IN SOME U.S. CITIES, A CHILD HAS BETTER ODDS OF GOING TO PRISON OR BEING MURDERED THAN CLIMBING TO THE MIDDLE CLASS!
Disclaimer: Good Day, Readers. WealthBuildingPowers blog is a financial literacy/competency blog and does not provide specific investment recommendations.
IN SOME U.S. CITIES, A CHILD HAS BETTER ODDS OF GOING TO PRISON OR BEING MURDERED THAN CLIMBING TO THE MIDDLE CLASS!
When my daughter attended school, I never thought about Charter Schools. I did not know the purpose. Amanda attended above-average public schools and did well. Later I read why Charter schools were created and how many have provided young people with options to attend college they never thought they had.
Today, when I look at the Chicago news channels, I often see a child, sometimes a baby, has been shot and killed. Or a group of young brown men sentenced to prison. As I look at the faces, I think those children could be mine.
We must do better and stop this insanity.
SHOCKING STATISTICS: THE DIRE REALITY OF CHILDHOOD IN AMERICA’S AT-RISK CITIES
Children growing up in low-income neighborhoods are disadvantaged regarding education, employment, and overall well-being, which can contribute to a higher likelihood of involvement in criminal activity.
- Eighty-five percent of all juveniles who interface with the juvenile court system are functionally low-literate.
- Juvenile incarceration reduces the probability of high school completion and increases the probability of incarceration later in life.
- High school dropouts are 3.5 times more likely than high school graduates to be arrested in their lifetime.
- High school dropouts are 63% more likely to be incarcerated than their peers with four-year college degrees.
- Mississippi has the second-highest incarceration rate in the nation. The average adult inmate reads on a sixth-grade level when admitted. Half of the state’s inmates never finished high school.
BLACK AND WHITE AMERICANS WEALTH GAPS
- The median net worth of white households in the United States was approximately $171,000.00 In 2019, while the median net worth of Black households was roughly $24,100.00.
- The median income for white households in 2019 was $68,703.00, while the median income for black households was $41,361.00.
- The poverty rate for white Americans in 2019 was 10.2%, while the poverty rate for black Americans was 21.2%.
- The homeownership rate for white Americans in 2019 was 72.1%, while the homeownership rate for black Americans was 44.1%.
- In 2018 black households earned $57.30 for every $100.00 in income earned by white families. And for every $100.00 in white family wealth, black families held just $5.04.
- In the 1960s, unmarried black women were the breadwinners for ~20% of households. In recent years, unmarried women in black households were the primary earner over 72% of the time. There is a direct correlation between poverty and female-headed households. The lack of fathers in their children’s lives results in a cycle of poverty and government dependency in the black community.
- Black Americans today depend more on government aid than in 1968. About 40% of African Americans are poor enough to qualify for government aid offered to families.
- African American students are less likely to be college ready. Sixty-one percent of ACT-tested black students in the 2015 high school graduating class met none of the four ACT college readiness benchmarks, nearly twice the 31 percent rate for all students.
THE WAR ON POVERTY HAS BEEN A DISMAL FAILURE!
THE SOLUTION TO CLOSING AMERICA’S WEALTH GAPS BETWEEN RACES – STOP DOING THE SAME THING AND EXPECTING DIFFERENT RESULTS!
Although the U.S. spends more per student than any other nation, our global ranking is disappointing. The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 data showed that U.S. students’ average reading score was 497, {19 out of 79 countries}. In math, the average score for U.S. students was 478, {40 out of 79 countries}. The average score for U.S. students in science was 489, {25 out of 79 countries}. These scores are significantly lower when examining black and brown students’ scores.
Our education system is failing students and our country’s future.
CHARTER SCHOOL LOTTERY: A FAILURE OF OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM
How many of you purchased lottery tickets trying to win $1 BILLION? Come on, you can confess.
Imagine if you had to enter the lottery for your child’s chance at living or staying out of prison. Does that sound like the United States of America, where millions illegally cross into the country looking for a better life?
There are school districts in America where you have a better chance of going to prison or being killed than growing up and entering the Middle Class. For too many, their best and sometimes only chance to escape is a charter school lottery! Low-income kids in at-risk areas must win a lottery to get accepted into better schools.
Most Charter Schools utilize a lottery because more parents desperately want their kids to attend than seats exist.
THE LESSONS FROM THE BEST-PERFORMING CHARTER SCHOOLS CAN BE UTILIZED TO IMPROVE PUBLIC SCHOOLS – IF THE TEACHER’S UNIONS PLACE STUDENT WELFARE FIRST!
We must treat U.S. education like a gut rehab job to close these gaps. Tear it down to its studs, replace the rotten and rebuild the structure.
Fixing our Broken Education System: Lessons Learned from Charter Schools
- Hire teachers that CAN teach and want to teach. Ensure they are qualified. This will require better pay.
- Discipline the kids. Get the crazy kids who are distracting the entire class out. Suspend and expel as needed.
- More homework.
- It’s 2023; we need to use every resource available. Increase Innovation and Creativity. Allow teachers to take risks with new ideas. Encourage schools to develop specialized programs that meet the needs of students.
- Increase parental involvement. This is the most challenging solution to bring about. Parents must give a damn. In Charter Schools, the parent(s) take the time to enter a lottery and may be more inclined to work with the teachers.
- Reduce class sizes to improve student outcomes and provide more individualized attention to students
- offer specialized programs such as STEM education, arts, or dual language instruction to serve the diverse needs of their student better
- Provide teachers and staff with opportunities for professional development to enhance their skills and knowledge
- FIRE poor performing teachers.
We cannot build enough charter schools to fix these problems!
WHAT IS WORKING GLOBALLY
These countries are cited as having some of the best education systems in the world:
- Finland: The Finnish education system is known for its emphasis on equal opportunities for all students, regardless of their background. The system also places a strong focus on teacher education and professional development.
- Japan: The Japanese education system is known for its rigorous academic curriculum and emphasis on discipline and hard work. The system also places a strong focus on the development of moral and social values.
- South Korea: The South Korean education system is known for its intense focus on academic achievement and high student expectations. The system also places a strong emphasis on the development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills
- Singapore: The Singaporean education system is known for its focus on high-quality teacher education and its use of data-driven instruction to improve student achievement.
- Canada: The Canadian education system is known for its emphasis on multiculturalism and bilingualism. The system also places a strong focus on teacher education and professional development.
Common themes include:
- Focus on high-quality teacher education,
- Rigorous academic standards,
- Strong focus on professional development,
- Data-driven instruction, and
- Development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills, which are highly valued in today’s rapidly changing world
CHARTER SCHOOLS, TEACHERS’ UNIONS, AND POLITICS – A NASTY COMBINATION
The average Charter School outperforms public schools in the same geographic area. Yet, the majority of Democrat Politicians oppose federal dollars for Charter Schools.
The Teacher’s Union contributes tens of millions annually to the Democrat party. I do not believe in coincidences!
Teachers’ Unions are vehemently opposed to Charter Schools because the schools exceed public school performance in Grades, Standardized Test Scores, College Applications, College Acceptance, and College Graduation. Many Charter Schools provide poor kids of all races a chance to escape poverty. If we believe Black Lives Matter, why do we fail to improve our public schools with the lessons provided by charter schools for the past 30+ years? While relying on a lottery to determine life-or-death outcomes.
CONCLUSION – Fixing our Broken Education System: Lessons Learned from Charter Schools
About 70% of U.S. Congress People are millionaires. Most members of Congress, in my opinion, deliver little value to society, but they get wealthy and enamored with power. They care about one thing -getting reelected, which requires money. The Teachers’ Unions donate millions of dollars to Democrat politicians. The unions demand zero support for charter schools. That is the nasty reality of America’s education system.
The way forward is not through lowering expectations for black and brown students. “Instead, African-Americans must return to their cultural roots of faith, family, and better education for our children. Regardless of how neat a bow progressives try to tie around it, continuing to blame slavery, which ended 157 years ago, cannot undo the generational rot caused by decades of hand-outs and fatherlessness. It will only further tether African-Americans to the culture of dependency that can and must be dismantled.”
Booker T. Washington wrote in his 1901 autobiography: “A lie doesn’t become truth, wrong doesn’t become right, and evil doesn’t become good, just because it’s accepted by a majority.”
REFERENCES
Charter School and Their Enemies By Tomas Sowell
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