Readers: St. Louis Public Schools Must Improve To Stop Population Loss
In the poll last week readers agreed that our K-12 schools must improve to stop population loss:
Q: It has been said by many the St. Louis Public Schools must be improved to stop population loss. Agree? If so, how?
- Agree, no clue how to improve them 61 [36.53%]
- Agree, need more students from higher economic backgrounds 53 [31.74%]
- Other answer… 28 [16.77%]
- Agree, the schools just need more money 11 [6.59%]
- Disagree, children are becoming less and less important in future demographic trends 7 [4.19%]
- Agree, cut out competition from charter schools 6 [3.59%]
- Unsure/no opinion 1 [0.6%]
The top answer, not surprisingly, was “no clue how to improve them” with students from higher economic  backgrounds a close second.
Charter schools are often seen as the solution by some and the problem by others.
The following were the numerous “other” answers submitted:
- The Schools need more than just money and diversity to improve. What though?
- Vouchers for all schools
- Agree, schools need more funding/teacher evaluations/more comprehensive approach
- Revitalize neighborhood schools
- Agree, but needs more than just money.
- agree, schools need more money and real involved committment from adults.
- eliminate city corruption
- Good students must have the ability to learn separated from misbehaving students
- Charter Schools won’t fix poverty present in our neighborhoods
- Agree provide more competition from more charter schools
- more responsible parents willing to work on improving the SLPS
- Agree but there is no 25 words or less solution
- its a combination of things. not just bad kids with bad homes
- Agree, better smaller administration
- Make it a point of community pride; require parent service hours and outreach.
- Go to a voucher program – problem solved, especially for low income families.
- A total revemp of the system, including the important step of parent involvement
- More charters less control from the divided leviathan.
- No, this is still a white flight issue. Keeping our kids away from “them”
- Agree, but only good parental involvement
- Of course, this is a no brainer
- Agree, Gens Y and Z may not all have kids now, but we will soon.
- These options are laughable.
- Families aren’t moving to the city with high crime rates no matter the scho
- Decertify the NEA
- Replace all public schools with charters.
- Agree, city families need access to great schools chartered, district, private
- More charter schools-city schools irretrievably broken
I highlighted #9 because I really liked the comment, no school public or private is going to fix poverty. Â Face it, a school with low income students of any race will not be the best learning environment. Â On Sunday 60 Minutes did a story on a charter school in a poor neighborhood in NYC that is focusing on getting the very best teachers to improve the student’s test score:
(CBS News) With state after state confronting massive budget problems, several governors have been looking to extract whatever they can from public employees like teachers, going after benefits packages and guaranteed job security that unions have won for them. But would teachers be willing to give up those protections for a chance to earn a lot more money?
Test scores overall are still low but some individual students have jumped two grade levels in reading in a single year, very important to their future.
– Steve Patterson
In the long run, good schools are required in order to reduce poverty in a neighborhood. Education leads children out of poverty. Unfortunately, we are often forced to sacrifice long term goals to put out fires.
In the long run, good schools are required in order to reduce poverty in a neighborhood. Education leads children out of poverty. Unfortunately, we are often forced to sacrifice long term goals to put out fires.
Part of it is cultural – the whole baby-daddy, parent-at-16, kid-as-weird-status-symbol, school-ain’t-cool mindset, where children are parents and droppin’ out – and part of it is not everyone needs to go to college – bring back vocational education, give kids something real they can aspire to, not just checking off boxes on some standardized test!
Part of it is cultural – the whole baby-daddy, parent-at-16, kid-as-weird-status-symbol, school-ain’t-cool mindset, where children are parents and droppin’ out – and part of it is not everyone needs to go to college – bring back vocational education, give kids something real they can aspire to, not just checking off boxes on some standardized test!
A school with a strong college-going culture and high expectations for achievement can overcome the racist stereotypes you have highlighted. Vocational ed is not the way out of poverty.
With all due respect, do you know how much plumbers, constructions workers, truck drivers or electricians make? NONE of them need college educations, and there is actually an serious shortage of people who know how to work and fix machines in America. I can assure you that vocational training IS a road out of poverty; my friends in the building trades makes tons of more money than me, despite my having a masters from a Tier One university.
JZ is exactly right; my high school made the same mistake: trying to train everyone to be physicists! I hated advanced math and science classes (despite finding the subjects interesting), because it was of no use for me to learn overly complex equations that only specialists in the field ever use. Focus primary education on giving people a future, not a preparation for something they don’t want to do.
Being blue collar unfortunately is no longer “cool” in America; watch TV and everyone is either a lawyer, doctor, Ivy League graduate or detective. We MUST as a culture realize that people who don’t have a college degree but work hard at a lucrative career such as plumbing or truck driving are just as able to be successful in America.
One model worth emulating is the Emily Griffith Opportunity School in Denver (http://www.egos-school.com/site/public/StartPage). It’s run by DPS and combines vocational education, an alternative high school, community college classes and apprenticeship programs, all geared toward getting people the skills they need to get hired in an urban environment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Griffith_Opportunity_School). Apprenticeship programs include Carpenter, Carpet and Tile Layer, Certified Chef, Electrician (Inside and Residential), Glazier, Iron Worker, Operating Engineer, Painter, Pipefitter, Plumber, Sheet Metal Worker and Voice Data Video. Community Collehe programs include Business and Technology, Design Industries, Health Sciences and Trades and Industry (Aircraft Maintenance, Automotive and Collision Repair, Custodial Training, Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioner and Refrigeration (HVAC/R), Welding and Watch and Clock Repair programs). If SLPS offered a similar option, it might be easier to keep tneir/our students motivated to finish high school and/or to give them the resources to get the good jobs after graduating or dropping out. Like Chris said, it doesn’t take Calculus or English Lit to do well in the many “blue collar” jobs that pay well and aren’t being/can’t be sent overseas.
Thank you, Chris, for coming to the defense of my fellow industrial and construction tradesmen and women. One thing I would like to add though, and it is this: Ms. Racette, you make a mistake, common amongst those “educated” at university, of assuming that only a college education gives one the skills and mental tools to advance oneself in society. The most disturbing part of your commentary is what I perceive to be written between the lines, that those who work in the trades do not have the intelligence, common sense or critical thinking skills necessary to carry on in their chosen careers. Quite the opposite is true, I believe. I’ve known both white and blue collar professionals (yes, the term professional does not only apply to white collar workers) who have done well for themselves and their employers, and I have known those who are not entirely competent. The commonalities present between the successful white/blue collar are similar. The best ones plan ahead, and when a contingency arrives which was unforeseen, unwanted, or a critical emergency (in construction and industrial, this can literally be a life and death moment), the best remain calm, and bring their training, education, and experience with them to solve the problem and bring the matter to a successful close. The best workers, white or blue, do so well by their customers and employers that no one even notices it, and for a blue collar worker, good vocational training and critical thinking skills is the reason why. Union trades people (mostly electrical, plumbing, masonry and carpentry) get from two to four years of training as apprentices, and continue to attend courses throughout their careers, both formal and on-the-job, as journeymen. As Chris said, some people are simply unsuited for white collar university education. Alternatives must be presented for those who would choose some other career.
High school staff and teachers imposing “high expectations for achievement” will mean little if the students are negatively disposed to being there in the first place. I can think of no surer path to generational poverty than a decision to have a child (or children) without finishing high school.
The demographics of schools are causing the problems! You cannot have lots of successful schools with only students in poverty. They just have too much against them. More needs to be done to integrate racially in STL which will in turn help to integrate socioeconomically.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/opinion/22herbert.html?_r=2&emc=eta1 (relevant article)
The demographics of schools are causing the problems! You cannot have lots of successful schools with only students in poverty. They just have too much against them. More needs to be done to integrate racially in STL which will in turn help to integrate socioeconomically.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/opinion/22herbert.html?_r=2&emc=eta1 (relevant article)
Being poor sucks. Money brings options, regardless of race. Expecting middle-class parents, much less wealthy ones, of any race, to willingly choose to live in a high-crime, high-poverty, low-achievement neighborhood / choose an under-performing school or school district, because it’s “good” for the poor kids, makes little actual sense! Unfortunately, it’s a viscious, ingrained cycle, where dropping out makes one virtually unemployable, trapping the person who CHOOSES to drop out in a life of poverty.
“Expecting middle-class parents, much less wealthy ones, of any race, to willingly choose to live in a high-crime, high-poverty, low-achievement neighborhood / choose an under-performing school or school district, because it’s “good” for the poor kids, makes little actual sense!”
Amen, JZ, the middle class and wealthy of all races DO NOT want to live around poor people! It’s ugly but true. Forcing them just makes them move out to St. Charles County.
The middle class are the ones who can change the schools through being involved. Poor people don’t have the capacity. So middle class flight to suburbia has a role in our current dilemma. I suppose for the City to prospher the poor should be gentrified to Wellston and Jennings with their many educational options!I think regional governance is the only solution. We need regional government and a unified school district. This is the only way to redress disparities in poverty which undermine the educational system. Eliminating our meager regional sales tax sharing is an example of the wrong direction.
Unified School District. Damn IPhone spellcheck!
I agree that the middle class are the ones who can; the question is are they the ones who will?! And I don’t agree that “Poor people don’t have the capacity.” Yes, middle-class, primarily-white (but not exclusively) flight is one part of the problem. I’m just not sure if a unified school district is the answer. My observation is that busing is as big a motivator to get families to move out of a district as are poor-quality schools. Neighborhood schools and smaller districts are made for each other, which is probably why there’s so much resistance to doing away with either one.
The SLPS system is NOT underfunded. It spends in excess of the state median on each of its students. Whether it’s spent wisely, or not, is obviously a whole ‘nuther discussion, as are the escalating legacy pension costs associated with a declining number of students. I agree that regional governance makes a lot of intellectual sense (efficiency, “fairness”, etc.), but much like the current city-county dividing line, there will always be areas that are outside (and exempt from) any unified district.
Which leaves your assertion that this “is the only way to redress disparities in poverty”. What are you proposing? That poor students need even more financial subsidies? That we have more and more-intense government-funded and operated early-childhood education? That we hire tutors and provide computers and internet access to students who are struggling? That we expand busing across the entire region, with absolutely no parental input?
What part of personal and parental responsibility and the concept of rewarding hard work and personal success do you find abhorrent. We’re not a socialist country like the old Soviet Union. People who make the right choices and are somewhat lucky succeed, sometimes spectacularily. People who make the wrong choices and are somewhat unlucky don’t succeed, creating those proverbial “disparities in poverty”. You’re either going to have winners and losers, or you’re going to have socialism. Only in Lake Woebegone is every child “above average”.
Middle class parents typically are involved, albeit mostly with the progress of their own children. Involvement includes making sure their kids go to school, making sure they do their homework, dealing with any behavioral problems their kids have at school and attending conferences and meetings with teachers. Some parents do much more, getting involved in school events, fundraising, coaching, etc. Historically, schools are set up with the reasonable assumption that parents will be at least somewhat involved and will basically support the school’s role in educating their children. If parents are not involved for whatever reasons and take utterly no active interest, it is they who are failing their children, not “the system”. It seems unrealistic and unfair to expect a public institution to supply the personal dedication and interest parents ordinarily have in their own offspring. Passionate teachers and dedicated administrators may try and even succeed in stepping into this role, but systemically speaking, that is not ultimately their responsibility. When a school is substantially populated by students who constantly skip, fail every subject, fight, bully, and completely destroy any semblance of order necessary for the purposes of education, the other students who may actually want to go to class and learn are unjustly penalized, both in terms of their education and personal safety. The very best teachers and staff are overwhelmed in the chaotic environment and are themselves understandably fearful of many of the students in their daily charge. What conscientious parents, whatever their recognition of historic economic and social disparities, would accept such a situation for their child?
I don’t have the answers except knowing that students illegally attend North County schools, even though they are City residents, in order to not be subject to the SLPS. If we had one regional school district the curriculum and geographical assignment of teachers would be more uniform. I do not support Charter Schools as they are not accountable to the public yet receive taxpayer funding.
Regardless, the entire problem is job accessibility. I think not repealing the sales tax sharing program and expanding to a property tax system to Minneapolis-St. Paul would address may of our regional problems which I feel are all related. I hope this blog covers that topic in the future.
“The very best teachers and staff are overwhelmed in the chaotic environment and are themselves understandably fearful of many of the students in their daily charge.”
I don’t know how you can teach and be afraid of your students. They have to respect you.
Too many lawyers. Back in the dark ages, when I was in public schools, yes, we respected our teachers and feared being sent to the principal’s office, where the paddle was an option for attitude adjustment. These days, if you, as a teacher or administrator, look at a “child” sideways, even if they’re 15-year-old jerks, you could be facing a lawsuit and/or termination. If there are no consequences, how can one expect to maintain control?!
Lawsuit or termination? I thought unions ensured this never happened? At least that’s the narrative on the political right.
I know a few public school teachers in minority districts. If something happens the kids go to the principles office. They haven’t been fired.
I think you’re trying to say ” . . . expanding to a property tax system [similar] to Minneapolis-St. Paul would address ma[n]y of . . . ” What’s the Cliff’s Notes version? Same rates across the region? Different rates for commercial and residential properties? Pooled and distributed based on “need”? High property taxes and low sales taxes? Low property taxes and high sales taxes? State funding of public education (which consumes the majority of our property taxes in Missouri)?
I’m also unclear on “the entire problem is job accessibility.” Do we need to invest in public transit? Better highways? Better educational options? My experience is that anyone making more than about 150% of the minimum wage can figure out how to get to a job, no matter where they live in the region. Or do we just need to create more jobs, in total, to absorb the excess labor that’s out there from shuttered factories and the recession?
Obviously poverty and its by-products of children out of wedlock, crime, etc are the biggest hurdles to overcome, which have no easy solutions.
However, there are things we can and should do. We should stop hiring administrators from other failing urban districts simply because they have experience in urban schools. Experience does not equal success and if they have no track record of improving those schools, they shouldn’t even be considered for ours.
Obviously poverty and its by-products of children out of wedlock, crime, etc are the biggest hurdles to overcome, which have no easy solutions.
However, there are things we can and should do. We should stop hiring administrators from other failing urban districts simply because they have experience in urban schools. Experience does not equal success and if they have no track record of improving those schools, they shouldn’t even be considered for ours.
Being poor sucks. Money brings options, regardless of race. Expecting middle-class parents, much less wealthy ones, of any race, to willingly choose to live in a high-crime, high-poverty, low-achievement neighborhood / choose an under-performing school or school district, because it’s “good” for the poor kids, makes little actual sense! Unfortunately, it’s a viscious, ingrained cycle, where dropping out makes one virtually unemployable, trapping the person who CHOOSES to drop out in a life of poverty.
My friends that recently graduated from Wash U and SLU MBA didnt move to Chicago, Philly, NYC, Boston, Atlanta and San Fran because of the great inner-city urban schools there. And when that time in life comes for them that schools do matter, there will always be someone ready to take their place should they move for better schools. Focus more on making the city attractive to the young people that flock to the above places (Seattle, Austin, Denver the list could go on) and the failing schools will be used less as an excuse as to why this city cant grow.
My friends that recently graduated from Wash U and SLU MBA didnt move to Chicago, Philly, NYC, Boston, Atlanta and San Fran because of the great inner-city urban schools there. And when that time in life comes for them that schools do matter, there will always be someone ready to take their place should they move for better schools. Focus more on making the city attractive to the young people that flock to the above places (Seattle, Austin, Denver the list could go on) and the failing schools will be used less as an excuse as to why this city cant grow.
http://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education.html
Each SLPS student receives $10k/yr for their education, surely there must be a way to allocate money so that each child has a computer in their home. When is Google going to announce the winning city for ‘google fiber’? Let’s get some wireless mesh networks set up in neighborhoods. http://sites.google.com/site/wasabinetwifi/
http://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education.html
Each SLPS student receives $10k/yr for their education, surely there must be a way to allocate money so that each child has a computer in their home. When is Google going to announce the winning city for ‘google fiber’? Let’s get some wireless mesh networks set up in neighborhoods. http://sites.google.com/site/wasabinetwifi/
WasabiNet offers high-speed for $10 a month. There’s no reason why St. Louis neighborhoods can’t be blanketed with wi-fi coverage. At $10/mo, K-12, you’re only talking $1560 for the duration of their education. On top of that You can get a very decent capable netbook for $350. There’s no reason students shouldn’t have free access to a computer and the internet at home paid for by SLPS.
WasabiNet offers high-speed for $10 a month. There’s no reason why St. Louis neighborhoods can’t be blanketed with wi-fi coverage. At $10/mo, K-12, you’re only talking $1560 for the duration of their education. On top of that You can get a very decent capable netbook for $350. There’s no reason students shouldn’t have free access to a computer and the internet at home paid for by SLPS.
A school with a strong college-going culture and high expectations for achievement can overcome the racist stereotypes you have highlighted. Vocational ed is not the way out of poverty.
With all due respect, do you know how much plumbers, constructions workers, truck drivers or electricians make? NONE of them need college educations, and there is actually an serious shortage of people who know how to work and fix machines in America. I can assure you that vocational training IS a road out of poverty; my friends in the building trades makes tons of more money than me, despite my having a masters from a Tier One university.
JZ is exactly right; my high school made the same mistake: trying to train everyone to be physicists! I hated advanced math and science classes (despite finding the subjects interesting), because it was of no use for me to learn overly complex equations that only specialists in the field ever use. Focus primary education on giving people a future, not a preparation for something they don’t want to do.
Being blue collar unfortunately is no longer “cool” in America; watch TV and everyone is either a lawyer, doctor, Ivy League graduate or detective. We MUST as a culture realize that people who don’t have a college degree but work hard at a lucrative career such as plumbing or truck driving are just as able to be successful in America.
“Expecting middle-class parents, much less wealthy ones, of any race, to willingly choose to live in a high-crime, high-poverty, low-achievement neighborhood / choose an under-performing school or school district, because it’s “good” for the poor kids, makes little actual sense!”
Amen, JZ, the middle class and wealthy of all races DO NOT want to live around poor people! It’s ugly but true. Forcing them just makes them move out to St. Charles County.
High school staff and teachers imposing “high expectations for achievement” will mean little if the students are negatively disposed to being there in the first place. I can think of no surer path to generational poverty than a decision to have a child (or children) without finishing high school.
The middle class are the ones who can change the schools through being involved. Poor people don’t have the capacity. So middle class flight to suburbia has a role in our current dilemma. I suppose for the City to prospher the poor should be gentrified to Wellston and Jennings with their many educational options!
I think regional governance is the only solution. We need regional government and a unified school disrupt. This is the only way to redress disparities in poverty which undermine the educational system. Eliminating our meager regional sales tax sharing is an example of the wrong direction.
Unified School District. Damn IPhone spellcheck!
I agree that the middle class are the ones who can; the question is are they the ones who will?! And I don’t agree that “Poor people don’t have the capacity.” Yes, middle-class, primarily-white (but not exclusively) flight is one part of the problem. I’m just not sure if a unified school district is the answer. My observation is that busing is as big a motivator to get families to move out of a district as are poor-quality schools. Neighborhood schools and smaller districts are made for each other, which is probably why there’s so much resistance to doing away with either one.
The SLPS system is NOT underfunded. It spends in excess of the state median on each of its students. Whether it’s spent wisely, or not, is obviously a whole ‘nuther discussion, as are the escalating legacy pension costs associated with a declining number of students. I agree that regional governance makes a lot of intellectual sense (efficiency, “fairness”, etc.), but much like the current city-county dividing line, there will always be areas that are outside (and exempt from) any unified district.
Which leaves your assertion that this “is the only way to redress disparities in poverty”. What are you proposing? That poor students need even more financial subsidies? That we have more and more-intense government-funded and operated early-childhood education? That we hire tutors and provide computers and internet access to students who are struggling? That we expand busing across the entire region, with absolutely no parental input?
What part of personal and parental responsibility and the concept of rewarding hard work and personal success do you find abhorrent. We’re not a socialist country like the old Soviet Union. People who make the right choices and are somewhat lucky succeed, sometimes spectacularily. People who make the wrong choices and are somewhat unlucky don’t succeed, creating those proverbial “disparities in poverty”. You’re either going to have winners and losers, or you’re going to have socialism. Only in Lake Woebegone is every child “above average”.
One model worth emulating is the Emily Griffith Opportunity School in Denver (http://www.egos-school.com/site/public/StartPage). It’s run by DPS and combines vocational education, an alternative high school, community college classes and apprenticeship programs, all geared toward getting people the skills they need to get hired in an urban environment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Griffith_Opportunity_School). Apprenticeship programs include Carpenter, Carpet and Tile Layer, Certified Chef, Electrician (Inside and Residential), Glazier, Iron Worker, Operating Engineer, Painter, Pipefitter, Plumber, Sheet Metal Worker and Voice Data Video. Community Collehe programs include Business and Technology, Design Industries, Health Sciences and Trades and Industry (Aircraft Maintenance, Automotive and Collision Repair, Custodial Training, Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioner and Refrigeration (HVAC/R), Welding and Watch and Clock Repair programs). If SLPS offered a similar option, it might be easier to keep tneir/our students motivated to finish high school and/or to give them the resources to get the good jobs after graduating or dropping out. Like Chris said, it doesn’t take Calculus or English Lit to do well in the many “blue collar” jobs that pay well and aren’t being/can’t be sent overseas.
Middle class parents typically are involved, albeit mostly with the progress of their own children. Involvement includes making sure their kids go to school, making sure they do their homework, dealing with any behavioral problems their kids have at school and attending conferences and meetings with teachers. Some parents do much more, getting involved in school events, fundraising, coaching, etc. Historically, schools are set up with the reasonable assumption that parents will be at least somewhat involved and will basically support the school’s role in educating their children. If parents are not involved for whatever reasons and take utterly no active interest, it is they who are failing their children, not “the system”. It seems unrealistic and unfair to expect a public institution to supply the personal dedication and interest parents ordinarily have in their own offspring. Passionate teachers and dedicated administrators may try and even succeed in stepping into this role, but systemically speaking, that is not ultimately their responsibility. When a school is substantially populated by students who constantly skip, fail every subject, fight, bully, and completely destroy any semblance of order necessary for the purposes of education, the other students who may actually want to go to class and learn are unjustly penalized, both in terms of their education and personal safety. The very best teachers and staff are overwhelmed in the chaotic environment and are themselves understandably fearful of many of the students in their daily charge. What conscientious parents, whatever their recognition of historic economic and social disparities, would accept such a situation for their child?
Thank you, Chris, for coming to the defense of my fellow industrial and construction tradesmen and women. One thing I would like to add though, and it is this: Ms. Racette, you make a mistake, common amongst those “educated” at university, of assuming that only a college education gives one the skills and mental tools to advance oneself in society. The most disturbing part of your commentary is what I perceive to be written between the lines, that those who work in the trades do not have the intelligence, common sense or critical thinking skills necessary to carry on in their chosen careers. Quite the opposite is true, I believe. I’ve known both white and blue collar professionals (yes, the term professional does not only apply to white collar workers) who have done well for themselves and their employers, and I have known those who are not entirely competent. The commonalities present between the successful white/blue collar are similar. The best ones plan ahead, and when a contingency arrives which was unforeseen, unwanted, or a critical emergency (in construction and industrial, this can literally be a life and death moment), the best remain calm, and bring their training, education, and experience with them to solve the problem and bring the matter to a successful close. The best workers, white or blue, do so well by their customers and employers that no one even notices it, and for a blue collar worker, good vocational training and critical thinking skills is the reason why. Union trades people (mostly electrical, plumbing, masonry and carpentry) get from two to four years of training as apprentices, and continue to attend courses throughout their careers, both formal and on-the-job, as journeymen. As Chris said, some people are simply unsuited for white collar university education. Alternatives must be presented for those who would choose some other career.
I don’t have the answers except knowing that students illegally attend North County schools, even though they are City residents, in order to not be subject to the SLPS. If we had one regional school district the curriculum and geographical assignment of teachers would be more uniform. I do not support Charter Schools as they are not accountable to the public yet receive taxpayer funding.
Regardless, the entire problem is job accessibility. I think not repealing the sales tax sharing program and expanding to a property tax system to Minneapolis-St. Paul would address may of our regional problems which I feel are all related. I hope this blog covers that topic in the future.
“The very best teachers and staff are overwhelmed in the chaotic environment and are themselves understandably fearful of many of the students in their daily charge.”
I don’t know how you can teach and be afraid of your students. They have to respect you.
Too many lawyers. Back in the dark ages, when I was in public schools, yes, we respected our teachers and feared being sent to the principal’s office, where the paddle was an option for attitude adjustment. These days, if you, as a teacher or administrator, look at a “child” sideways, even if they’re 15-year-old jerks, you could be facing a lawsuit and/or termination. If there are no consequences, how can one expect to maintain control?!
I think you’re trying to say ” . . . expanding to a property tax system [similar] to Minneapolis-St. Paul would address ma[n]y of . . . ” What’s the Cliff’s Notes version? Same rates across the region? Different rates for commercial and residential properties? Pooled and distributed based on “need”? High property taxes and low sales taxes? Low property taxes and high sales taxes? State funding of public education (which consumes the majority of our property taxes in Missouri)?
I’m also unclear on “the entire problem is job accessibility.” Do we need to invest in public transit? Better highways? Better educational options? My experience is that anyone making more than about 150% of the minimum wage can figure out how to get to a job, no matter where they live in the region. Or do we just need to create more jobs, in total, to absorb the excess labor that’s out there from shuttered factories and the recession?
Lawsuit or termination? I thought unions ensured this never happened? At least that’s the narrative on the political right.
I know a few public school teachers in minority districts. If something happens the kids go to the principles office. They haven’t been fired.