Beware the Plastic Bags

To School Boards Everywhere: Beware the Plastic Bags

I worked for a school district for thirty years. I left that school district as Director of Alternative Education. In the hierarchy of school districts, this position is usually one for a person who is on his/her way out, banished because of politics, whatever. Those all applied in my case.

Currently I serve on a Charter School Board. This is from one school board member to other school board members:

The Superintendent, and later the Board, bought into the idea that student achievement was for the rich, the well placed, and not for at risk students.

This is because we judge school performance by high stakes achievement tests, based on group norms. The better students you test, the better you look.

So, the Superintendent, shortly after taking over, announced how much alternative education cost.

He figured several millions dollars a year were spent on educating "losers"; so why "reward the losers" with money spent on their educations?

And, without any input from me, he sold the Principals, the Board and the community on the notion that alternative education for at risk students was a bad investment. He sold the idea that there were more economical ways to educate difficult to educate students.

This was his miracle plan for alternative education.

His plan was rather simple; don't educate them. It cost too much. And, if they no longer are in school, they cannot be tested so the test scores look great.

First, he cut one of the continuation schools in the district. Then, after I was gone, he cut the other more than in half.

This saved millions in teacher costs, facilities; etc. Then he greatly expanded the Independent Study Program, moved it into a dependent Charter School, which effectively hid the district's drop out rate.

In California a student on a District Independent Study Program is always counted against the home school, a Charter is considered a separate entity, hence shuffling students into a Charter School does not count them against the district schools.

It's called the Charter School Shuffle.

Independent Study for at-risk students? Remember now, these are students who hate school anyway. Typically in high school, they are chronic truants, far behind in credits.

Independent Study is what they always ask for, because they can still be enrolled, hence no truancy, but they get to run the streets during the day.

So, the Independent Study Charter School inherited over half of the students who used to attend day continuation school. This cost way less, since there was no building to support, far fewer teachers, no cafeteria; etc.

The Superintendent was a hero. He has "saved the District millions".

And what about the kids?

Well, they went into Independent Study at 16, languished for awhile, then disappeared.

In short, they were disposable, like plastic bags.

The problem is, they, like plastic bags, did not simply "go away".

Shasta County is a poor, conservative county, with an increasing crime and drug problem.

I will let you guess who is contributing to those statistics.

There was also an effort at "early intervention" for freshman (ours was a high school district). Students who had not graduated from grammar school, were forced into a program that segregated them from the regular population for most of the day (don't want to contaminate the rich kids with the poor kids).

This program had been tried for years, in larger districts, with no success.

But, what the heck, it kept the "little bastards" away from the "good kids". In fact, if done correctly, the at risk student never gets into the regular high school population at all, is segregated from their freshman year until they turn 16, and are then "placed" in Independent Study. The problem of the at risk student is thereby "solved".

Why is American Education failing? Because of stories like the above, where we segregate children, either racially, ethnically, religiously, or scholastically, get the "bad kids" away from the "good kids", then congratulate ourselves for test scores that only show the "good kids" scores.

And, we keep listening to con artists who tell us we are paying too much on education, that vouchers, or charter schools will somehow educate cheaper and better. We buy the notion that we can cheapen our investment in the future and not have it bite us.

Baloney, the problem is we will not confront the socio-economic problems our society grinds out. Our educational system costs way more because of the sins of our past, with African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, you name it. We will not face ourselves.

Meanwhile, the "bad kids" steal our cars, rob our businesses, and pull the American Dream into the septic tank.

The Superintendent saved the District millions, some of which went to teacher salary increases by the way.

I will tell you a startling fact. It doesn't take much to teach a "good kid". Their upbringing, their stability, their advantages, make them easy to teach.

Of course, the young, the inexperienced, and yes, the poor teachers, are relegated to the as-risk classes. That is why most teachers fail; we put the least likely to succeed teachers in with the least likely to succeed students.

And what percentage of a young hopeful freshman class does this represent? Well, according to most statistics 30 to 40 percent!

People, listen please! At-risk children cost money, lots of it. We are paying for the unequal, unjust social system we have in the United States everyday by the children we fail to educate.

We segregate them, we brand them, and we discard all but the "good kids" to a life of poverty, of want and of pain. And many of them, turn around, and in desperation, rob us, steal from us, or deteriorate into druggies, costing us many times over in prison costs, medical costs; etc.

They are our plastic bags, clogging our society and suffocating it.