KC closing half its schools--wow

[oldandslow]

This may need to go into DC...

still, I think this is an amazing and disturbing thing to happen.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/03/11/mis...html?hpt=T1CNN) -- The superintendent calls it the "Right-Size" plan," but many Kansas City, Missouri, residents say it's plain wrong.

Superintendent John Covington called for the closing or consolidation of almost half of the city's public schools. A divided Kansas City school board voted Wednesday to approve the downsizing.

A packed room of people watched the board make its historic move after weeks of debate and years of declining enrollment. Some parents voiced their anger, while some students cried.

"I have an 8-year-old and a 6-year-old that will be going to school with 12th graders. I find that very inappropriate. I don't feel my children will be safe," Deneicia Williams told CNN affiliate KSHB-TV.

"I feel like I have nothing, I have no high school legacy. I feel like I have nothing, nothing to go back to," said Prince Jones, a senior, who will be part of the final graduating class at Westport High School.

Covington proposed the "Right-Size" plan arguing that the financial future of the entire school district was at stake. The plan shutters 28 of Kansas City's 61 public schools, cuts 700 jobs and saves $50 million to help reduce a burgeoning deficit.

Some called Kansas City's measures draconian but school districts across America, hit hard by budget cuts, have been struggling to make ends meet.

They have had to make tough choices between closures, program cuts, bus route cancellations and layoffs of teachers and staff. Schools in at least 17 states have opted for four-day weeks.

Covington said the closures were the first phase of "right-sizing" a district where enrollments have plummeted from over 35,000 in the 1999-2000 school year to about 17,000 in 2009-10.

"Closing schools is hard - and it is tough on the community," Covington said recently in remarks posted on the superintendent's Web site.

"Closing schools and making the remaining schools much stronger academically is unquestionably the right thing to do for kids," he said. "Keeping all of the schools open with too few children in them is draining the resources we need to improve the education of all students."

But four of the nine board members disagreed with Covington.

"I deserve the right to make a rational decision based on facts, and we were never given facts about student achievement," Cokethea Hill, who voted against the closings, told KHSB.

Some members of the public showed up Wednesday to air their last-minute appeals.

"What I'm asking you today to do is to give our children justice," said Ron Hunt, a community activist.

Others worried that school closures would lead to deterioration of communities and drive residents out of the district.

"The blighting of the urban core is scandalous and shameful," said Sharon Sanders Brooks.

Covington is slated to discuss the school closings at a news conference Thursday morning.

[NewChief]

Originally Posted by patteeu

Huh? Did you quote the wrong post or am I missing something?

I quoted the wrong post. I'm full of FAIL today.

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by NewPhin

I quoted the wrong post. I'm full of FAIL today.

OK, I get you.

[WilliamTheIrish]

Originally Posted by 13and3

I hate to play the race card here, but let me call it like I see it. I play tennis, I play racquetball, I bowl, I play handball. But damn it I refuse to play basketball. What does that have to do with anything? It seems that the only time local black youth are celebrated or thought of as valuable or worthwhile is when they are on a basketball court at KU OR MU. **** that. Here they are on the court spending valuable time practicing for a fan they have nothing in common with. A fan that does not want to have anything to do with the neighborhood, the school district, or friends they grew up with. For what, a bubble gum degree in psychology, sports training, business, communication? The main reason they are there isn't about education, it about entertainment of alumni and wanna be alumni. Most of which are middle class whites. Most of those black kids are of average intelligence at best, and they don't even have the time or energy left after sports to pursue a worthwhile degree. Just another microcosm of what is at the heart of the problem of inner-city schools in this area and across the country. Whites value worth wile educations and endeavors and are encouraged to do so. Blacks on the other hand are handed a basketball

I don't think it's the race card you're playing. I agree with you. Those players should be getting paid. Straight out. There will be those that tell you a "They get a schollie and the perks..." which is only so much horseshit. What good does a Communications/General Studies degree do a player who isn't NBA talent? None.
It's why the NBA shouldn't hold 18 year olds to an age requirement. The best players don't want to be there and if they weren't playing x-sport, they wouldn't be anywhere near a university.

[13and3]

Originally Posted by DJJasonp

I agree with you that, as a parent, you should counsel them that the odds of making millions in the NBA are far greater than if they were to study hard, get an academic scholarship, degree, so on...

My point is though...for many kids (inner-city or not)....an athletic scholarship may be the only way they get a degree.

And trust me...whatever the major may be....those that have a degree versus those who dont have a degree....find a heck of a lot less "closed doors" when it comes to the job hunt.

I submit to you that some of the reason for success in a suburban environment is the realistic approach taken to education. The risk/reward ratio of spending time studying, spending money funding good education and programs is recognized and appreciated more.
Like I said before if you could take all that time on the basketball court and transfer it to studying, reading, playing chess, learning other languages, success and scholarships would not only be more easy to come by but also maintain. A student athlete must balance time and effort between academics and athletics to keep their scholarship. The student on academic scholarship must only maintain their grades, which is the primary reason they are there in the first place.

[gblowfish]

One of America's worst (if not THE worst) school district. Mis-managed, corrupt, nepotism, wasteful, political soapboxing, just awful. And they've burned through more money than Anna Nicole Smith.

[13and3]

Originally Posted by patteeu

Why do you blame the universities or the alumni or white people or whoever it is you're blaming instead of the individuals who choose to get these lame degrees? Why didn't these mysterious, outside pressures-to-fail work their insidious magic on you?

My role models have always been men of substance not people in entertainment. So, when the crowd goes one way, I try to go another.

[Valiant]

Originally Posted by 13and3

Enrollment is down because kids are dropping out!!!

17k kids dropped out??

[bowener]

Originally Posted by WilliamTheIrish

I don't think it's the race card you're playing. I agree with you. Those players should be getting paid. Straight out. There will be those that tell you a "They get a schollie and the perks..." which is only so much horseshit. What good does a Communications/General Studies degree do a player who isn't NBA talent? None.
It's why the NBA shouldn't hold 18 year olds to an age requirement. The best players don't want to be there and if they weren't playing x-sport, they wouldn't be anywhere near a university.

I just finished the book Backboards and Blackboards, I suggest everyone read it. An interesting note to add for any MU alum or fans, the coach of the college program studied in the book, Toledo, was the coach and is the mentor of MU's current basketball coach.

Anyway, the book basically spells out how these college basketball recruits are ****ed over by the schools their entire life. They play 3 roles, student, social, and athlete, with the latter being the one that they MUST perform best at or else they lose the student role (and basically the social role as well since they won't be BMOC anymore).

They have little to no choice in their courses and what they will actually major in. They were passed through middle and high schools without ever really being taught so that they could spend more time playing basketball and making people money than studying or learning to read beyond a 4th grade level.

A lot of these kids have little choice in the matter since private schools will pay their tuition to go to their 'great' school and waive any fees necessary, as well as help the parents make ends meet sometimes (also true for some public schools as well).

In the end these kids are nothing more than a product for schools to make money off of. They ultimately don't end up making it to the NBA as promised, and are left holding (if lucky) worthless degrees while being unable to read at a satisfactory level.

[13and3]

Originally Posted by Valiant

17k kids dropped out??

No lie, in 1990 at southwest highschool we started with a class of over 800, we graduated in 1994 a class of 117.

[13and3]

Originally Posted by Valiant

17k kids dropped out??

http://www.dotherightthingforkids.org/our-kcmsd/

Highest Dropout Rate in the Area (It Costs Taxpayers Millions)

Kansas City, Missouri School District (KCMSD) has the high*est dropout rate among area school dis*tricts. Only 53.3% of stu*dents enrolled in the KCMSD as fresh*men grad*u*ated as seniors, accord*ing to an April 2009 study funded by America’s Promise Alliance and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

[Dylan]

the state senators do not support O_B_A_M_A_?

where's your pork?



ya could've had all that and more




however, in the long run, socialism ain't worth it!

let the ripping begin....

[WilliamTheIrish]

Originally Posted by bowener

I just finished the book Backboards and Blackboards, I suggest everyone read it. An interesting note to add for any MU alum or fans, the coach of the college program studied in the book, Toledo, was the coach and is the mentor of MU's current basketball coach.

Anyway, the book basically spells out how these college basketball recruits are ****ed over by the schools their entire life. They play 3 roles, student, social, and athlete, with the latter being the one that they MUST perform best at or else they lose the student role (and basically the social role as well since they won't be BMOC anymore).

They have little to no choice in their courses and what they will actually major in. They were passed through middle and high schools without ever really being taught so that they could spend more time playing basketball and making people money than studying or learning to read beyond a 4th grade level.

A lot of these kids have little choice in the matter since private schools will pay their tuition to go to their 'great' school and waive any fees necessary, as well as help the parents make ends meet sometimes (also true for some public schools as well).

In the end these kids are nothing more than a product for schools to make money off of. They ultimately don't end up making it to the NBA as promised, and are left holding (if lucky) worthless degrees while being unable to read at a satisfactory level.

I'll D/L that up on the B&N nook. Another very good compilation about the corruption that is the NCAA is documented in Michener's book Sports In America.

[Titty Meat]

The funny thing about this is I pointed out how the Sprint Center and P&NL is a total waste of money while the school system crumbles and ****tards on here totally look over it. Great Job Kansas City!

[bobbymitch]

The KC school district has been failing for decades. They couldn't ever get a bond issue passed and then when the Springfield judge tried to integrate the schools by setting up magnets just pushed it downhill even further. Ya got a school board micromanaging everything and kids being bussed every which direction as there were no more neighborhood schools. The district was paying the local cab company to pick up students to go to and from school.

The billions of dollars spent to build new schools and renovate others was a total fiasco. In one school, the replacement windows were actually aluminum storm windows and they didn't fit. Buildings that were falling apart, bricks falling off, and steps sinking, etc.

The maintenance department was so inept, they left roofs leaking which caused mold to build up in class rooms. I ran across exposed live wires in hallways, missing handrails, numerous fire hazards, and fire doors that couldn't close.

One thing that needs to happen, and is beyond the districts control, is parental involvement. Until that happens, the district test scores don't stand a chance of improving. They also need to get back to teaching the basics.

One reason why we never considered ever moving back to KC proper was the lack of decent schools. I went through the KC school system through my freshman year at the old Paseo High ('60 - '61). When we moved to Shawnee and attended Shawnee Mission North, I was about a year behind everyone else.

[Dartgod]

Originally Posted by billay

The funny thing about this is I pointed out how the Sprint Center and P&NL is a total waste of money while the school system crumbles and ****tards on here totally look over it. Great Job Kansas City!

So they were supposed to spend more money on the schools?