I strongly agree about education @GeekyGirl. For those who aren’t US-based or don’t know, school funding here is basically linked with your property taxes, so fancy neighborhoods get better schools. This was not always the case, and when it was not the case there was not as cavernous a gap between different types of students, in fact it was more regional. Students in the North (black and white) were performing pretty much the same and students in the South (black and white) were performing pretty much the same. If you are interested in learning about the current state of the education system I recommend a documentary called The Cartel, but it doesn’t go into the history much (which is also fascinating).
IMO the teacher’s unions need to be scrutinized and school boards need to be gutted. I know this is probably unpopular as an opinion here, but no one can be above reproach regardless of the type of profession they have. Unions were very necessary, for a time in certain professions, but I personally don’t think anyone deserves to have their employment be completely secure. It’s insanely hard to fire not only teachers but also school administrators and school boards have a ton of power, and a lot of them make serious money, which is not filtered into the schools.
There are so many schools near where I grew up (literally in towns next to my very well funded town) where the schools not only didn’t have arts programs, they didn’t have doors in the bathrooms, or a copier machine, like in the entire school. Teachers show up drunk on a regular basis in these schools, half the classes are taught by substitutes, and administrators are still very well paid and represented. In fact, one of the towns near me actually spent more per-student (through not just taxes but other programs for underfunded schools) and it was still an absolute shit hole, that money just kind of disappears every year, it seems. It’s ludicrous. The number of people our school system produces who can barely (or straight up can’t) read is staggering.
I hear you, but I’m afraid that fixing unions and school boards is not necessarily a fix for the schools, really. Here in the deep South, we have the worst public education in the country, no unions, and school boards that make under $10,000 a year. School board jobs are not full time down here. One thing we definitely do have in common is administrators building little kingdoms, and that’s a major part of the problem.
LOL, that sounds about right. That is interesting about the salaries and union! I’m definitely not an expert in this area so I shouldn’t have spoken so broadly. I’m mostly familiar with how it works here (urban Northeast) and where I grew up (rural midwest).
It’s so interesting that even with different systems this is happening. What do you think would bust up those administrator kingdoms? Do you also have issues with school projects (like renovations) being given to “companies” that happen to be owned by friends and family of the school board? That’s a big issue here.
Seriously, about a big part of the trouble here is straight-up antiintellectualism. Public schools are football team support systems, and nothing else matters. More, actual learning is too often seen as a negative. Can’t have those kids getting above their raising, after all.
Ah, well this is something I definitely encountered in school in the Midwest in a couple different schools, and then not at all in the Northeast. I actually forgot about this but I had a teacher who used to join in the teasing calling me a “science nerd” because once (just once!) they brought in an actual scientist to talk to us about otters and I took notes because I wanted to remember everything. And that was, apparently, hilarious and weird? She called me science nerd for the rest of the year. I was also mocked for reading at lunch and recess!
Honestly I can’t believe I was only beat up twice, lmao. It is a thing though, and it brings up a good point that not everything is legislate-able. Some things are cultural.
I went to school in California and the Midwest and never experienced this. Not in a Bay Area suburb, nor in a tiny agricultural town.
We just can’t reliably extrapolate from individual experiences.
I would assume that school administrators are not in the union - but I don’t know. Ideally school boards would be looking for and quashing fiefdoms. But from my personal experiences, all boards seem to tend to rubber-stamp rather than engage (non-profit, and corporate). At least school boards are elected here instead of appointed.
No need o shut up. We all have anecdata, the trick is getting real data!
I thought in the Wayback machine that PTA/ PTO were also meant to hold schools accountable. Now they seem to be fundraising machines, booster clubs (especially to support sports?).
Unfortunately, the culture of systemic racism and laws of unintended consequences mean any solution has to be nuanced and pervasive.
The “solution” to mandatory integration of schools in the south was to remove funding from ALL schools. Rich white people sent kids to private/parochial schools & DGAF. That culturally prevails through today.
It should be noted that the “solution” to school integration in the north was typically even more pervasive residential segregation - achieved via redlining and other racist policies - which is how you have the issue “good” schools (drawing funding from affluent property taxes in white neighborhoods) vs. “bad” schools (lacking in funds from majority-minority neighborhoods). Things won’t change until allegedly progressive white families are on board with tearing down this system, even if it means their kids don’t go to the “best” school (i.e., richest) anymore.
Oh yes, there are SO MANY ways to fuck people over. While researching last week I read an article in a scientific journal about one area in the US where, within the same local government region (IDK your name for these things), the black area was being charged $$$ for shitty stormwater infrastructure that didn’t function, and the white area was being charged $0 for upkeep of (mostly) functioning stuff. Probably based on “flood risk” or something to make the bullshit pass for not being discrimination.
“This points to the importance of expanding our national discussion about what ails the country, beyond the racism and brutality of the police. We must also discuss the conditions of economic inequality that, when they intersect with racial and gender discrimination, disadvantage African-Americans while also making them vulnerable to police violence. Otherwise, we risk reducing racism to the outrageous and intentional acts of depraved individuals, while downplaying the cumulative impact of public policies and private-sector discrimination that, regardless of personal intent, have crippled the vitality of African-American life.
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Will the federal government intervene to stop the looming crisis of evictions that will disproportionately impact black women? Will it use its power and authority to punish police, and to empty prisons and jails, which not only bring about social death but are now also sites of rampant covid -19 infection? Will it end the war on food stamps and allow African-Americans and other residents of this country to eat in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression? Will it finance the health-care needs of tens of millions of African-Americans who have become susceptible to the worst effects of the coronavirus, and are dying as a result? Will it provide the resources to depleted public schools, allowing black children the opportunity to learn in peace? Will it redistribute the hundreds of billions of dollars necessary to rebuild devastated working-class communities? Will there be free day care and transportation?”
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We need all of it: housing, food security, schools, health care, defund the police, end to mass incarceration. It will be very, very expensive and will require sacrifice from people who have everything (a group that includes me and my family).
Agreed. You need to have it all and to make it sustainable to make a real impact. It will be hard and expensive. Otherwise we’ll be telling our children how we taught the death of George Floyd could have ended racial discrimination the same way we taught that Martin Luther King speech ‘I have a dream’ would be more than a dream.
