Report: Nearly Half Of Detroiters Can’t Read

[Raskolnikov]

The Republicans here find it so easy to blame the Democrats on the ills, indeed blame the Dems for everything that isn’t perfect in America. They ought to wonder rather why other countries, even gasp! socialist countries, do better than ours in educating their children.

I’d like to hear one of them explain to me why Norway or South Korea have such phenomenal education systems compared to ours. Because they drain their publicat education and force parents to homeschool? Not quite.

What bothers me too is that for some so-called conservatives, the people are always right, personal responsibility is great, but then when half of Detroiters can’t read, personal responsibility doesn’t matter anymore, it’s all the government’s fault. And the solution? Force a bunch of single parents working 2 jobs and uneducated themselves to homeschool their children.

estesbob:

Probably becuase their major cities our not under control of democrat politicians and Democrat dominated teachers unions.

I can tell you for certain that the parties running their major cities most certainly are not Republicans. I have a hard time believing you’d find a European social democratic party or social democratic controlled teacher union preferable to these Democrats.

 

[Rich_Olszewski]

Since the Teachers union is vested in the statu quo these options will not come from the education establishment . When push comes to shove any teachers union is always going to opt forwhat i best for their members-not the children they teach.

That boat won’t float. The rubber meets the road in the classroom, not at the Union Hall, and dedicated teachers do their best even with a union membership card in their pockets. Contrary to what you think, my wife, a unionist, didn’t sit on her a** in the classroom, but did everything from teaching to providing clothes and school supplies for some children - at her own expense BTW.

You republicans can mock people like her, which is acceptable as free speech, but you’ll never see me back your party in any election for the contempt I see towards unionized public school teachers.

 

[a_priori]

Easy for you, my man, to blame teachers for the illiteracy. So easy for folks like you to dump on hard working teachers like my wife and other men and women who do their best against great odds (where are the parents to motivate their children?) to help the children they’re given charge of.

I am knee-deep in teachers. My family is brimming with them. My neighborhood is 80% teachers and professors. Discussing an individual teacher’s skills and work ethic is one thing. (BTW, many don’t care much about the kids and are lousy at their jobs. This is a primary- source, boots-on-the-ground, fact from those who live the dream daily.) There are many excellent teachers of course. Anyway, the biggest problem is that teachers, in the aggregate, support political causes that discourage personal accountability in the way people live their lives and what they contribute to society.

Saying that parents don’t motivate their children and then politically supporting the parent’s right to a sedentary lifestyle with no accountability, a skill they pass from generation to generation, is enough to make one’s head explode.

Teachers and their political co-conspirators created this ball of dung and now they blame the parents? Please.

 

[Rich_Olszewski]

I am knee-deep in teachers. My family is brimming with them. My neighborhood is 80% teachers and professors. Discussing an individual teacher’s skills and work ethic is one thing. (BTW, many don’t care much about the kids and are lousy at their jobs. This is a primary- source, boots-on-the-ground, fact from those who live the dream daily.) There are many excellent teachers of course. Anyway, the biggest problem is that teachers, in the aggregate, support political causes that discourage personal accountability in the way people live their lives and what they contribute to society.

Saying that parents don’t motivate their children and then politically supporting the parent’s right to a sedentary lifestyle with no accountability, a skill they pass from generation to generation, is enough to make one’s head explode.

Teachers and their political co-conspirators created this ball of dung and now they blame the parents? Please.

Thanks in all your condemnation of teachers for one de rigueur crumb, “There are many excellent teachers of course.”

 

[estesbob]

That boat won’t float. The rubber meets the road in the classroom, not at the Union Hall, and dedicated teachers do their best even with a union membership card in their pockets. Contrary to what you think, my wife, a unionist, didn’t sit on her a** in the classroom, but did everything from teaching to providing clothes and school supplies for some children - at her own expense BTW.

You republicans can mock people like her, which is acceptable as free speech, but you’ll never see me back your party in any election for the contempt I see towards unionized public school teachers.

Nobody mocked your wife. We pointed out the obvious what we have now is not working but change is opposed by the NEA Your anger should be directed at a corrupt teachers union that has let down your wife and millions of other dedicated teachers in this country(like my mom) Rather than blind allegiance perhaps it is time for teachers to realize how lll served they and their students have been by the NEA

 

[Rich_Olszewski]

We pointed out the obvious what we have now is not working but change is opposed by the NEA Your anger should be directed at a corrupt teachers union that has let down your wife and millions of other dedicated teachers in this country(like my mom) Rather than blind allegiance perhaps it is time for teachers to realize how lll served they and their students have been by the NEA

The NEA wasn’t standing in my wife’s classroom. The union didn’t tell my wife what to teach nor how to do it.

You call the union corrupt. Whom were you thinking of specifically? Were there indictments for corruption?

 

[a_priori]

Thanks in all your condemnation of teachers for one de rigueur crumb, “There are many excellent teachers of course.”

You’re welcome. It happens to be the truth. As a political force, they are destructive. They help create a social mindset and then they complain about it.

People who share teacher’s politics are winning. They have the world they wanted. They should be happy.

 

[Scott_Lafrance]

Hm?

How much federal funding have the Detroit public schools received? Aren’t most school districts in the US funded locally, with state assistance?

YOu are the second person to point this out. If that is the case, why is there a federal Department of Education with a cabinet level Secretary and an annual budget of $46.7 billion dollars? whitehouse.gov/omb/fy2010_department_education/

and, from what all of my Democrat friends have pointed out, we are getting our butts kicked in this area by the rest of the world. So, tell me, just how much money does the NEA want to give us students who actually perform? It costs our family less than $1,000 a year for 2 students and they are straight A performers and both are ahead of their peer groups in terms of academic achievement and performance.

 

[Rich_Olszewski]

You’re welcome. It happens to be the truth. As a political force, they are destructive. They help create a social mindset and then they complain about it.

People who share teacher’s politics are winning. They have the world they wanted. They should be happy.

You tell my wife to her face that she is destructive, and that she created the conditions that produced unteachable students.

 

[Scott_Lafrance]

That boat won’t float. The rubber meets the road in the classroom, not at the Union Hall, and dedicated teachers do their best even with a union membership card in their pockets. Contrary to what you think, my wife, a unionist, didn’t sit on her a** in the classroom, but did everything from teaching to providing clothes and school supplies for some children - at her own expense BTW.

You republicans can mock people like her, which is acceptable as free speech, but you’ll never see me back your party in any election for the contempt I see towards unionized public school teachers.

So, apparently you cannot disassociate teachers from the system they are forced to work for. Interesting.

 

[Scott_Lafrance]

You tell my wife to her face that she is destructive, and that she created the conditions that produced unteachable students.

So, apparently you cannot disassociate teachers from the system they are forced to work for. Interesting.

Again.

 

[Rich_Olszewski]

YOu are the second person to point this out. If that is the case, why is there a federal Department of Education with a cabinet level Secretary and an annual budget of $46.7 billion dollars? whitehouse.gov/omb/fy2010_department_education/

Inquire of your school where they get their money. Directly from Washington or from local taxes?

So, tell me, just how much money does the NEA want to give us students who actually perform?

First, you say that schools are funded by the feds, now you are saying that the NEA is providing the funds. Which is it?

It costs our family less than $1,000 a year for 2 students and they are straight A performers and both are ahead of their peer groups in terms of academic achievement and performance.

Good for them. My grandson is in Catholic parochial school, and it costs us $450 a month in tuition - and his school is one of the more reasonably priced ones in Brooklyn.

Your children’s fine grades have what to do with the tuition you pay?

 

[Rich_Olszewski]

So, apparently you cannot disassociate teachers from the system they are forced to work for. Interesting.

Forced to work for? Forced? She voluntarily went into teaching, and voluntarily got her advance degrees. I’m amazed that anyone could think that becoming a teacher was the same as being forced into a pressgang.

 

[Scott_Lafrance]

Inquire of your school where they get their money. Directly from Washington or from local taxes?

Both. WHat does the federal Department of Education need $47 billion a year for if none of it goes to local schools?

First, you say that schools are funded by the feds, now you are saying that the NEA is providing the funds. Which is it?

The question, better stated, would read “How much money does the NEA require in order to give our country more capable students?”

Good for them. My grandson is in Catholic parochial school, and it costs us $450 a month in tuition - and his school is one of the more reasonably priced ones in Brooklyn

Maybe they should homeschool and save themselves (or you) thousands of dollars a year.

Your children’s fine grades have what to do with the tuition you pay?

My children’s fine grade have absolutely nothing to do with the amount of money that is taken from me by my local government in property taxes or the federal government through federal income taxes. I.e., in spite of the money that is forcefull stolen from me every year, I still pay more on top of it so that the government cannot claim responsibility for the education that my children are receiving. I.e., I want to guarantee that they succeed.

 

[karow]

"DETROIT (WWJ) – According to a new report, 47 percent of Detroiters are ”functionally illiterate.” The alarming new statistics were released by the Detroit Regional Workforce Fund on Wednesday.

I dug around a little on the Detroit Regional Workforce Fund’s website. One of their big funders and a member of their steering committee is the Kresge Foundation. The Kresge Foundation has ties to the Eli Broad Foundation. (time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1972926,00.html)
Regardless of the actual number of functionally illiterate in Detroit, the DRWF has a vested interest in claiming alarmingly high numbers. The functionally illiterate are their bread and butter; the more of them there are, the more money they can squeeze from their donors.

Back to Kresge and Broad. Both foundations have long had their fingers in Detroit’s school system. Both ventures strongly favor transforming public school systems, particularly that I know of in Detroit and Los Angeles, into for-profit charter schools. The stress in on for profit.

I’m leery of this level of corporate interest in schools. I fear a number of things, one of them being McSchools and everything that term suggests. I also fear that when the markets shift and it’s no longer profitable to be in the big business of education, companies will pull out and invest their money in other sectors, leaving us - parents, teachers, kids, community members, tax payers - to clean up and carry on.

Meanwhile, corporations play us like fools. They use for profit media to dangle out codeword straw men like “unions” and “parents” and “immigrants” and “teachers,” and we gnaw on them like babies with Zwieback crackers. Meanwhile, they’re colluding with the federal government - thanks to Arne Duncan - to turn the education of our society’s children into a cash cow that almost rivals the military.

 

[Rich_Olszewski]

Both. WHat does the federal Department of Education need $47 billion a year for if none of it goes to local schools?

I don’t know.

The question, better stated, would read “How much money does the NEA require in order to give our country more capable students?”

Since when is it up to a union to provide more capable students?

Maybe they should homeschool and save themselves (or you) thousands of dollars a year.

Been there, done that. Back then, in the late 80/early 90s, my wife could have been teaching and earning around $30G p.a. So, homeschool tuition was $30,000 for us. Where’s the savings?

in spite of the money that is forcefull stolen from me every year,

No point in continuing this discussion as you seem to be one of those who thinks that taxation is theft.

 

[Scott_Lafrance]

I don’t know.

I thought so.

Since when is it up to a union to provide more capable students?

Oh, I don’t know, the NEA is a union made up of teachers, isn’t it? It is in fact the largest teachers union in the country. If we don’t need the NEA, then they can just disband and give their dues back to the teachers right?

Been there, done that. Back then, in the late 80/early 90s, my wife could have been teaching and earning around $30G p.a. So, homeschool tuition was $30,000 for us. Where’s the savings?

In the 21st century, my wife continues to work and homeschool. She works alternate shifts. Sacrifice is part of the price of success. Most working families want their cake and eat it too. Public school is just a free day-care center that runs up to 18 years of age. Even though it isn’t free. It forces, through taxation, people who don’t have kids to pay for this day care of people who do have kids. I guess it “takes a village to raise a child” right? Make someone else pay for your responsibilities.

No point in continuing this discussion as you seem to be one of those who thinks that taxation is theft.

Taxation IS theft. I’m sorry you feel it patriotic to fund disasterous government boondoggles with no sense of accountability for your money.

 

[Dale_M]

YOu are the second person to point this out. If that is the case, why is there a federal Department of Education with a cabinet level Secretary and an annual budget of $46.7 billion dollars? whitehouse.gov/omb/fy2010_department_education/

To be honest, I am not sure what the US Department of Education does. However, I don’t think it is heavily involved in financing local school districts. I am not convinced that the problems of the the Detroit schools are the result, or responsibility, of the federal government.

 

[Scott_Lafrance]

To be honest, I am not sure what the US Department of Education does. However, I don’t think it is heavily involved in financing local school districts. I am not convinced that the problems of the the Detroit schools are the result, or responsibility, of the federal government.

Well, Dale, you are the second person to be honest enough to question the purpose and funding of the Department of Education. I wish someone could shine a light on it though. And not just quote from the flowery language of the DoE site. I can do that myself. $47 billion is enough to give every school aged child $1,000 towards their education. I honestsly think that is a better use of the money than consuming in a bureaucracy that apparently has no clear purpose or provides no clear value.

 

[Rich_Olszewski]

To be honest, I am not sure what the US Department of Education does. However, I don’t think it is heavily involved in financing local school districts. I am not convinced that the problems of the the Detroit schools are the result, or responsibility, of the federal government.

My wife, a teacher, doesn’t know what the DoE does. The two of us don’t give a rat’s…either. She worked for her school district, took orders from her principal, followed her own lesson plans, etc She wasn’t into the politics our GOP posters find so important. She did her work for the children, not for any organization’s glory.

What problems the NYC schools have don’t seem to be the fault of the DoE.