Sound Politics: It's in the P-I

November 30, 2006

It's in the P-I

The P-I reports on an educrat panel discussion about the "achievement gap":

Solving the problem will require action by adults -- legislators providing more money for public education; parents being involved with their children's education; and teachers keeping expectations high for all students and intervening to help those who struggle, she said.

The article's headline: "Achievement issue comes down to money"

Seattle Council PTSA President Sherry Carr said the forum was helpful, and that the steps needed to close the gap are clear. The focus now needs to be on pushing for more education funding, she said, or no substantial changes can be made.

Forget the low expectations and poor parental involvement! Another non-sequitur is a proposal to train teachers to "make lessons more relevant to students from different cultures". Never mind that the East Asians are already outperforming the Caucasians, inspite of all that oppressive Eurocentrism.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at November 30, 2006 07:37 PM | Email This

Comments

1. Stefan, if those "adults" would simply grasp the substance of your last sentence, maybe we'd see some real progress in those schools. As of right now, they'll keep blaming lack of money while keeping their eyes closed yet longer.

Posted by: Michele on November 30, 2006 09:34 PM

2. Ms. Carr obviously is a product of Seattle Schools.

A simple look at the Nation wide data of spend vs. outcome would show no correlation between the two. In fact the greater correlation is for the inverse. More spending degrades performance.

One of biggest correlations for school success is coming from a stable two parent, male - female, married household, conversely the prison population comes from predominately single parent households. But we aren't allowed to talk about this.

Bottom line a whole piss pot full of things need to get fixed before more money will fix any thing at all.

Posted by: JCM on November 30, 2006 09:56 PM

3. Many countries in the world would give an arm and leg for the resources available to US schools. When doing research involving human subjects in grad school, one has to go through approvals. The research should "do no harm" to the subjects. Because we are dealing with children, the system really is holding everyone hostage. If the current structure fails to get its $$fix, then real life people suffer because it is a political game and the institutional structure needs to point to harm. There is a wonderful little book by Parente and Prescott which is called Barriers to Riches: Why Poor Countries are poor. The thesis is poor countries are poor because regulation is put in place by insiders to protect their insider position. If, the $$fix is cut off with the intent to force a change in the institutional structure, there is a real dilemma
because there are very real children with very real needs. The system has got everyone by whatever part of the anatomy you choose.

Posted by: WVH on November 30, 2006 09:57 PM

4. JCM--you Blasphemer--intolerant--non-diverse.

now--please pass the Potlatch meal goodies I learned about in 2 FULL DAYS of my WA state kid's public classroom time. math 'times tables,' basic science & reading/phonics be damned.

if I had more time, I'd give you a REAL piece of my mind--

but--I was camped out (actually, called in sick) for 2 days waiting in line outside a store to buy my kid's latest video console game. after all, "it was for the children!"

Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on November 30, 2006 10:04 PM

5. jimmie,

You hurt my FEELINGS, I am getting a lawyer.

But that's how the argument goes. As soon as we bring up FACTS about spending and achievement, FACTS about parental status, FACTS about high expectations, we are labeled as racist, sexist, homophobe, intolerant, divisive, and hateful.

Posted by: JCM on December 1, 2006 07:10 AM

6. If this isn't proof I don't know what is...
Washington State spends $7439 per student-per year.
Washington DC spends $13,280 per student-per year.
DC has the absolute worst scores on any nationally-normed test. More money has had ZERO impact!
We also spend significantly more money per student than any other country in the world, yet we rank pitifully low on international testing in math and science.
Our country has also tripled spending on education in the last 20 or so years and in the same period we have become dumber.
There is absolutley no correlation between higher funding and better academic acheivement.

Posted by: Shalimar on December 1, 2006 08:51 AM

7. Hi, Shalimar! WAVA.org, people! Check it out! You will be (pleasantly) amazed that this is supported by the public school system! If anyone has questions, please check out their website or email me!

Posted by: Peggy U on December 1, 2006 09:36 AM