A Crisis in Public Education

[OtakuLoki]

Locally, we're having a pretty appalling time with the city school district. Despite perennial promises of reform and improvements, the four-year graduation rate has dropped to 46%. Not all of the other 54% will have been drop outs. According to the same state report, fully 20% of the most recent graduating cohort are still enrolled as students, and this same state reports the five and six year graduation rates are a bit better: 56% and 54% respectively.

No matter how you choose to slice that up, it's still an appalling failure of the goal of providing a minimum education for the students in this school district.

What makes it worse, in my mind, is that the Rochester numbers are so much worse than any of the other numbers in the same county, where four year graduation rates range from 71% to 97%. The highest graduation rate, unsurprisingly, comes from one of the wealthiest school districts.

However monetary expenditures I think provide only a portion of the story. I'm being lazy this morning, so I'm going to take the figures I found attributed in a local OpEd piece as being accurate. Whether the specific numbers are correct, or not, I think they'll work as an illustration: The school district with that 97% four year graduation rate spends $17,772 per student; while the city school district spends $18,184. It seems pretty clear to me, at least, that the problem isn't going to be dealt with as simply as saying that the city school district needs more money.

Currently the city schools are a big issue. For reasons I don't care to get into, beyond the obvious claim presented here that the city schools are FUBARed, the Mayor is trying to push to take control of the city schools away from the school board, and give him the power to actually control spending and school policies. Counter plans are coming out, including forcibly combining the city school districts with the suburban school districts to force a more equitable sharing of the education costs. (That last being a particular brain child of the local teacher's union.) Of course, that last plan is about as popular with the suburban taxpayers as voluntarily agreeing to contract hepatitis. And it seems based on some flawed thinking: Certainly if the claim is that the suburban schools simply outspend the city to achieve their higher graduation rates, the numbers don't support that conclusion.

Personally, I have zero faith in the current administration of the city schools, and their ability to enact any changes. This is the same school administration where, as a cost saving measure, they were refusing to allow students to take textbooks home at night! Not some students, not some textbooks. But all students in several of the schools, regardless of their history of having damaged texts in the past. Other, equally heartbreaking stories of waste or idiocy from the central office have become pretty common.

Then, too, this is the same school district that worked with the teacher's union to get a known pedophile teacher back into the classroom. So I have a pretty negative view of both those organizations.

Having said all that, I do not think that any change in the city school district is going to be effective at improving the graduation rates without recognizing that the problems are more than simply those within the school walls. So, the idea of mayoral control doesn't strike me as quite the panacea that some of its proponents are presenting it to be.

The elephant in the room that very few people are willing to address is that in addition to having the worst schools in the county (and among the worst schools in the state) Rochester is also one of the poorest municipalities, too.

The median income for a city household was $27,123, and the median family income was $31,257. Males had a median income of $30,521, versus $25,139 for females. The per capita income for the city was $15,588. About 23.4% of families and 25.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 37.5% of those under age 18 and 15.4% of those age 65 or over.

And with that kind of crushing poverty a lot of concurrent problems start to affect a child's ability to benefit from school. Trying to pretend that the hours a student spends in school are isolated from the rest of her/his life is not going to get anyone further ahead in trying to fix the problem.

But on the other hand, what can the schools do to combat that? Short of shifting back to a completely custodial model (aka boarding schools) the students will keep going back to their family situation. And the most the schools can do is provide for one or two allegedly healthy meals a day, and try to provide a safe place for learning. And often enough they fail at that.


One of the reasons I've gone into this is because while I think that Rochester's specific situation is unique, I also believe that it is common enough to provide something of a springboard for discussing problems with public education and to solicit Mellophanters' solutions. I don't care how crazy the idea might be - if you think it might help, I'd love to hear it.

[What Exit?]

It sounds dreadful and nearly hopeless to me. That level of poverty is hard to overcome. More money could help and more efficiency with the money spent.

What is the local latchkey (before and after care) program like? How high up in grades is it available. This sounds like a location where before and aftercare where students get tutoring and a set time to do homework would be a vast help. As the parents probably can’t afford to pay for this care, this is where extra money thrown at the problem will help much. It also sounds like it should be available from K-12. Rochester could probably use a publically funded pre-K program too. A before school breakfast program would help if it does not exist.

All of this will be an affront to those against socialism, but with the poverty you described for the size of Rochester, little else will help. Asbury Park is as desperately poor and has huge problems but as a much smaller town, there is hope that is tied largely to gentrification and the State having put some tight control of the school. As to welfare/socialism charges, in my opinion these kids will cost us far more as adults than what I am suggesting we invest while they are kids. It will take something serious to break the cycle of poverty and crime described by OtakuLoki.

As far as the local school board and union goes, well quite frankly F’ them. Takeover by the Mayor or State should happen and happen now. The school board has failed. The Union needs to be flexible and ready to go along with changes made.

[Exy]

Then, too, this is the same school district that worked with the teacher's union to get a known pedophile teacher back into the classroom. So I have a pretty negative view of both those organizations.

I wish shit like this still surprised me. The longer I go, the more negative my overall view becomes of teachers and school administrators. It seems like I've heard a hundred stories of teachers' unions doing things like this.

[OtakuLoki]

All of this will be an affront to those against socialism, but with the poverty you described for the size of Rochester, little else will help. Asbury Park is as desperately poor and has huge problems but as a much smaller town, there is hope that is tied largely to gentrification and the State having put some tight control of the school. As to welfare/socialism charges, in my opinion these kids will cost us far more as adults than what I am suggesting we invest while they are kids.

I just want to take a moment to emphasize that I agree with this thinking whole-heartedly.

$18,172 per student is a Hell of a lot cheaper, and better spent IMNSHO, than the approximate $30,000 per prisoner the State Dept. of Corrections spends, now. (That last stat is very rough - don't count on it too strongly.)

[What Exit?]

I just want to take a moment to emphasize that I agree with this thinking whole-heartedly.

$18,172 per student is a Hell of a lot cheaper, and better spent IMNSHO, than the approximate $30,000 per prisoner the State Dept. of Corrections spends, now. (That last stat is very rough - don't count on it too strongly.)

It is more than that, let's say the programs I am describing cost and extra $10,000 for 14 years. so that is a huge $140,000 investment, but in exchange we not only decrease the likelihood of the kid becoming an adult in jail at the much higher cost, but seriously increase their likely earning power to pour money back into the system as taxes. The is also the issue of less social services needed as adults. The program which should not cost $10,000 per year would more than pay for itself in the long run. I am betting that through finding other cost savings, clearing out corruption and running the programs efficiently, the actual cost would probably be only in the $5,000 to $6,000 range. Also many of the programs could and should have parents/guardians paying what they can to keep costs to the taxpayers down.

So lets say it is an investment of $84,000 more than the $240,000 or so being spent now. Oh wait, it sounds like a lot of Rochester kids are spending an extra year on average, so lets just call it $250,000.

* All figures pulled out of conjecture based on the cost of running programs in two towns I know of.

[Rube E. Tewesday]

I wish shit like this still surprised me. The longer I go, the more negative my overall view becomes of teachers and school administrators. It seems like I've heard a hundred stories of teachers' unions doing things like this.

My mother, a dedicated teacher who retired over twenty years ago, has grown pretty disillusioned with her profession , largely because of union stuff. (OTOH, she's got a great pension plan)

[Glazer]

The problem is systemic to what education in our country has become. As more and more federal dollars have been poured into our schools. The level at which decisions are made are higher. The teachers who work with students have almost no say in how to teach. School Boards, State and Federal administrators mandate how when and what must be taught. Unions work to keep teachers from being responsible for the products they produce. And parents are cut out of the loop. This is entirely backwards from what we should have. The parents and teachers how know the kids should have the most to say about each kids education. Cookie cuter, one size fits all, programs don't work. Give teachers the tools and support they need but don't mandate how they must teach. But do hold them responsible for overall student performance.

We also need to educate poor communities on the importance of education being their ticket out of poverty. Too many kids grow up thinking their only hope is sports or music, and when that falls through they have nothing to fall back on.
Collage sports programs need to stop being minor league training for the pro's and demand academic performance equal to of greater than athletic.

[Exy]

The teachers who work with students have almost no say in how to teach.

Yeah, but . . . have you ever actually talked to a teacher?

[What Exit?]

Yeah, but . . . have you ever actually talked to a teacher?

I have, why?

[Glazer]

Yeah, but . . . have you ever actually talked to a teacher?

Yes, why?