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.
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.
Read more at ChampionNews.net.
-Lennie Jarratt, 10/1/12 Champion News Evidence to support this, Len? Didn't see any in the article. There IS research however disputing your claim. I'm pretty sure some of the links I provided above address that very issue. Funny, I couldn't find anything resembling research on anything on the web that had your name on it, Len. Assertions with no evidence. Imagine that.
If you believe in your position then defend it. That's what Sully is doing.
"For incumbents, please list your accomplishments. For challengers, what unique strengths would you bring to the job of state lawmaker?" [ + ] ALL[ - ] JARRATT[ + ] LEAFBLAD[ + ] NEAL[ + ] WHITE Jarratt Did not respond "If you don't support a bill like SB512, how would you deal with the state's unfunded pension liability?" [ + ] ALL[ - ] JARRATT[ + ] LEAFBLAD[ + ] NEAL[ + ] WHITE Jarratt Did not respond More questions you couldn't answer, Lennie? Maybe that's why you lost. No answers-no job.
You answered "yes" to a question about your strengths? And you answered "yes" to how you would deal with unfunded pension liability? Well that clears everything up.
Hey Lennie-LOL, right? The perfect juvenile jargon for you.
No matter what way we go, we still need involved parents and community members watching out for our kid's best interest. I am for choice, at least there is some chance for a competitive free market. Why would anyone be afraid of that?
Sullivan commented on the article Gift Giving A Violation "And I will continue to attack YOU for who you are and what you truly represent."
1. You have already stated in this thread that charter schools can be great and that you are not afraid of choice (the point of my last 2 articles). 2. You claim I never admit problems in some charter schools, then you quote me stating they are not the panacea and there are issues. 3. You claimed in manys thread about my intentions were with public schools, yet in the last thread proved I was not out to destroy public education and confirmed my past statements about parents who liked their current public school would not change schools. You see, we already have a lot of common ground to start building from.
Whose money will "follow the child"?
The others, like you, who are not interested in discussing the issue honestly will continue in the shadows with the angry postings, the searches and the personal attacks here in attempts to dissuade others from hearing about both sides of the argument. If you are ever willing to step up to the plate instead of hiding in the shadows let me know? Korrina, interested in hosting a debate on school choice?