Illegal Immigration
Illinois State Sen. James Meeks will try to draw attention to “ever growing school funding inequalities” by taking a bunch of Chicago Public Schools students and trying to enroll them in the “wealthy, white New Trier suburban school district.”
It’s an excellent publicity stunt. I hope it draws attention, instead, to why students don’t have the freedom to attend schools on the other side of an arbitrary border.
July 31st, 2008 at 21:36
I’ll probably be labeled some obnoxious name for taking a slightly different view than does Illinois State Senator Meeks and suggest that funding is not the root cause for failure in Chicago’s Public Schools. I live in the Northwest Suburbs where our local HS District 211 per student funding ($12,389/Student) is only modestly higher than CPS per student funding ($11,375/Student). Consider the results of each district as measured the Prairie State Achievement Exam taken by 11th Grade students for 2007; CPS 32% meet or exceed standards, District 211 67% meet or exceed standards. Does anyone really believe that an additional $1,000 dollars per student will result in a doubling of performance levels at CPS? Another cut, New Trier, the District the Senator Meeks proposes to “invade” spends (which also implies taxes their residents) $16,856 per student and about 86% of the students meet or exceed state standards. By Meeks logic, those of us in who have children that attend District 211 schools should demand a spot in New Trier as well. New Trier is an outlier in school system funding as most of the Districts in Cook and surround counties are funded a level much closer to that of 211. No Senator Meeks, funding won’t solve your problems. I believe the mega funding, and the abject failure, in Washington DC and Kansas City schools have demonstrated the foolishness of Senator Meeks position.
August 3rd, 2008 at 13:27
Does Meeks have a plan to get around the residency requirement?
If you want a revolution in schooling, completely tie every education dollar to a kid and then let the parents decide , anywhere in the state, where the kids attend. This would work well in my state of CA where the vast majority of ED money is not local. In locally funded districts, I don’t know how it would work. Currently, if a student lives in a given district, that is (barring a complicated inter-district transfer) the only district he can attend, and in many cases, the only school available. So, really, the local district doesn’t really care if the student drops out, since no other district will quickly get that kids ED dollars. But imagine if a neighboring district COULD quickly begin to earn those dollars.