State Sen. James Meeks, is this how you want to inspire change? Is this even your district? Or is this a Kodak opportunity that you learned about at Rainbow/Push? This is all kinds of stupid. What does it take to be an Illinois state senator? Here’s a clue moron: kids in Chicago don’t live in Wilmette or any of the other suburbs that New Trier services, so they can’t enroll in New Trier (which isn’t the end all or be all of schools in Illinois, anyway). What kids in Chicago can do is go to other fine schools in Chicago like Whitney Young, Lane Tech, Lincoln Park or Farragut, Chicago Academy, or a bunch of others I’m sure I’m missing.
However, that’s not the ultimate point. The point is that you as a leader should be addressing is why you want people to hike up to New Trier (not an easy commute) and waste their time and their precious little money in the first place. What they need is responsible parents to make sure that their kids learn their lessons and stay out of trouble, and responsible teachers to teach those kids. There are many ways to go about it, but skipping school, putting these kids further behind, is definitely not the way.
Instead of whining in the media about not having enough money, why don’t you extol the virtues of education, saving, and personal responsibility. All you are doing is instilling this notion that these kids are underclass citizens who the government routinely screws with on a regular basis. You and your other “community leaders” are a detriment to society, responsible for straining race relations and perpetuating the cycle of poor and dependency.
This seems really bizzare to me, because usually the city’s goal is to try to get kids to show up for the first day of school…they literally have had community groups going door-to-door to remind parents to send their kids.
As a teacher in the Chicago Public Schools, the LAST thing we need is another reason for kids not to show up the first day of school. The good Reverend Meeks deserves a kick in the nuts for this “idea”.
Another in the long line of failed Chicago community “leaders” this goon. It’s a dumb idea made dumber by the fact that so much rides on the first day of attendance (funding wise) that this little look-at-me-I’m-black-and-important-too act could actually cost the CPS millions of dollars in funding that could, in an ironic twist of events, end up in New Triers’ coffers.
Have you ever seen the pure inequality that goes on in urban, racially homogeneous school districts? I used to work at one of those places that do high school photos. There were two schools just about within walking distance of each other. Piedmont High was nearly entirely white with a smattering of Asians and a few Hispanic children-of-live-in-maids. Oakland Tech was predominately black and only 7% non-Hispanic caucasion.
One was covered in graffiti and boarded windows, had few electives, had few facilities even for sports…little more than security teams at the door. The other had a fountain in the middle of it, and it had the kind of facilities you’d expect from a small wealthy liberal arts college- computer labs, language class trips overseas, a theater with plush seats, etc. The one with the fountain in the middle of it actually boasted on the front page of their web page actually posted their racial demographics on their web page, and made no mention that they were located within (though not part of) what is one of America’s most diverse cities (though they had no problem mentioning the other two nearby largely-white cities.)
And this is just one of my stories…
Schools are vastly and obscenely unequal. Race is a part of it. Everybody knows it, but few people think about it. What do you propose doing?
Stupid politicians! My daughter is starting New Trier this year and I am sacrificing a LOT to get her in there. How about those parents start spending 60% of their take home pay on rent to give their children a better opportunity? Or is it easier to just bitch and moan and get a free babysitter for the day?
I think you are absolutely right in everything you say, but I think if there’s going to be a proposal for action, it would make sense for it to be something that’s likely to be effective. There is no doubt that there are huge inequities, but what’s going on up in Winnetka has nothing to do with the problems the city schools have. Yelling at those folks isn’t going to solve anything.
Personally, I think that public school funding should be come from the state, not from local property taxes. This is contrary to my normal philosophy of government, that services should be funded at the most local possible level, but for schools, I just can’t justify that. If there are going to be public schools, some children should not be “punished” because they come from a poorer neighborhood. Of course, this will probably cause people in Winnetka to patronize private schools in much greater numbers, but I can live with that. The way their property taxes go to their schools, it’s practically like having a private school as it is.
All that being said, funding is really not the problem these poor neighborhoods have. I live in a suburb that is racially diverse and can also afford to spend nearly as much per student as they do in the New Trier district. However, we don’t get nearly the same results as they do…our facilities aren’t as nice, our test results aren’t nearly as good, and we have a lot more social problems that interfere with education. The problem Chicago has is much, much deeper. The neighborhoods with the schools like the ones you are describing have parents who don’t care (hence the cite I gave earlier regarding efforts to get students to show up on the first day of school), gangs and violence that make teachers afraid to teach there, non-educational-oriented programs that may be necessary, but funnel money away from education, and a whole host of other, complex social issues. I can guarantee you that if you spread the money out until you have 12 or 15 grand per student to spend at every school in the city & suburbs, you will still have the same problems. Heck, you could flip-flop the spending, so the Chicago Public Schools gets $17,000 per, and the New Trier district gets $10,000 per and you would STILL have the same problems. If the kids don’t come to school, all the money in the world won’t help.
Sure, but if they trash the place and draw graffiti all over, what are they going to do to a fountain? And if you spend all your money on security teams, that means less left over for electives.
Like Sarahfeena says, funding isn’t the main problem. If you fuck up what you got now, it’s real hard to come up with the motivation to give you more.
That’s not MikeG’s point. His point is that not every kid at New Trier is wealthy, either. Some parents sacrifice a lot to ensure a good education for their children, and that shouldn’t be begrudged, either.
I think the state gives them all an equal share (or something close to it. based on proportion), but as a percentage of the total funding per student, the state’s share just isn’t a lot (definitely less than 50%). So, yes, a majority of the funding comes from the property taxes.
Then, doesn’t it make sense that the wealthier can choose to provide more for their kids? What Meeks is doing is sending a message that the state should go and take what the state thinks is fair. The problem, though, is that there is a curve to which money will make a difference. As Sarahfeena points out, adding more money in this case won’t make a difference. I remember reading this article in Time magazine that had listed some of the best achieving districts in the US, and a good amount of them were from districts where $8000 (or less) was spent on a child. It was like kids had to share reference sources. There was only one computer per school or something similarly dire.
When I was at the UofChicago, I would run into inner city kids at the upper Wallace (dorm) game room. I thought they lived in the area as Hyde Park is about as diverse as you’re going to get in Chicago (it seemed like 50% black). While this area does have crime, it’s got way better schools than the SW side. Anyway, these kids were from the SW side and they said that their parents were the only ones in the neighborhood who thought it best to actually send their kids to another Chicago neighborhood for better schooling.
Of course, the problems start way earlier. Chicago has high schools that students have to test into to get into. If the schooling is sub par from grade school, I feel sorry for the rest of their future.
This wouldn’t necessarily lead to complete fair-mindedness in school spending, but it’d be way better than what we have now. If parents in wealthier areas want a planetarium for their kiddies, let 'em raise the dough out of their own pockets.
If I’m reading the data correctly, per-student spending is slightly higher in the Oakland Unified School District than in the Piedmont Unified School District. Not a criticism of even sven’s comment, but just intended to highlight the difficulties in addressing school quality.
There actually was an Illinois state referendum on school funding a few years ago, but it didn’t pass. It was worded so vaguely that I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what it would actually accomplish.
(For some reason, I can’t find the text anywhere, and I don’t remember exactly what year it was - anyone else remember better than I do?)
And yeah, let me tell you - I grew up in one of the IL school districts with the highest per-student spending. We were not rich, by any means; my parents chose where to live based almost entirely on the quality of the public schools, and even after my parents got divorced and my mom was making almost nothing and buying our clothes at Salvation Army, we stayed there, even though we probably could have lived somewhere else mroe cheaply, and she made our education just about her #1 priority.
Yes, I recognize that I started off with a huge advantage in that I have two college-educated parents who taught me how to read before I started school and always made my education a priority. But let’s not pretend that throwing more money at poorly performing schools is instantaneously going to make all disadvantaged students excel - there are multiple issues at play here.
I’m not just talking about money inequality (a lot of this money goes to ESL, special ed, pregnant teen programs, etc.) but general inequality. These kids are not upset that they get less money, the are upset that their schools suck and there is nothing they can do about it.
School funding alone is not the answer. My daughter’s school district has appeared in both US News and Newsweek as one of the best in the country. Using S&P data, I found they have expenditures of 10,448 per student. Comparing this with the 3 worst districts in the area I found expenditures of 11,945, 12,048, and 14,887 per student. The highest amount is for a school which is definitely failing.
I have a friend who teaches at the failing school and parent participation does not exist. She doesn’t see them and can’t contact them. At our school, they had to bus parents in from other parking lots on parent’s night. My daughter’s teacher said every child in her room had at least 1 parent show up.
I understand there are various issues at play here, but throwing more money at it doesn’t seem to be doing the trick for the problems in my area.
