On 3/17/08, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Sun, Mar 16, 2008 at 08:47:42AM -0700, John Oliver wrote: > > California spends more on education than every other state in the Union > > and probably 90% of the rest of the world put together. There is no way > > that more money is somehow going to magically fix our problems. Until > > we have a way to cut through the unions, the special interests, the > > ivory-tower academicians, and the certifiable crazy left-wing > > politicians who have created and keep maintaining the current mess; we > > are *never* going to see change, only more of the same... "Send us more > > money! And more! AND MORE!!!" > > Google for Detroit's public school system some time. Apparently that > is the public system from hell. Whenever I think of Detroit I sometimes > think of those city scenes from Escape From New York now. > > cs >
You have that correct. Part of the problem is the system is designed solely for people to get paid and have prestige by gaming the system. The unions care nothing about education, only teacher contracts. Administration cares only about personal political status. Most teachers are burned out and have given up trying to fight the circumstances. In 1997 @66% of 9th graders did not make it to and graduate from 12th grade and of those that did graduate the average grade was a "D". Today the numbers are worse and the funny thing is the DPS says the bad numbers are really not that bad, rather they are still what they were in 1997(and they denied that the numbers were that bad way back then!)... As if... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_Public_Schools Back in the early '90's I was hopeful because the local urban university I worked for was very much into technology assistance for the DPS and that was a large part of my job. As it turned out there were a very few people, mostly teachers, in isolated little corners that were trying to make a difference in technology. It took me a long time to finally get the fact that gaming a system with millions of unaccounted dollars trumps any idea, any vision and any dream of elevating educational success. I was reflecting on Andrew's point that bringing up a dysfunctional system like the DPS is largely irrelevant and I think I see his point. Since 1997 (the year before I moved to CA) tens of thousands of students have received from very bad to no education at the cost of tens of millions of dollars and the broken hopes of productive futures. This circumstance tells you nothing about systems that may be workable because this system was not and is not designed to work in any shape, form or fashion. And there is no societal interest or desire for there not to be tens of thousands of citizens who are less than capable of being productive contributors to the common wealth of society. Systems that can work have to do so by carving out their own success; by getting "theirs". It reminds me of the typical attitude in Detroit of those that have achieved some success and who have grabbed a piece of the pie by any means available: "I've got mine, where's yours?" The collapse of the housing industry may give many around the country who haven't experienced the ills of the DPS a chance to see how bad things can get when chasing dollars trumps everything and anything... But I sure hope not... RB (Intentions are everything) W -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
