Chicago public school officials claim that $11,300 per student per year is not enough

[grundle]

This is the same public school district that refused to allow public school teacher Marva Collins to use her ideas in its district. She later quit the public schools, and with very little money, successful started her own private school, where she successfuly taught the very same students that the Chicago district said it could not teach.

Also in this article is the fact that a grandparent is spending only $650 a month to send her grandchild to a much better private school.

First I am posting this new article, and then I posting the stuff that I added to wikipedia on this subject.


http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080902/D92UPD280.html

Chicago students skip school in funding protest

Sep 2, 3:36 PM (ET)

By JENNY SONG

NORTHFIELD, Ill. (AP) - More than 1,000 Chicago public school students boycotted the first day of classes Tuesday in a protest over school funding and instead rode buses more than 30 miles north to try to enroll in a wealthy suburban district.

About 1,100 elementary students and 150 high school students from Chicago filled out enrollment applications Tuesday in the New Trier district in Northfield, New Trier Superintendent Linda Yonke said.

Boycott organizers acknowledged the move was largely symbolic: Students would have to pay tuition to attend a school outside their home district. But the boycott of the nation's third-largest school district was to continue, with organizers planning to set up impromptu classrooms led by retired teachers in the lobbies of area businesses.

State Sen. James Meeks is leading the boycott of the district, which has more than 400,000 students, and said he hopes the protest forces state officials to act.

"I do not believe that a child's education should be based on where they live," Meeks said. He compared the issue to apartheid in South Africa and said the situation makes it difficult for children to rise from poverty.

"We undereducated these kids' parents, we undereducated their grandparents and now we're in the process of undereducating them," Meeks said.

On the bus ride, volunteers told the children they were taking part in a historic event similar to the bus boycott in Alabama in the 1950s.

Fourteen-year-old Tracey Stansberry, a student at Corliss High School, said he was glad to take part.

"It's on us kids," he said. "If we don't, we'll be on the bottom."

In Illinois, property taxes account for about 70 percent of school funding, meaning rural and inner-city schools generally end up with less to spend per student than suburban schools in areas with higher property values.

Chicago Public Schools spent $11,300 per student last year. New Trier High School spent $17,500 a student, near the top in the state.

Peggy Richmond, who accompanied her 12-year-old granddaughter Skyler Williams on the boycott, said she was forced to enroll Skyler in a private school because of the poor quality of the public schools in her Chicago neighborhood.

"I'm still angry," she said of having to pay $650 a month in tuition to ensure her granddaughter gets a good education.

Chicago school officials did not immediately return a phone call Tuesday. They have said that they agree their schools are underfunded, but that keeping students out in protest was not the way to resolve the issue.

Meeks said he expects the boycott to run at least until Friday, and some parents and students said they're willing to keep their children out of school for as long as it takes to get state action on the funding issue.

Meeks has asked Gov. Rod Blagojevich and legislative leaders to support a $120 million pilot program. The money would be distributed to four clusters of schools - high schools and their feeder schools - on Chicago's West Side, South Side, south suburbs and downstate.

But the governor and legislative leaders so far have made no promises.

Yonke, of the New Trier district, said many factors affect school performance, including supportive parents and hardworking students. But she acknowledged that money played a role.

"There's also no denying the fact that funding allows us to have smaller classes, a deep and rich curriculum and many extracurricular activities," Yonke said.

.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_the_United_States

Education in the United States

Funding for K-12 schools

According to a 2005 report from the OECD, the United States is tied for first place with Switzerland when it comes to annual spending per student on its public schools, with each of those two countries spending more than $11,000 (in U.S. currency). [14] Despite this high level of funding, U.S. public schools lag behind the schools of other rich countries in the areas of reading, math, and science. [15]

According to a 2007 article in The Washington Post, the Washington D.C. public school district spends $12,979 per student per year. This is the third highest level of funding per student out of the 100 biggest school districts in the U.S. Despite this high level of funding, the school district provides outcomes that are lower than the national average. In reading and math, the district's students score the lowest among 11 major school districts - even when poor children are compared only with other poor children. 33% of poor fourth graders in the U.S. lack basic skills in math, but in Washington D.C., it's 62%. [16]

According to a 2006 study by the Goldwater Institute, Arizona's public schools spend 50% more per student than Arizona's private schools. The study also says that while teachers constitute 72% of the employees at private schools, they make up less than half of the staff at public schools. According to the study, if Arizona's public schools wanted to be like private schools, they would have to hire approximately 25,000 more teachers, and eliminate 21,210 administration employees. The study also said that public school teachers are paid about 50% more than private school teachers. [17]

In 1985 in Kansas City, Missouri, a judge ordered the school district to raise taxes and spend more money on public education. Spending was increased so much, that the school district was spending more money per student than any of the country's other 280 largest school districts. Although this very high level of spending continued for more than a decade, there was no improvement in the school district's academic performance. [18] [19]

According to a 1999 article by William J. Bennett, former U.S. Secretary of Education, increased levels of spending on public education have not made the schools better. Among many other things, the article cites the following statisitcs: [20]

* Between 1960 and 1995, U.S. public school spending per student, adjusted for inflation, increased by 212%.

* In 1994, less than half of all U.S. public school employees were teachers.

* Out of 21 industrialized countries, U.S. 12th graders ranked 19th in math, 16th in science, and last in advanced physics.

[wm lopez]

Good point about Ms. Collins.
And also that Oprah Winfrey opened up a school in Africa, because the kids in Chicago poor neighborhoods were more concerned about ipods than education. The Rev. Meeks should put his energy into informing his followers that if you can't afford to send your kids to a district that spends $17 thousand on a kid then don't have any kids!!

[grundle]

Good point about Ms. Collins.


Thanks!

[bhk]

I have a great idea! Let's get these people to run healthcare for everyone in this country.

[wm lopez]

Only 1,000 kids not 4,000 the Rev. Meeks wanted or a number like that took the day off.

[al_bundy]

is this on the south side of chicago where obama represented them?

[Doughboy]

Public schools have plenty of money. The problem is with the people running the school districts.

But just to settle this debate once and for all, I'd like the politicians to sit down with the teachers unions and ask them straight up, how much money is sufficient? If they fail to meet standards after getting the money they ask for, they're fired. End of story.

Come to think of it, isn't this what they should've been doing all along?

[movielib]

I was just wondering this morning where the grundle polls have gone.

I want to vote "The Chicago public school district has way more than enough money." Disenfranchised again. :mad:

[bhk]

Public schools have plenty of money. The problem is with the people running the school districts.

But just to settle this debate once and for all, I'd like the politicians to sit down with the teachers unions and ask them straight up, how much money is sufficient? If they fail to meet standards after getting the money they ask for, they're fired. End of story.

Come to think of it, isn't this what they should've been doing all along?

Why would the politicians fire their biggest political contributers? And remember ask yourself which party is running the city responsible for this mess.

[Doughboy]

Why would the politicians fire their biggest political contributers? And remember ask yourself which party is running the city responsible for this mess.

Well that's part of the problem, no doubt. The Dems are in bed with the teachers unions. It's why public education is an issue every election. Which is why it would be nice if both the politicians AND the education bureaucrats who are standing in the way of progress were given the boot.

[kvrdave]

Being part of the system, the problems are more complex and numerous than ony one thing. I really dislike the teacher's union (as a whole), but you can't lay all the blame on them. There are serious problems at the national, state, and local level when it comes to education.

[Mordred]

Why would the politicians fire their biggest political contributers? And remember ask yourself which party is running the city responsible for this mess.Thank God Chicago is the only city where kids are getting crappy educations!

[B.A.]

Thank God Chicago is the only city where kids are getting crappy educations!
Sincerely,

St. Louis Public Schools

[bhk]

Thank God Chicago is the only city where kids are getting crappy educations!

My statement would apply to every major metropolitan area. Guess which political party runs those cities as well.

[wm lopez]

Here's a story on the funding.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/brown/1141591,CST-NWS-brown03.article

"Do you realize," I said, "that New Trier gets only a very small percentage of its funding from the state, much less than Chicago schools?"

"That's not true," Haywood said confidently.

Well, actually, it is true. Here are the facts from the state's last school report card, graciously provided by New Trier officials -- along with the cold water and cookies -- for those who didn't bring their own.

CPS gets more cash from state
New Trier High School gets 3 percent of its funding from the state, while Chicago Public Schools gets 35 percent.

In addition, New Trier High School gets 1 percent of its funding from the federal government, while CPS gets 17 percent.

So how is it that New Trier can afford such a great high school and spend so much more money on its students than Chicago does?

Basically, because their local residents pay property taxes out the wazoo, accounting for 96 percent of the New Trier funding compared to 48 percent for CPS.

I'd hate for those facts to get lost in the commotion over Meeks' visit to the North Shore, especially when I'm sure they're not lost on the taxpayers up there.

Maybe you think that the people on the North Shore can better afford to pay those higher taxes. That's probably true, although I'll bet it doesn't always feel like it to them.

[Draven]

Being part of the system, the problems are more complex and numerous than ony one thing. I really dislike the teacher's union (as a whole), but you can't lay all the blame on them. There are serious problems at the national, state, and local level when it comes to education.

Hey. Keep the details out of the thread. We are concentrating on gross generalities.

[grundle]

is this on the south side of chicago where obama represented them?

I don't know.

[grundle]

I was just wondering this morning where the grundle polls have gone.

I want to vote "The Chicago public school district has way more than enough money." Disenfranchised again. :mad:

Compared to other rich countries with better public school systems, yes, the Chicago public school district does indeed have too much money.

[kvrdave]

We just had a story come out about our schools. Headline was "Schools fail to meet reqs for growth"

The body of the story goes on to tell about how every school had improvement in every score. But more people opted out of taking the test. That counts against you as a zero score, so overall it went down.

So are our schools really doing all that poorly, or are the reporting requirements a large part of it. They count "no takes" against you to encourage the schools to encourage students to take the tests. Some parents think it is crap, so they don't.

I spoke with the Supt. of Public Schools in WA on the subject and told her, "I know you are a smart lady, and I know you know statistics. What you are doing here is using them to paint an inaccurate picture of what we have achieved."

Keep in mind that some of that is a result of NCLB. In fact, a lot of it is. The goal of 100% of students meeting the improvement every year is just stupid. We have retards, too.

[Mordred]

Are you positive the schools aren't "encouraging" kids who will do poorly to not take the test because they know that if they did the scores would go down? At least now that the scores have gone done they have an excuse and can blame the calculations.

[kvrdave]

Are you positive the schools aren't "encouraging" kids who will do poorly to not take the test because they know that if they did the scores would go down? At least now that the scores have gone done they have an excuse and can blame the calculations.


If it were a big school system, you might wonder and not be able to know. This is a small town where you know the kids and the kids parents. By that, I mean that the Board got a list of the names, and we even reviewed them. unfortunately, 90% of the kids that didn't take the test are top students who have parents that object to the testing requirement. We require our principals to contact anyone parent who has their kid opting out so that they can answer questions that they may just have misunderstandings about it.

And since the "no take" counts as a zero anyway, there is no advantage to keeping dumb kids out, because just by taking it they will likely bump you up some.

Here is the other stupid part.....if you continue to fail, you get more money to help you do better. :lol:

If they actually rewarded schools that do well, they may actually get something done. Originally if you did not meet the AYP (adequate yearly progress) by the 4th year in a row, the gov't could potentially come in and take over. I never believed they would, and I know of several schools on their 5th and 6th year. Those places aren't terrible, but they have a lot of immigrant students that don't speak English well. They also don't score well, as a result. Nothing has happened to them.

[Groucho]

I voted for "The Chicago public school district is underfunded." because it was my chance to infuriate grundle, wm lopez, and bhk all in one swoop!

[wm lopez]

I voted for "The Chicago public school district is underfunded." because it was my chance to infuriate grundle, wm lopez, and bhk all in one swoop!
I don't have any kids and if I did I would not put them in public schools.
Not because of the teachers or education but because of the low-class kids and their parents. Like Obama, Bill Cosby have said it's the parents that raise these kids. You don't need high tech computers and swimming pools to learn to read or do math and speak proper english.
So put down the rap cd and read a book that you can get free at the libary.

[Ron G]

The American education system needs an enema.

And I say this as a member of that system.

[kvrdave]

I don't have any kids and if I did I would not put them in public schools.
Not because of the teachers or education but because of the low-class kids and their parents. Like Obama, Bill Cosby have said it's the parents that raise these kids. You don't need high tech computers and swimming pools to learn to read or do math and speak proper english.
So put down the rap cd and read a book that you can get free at the libary.

I hear this from very religious people as well. Not about the class of kids but the "ungodliness" of the church. I generally just laugh because it is the same parents that will take their kids to the Congo on a mission, after telling me the school isn't a safe place.

Certainly I may be in a different situation where the entire k-12 is about 1,000 students, but I still find most of these statements to be unfounded.

[wmansir]

Well that's part of the problem, no doubt. The Dems are in bed with the teachers unions. It's why public education is an issue every election. Which is why it would be nice if both the politicians AND the education bureaucrats who are standing in the way of progress were given the boot.

Mikey Kaus had an interesting report (http://www.slate.com/id/2198623/#demneabash) out of the DNC last week:

Cory Booker of Newark attacked teachers unions specifically--and there was applause. In a room of 500 people at the Democratic convention! "The politics are so vicious," Booker complained, remembering how he'd been told his political career would be over if he kept pushing school choice, how early on he'd gotten help from Republicans rather than from Democrats. The party would "have to admit as Democrats we have been wrong on education." Loud applause! Mayor Adrian Fenty of D.C. joined in, describing the AFT's attempt to block the proposed pathbreaking D.C. teacher contract. Booker denounced "insane work rules," and Groff talked about doing the bidding of "those folks who are giving money [for campaigns], and you know who I'm talking about." Yes, they did!
...
John Wilson, head of the NEA itself, was also there. Afterwards, he seemed a bit stunned. He argued pols should work with unions, in pursuit of a "shared vision," not bash them. But isn't this a power struggle where you have to bash the other side to get leverage, I asked. "Then you have losers," he answered.

[kenbuzz]

There is NO correlation between dollars spent per pupil and the quality of education.

Linky: http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/011747.html
Public Schools Spent $9,138 Per Student in 2006

School districts in the United States spent an average of $9,138 per student in fiscal year 2006, an increase of $437 from 2005, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released today.

School district spending per pupil was highest in New York ($14,884), followed by New Jersey ($14,630) and the District of Columbia ($13,446). States where school districts spent the lowest amount per pupil were Utah ($5,437), Idaho ($6,440) and Arizona ($6,472). (See Tables 8 and 11.)

In fact, the three states who spent the LEAST had higher average graduation rates than the three who spent the most.

Graduation Rates by State
Linky: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/071006t.htm
New York = 62.5% (ranked 40th of 51)
New Jersey = 84.5% (ranked 1st out of 51)
District of Columbia = 58.9% (ranked 46th out of 51)

Utah = 76.7% (ranked 12th out of 51)
Idaho = 77.8% (ranked 9th out of 51)
Arizona = 70.0% (ranked 31st out of 51)It's not money. It's the quality of the instruction and the lack of distractions due things such as to culture, English proficiency, gang/peer pressure, and whether or not the students have a family life that impacts graduation rate significantly more than money.

Linky: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20060502/ai_n16212600
New Jersey tops all states, according to a recent Census Bureau report of 2003-04 data, in per-pupil school spending at $12,981 and also, as mentioned earlier, is tops in high school graduation rates. But beyond that, the correlation completely collapses. New York, for example, is second in per-pupil spending at $12,930 but is 47th in graduation rate at 58 percent. Conversely, Utah, dead last in spending at $5,008, is 14th in graduation rate at 77 percent. Some high-spending states rank high in graduation, and some do not. Some low-spending states rank low in graduation and some do not. There's simply no correlation. In fact, 17 of the 25 states that fall below California's $7,748 in spending outperform California in high school graduation rates, including No.2 Iowa and No. 4 North Dakota.

Clearly, money alone is not the panacea that advocates in the educational community would have us believe. Other factors -- ethnicity, peer pressure, families, culture, English proficiency, curriculum, instructional quality, etc. -- evidently play powerful roles in determining whether students make it through high school and thus acquire the fundamental basis for successful adult lives.

Unfortunately, the political debate over education has almost entirely focused on money rather than focusing on those other factors and devising strategies to overcome them -- if, indeed, it would be possible to do so.

[wm lopez]

Just remember Oprah took her millions to Africa to help her race when she could have spent it in Chicago's south side.

[wewantflair]

Graduation rates as raw data mean nothing without graduation criteria to explain them. New York in particular has fairly stringent criteria for graduation.

[Suprmallet]

Just remember Oprah took her millions to Africa to help her race when she could have spent it in Chicago's south side.

Let Africa have Oprah. The further away she is from our kids, the better I feel about America's future.

And I think the lesson to be learned from this is obvious: It's not how much money you have to spend, but what you do with the money you're given. Throwing money at a problem isn't a solution, it just makes it a more expensive problem.

[grundle]

There is NO correlation between dollars spent per pupil and the quality of education.

Linky: http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/011747.html


In fact, the three states who spent the LEAST had higher average graduation rates than the three who spent the most.

Graduation Rates by State
Linky: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/071006t.htm
It's not money. It's the quality of the instruction and the lack of distractions due things such as to culture, English proficiency, gang/peer pressure, and whether or not the students have a family life that impacts graduation rate significantly more than money.

Linky: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20060502/ai_n16212600



Thanks for posting that.

[wm lopez]

Let Africa have Oprah. The further away she is from our kids, the better I feel about America's future.

And I think the lesson to be learned from this is obvious: It's not how much money you have to spend, but what you do with the money you're given. Throwing money at a problem isn't a solution, it just makes it a more expensive problem. You know Oprah is backing Obama and so is most of the media and Hollywood. How are you going to keep the kids away from them also?

[Suprmallet]

I'm shocked that "liberal Hollywood" is backing the liberal candidate. :lol: I think Oprah is heinous for several reasons, but I don't really care who she's backing.

And, unlike you, I have no problem with Hollywood. They make entertainment and art.

[wm lopez]

I'm shocked that "liberal Hollywood" is backing the liberal candidate. :lol: I think Oprah is heinous for several reasons, but I don't really care who she's backing.

And, unlike you, I have no problem with Hollywood. They make entertainment and art.
And the kids are the main consumers of that entertainment and art.

[Superboy]

* In 1994, less than half of all U.S. public school employees were teachers.

That's your answer right there. Get rid of stupid, useless, political-correct, asinine school administrations that do nothing except masturbate all over To Kill a Mockingbird.

[grundle]

Here's a private school in Chicago that does far better than the public schools, with less money than what the public schools spend:


http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08259/912231-109.stm

George F. Will: Inner-city model

This Jesuit high school does what public schools can't

Monday, September 15, 2008

CHICAGO -- Waves of Slovenians, Bohemians, Irish, Italians and others have crested and receded, and today the Pilsen neighborhood of this polyglot city is a heartland Ellis Island, a port of entry for Mexican immigrants. There is a neighborhood school to teach their children important things -- math and history, of course, but also how to navigate a revolving door, how to behave in an elevator, and how to identify the salad fork and the soupspoon.

From Cristo Rey Jesuit High School you can see the Sears Tower to the north, where some students work. All the students work somewhere -- at more than 100 companies and law firms -- one day a week, at jobs paying $20 an hour, the money going directly to the school, covering 70 percent of its costs.

To work in the Sears Tower, a student must pass through something perhaps not encountered in his or her family's Mexican village or in Pilsen -- a revolving door -- and might have to change elevators en route to the Tower's upper floors. Before going to work, many of the school's 14-year-old ninth-graders, like their parents, have never been downtown.

The summer before beginning at CRJHS, ninth-graders go to a behavioral boot camp where they get what David Whitman calls "a dose of cultural imperialism" to inculcate bourgeoisie values, from personal hygiene to table manners. The school believes that some Latino traditions should be tempered: Many of the students had been raised to show respect by speaking quietly and avoiding eye contact while softly shaking hands. That is not how things are done downtown in the city of broad shoulders. Before long, the children are introducing themselves with firm handshakes and are introducing their parents to the Loop.

Cristo Rey is one of six "no excuses" schools around the nation that Mr. Whitman examined in a new book, "Sweating the Small Stuff: Inner-City Schools and the New Paternalism." James Gartland, a Jesuit, now CRJHS' president, was back in America on a break from his work in Peru when he was assigned to walk Pilsen's streets and discover how the church might serve. He asked people "What do you dream?" and "Why did you leave Mexico?" The answers pointed to what CRJHS has become.

It began in 1996 with 79 students meeting in the four corners of a roller-skating rink. Today the 540 students -- most from two-parent families with an average of five members and an income of $38,000 -- enjoy an old parish school, refurbished and expanded. About one-third of those admitted to the ninth grade do not graduate, half because they cannot cope academically, others because they chafe under CRJHS' three hours of homework a night and its strict dress and discipline codes.

The school exists to nurture a culture of achievement for children with no other option for college preparation, including those who in public schools might be diverted onto a vocational track. It is not skimming off the cream of the crop of local students; it rejects any who can get accepted by, and afford, other Catholic schools. Some especially promising students are directed to Catholic schools that offer scholarships. Which makes CRJHS' college placement rate especially remarkable: In the last seven years, 99 percent of graduates have been accepted to at least one college, 75 percent of them four-year institutions.

CRJHS can have its work program, its entirely college preparatory courses ("the old, dead white man's curriculum," says an English teacher cheerfully), its zero tolerance of disorder (from gang symbols down to chewing gum), its enforcement of decorum (couples dancing suggestively are told to "leave some space there for the Holy Spirit") and its requirement that every family pay something, if only as little as $25 a month -- it can have all this because it is not shackled by bureaucracy or unions, as public schools are.

The "Cristo Rey model" is as American as another Chicago-area startup, McDonald's. And like McDonald's, the first of which was in suburban Des Plaines, the model is being replicated. The Cristo Rey Network now has 22 schools around the country, with four more coming by 2010.

People, communities and countries often make costly mistakes because they don't know what it is that they don't know. But regarding the education of inner-city minorities, America's problem is that it doesn't know what a few Americans, such as those who have created the Cristo Rey model, do know. Three students who tied as CRJHS' valedictorians last June are now at Stanford, Brown and Georgetown.

[wm lopez]

Also they are going to give cash to CPS students.
Read about it:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/commentary/1159378,CST-EDT-edit12.article

Consider these Chicago Public Schools stats:

• • Just 55 percent of students graduate high school. Among black males, it's 40 percent.

• • Some 42 percent of freshmen weren't "on track" to graduate last year. That means they failed more than one course and didn't earn at least five course credits.

• • Some 85 percent of students are considered low income.

I would hate to be a teacher that tells a thug kid he did not get a A+.

[Franchot]

Consider these Chicago Public Schools stats:

• • Just 55 percent of students graduate high school. Among black males, it's 40 percent.

• • Some 42 percent of freshmen weren't "on track" to graduate last year. That means they failed more than one course and didn't earn at least five course credits.

• • Some 85 percent of students are considered low income.

I would hate to be a teacher that tells a thug kid he did not get a A+.

Sounds like the schools in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Unified School District engages in something which is called "social promotion." That simply means that students from kindergarten up through eighth grade are promoted forward each year whether they've learned basic writing, reading, and mathematical skills or not because it would be emotionally devasting to have a child remain behind in an age group which is younger than he or she is in. The students can't fail a grade, but are graded as being below proficiency or being far below proficiency and then go to the next grade level no matter how poorly educated they are.

When the students hit high school, social promotion stops so you end up with high school students who are "off track" to graduate and need to retake high school classes over and over again because they lack the basic skills they should have learned years before.

And, yes, there are far too many administrators and "paper pushers" in the schools in relationship to how many teachers are actually at a school.

[wm lopez]

If parents at little league get upset at an umpire what do you think a ghetto parent is gonna do to a teacher for their kid not getting an A grade and the money that goes with it?