Top Ten Problems with Urban Public Schools
The picture above is of one of my fraternity brothers (Kappa Alpha Psi) reading to a group of children at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School in Oakland, California. Our local chapter (Berkeley Alumni) volunteered for a health and literacy fair at the school. After the event, I reflected on these problems impacting urban public school education today-
MY TOP TEN PROBLEMS WITH URBAN PUBLIC SCHOOLS:
10.) The Lack of Greater Family Involvement
9.) That Both Political Parties Have Made Politics of Urban Education
8.) That Urban Children Get Caught In Between Unions and Activists
7.) The Some Teachers Bring Personal Agendas Into The Classroom That Have Little To Do With Education
6.) Unrealistic Expectations That Some People Have Of What A School Should Provide For Children
5.) Families With The Resources (Like Mine) Who Move To The Suburbs Or Choose Private Schools (Thought I Would Spread The Blame Around)
4.) Constant Turnover Of School Principles
3.) People With No Credentials Or Experience In Education Thinking They Can Educate Children Better Than The Urban Public Schools.
2.) Lack Of Sufficient Funding And Volunteer Support
1.) The Lack Of Innovative Collaboration With The Local Faith Community And Other Long-Standing Organizations.
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Well Efrem, I would have to say my largest problem would be in agreement with MPLS city council member Samuels statements (combined with my own words); 1) Just because you have no children in the public school system, does not give one the moral right to just stand by and do nothing as neighboring children, most all of time, stand to fend for themselves, which in most cases take on the leading role in system failing statistics for political and union secret co’ops to rape tax dollars in narrowly distributed personal gain (Documentary “the cartel” found on netflix). 2) More times than most our 2/50 “star bright” students, who do make it out of public school systems succesfully, do whatever they can to get away from where they came, to further better themselves, without the thought in mind for achievment of others.
3) Then how the school system sets up corriculum with no intent for mental health growth, & not only fires the teachers who are bold enough to step up and make attempts to stand against it, but completely shuts them out from ever “publicly” voicing there educated opinion again. The system IS truly set up to fail urban society!!! (Documentary “1%” can be found on netflix).
PS. Is early in the morning, please mind grammatical errors and mis spells, I know you are big on that E…
I listened to a sermon of yours where you said you were essentially the only African American at your college and yet were still able to be elected to student government. Now you are saying you were a member of an “African Americans Only” Fraternity in college? I’m confused.
You fail to mention unions. The same teacher’s unions that would spend 3 million dollars of their members dues in order to protect (“the rights”) of a pedophile who wanted to continue to teach in our local high school. We have to re-build the stature of the educator. The first thing we need to do is remove the liberal agenda, which has diluted the quality of our teachers. No, every person does not have a right to teach in our schools. And, every teacher does not have the same skill level. We need to reward our best teachers with higher salaries and “dump” the poor ones without haste. This is why in the state of California, the average teacher graduated in the bottom 25 percent of their college graduating class. Yet, it is interesting to note that teachers in this State make income that is, on average, in the 65th percentile for college graduates (working a seven hour day and less than eight months a year when holidays and vacations are calculated). 85 percent of 5th grade teachers in this State could not correctly identify our form of government on a multiple choice survey. I volunteered in inter-city urban schools where “role model” teachers have been given their jobs for reasons other than merit. There was one 6th grade teacher who couldn’t even do simple multiplication and long division. Are we serious! How do we expect the children of the inter-city to learn, when their teachers are chosen on the grounds of political correctness? I came out of those schools, Oakland, and every time someone like me, James Earl Jones, Clarence Thomas, or Bill Cosby, complain about the “reverse” racism killing the future of our children, you immediately peg us us racists or “Uncle Tom’s.” IF you want the schools to get better, YOU are going to have to learn to love the children more than your own political agenda and biases!