re: "Why our schools are failing" AL.com opinion

I don’t really want to do so because I know this thread will devolve into a poli board dumpster fire. But whatever, it’s going to happen anyway.

The way our criminal justice system handles people of color is suspect. Infrastructure, especially in urban areas, that limits viable employment opportunities based upon geography provides a ceiling for the less affluent. Our system of government assistance frequently manufactures dependence without providing individuals with the means to rise above their station. A minimum wage that doesn’t align with the minimum to live in many places compounds that. The education system needs a massive overhaul on the basis of equity and not equality. And these things are not even scratching the surface — there’s so more that informs this cycle. And I don’t think that these things are the fault of any one political party but rather a failure of the system as a whole.

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It's because the white flight schools get all the funding. If we saw equity in dollars, we would see equal results. Period.

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I hope you aren't being serious.

These schools have bad test scores because the students have low iq

Plain and simple

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And I don’t think that these things are the fault of any one political party but rather a failure of the system as a whole.

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I wouldn't blame a specific party, both have had their own (negative) impact over the years.

But I do blame one individual. Lyndon Baines Johnson.

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The way our criminal justice system handles people of color is suspect. Infrastructure, especially in urban areas, that limits viable employment opportunities based upon geography provides a ceiling for the less affluent. Our system of government assistance frequently manufactures dependence without providing individuals with the means to rise above their station. A minimum wage that doesn’t align with the minimum to live in many places compounds that. The education system needs a massive overhaul on the basis of equity and not equality. And these things are not even scratching the surface — there’s so more that informs this cycle. And I don’t think that these things are the fault of any one political party but rather a failure of the system as a whole.

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I don't disagree that these are issues that should be addressed; however, they are heavily biased towards urban settings and people of color. Travel out to a rural area with a predominantly white population, and you'll find the same low quality schools as you do in the inner city.

You're also focusing on the economic opportunity part of the poverty cycle. Why start there? Can we solve poverty through economic opportunity without addressing issues in education first? Or should we start with the schools? Or start with community culture?

I don't know the right answer nor do I know how to identify the wrong answer, but I do think it's an extremely complicated problem that most likely cannot be solved by a third party solution.

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Most teachers do not teach because of the money. They are dedicated professionals who give their best because they love children and want to make a positive difference in their lives. They would do the best they could for the kids, regardless of the money.

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Schools can't pay competitive salaries or

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So teachers don't care about the money, but will only teach if the salaries are competitve?

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It's disgraceful that in many Alabama schools, parents must bring materials and supplies to school

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This was every freaking school I went to growing up, and because of moving around I went to a lot of them (8 between K-12)

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Infrastructure, especially in urban areas, that limits viable employment opportunities based upon geography provides a ceiling for the less affluent.

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Why aren’t there more employment opportunities there? All that cheap labor, existing public transportation, old factory buildings, etc. You’d think some entrepreneurs would be fighting over the opportunity to move businesses there.

The ignorance and stupidity of this article and its philosophy are shocking. How can people continue to believe this nonsense after 60 years of failure?

Schools don't perform well or badly for poverty or any other reason. Individuals perform well or badly based primarily on their work ethic. Poverty has NOTHING to do with it. Hard work and smart choices (no kids before marriage) will lift a family out of poverty in one generation. Put a hard working Vietnamese boat family without a dime to their name in a ghetto school and watch the kids graduate valedictorian and go to Harvard. Put a 4 generation ghetto family in the best school in an suburban city and watch the kid drop out.

Welfare, workfare, food stamps, obamacare, earned income tax credit, job training, section 4 housing, free cheese and milk, affirmative action, etc do NOTHING except enable families to exist in poverty. The ONLY way out of poverty is for the individual pull himself out. Why the hell is this so difficult for people to understand. We've spent TRILLIONS of dollars on this and done virtually nothing, except to breakup the family of poor people.

More money is NOT the answer to this problem. Individual responsibility is. NOTHING will change until the culture changes.

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They are dedicated professionals who give their best because they love children and want to make a positive difference in their lives

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wrong. That statement is pure horse crap. Most people that choose education major do it bc there is nothing else they are interested in doing.

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Most people that choose education major do it bc there is nothing else they are interested in doing.

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Citation?