When you tell a supporter of the public school system that not only is it broken, but unjust as well, they whip out the big D. "This is a democratic society and we believe that every child should be educated voters and you just can't leave education up to the highest bidder!!" If you counter with an example, say, food, they say they don't see how that relates at all.
Food is a biological necessity (primarily more important than education) and yet we don't just give it away for free, fearing society's collapse. Instead the marketplace has fleshed out into every possible niche to fill every need and want. We have supermarkets where you can choose from numerous brands or build your own meal . We have specialty markets, farmer's markets, fast food, cafeterias, sit-down restaurants, bars, pubs, drive-throughs, five star dining and even food in carts on the street and driving down the street (ice cream trucks and taquerias). We even have volunteer charities and local groups helping out the less fortunate with food banks. But I've never heard a politician complain that food should be free for everyone, or at least a select group.
Until now. Houston Independent School District (HISD) is one of the largest in the country. Last week, the superintendent, Dr. Abelardo Saavedra, proposed free breakfast for every single student in the program. That's roughly 208,000 students. Before this program, regular students were paying a mere 90¢ for breakfast while low-income students only had to shell out 10¢. Assuming there are about 180 days in the school year that works out to a grand total of $162/year for the well-off kids and a paltry $18/year for the less wealthy.
Commenter "Robert", over at the Lone Star Times, did an excellent job summing up this scenario.
You forgot to mention that you don’t have to be a legal resident of this country or their parents don’t have to pay any taxes for all those students to benefit. This is socialism at its finest. The government will take care of everything.
If after being fed, you still don’t want to learn. No problem, we will tutor you at no cost.
If you can’t learn without a computer, no problem we will provide you one and don’t being playing games on it, your [supposed] to be studying.
If after that, you don’t pass, no problem, we will promote you, socially. We don’t want you to be left behind or be embarrassed if your classmates move on.
If after all that, you still can’t graduate, no problem just dropout and join our welfare rolls. We can still take care of you there.
If all fails, no problem, start committing crimes and blame it on your social upbringing, after all it wasn’t your fault. This is “no fault” state you live in. We aim to take care of you.
Oh, I forgot, there is one thing you need to do for us, please learn to pull the “Democratic” Lever when you vote!!!!!!
Besides the immorality of forcing taxpayers to shell out even more for irresponsible parents, there is the issue of why Dr. Saavedra really pushed this proposal through. My impression of educrats is that whenever something is academically unacceptable, they come up with something "fun" or "free" to draw attention away from the real problem. So I was curious if this had anything to do with the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) tests.
The TAKS test is, quite honestly, extremely simple. Just like most standardized tests, it is designed to cover basic knowledge, not to test for academic excellence. Additionally, even if students fail their classes but pass the TAKS test, the state says you have to push them forward anyway. With this in mind, one would probably expect to see fairly consistently high scores across the board. Let's see…
The following is a compilation of scores for all students regardless of race, income or disability.
So, with the exceptions of science, fourth grade writing and eleventh grade reading, every single score went down for 2005. (The full report may be found here.)
"Oh, but we shouldn't count special education students."
"Oh, but you see they've just changed the scores for harder standards."
"Oh, but it's not fair to compare the other races to the whites."
(or my favorite…)
"Oh, but students might not understand the testing format."
These objections miss the point that students are just flat out doing worse. Still, if you examine the chart, you may even find that overall scores don't have a positive correlation to the special education students, those with limited English skills or those who are poor.
Dr. Saavedra, shame on you for encouraging parents to participate and contribute even less to their children's future.
