Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Residency Evil

My print column on a teenager who was booted out of school for residency reasons is up.

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Why is the kid working instead of being enrolled in the school district where his mom lives?

This is further reason to have the state fund public schools to some base level so that poorer districts don't have to have poorer schools.

March 18, 2009 8:52 AM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Poorer districts don't necessarily have poorer schools. What's Chester Upland's spending per pupil compared to Chichester? Its not always about more money.

March 18, 2009 10:53 AM 
Anonymous Charlotte Hummel said...

If you didn't have such gross disparaties of resources among districts and if we did not practice a form of education apartheid in this Commonwealth, parents would not feel compelled to "steal" an education for their children nor would the differences between districts on the "Adequate Yearly Progress" reports be as stark. The last time our nation's schools were as segregated by race as they are now was the year the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot. She would be ashamed.

March 18, 2009 2:26 PM 
Blogger Spencerblog said...

Charlotte,

And the answer is... what? Bussing? School vouchers?

I think this has less to do with per pupil spending than it does with the public school monopolies and very strong teachers unions.

Some 80 to 90 percent of education costs in this country are salaries and benefits for teachers and administrators.

Who benefits from higher education taxes and more spending? Teachers and administrators, that's who. Not students.

The segregation argument is a lame one. As if it helps a black kid merely to sit next to a white kid in a classroom. Learning isn't done by osmosis.

The most successful schools - black, white and mixed - will necessarily have a strong culture of respect between teacher and students and peer to peer. Without it, nothing much else will be accomplished.

March 18, 2009 2:53 PM 
Anonymous dingo said...

It flows from the parents. Is a teacher @ Chester HS any worse than a teacher at Strath Haven? I doubt it. It comes down to parents involvement and support. That makes a district strong, not necessarily money in and of itself although not surprisingly there is a high correlation.

March 18, 2009 5:44 PM 

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