I have long said that we need to do away with the public school system - and this is exactly why. The primary objection that people give to my idea is that rich districts will do extremely well while poor, impoverished districts will fail due to lack of funding, inability to attract talented staff, etc. Heres the thing: Thats the situation currently. There is simply no way forcibly make all schools financially equivalent. Rich districts will always be rich because the people in them have money - thats never going to change. The same logic holds for poor districts. Since schools receive money from taxes their income will always be relative to the income rate of their students families - period. There is no way around that. Money is not the problem and it never has been. The problem is rooted much deeper in our society and much more difficult to solve. The truth is that the success or failure of a districts students tracks directly with parent involvement. The problem is simple: poor parents cannot provide the support their students need at home, so their students do not perform. This is not necessarily the parents fault. There are many, many factors preventing parents in poor communities from providing their children the support they need in school - a couple of which are: 1. Insufficient (or non-existent) flexibility at work 2. Parents in poor communities may not have the education necessary to help their children with homework These are things beyond the direct control of the parents. With all the advantages I have, being a white male who grew up middle class, I have struggled to keep up with work, Aaden & Yasmines schoolwork, keeping the house (somewhat) clean, paying bills, keeping food on the table, and having some sort of social life - and Ive been blessed with amazingly supportive work environments and helpful, supportive friends. To improve these schools money is not the answer. The answer is changing the way the employers in these communities deal with employees with children. If workplaces were willing to be flexible and allow parents to attend school events, adjust their employees work schedule to be more accommodating of school requirements, and supported their employees enrolling in continuing education many of these problems would start to resolve themselves. We need to be petitioning employers and getting parents the support they need - not shuffling children around.
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 20:14:16 +0000
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