It’s All About The…. Money?
Richard Cohen writes for the Washington Post:
The eight Democratic presidential candidates assembled in Washington last week for another of their debates and talked, among other things, about public education. They all essentially agreed that it was underfunded — one system “for the wealthy, one for everybody else,” as John Edwards put it. Then they all got into cars and drove through a city where teachers are relatively well paid, per-pupil spending is through the roof and — pay attention here — the schools are among the very worst in the nation. When it comes to education, Democrats are ineducable.
One candidate after another lambasted George W. Bush, the Republican Party and, of course, the evil justices of the Supreme Court. But not a one of them even whispered a word of outrage about a public school system that spends $13,000 per child — third-highest among big-city school systems — and produces pupils who score among the lowest in just about any category you can name. The only area in which the Washington school system is No. 1 is in money spent on administration. Chests should not swell with pride.
The litany of more and more when it comes to money often has little to do with what, in the military, are called facts on the ground: kids and parents. It does have a lot to do with teachers unions, which are strong supporters of the Democratic Party. Not a single candidate offered anything close to a call for real reform. Instead, a member of the audience could reasonably conclude that if only more money were allocated to these woe-is-me school systems, things would right themselves overnight.
Only one candidate, Barack Obama, suggested that maybe money was not all that was lacking when it comes to educating America’s poor and minority children. Parents had a role to play, too. “It is absolutely critical for us to recognize that there are going to be responsibilities on the part of African American and other groups to take personal responsibility to rise up out of the problems we face,” he said. What? It’s not just a question of funding?
Cohen is – of course – completely right. It is not just a matter of funding. It is also a matter of parent-participation, of attitude, of unions, etc. Obama deserves respect for addressing these problems, the other Democratic candidates would be wise to follow his lead on this one. Of course, most Democrats – like most Republicans – care more about appealing to the base, than about being realistic and coming up with actual plans that might solve some of the problems, but if I were American, I would say that it is time for them to get over it and to do something that might actually work. Money is seldom the (entire) answer to most problems.
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8 Responses to “It’s All About The…. Money?”
The extravagant pay of teachers in D.C. is a nice hook to a story which interweaves truth and rhetoric. Maybe it was inconvenient for Cohen to look at the cost of living adjustment. I expect it’s more expensive for an apartment and a hamburger in D. C. than here in Ohio. Frankly, you couldn’t pay me enough to try and educate inner city kids; it’s dangerous.
Certainly money is not the only question (other’s are tangentially addressed in your part of the post), but the suggestion that teacher’s are living the good life while ignoring the education of their students seems a ridiculous oversimplification.
i agree. Those teachers are performing a public service and doing a thankless job at that. Most inner-city teachers are young and idealistic and want to make a difference. And, I can tell you from living in the DC area, that the standard of living is quite high here. The teachers are probably underpaid.
I do agree with Cohen that a part of the reason for failure of the inner-city students is lack of a strong parental role model. Also, wide-spread poverty means that kids don’t make the connection between academic performance and getting out of the poverty trap.
The hip-hop culture is a destructive one overall, and I applaud Obama for speaking out. He is in a great position to make a difference in that regard. Other black leaders should follow his example. But whites can as well. Bill Clinton urged the black community to strive for self-sufficiency and he was not condemned as a racist for saying so.
I’ll agree with Kritter and outofcontext, but point out that Micheal’s main point is that most of the candidates focused on funding as the primary problem, which obviously suggests that pouring more money into these districts is the means to solve the problem. One could double the funding these schools receive and most of the underlying issues will not be solved.
Interesting article and comments. Especially so because they seem to fit nicely with what I was saying in response to David Schraub’s anguish about the Supreme Court ruling regarding the Seattle and Louisville schools. Enforced racial gerrymandering and increased funding do not address some of the root problems which seem to be cultural more than economic. When parents become involved, and when parents support the concept of educational results, when schools actually have discipline that keeps disruptive and violent kids out of the classroom, then even schools in poor neighborhoods may be able to do better than many people think possible. Anyone remember Marva Collins? High standards, high performance expectations, and quality teaching in a poor urban school resulted in very well educated young people. But, Collins had support from the parents and larger community for her educational philosophy.
In short, it is not just money, and diversity of skin pigmentation isn’t really the issue. A culture that values education, and actively participates in educating its young is an essential component in any child’s academic success.
‘It isn’t just money’ seems to be used here to imply that money has nothing to do with it.
Bad logic. Bad implication.
Of course, it isn’t just money It’s a whole array of factors. In no way does this warrant the conclusion that money is not one of those factors
All patients in a hospital are not alike. Those in an IC unit are more sick, and they require more care than others. More care requires more money.
Money alone won’t cure anyone. A healthy diet, a positive outlook, a loving family would all help. Money, however, can bring extra nursing care and meds and the tools of modern medicine to the bedside.
It isn’t either/or or black and white.
The problem in the first place is that it isn’t just the education system, let alone money for the education system. Families are extremely important, but it’s not like poor folks don’t love their kids … they tend to have mitigating factors that make them less effective educators, from health care (HUGE issue for long-term education) to hiring child care to a generally educative environment. In the weird world of correlations, a child will statistically do better in school if there are a good amount of books in the home … whether or not he reads them. Upper and middle-class kids’ scores go down every time they watch TV, but poor kids’ scores go up, because as bad as TV is for their minds, what they get elsewhere is even less valuable. The classroom is a huge factor, but you can’t treat it like the be-all-and-end-all of what educates a person.
Carpethicus,
I agree that schools can not solve the problem by themselves.
That is exactly what has happened, however. Poor nutrition at home is handled by school lunch programs. After school progarams substitue for communiry and family.
In a way, I can see logic to it. Schools are a community center of sorts, in that the children are captive residents there for much of the day. The building is there, too, so why not use it for other purposes?
Dumping all problems on the school system, though, obscures what is lacking in the community as a whole. We just say the education system is failing without asking what all it is being held accountable for, beside just educating.
How many poor people don’t work regular day shifts? How many have jobs that have them working evening hours to where they aren’t home to help their kids? What was their education like? Do they have the knowledge to help their kids? There are lots of factors like that involved that are rarely discussed in certain overly simplistic arenas…like talk radio.