In less than three weeks Des Moines residents will have the opportunity to elect three members to the Des Moines School Board. With the Presidential campaign in full swing it is likely that the voters’ attentions will be directed up the ballot and on November 4. If so, Des Moines residents will overlook one of the most important choices they face not just this year but for many years in the future.
Last fall we know that a Johns Hopkins study labeled three DSM high schools, North, Lincoln and East as “drop out factories”. The superintendent’s response, asserting that the Hopkins study was based on the “unfair” expectation that students will graduate from high school in four years more clearly reflects the sanguine acceptance of failure that permeates the modern educational establishment than anything we could write here.
This morning we learned that nineteen, yes, that’s right-NINETEEN-Des Moines public schools are on the federal watch list as deficient in one or more areas of math and reading. No wonder teachers, administrators and school boards hate No Child Left Behind-it requires accountability in a world where the lack of accountability is the polestar of existence and the hill upon which the education establishment will die to preserve.
Competence doesn’t appear to be the only problem the DMPS passes down the chain to Iowa, content is also deteriorating as curriculum has become increasingly focused on effecting social change than training good citizens who appreciate the country in which they are lucky enough to win. For example, every minute spent on the GLBT agenda in a school whose students cannot read proficiently is a minute of misspent tax dollars.
Finally, it looks like conservatives have begun to engage in Des Moines’ School Board elections. Remember, today your children, tomorrow the world so we’d better get involved if we have any hope of stopping the nightmarish P.C. nanny state that the radical educational establishment wants for us.
Last fall we know that a Johns Hopkins study labeled three DSM high schools, North, Lincoln and East as “drop out factories”. The superintendent’s response, asserting that the Hopkins study was based on the “unfair” expectation that students will graduate from high school in four years more clearly reflects the sanguine acceptance of failure that permeates the modern educational establishment than anything we could write here.
This morning we learned that nineteen, yes, that’s right-NINETEEN-Des Moines public schools are on the federal watch list as deficient in one or more areas of math and reading. No wonder teachers, administrators and school boards hate No Child Left Behind-it requires accountability in a world where the lack of accountability is the polestar of existence and the hill upon which the education establishment will die to preserve.
Competence doesn’t appear to be the only problem the DMPS passes down the chain to Iowa, content is also deteriorating as curriculum has become increasingly focused on effecting social change than training good citizens who appreciate the country in which they are lucky enough to win. For example, every minute spent on the GLBT agenda in a school whose students cannot read proficiently is a minute of misspent tax dollars.
Finally, it looks like conservatives have begun to engage in Des Moines’ School Board elections. Remember, today your children, tomorrow the world so we’d better get involved if we have any hope of stopping the nightmarish P.C. nanny state that the radical educational establishment wants for us.
.jpg)
19 comments:
Dowling Catholic High School has yearly charges of $7,190 for non-Catholic Parish affiliated students (Dowling High School Tuition Schedule, 2007-2008, pg.1)
The Des Moines Public Schools claims it costs $5,614 per student. Yet, Des Moines total enrollment is 31,129 with a budget of $397.7 million dollars equaling $12,753 per student. (Adopted Budget and Financial Statement 2008-2009, Des Moines Public Schools, pg. 11)
Des Moines School District should transfer money, along with students, to private schools to give students a better education and saving taxpayers $5,563 in the process.
DAMN!
What's up with the graduation rate?Does the GLBT thing cost money?
Do they really spend 400 million?
No wonder my property taxes are so high!
Just tell me who to vote for to fix this.
Will Kristine Crisman, Mike Pike and Steve Flood examine budgets and cut unnecessary programs? Will they address why it costs our schools 12K to educate students when it only cost Dowling 7K? Will they keep GLBT programs that I assume cost money?
Will they do any better than the people they seek to replace?
I think the burden is on those who advocate the status quo described in my post to show the risk of change outweighs the certain existence of the historic failure.
You could spend $50,000 per student in parts of Des Moines and still have a huge dropout rate. It's the kids and parents who don't give a shit about graduating and attending class that are the problem. Dowling doesn't have those types of students.
Careful 04:47! Spewing out the truth like that will get you called a racist!
So is the argument against sending DSM kids (and dollars) to Dowling because they get to select their students?
If that is the case why not give DSM students a choice and then let the ones who qualify for Dowling go so at least they could get a quality education? We should pay their tuition for them and save 5K in the process.
The real point is the endless money pit called the DSM School District and their collective failure. Individual teachers are not to blame but clearly the system is not working. And, if 50K won't work why should we keep paying nearly double what Dowling charges? It simply does not make any sense.
The kids that want to get a good education from Des Moines Public are. Look at some of the kids going through Central Academy - they are getting scholarships to MIT, Cal Tech, and lots of Ivy League schools. The problem is there are too many that don't really care if they graduate at all - let alone learn anything that might help them better their lives.
I would love to but have you ever looked at the reports generated by the DSM school district? Good Lord, what a bunch of baloney and they do not add up either. How do they arrive at the average cost per student at $5,614 when the real cost is $12,753 when you divide the budget by the student population. Data are skewed in the report, when you can actually find them, and it is impossible to know how students are performing vs. the rest of the state. Many students attend Scavo alternative high school, which seems to be less about helping students and more about keeping tax dollars in the school.
When students fall out of school by September, does the school district hide it in order to collect more money? No wonder Adopted Budget and Financial Statement 2008-2009, Des Moines Public Schools is full of misleading gibberish.
Look at Ankeny’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report from April 2007 and notice the detailed information showing everything a parent or taxpayer wants to know. It is a marvelous study in contrasts compared to Des Moines and how, even a public school, can do it right without excuses.
Ankeny’s per student cost of $9,824.59 produces the following:
7,355 students (pg. 10)
$72,259.851 total budget (pg. 29)
98.34% graduation rate vs. state average 90.3% (pg. 12)
5 students dropped out from grades 7 -12 (pg. 12)
80.84% of students taking the ACT obtained a 20 or higher
Any guesses how DSM rates? I honestly can’t tell based on the report generated by DSM but I can hazard a good guess they are nothing less than abysmal.
If Ankeny is so wealthy, why don’t they spend more money to get even better results? The answer is not about wealth as much as it is about teacher unions, inflated salaries, unnecessary positions & programs, financial mismanagement, and poor accountability.
Offering vouchers or tax credit to the families of students attending private schools would force the DSM school district to improve or wither. Arguing remaining students are disadvantaged fails to address that many of these students obtain an education in name only thanks to current conditions in many DSM schools. Why penalize taxpayers and qualified students in the process?
Sending your kid to a government school is state-sanctioned child abuse. Everyone on this blog needs to shut the hell up. These government schools are doing EXACTLY what they were designed to do. They are "educating" people to the point where they can hold down a job and pay taxes but not to the point where they become a threat to the ruling class.
The newest form of slavery is the Imperial Federal Government keeping people poor and stupid. Stupid people are easier to control and ask fewer questions.
You can make statistics show anything you want. Narcisse keeps carrying on about the dropout factory thing and Murphy just sticks his tongue out and says nyah nyah nyah at Narcisse, but neither of them is doing anything to help students.
I just learned that our elementary is going to be on the watch list and here's why--ITBS scores for ONE subgroup failed to reach the benchmark. I worked out the math and learned that if just TWO students had done better, our school would've passed. Out of approx 435 students, we're doing quite well.
It's a changing population. We have many more free/reduced lunch students than the suburbs. You can't just look at numbers to get the full picture of what the school is like.
I am not blaming the many hard working teachers within the DSM school district. I am blaming the DSM school administration and teacher's union for wasting taxpayer dollars. No Child Left Behind holds schools accountable and the answer is to embrace improvement rather than lament accountability. Many liberals claim President Bush dropped impossible standards and removed funding for schools. I just proved, beyond any doubt, that DSM is funding well above affluent schools. Are we supposed to spend more money to help and, if we did, would it help? Where is the money going now considering the hogwash that passes as the DSM School District financial statement?
BTW - I am not playing with the statistics I simply demonstrated the bottom line since the DSM School District decided to hide it.
In hindsight it seems that the DM school board was mostly about enriching themselves and their buddies and relatives though lucrative real estate development deals. (RICE SCHOOL CRIME)
Connie Boesen should resign right now.
Marc Ward should be flogged and disbarred for his role in the Rice deal.
So much corruption.
The biggest problem is the blacks and their culture of ignorance that they embrace so fervently.
The white trailer trash isn't very far behind.
The leadership of the Iowa delegation to the RNC convention should think about the actions you have taken today.
Between now and November 4th we elect Republicans.
On the 5th of November you and your supporters will be hung in the court of public opinion like the traitorous bastards you are.
If you are so worried about our youth, why not 'adopt' an inner city student with behavior problems and send them to Dowling?
I wonder how well Dowling scores would be if they were filled with students that didn't really want to be in school and didn't really care what anyone thought of them.
WTF?
Is this person justifying poor results? Then, I guess throwing more taxpayer money is the answer?
Post a Comment