What is going to happen to schools in trouble?

[flowerseverywhere]

So every day it seems there is an article about a school district having layoffs. Obviously, some areas like Detroit are in serious trouble. But even areas that are doing ok seem to still be laying off or having hiring freezes. Surely some of what was initially cut was waste or duplication but we are way beyond that it seems. What does the future hold? Taxes certainly can't be raised high enough to cover the education, pension and health care they promised to retirees and other rising costs? You never hear about what a crisis this is. I can't really figure it out.

[Tradd]

Chicago is closing 49 schools.

[early morning]

Kids are being seriously under-served, especially in large urban districts, and the problem reaches far, far beyond school funding. Cuts to early childhood programs bring more kids to elementary school further behind than they were before. Cuts to transportation systems leave the parents with fewer options for jobs, access to healthcare, and access to decent, inexpensive foods (there are no Wal-Marts in the hood). General Dollar stores are making inroads around here and are much cheaper than the corner stores but neither have fresh food of any kind. Cuts to after-school programs put more kids on the street and under the tutelage of gang-bangers and other unsavory types. Cuts to social service organizations help ensure that pregnant girls get less medical care and less support when baby is born, leading to more neglected children who are not in early childhood programs. And don't get me started on the "must keep families together at all costs" (which, BTW, is much cheaper than finding good foster homes/training good foster parents...) and then cutting funding to Children's Service Bureaus guarantees that the case workers have so many cases they don't even know their kids and families...

Sorry - apparently I'm in a rantish mood today. I just get sooo tired of our short-sightedness. There are cuts to our youth detention centers and programs too. Almost all of the mental heath centers around here who worked with youth have cut back or closed, at a time when many more young people have been diagnosed with significant mental health issues. Less kids in programing = more disturbed youngsters on the street. And while I am a great champion of these youngsters and love several of them like my own, believe me when I say you DON'T want most of them loose in your neighborhood without treatment and interventions, especially in large numbers.

[iris lilies]

The schools that are closing in St Louis are doing so because the city is losing population. You've got to look at population served and Detroit is losing population. Hardly makes sense to keep buildings open and teachers employed unless the purpose of the school system is to employ teachers and support their union. Oh, wait...

[peggy]

But on the bright side, the wealthy are enjoying lower taxes than ever! Corporations, who are people after all, pay way less taxes per dollar than us 'regular' people. And, to IL's point, the schools will soon be packed to the gills as women lose their right to control their own bodies with regard to birth control and abortion. Plus arming all the teachers will take care of some of those...er, problems...that early morning mentioned.

[ToomuchStuff]

Kansas City just threw money at schools, after the desegregation case. Test scores were and are still issues. Money didn't solve their problems (billion dollar lesson)
When they lost accreditation and the schools in Independence were able to pull out of that system, KC tried to saddle Independence with a good chunk of its debt (the court threw that on its head). Volunteers, went in and cleaned up the local (to me) school, pulled out the metal detectors at the door (gave the kids the feeling they trusted them), and the school has made a pretty dramatic change for the better. Money is just a tool, and unfortunately it attracts those who just want to collect that tool.
There are a lot of problems besides it. Shrinking budgets, shrinking or moving populations, teachers who don't care, and are protected by unions, layers upon layers of administration, which can and do affect teachers that do work, etc.
Some schools in trouble, will close. Others will be allowed to fester.

[Alan]

But on the bright side, the wealthy are enjoying lower taxes than ever! Corporations, who are people after all, pay way less taxes per dollar than us 'regular' people. And, to IL's point, the schools will soon be packed to the gills as women lose their right to control their own bodies with regard to birth control and abortion. Plus arming all the teachers will take care of some of those...er, problems...that early morning mentioned.

LOL, I'm actually quite impressed that so many memes having nothing to do with the subject at hand can be put into one short post. Wealthy people, corporations, war on women and guns.

Well done!

[early morning]

Alan, are you seriously saying there are no connections between any of the issues peggy raised and the OP on what may happen to schools in distress? Or are you saying that we should just be discussing the narrow topic of cuts to school staff/funding?? If the first, I disagree heartily - all things are connected - otherwise we wouldn't constantly be smacked about by the law of unintended consequences! If the second - narrow topics peter out pretty quickly, it seems, and limit the depth of discussion. JMHO.

[Alan]

Alan, are you seriously saying there are no connections between any of the issues peggy raised and the OP on what may happen to schools in distress? Or are you saying that we should just be discussing the narrow topic of cuts to school staff/funding?? If the first, I disagree heartily - all things are connected - otherwise we wouldn't constantly be smacked about by the law of unintended consequences! If the second - narrow topics peter out pretty quickly, it seems, and limit the depth of discussion. JMHO.

Money has little to do with the overall health of school systems. We currently spend more per student than any other country in the world. We've also seen that many private or charter schools do a much better job educating students than their public brethren do, while operating under tighter budgets. In my state, the per student cost of public education increased approximately 60% between 2001 and 2010, with no measurable impact on outcomes.

Wealthy people, corporations, violence and gender have nothing to do with the problem as the root problem is societal. Prudent voters evaluate the cost/benefit of maintaining failing schools as they check the appropriate box on their ballots, then work to deal with the root problem rather than throw blame on popular, yet unrelated targets, hoping they'll stick.

[ApatheticNoMore]

Taxes certainly can't be raised high enough to cover the education, pension and health care they promised to retirees and other rising costs?

Pensions and retirement costs are a problem. Actually that is pretty widely acknowleged, but what they are willing to do about it is another matter .... (It's really kind of a retirement problem rather than an education problem, almost noone's retirement is funded on solid ground in this country - including private pension and 401k holders. SS is one of the better programs). However taxes CAN be raised for education, the people will vote for it .... sometimes, as such an initiative recently passed here. It may not be enough to stop cuts, but it's not true you can't get an increase in taxes for education.

You never hear about what a crisis this is. I can't really figure it out.

about pension problems? you hear about it. Or just about the general cuts in funding or deterioration (?) of public schools? I think systems can function badly for many years or really perhaps INDEFINITELY without it being a major issue for however decides on what the issues are. In fact many systems do (like the public school system, the prison system, the hospitals many places etc.). People just learn to live with it, systems that don't work, like cheap products that break right away or something, as in "oh well nothing works well anymore", they navigate around them as best they can (send their kids to private school if they can afford it, hope noone they knows ever ends up in jail, hope noone they knows gets MRSA in the hospital etc.). The myth is you live in some country where things run well, and that's just not true. That's flag waving childhood fiction. But of course things can get worse (long emergency style I guess - slowly). Not wanting things to get worse on the fast track is why the tax increase measure passed here (I'm not sure it had any major vested opposition though - some token anti-tax opposition is all).