"The main hope of a nation lies in the proper education of its youth" - Erasmus
A recent study indicates that only 47% of black males graduate from High School compared to 78% for white males. In many of our big cities the graduation percentage dips to the lower 20's. In Detroit Whites actually do worse than Blacks. There, only 19% of white males graduate and 27% of black males graduate. You can see how your state does here:
http://www.blackboysreport.org/Many think that this is like the canary in the coal mine, and is an indication that our entire school system is in serious trouble.
http://www.thegrio.com/specials/making-t...Since the economy is hurting, States are broke, and bankruptcies are epidemic, schools are also hurting. Many people blame the problems on the high salaries of teachers, but the average teacher salary is only $30,000. Many teachers are forced to supply paper, and pencils for their students. Now teachers are asking the students to bring in toilet paper because the schools cannot afford the basics.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/38711521/Back_to_...The stimulus funds helped save teachers jobs, and the recent bill that Obama just signed saves the jobs of another 160,000 teachers for a while, but the long term prospects are still troublesome.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/08/1...The future of the nation depends upon the education of our children and currently our students do not compare very favorably when compared to the other developed nations.
http://4brevard.com/choice/international...The reason is not that we are not spending enough. If you compare the price we spend per student per GDP we are the third highest. Much of the disparity in education is because of lack of parental support and involvement. Some cultures value education more than others.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/edu_sp... In 2007 the average expenditure per student was $9,056, however those expenditures varied widely ranging from $5,048 in Alpine School District, Utah, to a high of $19,435 in Boston City Schools, Massachusetts.
The typical school district received 48% of their funding from the State, 43% from Local sources (mainly property taxes), and less than 9% from the Federal government.
You would expect that those States that spend more on education would have better academic performance than those that pay less, and that local school districts that have a more prosperous tax base would fare better than those that are impoverished, and that is true.
One report found that for every additional $1,000 spent per elementary student, proficiency rates rose 4 percent. They rose 8 percent on the same measure for middle school students.
http://www.arizonaeducationnetwork.com/2...As you would expect the affluent are happy with their luxury schools and the impoverished wish they could get better schools. The affluent justify this inequality by saying that they want "Local Control" of the schools. Naturally the better teachers gravitate to the school districts which pay the most, and which have the best facilities and the lowest teacher/student ratios.
The poorest school districts with the most crime, drug abuse, and broken families are also burdened with the least effective inexperienced teachers that can't get a job in the better school districts. The students in these school districts are often handicapped by crumbling buildings, lack of books and materials, language barriers, health and nutrition problems, lack of parental support, and drug, violence and crime problems. Is it any wonder that the students in richer school districts do better?
While the No Child Left Behind Program and now the Race To The Top Program provided much needed funding, these programs exacerbated the problems, because they treat the schools as businesses and the schools that do not perform well are penalized by having their funding cut. In fact the reverse should be true. Much more funding is needed for the poorer school districts to rebuild crumbling facilities, compensate for the poor environments, and to hire better teachers.
In 1954 Brown Vs Board of Education determined that segregation is unconstitutional. Today there is a different type of segregation, it is an economic segregation.
"Such disparities and relationships were viewed as violating the equal protection
clause of the U.S. Constitution, particularly if education was considered to be a "fundamental
right" (like the right to vote) guaranteed by the Constitution and district wealth
a "suspect classification" (like race) under the Constitution."
For that reason most states have programs of grants and other aid mechanisms to ensure that the students in poorer school districts have "adequate" educational opportunities. The Federal government also provides help to the disadvantaged through programs like Title 1, and programs like No Child left behind and Obama's Race to the Top program. Still schools have a long way to go before there is educational equity. The only way to provide educational equity is to have an equal cost per student nationwide, but that should be adjusted to account for different regional costs of living, and as I said the poorer troubled neighborhoods need additional resources to attract better teachers and to rebuild crumbling facilities and replace supplies.
http://futureofchildren.org/futureofchil...There are many that think that they should not have to pay for the education of the poor. "If the poor are unwilling to work they deserve the consequences". They feel that they are only responsible for the well being of their own children or community, but we all end up paying for the nation's educational failures.
Partly because of the poor schools, about 30% of secondary students drop out. As we saw above that is much worse for minorities and in high poverty areas. Drop outs receive about $10,000 less per year than graduates, they pay less taxes, are more reliant on social services, have more family problems, and many become a burden on society because they are much more prone to crime. While schools only cost about $10,000 per student, prisoners cost about $22,000 per year. On average each drop out costs the nation about $260,000.
http://www.all4ed.org/files/archive/publ...