Disturbing numbers? I say disturbing parents.
ByYesterday the Department of Education released numbers that showed only 64% of students who started high school in 2001 graduated in four years. For New York City the number was even worse, with only 44% graduating. This number was less then Mayor Bloomberg’s figure of 53% but that’s because the states numbers didn’t take into account students who graduated a month later or those that got GED’s instead.
Whether the number is 44% or 53% they’re both unacceptable but should we really be pointing blame at our elected officials, board of education and its teachers? Now people who know me know I’m not a fan of the teachers union and I always make sure to get in a nice debate with my teacher friends when contract time rolls around but one thing we do agree on is that the failures of the students in the system is not their fault.
When it comes to schoolwork we all know that as a young adult it’s easy to cast it aside for one of the many distractions present. It’s a time in your life when friends and your popularity are more important than what you want to be when you’re 30. It always amazes me how our politicians and the media discuss the public school system as if it is failing the students. One of the greatest comments I ever heard about the system came from our former Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, who during a dinner said, “you can throw another billion dollars into the system but it’s not going to fix the problem”.
I agree that at this point, with the billions that are spent on it already, more money isn’t going to make it better. What I believe is that we have to not look at the ones who don’t graduate on time but at the ones that do. I will argue that if you look at that group you will find students whose parents take an active roll in their children’s schooling, making sure their work is complete before their social activities. As someone who had the pleasure of going to Catholic School, I will argue that the teachers in Catholic School aren’t any better than those in public. The difference is that as a parent who pays money to send their child to school, that vested interest causes them to get involved leading to the almost 100% graduation rate that Catholic Schools have.
Long Island is no different. It is said that Long Island has some of the best school districts in the country but why is that? For me it would only make sense that a parent who is paying over $10,000 in taxes because of the school system would, like catholic school parents, feel they have a vested interest and make sure their children do well and at a minimum graduate on time.
I would like to see our Mayor, City Council and the rest do what they should and finally start publicly calling parents out on how they’re failing their children and the future of this country. The city can give the teachers 100% raises and have the best written textbooks in the world but if that child goes home to a house where the parents don’t say “what did you learn today” or make sure they do their work before anything else and help them when needed, then it will be all for nothing. The ones failing the children are the ones that should be caring the most.
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5 Comments
February 14th, 2006 at 9:20 pm
It takes a Village!
Meghan
(Who loves that book.)
February 14th, 2006 at 9:25 pm
I’ll raise my own children, thank you.
February 14th, 2006 at 9:35 pm
Unless you homeschool in a concubine, it still takes a village.
Meghan
(who loves self-righteous Republicans who thinks the family alone solves all problems.)
February 15th, 2006 at 1:17 am
Hey Nick I agree with you. My mother has always invested time and effort in my education and my eight year old sister’s. The education system in inner cities does not work, not necessarily because the kids are stupid but because the parents are not interested in the well-being of their children. How is it possible that a 17 year old graduated from a NYC school without knowing how to read as the result of a learning disability the parent was not aware of?! More shockingly, how dare the mother sue the Board of Ed for millions of dollars?! My mother says that a child’s education takes sacrifice, whether it is money or time. Some people have the means and prefer to send their kids to private schools and other parents are willing to go out of their ways to make sure their kids’ teachers are held accountable. Another thing that we should stop putting money into is bilingual education. What is the point of investing money in programs where children will not learn English or the language of instruction properly? A friend of mine, (a big Democrat by the way), proposed in one of our history projects that we should tie welfare to a child’s report card and maybe we would see some progress in the American educational system! What do you think heh?
Vanessa
February 15th, 2006 at 4:37 am
I went to a high school where probably over half of the kids recieved free lunch everyday. Of the kids that were on time to school, many of them received free breakfast. The way I look at it is that if you can’t afford to give the $1.50 for school lunch to your child, than you never should have had the child in the first place (and that means getting pregnant in the first place, which I needed to throw in so meghan doesn’t start screamin for abortion)! Some of these communitites just have a culture where you look at kids as tax credits and not as family.