I’ve spoken before about the Kansas City, Missouri disaster “experiment” where a judge forced taxpayers to VASTLY increase spending on schools and NOTHING changed. The incredible story is HERE.
There is ALSO the fact that the U.S. spends FAR MORE per pupil than any other industrialized nation – and has far shittier results. CLEARLY, it is not about “more money” for schools. They have a TON of it already:
The US spends more on education than other countries. Why is it falling behind?
[The US spent an average of $16,268 a year per student, well above the global average of $10,759 – those are 2017 numbers. It is FAR worse now.]
Now we have more proof from Chicago that throwing piles of money at the schools is NOT the answer:
Spry Community Links High School, in the Heart of Little Village in Chicago, says its vision is to “provide a challenging and supportive environment…to enable our students to succeed in the 21st century.”
Number one on the school’s focus list?
“Increasing reading and math scores to or above grade level.”
But a look at state data that tracks reading and math scores for each Illinois school reveals two frightening facts about Spry. Not a single one of its 88 kids at the school can read at grade level. It’s the same for math. Zero kids are proficient.
Spry is one of 30 schools in Illinois where not a single student can read at grade level. Twenty-two of those schools are part of the Chicago Public Schools and the other eight are outside Chicago.
The failure list in math is even longer. There are 53 schools statewide where not one kid is proficient in math.
And only 1 out of 10 kids or less can do math at grade level in 930 schools…that’s more than a quarter of all schools in the state.
Defenders of the current system are sure to invoke covid as the big reason for the low scores. But a look at the 2019 numbers show that the reading and math numbers were only slightly better than they are now.
Take Spry, for example. Just 2 of the school’s 127 students in 2019 could read at grade level before the pandemic. In math, zero students were proficient.
The failure isn’t about money, either. Data from the Illinois State Board of Education shows spending at Spry was already at $20,000 per student before the pandemic.
Today it spends $35,600.
THIRTY-SIX THOUSAND!!!!
What’s really incredible is that many of these schools are rated “commendable” by the Illinois State Board of Education. That’s the 2nd-highest of four “accountability” ratings a school can receive.
Not a single one of the 113 students at Sandoval Sr High School can read or do math at grade level. And yet the school is “commendable.”
Same with Ralph Ellison Chicago International Charter School. Over $24,000 spent on each of its 172 students. Labeled “commendable.” And none of the students are proficient in either reading or math.
In a sane world, schools that don’t and can’t teach a single student the most basic of skills would be shut down. But here, they carry on…the system thrives while students wither.
The libtards bleat for more money constantly, but that is CLEARLY not the answer.