Sian

School System

There are about six hundred forty two different school districts in the state.  And where did my little(say, half a million or so)  town come in?  Yep  You guessed it.  Lucky Six-Forty-Two.  The Superintendant of schools has been getting on TV for commercials extolling the virtues of the district.  A couple of months ago, when parents were supposed to be enrolling their kids in schools, it was "Don't judge us by the mistakes of the past," and now, as we approach Gulping Down Federal Funding week, he's on TV telling us all about the money that the school system is going to loose for each student who plays hookey for even one single day next week. 

I went to high school--and a little bit of college--out on the west coast.  One of those metropolitain meccas which is supposed to be a haven to all things cultured and intellectual.  And the same kind of things were going on, there.  We had Thursdays which were "Double Count" days, meaning that the school took attendance twice, because the kids always skipped more on fridays.  We had an assortment of different things that were intended to leech out as much money as possible from the Federal Government, while actually doing as little as possible to actually improve the school system. 

I believe that if the United States survives long enough to have a rennaisance--and if anybody dares compare anything artistic that's come out of this country to Dante or Michelangelo, I'm going to start making voodoo dolls--that rennaisance will take place in the central part of the country.  There are several reasons for this, and frankly, I feel the need to inflict at least a few of them on you.  First let's take a deep breath, and try to come up with a realistic nominee for "Great American Novel."  Okay?  Are you done now?  No comments left on that front?  Good.

There are regions of this country where the influx of immigrants weighs down the school system.  We can refer to those as "Texas" and "California."  Notice that this is not an opinion on immigration, illegal or otherwise.  I'm just observing that this creates a system with the same problems as social security--too many people being supported by too few tax payers.  Naturally, I'll be refering to Oklahoma as a buffer zone us and them, and naturally, you're welcome to nominate whatever other states you care to into either the "immigrant drain" or the "buffer zone" states.  Should we even mention the south?  Do any of us really believe that the south was ever truly "reconstructed?"  Do any of us actually believe that it ever "caught up" after having been beaten down and burned to the ground?  Of course not. 

Traditionally, schools are supported through property taxes, which means that the more people you stack onto a peice of property, the more students that come out of it, the worse the education for tax payer dollars ratio is, even if it's a really nifty peice of property like New York or Los Angeles.  And heaven knows that cities are really great at stacking people into teeny, tiny little spaces.  Add to that the general idea of suburbs--that is, a nice, sprawling upper-middle class bedroom community which is more or less an entirely separate and distinct school system.  The people here work in "the City" but they pay (lower) taxes to their housing division, and wind up going to nicer schools.  Oops, more tax dollars and supportive parents walking out of a school district.  There are only a few states which allow a larger town to absorb it's bedroom communities, when they touch.  And you know what I mean, whether you're living in Aurora (Denver) or Mission City (Kansas City) or fill in the blank.

More liberal areas are going to get hit hard, too.  That means, if you instantly label every problem kid in the district with some horrible learning issue instead of considering expelling their ass, you're going to be spending more money on getting Billy to sit still than on teaching little Albie Einstein string theory.  Fine.  Learning disabilities, autism, hyperactivity exist.  No problem with that here, but so do bad behavior and rudeness, and it's a heck of a lot cheaper to treat "obnoxious little bratism" and usually more effective.  Far be it from me to advocate child abuse, but "sit down and shut up" is hardly abuse.

You're looking for states where the school system isn't already bankrupt.  States where the average high-school graduate knows how to read.  States where more people "own" than "rent".  And that leaves a very few, very flat central states.

posted by: SianNorah at 21:01 | link | comments

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