by David Safier
This post on Daily Kos, pointed out to me by regular reader and commenter Francine, is long, but it's an amazing story about the power of education and the importance of good, caring teachers, especially for kids who are walking a tightrope between possible success and utter failure. It's well worth a read.
Capsule summary. White girl, on a sure road to a miserable life, opts to attend a new integrated high school in Chicago, and through her own tenacity and the loving care of some of her teachers (bless them!) — and, to make the story more amazing, a 17 year old call girl who took homeless kids in and told everyone to leave this one girl alone because "This girl's gotta do homework. Someday she's gonna go to college" (bless her too!) – ends up at St. Johns College in New Mexico, opening opportunities that otherwise would have been closed to her. She found out recently that Michelle Obama (then Michelle Robinson) was at the same school in a lower grade.
Stories this rich always make me a little suspicious, because they often sound too good to be true, and it sometimes turns out they are. I want to believe this one, and I'll accept it as written unless I hear different.
Discover more from Blog for Arizona
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Washington D.C. spends $16,000 dollars per student compared to I think David said was around $6,000 in Arizona.
The Drop out rate is 50% in Washington D.C. and graduates can NOT read or write!
The only reason I brought in Vouchers is that they give parents a CHOICE; yes I said C H O I C E !!!
Something Liberals want to BAN in America!
Francine:
Secret Service at Sidwell Friends has students that are friends of the Obama Kids that are attending with VOUCHERS FRANCINE!!!
Donn’t you get it????????????????????
Obamas kids that have made friends with these kids will no longer have them attending there school because of there STUPID FATHER FRANCINE!!
This has nothing to do with any statistic except there own fathers ignorance!!
As David said” Its not about the money in Washington D.C. its all about the parents!
sheapenny needs to “go Galt”. I’m thinking back to whatever country you came from.
I’ll be glad to get involved in it. First, the children of the president are under secret service protection. Such protection would wreak havoc in a DC public school. Second, people with means have always USED THEIR MEANS to buy what they thought best for their children – this includes shoes, jeans – and private education. This country is great because there is a strong public education system – maybe somewhat weakened by the policies of the last administration – but basically strong. It must be there for any and every child who goes there. The GI bill gave returning vets, after the second world war an opportunity many never would have had to get an education at government expense. Graduates resulting from that program enriched not only those who got the education but the entire country. Because people are poor must not mean their education will be deficient!! That is our responsibility, as a democracy, to provide a quality education for every child. I don’t like public support of private schools because it takes from the many to give to the few – you know, socialism for the wealthy??????
Sheapenny, please read my post, “Private vs. public schools in D.C.: a draw” — http://arizona.typepad.com/blog/2009/03/private-vs-public-schools-in-dc-a-draw.html . You’ll see that, in one of the best study conditions I’ve ever seen, there was no difference in the achievement of students who used vouchers to go to private schools and those who applied but didn’t get chosen in the lottery.
Then, look at the arguments for keeping the vouchers in D.C. Not one of them cites evidence that the private schools did better than the public schools. They all say, “How can you disrupt these children’s educations,” and “The parents are happy with the private schools.”
Right now the Ed Head, Arne Duncan, is trying to create a compromise that allows students who are already enrolled in the voucher program to stay in the private schools instead of making those children go back to public schools — but not create any new vouchers. It’s a reasonable compromise.
You can argue all you want about Obama being a hypocrite for sending his children to private schools. I think it’s a foolish argument, so I don’t plan to get involved in it.
This really pisses me off folks.
Obama advocates Educating your and my kids in Public Schools from not only K-12 but PRE-SCHOOL to your first JOB!!
Lets look at what Obama himself does and not what his mouth blabs to you and me because as you know Obama is perfect and we tax paying slobs need to follow what he says or else!!
Obama just repealed the Washington D.C. School Voucher program that enabled parents in D.C. to take there kids OUT of the nations worst schools and D.C. SPENDS THE MOST ON EACH STUDENT OF ANY OF THE STATES -DAVID- so it isn’t how much money you throw at schools DAVID its all about the TEACHERS!!!
The Teachers Unions run the schools thus we have another General Motors FAILED UNION PROGRAM that we the Taxpayer are required to pay for??!!
NO MORE DAVID NO MORE OF MY MONEY FOR FAILED LIBERAL GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS!!
Obama himself was educated in PRIVATE SCHOOLS!!
Obama’s KIDS are NOT attending Public Schools nor have they ever nor will they!!
Now Obama wants us to give the JERKS in the Government our Health Care System to fashion it after Canada who sends there patients to the United States for Treatment!
ITS TIME FOR AN ARIZONA TEA PARTY FOLKS!!!
DAVID:
I ask you ; where do YOU draw the line at spending more and more of the Taxpayers Money on Failed Schools with-out letting them FAIL!!
Lets give vouchers to parents and let them decide who succeeds and who fails; not proping up FAILED LIBERAL BASTIONS OF TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF TAXPAYERS MONEY FOR THIS CRAP!!