I dated a teacher
Yeah, I dated a teacher very recently.She was just finishing up school and was teaching a half-day in MPS for her last two semesters.
I also graduated from MPS, and have lived here nearly all my life. I know a little bit about why education sucks in this city, and no, lack of money isn't it. Eugene Kane disagrees. In fact, he thinks that everyone agrees with him that money can always buy a better education. Not true.
I remember watching a news magazine show about 10 years ago about a wealthy benefactor who wanted to help struggling inner city children get a better education. He promised to give each graduate of a certain inner city school (don't remember the city, Philly, maybe) a full college scholarship. As you could guess, his money made no difference. Graduation rates were no higher than before.
Another education myth: smaller class sizes are always better. The school district with the smallest pupil to teacher ratio is the Washington DC school district. They are also one of the worst school districts in America.
Everything else being equal, proper funding, smaller classes, etc ...can all help provide a better education. But things aren't equal. There is only so much a large, unwieldy, bureaucratic monolith like a public school district can do when a large percentage of the school population doesn't come to class, do homework, or come from families that give a rat's behind.
MPS is and was a disaster. The teachers benefits are so lavish that they alone could eventually bankrupt the state. There is layer upon layer of administration and bureaucracy. Teachers are often in it for the summers off, nice pay, and great benefits, ...forget the kids. The education industry discourages qualified experts from teaching while consistently scooping up and hiring students who have failed out of every other major.
And
and
and
Qualified teachers are denied the ability to teach at MPS because they are white.
Think I'm lying?
Take the case of my x-girlfriend Jennifer. Like I said, she taught at an MPS high school for a year (for no pay). Taught actual, real life high school kids at an urban school (Milwaukee Tech). When her time was almost up, she applied for a full-time job at MPS like everyone else. They have a new hiring process at MPS. They call it "Urban Readiness" or some such thing. Basically, an MPS administrator calls you on the phone, asks a bunch of dumb, hypothetical questions, and then makes a decision on whether or not you are "ready" to teach "urban" children.
You are not scored on this test, so you have no idea how well you did. It's either a thumbs up or thumbs down.
Jennifer had her test given by the head of Human Resources at MPS. Jennifer is a white girl from the suburbs. She is liberal as the sky is high and full of so much white guilt that she is essentially a doormat for any liberal cause. She has wanted to work with inner city children her whole life. She wants to make a difference. She cares about these kids, and wants to help. She's the kind of person they need at MPS.
She was denied a job based solely on her urban readiness test.
She was shocked, ...as was the principal at Milwaukee Tech and the head of the English department at Tech. Both people intervened on her behalf, but the head of HR at MPS would not even take their calls. She was obstinate and rude. BTW, she is black and has a chip on her shoulders the size of Bernie's chalet. The head of the English department at Tech is a very close friend of this women, but she still would not take her calls on the subject.
The head of the English department pulled Jennifer aside one day after going down to the MPS headquarters and waiting until the head of HR would see her. She told Jennifer something like this:
"I would raise a complaint. Get a lawyer. I would do to her what she is doing to you."
"What do you mean?" Jennifer asked.
"Play the race card. That's all I'm going to say."
It was clear what Jennifer was being told. She wasn't hired because she was white.
With people like this in charge, more money can only be a bad thing.
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