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8 Reasons Young Americans Don't Fight Back

Started 9 months ago by MBarrettMiller
Latest reply from JoB

MBarrettMiller
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Lengthy article posted on our advocacy blog by a guest. Have a peek if you're interested.
http://tinyurl.com/3rv4b4t

Posted 9 months ago #
kootchman
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A lot of merit, sadly so. Inspiring enough to head to Amazon... I was looking for some "new" reads.... good post.

Posted 9 months ago #
JoB
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the dumbing and numbing of America started about the time the 60s ended :(

Posted 9 months ago #
SpeakLoud
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Brilliant but just so you know there are many who are working day after day after day to make this different-we're out there, quietly defiying the 'norm'.

Posted 9 months ago #
SpeakLoud
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This is my favorite part:
“No Child Left Behind” and “Race to the Top.” These policies are essentially standardized-testing tyranny that creates fear, which is antithetical to education for a democratic society. Fear forces students and teachers to constantly focus on the demands of test creators; it crushes curiosity, critical thinking, questioning authority, and challenging and resisting illegitimate authority."

Posted 9 months ago #
dawsonct
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Sharing THAT far and wide.

Posted 9 months ago #
JoB
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speakloud
there have always been exceptions to "the rule"
thank God for exceptions

Posted 9 months ago #
MBarrettMiller
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Yep, thanks g-d for the exceptions.....

Posted 9 months ago #
SpeakLoud
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I don't want to be the 'exception' anymore-I hate the term 'alternative' education-like the mainstream education is what we should compare everything too-why? becuase it's doing so gosh darn well? There are thousands of us who believe and practice this way, around the world millions-how do we unite and stand up? how do we have our voices combine so that this kind of education can become 'the norm'. So here I am standing up and saying "youhooo, over here... " I have already passed this on to my FB and now it's on someones blog-I do love technology :)

Posted 9 months ago #
MBarrettMiller
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Check out the following that came out of thousands of meetings held in homes across the land. I went to one-wrote it up and posted it on this site.
http://contract.rebuildthedream.com/?rc=rtd_home

Posted 9 months ago #
kootchman
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JoB...... History Channel tonight... 10 PM ..... enjoy!

Posted 9 months ago #
kootchman
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So tell me MBM... you know the status of the public school monopoly... and when we parents go .... hell no! .. and send our little tykes to schools like Kennedy, Holy Names,....you would think reimbursing parents with a voucher would be a greater social good than to perpetuate the PS system as it is. No. The WEA and state will reflexively act to preserve the monopoly. We just want to have the appearance of "fair"...regardless of the outcomes.

Posted 9 months ago #
JoB
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kootch..

you can't improve the public school system by bleeding it dry to pay for the private school system.

a quick look at the educational stats of texas proves the point...

Posted 9 months ago #
Jiggers
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The country had become pussified quite awhile ago.

Posted 9 months ago #
kootchman
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I am not bleeding it dry. I am paying hefty taxes... for a system going deeper and deeper into the mire. Does money solve any of the issues of the SPS? No. It has two primary objectives, preserve the privilege and perogatives it has. Two, fight and resist change. Not to revisit the "other" issue... the only thing government responds to? The threat of revenue loss. Then you get their attention and action. Editorials don't sway them, sub par testing scores, no effect, disenchanted public..no response, fraud, no big deal..kids? Raise our pay. If we were truly student centered... we would reward those who accomplish the education chase. We reward the system with the greater failure rate.

Posted 9 months ago #
dawsonct
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What do YOU do to advance change in our system Kootch, vote and complain to your computer? That's not enough.

Posted 9 months ago #
MBarrettMiller
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"If we were truly student centered..." (Kootchman)
We like to talk about kids but we do it in a top down way that does not address the real issues. I won't go on a tear here because it would take way too much space. I am about to finish a book entitled "Trust Kids"-go figure, that gives plenty of examples of all the good things that can happen when we listen and incorporate kids in the decision making process. The following link is for info only as the conversions etc have not been completed http://tinyurl.com/3rsg49m
I have been in plenty of schools that destroy any enthusiasm down to a place where the only thing a kid wants to do is get out of the place...
As parents, neighbors, interested people the most effective way to move a school/district is by being involved and demanding (good luck) that curriculums have consistency, relevancy, accuracy, depth etc.-A number of schools and districts keep the shell game going telling the parents that each new "modality" is the answer. It isn't-
I've mentioned before that there is a private school in west Seattle that has no librarian, no ESL, no qualified tutors, no consistent curriculum in computer training, un qualified teachers teaching that particular religious persuasion, failing students that graduate with the hope a high school will fix what was passed on, 50% turnover of full time faculty, 25% of part time teachers left-on and on. So who cares?? Parents, faculty, cleric, archdiocese? From the loud non responses you'd have to conclude -no one.
On and on it goes producing the same results.
Often successful kids are successful in spite of schools.
Our future-our shame!

Posted 9 months ago #
JanS
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MBM...and that raises the point that even a private school can be crummy. It's not just relegated to public schools, as vilified by Kman. Many private schools are not quite as diverse (in ethnics, nor in income) as public schools. If as many people who willingly give their time and money to a private school, did it instead to public schools, just think what they could be. I have always felt that. There are a lot of parents that pay more for a private middle school than what they would pay for college. It amazes me that when all is said and done, their kids sometimes don't become any more successful than many of the kids from SPS.

Posted 9 months ago #
JoB
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kootchman..

"you would think reimbursing parents with a voucher would be a greater social good than to perpetuate the PS system as it is."

taking dollars from the public school system to improve the private school system bankrupts us all.

This whole child left behind crap was George B's Texas bred way to break public schools and move their dollars into private education.

and you want us to compound that error by moving more public money into private school systems?

America's biggest asset is it's people.
Our kids all deserve better.

Posted 9 months ago #
JoB
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btw kootch

i am tired of being told that liberals don't clean up the mess that conservatives create quickly enough.

those tea party crazies you think are the best thing since peanut butter because you think they will decentralize big government have already had their sticky fingers all over the school boards of America...

and you want them to do the same fine job to our nation that they already did to our schools?

get a grip man.

Posted 9 months ago #
Jiggers
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Those children in Texas are going to be ignorant with those new text books.

Posted 9 months ago #
JoB
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jiggers..
you mean those newt text books?

Posted 9 months ago #
MBarrettMiller
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Non "text/substance/reality/history" books. We are getting what we are willing to pay/invest in-
Mindless military empire with little reality behind the hooya-
That any non Afghan citizen is hurt fighting what seems to be secondary to them is a mystery that needs to be solved before one more person gets shipped out of that _______hole in a box.

Posted 9 months ago #
kootchman
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Into The Land of Bones... it took one day for the indigenous population to slaughter the Greek rear guard left behind by Alexander in Herat. He would ultimately be forced to level, fortify, and occupy every trade route intersection and city, and occupation forces of the successive empires would be there for another 300 years. Plutarch would write of 300 years of constant guerilla warfare and uprisings... I wonder if West Point, Harvard, Yale, still teach the classics.. Petreus, Obama, and Bush must have skipped the classes.

Posted 9 months ago #
kootchman
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So.. we do what? Preserve the status quo, forcing another generation to fall farther and farther behind until we "solve" the problem? Think a bigger view... the state constitution says we must educate. It doesn't say how. If you are paying for an educated population, why accept for one moment anything less than that result? Our kids do deserve better..this is not a "new" development..SPS has had decades and hundreds of millions to figure it out. Don't you wish we had those hundreds of millions of wasted transit dollars we sent to First Student and other transportation companies to bus all those kids for all those years? Find a liberal today that would stand up and say that was a great investment! Only to find out... Seattle schools are as segregated today by race and income as they ever were. That liberal debacle in social engineering accomplished, pretty much nothing. But there were devotees in great multitudes... it takes soooo long to undo an entrenched failure. When the city shot off the money spigot...goodbye busing. Taking money away is very effective in getting reform. Rewarding success is a great way to get more. Job..there is such a hugh disconnect between what we want, and what we get. SPS isn't delivering the goods. MBM... I agree...I CAN tell you this...SPS would ask that private schools NOT release their WASL results until a few weeks lapsed .. so the public could not compare the results. In a voucher or charter school program, I have noooooo problem with the Education Department reimbursing students in alternate programs that qualify. We contract every other service in the state..what makes education so sacrosanct? Architecture, medical care, road building, engineering...even public relations to distort the public record... If our roads had a 35% failure rate...we would go nuts. Good thing Michelangelo wasn't an art teacher in Seattle... after all, what could anyone possibly learn right? No teaching certificate... Or "Satchmo" teach music..no advanced degree,. If this "WS School" you find is so inferior..simple enough...any student at the 50th percentile or below in ITBS...no reimbursement. Next...we will start paying public school parents to be parents... attend PTSA meetings, "X" number of hours of teacher/parent interaction..etc... that would be the Seattle way..and it has the attraction of being another reason to raise taxes.. a win win for every liberal.

Posted 9 months ago #
kootchman
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Dawson... I will tell you what I did... I did the responsible thing... I took charge of the education of my critter. I am presenting a healthy mind, curious, eager to attend college, 95th percentile, literate, bi-lingual, artistic, multi-year Katrina volunteer (every spring break) peer literacy volunteer... to the greater community. I supported two school systems. You couldn't imagine the $$$$ I spent on classroom enrichments.. many thousands. I lift my end of the log...and then some.

Posted 9 months ago #
MBarrettMiller
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Sounds like the critter is a good one-good on ya. You saw the potential and you made the investment of time, love, energy and all those other intangibles that may/hopefully make the difference.
Why we turn our kids over to people we qualify less than the fella that does the hedge is wacko to me. In all the years I have spent in and around schools I have only met a dozen or so parents who really did the due diligence on their decision regarding what school their legacy was to attend. A lot of the decisions were based on how they felt about a school versus what they knew/know about a school.
We would never allow the failures some schools, parents, neighbors, administrators are allowing if we actually cared about the outcome...
If we all really cared about the kids we would insist on an entirely new paradigm with little or no wiggle room-we would pull off the grandest refusal and strike against the schools imaginable, until they changed…
Recently I suggested to a young high school kid, who attended a seminar, and asked for advice, that he study Chinese and Arabic.-Yep, you would have thought I took away his ability to text for a moment..he laughed at my suggestion claiming it was too hard…apparently he can't hear all those Chinese, Indians etc. busting their chops learning English, American history, American political theory etc
Time to ring the bell and crush illusion on a handy rock of reality.Either we all get some skin in the game or quietly accept what is hurling down the road at us at breakneck speed…..
Read the classics-you made me laugh out loud, or more currently put ROFLOL

Posted 9 months ago #
SpeakLoud
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I haer ya Kootchman-you and you alone would not make a difference in a public school classroom, I hate to say that but it's true. You're money would only get lost or misused. In many private schools money raised lasts years and serves hundreds if not thousands of children over those years-it's not just about our own child. And it is so hard to make the decision to go private when you want with all your heart for public school to work not only for you but for all the other children in it too. I am torn daily by the choices I make in my childrens education. I make both choices, public and private, but it has not been easy nor joyful.

Posted 9 months ago #
JoB
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whether you choose to send your children to public school or not.. investing in public education benefits you.

they train your worker pool. they educate the next bunch of voters who decide what kind of world you get to live in.

stop talking about destroying the cornerstone of true democracy .. a literate public... and begin demanding a return on your investment.

Posted 9 months ago #
kootchman
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I do not get it. I still think I got a great education. PS 33..Queens, NYC. Elite it wasn't. Demographics change...in those days however, amidst the Catholic Irish, the Italians, were an influx of post WW 2 jews from Eastern Europe. I still remember the tattoos on the forearms of some survivors.. trust me, the political dynamics were tumultuous. However, few of us were more than one generation removed from immigrants. PS 33 was watched like a hawk... Jews especially. Diaspora has a way of reinforcing the notion that that which we carry in our heads is our value. Parents ruled that school. four blocks away, a public library,. JoB you talk about a "republican" dismantling of school systems... I say the transfer of the power of education from the parent to a highly unionized, work rules, and benefits driven NEA killed education. I have no data... but I would love to compare the trend lines of unionization and declining test scores. You know damn well they don't want us in the classroom. I would gladly, happily, vote for a an increase on my taxes...specifically aimed at public education. In return, tenure and seniority, eliminated. If you suck as a teacher, but got past the tenure period before you went on auto-pilot... you need to find a new job. Work rules and benefits..off the negotiating table. No union campaign funds..you cannot ethically negotiate for benefits with members of another union..or expect politicians whose incumbency depends upon public union support to negotiate on OUR behalf...Gregoire was one of the worst... .And as a taxpayer, I should not have to pay a public employee to lobby against me. The state no longer acts as the treasury for WEA. If you want to be in a union..fine. Send the check yourself for your dues. Want to run campaign ads..fine.send your own donations.. Extend the school year to 11 months. Never happen. reform does not mean more money.. it means reform..a dramatic change in the ways things are done... Wisconsin was awash in union money...flooded... with out of state money...they made the Koch brothers look cheap...they lost. They lost because more of the same will not work any longer.

Posted 9 months ago #
kootchman
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JoB

"they train your worker pool. they educate the next bunch of voters who decide what kind of world you get to live in."

And so do private schools...they too are part of the bricks and mortar of this society. Because the PS school does not deliver as promised... private schools exist. Ya think I am overjoyed that I will have spend well over 75K to get my kid from K-12? We are telling ...in the paternalistic way white folks do.... if you are a minority or low income white ...poorly served in a PS system ... tough shit... buck up and throw your kids on the alter of PC'ism.... they will continue to flunk, drop-out, go to prison as alternative HS, and never be exposed to a system that ASSUMES you are college bound...going to a HS where 95% of the graduates are entering college does wonders for the imagination.... Maybe, just maybe... parents may actually learn what they can expect from a school system...and demand the same... that would scare the hell out of SPS...!! In fact, I am betting that some parents are as alienated as their kids... afterall...we are now multiple generations into low expectations.. many may not know what to ask for and demand,... what is a good education? Nooooo WEA would hate to see that.... teachers might love it.. but not their union. Gradualism trumps revolution in Seattle...everytime...and if you spin it as a liberal dogma...why it is no less than "social catechism"..

Posted 9 months ago #
kootchman
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JanS... "many schools are not as diverse"... you are very correct. Although you may be very surprised to find out how hard they do try. The do have budget strains. But... I have a solution for that.

Tell every private school in Seattle, that henceforth, the State of Washington will send a check in the amount of $ 7,800 dollars for every child of public school parent who decides to enroll in a private school...that is certified, has a ten year successful track record.

"Let ten thousand blossoms of diversity bloom"...

Gosh....ALL the schools will be competing for "best value"... not the BS wishy washy "self esteem centers" that SPS comes up with.. good, core education programs. Imagine all the systems having to compete for the students? It raises everyones game.

You know who sees the least amount of diversity? Low income students. Color is not the only component of diversity.

Posted 9 months ago #
JoB
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kootchman...

teacher unionization killed schools?
i don't think so.

teachers don't set the curriculum

you might take a closer look at school boards
and the decisions they have made for allocation of funds...

Posted 9 months ago #
kootchman
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Even if that were so... and I don't believe it is. It is the WEA that has steadfastly been the obstructionist for charter schools or vouchers. It isn't the school board. The greatest flexibility of private schools...? Faculty serve at the pleasure of the school board. Tenure is only the province of the Public Schools. Funny thing about all these private school boards..the very people who will hire the next generation of graduates? Look at our school board..jeesh..talk about not connected to the real world. Many of the school board positons are filled by them. Not politicians. The also seem to be far more effective in managing money. I and many like I, take professional development in stride.. it's part of staying competitive. WEA work rules? Professional development is on the clock time...they want blue collar perks with professional pay scales. Like I said... we need a revolution...and it is not in the DNA of a Democrat, labor dependent, state or city government to make the changes. That is why we have a Tea Party.... and that is why they are so effective. Change is not consensus... there is a reason for the Democratic Mule ... oh, it works hard...but it needs motivation and god knows some direction other than the self center.

Posted 9 months ago #
kootchman
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Don't ya wish we had spent all that school bus money on the kids?

Posted 9 months ago #
kootchman
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And the school board is blatantly racist too.... there is a shortage of white superintendents? Hmmmmm .... Quotas before quality? NOT to say there are no qualified black candidates...but it seems so by the Seattle School Board... there are no qualified white candidates... course.. it is tough to keep real estate fraud in check....AME church...when you have diversity. When all the SSB does is shovel Small Businesses development to black department heads and black supervisors whose church is... a Democrat stronghold.. and of course..Poof...4 million dollars of good old money goes up in smoke... racially biased fraud. Challenge them.... lose the monopoly of preserve it... but it will be by performance not politics.. and we demand fiscal accountability ...

http://corruptauthority.com/seattle-public-school-agency-under-criminal-investigation-for-fraud-exec-is-missing-silas-potter-fred-stephens-goodloe-johnson/

"$1,519,965.34 for services with a questionable public purpose
$280,005.25 for services it did not receive and for services that benefitted a private company."

"When an affluent private school in Madison Valley offered to pay as much as $9.7 million for an empty public school in 2009, the choice for the cash-strapped Seattle school district seemed obvious: Sign the papers.

• Then-Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson shot down The Bush School's high offer, at the same time urging voters to pass a $48 million levy.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014344239_silaspotter27m.html

AND WE SHOULD GIVE MORE MONEY TO THIS CIRCUS??? If it wasn't so damn expensive...it would be a clown show.

Posted 9 months ago #
MBarrettMiller
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Kootchman-did you see the piece I wrote on Kennedy HS? Posted it a couple fo days ago....had a great meeting there-impressive statistics though I was most interested in how they serve the kids who arrive with challenges. I left feeling good about their programs. Bishop Blanchett also does good work with kids a wee bit challenged ....
Hit and miss in the public arena though there are exceptions and miracles-

Posted 9 months ago #
MBarrettMiller
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Forgot to give the link to the Kennedy article-here it is http://tinyurl.com/3z5onlf

Posted 9 months ago #
kootchman
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I did. Kennedy is the alma mater of many of my critters cousins...she is up on the hill. It is in many cases, the Catholic Schools that shine the brightest in undeserved urban schools. Obviously limited resources. Could you imagine Kennedy "losing" a couple of million? I don't think so. Teachers seem stressed, unhappy, with their work environment? Holy Names takes great pride in being named 2008 winner of Best No-profit to Work For.. as do the parents. Interesting how so many here think sending kids to a great private school , and sending the state per student allotment to a private school is "robbing the public system"... how about affording more opportunity to a discriminated class of students".... how many thousands more SP kids will wither while we dither? (catchy pharse) .. we COULD save hundreds RIGHT NOW... while or even IF SPS gets serious. Here's the thing though.. public schools and liberals in general think the parochial school system has nothing to teach them, despite a 96% graduation rate, 92% college enrollment...and a committed social justice agenda.... does the church agree with the social teaching of the PS? No. Not every issue, especially GLBT (did I get that right?) rights. Truth is.. if my son or daughter was gay... I would feel they would be safer, physically, at Kennedy than most SP High Schools.... but that being said...they are strong advocates for kids. Most of the kids that come out of the "feeder system" of K-8 schools enter HS feeling hopeful, confident, purposeful, self confident, peer supported to achieve.... don't want to expose any current PS kids to that do we? Nope keep em' where they are... and raise the taxes to solve all the problems.

Posted 9 months ago #
JoB
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kootch...

your bottom line has nothing to do with public education

"It is the WEA that has steadfastly been the obstructionist for charter schools or vouchers."

Posted 9 months ago #
kootchman
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And they have. Simple question, how many hundreds more students are you willing to sacrifice to the dismal performance of the SPS system, or how long will you wait until they rise to investment we have already made? You are not a parent with your kid in the crosshairs. I recognize all children need a quality education. I think it perfectly reasonable for any parent to look at the offering that SPS has and say NO.. you are NOT educating effectively despite your constitutional mandate. As a consequence, I will send my child to an alternate school and I should be reimbursed for that. The fair compensatory rate is, the cost you would incur if i accepted the unacceptable, $ 7,800 dollars. Here is the threat to the PS system. The more tuition rises, the more cost increase, the more opposition you will encounter from a financial preservation position. At some point, despite all the pleadings, you hear "no mas".... no I won't support another referendum. I have too many cost associated with educating my own children ( who are part of the public) with no assistance from the state. Or, you can accept the premise that any effective method is in our childrens best interests...and tie the two systems together...a vote to raise state to local payments , or raise another referendum means ALL kids, not just the captive ones, receive increases in financial support because the voucher rates also rise. Vouchers educate children too. I wonder simple survey, list every HS in Seattle... post the vitals..grad rate, Iowa tests, SAT scores... then ask every parent... rank in order, what schools would you want your children to attend.. I wonder what the results would be? You aren;t suggesting that the rest of the kids are not part of the "public" are you? Imagine there were no options... the rest of all the kids in the city fell to SPS levels...now that would be tragic. Bring the norm down a few more points..but gosh..it is so equitable..

Posted 9 months ago #
JoB
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simple question..

how many thousands of students are you willing to sacrifice to ensure that the public picks up part of the tab for your private educational system?

Posted 9 months ago #
MBarrettMiller
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Unfortunatly they smoke the numbers...it is difficult to get the real stats on a school without spending a fair amount of time delving in the reords, hyperbole etc.
The stats are about to be adjusted downward-
Take two schools i,e west Seattle hs and Sealth hs. Line them up side by side with real numbers and the decison making would lead to more construction along California....

Posted 9 months ago #
skeeter
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JoB:

"simple question..

how many thousands of students are you willing to sacrifice to ensure that the public picks up part of the tab for your private educational system?"

JoB, it is not simple at all. Many people feel strongly that until students from poor families have the choice to attend a school that is currently only affordable to wealthy families, then the students from poor families are at a disadvantage.

Posted 9 months ago #
kootchman
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JoB could you do much worse than a system where 1/3 of your clients just "walk away"? Could you do much worse than a system where less than 30% who DO graduate are not considered "proficient"? I am not asking the public schools to pick up anything... by your reasoning...there should be no federal, state, or local grants to ANY 501c, private foundation...it takes away from the public and human services budget. I AM the public...and I am suggesting that instead of sacrificing MORE students, we save some, by allowing them access to private schools by voucher... call it educational triage. Allow scholarships/vouchers to private schools...the line of underserved parents waiting for the applications would snake for miles...and the WEA knows it, and so do you. Maybe it is a great conspiracy... UW wants higher tuition from foreign students, and reasons to not accept WA State students , the Department of Corrections needs a constant source of new intakes.... and I'l be damned if the SPS is the feeder for both. That new construction on California? Another super max? Funny thing about monopolies.. they waste money, give crappy service, and cost too much... that is Eco 101. Amazing when the telecoms monopolies were broken... want to go back to rotary dial phones, where a call to Spokane was $1.40 a minute? SPS is a rotary dial school system. Any increase in funding will go directly to teacher/administration benefits and wages...or wasted. The kiddies will be placed on "hold"..for more decades. That's why our kids are so compliant...their parents are... that is the humbling and humiliation, and defeatism that comes from protecting SPS from competition. As a taxpayer...a public tax payer.. I am outraged at the inequality...of outcomes.

Posted 9 months ago #
kootchman
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A note ... Apple just passed EXXON as the highest market cap valuation company in the American arsenal. That's the great news... the bad news? Half of the programming Apple does is done in India. SPS getting our kids ready for that world? Noooo ... "wanna super size that order"...

Posted 9 months ago #
JoB
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skeeter...

if you brought up the standards at the school that poor children attended that wouldn't be an issue.

i attended high school in a very poor neighborhood that was lucky enough to become a public pilot school for educational excellence programs.

unfortunately.. those programs didn't last long at that school and it is now one of the worst in it's school system again...

but during the little renaissance i enjoyed our stats beat out most of that state's schools... public and private

there is no reason that our public schools can't once again focus on providing a quality education for all students...

Posted 9 months ago #
Ken
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If you are the kind of person that has to have education imposed on you against your will. Then no amount of money can force education on you.

That is the problem with the one size fits all school systems currently teaching to the test. If you think vouchers are supposed to allow minorities and the poor access to private schools you are more gullible than most.

I did not let the crappy southern high school I went to stop me from learning. But the information monopoly slowed me down a bit until the invention of the internet. I had to work in restaurants and drive cabs near major libraries (LOC) and universities (Harvard) in the 70's and 80's to audit courses and read original source documents and manuscripts. Now it is mostly online if you know where to look.

http://www.khanacademy.org/

Posted 9 months ago #
kootchman
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Yes there is a reason. They are the sole choice, take it or leave it, offering of a state monopoly. The days of yore are long gone and they aren't coming back. I did bring it up, it's mentioned multiple times. I am in the home stretch..I am long past being a direct beneficiary of vouchers. But I am going to fight tooth and nail to break this school monopoly. The only reason Seattle had magnet programs was to "entice" white kids back or into minority majority schools... as if having white kids and parents was a magic cure. This is why we have Tea Party radicalism...after years of petition, promises, etc.. nuttin's changed... taxes go up, access to elected officials is filtered by bureaucrats who hate public participation, and we don't have the juice (cash) to get heard. Our government agencies hear only one voice... No new taxes....laugh at our futility...until they see the torches coming up the path...willing to burn their houses to the ground.... I love the Tea Party.... I am not one of them...but I do love em'.... they humbled both centers of power...they had more influence on government in 14 months other than vote/reward cycle of liberals vs conservatives. ... they have brought self interested unions to an awareness the pork pie has limits. Fix it' or we will burn it down and start over...is a powerful message. You can argue all you want...Obama had ONE political agenda... spend more. Cuts are on the table..reform is in the wind, Obamacare will not stand....not because universal healthcare is wrong...because government turns a blind eye to efficiency and waste and fraud. The net beneficiaries are the federal work forces that keep this parade going. Students are compliant because their parents are...the perfect recipe for governments.. submissive compliance ,,, and we are just stupid enough to help them forge new chains.

Posted 9 months ago #
DP
Member Profile

Thoughtul post, MBM.

This line made me do a double take, though:

Increasingly, I talk with young people who lack the confidence that they can even pull off a party when their parents are out of town, and so how much confidence are they going to have about pulling off a democratic movement below the radar of authorities?

Pulling off a party while your parents are out of town may demonstrate good organizational skill and confidence (cockiness more like). But it also demonstrates bad judgment and lack of character. Not a good analogy for "pulling off" a democratic movement in my opinion.

In any case, a truly democratic movement doesn't need to be "pulled off." And if it IS under the radar, it's probably neither democratic, nor a movement.

And while I'm on the topic, let me say that there is not now, nor has there ever been, anything stopping young people from working for social justice or getting more involved with the world around them. I know several who are doing just that, in fact, and there's nothing particularly exceptional about them, except for their sterling character.

Bad schooling is not an excuse for apathy.
Neither is poor parenting, or even poverty.

Being involved in your world is a personal choice, and one that most any American can make at little or no risk to themselves. Last time I heard, nobody was throwing Americans in jail for peaceful protest, criticizing the government, or what have you. If they had been, this forum would be nothing but "Lost Cat" notices and restaurant reviews.

Posted 9 months ago #

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