What Are the Real Problems with American Public Schools?

By Roberta.

This is the last post on education in this series.

Part 6 Competing Demands for Funds

In all modern western societies there are competing demands for tax dollars. The elderly Vs children. Education Vs health care. Military Vs social issues. Cities Vs rural areas. Big business Vs small business. Higher education Vs elementary and secondary education. It is difficult even in good economic times to balance all of the competing demands, needs, and wants of constituents for tax dollars.

Demands For Health Care

There have always been restraints on local, state, and federal budgets. However, since the end of World War II expenditures for heath care have especially strained public budgets at all levels of government.

Since the 1950's Americans have spent huge sums on health care. Health insurance has long roots in America but really took off in the 1940's during WW II when there were labor shortages and the government imposed wage controls. To attract more workers many employers began to offer health insurance as a fringe benefit. Except for a few plans in the public sector, this was the start of employer based and paid for group health insurance plans. (Source: Associated Content, Inc.) In 1942 Congress gave employers tax deductions for heath insurance plans, and in 1943 made employer-provided health benefits tax exempt for employees. Due to these tax breaks enrollment in these plans soon jumped from 7 million to 26 million, or 20% of the population.

By 1950, now that 20% of the population had health insurance, the cost of insurance began to rise. As Gomer Pyle would say, "SURPRISE. SURPRISE. SURPRISE!!!!!" National health care expenditures that year were $12.7 billion, or 4.5% of the Gross National Product (GNP.) That very same year, and under pressure from the American Medical Association, most states agreed to bar prepaid monthly group fees and replace them with fee-for-service provider plans. The fee for service model has been with us ever since and is one of the big reasons medical costs are so high in America.

Ten years later, in 1960 health care spending had more than doubled and was $27 billion, 5.1% of GNP. By 1970 health care spending was $73 billion, 7.1% of GDP. By 1980 health care spending was now three times higher than in 1970, and at $257 billion, about 10% of GNP. Also in the eighties, Reagan under his new federalism program transferred a lot of the costs of insurance and public-aid programs to state and local governments.


Now how does all this relate to schools and education? If you remember from earlier posts (Parts 2 and 3) public schools receive the largest share of their funding from the local community and the individual states, not from the federal government. Now under Reagan a larger share of health care was shifted to local and state government. The feds were supposed to send federal dollars to help offset this additional burden on states and local governments. I am sure I don't need to tell you how that turned out. Since the 1980's while local and state taxes have increased, the costs of health care has increased even more. Therefore, the amount of tax revenues that is left and that can go to education has shrunk accordingly. Public expenditures on education have only managed modest increases since Reagan because they are competing for funds with the ever increasing health care monster.

Source for the figures in the previous two paragraphs are from here.

Military Spending

Another huge competing demand for tax monies these days is the military budget. More money for the military simply means less money for other important programs, including education. We saw this recently with Bush's War in Iraq. Specifically, due to the ever increasing money pit of Iraq, Bush never did fully fund No Child Left Behind. Therefore NCLB, while helping to raise reading scores in some districts, was not able to achieve as much as it could have and should have had it been fully funded. The military budget and increasing demands for homeland security competed for tax dollars and again schools and children lost out.

Reflecting this trend in many teachers' lounges across the nation these days you will see a poster that says, "It will be a great day when our schools have all the money they need and the Navy has to hold a bake sale to buy a ship."

Personal Profiteering

There is more, even worse, regarding competing demands and NCLB. There is the Bush family's profiting from NCLB. An executive of one of the major elementary textbook and testing companies is a longstanding close friend of the Bush family and sits on the Board of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. Initially it looked as if the NCLB bill would make this company the only company that would be approved to sell reading textbooks and supplies to NCLB schools. The other major textbook companies cried fowl and lobbied and got that provision stricken from the bill. Nevertheless, there was much pressure in some districts to purchase reading materials from this one publisher.

Then there is the story of Neil Bush whose company sells educational computer software and testing materials. Bush's company has greatly benefited from the NCLB federal funds. Talk about your basic family profiteering! Again, politics and money was more important than teaching children to read. This is the ultimate and most cynical of competing demands for funding.

Special Education

The last competing demand for funds I want to talk about is special education. In 1975 Congress passed the Individual With Disabilities Act (IDEA) a companion piece to the Education for All Handicapped Children's Act. IDEA requires that school districts must provide a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment to children with disabilities, no matter how high or low those costs are.

According to The New America Foundation, "The population of students identified as disabled has grown twice as quickly as the general education population. During the twenty year period between the 1984 and 2004, the special education population increased by 36 percent. In contrast and during that same period, the general education population increased by only 20 percent..."

"Primarily because of the quickly expanding population of children with disabilities, special education spending has increased at a much faster rate than general elementary and secondary education spending. "In 1987, state funding accounted for 56 percent of special education spending and local funding accounted for only 36 percent. In 1999-2000, the average state share of special education spending had dropped to 45 percent, and the average local contribution had risen to 46 percent, based on data from 39 states." (Source: The New American Foundation)

Bottom line, with the federal and state share of educating children with disabilities falling, the costs have more and more been shifted to local school districts. Some school districts have estimated that about 30% of all new money they receive from local tax dollars is now, by law, allocated for special education programs.

None of this in any way should be construed to mean that America should not educate children with disabilities. Special education and children with disabilities are a legitimate competing demand on our nation's limited resources. Living up to the lofty philosophy of the Declaration of Independence, "That all men are created equal," costs money in the real world of competing demands for resources.

In closing, if the economy worsens these competing demands on our limited tax dollars will only get tighter as regards funding schools and our children's education. We all have to learn to live with less. Many schools have already tightened their belts and have cut teachers and other staff, tutoring programs, extra curricular programs, after school programs, summer school, new textbooks, and more. The saddest part of all this is that the end result may be that the gains made in reading, math, and science recently may suffer setbacks.

As we balance these conflicting demands for tax dollars we as a nation would do well to remember what Thomas Jefferson said, "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and will never be." Or as Robin Cook said, "Education is more than a luxury; it is a responsibility that society owes to itself."

What Are the Real Problems with American Public Schools?

Note: this is reposted from last Wednesday.


By Roberta.


Part 5 : An Aging Population

It is no surprise to most of us that there is a graying of America taking place. More than 35% of Americans were under age 18 in 1965. Today that number is down to 25.5% of the population. (Source: U.S. Census) And the mass of the baby boom has not even begun to retire yet. The aging population of America and the increasing number of retired Americans will cause many stresses on society.

Number one, - fewer people in the work force will result in lower tax revenues overall at every level of government, exacerbating the recession. The increase in numbers of retirees will also stress the public educational system in many ways as well.

Seniors are a very potent voting bloc. Number one - they vote. And number two -historically, seniors tend not to support public schools, especially with their vote on local school levies. This is strange since most states offer property tax relief to seniors. These tax relief programs also mean less tax revenue at the local level. The great number of baby boomers will only exacerbate these trends. The current economic recession will make all of this even more acute.

I am a glass is half-full type personality rather than the half-empty personality type. I see these trends and instead of cursing the darkness I look for creative ways to solve them. Well, fortunately years ago many local school districts and even states began programs for senior citizens. Today these programs are poised to positively and creatively address the issue of an aging population. Hopefully as more Americans reach their golden years even more programs like these will be created.

Grandparents Day

Many schools across the nation have a Grandparents Day program where the grandparents of students are invited to spend a portion of or all day at their grandchild's school where they are one, honored and two are afforded the chance to see schools up close and personal. The best of these programs include the grandparents sharing stories with children about their life experiences and showing off their skills or talents. Some of these programs also give the grandparents gifts or coupons from local stores or local businesses or who donate freebies as part of their advertising budgets. This business involvement offsets the cost to the schools of Grandparents Day and also affords businesses the opportunity of being involved in the community. Many districts also have programs where grandparents and other seniors tutor students, or read to a child throughout the school year.
These type programs go a long way towards building bridges between seniors, the community, schools, and children. In the coming years as America's senior population increases there needs to be more such programs in more school districts as well as an expansion of these type programs.

Senior Citizens Programs

One of the best and most comprehensive programs for seniors is in North Kansas City School District (NKCSD). NKCSD has expanded their program from just including grandparents and opened it to all senior citizens in the community. The really great thing about this program is the depth and breath of activities seniors can participate in. NKCSD offers seniors a free, life long Golden Pass, a ticket that allows seniors access to the district's athletic, musical and dramatic events at reduced or no cost. With the Golden Pass card and an early morning reservation a senior can visit school for breakfast (cost $1.60) and or lunch (cost $2.75.) Seniors also receive a twice yearly newsletter with information on the schools and a schedule of special events. NKCSD also provides free Senior Seminars. Upcoming seminar topics include: Historic Quilts, Europe...Off the Beaten Path, and Healthy Food Choices. There is also a program called Living History, which is a totally volunteer program. According to the district web site this program "provides volunteer speakers to share a bit of their personal history with students, making history "come alive". Topics range from growing up on a farm or during the depression to the Olympic Torch to recycling and saving the environment."

However, NKCSD is far too modest. In actuality there are far, far more topics (over 50) than this blurb would suggest. A few select topics are: Black in Blue: Soldiers in the Civil War, Lewis and Clark, Growing Up in Japan, WW II Veterans, Women in the Navy, Jessie James, Being an Entrepreneur, The Art of Storytelling are just a few. What a wonderful way to make history and the classroom come alive and take learning beyond the textbook. You can see for yourself the range of topics offered by this program here. (PDF)

NKSCD also has a Senior Tax Exchange Program (STEP) that offers employment opportunities for senior citizens to work in the district and apply their earnings toward payment of school property taxes. Lest someone thinks this is slave labor, The STEP employee has the flexibility of choosing when and how many hours per week he or she works, as long as 78 hours are completed within one calendar year.

There is so much good in all of the NKCSD programs, especially if the recession is a long one, as I believe it will be or, worse if it becomes a full depression. There are opportunities in NKCSD for seniors to get meals and to work, key elements in FDR's Great Depression era programs.

Just FYI, NKSCD also offers regular Community Education Classes open to the public of any age as well. This type of program is an excellent use of our public school buildings and resources. I have always believed it is a waste to have school buildings closed most of the evening and during the summer. Programs like these make full use of our tax dollars and benefit everyone.

In Delaware the state created a Foster Grandparent Program that uses senior citizens to mentor and tutor special education and special needs children. While mostly a volunteer program, seniors who meet the low-income criteria set by the Corporation for National & Community Service can receive a stipend of $3.45 per hour for serving 15-40 hours a week.
Other opportunities and ideas to bring seniors into schools would be to provide free heath screenings for seniors such as blood pressure and other medical tests in the school setting.

Also, opening the schools before and or after school for seniors to exercise or walk in the gymnasium would contribute to the health of a local community. The possibilities are endless and limited only by our own creativity. I have shared with you only a few examples of the many things schools and educators are currently providing that maintain enthusiasm for our public schools among older Americans. Programs like these create a strong sense of community among residents as well as provide needed services for seniors.


These programs are a win-win and should be encouraged.

What Are the Real Problems with American Public Schools?

By Roberta

Part 4 Racial Politics

On February 12, 1698, "The first public school in the America Colonies was established at Philadelphia, and a corporation created, entitled 'The Overseers of the Publick Schoole founded in Philadelphia.' In this school it was ordered by the governor and Council: 'All children and servants, (empahsis mine) male and female, whose parents, guardians and masters be willing (emphasis mine) to subject ym to the rules and orders of the said schoole, shall from time to time, with the approbaon of the overseers thereof for the time being, be received or admitted, taught or instructed; the rich at reasonable rates, and the poor to be maintained and schooled for nothing.'"

However, few masters allowed black children to go to these schools. In a letter to John Waring, Benjamin Franklin, himself a slave owner, delineated the reasons many white masters refused to allow black children to go to school. These included, prejudice, that reading and knowledge is useless and dangerous for slaves, and that other white parents would be disgusted. (I am not saying Franklin was racist. He was stating reasons. In later years Franklin was against slavery.)

Even in colonial America it seems public education of black children was a racially charged issue.

In 1774 the Quakers opened a school for black children in Philadelphia. After the Revolutionary War the movement to educate black children in Philadelphia grew and eventually there were seven black schools. In New York State black children could attend public schools, but many black parents refused to send their children because of the abuse heaped on their children. So while black children were not denied public education in the north, "black schools struggled to stay afloat under constant financial hardship and lack of white support." (Source: The Slave Experience, PBS)

As late as 1834 Connecticut passed a law making it illegal to provide a free education for black students. Quaker Prudence Crandall refused to obey this law and was arrested and imprisoned. It is worth reading is the full story of this brave woman.

In pre-Civil War southern states education of black children was generally only
in urban areas. But the various slave rebellions (Stono, Gabriel Prosser's to cite a few) ended all schooling of most black children in the south. Mississippi went so far as to pass a law that required all free blacks to leave the state so that they could not educate slaves. Slave owners were concerned that a literate slave could forge passes or stir up future rebellions. In 1740 South Carolina enacted one of the earliest laws expressly prohibiting teaching a slave to read (except for a Bible) or write. Severe monetary fines were imposed if you were caught teaching a slave. After Nat Turner's revolt in 1831 many southern states strengthened these laws. By 1835, the public education of all African-Americans in the south was strictly prohibited. (Source: Wikipedia)

After the Civil War during reconstruction blacks themselves often took the initiative through the Freedmen's Bureau and other benevolent groups in the south to purchase land, construct buildings, and hire teachers. (Source: America's Reconstruction website) Many southern whites were not moved by this love and passion for education by ex-slaves; they burned their schools and taunted and beat white teachers who taught black students. (Source: African American Schools for Dummies)

After Reconstruction the federal government took no interest in educating black Americans. In fact, in the landmark 1896 decision in Plessey Vs Ferguson the Supreme Court institutionalized separate but equal, Jim Crowe laws for another 60 years. Separate but equal per pupil funding meant that in South Carolina in 1930 white per pupil spending was $52.89 but only $5.70 for black children. Black teachers earned one-third what their white counterparts made. This disparity still exists today and was dealt with in Part 2 of this series, Income Wealth and Inequality: The Resegregation of American Schools.

In 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education the Supreme Court declared separate but equal schools unconstitutional. The following year, in 1955 economist Milton Friedman wrote an article proposing freedom of choice in schools and endorsed vouchers to achieve choice. Also in 1955 the Supremes announced a decision, known as Brown II, outlining their plan for implementing racial desegregation schools. The plan simply remanded the cases to district courts with orders to integrate the schools, 'with all deliberate speed.' As it turned out, there was far more deliberation than speed.

What followed in the nation, but mostly in southern states, was attempt after attempt after attempt to evade the Brown decision using the courts, segregation academies , outright formal massive resistance, and attempts to use school choice and vouchers as a way to keep separate but equal schools.

The website, Exploring Constitutional Conflicts says, "State Governors stood in schoolhouse doors and angry whites terrorized blacks. In some places, such as at Little Rock's Central High, integration was only achieved after a powerful show of force by federal troops. In one of the school districts involved in the 1954 school desegregation cases, Prince Edward, Virginia, county officials decided to actually close all public schools in the district rather than integrate. Tuition benefits were provided to children to attend private schools. There was a catch. All private schools operating in Prince Edward County had white-only admission policies.



Source of picture:
"U.S. Troops escort African American students from Central High School, Little Rock, Arkansas,
October 3, 1957.
Gelatin silver print.
New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (130B)"

Although all of these numerous attempts to circumvent Brown were eventually struck down by the courts, they delayed full implementation of Brown by at least ten years. For an excellent account of many of these delaying tactics by
states and school districts, complete with pictures and individual stories of the children, schools, and politicians involved, go to this link. I watched many of these incidents unfold as a child, sometimes live on TV, in newspapers, and on TV evening newscasts.

Many politicians shamelessly used Brown to win public office, including the highest office of the land, the Presidency. Nixon's cynical southern strategy and his law and order campaign were thinly veiled appeals segregationists. This was also the decade that saw nominating Supreme Court justices become so polarizing, due to the hated Brown decision.

Fifty-five years after Brown most minorities still attend schools where they are still in the majority. Does this mean that Brown did not work? Does this mean that integration of public schools failed? In an interview on PBS television, Roger Wilkins says, "No." As a product of a legally segregated school system Wilkins says, "Brown was enormously effective because the thing that made segregation so awful was that the government...said it was right to treat us badly. Brown flipped it and took the government from the wrong side and put it on our side. And that just made the civil rights movement explode. So Brown accomplished an awful lot."

In the same interview Sheryl Cashin said, "The chief victory is that average Americans everywhere now embrace the view that America should be a free, open, integrationist society where no one is limited in their access to education or jobs or whatever, based on their race." You can get the entire transcript of the interview of Wilkins, Cashin and others here.

Racial politics still exist in American schools. We see it in schools still segregated by race and economics causing unequal educational opportunities. Court decisions do not right all wrongs or make things perfect. Brown was one step, although a huge one, on the long road to creating what Jefferson called, "a more perfect union."

What Are the Real Problems with American Public Schools?

By Roberta

Part 3
Growth and Stagnation of the Economy

In this installment I will discuss the impact the poor economy will have on schools, education, children, and the future of America.

From my previous posts we know three things: 1.) Public schools must deal with the tremendous societal problems in America on a daily basis; 2.) Huge disparities in per pupil expenditures exist in American public schools; and 3.) Despite these two facts test scores are rising in American public schools.

In public schools the first sign of a stagnating economy is an increase in student enrollment. Parents who normally would send their children to private schools transfer them to public schools because they can no longer afford costly private schools. So in hard economic times public schools must deal with increases in enrollment which leads to higher class sizes. This sudden surge in students during periods of economic stagnation comes at a time when schools too feel the economic pinch due to local and state budget cuts caused by decreases in tax revenues.

As of late June 2009 twenty-four states had already enacted budget cuts for K-12 education for the coming school year. An additional eighteen states may still enact budget cuts. (Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities) Many states have already cut services for the deaf, disabled, special education, breakfast programs, health clinics, gifted and talented programs, field trips, summer school, math and science initiatives, and after school programs.

Budget cuts will result in teacher layoffs just as there is an increase in student numbers. But it is not just teachers who are affected. Layoffs affect all school employees from bus drivers, to janitors and maintenance workers, nurses, adult literacy staff, guidance counselors, and food staff to name a few.

And public schools do not exist in a vacuum. Layoffs in schools have a domino effect in a community. Contracts with local vendors who supply paper, pencils, office supplies, telephones, books, computers, milk and food, gasoline, and cleaning supplies are just some of the outside businesses that are negatively affected by school budget cuts.

Additionally a poor economy can negatively affect reading and math learning for many children. A recent study of Baltimore students by Johns Hopkins researchers showed that 65 percent of the achievement gap between poor and affluent children can be explained by unequal summer learning experiences during the elementary school years. So cuts in summer school programs affect children's achievement.

Loss of after school programs make it harder for families where both parents work. Some schools have switched from a five day week to a four day week which also causes problems when both parents work. Many schools are also cutting courses to save money.

Financial aid for higher education is also adversely affected by a slumping economy. Student aid programs are harder to find, and loans become not just harder to get but more expensive when interest rates go up.

All of these school budget cuts cause additional monetary strains on family budgets.

One of the worst problems of this recession/depression is the effects on children due to the collapse of the housing bubble. "Research shows that stress on young children resulting from moving between homes multiple times can reduce high school graduation rates by as much as 13%," said Sara Watson, director of the Partnership for America's Economic Success and senior officer at The Pew Charitable Trusts. "The current housing crisis is affecting growing numbers of children and families, and society will be paying for those impacts for years to come." (Source: Hidden Costs of the Housing Crisis (report)

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) found that students with two or more school changes in the previous year are half as likely to be proficient in reading as their stable peers; mobile 3rd graders are twice as likely to perform below grade level in math.

Teachers and schools will share in the pain of a shrinking economy and budget cuts. However, we must also keep in mind that old adage: penny wise and pound foolish.

Education budget cuts are often penny wise and pound foolish because public education is an investment in our future. Most economists agree that human capital is central to economic growth. As the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education says, "Education is one of the most effective interventions for improving our social and economic future-for individuals, communities, states, and the country as a whole."

In his book, Smart Money: Education and Economic Development, William Schweke tells us that there is, "A compelling body of research that links primary and secondary education to economic development and growth, showing that people are a type of economic asset - "human capital" - and that increased investment in health, skills and knowledge provides future returns to the economy through increases in labor productivity. Education increases workers' average earnings and productivity, and it also reduces their incidence of social problems, such as drug abuse, crime, welfare dependency, and lack of access to medical care, which can put a hefty drag on the economy.

The press release for his book states: "As state and local governments make tough funding choices with tight budgets, a new Economic Policy Institute report shows adequate and effective funding of education is the best way to achieve faster growth, more jobs, greater productivity, and more widely shared prosperity."

Schweke's book highlights some interesting tidbits.

*A Bank of America and United Way report found the public saves $7.16 for every original dollar invested in high-quality child care.

*A state's economic performance correlates to past investments in such areas as
education, according to a state report card assessment by the Corporation for
Enterprise Development. Eight out of 11 states with the highest grades for local
investment received an "A" or "B" in overall economic performance.

*The corporate Committee on Economic Development found that investing $4,800
per child in preschool education can reduce teenage arrests by 40%.

Schweke does not just advocate throwing more money at schools, but supports using funds wisely, and gives many suggestions for doing so in his book.

As we deal with America's economic downturn, decision makers must keep things like this in mind when making cuts to education budgets. Investment in our public schools an important factor in America’s economic performance and could lead to a shorter downturn.

As John F. Kennedy said nearly fifty years ago, "Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource."

What Are the Real Problems with American Public Schools?

Part 2 Income Wealth and Inequality
The Resegregation of America's Schools

By Roberta.


Americans like to believe that their system of public schools provide equal opportunity for all children. But the fact is America's schools do not. Not by a long shot. There are three main sources of public school funding: local, state, and the federal governments.

At the local level funding is largely achieved through local property taxes. But the amount of dollars property taxes actually bring in varies greatly between the roughly 13,500 school districts in the United States. At rock bottom, funding for American public schools is tied to community affluence or the value of property in the district. Therefore, schools in wealthy suburbs generally have more money than schools in urban or low land value communities.

I could find no data bank that ranks every individual district's per pupil expenditures. I easily found state rankings. In school year 2004-05, New York had the highest average per pupil funding at $14,119; Utah had the least at $5,257. The national average was $8,701 per pupil. (Source: Census Bureau) But, if you remember from your statistic class, averages can be misleading since they are a measure of 'central tendency.' In 1992 Jonathan Kozol in his book, Savage Inequalities, reported that the difference in local, property tax funded per pupil expenditures in the just the New York City area ranged from a high of $11,000 per pupil to a low of $5,585 per pupil.

Each state also helps fund their public schools. But again, differences in state funding formulas create wide variances in the amounts of money that individual school districts receive. In their book, The Manufactured Crisis, David C. Berliner and Bruce J. Biddle publish a chart from the Educational Testing Service that shows the ratio of state education spending differences between high (rich) and low (poor) spending groups of school districts. Two states (Texas and Ohio) spend nearly three times as much on wealthy districts than on districts with poor property values in their respective states. (I live in Ohio. I can attest to the truth of this.) New York, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Michigan, Massachusetts, Indiana, and Georgia were not far behind Texas and Ohio in providing more money to wealthier districts than to poorer districts. Three states were nearly equal in the amount of state dollars and local dollars going to the state's local schools (Maryland, Nevada, and Delaware.) The rest of the states were in-between these two extremes.

In 2007 the federal share of funding K-12 schools was 8.3%. (Source Ed.gov) Most of that money by law must go towards two programs-Title I and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. (Source: Ed.gov) Therefore, these federal dollars do little to alleviate the unequal funding issues of local schools.

Exacerbating the funding problem even further, both Reagan and George W. Bush lowered corporate tax rates, as have many states. Additionally many communities give tax abatements to businesses. All this means less tax revenue for the schools. Worse yet, much of this loss of monies have been made up by simply shifting and increasing the taxes of the individual tax payer. (Source: America: What Went Wrong? Barlett and Steel)

Inequitable funding at both the local and the state levels creates tremendous problems for public schools in low wealth communities. In his book Savage Inequalities, Kozol reports on his travels across the nation. In poor school district after poor school district he chronicles appalling conditions: crumbling school buildings, dilapidated classrooms, overcrowding and rooms with no heat, lack of supplies and textbooks, science labs with no equipment or running water, sewer backups, toxic fumes, and more. Would you want your child to go to a school like this? And sadly, the most experienced, best educated, and often more competent teachers tend to migrate to the schools with high funding and therefore higher salaries.

Some people may prefer to ignore inequitable funding and poverty and blame the poor themselves for the situation. But the average child cannot escape the cycle of poverty if he or she doesn't have access to good quality schools and education.

Add into the mix of low funding in poor schools the societal problems I cited in Part 1 and we have an even direr situation before us. Children who come to school hungry or malnourished or in cast off and torn clothing, who lack basic health care and suffer from untreated medical conditions, and who come from homes without even basic amenities let alone books, learning toys, and games are more difficult to teach. So there is a double whammy on poor children in poor communities-bigger and more societal problems plus fewer dollars to buy needed resources to teach. The children who need the most and the best, far too often receive the least.

It is shortsighted for Americans to ignore poverty or to say, 'well, it does not affect me or my children.' It is one thing to blame the poor for their condition. It is quite another to condemn their children to substandard schools on the basis of their luck in not being born into the right race, the right class, or having the right address. The immorality of tolerating poverty and low funded public schools is both appalling and unconscionable.

Widespread poverty affects all Americans in countless ways. Higher health care costs for all is one way. Another is massive amounts of crime and violence and the subsequent creation of a huge and expensive social-service-punishment bureaucracy to contend with the increased crime and violence. Some states are spending more money building prisons and housing prisoners than they spend on education.

Consider:

-It costs $23,183.69 to house 1 prisoner in a federal jail for one year. Source: U.S. Courts, Office of Public Affairs

-It costs $19, 087.94 to house 1 prisoner in community correction centers for one year. Source: U.S. Courts, Office of Public Affairs

-It cost an average $8701 to educate 1 child in public schools in 2004-05. Source: Census Bureau

Seems like American public schools are the better bargain all the way round.

But the most egregious result of unequal funding of public schools is something far more pernicious than just lack of resources to teach. Today there is a resegregation of schools taking place in America. Schools are now segregated into poor schools and rich schools, instead of the old white schools and black schools.

This new resegregation is color blind. Poverty affects all skin colors. Therefore, this resegregation is worse and the effects exponentially greater and harsher than the old 'separate but equal' schools. Schools in affluent communities have. Schools in poor communities have not. The landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown Vs Topeka Kansas has been turned on its head.

Tragically, this is a new, more harmful Jim Crowe updated for the 21st century. Instead of being forced to go to the back of the bus, instead of being forced to drink at a different water fountain, instead of not being able to sit at the lunch counter, instead of being hung from a tree, today we deny a good education and a way out of poverty to millions of our children.

To our everlasting shame, this resegregation of children into rich schools and poor schools is the real and biggest problem in America's schools today.

What Are the Real Problems with American Public Schools?

Part 1 of 6

By Roberta

The documentary film, OT Our Town, the documentary John posted a while back about the play put on at Dominquez High School in Compton, California highlights everything that is right and everything that is wrong with public schools today.

What is right: teachers who care and who try and children and parents who want an education and who see education as the road out of poverty. What is wrong is the lack of resources in Dominquez High school to help them all achieve their goals.

I am going to break down the real problems with American schools into six key ones:
1.) Societal problems, 2.) Income wealth and inequality, 3.) Growth and stagnation of the economy, 4.) Racial politics, 5.) Aging population, 6.) Competing demands for dollars.

1. Societal Problems

Yes, there are problems with American public schools. But there are even bigger problems in American society. Often critics of public education conflate the two for political gain or advantage.

Consider the following:

- 1 in 6 American children live in poverty (for a family of 3 less than$16,000 yearly income) Source: Save the Children

-39% or 28.8 million children live in low income families; 18% or an additional 13.2 million children live in poor income families Source: National Center for Children in Poverty

- 20 million children (32%) now live in a single parent home. Source: Census Bureau of children live in single parent homes Source: childstats.gov & Census Bureau

- 1 of every 2 marriages end in divorce Source: Divorcerate.org

- There are 900,000 teen pregnancies annually; this represents 12% of all births in the U.S; 79% of these are to unwed teens Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/National Center for Health Statistics

- 22% of teen age girls have been 'sexting' - that is sending out nude or semi-nude photos of themselves over the internets Source: Breitbarttv

- There were 3,000,000 reports of children beaten and battered in 2006 Source: National Child Abuse Statistics

- 12.6 million children were food insecure in 2008 Source: mason.org; 691,000 children went hungry in the U.S. sometime in 2007 Source: U.S. Agricultural Department **Be sure to take the quiz on hunger in America, link at end of post

- 1,626,523 arrests in 2007 were children under age 18-that figure was 15.5% of ALL arrests that year; there were 474,555 arrests under age 15 that same year; 98,117 in the 10-12 age group, and 13,420 under age 10 Source: Child Welfare League

- About 11 million American children have alcoholic parents Source: National Association for Children of Alcoholics

- In the next 24 hours 1,439 teenagers will attempt suicide, suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death for 10-19 year olds; this rate is higher than for deaths in the same age group as cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia, and influenza COMBINED Source: National Youth Violence Resource Center

- Homicide is the second leading cause of death among teens 15-19 years old Source: Child Trends Data Bank

- 1.6 million youth runaway every year across all social and economic groups Source: Runawayteens.org

- Each year, a typical young person in the United States is inundated with more than 1,000 commercials for beer and wine coolers and several thousand fictional drinking incidents on television Source: drugs-statistics.com

- Each year students spend $5.5 billion on alcohol, more then they spend on soft drinks, tea, milk, juice, coffee, or books combined Source: drugs-statistics.com

- Underage drinking costs the United States more than $58 billion every year Source: teendruguse.us

- The average American child watches television 1500 hours per year, compared to 900 hours spent per year in school Source: TV Free America

- 3.5 minutes is the number of minutes per week that parents spend in meaningful conversation with their children each day Source: parenting-healthy-children.com

These are the children who walk through public schoolhouse doors every single day. These are the children teachers try to teach every day in our public schools.

We have less a crisis in public schools in America and more of a crisis in American society. The family appears unable to fulfill the traditional roles in the lives of many children. As a result, the school-not be consent, but by default- must deal with the tremendous problems of society. And it is teachers and schools who are blamed and are accused of failing when those social problems make it more difficult to teach our nation's children.

It is amazing that our public schools are doing as well as they are (see previous posts on test scores here, here, and here.) under these kinds of circumstances. Public schools and teachers are doing a tough frustrating, and lonely job. And they do it with little thanks or support from the community or from politicians, the media, and the public at large.

Our public schools and its teachers are a buffer for an adult world and a nation which has failed its own children. If public schools were to close their doors, these children will be on the streets. Public schools are the last alternative to abandoning millions of America's heirs to the streets.

So the first real problem of America's public schools actually turns out to be a societal problem and not a problem of education or schools or teachers.

Look at Dominquez High School in Compton, California. The school lacks good resources to put on a proper play. Nevertheless, both the teacher and the students rise to the occasion and manage to put on a play with heart and soul. But they should not have to do that. That is if we as a society truly believe in equal opportunity for all.

There in that short documentary you can see first hand, with stark reality and heart wrenching clarity the second real problem of American public schools. Children from poor families and who live in poor communities are cheated out of an education and a better future by grossly under equipped, understaffed, and under funded schools.

This leads us to Real Problem number 2.) Income Wealth and Inequality. I will talk about this in a subsequent post.


Hunger Quiz link in pdf format here.

The Myth of America's Failing Schools

By Roberta.

Part 3 Ignored News and Conclusion

Ignored News

There are many positive news stories about American schools and students which the press simply ignores. I will just quote from Berliner and Biddle: "In 1992 the IEA released a report of findings from a comparative study of reading achievement involving two hundred thousand students in thirty-one nations. In this study, American nine-year-olds placed second in the world-while our fourteen-year-olds finished ninth, which was well above average and only a few points off the top...the IEA put out a major press release concerning the study and its results. Americans learned about it only after European newspapers reported it..." The press ignored this good news about our schools, students, and teachers.

And I haven't even talked about the Sandia Report yet. In "The Near-Myth of Our Failing Schools,"
Peter Schrag tells the story of how Sandia National Laboratories compiled a lengthy, well researched report with numbers and graphs and charts on the state of American schools. The report showed that our schools were actually doing a good job of educating our children and that our children knew more than many gave them credit for.

What happened to the Sandia Report?

In a few words, this report was deep-sixed by President George Herbert Walker Bush when the research did not agree with his political education agenda. Berliner and Biddle also spend some time talking about Sandia and bemoan the politicization of this well researched report.

From Schrag's article: "Among the Sandia findings, many of them corroborated by other studies, are the following: High school completion rates- now roughly 90 percent- and college graduation rates are the highest in history. One in four adult Americans has at least a bachelor's degree-the highest percentage in the world (and the percentage keeps getting higher). A larger percentage of twenty-two-year-olds receive degrees in math, science, or engineering in the United States than in any of the nation's major economic competitors. Although SAT verbal scores declined over the years 1975 to 1990, the decline occurred chiefly because a larger percentage of lower-ranking students (those from the bottom half of their school classes) began taking the test. If the same population that took the SATs in 1975 had taken them this year, the average score would be significantly higher than it was then-and higher than it was in 1990.

"Because of reforms instituted in the 1980s, more American high school students than ever before are taking four years of English and at least three years of math and science. Far more are taking and passing Advanced Placement examinations (98,000 in 1978 and 535,000 in 1996). More teachers, for all the flaws in our teacher training-and-reward system, are subject to tough standards for certification and promotion."

In conclusion, it is a myth that students, teachers, and schools in America are failing. This does not mean that there are not problems. This does not mean that all schools do well. This does not mean the system does not have shortcomings.

But all of the discussion and time wasted with wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth about test scores often leads to poor ideas for education reform and actually keeps us from looking at and solving the very real problems in American schools.

I will deal with this topic in my next post.

The Myth of America's Failing Schools

By Roberta

Part 2 Other Tests and International Comparisons


Other Tests

OK. So the SAT does not measure school or student performance. But other tests show American schools and students failing. Right?

Wrong.

1. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), popularly known as The Nation's Report Card shows that American students are doing about as well as their parents twenty years ago.

Tamim Ansary over at msn Encarta, Parent Resources says, "The (Nation's) Report Card is all about numbers: rows and columns of them, scores for every grade, subject, and state, scientifically adjusted to correct for distortions generated by such factors as changing demographics-all to ensure that comparisons of today's students with yesterday's will be comparisons of apples with apples.

"This is social science. Oddly enough, these numbers don't really support what 'everyone knows'...the NAEP seemed to show American students doing about the same as their counterparts had done 20 years earlier, even though the educational system had expanded tremendously and was serving, at that point, a far more diverse population of students, including many more with a limited command of English."

2. The Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) is a short version of the SAT. The test is designed to try out new test questions for the SAT and is given to a representative sample of students, as opposed to the voluntary SAT test. PSAT scores are available for every year since 1959 and show that there has been NO decline in either mathematical or verbal scores. (Source: Berliner & Biddle, The Manufactured Crisis) (emphasis mine)

3. The California Achievement Test (CAT), the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS), the Stanford Achievement Test (SAT), the Metropolitan Achievement Test (MAT), and the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS) also show students scoring higher on reading and math every year. Why don't the media report this news? (Source: Berliner & Biddle, The Manufactured Crisis)

4. The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is a test taken by seniors in college who are interested in studying for advanced degrees. Again, like the SAT, in the mid-sixties to early-seventies the scores on this test dipped slightly due to the influx of more college students in those years. Since 1971 though, the percentage of students taking the test has not varied that much, but, average GRE scores have risen, despite the fact that a new analytic subset designed to measure higher level thinking skills was added to the test. (Source: Berliner & Biddle, The Manufactured Crisis)

International Comparisons

Well, but compared to students in other countries American students are doing very poorly. If you said yes to that statement, you would be wrong again.

Again from msn Encarta, Parent Resources, Tamim Ansary writes, "As for international comparisons, every four years, over the last decade, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has participated in an international assessment called Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). This report compares test results from 25 to 50 countries in various categories. It focuses only on mathematics and hard science because those subjects are culturally and linguistically neutral, so the same test questions can be given to kids of different countries...


"According to the TIMSS, the United States is not "dead last" (as journalist Charles Krauthammer so colorfully put it) but "dead-middle," or a smidgen above. In 2003, overall, it scored higher than 13 countries and lower than 11 others. The countries beating us included Latvia, Hungary, and the Netherlands. The ones we beat included Norway, Iran, and Slovenia.

"Besides," Ansary continues, "statistics are more ambiguous than they seem, because there's always a social context to numbers."

Berliner & Biddle in The Manufactured Crisis cite the same study and come to the same conclusion as Ansary. But they add that in many countries only select (read most intelligent) students take these international tests. It is also important to keep in mind that many of the countries that scored higher than us on this test have a more homogenous population and do not have as wide a gap between rich and poor as does America. This is the 'social context,' Ansary refers to in the above quote.

In the Second International Mathematics Study (1980-1982) from the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) Berliner and Biddle note the study found that the aggregate achievement of eighth grade American students lagged behind that of eighth grade students in many other countries, notably Japan. This fact was immediately pounced on by critics and a dutiful press, which enthusiastically vilified American schools, students, and teachers for fecklessness.

What nobody took note of was that Japanese schools required algebra be taken in the eighth grade. Such courses are not usually offered to American students until the freshman or sophomore year in high school. Berliner and Biddle note, "...what the critics had interpreted as a failure of American schools turned out to be merely a reflection of the age at which algebra instruction is typically begun in Japanese and American schools."

There are lies, damn lies, and then there are statistics.

Richard Rothstein in "The Myth of Public School Failure," writes, "Contrary to a cherished myth, American science and engineering performance surpasses our competitors. Of every 10,000 Americans, 7.4 have bachelor's degrees in physical science or engineering. Japan has 7.3 per 10,000 and West Germany, 6.7. American performance continues to improve: in 1987, 7 percent of 22-year-olds had a science or engineering degree, up from less than 5 percent in 1970. Only 6.5 percent of 22-year-olds in Japan and 4 percent of 22-year-olds in Germany had science or engineering degrees in 1987. Our advantage stems from greater commitment to educate women. In America, 35 percent of new scientists are women, compared with Japan's 10 percent."

There is one story in Berliner and Biddle's, The Manufactured Crisis about the science big business community telling everyone there were not enough science and engineering college graduates. The good 'ole Chicken Little-sky is falling syndrome. Soon after these dire predictions there was a glut of such graduates. Guess what happened? Lower salaries for scientists and engineers because there were more graduates now than jobs. Was this a coincidence or market manipulation by the rich and powerful? Berliner and Biddle believe the latter.

Next In Part 3 on Monday night: Ignored News and Conclusion