A look at what's going on in Trinidad, on H Street, and in the larger area north of Capitol Hill.
Sunday, February 05, 2006
Post: More $s For DC Schools Likely
Check out this Post article on the likely boost in funding for DC schools. The article features a few comments from Marc Borbely (a Commissioner in ANC 6A, former teacher in the DC public schools, & the keeper of the website fixourschools.net).
4 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Are DC schools really underfunded or it is an issue of poor management or funds. If it's the latter wouldn't it be stupid to through more money into the black hole. Doesn't DC spend much more per student than most other cities? Or is that different from spending money on the actual schools themselves. I just think it's odd how as elections near hopefuls start advocating spending more for schools when the reality is a *lot* is spent already. The issue is more one of poor management by these same politicians who want "more money for schools." Funny they don't focus on reforming themselves and the beauocracy???
I can assure you that per student spending is much less than per criminal spending. If we do not educate these kids, they will end up in the court system.
Have you even visited any school building in DC, other than a new one like Miner? The places are falling apart. It just isn't right that kids go to school in buildings in these horrid conditions. Solutions have to start somewhere and fixing up the buildings is a specific task. For 30 years, I have heard the excuse that there wasn't the money make the repairs.
There is nothing in this new legislation to prevent management reform, or getting rid of excess schools, bad teachers, and all of the other excuses that people use to not fund the school systems.
I write about these issues a lot in my blog. I am leery about this proposal because of the issues others have already raised in this thread.
However, one fallacy of a sort that I do want to point out in some of the other comments is the per student funding.
Remember that most urban districts devote about 1/3 of their total funding to special education of the seriously developmentally disabled as well as more general SE. Typically, this goes to about 10% of the total student population and is mandated by various federal laws.
It's appalling that our schools have gotten in this shape in the first place. I'm all for getting them back to acceptable condition. However, I think the way this legislation was pitched is a bit shady. You can see my full opinion on it on my blog.
4 comments:
Are DC schools really underfunded or it is an issue of poor management or funds. If it's the latter wouldn't it be stupid to through more money into the black hole. Doesn't DC spend much more per student than most other cities? Or is that different from spending money on the actual schools themselves. I just think it's odd how as elections near hopefuls start advocating spending more for schools when the reality is a *lot* is spent already. The issue is more one of poor management by these same politicians who want "more money for schools." Funny they don't focus on reforming themselves and the beauocracy???
I can assure you that per student spending is much less than per criminal spending. If we do not educate these kids, they will end up in the court system.
Have you even visited any school building in DC, other than a new one like Miner? The places are falling apart. It just isn't right that kids go to school in buildings in these horrid conditions. Solutions have to start somewhere and fixing up the buildings is a specific task. For 30 years, I have heard the excuse that there wasn't the money make the repairs.
There is nothing in this new legislation to prevent management reform, or getting rid of excess schools, bad teachers, and all of the other excuses that people use to not fund the school systems.
I write about these issues a lot in my blog. I am leery about this proposal because of the issues others have already raised in this thread.
However, one fallacy of a sort that I do want to point out in some of the other comments is the per student funding.
Remember that most urban districts devote about 1/3 of their total funding to special education of the seriously developmentally disabled as well as more general SE. Typically, this goes to about 10% of the total student population and is mandated by various federal laws.
Anyway, my take on this issue is in this entry, among others: If money fixed everything wouldn't we have a great society? (Schools brief).
It's appalling that our schools have gotten in this shape in the first place. I'm all for getting them back to acceptable condition. However, I think the way this legislation was pitched is a bit shady. You can see my full opinion on it on my blog.
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