Kadner on Meeks
Our politicians take the high ground, hoping nobody notices they’re standing on the bodies of schoolchildren whose lives have been sacrificed to boost their careers.
Some people will accuse Meeks of grandstanding.
I don’t think he’s going far enough.
In order to launch a protest that would really have an impact, children from every poor school district would probably have to block the entrances to the school houses in every wealthy school district in the state – not for a day but for weeks.
I believe the education crisis in this nation is worse than the terrorist threat.
Money won’t solve the problem, but it’s the only way to start.
The current system works for children who come from good communities and have good parents.
It does not work for those who don’t.
You can keep on punishing them for their misfortune, generation after generation, or improve the schools in an effort to make life better for everyone.
Reduce class sizes. Make the schools safe. Update technology. Invest in the future.
Declare war on ignorance.
You don’t need to fly an airplane loaded with explosive into a tower to destroy thousands of lives.
We’ve been doing it here in Illinois for 20 years.
We’ll hear plenty from people claiming vouchers will solve this problem, but the thing is, they won’t propose a voucher system that matches the funding.
Or even more dishonestly, people will claim that the CPS already has more money than districts doing better than it….which is true, but assumes the same inputs which we know is not the case. Chicago has higher rates of mobility than the vast majority of districts and that alone hinders the ability of schools to provide consistent education to students. The numbers mask the problem as well because it doesn’t capture the year to year mobility. Nearly 85 percent of students are from low-income families while the District has over 18 percent of the total public school student population in the state. Statewide, the rate of low-income students is 41 percent. If you take out Chicago from that number, you get a Statewide minus Chicago with a low income rate of 31 percent. For limited English Proficiency students, Chicago has a rate of 14.4 percent while the state not including Chicago has a rate of 5.5 percent.