For six years now, billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg has thrown everything he can at New York’s public schools to try to equalize student achievement. In an front page New York Times article today, titled Triumph Fades on Racial Gap in New York City Schools, we learn that:
. . . When results from the 2010 tests, which state officials said presented a more accurate portrayal of students’ abilities, were released last month, they came as a blow to the legacy of the mayor and the chancellor, as passing rates dropped by more than 25 percentage points on most tests. But the most painful part might well have been the evaporation of one of their signature accomplishments: the closing of the racial achievement gap.
Among the students in the city’s third through eighth grades, 40 percent of black students and 46 percent of Hispanic students met state standards in math, compared with 75 percent of white students and 82 percent of Asian students. In English, 33 percent of black students and 34 percent of Hispanic students are now proficient, compared with 64 percent among whites and Asians. . . .
One has to suppose that their low numbers underrepresent the lost black and Hispanic students who drop out of public schooling. Many of them are the brightest boys, bored at school and lured into the streets for the excitement and profit of crime.
The New York City public school system is the largest school system in the world. Mayor Bloomberg’s inability to improve how well this system works for its students is a dramatic demonstration of the systematic failure of public education. The numbers above show failure for students: 60% of the blacks (who make up a large majority of the system’s students), 54% of the Hispanics, 25% of the whites, and 18% of the Asians.
The socialist notion that public education is an entitlement is being pushed hard by the Obamaists. In the real world example of the New York City public schools, that entitlement leads most of the students to failure. Shame on us for putting up with what happens to kids in public schools. How can we possibly think Obama will make public education better when Bloomberg hit the wall? When will we look beyond the public school model to 21st century learning methods.
No wonder they are taking their education into their own hands.
Donna Farren says:
I was shocked to read: “Mr. Klein said in an interview that he was not discouraged by New York City’s performance on the 2010 state tests, and that he still felt “awfully good” about improvements for black and Hispanic students, noting their rising graduation rates and college enrollments.”
Not discouraged – that is an outrage! It is accepting this status quo that prevents education from moving ahead. So we have more graduates that are performing poorly – doesn’t that sort of defeat the purpose of a high school diploma?
Online classes and resources allow quality education now matter where you live or what race you are.
16th August 2010 at 10:01 am
Maryanne Burgos says:
I am confused by your statement, “The socialist notion that public education is an entitlement is being pushed hard by the Obamaists.” Could you clarify that? I believe that one of a government’s duties is to educate its citizens, but your statement seems to be at odds with that. I would appreciate reading your view of the role of government regarding education.
16th August 2010 at 10:29 am
Judy Breck says:
“I would appreciate reading your view of the role of government regarding education.”
Maryanne:
My view is that we have let the government take the responsibility for education in the USA beginning back into the 19th century. The government to which we turned over our kids early on was local; then it was state; and now it is increasingly federal. Education is now being pushed by the left as yet another national government entitlement. I suppose we can think of local public education as not socialist — say the little schoolhouse on the prairie. But if Washington takes it over like it has healthcare, that is socialized education big time.
I am convinced of 2 things. First, the more socialized (government controlled) education has become, the more it has failed, and that failure is increasingly creating an underclass among minorities (shame on us!). Second, the open knowledge on the internet is quickly and inexorably liberating individual students to take their learning into their own hands. I think the government control of our kids through the schools will end because their mobile devices will let them learn freely — and they will learn both increasingly on their own and via workplace and other private sector learning venues.
And will minority kids take learning into their own hands? We have never given them a chance because we have trapped them in failing schools by thinking government must take care of them. Let’s trust them in the free market of learning.
16th August 2010 at 10:51 am