Arne Duncan Clears Himself in Student Death
Today, Arne Duncan came to Chicago for a summit on youth violence with Mayor Daley. I’m not actually, sure what made it a summit as community leaders were shut out from the event at Chicago’s posh Four Seasons Hotel, but Arne Duncan was able to proudly proclaim that the school reform he helped to implement was not part of the issue.
I am reminded of the great scene in Casablanca where Claude Raines as Major Renault announces he is shocked and appalled to find gambling going on at Rick’s place just as he’s being handed his gambling winnings. It was with the same condescending arrogance that Duncan was able to declare himself innocent on all charges, but the spike in Chicago’s violence among teenagers since the beginning of Chicago’s Renaissance 2010 can’t be denied. Through every step of the process of closing down the other schools around Fenger, parents warned Duncan that violence would happen if charters were allowed to open which would force the neighborhood kids to cross multiple gang territories.
It didn’t just happen at Fenger either. All throughout Chicago, parents and community leaders have come out to warn about the dangers of this sort of school reform and at each school and each community they were ignored. Daley then compounded matters this year by replacing the faculty and administration at Fenger in a wholesale house cleaning in the name of education reform. Even the lunch ladies and janitorial staff were replaced. The adults who had relationships with the students and could help keep tensions from boiling over were put out on the street. The amazing thing about Renaissance 2010 isn’t that there has been a spike in violence, but that the spike hasn’t been even bigger.
The Obama administration’s big new Race to the Top education initiative, rewards states for opening more charter schools. Innovative charters have a place, but much of the charter movement has not been innovative nor successful. Instead, public education has been privatized and the result is a two tiered system. Whether they are allowed to or not, charters do not educate the most difficult students. Those students wind up in the public schools. As a country, we need to make sure that we do not have two educations systems–one for the privileged and one for everybody else. Our country should be better than that.
I’m not sure I agree with the “difficult” vs. “privileged” differentiation. Since it does not cost the student family to attend a charter school, it is still open to all students, correct?
I suppose you’re right, children from lower socioeconomic levels will tend to face more academic challenges and therefore the school populations will be divided mainly along those lines (except for the few highly motivated kids who would have overcome their backgrounds anyway). So this ambitious and idealistic program stands to do more harm than good, in rewarding restructuring.
The school districts will do whatever they have to do to get funding – they are desperate.
So … this isn’t getting much MSM attention at all, is it?
dotlizard
October 7, 2009 at 8:36 pm
It truly isn’t.
While it doesn’t cost the student’s family to attend a charter school, public schools and charters compete for the same tax dollars. The less desirable students have to go somewhere. Charter schools will tell you they have to take everybody, but that is rarely the case. While some advocates are extremely idealistic others favor charters simply to attempt to crush teacher’s unions or because there is big money to be made in education. Chicago’s UNO charters just got $96 million from the state of Illinois today.
thatsrightnate
October 7, 2009 at 8:40 pm
“big money to be made in education” – those words send a cold chill down my spine. With our local school PTA starting out each school year with a budget deficit in 6 figures (for a middle school, an elementary school might start out with just a $30K defecit), the parents, teachers and students must raise that much money, or there will be no music teacher – no cultural arts teacher – nothing but the basics, and students in middle school wishing to take electives must pay materials fees, putting some classes out of reach of low income families.
Last year the school had to raise $50K in addition to equip a computer lab. They didn’t make it, maybe this year.
I’ve not yet heard of any ambitious restructuring in our district, but if there is funding to be had, I would fully expect them to go through whatever hoops necessary to get the maximum funding. But then, I live in California, where we’ve recently attained the honor of placing 50th in the nation in per-student spending:
And I quote: “Public education is being decimated. In late May, Governor Schwarzenegger announced revisions to his May budget proposal that include $1.6 billion in cuts to the state’s education system for the 2008-2009 school year and $4.2 billion in cuts for 2009-2010.
These reductions in spending, coming on top of $11.6 billion in cuts already passed by the state government this year, will make California the last state in the US in terms of funding-per-pupil. They translate to roughly $3,000 in less money for every student in the state.”
So this is a flawed program – it needs to put less focus on the feel-good “reward the star students” and more on “give everyone an education.” And this needs to be talked about by more than just you and me.
dotlizard
October 7, 2009 at 9:34 pm
Have you considering posting this stuff on DailyKos? If it’s promoted correctly there, it might get more attention?
dotlizard
October 7, 2009 at 9:39 pm
I hadn’t really thought about it. I do think I’d be going into a buzz saw of mainstream liberal sentiment there.
thatsrightnate
October 7, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Well — weird thought here — maybe liberals would sympathize with the position that privatizing (un-socializing) education can be a Very Bad Thing, and do a great deal of damage to children living in unfortunate socioeconomic circumstances? They’re big on socialized this and that – education, health care, fire care, police care, road care, library care, national freakin’ parks, – you name it, they wanna socialize the shit out of it.
I could always take a crack at it, I don’t have to worry about ruining any reputation for brilliantly exposing the true awesomeness of the much-maligned right wing and all
. They could torture me and I’d never admit where I borrowed the research from! But they’re against torture, so … hahaha!
dotlizard
October 7, 2009 at 11:23 pm
LOL, I’ll think about it. Education is odd though. That’s why Gingirch, Obama, and Sharpton are all promoting the same plan.
thatsrightnate
October 8, 2009 at 5:12 am
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