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Would it look any different?
02/10/2011 9:38 AM by John M
Ben Campbell’s Separate and Unequal in this week’s Style is a must read:
No one would call this a deliberately racist, discriminatory act. But if it were such an act, would it look any different? Is it sufficient to stop deliberate racial segregation without dismantling the discriminatory economic structures and policies that remain? Can we expect the poorest residents to have sufficient political power to compel justice?
John M. Aren’t you a teacher? Do you know of ways that any of us in the community can help the schools in our area? Can we volunteer or raise money? Great post! thanks!
I read that editorial in Style with great interest. While I admire and respect the Rev. Campbell, and agree with him on several issues involving racism, I disagree with his views about school funding in Richmond.
Why? Because RPS has an entrenched framework of waste, fraud, cronyism and incompetence at the administrative level. This institutionalized waste is supported by a bloated mid/upper level management that gets in the way of education and is content with the status quo.
Money that should go directly to the classroom for books, computers, teaching staff, buildings, etc., gets redirected by the incompetent administration into superfluous pet projects and procurement/contractor black holes.
I agree with Rev. Campbell that our children deserve a better education. Indeed, our city deserves an educated workforce that can actually qualify for the jobs Mayor Jones wants corporations to bring here.
However, we taxpayers already pay an additional $3000 per student in RPS. That’s $3000 more per RPS student than any other school system in the state. We pay $2900 more per student than Norfolk, and they have better test scores and graduation rates.
Even if the state were to re-adjust it’s funding methodology, and RPS get more funding per student, I believe the only change teachers and students would see in their educational environment would be several more Mercedes and Lexus in the administrative staff parking lot.
Nothing is going to change until the RPS administration is turned upside down and the incompetents are fired. There ARE some honest employees in the the administration, and I sure hope they keep their jobs. The superintendent can go too.
But don’t just take my word for it, learn more about it at http://crankytaxpayer.org/Schools/poor_schools.htm
What dies even harder than discrimination are the cries of racism from the race industry, of which Ben Campbell is privileged to be a rare white member. If the prayers of Richmond Hill are ever answered and Richmond achieves racial reconciliation, wouldn’t that put Ben and his multimillion dollar facility out of business?
You can bet that’s not going to happen, ole Ben is too smart for that, even if it means playing loose with the facts as he has in this article.
Fact is, Richmond City spends more per student than any of the surrounding districts. Ole Ben tries to sidestep this FACT with the sly “receives less money per school-age child than the suburban systems.” Far fewer school age children in Richmond actually attend public schools, which is why there’s less per school age child. The ones who actually show up are well taken care of as far as the money goes.
As for the formula for state funds. Look at it yourself. It’s online. Sure there’s a lot of poverty in Richmond, but there’s a lot of wealth too and the formula, with factors such as value of real estate, sales taxes, and income, take that into account.
So the math doesn’t come out to Ben’s liking– is that a reason to throw around the charge of racism? If this is the only arrow in Ben’s quiver, are his prayers ever going to be answered?
@Parkgirl – The issues seem to be so much bigger than that. Is it possible to have schools that close to 100% low-income function the same as middle or upper income schools? What has to happen in Richmond so that our schools are NOT racially and economically segregated?
Some of the posts above unfortunately but in predictable ways miss the point. It’s very easy to point to supposed mismanagement as a way of sidestepping the fact that the region’s schools are heavily segregated by race and class. Brown v. Board of Education confirmed that separate cannot be equal, and yet we do very little to change this. And by the way, it’s not Ben Campbell or the poor families in the city who benefit from this segregation every day. The counties are I’m sure quite happy to have most of the lower-income residents and public housing units still in the city so they can keep their property taxes lower.
Unfortunately, the city schools are caught in a catch-22. As BKW mentioned, there’s quite a bit of wealth in Richmond. Yet, that wealth is spent on private education. If city parents sending their students to private schools began sending them to RPS, I’m certain we would see drastic changes in a number of areas. But as we know, many of those parents would never consider sending children to RPS in their current state.
As a teacher, I’ll be sending my future kids to RPS. It might not put a ripple in the pond, but I could never justify otherwise.
@BKW, your ad hominem attacks on Ben are out of place. I know him personally, but rather than try to convince you that his prayers to end racism are sincere, I’ll simply point out that you have no more ability to read his mind than anyone else does.
If he’s messed up some facts, you can point that out without trying to assassinate his character in the process. It does little to help our community solve the issue at hand- the quality of public schools.
I’ll avoid the personal attacks and go right after the argument made in this article. The author is basing most of his argument on one set of figures – in fact it’s pretty much the only fact mixed in with a bunch of opinion which only matters if he can prove discrimination exists.
The metric he is using to illustrate the existence of bias is what percentage of each locality’s spending comes from the state. And the figures he shows do raise some eyebrows and make one wonder. However from our math classes, percents can go down when either the numerator goes down or the denominator goes up. The author seems to be implying that the former is happening.
If he had shown it in a more conventional way – $2969, $2852, $3274, $3056 from the state for each of the four districts per pupil, the four appear very close. I would also argue that this is a more logical and fair way to measure distribution since if we look for a constant percentage, we are asking localities to subsidize others who overspend. Is the author trying to argue that we should continue to fund a consistent percent if a district is spending wastefully.
I don’t see the blatant discrimination once we represent the distribution in a more logical manner. If there is an outrage to be argued against, it seems that it is the overspending by RPS that results in the classrooms being underfunded (by the author’s argument, i have no basis for judging) despite spending more than their peers (and receiving more funds per pupil than most).
@Shannon has added a great point to this discussion. The private school v. public school comparison have families with means choosing schools that will better education their children. Families sending their kids to RPS often don’t have the means to make that kind of choice. So again, it comes down to differences in income and when you overlay those difference with race, you see the trends that Ben highlights in his article.
I think we can all agree that RPS needs help and that the current state is our schools is not acceptable.
@Todd – I think we all agree that RPS need help. That’s not news to anyone. I think you and I may differ on our diagnosis of what that help should be.
The article’s point seemed to be that we don’t throw enough money at it. Do you agree that this is the answer?
@Shannon – even if the wealthy do send their kids to private school, they also foot more than their share of the bill to educate the lower income parents’ children. Last I checked property taxes were the same regardless of whether you send your kids to RPS or not.
You do raise a good point, though I think it’s not quite the one you were trying to make. The fact that the wealthy have alternatives means they don’t care to participate in the discussion about the schools since their kids aren’t going. I don’t think it’s the money that is missing from them; but rather, their involvement and energy.
Many of these are the types of folks who would be active in the school and would push for more accountability and better results if they were involved.
I think #11 makes a good point. I do not have any children but I know people who do. People who are struggling with this very decision as we speak. Everyone wants to see the school system get better but no one wants to make their children the guinea pigs by sending them to public school when they have other options. I sympathize with their predicament and I’m not sure what the right answer is.
I don’t claim to have all the answers either but I do think more money going to RPS isn’t a good answer. RPS already spends more than Henrico, Hanover or Chesterfield counties per student. There may be a need for more money getting to the classrooms but that’s not an issue that will be solved by pouring more money in.
Better parental involvement, more education at home or outside or school, better discipline and removal of behavioral problem kids from classes where they are disrupting others, accountability for teachers, higher pay for those that are good teachers and firings for those that aren’t are probably some of the answers.
If we can suspend political correctness and take an honest crack at the problem, creating disincentives for people who are disinterested parents at best bringing children into this world would also help. However, it seems that these days everyone has the right to bring as many children into the world as they can, regardless of whether they have any interest in caring for them.
It is a catch-22 and it’s unlikely that anybody with a choice who cares about their kid and doesn’t have a vested interest in RPS (teachers, etc.) would subject their kid to being a guinea pig. So the most likely way that this stalemate breaks is by the schools becoming better. And it will have to come without the rich kids in the schools.
posted by Alex at February 11, 2011 12:55 pm [#]:
@Shannon – even if the wealthy do send their kids to private school, they also foot more than their share of the bill to educate the lower income parents’ children. Last I checked property taxes were the same regardless of whether you send your kids to RPS or not.
# posted by Clay St resident at February 11, 2011 1:04 pm [#]:
I think #11 makes a good point. I do not have any children but I know people who do. People who are struggling with this very decision as we speak. Everyone wants to see the school system get better but no one wants to make their children the guinea pigs by sending them to public school when they have other options. I sympathize with their predicament and I’m not sure what the right answer is.
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Exactly. This is why most people with kids leave the city, and it is certainly why I will be leaving in the next few years. I cannot afford private school, and I am absolutely not going to send my child to the city schools. With the exception of MM and Fox, the elementary schools are nothing to write home about, and the middle and high schools are downright out of the question. I would NEVER give these schools a chance as they are now. EVER. And in my opinion, I don’t care if it is racist or not, I am just not going to put my child in such a nightmarish situation. Is that unfortunate? Is it “mean” to the lower income families? Perhaps. But in some cases, you watch out for yours and fend for yourself and your family. I am not going to jeopardize my child’s future so that I MIGHT make a small difference for another child. Their own parents need to step up and do that for them. I will be taking my tax dollars elsewhere and making sure my child is safe during the day and getting a good education at the same time.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Matthew Freeman- It is not an ad hominem attack to point out that someone’s livlihood depends on a particular situation.
It is not an ad hominem attack to point out someone’s selective use of facts to prove a point.
I don’t doubt that Ben Campbell means well. I do think he is misguided in a destructive way.
It’s destructive because the only way to correct the “problems” he identifies (consolidating city and county school systems) is a gross assault on liberty. It has been tried a number of times before. The City of Charlotte and the County of Mecklenburg schools were consolidated in the early ’70’s for the exact same reason. What happened? People moved even farther out to escape the busing and other issues of the urban school system.
For the time being we still live in a country where the government and well meaning people have a limited ability to force people into situations against their will. They do seem to keep on trying, but we have to recognize their non-solutions for what they are. I for one am tired of people who wrap themselves in a cloak of piety to keep advocating the same tired ideas.
We need to accept as a fact that the schools are as good as a politically based system of education can deliver. The situation is the same in every urban area in this country.
If you want something better, try something different- Ben Campbell’s prescription is more of the same.
@Alex – Yes, the parent involvement that usually comes with higher incomes can often make much more of a difference than money itself. Simply having someone to actively push for things the students really need is so essential. You won’t see many changes without the demands of parents. Sadly, many of the city’s poorer families are working multiple jobs, struggling to find the time and transportation to actively participate in the schools.
And many are too lazy or could care less about their children…
They don’t only seem to have time to make more, never to do anything for them.
#17 Working multiple jobs is not what keeps (poor) parents from engaging in their childs education. I think you’ll find it’s indifference.
Sure, there are plenty of indifferent parents in all areas. Unless you’re in the schools you don’t hear some of the kids talk about how often/hard their parents work. It’s easy to write them off as lazy and uncaring.