South Carolina schools ranks at the bottom for student SAT scores. It’s graduation rate ranks 48th nationally and hundreds of thousands of students are trapped in failing schools. Rontrell Matthews, 16, decided he wanted a better education for himself instead of staying trapped in his failing school. He was so determined to get a better education that he got job a job making sandwiches at Subway. When he got his first paycheck of $32.86, he went straight to Capers Preparatory Christian Academy and handed the check to them and told them he wanted to attend their school. The school accepted Rontrell and he excelled in his new school.
The school itself was started by a former public school teacher, Faye Brown, to provide low-income families, mostly African American, access to a quality education instead of being trapped in failing public schools. Mrs. Brown even dipped into her own retirement savings to help keep the school running. After the original story about Rontrell broke, donations poured in helping to stabilize the school giving many more children access to a quality education.
In South Carolina, as well as here in Illinois and across the country, we continue to trap students, especially those of color in failing public schools. In Chicago, there are thousands of students trapped in failing schools. Across Illinois 6 in 10 elementary and middle schools have failed to ensure their students are proficient in math and reading. Yet, the state, with the aid of the education bureaucracy and powerful teachers unions, continues to perpetuate the zip code education that traps the low income students in failing schools.
Zip-Code education that traps students in failing schools is discriminatory based on the socio-economic status of the parents. The question is when are more parents, teachers, citizens and legislators going to stand up to the big money donors of the education bureaucracy and say “Enough! We will no longer tolerate zip-code education discrimination.”
The way to end zip-code education discrimination is to empower the parents to choose the school that will educate their child the best. In doing so, the money will then follow the child to that school. A simple phrase to explain this concept is “Fund the Child, Not the Beaucracy.” It is time to demand choice now.
Small Business Owner, Education Watchdog, FOIA expert, Founder of For Our Children's Future
concerned taxpayer
To accomplish that, school funding sources must be changed. As it stands,schools rely on local property taxes. I’m not sure how the money following the child would work if it comes from local property taxes, since there are huge differences between the amount of money paid by home owners, which also varies from community to community.
Wolf
The Public Education System as the entire Public Sector is dysfunctional except in its self-enrichment programs that rape and rob the taxpayers as their primary activity. It is time to take back control of these Public Sector operations by starting a petition for a Ballot Referendum that limits taxpayer funding obligations for k-12 to $7K per student annually. Introducing this payout as a Voucher to the parents and allowing them to choose the Public, Parochial or Private School System for their children. There shall be no additional tax revenues directed to any School System by the entire Public Sector above $7K per child. There is no limitation on voluntary contributions and donations from sources but there is no further direct taxpayer liability. Second, a petition for a Ballot Referendum that all Public Sector Labor Agreements are ratified at the ballot box by the taxpayers. There is no problem here since these contracts extend multiple years. It is clear that the epic fraud in these contracts today is destroying the nation, states and local communities besides the destruction of the children’s future by the Public School operations. These fundamental Referendums would restore competition into the Public Sector and put the taxpayers back in control of their wealth and resources. We should also be moving to “Virtual Schools” for all grades Junior High and beyond because the technology today allows each student to be taught by the “Subject Matter Expert” and have thousands of non-repeating exercises and experiments to measure true comprehension. The needed help would also be provided in a timely manner and the progression would not be based on a calendar year or age but rather on true proficiency. There would be no need for standardized tests since the measurement is continuous. The cost of this system is even less than today’s efficient Parochial and Private operations plus the Safety of the Students is enhanced. This system could also be used in the Pre-K and lower grades as a supplement to the learning process. Clearly the Public Sector fraud and corruption is not only destroying the future of our children and nation but is prevent our civilization from progressing forward. And it should be clear by now that the criminals in the Public Sector who created this fraud for their benefits and their friends will never address the issue or make the restructuring and reforms necessary to correct this cancer.
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About Lennie Jarratt
The American Dream: Overcoming the Education Bureaucracy
As discussed previously, parents are willing to face jail time and heavy fines for attempting to get their children a quality education. This time we will discuss a teen who took it upon himself to overcome the education bureaucracy trying to trap him in a failing school.
The school itself was started by a former public school teacher, Faye Brown, to provide low-income families, mostly African American, access to a quality education instead of being trapped in failing public schools. Mrs. Brown even dipped into her own retirement savings to help keep the school running. After the original story about Rontrell broke, donations poured in helping to stabilize the school giving many more children access to a quality education.
In South Carolina, as well as here in Illinois and across the country, we continue to trap students, especially those of color in failing public schools. In Chicago, there are thousands of students trapped in failing schools. Across Illinois 6 in 10 elementary and middle schools have failed to ensure their students are proficient in math and reading. Yet, the state, with the aid of the education bureaucracy and powerful teachers unions, continues to perpetuate the zip code education that traps the low income students in failing schools.
Zip-Code education that traps students in failing schools is discriminatory based on the socio-economic status of the parents. The question is when are more parents, teachers, citizens and legislators going to stand up to the big money donors of the education bureaucracy and say “Enough! We will no longer tolerate zip-code education discrimination.”
The way to end zip-code education discrimination is to empower the parents to choose the school that will educate their child the best. In doing so, the money will then follow the child to that school. A simple phrase to explain this concept is “Fund the Child, Not the Beaucracy.” It is time to demand choice now.