Call It A Comeback
There are several new blogs out there who have linked to me. I’ll be adding the ones I catch–if you have linked to me I’ll generally reciprocate–just let me know. I, of course, reserve the right to do with my blogroll whatever I damn well want to.
For the Post-Dispatch Editorial Board. Let’s take a look at today’s attempt to make sense of the Wellston School District.
On the one hand they attempt to address how much the Wellston Superintendent makes and on the other hand they attempt to address how poorly the District has performed. And the editorial concludes, the district needs to think about things.
Let me take a stab at it–the Superintendent is paid just below the SLPS Superintendent. The Wellston District is about to lose accreditation. The Wellston Superintendent has held the job since 1984.
From this I can conclude, the Wellston Superintendent should be fired. Call me crazy. Nearly 20 years and his biggest impact is proceeding over a district that losing accreditation should come with some accountability.
The thing is, the Post-Dispatch cannot say that. Why not? I don’t know. They seem to imply it, but an editorial about a crisis in one of the worst school districts with some of the poorest kids doesn’t need to be danced around.
Chip Taylor has some suggestions concerning the Wellston School District as well. And Chip is correct in stating that Wellston parents need a choice now. The problem is how do we provide that choice and there it gets complicated. We could and should find a way to circumvent the district. There are several problems in doing so.
First, we do not really know how to educate poor kids with high levels of lead poisoning, few family resources, 90 % eligibility for free or reduced school lunch (a reasonable approximation of poverty) and high mobility. The problem is that we don’t know how to pull a quick reform. There isn’t a simple model we can implement to improve performance quickly.
Second, there aren’t any other public school districts adjacent that are equipped to take on a significant number of students from Wellston. University City is challenged with a fairly high number of poor students and while it is making improvements, more poor students would overly burden it. The districts to the north face similar challenges and the SLPS is in no position to institute immediate change given the condition of schools in the Northwest part of the City are as poor as the Wellston schools. To give students an effective choice, students would have to be bused to districts that are not immediately adjacent to Wellston, dramatically increasing the difficulty and the costs of any such program. Public school choice is an expensive proposition with logistical nightmares.
Private school choice isn’t very realistic (at least om the short term)for many of the same reasons. The private schools in the area are close to full and getting them ot private schools farther out present two problems. One is the transportation problem, the other is many such schools are incapable of dealing with special populations. While I don’t see the number listed at DESE, the likely special ed rate is at least 25% of students or more in Wellston.
Finally, any solution has to assume parents won’t be likely to make alternative school choices in significant numbers. This may seem counterintuitive to many, but given the choice to have their children transfer, many poor parents choose not to transfer their kids. Why this is the case is complex. Many parents of kids in such districts do not understand the choices available to them and have little ability to make informed choices. I would actually argue this is true of the vast majority of parents, but most parents have the economic wherewithall to choose nicer neighborhoods and in doing so utilize rules of thumb provided by the press, real estate agencies (though often defective) and friends as to what constitutes a good school.
In the SLPS, the voluntary transfer program for African-Americans has never been fully subscribed. And in many cases, the number of African-American slots in the magnets have not been utilized forcing the SLPS district to reduce the total number of students going to the magnets. Such parents often are intimidated by schools and school officials even when such people are welcoming (and Wellston is not) largely because they had such poor experiences in school themselves.
So how does one solve the problem? Good question. No one really knows. However, in cases like Wellston, or Brooklyn, IL, or other small poor inner-ring suburbs taking over the district by the state has to be the first start. Increasing school choice is a long-term strategy, but in the short-term, giving fewer choices is probably necessary for most students.
The problem in Missouri is the State doesn’t want to do it. First, it doesn’t know how to solve the problems of poverty and learning. Second, it takes money and if the State is responsible and determines an expensive course of action is needed the State is on the hook.
Let’s consider this the first in the series on urban education problems.
UP DATE: Posted on both sites with some editing for clarity.
Dean addresses concerns that he is not sufficiently against Bush’s Doctrine of Preemptive War. Part of this came from his apparent willingness to use force in North Korea if necessary.
While one always wants to keep a bit of strategic ambiguity over specific actions that would lead to war, I’m still unclear on when unilateral action is acceptable given an imminent threat.
I supported military action in Iraq, though I was not particularly happy with the administration’s path. Much like Kenneth Pollack and others–presumably including Richard Lugar and Chuck Hagel who have been quietly, but consistently critical of the President, I understood the long-term problem, but did not grasp the reason to rush. However, if we were going to rush, well, okay.
Dean is saying the right things in general, but I’m still not sure where he would draw the line between courting multilateral institutions and deciding the interest was too great to not act unilaterally. That is a hard question to answer, but he is going to have to answer it if he is to do well.
The fundamental problem of the Bush administration isn’t one case, it is a pattern of ignoring international problems and agreements. When he trashed Kyoto–fine, it was flawed, but he offered no serious plan to replace it. The International Criminal Court? Okay, but what other institutional arrangements can we make. And what about another trade round? –oops I forgot, he isn’t actually for free trade.
Globalization and environmental problems that cross individual country’s borders have to be addressed internationally. Many of those institutions thought up by the Europeans are deficient, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work towards functioning institutions, it means we should propose better alternatives.
This is what excites me about this next election–foreign policy returns and forces the Democrats to argue the issue. Dean seems to be up to it even if I think he needs to clarify specific issues, as is some others such as Lieberman. Some like Kucinich are off in meditation land, while others are trying to say much of anything.
For reconstruction of Iraq, Dean has offered a detailed seven point plan. Only Edwards and Lieberman have offered up their own detailed plans. The plan is quite good.
Hispanic Lege Members are divided over a bill to impose oversight over Cicero’s finances.
The question asked by an opponent who sees it as a slap at Hispanics is:
”Why isn’t Chicago being picked on?" Aguilar asked. "When I go to Mexico and I mention Chicago, they ask me, ‘Where’s your machinegun?’ ”
The irony of this statement is that Capone started the view of Chicago as a gangster city and, well, Capone moved to Cicero when he was kicked out of the city.
Then again, the other difference is Cicero is run by the mob, Chicago just pays off the Outfit with overpriced and falsely certified minority contracts.
The federal government lifted the airspace restrictions over downtown Chicago, thus reigniting the war of words over Meigs Field closure. While I support closing Meigs, I would have preferred it not be done in the middle of the night and for the Mayor to simply say because it is more valuable as park land. The security argument is silly. Friends of Meigs responded by saying:
"I don’t see how anybody can seriously think there’s a security risk if Homeland Security doesn’t think there’s a legitimate threat,"
Well, they have a lot more faith in the Department of Rainbows than I do.
Via Unlearned Hand
Powell indicates that the US role in the Allende Coup was ‘not a part of American history that we’re proud of‘. This is a gaffe by Michael Kinsley’s standards because it is an example of a politician telling the truth.
The State Department ‘put distance’ between the Secretary and the Department.
In a wonderful bit of doublespeak, former Kissinger underling Williams Rodgers claims:
Rogers said the Chilean military acted not because the United States urged it to do so, "but because they believed that had the Allende regime continued much longer, Chilean liberties would be irretrievably lost."
You see, the Chilean military had to destroy civil liberties in Chile to save them.
So the truth is less important than $11 million? For all of the moral clarity running around these days, perhaps this administration would like to take responsibility for past immoral actions and buck up some compensation. Hey, we could even compensate Nicaragua for the terrorist act of mining their harbor! Let’s go crazy!
Rogers claims the US didn’t instigate the coup. The problem is no one seriously believes that. Even if you accepted Kissinger’s view that this was better because the road to Communism was inevitable under Allende would lead to a Soviet puppet, everyone understands what happened.
Horowitz is up to his schtick over at Right Wing News
Eric Alterman is a charlatan and a fool and the media is obviously left-wing. I can tell you that personally because there is nobody really that I could call at the LA Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and find an ideological friend. At least no one that I know. Whereas Eric Alterman could call all of them. Let me put it this way; an extremist, a supporter of every American enemy since he was potty trained like Eric Alterman could get editorial support in those venues. Every major metropolitan newspaper in America is written by Democrats in the main. To say, "What liberal media?" Only a blind person could come up with a title like that.
an extremist, a supporter of every American enemy since he was potty trained like Eric Alterman
That just makes me giggle.
an extremist, a supporter of every American enemy since he was potty trained like Eric Alterman
I save language like that for Matt Hale, but it is everyday hyperbole for Horowitz.
an extremist, a supporter of every American enemy since he was potty trained like Eric Alterman
I may keep repeating that line for several days–it really makes me giggle…
So I’ve been wondering, now that we are getting some preliminary information from the Columbia panel can anyone tell me how Congress in an unindicted co-conspirator?
I’m happy to criticize Congress on how it funds NASA, and the lack of a coherent space policy, but no change in policy would have removed the shuttle fleet from use by now.
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