(Tenkiller Ferry Lake Specific)
0 messages
Updated
Lakes Online Forum
83,647 messages
Updated 6/3/2024 8:27:48 AM
Lakes Online Forum
5,195 messages
Updated 5/31/2024 4:36:53 AM
(Tenkiller Ferry Lake Specific)
0 messages
Updated
Lakes Online Forum
4,169 messages
Updated 4/15/2024 11:05:05 PM
Lakes Online Forum
4,261 messages
Updated 5/28/2024 6:31:10 AM
Lakes Online Forum
2,976 messages
Updated 3/20/2024 11:53:43 PM
Lakes Online Forum
98 messages
Updated 4/15/2024 1:00:58 AM
|
|
|
|
Name:
|
Lady
- 
|
|
Subject:
|
Another 'Cut & Paste'
|
|
Date:
|
6/17/2009 4:16:20 PM
|
|
Again, Alabama has failed its children
Credit school officials and the news media with trying to see the silver lining in recently released figures on education, which ranked Alabama a dismal 44th out of 50 states in graduating its students from high school.
Though an embarrassingly low 62 percent of Alabama's public high school enrollees eventually graduate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, optimists point to a 4 percent increase in the number of graduates over the previous decade as a cause for celebration.
That kind of news spin would be like the notorious American International Group executives wanting a pat on the back, if the millions in bonuses they gave to executives who helped the company fail were actually a 4 percent decrease from what they doled out in previous year.
It would be humorous, except we're talking about Alabama's abject failure in what should be its most important responsibility: its children.
The difference between a graduate and a high school dropout is a huge gap in employment prospects, annual income and quality of life. And it's been proved many dropouts will inevitably become a burden to the rest of us, requiring the state to spend more for prisons, unemployment benefits and welfare.
So instead of trying to view Alabama's annual failing report card on education through some kind of reverse image, glass-half-full night goggles, let's try looking at the problem in the clear light of day: The reason Alabama is 44th in graduation rate is that it is a lowly No. 43 out of 50 states in funding its schools.
In fact, Alabama's spending on each of its students is almost $1,000 below the average for the rest of the country.
Why?
Because of us.
We don't want to pay more for kids to learn because we do not want higher taxes. And we keep sending men and women to Montgomery and to Washington who do what we want.
We think we're getting a bargain, bragging to our cousins in Arkansas or Florida or Alaska how we pay the lowest property and income tax bills in the nation (according to the Tax Foundation), because we don't bow to teachers' unions, don't believe in throwing money at a problem to make it go away, or don't let any government stand in the way of our purchasing 52-inch plasma TVs or cramping our style in any other fashion.
The reality, though, is we get what we pay for.
Besides the shameful 44th ranking in national graduation rates, we were awarded ignominious 48th place when it comes to safeguarding children's general well-being.
According to the 2008 Kids Count national study of children's wellness by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, we share with four other states the very worst records for infant mortality, single-parent families, teen death rates, low-birth-weight babies and children living in poverty.
With dropouts added to all that, if the state of Alabama were the father of a family, he would be arrested for criminal child neglect.
We cannot blame it on government, on too much TV, on the evil Internet or on lazy teachers.
It's all on us.
It can't be fixed with popular Band-Aids like prayer in schools, making parents pick up report cards, giving teachers merit pay. That's all been the demagoguery of camouflage, hiding our distaste and lack of will for making the necessary sacrifices for our children.
Watch the faces and hear the words of our two senators in Washington as they sneer about stimulus money being sent to schools, or when they voted against a recent bill giving health care to 11 million kids without insurance.
But don't blame them, either. They're just doing what they think we want them to do, which is to keep every last penny in our own pockets.
There is hope for change. Gov. Bob Riley has the power, the popularity and the courage to engineer legislation for per-pupil funding that gets us at least even with the national average. He can jump-start the initiative with federal stimulus funds, and then call on corporations and citizens to accept their overdue responsibility.
A community is judged on the way it cares for its children.
And on that count, Alabama does not work anymore and hasn't worked for a long time.
Since children are our future, a fundamental change in the state's philosophical and political priorities is needed if Alabama is ever to work right again.
Written by David McGrath (4/12/09), who lives on Dauphin Island, retired from teaching English at College of DuPage and from the University of South Alabama.
|
|
Reply
Back
Search
Off-Topic Forum
»
Oklahoma Lakes
»
Tenkiller Ferry Lake
Login
|
Home
