| This is a situation where a voucher system could make a difference for students who are motivated. Unfortunately for them, despite all of their willingness to try in school, they are trapped in a intergenerational cycle of poverty, drugs, violence, incarceration. This promotes, at best, a mediocre environment for learning, and usually an impossible situation that seems to have no solution. Having the resources to try another school with a nurturing environment and motivated staff and student body will not only change their lives, but the lives of their children. |
Actually welfare should come with mandatory long acting birth control. |
You would think so. Unfortunately, the data doesn't support this. Many communities have school voucher programs, and they haven't produced the results you hope for. Think: Chicago. The one outlier is a Chicago program for boys that only employs black male teachers. That program seems to be making some real progress (the program is still relatively new). |
The failed Zuckerberg school initiative is exhibit A in why even the best schools on the planet cannot undo the damage perpetuated by generational poverty. |
This. I work in a medical clinic where we see a good number of these girls. On WIC and state health insurance. They continue to have babies for all sorts of reasons - because the can, because they get extra money, because they think the dad might provide for the kid, because they have watched all the other girls around them continue to have babies, because they have nothing else to do. Subsidized housing and FARMs will never solve the problem of parents at home who just don't give a sh$t about their kids' education. I lived in East Orange for several years and agree with the PP about the Zuckerberg experiment in Newark. Such a colossal waste of time and energy. |
Bullseye but the DCUM audience in general is not the type to interested in real world facts. They prefer taxing us more, wasting $s, calling any who disagree as 'waging a war on children', and they go to sleep feeling good about their bleeding hearts. meanwhile they only exacerbate the problem but ignore their results and claim we need more resources. Thomas Sowell has written prolifically on this phenomenon. |
Then what do you suggest, pp? |
And how, pray tell, would obtain the ability to move? You think moving is simple? You must live a charmed life. |
| Housing vouchers are portable, fwiw. |
I know people will think I'm a monster, but I've often thought it would be better if the government rewarded people on welfare for not having kids. It just makes sense that if you can't afford a child you shouldn't have one and the government could encourage that behavior financially and reduce the number of kids living nearly hopeless lives in poverty... |
I totally agree. They should pay people for getting BC shots. |
I've talked about this with my colleagues. Kids go home to empty homes with nobody to help them with their homework and nobody to even make sure they did it. My students don't have bedtimes. The idea of a bedtime is foreign to them. They all look hung over especially on Monday mornings. None of them read for fun. They spend a lot of time playing video games. Their families have cars for the most part but they rarely go anywhere except shopping, Chuck E. Cheese or the buffet restaurant. If they have relatives in other states, they visit but never go anywhere else (museums, etc). The library is within walking distance but very few of them go there. When they go on field trips, they are in awe of just about everything. When they ask if I have been there and I say yes, they are amazed. They live in a sad little bubble and that's where they stay. I wish we could adopt them and have them live at school. They would get attention, help with homework, someone to read to them and make sure they read. The would have bedtimes so they aren't falling asleep in class. On the weekends, we could take them places so they could see that there is a big world out there. During the summer, we would make sure they attended summer school and read everyday. They could take swimming lessons and go on field trips. They would eat nutritious food instead of filling up on overpriced crap from the 7-11 down the street. They could get tutoring in the areas they are weak in. They would be assigned a mentor who would be there for them. I know this sounds like fantasy land but these kids have potential but it is wasted if they continue to live in concentrated poverty. |
Totally agree. This is a fantastic idea! As long as it is voluntary, how could this be a bad idea?? Except for the Catholics, who would protest this? |
You're not very knowledgeable are you? It is all they know and the cycle is perpetuated generation to generation. |
| OT - I knew a Colonel who, after 30 years Army, couldn't stand 'slimy' beltway-bandit contracting and went to go teach bootcamp kids. Part of the issue is that if a kid is trapped in a no-win-situation with the family, knows it, but can't get out - what other options do the kid have? Bootcamp kids at least had a safe place to sleep at night. The problem is that socially, it's not acceptable to everyone - but I bet some of the kids, in 20/20 hindsight, were thankful for it. Maybe something like that would help a few of the kids in trouble? |