Reason 1,254,997

Monday 11 March 2013 - Filed under Uncategorized

Entire school systems failing to educate students with even basic math and reading skills. And this is the largest, most well funded school system in the country. CBS New York:

Nearly 80 percent of New York City high school graduates need to relearn basic skills before they can enter the City University’s community college system.

The number of kids behind the 8-ball is the highest in years, CBS 2′s Marcia Kramer reported Thursday.

When they graduated from city high schools, students in a special remedial program at the Borough of Manhattan Community College couldn’t make the grade.

They had to re-learn basic skills — reading, writing and math — first before they could begin college courses.

They are part of a disturbing statistic.

Officials told CBS 2′s Kramer that nearly 80 percent of those who graduate from city high schools arrived at City University’s community college system without having mastered the skills to do college-level work.

First, I’d argue that these students don’t need to re-learn these basic skills, but learn them. You don’t learn basic reading and writing skills and them forget them. These students aren’t being taught these skills and then forgetting them; they aren’t learning them to begin with because the entire school system is an abject failure.

I’ve taught at the college level. I’m not the kind of fool who thinks that college is fit for everyone. It isn’t, nor will everyone get a meaningful benefit from attending college other than personal gratification (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it should be understood that the kind of personal gratification one can get from college is a luxury which comes at an ever increasing cost, not a necessity in order to have a fulfilling life either intellectually or financially). But 80% of your graduating students failing to be able to even START at the community college level because they don’t have basic reading, writing, and math skills is fucking shameful. The entire government school system needs to be destroyed and replaced with a private system where parents and students have the opportunity to flee from failing schools and find one that suits their needs. Government schooling should work like eery other government service; available only to those who can’t afford another option. People with means don’t choose to use food stamps or receive a welfare check. Why should we all acquiesce to the vast majority of children being educated by a system not fit to give them even the most basic skills.

And it can’t be argued that it’s a funding problem. New York City spends more per pupil in their public school system than I spend on my son’s very prestigious private education where 100% of graduating students who have applied (which is virtually all of them) are accepted in to college programs.

2013-03-11  »  madlibertarianguy