EL DORADO, BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN, AND THE GRAND RAPIDS PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT

Those of us not in straitjackets are fairly certain that lands of fabulous wealth free for the taking do not exist.  There is no El Dorado with streets paved of gold, no Big Rock Candy Mountain with cigarette trees and whiskey lakes, and no Shangri-la to ply us with every physical pleasure imaginable.  Also there is no Grand Rapids Public School District with money growing on trees to build grand palaces of secondary education to the tune of $165 million.

Alas, there is a very real Grand Rapids Public School District, one that is on verge of meltdown in terms of both finances and performance.  The near-bankruptcy of the GRPS is well-known.  Likewise, the poor student performance.  The latter was confirmed once again just this past week.  On the most recent standardized test for high schoolers, all four of the district's comprehensive high schools failed.  (Well, they all got the fig leaf that they hadn't actually failed yet but were only at the cliff's edge.)  The educrats complained that it was a new test so the kids weren't ready for it.  Translation:  School officials weren't given enough time to teach to the new test.  Of course, there is nothing new about readin', writin', and 'rithmetic, so if the GRPS had been sticking to the basics, no test old or new should be an issue.

Now comes a select committee to provide GRPS officials with a bevy of suggestions to improve the district's high schools.  Astonishingly they say it's not all that hard to do.  Just spend scores of millions of taxpayer dollars on renovations and new construction!  The committee wanted to consider a wide range of options, and so they did.  Their suggestions ranged from nicking the taxpayers for anywhere between $120 million and $165 million.  Unfortunately, the committee's plans for rebuilding the district's high schools didn't explain where the money would come from nor how new bricks-and-mortar would solve the endemic lack of discipline that is at the core of poor student performance.

Thus, we can only conclude that the committee knows something we don't know.  The Grand Rapids Public School District is an El Dorado where nothing but riches and pleasures can be found to eliminate any problem.  Indeed, according to the Grand Rapids Press, some GRPS officials actually said that the taxpayers would not have pick up the entire tab.  Well, why not buy into that fantasy?  Avoiding reality has been S.O.P. for the GRPS for quite awhile now, and those running the show haven't had any trouble getting their wallets fattened by the taxpayers in the process.

Unfortunately, the education of our children is a little too important to indulge in make-believe, no matter how much that has served city educrats so well over the past couple of decades.  So let's deal with an ugly truth.  Those running the Grand Rapids Public School District, starting with Superintendent Bernard Taylor, have given up on the kids currently in the system.  They do not want to do any of the heavy-lifting needed to help these students, so many of whom come from broken families and rotten neighborhoods, to learn the basics they need as adults to be responsible, productive, and self-reliant.  Instead they want to mask the poor performance of these students by drawing into the GRPS higher performing students from charter, parochial, and suburban schools who will by their numbers raise the district's average test scores and so make GRPS officials look better.

Hence the mantra of the select committee and GRPS officials to build a Shangri-la of educational facilities and programs that look and feel like the suburban school districts.  By some weird logic city educrats think pouring fresh concrete and slapping together specialty schools for the performing arts (but not plumbing, machining, and auto repair) will make parents overlook the deficient substance of education in the Grand Rapids Public School District.  Of course, GRPS officials have no excuse for not knowing that this doesn't work after the repeated failure of new buildings and speciality programs to pull in students currently attending non-district schools.  But then why should they let reality intrude so long as the taxpayers keep sending them paychecks and funding their pension plans?

Comments

[Frank]

You're right! They do know something you don't because the are in the trenches, and you are in your treestand.

[beentheredonethat]

Wouldn't you get a better view of the situation as a whole from a treestand than from having your head buried within the trenches? Just a question.

[The Executive Director]

Hi, Frank.

I can't really improve on Nancy's response to you except to ask what that "something" might be.

Regards, Bill

[Nick]

Mix this with the City Commission's decision to pull the troops out of Iraq and I'm tempted to ask how they all wound up drinking fetid Grand River water...

--Nick
www.RightMichigan.com

[The Executive Director]

Hi, Nick.

You ask, "I'm tempted to ask how they all wound up drinking fetid Grand River water..."

I suspect they mistook the Grand River for the stream of alcohol that comes a-trickling down from Big Rock Candy Mountain. At least it's certain they all know how to spend money like drunken sailors -- even when the till is empty! Stick the taxpayers with the tab.

Regards, Bill

[beentheredonethat]

Not only do they want to dress up the buildings to make them "better", now they want to dress up the kids as well. While I have no objections to the kids wearing uniforms, this is only a "cover up" to the real problem that lies within the buildings. I can just see it now - kids will hate the uniforms because it's a sign they go to a "dumb" school - one that can't meet the expectations. If they do it for one, they should do it for all - not use it as a punishment. Remember, there are kids at each school that are succeeding - why label them? Do they really think that just because you set a standard the kids are going to change the way they learn - it hasn't in the past. The change has to come from "inside" - not just a mask to cover up the problems.

[The Executive Director]

Hi, Nancy.

That's interesting. I wasn't aware of the students' perception of uniforms as a mark of poor academic performance. I agree that if the GRPS wants to implement a uniform dress code, it must apply to all students in the system. But as you say, it really doesn't address the real problem.

I have serious doubts that the current GRPS administration will ever do so. The board hired a superintendent committed to the values of the status quo, which, at the end of the day, all support a system that transfers dollars from taxpayers to those holding sinecures in the systems under the pretext that they are educating our children.

It is a harsh observation, especially because there are dedicated public servants in the GRPS. But it explains why the board and the superintendent will not open up the public school system to the fundamental changes needed to improve the academic performance of the students stuck in the system. Such changes threaten the control that the GRPS administrators and the teachers union have over this transfer of dollars from taxpayers to them.

Regards, Bill

[tami vogel]

I am a vet. & believe in equal rights. i work for GRPS but have had my job taken because, when i reported abuse, the response was to threaten me & have an attorney: marshall grate, paid by head of hr & the dr.bernard taylor to tell me, in front of witnesses, that it is alright to call me worthless "no help to anyone & everything i do is -w- total stupidity".
when i received this response, i went over dr.bt head & emailed mayor heartwell, predominantly because, i was called a "ho" by a principal, jamie mccabe(who claims to be a friend of gov.granholm), & then booted out of the building for trying to report the abuse going on.
i was yanked into a meeting & told, i had better keep my mouth shut
(you are getting the short version)
i was also told that i should not be allowed to own property in gr, by the neighborhood improvement assoc.& have been threatened by todd julians friends, who tell everyone that "i should be burned out".
i asked his supervisor to have him removed from my case, but she, having been approached by my supervisors of GRPS, to help take me down, declined.
anyone working on my property gets harassed hy todd julians friends & one of my supervisors(jerry blodgett, the 1st 2 threaten me) lives on the same st.
now, since mayor heartwell is involved, i have had my job taken from me, because i am unfit to work for GRPS, & am in court regarding my property & denied a court appointed legal counsel.
when i emailed mayor heartwell(who never replied to any of my emails), i got banned from GRPS grounds, when they, all of the sudden, are holding the hearings on my property, of which, i am not allowed to attend.
i have collected proof regarding these people & their actions, that i work under, either, setting up prior workers, to be fired, or, turning a blind eye, to the abuse that is allowed to go on.
fredericka williams put out a new sheet on dealing -w- the harressment of which, i had already followed but it didn't get me anywhere, as she sent me a notice, which i received, Dec.24, stating, i am unfit 2 work & will no longer receive monies from
GRPS & "have a merry christmas".

& yes, you are right, grand rapids press refuses to print the truth.

i was so upset at mayor heartwells involvment, that i turned a complaint in against him in "deadbeats".

it is sad when the only ones that count to those in power are those that have money or connections.