THE CHAOS IN CITY SCHOOLS

One of our readers, in response to our article "New School for No Students", commented that his firsthand experience of the lack of discipline in Grand Rapids Public Schools forced him to place his son in a parochial school despite the high cost of doing so.  After witnessing the violence and mayhem at his neighborhood public school, he said, "It's all but impossible to achieve academic parity -- never mind excellence -- when one's mental energy is spent figuring out how to avoid being the target of some delinquent thug's nefarious intentions each day."  How true.

I know this for myself.  Ten years ago I purchased a house for my sister and her children in the Twin Lakes neighborhood of the city.  So two of her children enrolled at Beckwith Elementary and the oldest at Northeast Middle School.  I saw for myself how corrosive the constant bullying, intimidation, and threat of violence from fellow students was upon the emotional well-being of these kids.  It was heart-breaking.  And then it was infuriorating, because neither the teachers nor the administrators would do anything about it for fear of offending the parents of the aggressors.  Soon afterwards, I gave up on the city schools and moved my sister and the kids out into the suburbs, where they excelled in the Rockford public schools.

Our reader regrets his decision to abandon the Grand Rapids Public Schools, because he places great value on the public school experience.  I understand that.  I share the senitment.  I'd be surprised if most of the parents who over the past decade have pulled 500 students out of city elementary schools on the Northeast side and another 800 on the Southeast side don't also share the sentiment.  They aren't so crass as to value shiny new buildings over the physical and emotional security of their children.  Besides what possible good can new buildings be that students who know no discipline within their walls will soon trash?

There's no question that the GRPS needs to build and maintain its infrastructure.  But the infrastructure that is in dire need of renovation isn't physical, it's social.  Rebuilding the communities that used to support neighborhood schools won't be done by throwing money at it.  It requires the will to maintain student discipline on the grounds of the schools, the will to offend the parents of bullies who think their darlings should have free rein, the will to defy the hucksters of the grievance industry who seek pay-offs for invented outrages, and the will to truly put the needs of students first and foremost -- even when that means being tough with them.

But there is no evidence of that will.  Take a look at Union High School, which made the news this week.  [1] The principal was decked and put into the hospital by student when she attempted to separate the kid from a brawl -- a planned brawl that had drawn sixty eager fellow students as spectators.  In response, the mother of the brawler demands that the principal should be fired.  [2] Vandals then shut down Union for a day by putting glue into the locks of most of the classroom doors.  [3] Meanwhile, fighting is endemic at the high school with as many as six outbreaks a day while teachers have their cars stolen from the school's parking lot.

When was enough enough?  Now?  Now that one of the management of the GRPS, the Union High School principal, was physically harmed by the chaos in our city schools the administration will clamp down?  Perhaps, and that would be desirable, but that would also go to show that the GRPS is rotten at its core.  The persistent violence and intimidation faced by students wasn't a sufficient call to action, because the students only matter as a raw body count to boost taxpayer funding for the GRPS.  Only when the violence strikes out at management does the problem get the system's attention, because their welfare, not the students', is its priority.

If you doubt that, watch how this event unfolds.  The student who decked the principal may well be expelled from the GRPS.  Rightly so.  But consider why that student or the many others who have been brutalized fellow students have NOT been expelled for that violence.  What other answer is there than a principal matters to the GRPS and student victims of assault don't?  Little wonder then that parents who have gotten this message loud and clear over the past ten years have pulled their kids out of the chaos of the city schools. 

Comments

[Joe]

Time to disband GRPS and issue an unlimited number of charters schools in the city. Unfortuantely, the democrats are too beholden to the MEA to allow the cap on charters to be lifted. In the mean time, tens of thousands of students are being shafted by a failed school system.

[Dave]

With all due respect for the right of each individual to thier own opinion, it is also the fault of the parents and FEAR of others who don't look like they do. Perhaps one will referrence the influx of Africans(who have demonstrated incredible work ethic on the job, and at school), or the Latinos et.al.

It comes down to flight, primarily white flight. Take a look at Grandville, Byron Center, etc. They are just beginning to feel the pinch of subprime students. A herion scandal in Grandville(e.g. "pleasantville")?

I agree that the GRPS seems doomed, but not for the reasons you cite, but rather your lack of support as things get tough. Iraq anyone? I would not be surprised if both the editor, and "Joe" above support the idea that leaving Iraq would equate with "Cut and run".

Funny how when it's war we have money and fortitude.

If only we could practice that at home.

PS-where will you send you special needs children when GRPS is gone? The charters have yet to even offer free and reduced lunch or transportation! You will be told, as many GRPS Special needs parents have, that "Johnny is better suited for your local public school".

20 years from now LAW and readers will lament the lack of an experienced special ed/needs staff.

GRPS may not be perfect, but is part of our social structure. When gone, it will be seen like the purchase and mothballing of the light rail system around LA...a complete sellout, leaving the most in need with no options except those driven by the marketplace-a place not so friendly to the disadvantaged(ADA act anyone).

If only it were so simple!

Get involved as I am and mentor a child or two. Visit a school and ask the priciple how you can help. Be part of the solution. Talk is cheap.

Thank you-Dave

[Brandon]

Broadly speaking, Dave's sentiment about how we have ample money and fortitude when it comes to war is absolutely correct, and can be applied to any number of social ills. The amount of money we've wasted -- yes, wasted -- in Iraq is stomach-churning when one thinks of how such outlays could be spent on problems like infrastructure and health care here at home. While Mr. Tingley would probably take issue with me philosophically, I happen to believe that there are any number of problems facing us that can in fact be solved (or at least bettered) by throwing money at them. With all due respect to Dave, however, the public school system is not one.

My wife has been a high school teacher for nearly a decade and has had the opportunity to teach in both public and parochial settings. The salary and benefit package she receives in her current [private school] job is put to shame by what she had while working in a public school; the difference in compensation is so stark it's not even worth illustrating. But the reason she left the public school (and the reason we don't send our child to one) is because as generous as her salary and benefits were, in the end they were outweighed by the behavior she was contractually obligated to put up with -- behavior by students who were disobedient and disrespectful, and by an administration that either couldn't or wouldn't deal with it. It is not, in other words, a question of guns or butter, Iraq or our schools. It doesn't take an additional $5,000 per student to acknowledge the simple fact that kids who inflict violence and intimidation on other kids belong somewhere other than a classroom.

Another area where I tend to be in general agreement with Dave is the problem of flight -- "white" or otherwise -- to the suburbs an exurbs. The negative social, economic, esthetic and environmental problems of suburban sprawl are increasingly apparent, regardless of whether one chooses to ascribe race as a primary motivation for their existence. But then what about me and others like me? I have no desire to support the tax base of some cookie-cutter/strip mall subdivision and the mind-numbing spiritual paralysis such "communities" engender. I love living in the city, despite its many problems. But I draw the line at subjecting my own child to the kind of lawlessness that our school leaders are apparently willing to tolerate. I'll echo the sentiments of Bill's response to my initial post on this subject: Am I failing the public schools, or have they failed me?

[The Executive Director]

Joe, Dave, & Brandon,

Thanks for you comments. Now a couple of my own ...

Lack of funding isn't the problem. In the U.S. taxpayers annually spend more on K-12 public education than on defense (and that's during a shooting war). Eliminating the incremental costs of policing Iraq wouldn't produce that much more money to spend on education.

White flight isn't the problem. I'm sure if any of us stop to think about it for a moment, a student's skin color has no bearing upon how well he or she can behave. I don't see how the presence of a bunch of white kids in a classroom transforms it into a disciplined environment.

The school bureaucracy is a problem. This is especially so when it prevents teachers and principals from exerting their authority to maintain discipline. From a child's point of view, they are natural leaders to whom he or she will respond positively if they are permitted to fulfill that role.

Parents are THE problem. The bottom line is that lousy parents generally raise lousy students. This was exemplified by the mother of the student who had assaulted the principal of Union High School. She demanded that the principal should be fired. That's a fine message for a parent to send a kid. Of course, this kind of coddling of atrocious behavior by parents isn't restricted to urban schools. Last year the parents of a group of East Grand Rapids high schoolers caught binge-drinking came out in force to defend their little darlings against suspension.

While I think public schools are able to maintain discipline within the classroom even when parents will not demand of it their children, it is an uphill battle. That said, the educrats shouldn't make false promises to taxpayers about what they can do in exchange for greater funding.

Regards, Bill