Some DISD students not ready for college

As a matter of fact, 75% of all students in the Dallas Independent School District had to take at least one developmental course while in high school, and most graduates read only at an 8-10th grade level, struggling to even understand an article in a newspaper.

The situation with Dallas schools is not unlike the situation in other school districts across the country. While the United States, mere decades ago, was near the top in graduating students who went on to college, and became instrumental in making the US a leader in technology, science, and math, today's schools are only content at turning out the next generation of burger flippers at McDonald's. No child left behind? Yea, right. Seems that they ALL have been left behind, and for this to happen in a nation like the United States, it is nothing short of disgraceful.

Article is here.

Dallas is a big city.
Like all big cities in the US, it has felt the effects of white flight.
Whites have fled to the suburbs, where their children can attend better public schools, or placed their children in private schools.
In the absence of students whose parents are considered socially or politically relevant, the city ISD is left to rot on the vine.

Stats from other cities are worse; the discrepencies between city districts and suburban districts, at least, are worse.

What we should do to improve our schools:

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT:
1. Abolish the Department of Education.
2. Only get involved when schools are violating FEDERAL laws, such as pushing religion in public schools.

STATE/LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
1. Eliminate property taxes as the basis for funding. This is a horrible idea, and only ensures that the rich (and their kids) stay rich, and the poor (and their kids) stay poor. A better idea would be to fund ALL schools through a state income/sales/whatever tax.
2. Allow all students the right to attend any public school they want (provided the school has room), but continue to guarantee everyone a spot in their home district's school.
3. Gradually transition to a voucher system, like we have for our universities (which are the best in the world). States could start by attaching 95% of the funding to individual schools, and 5% to individual students. They could gradually change those numbers until it was closer to 25-75 in favor of the students.
4. There is no nice way to put this, but the teachers' unions need to be stripped of most of their power. Pass laws like California almost passed a couple years ago, mandating that unions cannot spend member dues on political activities without the explicit consent of the individual members.
5. Increase the school year, gradually, from 180 days to 210 days.


If we made these changes, our schools could easily become just as outstanding as our universities. And the turnaround time wouldn't have to be more than 10-15 years.

Kandahar said:

What we should do to improve our schools:

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT:
1. Abolish the Department of Education.
2. Only get involved when schools are violating FEDERAL laws, such as pushing religion in public schools.

STATE/LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
1. Eliminate property taxes as the basis for funding. This is a horrible idea, and only ensures that the rich (and their kids) stay rich, and the poor (and their kids) stay poor. A better idea would be to fund ALL schools through a state income/sales/whatever tax.
2. Allow all students the right to attend any public school they want (provided the school has room), but continue to guarantee everyone a spot in their home district's school.
3. Gradually transition to a voucher system, like we have for our universities (which are the best in the world). States could start by attaching 95% of the funding to individual schools, and 5% to individual students. They could gradually change those numbers until it was closer to 25-75 in favor of the students.
4. There is no nice way to put this, but the teachers' unions need to be stripped of most of their power. Pass laws like California almost passed a couple years ago, mandating that unions cannot spend member dues on political activities without the explicit consent of the individual members.
5. Increase the school year, gradually, from 180 days to 210 days.


If we made these changes, our schools could easily become just as outstanding as our universities. And the turnaround time wouldn't have to be more than 10-15 years.

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Those are great ideas.
Well, all except number four. I had pro-union talk fed to me along with my baby bottles, so I kind of get antsy whenever anyone suggests that unions aren't the cat's arse.
But you may well be right. Probably are; I know little about it, on a practical level.
Perhaps unions are a good idea whose time is passing/ has passed.
Your other ideas are right on target; #1 has been my personal hobbyhorse for quite some time.

1069 said:

Those are great ideas.
Well, all except number four. I had pro-union talk fed to me along with my baby bottles, so I kind of get antsy whenever anyone suggests that unions aren't the cat's arse.
But you may well be right. Probably are; I know little about it, on a practical level.
Perhaps unions are a good idea whose time is passing/ has passed.
Your other ideas are right on target; #1 has been my personal hobbyhorse for quite some time.

Click to expand...

Was on Ron Paul's too, but people called him nuts for saying so.

Kandahar said:

What we should do to improve our schools:

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT:
1. Abolish the Department of Education.

Click to expand...

Complete agreement

2. Only get involved when schools are violating FEDERAL laws, such as pushing religion in public schools.

Click to expand...

How do you define "pushing" religion? Otherwise, I generally agree with this. Schools are a state-local concern.

STATE/LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:

1. Eliminate property taxes as the basis for funding. This is a horrible idea, and only ensures that the rich (and their kids) stay rich, and the poor (and their kids) stay poor. A better idea would be to fund ALL schools through a state income/sales/whatever tax.

Click to expand...

I can speak from experience from two states. In NH, a broad based tax (i.e. income or sales) is unconstitutional. Property tax is the primary basis of funding schools. NH also has very high educational attainment.

I used to teach in GA. The base salary I was paid came out of the state fund, not local fund. There WAS a local supplement, but that was partially to make up for the higher cost of living where I was working. My choice in where to work had far more to do with the educational culture in the school rather than the pay. Despite this, GA is near the bottom in the country in educational attainment.

Tax isn't the issue. Educational culture is the issue. If the PARENTS provide strong support to education, that will have more positive impact than any tax base for the school system will have.

2. Allow all students the right to attend any public school they want (provided the school has room), but continue to guarantee everyone a spot in their home district's school.

Click to expand...

So long as it is in the home school district, but what do you do if more people want to attend the school than there is room for?

3. Gradually transition to a voucher system, like we have for our universities (which are the best in the world). States could start by attaching 95% of the funding to individual schools, and 5% to individual students. They could gradually change those numbers until it was closer to 25-75 in favor of the students.

Click to expand...

What about private-parochial schools? Would they qualify? What about special education, something that is far more expensive than general education.

4. There is no nice way to put this, but the teachers' unions need to be stripped of most of their power. Pass laws like California almost passed a couple years ago, mandating that unions cannot spend member dues on political activities without the explicit consent of the individual members.

Click to expand...

Teacher's Unions are not as powerful everywhere as many people think. In GA, they were relatively weak - to the point where teachers felt frustrated because in many cases they couldn't do their jobs due to interference from administration that does not exist in some other places. I understand that they are TOO strong in areas like CA. However, there needs to be a balance between the unions as advocates for teachers in school districts and the educational needs of kids in school.

I DO completely agree with a prohibition on using dues for political activities. They ought to get VOLUNTARY donations from members for such activities.

5. Increase the school year, gradually, from 180 days to 210 days.

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210 is too long. I would buy 200, but no longer than that.

If we made these changes, our schools could easily become just as outstanding as our universities. And the turnaround time wouldn't have to be more than 10-15 years.

Click to expand...

What would you do next - have them go to school 11 months out of the year, stay in school for 9 1/2 hours a day and then spend three hours every night in cram schools? That is what happens here. It is disgusting. The U.S. will never catch up to Taiwan and other Asian countries in education in math and science unless this happens. Unfortunately, I have seen the very negative effectives of this.