Let's talk about schools. It should be obvious by now that in DeKalb there will be no return to F2F, in the classroom schooling. Some say this is nonsense pointing to other districts that are and have been in a return-to-the-classroom mode for some time. Others, equally hysterical, talk blood on hands, one is too many, and other hyperbolics spawned in their echo chamber to put an end to any consideration of classroom housed education.
If we take a big step back perhaps we arrive at a defining question: so what?
It isn't as if the previous operation was any good, at least not if your concern is what your child learns and how well they compare to a broader cohort, say other children across America. And it isn't as if the U.S. as a whole is out in front on a global basis ranking 12th among the top twenty high income countries when it comes to literacy. Worse yet 50% of adults cannot read a book written at or above the 8th grade level and 44% do not read a book in any given year. More humorous than statistically sound, one must wonder what those 6% read-was it The Cat In The Hat or Bozo Bit The Balloon? According to a recent study conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, 32 million of American adults are illiterate and 21 percent read below a 5th grade level. Even more damning, particularly of public education is the fact that 19 percent of high school graduates are functionally illiterate. And yet they have that sheepskin.
So even in the before times public education was an epic fail delivering 1 out of five graduates that are functionally illiterate and this does not account for the approximately 5% that give up altogether. These are nationwide stats and let's go out on a limb and guess that DeKalb public schools are NOT an outlier on the high performing end. Just a guess, but it looks like a good one:
Yep. We suck.
It is not likely to have gotten much worse with "virtual-whatever-the-hell-is-going-on" simply because it always kinda sucked. Look at it this way: if nationwide 25% either left public schools diploma-ed but functionally illiterate or just left and DeKalb is worse than the national average then are we looking at a machine that pumps out one out of three that are, at best, functionally illiterate? Is this a system we want to return to? Can anyone even justify such an idiotic suggestion?
And if you read "The Secret Shame" you'll conclude DeKalb isn't going to improve whether in a virtual or real world. The simple fact is that urbanesque systems, like DeKalb, are run by the left/liberal/progressives and as it turns out they haven't a clue when it comes to educating our children. Adjusted for all other factors and measuring educational outcomes the conservatives are serving up a can of educational whoopass to the liberals. Unfortunately at almost every level of education things are run by a liberal establishment and in DeKalb they are empowered with a $1B budget.
So. Is there any [value in] going back? Will it get any better? Can it get any worse? Isn't it all just an inevitable waste of money? Does any of it really matter? Does anyone even care? If they do, what will they, what can they, do about any of this?
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