re leaving is my campus) are leaving thanks to NCLB.
At least for my campus, we are doing everything in our power to change and make our school a place where people want to go (it used to be that way until a few years back).
But as our principal continues to say, you can’t blame the parents for wanting a better education for their kid. So we have to do our jobs better.
I think my campus at least will make some big leaps forward in the next 2-3 years.
This is ALWAYS a telling sign:
“Even Hearne school board members transferred their children out of [formerly all black] Blackshear [Elementary School].
Another example of how “forced” social engineering does more harm than good in the long run
Found it LaShawn
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/longterm/stories/062705dnmetBPCPUBSCHOOLS.4b7610f1.html
I don’t here many people complaining about Afro-centric Schools, like the one in Columbus, OH. It seems obvious that by the name that they have no wish for whites to attend. If it is ok for blacks to have their own schools, how can it not be ok for whites to have their own schools?
I remember some black liberals claiming that only blacks should be teaching black kids, which seems a confirmation that they prefer segregation.
I wish liberals could make their mind up what they do want. Actually I’d prefer for liberals to keep their nose out out of education, and let schools get on with the job of teaching our kids, without regard to the race of the teacher or pupil.
Thanks for the homeschool plug, LaShawn. Reading through the trackbacks, Tiffany hits it on the head and she will be a great parent when the time comes for her.
We can only worry about our own kids. Nothing personal against other people’s kids. But if my first grader doesn’t learn to read well by the end of the school year because the teacher has to spend so much time remediating his classmates, we just lost a year we will never get back. Bad habits will be formed that will be hard to correct. All because “some people” don’t want to offend “other people” by making the best educational choices for the kids.
I am fond of saying to my fellow homeschool friends: It certainly does “take a village” to raise kids. I just want to pick my own village and not have it assigned to me by a government bureacrat!
Thanks for your hard work and tough stance. Love your postings and ideas.
Personally, I read the scenario having more to do with social and economic status AND aspirations than with race. But of course, some people always have to blame race and racism as the cause…
I always wonder, what would happen if all parents could get vouchers and send their children where they deemed appropriate… and how loud the socialists and progressives would howl if it happened.
And Texas is one of the most least restrictive states when it comes to homeschooling too…
Reading through the trackbacks, I see that Tiffany is right on. She’ll be a great parent when the time comes. You can only be concerned about your own kids and not with what other people are doing with their kids.
If my first grade son doesn’t learn to read well in his PS class, we just lost the whole year. Bad habits are formed that will be difficult to correct. All because I’m worried about what “other people” will think of me if I pull him out of a bad school situation? No way.
As I tell my fellow homeschool friends: It takes a village to raise kids. I just want to pick my own village!
Thanks for all you do, LaShawn. I love your work.
Sorry for the double post! I’m new to the comment section and I guess I got a little trigger happy….
The judgment also states that Mumford has only solicited the highest achieving students, leaving a void in Hearne when it comes to ranking against other districts with test scores
So the judge was saying that all the white kids were smarter anyway? Perhaps the concern should be why so many of the black kids are poor performers in academics. For shame!
La Shawn:
I still have a house in Austin, TX, and I have seen the liberal erosion brought on by the hi-tech revolution. Along with the copmuter scientists from the West Coast, come their leftist ideas.
Some woman wanted to make the Austin animal shelter “no kill”.
George W Bush as Governor supported bilingual education and other social services for illegals, in spite of the reality that a number of hospitals have shut down over this issue.
Liberalism is a mental disorder. And Hearn is well on the way to becoming segregated – by the folly of Lefitits.
Love the post!
Yes indeed HOMESCHOOL YOUR KIDS you won’t regret it.
Spunky
LOL…in agreement with Spunky. This is quite an interesting subject.
Also, Shipwrecked summed it all up well: “If it is ok for blacks to have their own schools, how can it not be ok for whites to have their own schools?”
Let’s just homeschool and forget all of this
.
School success is most closely correlated with parental involvement. Not a school’s racial make-up, nor socio-economic demograhics. And that is an individual household thing.
White flight is a regular american phenomenon.
School vouchers. I have been arguing on a different board about the intelligent design versus evolution issue in schools. The irrationality of some folks is this:
You have to accept whatever the monopolistic school system will teach your kids, and no, vouchers should be made available for you to be able to more affordably send your kid to a school that has your values.
It is a form of educational McCarthyism sanctioned by the Federal Government. I want my kids especially in their formative years to learn the primary values that I espouse. Having to pay a double tax to provide my kids a good education, but also one that supports my values just seems wrong.
We need to focus on running public schools that actually teach kids that 2+2 isn’t 5, no matter how much that inconvenient fact affects the little darlings’ self-esteem, or creativity, or whatever the namby pamby PC cause du jour might be.
But of course I’m just daydreaming. The public school systems are broken, but the pinheaded edu-crats will never admit that they’ve gone astray. Home schooling and/or vouchers are going to be the only viable solutions for some time to come.
Let’s see if I have this straight…..
According to the “leadership,” the one and ONLY reason why any black person falls short of anything they seek to accomplish is because they were held back by racist whites – and of course, every white in the world is racist.
Also, according to the “leadership,” neither blacks nor whites have any chance whatsoever of becoming educated unless the classroom is full of DIVERSITY. There’s no way a white kid can learn calculus unless there are sufficient blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, Arabs and homosexuals in the room.
Now this same “leadership” is up in arms because white people are moving their kids out of this school district.
BRILLIANT!!!!!
Each day I encounter a new piece of information to cement my belief that once my wife and I have kids, they will NEVER set foot in a government school.
If you want to send your kids to a private school, you have that choice. If you would only do it because vouchers are available, you aren’t that serious about it. You must be an involved parent, no matter what school your child attends. By the way, it is dangerous to assume private means quality.
If you aren’t satisfied with police services, should you get a voucher for private security services?
Private does not insure quality. You are correct, BUT it does significantly increase the chances of higher quality and it also increases your ability to control the curriculum and your child’s exposure to garbage like homosexual indoctrination disguised as diversity studies.
BrotherBrown, to piggy back off what Raymond was saying, to make the assumption that one wouldn’t “be that serious” about sending a child to a private school if they wouldn’t do it because of vouchers is irrational.
If am in a lower income bracket, and I have to make a choice between fundamental necessities and private education, I am going to choose the former. But if I can get a tax break that allows me more flexibility in spending, and I prefer private education that fits my values, then I would do it.
Do you think people can be “indoctrinated” to homosexuality? Do you think you can protect your children from homosexuality by controlling their exposure? Do you think you won’t find homosexual teachers at private schools?
I think the perception of private school quality is exaggerated. Yes, there are private schools with long histories of excellence. But the quality varies widely, and you have to be very careful about accreditation. I know of a local private school where seniors were finding out during the college application process that they were not meeting the A-E requirements of the University of California because of the lack of accreditation. It was an expensive lesson to learn.
#28. Dell, of course your income will play a part, but more people than not can indeed afford a private education for their children. All that is needed is some rebudgeting and/or sacrifices.
All too often, people find other “more important” things to do with their money than educate their children.
When it was on the California ballot a few years back, it would have meant about a $2,000 tax break, but ironically, if your household income was below a certain amount, you couldn’t take advantage of the credit anyway. So let’s at least be honest and recognize it was not to help “poor and minority students have access to choice” but rather to provide a tax break to people already enrolled in private schools.
Furthermore, if your values are that important to you, you would find a way to make up $2,000 i an academic year.
Ehh..maybe Ray…here it cost about $8000 to $12000 for a private education. I have 5 kids. If you check the median income amongst individual in urban areas per family, you will find that budget or no, for a family of three, a tuition of $30,000 or so per year just ain’t cutting it.
Say hypothetically, you could reduce that cost by half through a voucher program, you immediately increase the population that would be able to afford it.
Homeschooling isn’t that expensive, however the time committment of the parent represents a loss of potential income. We do budget for that, but we decided before we even had kids that this is the way to go.
Ummm… Perhaps I missed it, but did the article at any point indicate WHY the parents were transferring their kids? Were any parents interviewed? The article labeled the spate of transfers ‘white flight’, but does that REALLY explain why it has been occuring?
Perhaps this quote throws a little light on the matter:
“As a result, he [Judge Justice] wrote, Hearne now is perceived as a black school district, creating negative and unsubstantiated stereotypes concerning the safety of students.”
Hmmm…
LaShawn,
Friends of mine have a son and duaghter-in-law that live in the DFW area and earn over $100,000. He married only several years ago and he is 37 or 38 today. This is an open secret that there are a lot of these couples out there today. And Dallas and Fort Worth are cheaper to live then East or West coasts. I lived in Austin, TX but in the Round Rock School district. You pay extra property tax for disadvantaged areas such as the Rio Grande Valley. As far as MD (I am over sixty) and thought I knew everything back when 16-20 years old. I only knew Montgomery County and Prince George and what happened on the Eastern Shore was not known. It makes some parents and grandparents proud that their offspring are doing so well. Austin is blue spot in generally red state.
James M. Barber
I live in an extremely rural area. We only have one puplic school and no private schools in the county. Full privatization of education funded through tax based vouchers, would allow all kinds of opportunities. Not only would parents have choice, but educators would have the chance to become entrepreneurs. As it stands now a huge portion of our tax dollars are funneled into inefficient bureaucratic government indoctrination facilities. Imagine a world where those tax dollars are given back to parents to invest in a free market educational system. Not only would the quality of our children’s education improve, but communities would benifit from new wealth and opportunity that was once the sole provence of the government. Government education is a dinosaur of the past. It is time to look to the future and lobby for change.
California voters had a voucher initiative on the ballot about 4 years ago. In it, parents would receive a credit of up to $2k, and the district where they resided would lose $3k. (Or it might have been a $4k and $5k.) It was weird.
If your household income level were below a certain point, you really could not take avantage of the voucher since you probably had no tax liability. So it was less a device to help “poor and minority students” have school choice as it was a tax break for those already choosing private education.
DocJim wrote:
“Ummm… Perhaps I missed it, but did the article at any point indicate WHY the parents were transferring their kids? Were any parents interviewed? The article labeled the spate of transfers ‘white flight’, but does that REALLY explain why it has been occuring?
Perhaps this quote throws a little light on the matter:
“As a result, he [Judge Justice] wrote, Hearne now is perceived as a black school district, creating negative and unsubstantiated stereotypes concerning the safety of students.â€
Hmmm…”
Doc, isn’t that the primary reason for ‘white’ flight: PERCEPTION??????
#30. You are correct, but you are correct. You made that choice to have 5 children. A blessing in its own right, but finacially limiting to say the least.
I would also caution that cutting the cost of private education also has the tendency to cut quality and the ability of the school to maintain that which is not supported by state or federal funds.
Cutting the cost of tuition also cuts down on the very exclusivity that makes the schools effective. Schools must ensure that even if they cut the price, they do not lower the standards. Some schools do by offering scholarships on a lower performance and ability to pay standard and then the garbage gets in and defeats the whole point of sending your child there.
#37. “You are correct, but be careful…”
The author of the article wrote;
“The judge’s ruling permanently bars the Texas Education Agency from funding transfers to Mumford that “reduce or impeded racial desegregation at Hearne Independent School District.” Districts receive about $5,500 funding from the agency for each student.”
The issue is demonstrably apparent. Its all about the money!
Everyone is in a tirade; denouncing liberals seeking to de-segregate schools, consevatives complaining about non-performing heavily-funded public school systems, white flight from an increasing black population in neighborhoods and schools, skin color preferences…. Hogwash!!
Yet, none of these vituperations seems to address the real issue; EDUCATING THE CHILDREN.
The transitory nature of the arguement, (and the issue) leaves an aura of insignificance with regard to the children.
The politicians, judges, legislators and school officials all play the money game–while the children suffer.
The pundits argue over the validity and effectiveness of the social programs that are (so called) “designed to eliminate the inequities, injustice or unfairness” in our school systems–while the children suffer.
Dell and La Shawn, I have no problem with home schooling, however, what about those whom are incapable or unable (for whatever reason) of home schooling their kids? More Charter schools? Vouchers? That puts us in the similar bureaucratic quagmire of “who gets to juggle the money bags.”
All of our tax dollars are at stake in this mess. One day, maybe we will all realize that it would be to the greater advantage of every American (black, white, christian, muslim, whatever..) that a productive school system means advancenment for the entire nation.
Hipstreet. You had me until you included the enemy cult’s practitioner, muslims. Nothing good will come out of letting ilsm infect our school system any further.
Raymond – I don’t advocate cutting private tuition cost unless the market demanded it. I would prefer to see the educational system be as close to a free market as possible.
Hip – I don’t believe any of the issues we have been discussing arent considering the children. We are just dealing with the issue from a macro-structural level. For example, we know in business that monopolies are inefficient and don’t provide the best service. Public schools are very near a monopoly, particularly in certain income brackets. Therefore logic dictates that public schools will not provide the best service. So the question becomes how do we create a public and private situation whereby the public institution is forced to be competitive to retain funding which would in turn create better education students.
I agree with you, homeschooling is not for everyone, nor is everyone capable of homeschooling. However, I think it should always be in the discussion when we talk about education.
Ray,
“enemy cult’s practitioner, muslims?” and “infect our school system any further?”
I seem to have heard similar vocal sentiments in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. Although at that time the reference wasn’t directed toward Muslims.
Homeschooling has many upsides.
#42. Black skin does not equal cult of blood, conquest and death. Not the same. Not even on the same planet but nice try.
What happened to the Delta?
“If folks are complaining about white students leaving a school district, the implication is that the presence of whites is beneficial to blacks, yet the same people will argue that blacks and whites are equally capable of performing well and, to extend the implication, blacks admitted or hired through skin color preferences are just as qualified as the whites who didn’t get admitted or hired so that someone black could be admitted or hired instead.”
I don’t believe that it would be inconsistent to think that the presence of whites may be beneficial to blacks and yet still believe that blacks and whites are equally capable of performing well. What I think you are missing here is that it’s not that whites are smarter, better, or more capable than blacks ( which they are not ), it is that white people have a better network of people to help promote them to professional levels. Due to many reasons, be it racism, economics or geography, black people have been secluded or minimized from accessing this network. This not only happens to black people but also many other minorities…as well as people of all colors living in poverty. It’s not what you know it is who you know.
So you should not assume that the inequality is in the performance of the individual. It is not. The imbalance occurs in the access to predefined social networks. One way of resolving this issue is to promote policies that allow blacks more access to that network. The other way is for black people to build there own network. Both are beneficial to everyone and actually strengthen each other.
I might be misinterpreting your post Ray. Are you saying that Muslims should not be allowed to attend public schools?
Your personal beliefs are quite obvious when refer to the religion as a “cult of blood, conquest and death.” But excluding any group from an education in this country does not satisfy the notion of “With Liberty, and Justice for All.” Thats what I meant, my kind sir!
I support the idea of home schooling and vouchers and choice. But there is something I have to write.
I sent my kid to private school from K-8th grade. In high school, she attended a magnet school that was in the top 10 in the state. It was majority Black BTW.
But the first day of her first day in school, the parents were asked to help the administration fight defunding of the school. Because it was a top school the year before, other schools wanted to raid the top school budget “to help bring their schools up to par.”
The second year, on the first day of school, kids were told to ask their parents to go to business stores and buy copier paper. The school didn’t have enough money to do all of the things it wanted to do, so it cut back on paper. The next day, kids were sent to school with reams of paper. Some parents drove to the school to drop off boxes of paper.
All four years, the school didn’t have enough English books. The teachers copied chapters for the kids to take home.
I don’t want to mention the state of the bathrooms or the years the kids took bottled water to school because the school system was forced to shut off the water supply because of lead.
I understand the issue of accountability in how the money is being spent. But I also understand that, when cost of living and “special education” programs and school infrastructure is taken into account, “urban” and rural schools are getting less per pupil funding than suburban schools.
My 2nd kid is going to go to private schools all the way through.
Hearne, TX, by the way, is one of only two towns where Wal-Mart chose to pull out. Employees were stealing everything that wasn’t nailed down.
Terrific, as always. The unfortunate thing about the white liberals and media appointed black leadership is that they actually do mean well. I doubt that any of them like the poor results that come from many urban schools. Their problem is that they continue to place double standards on people:
1. Integrate the schools at any cost to the children. Do not allow parents to decide…after all what do they know. Add to this that they truly believe that it takes whites being in the school to somehow make it better…Not that they would ever state that, but as you say, it is the implication.
2. Then these people expect the black community to believe that they have an equal chance? Simply because whitey showed up? How shamefull, disgraceful, cruel and thoughtless are these people.
But then, the people that make these comments don’t live in these neighborhoods nor do they teach there, nor do they allow their children to play in the parks there… and they never would. Nor would they allow the people living there to make determinations about their OWN families and their OWN neighborhoods and to make THEIR lives better… No, to the White Liberal and the Media crowned Black leaders, the people living in these communities need to shut up and let the government “help” to re-enslave them to the new master: Government.
Ultimately everyone will suffer, but in the short term, the black community continues to be told: “You are less then and different, therefore you NEED our help to get anywhere.” There is nothing more insulting to anyone to be told this, let alone to have it reinforced day in and day out.
May God have mercy on the souls of the people who continue to perpetuate this.
Always, in this type of discussion, someone cries out about the children as if they are innocent slates of receptive attention waiting to have their full drink at the fount of knowledge.
Unfortunately, there are deeply injured children who bring so much baggage with them to any school that they are almost beyond help.
If you do not properly feed the child in the womb and for the first years, the child’s brain development can be stunted in ways that can not be reversed. This permanent diminished brain capacity is first seen in IQ tests.
Lest I get “loud-capped” and have the Lord’s name taken in vain against me, I must quickly add that IQ tests alone are not great predictors. However, when you add apptitude and skills tests to the mix, you can begin to understand the severity of damage to a child’s mental acuity.
Some children are born with the damage caused by all manner of drugs. Some children are mentally diabled through physical abuse and psychological trauma.
In many “inner city” school settings, the numbers of children who are not equipped or capable of meeting the presumptions of the traditional classroom rises dramatically.
I have been waiting for the “No Child Left Behind” crowd to finally come to grips with the reality of children with diminished capacity and ability.
This country if peppered with “inner city” schools (and failing Indian reservation schools). It is also home to many colleges and universities with education schools. To my knowledge, no education school anywhere has taken a failing “inner city” school and reversed its direction. That is the dirty little secret that is never discussed.
Here is the deal: if you take just one miserable school and drop a bottomless checkbook on it and move the absolute cream of the teaching and administrative corps into it, but you do not replace the individual failing students, you will find that only a few students will pull ahead as a result.
A lot of these kids were doomed in the womb and/or during their critical early development.
Any caring, attentive parent would do what she could to get her child away from a floundering school.
There is one other pernicious truth that needs a little light shed on it. There are some really lazy and dumb teachers, too. Usually, over time, they get funneled into the worst schools.
For those who carp that it is all about money, remember that nearly every public school is funded on the basis of its average daily attendance (ADA) and administrators will do everything within their power to keep the enrollment up to keep the funding constant and predictable.
Public education has evolved around the understanding that “figures don’t lie, but liars can figure.” In many cases, a principal’s salary is tied to the size of the school enrollment.
This country needs to understand that a free education and public schools are not the same thing. For a long time, public schools were a cheap, efficient way of providing public education. But if you go back fifty years, when the children that were unable to keep up were frustrated out of school, no one dragged them back in.
Now the public schools are all things to all people and they must be certain that there is “no child left behind.”
In my belief, a free education is equal to permitting the parent a voucher or admission ticket to the school (public or private or at home) that best meets the needs of the child.
For those poor children who have been crippled by development problems, we should do what we can to uncover methods for helping them be productive citizens. But in the end, we must be honest about the fact that a 100% success rate can only be achieved by dumbing down the expectations to the least common denominator.
Damaged in the womb? Can we be more dramatic?
Though parental involvement is important, studies actually indicate that the single biggest predictor of student success in the classroom is the quality of the teacher.
Parents of children of all races who place a high value on education will flee a failing school,or school district, given the opportunity and the means.This phenomenon is being seen increasingly among all races. Ironically, in Texas, a minority student can transfer out of a failing district. My granddaughter was able to transfer into the best district in Austin, because she is a minority (Of course, no one called her a racist because she was fleeing a failing school system…After all, she’s not ‘white’. Yuck!). And lastly, contrary to the comments of a few, white flight is far more related to a perceived quality of education, than it is to proximity of race. High performing magnet schools in urban areas have intense competiton for admittance, regardless of the racial mix. White people are not nearly as hung up on race as many minorities think. However, most whites are not willing to expose their children to achievement gaps,the perception or possibility of achievement gaps, or failing situations to make others think they are racially tolerant….No parent should.
Vouchers are great because they offer choices to parents. Public schools in Florida, faced with the loss of students through vouchers, actually finally started educating their students. Competition is good. This monopoly called ‘public education’ needs a run for its money.
brotherbrown, I was a public educator and Heliotrope speaks the truth. Public education has morphed into a social services program. How can anyone blame responsible parents for wanting to get their child out of an institution that makes learning secondary to social work? I know I will not be sacrificing my kids up for any noble, yet misguided, social experiment.
studies actually indicate that the single biggest predictor of student success in the classroom is the quality of the teacher.
That doesn’t sound right. It implies a “high quality” teacher’s students will excel, and a “low quality” teacher’s students will not. It is probably reasonable to expect a normal distribution of student results in each case.
Vouchers are a red herring. You don’t need a voucher to exercise your choice. You can opt out of the public schools at any time. Police will tell you they cannot protect your house from a break-in, so you get an alarm system. But you don’t ask for vouchers to cover the cost, you take the appropriate steps to secure your house.
Hmmmm. Could it be that Police Unions are conservative and Teachers Unions are liberal?
brotherbrown: I really try not to rise to baiting ……but…… “Damaged in the womb? Can we be more dramatic?”
Perhaps if you googled a bit …… try “crack baby” for instance, you might step down a bit toward the “humble zone”. I also recommend Elie Schnauer’s “The Malnourished Mind” and its extensive research updates.
Prison systems, mental wards and emergency rooms all employ triage: schools should too.
brownbrother: I forgot to mention that when you google “crack baby” you need to search long and deep, because this question is far from answered. I apologize for the double post.
I don’t blame anyone at all, they should be like Nike and just do it.
I’ve faced all those decisions myself. We were disgruntled with our daughter’s high school by the time she graduated, and vowed that our son would not attend the same school. We moved to our present community just before he started high school, and one of the considerations was how well the high school prepared student for college, and their track record with black boys going to college. Although I cannot say for sure how it would have turned out at the school my daughter attended, I am pleased that he was accepted to four colleges, including his first choice, and that his friends had similar results.
Sounds like you are suggesting special schools for developmentally disabled students.
Which is quite a different discussion.
Children in a teacher centered classroom, exposed to a teacher with demanding standards excel. A failing teacher has a very negative effect on the normal achievement distribution. A dynamic, excellent teacher has an extremely positive effect on levels of achievement. Studies overwhelmingly reinforce this dynamic, but teacher’s unions would prefer to maintain the status quo at the expense of the students. The history of Paul Dunbar High School in Washington DC is fascinating and a true revelation of what can be achieved when excellence is expected and demanded in every quarter. My five children attended schools in four different countries, with fifty nationalities, poor and rich, and the biggest differential in terms of achievement was what was expected and demanded. Period. Either that, or I would have to accept that kids in public school in the US simply have lower IQs, which is preposterous, and unacceptable……
brotherbrown: You are to be commended (as W.C. Fields said) for taking the bull by the tail and facing the situation! A sharp onsumer can not be dazzled. You moved to correct what you knew was …. shall we say… BS. Why should that burden be on you? It is great that your son has been launched to soar.
My points are all still the same, however. We have too many schools where nearly “feral” kids are kept and fed for most of the daylight hours. Those schools are NOT in the education business as you and I would define it. And, futhermore, I do not believe that you have any real notion of what those kids are like.
My kids, my priorities. That’s why any of us take the actions we take.
It is pretty presumptuous of you to doubt what I know; how to deal with crack babies is a worthy discussion, but a bit off track.
brotherbrown: I apologize for being presumptuous and for offending you in any manner. Hopefully, you are far better read than I. However, you note that “studies actually indicate that the single biggest predictor of student success in the classroom is the quality of the teacher.”
Having lived for 50+ years in this arena, I am totally unaware of such studies and I would welcome an introduction to them.
A former student of mine is a renowned heart surgeon in a major research medical school. His mother required him (and his brother) to write a report on every book he read and to read it to her. She then made critical comments. Little did the son know that his mother could not read.
He looks back on this early schooling with the following aphorism: It was a pot of crabs and if you tried to claw your way to the rim, the biggest obstacle was the mass of crabs reaching up to pull you back down to the teeming throng.
I am suggesting, that aside from misdirected social pressures, anyone who puts his trust in the equality of the teeming throng is not being honest about the capacity and ability that they bring to the table.
You and I agree that these kids need to be given special attention and that they should be challenged to exceed beyond our common expectations. They should not, however, be a part of the general mix that works to “flatten” the learning curve.
Unfortunately, blacks, in particular, are suspicious to a fault that rather than honest testing the decision will be made on skin color alone. But blacks need only look inward to examine the intra-race prejudices of “high yellow” and “nappy” hair and “country” habits to underscore their fear of prejudice.
Sorry to break it to some of you, but there really is no such thing as a good public school. Some are just “better” than others.
The term “good public school” is the pinnacle of oxymorons. Sort of like saying “That rapper is more talented than that one.”
You can graduate from an American public high school with a 4.0 or 9.0 GPA or whatever arbitrary, stupid scale they use now to make students look smart and that student is still an idiot compared to students from other industrialized nations.
#51 Alec: “…black ledership and white liberals mean well…”
WHAT? I am speechless on that one……
#47. YES! Not only should they not be in public schools, they should not be in this country until they learn to assimilate and more importantly, BEHAVE!
#60. Special schools for developmentally disabled children?….ABSOLUTELY. You cannot sacrifice the many for the few. Teachers are not trained to babysit retarded students and take care of the ones who can learn as well.
Those type of students need to be in special schools where they can receive love, proper attention and care and not drag down the good students.
Unless of course you think public schools are just free gubmint daycare that you want others to pay for.
Raymond: There really are some great public schools, but only in the sense that they are the exception that proves the rule!
However, I would agree that if you find yourself with a student in a “great” public school, you can certainly find a private school that will be more challenging.
If you could see the check list that, say, MIT works from for admission you would find a limited group of public schools and a limited number of private schools. But they also depend heavily on SATs.
This story hits close to home (literally – my wife and I live very near Hearne). The Hearne Independent School District has become a poster child for the horrors of public education.
Mwalimu Daudi: So what do you do? Have you the resources to work around it? What should happen?
This is what I would like to see happen with education. The average per pupil expenditure in this nation is $6,530.00 per child. Cut that figure in half to begin with for it is mostly wasted money that insures liberal educrats keep their job. Continue collecting education earmarked taxes from every American citizen. We all have a stake in the future of our country. The federal government divides the pot equally amongst school age children K through undergraduate college. Every year each school age child gets a voucher to be used in the private school of their parent’s choice. Sure, there will be those that can still afford your $10,000 dollar tuitions, but so what – more power to them. Even the private schools that operate at the $3,000 dollar per year range will have to remain good competitive schools because people can take their money where they want to go. Close the public schools. Let the government lease or sell existing facilities to private entrepreneurs. Dismantle the federal bureau of education. No government oversite with the exception of saftey regulations and building codes. Get the government out of our children’s education. You can only beat a dead horse so long before the stench becomes a public health problem.
Heliotrope, I think the problems of public education are far beyond the ability of educators, journalists and politicians to solve.
Right now in Texas there is debate (a political fight, actually) about equalizing school funding between “rich” and “poor” school districts. Politicians, educators, and journalists love debates about money, since it allows them to make pompous claims of “being on the side of children”. No doubt that school funding in Texas is both uneven and unfair (schools are supported by local takes within a school district), and that poor school districts are getting the dirty end of the stick (the first school that I taught at had one semi-working copying machine, just as a small example). However, money alone will not cure what ails Hearne schools.
I have taught in a local “poor” public school district (neither Hearne nor Mumford, although in the same area). I saw obviously drugged-out students on campus, young girls dressed like hookers, a curriculum so watered down it bore only a faint resemblance to the original, and non-existent administration. I watched students get in gang fights, being dropped off at school by friends (they were sleeping at friends’ houses and had not been home for days), heard stories of children being passed from one parent to another to grandparent to neighbors and more. How will spending more tax money solve this?
To finally answer your question: Only a change of heart from parents and the community has a chance of reversing the trend in public education. School is serious business – and so is parenting for that matter. If parents throw children away (as I have seen them do), don’t be surprised if the children adopt the law of the jungle and bring it into the schools. No more glorification of violence and drugs by popular culture. And schools should enforce discipline and treat education as the hard work it really is. We do children no favors when we lie to them and give them the impression that life is mostly fun and games.
Nothing that I have written about will be easy to implement. But I honestly don’t see any other way.
Forgive the lengthy response, Heliotrope – this subject strikes home in more ways than one.
Here’s an approach to a solution.
1. All parents are issued vouchers for the full amount of federal/state and local money that would go to any public school in their home district. The vouchers are good at any school, public or private.
2. Schools can only get money via these vouchers or private payment. Not by direct government grants on any level.
3. Schools can throw out any student for any reason. Teachers can throw out any student for any or no reason. Schools can fire teachers for any or no reason.
4. Schools have complete control over their curriculum and policies. No government intervention.
5. Any student that fails the reading, writing and math standardized tests at the end of the year, the school must give the voucher money all back for that student.
6. Teachers unions outlawed.
7. School boards are disbanded. Parents have no say except where to send their kids.
Let the competition begin! Schools compete for passing students. Students compete for a decent school. Teachers compete for a decent job.
Why is Hearne all the sudden talked about like it’s an urban school??? Does a large black student population all the sudden make this an urban school discussion?
But a better question for you is: How many of you have been to Hearne?
The parents are leaving for many of reasons, and if YOU were in the same situation WITH YOUR OWN CHILD, how many of you would actually do differently?
While some will make the case for race in this issue, it is equally or perhaps even more about $$$. Schools recieve money based on the number of students who attend. Hearne CANNOT afford to lose any additional funding from the state or federal government.
Hearne schools have the following problems:
1. They are not a property tax rich district. That means that they have little income other than what the state gives them. This translates to lower teacher pay, crumbling facilities, an unsafe learning environment, less opportunities for AP and higher level course work.
2. They get a lesser qualified teacher candidate. As a teacher, when my options are an urban or suburban school district with better facilities, way better pay (over 10K/yr in most cases) or Hearne where I get the state base pay and the problems I list above…..you get the point.
3. Hearne as a town/city is at a major crossroads. Job opportunities in Hearne are dwindling, which drives the median income down. That puts many youth and young adults at risk to make bad choices when faced with opportunities for some “fast money.” Parents are not as involved, which directly affects how the child views the importance of their education. So unless Hearne can right itself economically, what you have left are severely disadvantaged students, with uninvolved parents and a litany of bad choices at the ready.
I love all the snap judgements being thrown around here. LaShawn got it right. Why on earth would a court ever think of forcing students to attend a poorer performing school? What about the welfare of the students? Color should not matter in this instance, yet somehow, we’ve made color into the only thing that mattered. No way I would allow my child to enter that environment if I had a choice. You are either patently unbelievable or just a plain fool if you believe otherwise.
Please, please, please, please, PLEASE don’t read what follows as advocating segregation. I don’t in any sense believe it’s good for anyone.
I run a very small book-publishing company. About a year ago, I printed a book detailing the history of a black school in this area (I’m in Mississippi) that tracked the school’s progress from its founding until desegregation. In looking through the class pages, I saw people who went on to become local government leaders, educators, lawyers, doctors, and the like. They received a particularly good education in the environment of an all-black school. Very few dropped out. Classrooms were orderly, and students and teachers conducted themselves with dignity and mutual respect. All these good things in spite of the provisions of Plessy v Ferguson, and predating the revolutionary Brown v. Board of Education,
There are salient differences between then and now, and not at all related to color. An education at that time was still seen as a highly prized privilege, not an inalienable right. If children (understand that this is a rural area) were spared a day of farm chores in order to learn the “three R’s,” they’d darn well better learn them! The children of the day were rightly taught by their parents that their ticket to an easier life was education. The philosophy wasn’t “if you can dream it, you can do it,” but rather, “if you dream of it, study, work your tail off, and make it happen.”
Things drastically changed at desegregation. The black schools were closed, and with those closings came the death of the pride the black communities held for their schools. Students of the day found themselves in the midst of a spectacle. The Federal Government had become intimately involved in education for the first time, essentially performing a social experiment with the children of the era. As a result of pressures to make the situation appear to be working immediately, administrators generally did one of two things, both wrong. They either “lowered the bar” because they perceived black students to be incapable of learning at the same level as whites, or they arbitrarily passed everyone, regardless of ability, so as to not be accused of favoritism on either side. If this transition had been made on a more gradual scale, with genuinely concerted efforts to keep the same standards as both races’ schools had before segregation, America would still have the best educational systems in the world.
In summation, desegregation, in the manner it was administered, took a system that needed repair, and transformed into a basket case. Worst of all, the Federal government stepped into the classroom, and bureaucracy has trumped education from that day forward.
Again, please don’t read this as me longing for the “good ol’ days” when blacks and whites had their own schools, but rather understand that I’m longing for the “good ol’ days” when education was a community project, not a federal money-pit.
Furthermore, if your values are that important to you, you would find a way to make up $2,000 i an academic year.
To me, this is where the rubber meets the road. Far too many parents…of whatever hue…just don’t care enough, don’t put forth effort enough, don’t visit the classroom enough, don’t check homework enough, don’t meet with the teachers enough, don’t seek assistance enough…etc.
For whatever reason, academic excellence is NOT a priority for some people. That SHOULD be okay.
Why is it NOT okay? Because in the Land of Multiculturalism, Diversity and Tolerance the ONLY acceptable evidence of equality of access and opportunity is equality of outcomes.
Because there is always an excuse, reason, issue, drama or trauma to explain why RayRay cusses out the teacher or JuneBug can’t read…adherence to the Highest Moral Values of Tolerance and Cultural Sensitivity dictate that the difficulty must lie within the inTolerant and Culturally inSensitive institutions, professions, organizations, etc. Therefore, it is the obligation of the institutions et al to correct the problem.
And the only acceptable evidence that the problem has been sufficiently addressed is when RayRay and JuneBug are able to graduate, attend Harvard, graduate, get a high-powered job, marry, have children (IN wedlock) and that generation also “succeeds.”
That’s why Liberalism DEMANDS that there exist a virtually permanent underclass…it proves their false assumption that if everything was being done correctly…every one would be literate and working–not doing drugs, not in jail, not committing crime, not planning jihad, not making babies they’re not ready to raise, etc. Since these people are still with us, their existence proves that more can and should be done to “help” them.
PurpleMD
All of our tax dollars are at stake in this mess. One day, maybe we will all realize that it would be to the greater advantage of every American (black, white, christian, muslim, whatever..) that a productive school system means advancenment for the entire nation.
Your arguement isn’t with the people footing the bills…it’s with the people who benefit from the bureaucracy.
The NEA is the biggest impediment to truly educating children now. They’re the ones who want teachers to be tenured after only a couple years of work (so you can’t get rid of bad or mediocre teachers), bilingual education (be ignorant in TWO languages instead of educated in one), social promotion (don’t want to hurt the little dears’ feelings), whole-language reading (those kids were just learning to read a little bit too fast and too well for the scores of years we relied on phonics), charter schools/vouchers (no one will come to the sucky schools I wouldn’t even send my dog to if you give them…dare I say it? A CHOICE?
PurpleMD
…saving the Bay Area one child at a time…
I seem to have heard similar vocal sentiments in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. Although at that time the reference wasn’t directed toward Muslims.
If blacks had been openly discussing how to kill all the white people in America and wanting their own schools rather than fighting to go to the good schools…you might have a point….
PurpleMD
#52
“Society,” “the Government” or “The Man” did not destroy those children in the womb…their so-called biological gamete donors did.
I work with children in mental health. The most common problem I see is children who have been having problems since preschool or elementary school not being evaluated until middle school or high school.
All states have to comply with IDEA 97…all states have procedures for requesting assessments. In California, all it takes is a written request from the parent or teacher…with 15 business days of the receipt of the request there must be a meeting held…IF the parent signs the consent forms, an assessment must be completed and a plan presented within 50 business days.
ALL SCHOOLS KNOW THIS! So if they were truly about the business of educating the children, I wouldn’t have seen a new high school senion and freshmen today…both of whom have had behavior problems in school for years…both of whom were “promoted” despite not passing…but NEITHER of whom ever had a teacher, aide, administrator or counselor even suggest that they have an assessment for an Individualized Education Plan.
Most of the time, I cannot fault the parent. They have asked for help but been brushed off or ignored. That’s why I spend so much time in appointments giving handouts on how to get assessments, the laws regarding educational rights, the phone number for advocates/attorneys from the Community Alliance for Special Education, etc.
Unfortunately, for many of the children I see who attend school in the Oakland public school district…no one seems to really give a damn about whether or not they learn or are provided the tools to advance in the future.
It only takes a few minutes to dash off a request for a child to be assessed…or they can be dragged through 12 years of public miseducation and set free on society.
PurpleMD
…saving the Bay Area one child at a time
To Maxxdogg:
“…it is that white people have a better network of people to help promote them to professional levels. Due to many reasons, be it racism, economics or geography, black people have been secluded or minimized from accessing this network. This not only happens to black people but also many other minorities…as well as people of all colors living in poverty. It’s not what you know it is who you know.”
If this were true, how did poor Jewish kids in the New York ghettos of yesteryear excel in school and enter the professional sector in abundance? The same occurred among the indigent, “disadvantaged” Chinese, Japanese, Italian, and Irish immigrants of the early 20th century. Let’s not forget about the Vietnamese immigrants of the 1970s who, despite fleeing a war-torn country, managed to prosper academically and financially in only a generation. Of all statements that can be uttered about the U.S., the truest seems to be that America has seen the advancement of people of the direst of circumstances and times. None of the said peoples had the favor of the white Anglo-Saxon majority and all faced discrimination, ridicule, and oppression (of course the recent Vietnamese less so). Neither did any group benefit from a direct connection to the professional WASP network
In Texas, after ten years of Robin Hood to equalize spending between property rich and property poor tax districts, Harvard education economist Carolyn Hoxby determined that Texas closed the spending gap $500 per pupil. Only problem is, Texas destroyed $27,000 per pupil in property wealth to do it. Now that’s smart! After ENSURING A CERTAIN BASIC LEVEL OF FUNDING, (We spend an extravagant amount relative to other countries…..That amount is actually closer to $9,500 per pupil in the US, when capitalization and pensions are factored in.), I think people ought to be able to work hard, save up their money, and choose to live where they want, even if that means paying more taxes in a more expensive district, knowing that their hard work is contributing to their child’s school. Of course, in our redistributive society, everything must be exactly equal to be fair….whether it enhances education or not.
By the way, Red Lick ISD in Texas, rated exemplary, only spends $4,600 per pupil, while an adjacent district spends over $18,000 and performs much more poorly with the same number of students. The biggest difference was the percentage of their funds that actually got into the classroom and what they did with that money in the classroom.
THE AMOUNT OF MONEY SPENT PER PUPIL HAS VIRTUALLY NO RELATION TO STUDENT OUTCOME. STUDIES INDICATE MERE RANDOMNESS. Looking around the US,and the world, this is obvious.
Stunningly, one school district in Texas spends over $28,000 per pupil, and another has more non-teaching personnel than students…..non-teaching….
My kids school in Ireland was a one room school house with no gym, no office, no lunchroom,….It was literally a ‘one’ room school house in a poor village. The education was superb.I guess I should have been up in arms that their school was not as well funded as others, since the point is funding…not educating the child!
This dynamic is crazy!
Jan, you’ve hit a very important point, and are echoing a matter I’ve mentioned before. My mother attended elementary school in a one-room school house with a coal stove in the corner and a per-pupil budget of about $1 per year. She got a good enough education there to wind up Phi Beta Kappa at University of Illinois. Funding does NOT equal education.
Kudos to your mom, redbeard!
PurpleMD;
You’re so so right about the NEA. One of the biggest problems we are facing in America is the enormous group of people who are the net beneficiaries of the taxes of others. Teacher’s unions use their enormous clout to elect those who will distribute the most ‘goodies’. People are losing their homes all over Texas to feed the insatiable appetite of the NEA,(and other government entities), while being led to believe that we have a severe underfunding problem. After a year of researching the actual figures, I am shocked, appalled, disgusted, and disheartened.
What La Shawn says was also the basis for what then-Associate Justice William Rehnquist called the “most draconian desegregation plan ever” — the Wilmington, Delaware 1978 plan. The plaintiffs argued that mixing middle/upper class white kids with poor inner-city [mostly] black kids would dramatically raise the performance of the latter. After 20 years (when the federal order was lifted), however, the average GPA of those inner-city [mostly] black kids remained exactly the same. The main sociologist that argued in favor of the Wilmington plan actually later reversed his main thesis b/c there just wasn’t evidence to support the contention that the mere presence of white students (in a mostly white school, at that) would raise inner-city [mostly] black student achievement.
Now, of course, many of the same “activists” that supported the original case are arguing that “tracking” and other factors inside classrooms are discriminating against the inner-city [mostly] black kids. It’s “subtle” racism that is “holding these kids back” now, including the “latent racism” of the mostly white teachers.
Redbeard,
If your mother walked 3 miles to school in 4 feet of snow, uphill, each way, I’d suspect she went to the same school in Iowa my father attended.
Seriously though, my father also went to a one room, without electricity, until going to the county high school at age 14.
He’s more knowledgeable and better educated than many of the Ivy leagers from the mainline I deal with on a daily basis.
But this was back before all of the educational fads and spending took place, when teaching was a calling and you showed respect or got a beating. Then got another when your parents found out you showed the teacher the wrong side of your tongue.
These days, though not when I was younger, I am glad my father instilled in me some of what he got when growing up.
#72 Mwalimu Daudi: Your post last evening read like my resume. Your descriptions and frustrations are being played out all across the country.
What is most discouraging to me is that the states have jammed their social services programs with a few bright stars and a cesspool of 9 to 5 “let’s don’t, but say we did” types who are snug in the system and practically useless.
Futhermore, for all the bad news the news media loves to report, their liberal bias keeps them from even looking into public education and the rotten core in so many schools.
Veteran teachers with a streak of honesty know that what you have written in the core truth.
Heliotrope, that was Jan Brauer who cited studies about teacher quality and student performance. I, too, am skeptical.
It’s truly amazing how many education experts there are. Everyone I meet knows how to fix the system.
Folks talk about teachers like they are the devil’s spawn or something and since my mama has been struggling to educate kids since 1970, I choose to bow out of these discussions lest my pressure rise..
As a white teacher in a predominantly black school in the Baltimore City public school system, I read the article and comments with some interest. Let me tell you what it’s like on the front lines…
I teach 9th and 11th graders at one of the *top* public schools in the city, but you’d never know it. Many of the freshmen can’t read on a 9th grade level, much less a 5th grade one. Grammar, spelling, and vocabulary are atrocious.
The student bathrooms have no soap and no toilet paper. Many stalls have no doors on them because of students being sexually assaulted in the bathrooms. The boys’ bathrooms are usually locked on every floor because of numerous problems with drug deals and gambling. Mice run rampant, both in the cafeteria and in classrooms…the one that lives in my desk I have named Steamboat Willie. I found him the day of the fall riots, when I had to put my freshmen on lockdown in my classroom. The riot in the spring was much worse.
Last year was my first year, and was nearly my last. I cried daily because I had never worked in such horrible, awful conditions. I was a lousy, crappy teacher. How can anyone expect a first-year teacher to survive, much less succeed in an environment like that? I chose to return because I want to make a difference to some of these kids-the ones who come every morning to sit and talk while I have my coffee, who eat lunch with me daily, who ask me to read their college essays and look at their art projects.
To students succeed in classrooms with well-educated and highly qualified teachers? Not all. Student motivation plays a large role in their success. I had a lot of bright, lazy kids who did horribly because there was no emphasis on their education at home. Teachers can only take so much responsibility. I do the best I can with the meager supplies I am given-15 year old textbooks that kids can’t even take home because we don’t have enough. The parents aren’t involved, they don’t care…they eat government cheese but drive Escalades.
Federal funding? What’s that? In Baltimore City, it lines the pockets of the administrators and the kids know it. The superintendent wonders why the kids start fires daily…but their anger is nothing compared to mine.
There is no solution to this but to dismantle public education as we know it. My boyfriend and I have already decided that when we have children that I will stay at home and homeschool the children. I would never, ever, put my child in a public school. I feel for the people who have no choice because private education is simply out of their reach. I applaud all those parents who pull their children out of poor-performing schools! Do whatever it takes to make sure your child can do the best they can. But do me a favor…if your child is doing poorly, don’t jump on the teacher; talk to them. Work with them. Teachers are your greatest ally if you work with them.
brotherbrown writes (with irony): “Everyone I meet knows how to fix the system.”
Isn’t it passing strange that not one of them has ventured to fix even one little, only partially broken system?
La Shawn, I know that in Cleveland, TX, that school just lost its accreditation and now parents are free to send their kids to other schools. This is part of the No Child Left Behind Act.
There is a predominantly white school nearby called Tarkington ISD where many of the Cleveland parents want to send their children. There is a large mix of races at Cleveland as that town in the bigger one.
If Hearne interests you, then you may want to look into the Cleveland/Tarkington case as well.
Thanks for the tip, Jen. This is what parents must deal with if they send their kids to government schools.
I live in Bryan, a short drive from Hearne and the news is plastered all the papers and tv. What everybody here is saying is that this was a case of “white flight” but that is a mistake. Here’s a look at the racial make-up of all the students that transferred from Hearne to Mumford:
Whites: 60
Blacks : 40
Hispanics: 110
This whole debatical is over 60 white students, which just barely cross the threshold of 50%.
Hearne is a district of 1187 students and Mumford barely has enough students to keep the doors open. I would hardly call this “siphoning off” the white students from Hearne.
In Texas, we get to elect quite a few of our Judges….. Revenge can be sweet.
The counter discrimation suits are in the works already.
This….
I teach 9th and 11th graders at one of the *top* public schools in the city
Followed by this…
I found him the day of the fall riots, when I had to put my freshmen on lockdown in my classroom. The riot in the spring was much worse.
Doesn’t ring a bell. I know students at 2 of the 3 top public schools in the system. The first quoted school with the bathrooms come close to fitting, but drug use in the school isn’t the problem.
Brotherbrown;
Testifying before the House Subcomittee on 21st Century Competitiveness, in 2003, Rod Paige said:”There is widespread awareness that the subject matter knowledge and teaching skills of teachers play a central role in the success of elementary and secondary education reform.” Margaret Spellings was on C-SPAN making the statement that the studies had indicated randomness between money spent per pupil and student outcome and that it was the quality of the teacher that was the critical factor. As well, Carolyn Hoxby’s studies made very explicit staements about the teacher in the classroom, And, Thomas Sowell was adamant about it. Weirdly enough, those who have made a lifetime of studying the field, have actually published some of their empirical findings. And this bothers you when their studies are used?
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