From a post that was talking about the Detroit school system NEAP results (at “total expenditures” of $18,361 per student):
In the Detroit public school district, 96 percent of eighth graders are not proficient in mathematics and 93 percent are not proficient in reading.
I gasped – MASSIVE #FAIL. I could use that money better by just taking it in singles and burn it for heat. I can see a teacher’s results not being all that great once in a while – yes, I do ascribe to the theory that every so often there is that certain class of kids can be a disaster compared to those that just preceded them and those that follow. But across a district of 49K kids, that evens that out. But an average of only 5% proficient overall??? You can’t blame the kids. Yes, you MIGHT be able to blame the facilities a bit. But the only other component is the staff – and 5% is the BEST you can do district wide?
Yet, when you listen to Dem elected officials and the school “union professionals”, they hate the idea of anything than a government run school: they hate charters, they hate privates, they hate online, and they certainly hate homeschoolers. Every dollar is sacred – not so much imbuing actual skillz for their students. HOW can they be failing their consumers – the taxpayers – this badly?? And not getting tarred and feathered for it? After all, one doesn’t go from an 80% proficient to just 5% in a single year – or even a handful of years.
But what REALLY caught my eye was this at the national level:
Nationwide, only 33 percent of public-school eighth graders scored proficient or better in reading in 2015 and only 32 percent scored proficient or better in mathematics.
Which means that 67% AREN’T PROFICIENT. Haven’t we learned that doing the same thing, over and over, with results like this, is just insanity? This is our national standard of excellence – the majority of kids failing to learn? An entire nation? Can’t be that number of “bad parents” to blame. It can’t be that number of hungry kids, or sleepy kids, or unmotivated kids (or if it is that last one, is it really the fault of the kids?). It’s the staff. Yet, I keep seeing district after district in their year end summaries crow about the level of “highly qualified teachers”.
What’s being dumbed down here?
Yes, this is the problem with public employee unions – they become a huge special interest group using kids as political pawns. “It’s for the children” – yet almost all school $$ go to adults and not to “kid direct” expenditures. I was on my budget committee – it is SHOCKING to see how little is spent on actual text books compared to, say employee benefits. Or for “curriculum expendables” (think materials for shop class or materials for science labs – not much left after salaries and the like). Or they hold them hostage like the Chicago teachers did a little while ago – when they go on strike, you can be sure it isn’t for the children.
Here’s a little chart to SHOW HOW POORLY school staffs are preparing “the children”:
So, with results like these, what is the fix?
Take a look around – it ain’t this. Root cause can be determined by who gets to make the decisions: is it government or is it parents?
Right now, it’s government and government (via the unions political heft) making the decsions. How about changing it?
After all, with a failure of 95%, how bad can the alternatives be?
