Grading parents: Does this idea deserve an “F”
A friend of mine in Florida — she is a former teacher who quit last year when she couldn’t sleep and was working 15 hour days — urged me to write about the campaign in the Sunshine State to create parent report cards.
State Rep. Kelli Stargel of Florida has a bill in the works that would require Florida teachers to evaluate parents on how involved they are in their child’s education.
Here are the measures in the bill that teachers would use to rate parents: Student attendance, interactions with teachers, children’s completion of homework and readiness for tests, and children’s physical preparation for school.
Parents would receive ratings of “satisfactory,” “needs improvement,” or “unsatisfactory” on their child’s report cards.
Bills like this are largely symbolic, as even teachers would balk at the added burden of assessing not only students but their parents. (I worked in Florida for three years, and its Legislature tends to get even more carried away than ours.)
Teachers on this blog often lament that parents are the problem in education today, that parents defend their children’s bad behaviors in class rather than punish them.
(But for a parent who went too far in the other direction, please look at this wild story out of Richmond County where a mother ran over her son at an area high school. The mom and son got into an argument after the 15-year-old refused to apologize to a teacher outside the school. The mother punched her son in the face and demanded that he hand over his cell phone. The boy refused and the mom jumped into her SUV and struck him with it. His leg was injured. The mom then got out of the vehicle, grabbed her son’s cell phone and left.)
In writing this blog for the last 18 months, I’ve been surprised at the hostility toward parents. As a reporter, I found that parents in event the poorest of schools wanted their kids to do well and did what they could. I have covered daytime events at many low-income schools over the years in three different states and observed mothers, grandfathers and even aunts showing up to watch kids recite poetry or show off their science projects.
How much can we expect of parents who hold two jobs or who never did well in school themselves and are uncomfortable meeting with teachers and principals? I consider myself a pretty informed parent, but have learned that it takes a lot of fortitude and perseverance to deal with the schools.
There’s a lot of rhetoric now about holding parents accountable and grading them for their contributions to their child’s education. But is there really any way to do it? Even more importantly, is there any evidence that grading parents would improve outcomes for kids?
It seems like grading parents is a sideshow that takes away from the main issues of improving instruction, moving quickly to remediate and getting the right curriculum in place.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
205 comments Add your comment
Lisa
January 30th, 2011
12:33 pm
As a teacher myself and reading some of these comments, a clear problem is seen right here on this board. A lot of you teachers have NO business being a teacher. You are clearly biased and don’t have a clue about how to deal with black students. If you have the mindset that white students are somehow superior than your black students, you need a new profession. If you don’t have an understanding or compassion towards what these kids lives are like outside of the classroom, again, you need to quit teaching or move to an all white suburban district. This line of thinking is a MAJOR problem in the schools.
long time educator
January 30th, 2011
12:45 pm
What teachers mainly need from parents is support and backup with the child. I have had parents who did not speak English provide wonderful support and their children excelled. They did not help with homework or read aloud, both of which would have been nice, BUT they taught the child that education was important, the child must mind the teacher and try really hard to do the assigned learning activities. When I had interactions with the parents they were respectful and supportive. I couldn’t do enough for their children. All we want is support and respect from the parents; we will gladly do the teaching.
KB
January 30th, 2011
12:46 pm
Folks,
Enough bashing – that doesn’t help. The students are ours – black, white, pink or blue – now, how do we make their education better?
As a 22-year teacher in Gwinnett, I tell my parents to never ask their child if he/she has homework. Instead, set a one-hour regular homework time Sunday through Thursdays. If the child actually doesn’t have something due the next day, then he/she either reviews, reads, or looks ahead in a textbook. Sounds simple, but that regular study time makes a marked improvement.
long time educator
January 30th, 2011
12:48 pm
Lisa,
I agree with you that there should be no place on this blog for racist comments, especially from teachers.
Top School
January 30th, 2011
12:49 pm
When I taught in Northside Elementary APS ..we had more parent support than any teacher could stand. I would much rather the parent left the child at the door…and stayed home.
OF COURSE ON THE NORTHSIDE the parent is evaluated by how much money they can donate to the PRINCIPAL’S FUND.
The problem is our society in general. The parents are reflective of the generation of “get something for nothing”.
Hopefully our future adults will challenge the corruption in our society that has brought us to this point. The current parents are scrambling to keep up…a possible grade for their efforts will just cause more conflict, hostility and fight for the TOP….competitive donations…So, TOP GIRL can win the prize. Crossing the LINE…and requiring them to “do the right thing” will take another generation of minds. It is not in the minds of leaders in this GENERATION.
Don’t miss the musical “Bring it on” playing at the Alliance theater…
Our children need to realize the ETHICAL REFORM that needs to take place in our current culture…caused by the current mentality of the parents.
The children are the only HOPE we have for a BETTER future where society cares less about the AWARDS and more about the process by which we achieve the skills we are learning.
Donations/Jackson Elementary…explaining how it works.
http://www.youtube.com/user/TopSchoolAtlanta#p/u/34/XE6fjYH8sc8
South Georgia Administrator
January 30th, 2011
12:50 pm
A teacher brought me a cartoon one day that showed a ragged sailor on a wooden ship with his head and arms locked in stock-aids while being flogged …the captain was shouting, “the floggings will continue until moral improves!”. The teacher stated that the cartoon depicted how she felt. Georgia’s teachers are in the stock-aid…. a lot of groups take turns doing the whipping! “About Time” makes many valid points, I appreciate you.
ScienceTeacher671
January 30th, 2011
12:55 pm
Maybe I should read the other comments first, but here goes:
Most of this can be addressed already through existing means. The biggest problem is wanting to grade teachers on student achievement, and teachers know that these factors affect achievement at least as much as what happens in the classroom.
However! Student attendance is already addressed through existing truancy laws and school social workers (if your system has good ones, or any at all). School social workers can also address students’ physical preparation for school.
Homework – depends on your system. In ours, if they don’t do homework, they get zeros. There are those students who live in totally chaotic homes, or have to work late to help support the family, and that’s problematical, but true – it’s really difficult for those students to study or do homework, and they don’t do much. The problem is with administration socially promoting students who don’t do the work.
Interactions with the schools can also be addressed, at least in part, through social workers and the legal system. We have students who get suspended and can’t come back to school until the parent or guardian comes for a conference. If the parent doesn’t come in a timely manner, the truancy officer gets involved.
It can all be addressed, if the administration has some backbone.
Maureen Downey
January 30th, 2011
12:55 pm
@Lisa, Thanks for that comment as I was considering writing a blog entry on that exact point. I am very troubled to see teachers expressing attitudes that black students can’t do as well in school because of some inherent problems beyond the scope of the teacher or the school.
What I don’t get is why teachers believe that as there are children every day in Georgia defying their backgrounds, their parents’ limitations whatever they might be, their poverty and the societal assumption that they have too many negatives in their lives to ever do well in school.
If you don’t think black children can learn to high levels, then please, please, don’t teach black children. If you think poor children can’t learn to high levels, then please teach only in affluent areas.
And if you think that children can only learn when their parents are A grade and do all the right things, then please don’t teach at any school. Because parents are imperfect. And some of them are, as Roy Barnes used to say, “sorry.” But the drawbacks of the parents should not be held against the child.
Are these kids harder to teach than the children of Emory physicians? Sure. Are they impossible to teach. No.
Maureen
Top School
January 30th, 2011
12:56 pm
The RACE issue is clearly defined in the ALLIANCE theater musical “BRING IT ON”
The young adults know how to handle these problems…It’s the current generation that can’t deal with it.
This musical puts it all out there…EVALUATE IT…
The children will be the saving grace…because the current generation is all caught up in the rhetoric.
James
January 30th, 2011
12:56 pm
We need to change the educational paradigm….http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
This is well illustrated example of what is going on with our system and how we should look at correcting it. The first time I saw it I was blown away!!!
@Lisa is right some of you need to change professions. You don’t need to teach any minority children. Some of you have way too many prejudices.
ScienceTeacher671
January 30th, 2011
12:57 pm
OTOH, if you *know* that most of your students are not going to be able to do homework, instruction needs to be adjusted to reflect that…if you want to give them a chance at success, that is.
Top School
January 30th, 2011
12:59 pm
These RACIST teachers are the exact reason there is a NORTHSIDE APS system.
They should not be teaching…and the ADMINISTRATION that leads them should be removed.
PROBLEM is the racism is also withing their own race.
Maureen go to see BRING IT ON…it will help educate you on the current issue we are discussing.
James
January 30th, 2011
1:07 pm
I’m starting to believe by reading what some of these teachers are writing that they relish is failing black kids so they can make a point (that black kids can’t learn). Some of you are almost bragging about how bad your black students fail. If that is the case you are a POOR TEACHER.
You will eventually burn in hell.
Truth Hurts
January 30th, 2011
1:34 pm
Obama and Duncan are right after all. The welfare mamas are not responsible for their offsprings’ failure. The teachers job is to teach so therefore make the teacher take the blame for the academic performance of the welfare nation. If a student fails, fix the teacher. Do not fix the welfare mama.
ID10T check
January 30th, 2011
1:40 pm
Did I miss the entry with the racism? Like always, all discussion falls back to the race thing. What is this 1856? Some people make racist comments, sure, but I did not see any evidence that they were teachers.
And Maureen; “But the drawbacks of the parents should not be held against the child.” Nor the teacher.
Period.
ID10T check
January 30th, 2011
1:42 pm
James: Get a grip. There is a special place in Heaven for teachers. I seem to remember hearing of one who was Jewish carpenter.
are you serious?
January 30th, 2011
1:42 pm
Maureen, the public school system is not a social welfare system. It’s intent is to educate, and every step we move away from this objective is a step toward mediocrity and failure. Your story regarding the lame parents while heart wrenching is not why I send my child to public schools, nor why I teach. The public schools should not be the institution to save children who have bad parents. We already have an institution that provides persons to act as parents to those children whose real parents won’t, and that is social workers. Schools should not play this dual role. It diminishes its primary role of creating educating future citizens and economic participants. It’s another reason that people who won’t be parents should be parents in the first place.
EnoughAlready
January 30th, 2011
1:45 pm
The attitudes of some of the teachers on this blog are prevalent at many schools. I’ve watched as demographics change in certain areas, that were once considered “excellent” schools; how the white teachers leave the schools in droves.
If the school can maintain a status of 65% white; they stay. But once the minorities become the majority; it’s the fastest exit strategy I have ever witnessed first hand. I believe the administration at that time have to pull in whom ever apply for the job, just to have someone in a teaching role by the start of school.
I really appreciate the Ron Clarks of the world.
Equitas
January 30th, 2011
1:48 pm
Grading parents is a terrible idea that shows disrespect toward parents
and arrogance. My position is the same toward the negative trend by
a few newspapers, who have attempted to do the same with educators
regarding testing data.A concerted effort of mutual respect must be
between educators,parents,policy makers, and community members
and this proposal simply inflames an already heated arena of educational
discourse. Contrary to popular belief, society gives respect to people not
simply because they have earned it,but because it is an essential value.
ID10T check
January 30th, 2011
1:48 pm
I went back and read the posts. Unless one got deleted for inappropriate content, I don’t see any singling out blacks. Lee mentioned the “dullards and non-producers” but no race was mentioned. Could it be you’re trying to introduce an elephant that really isn’t in the room?
And Lee, I’m okay with you having a problem with the idea that the same government that rewards the “dullards and non-producers” grading your parenting skills as long as you agree that that when the “dullards and non-producers” fail to do their job we not blame our teachers.
Equitas
January 30th, 2011
1:49 pm
typo-left out a word-A concerted effort of mutual respect must be (made)
Lisa
January 30th, 2011
1:52 pm
@Maureen Downey– I would welcome a blog on this topic because it needs to be discussed and quite frankly, one of the educational elephants in the room. If a teacher has low expectations of their students because of the color of their skin, then how effective can/will that teacher be in that student’s academic experience? As I said previously, blaming parents is an easy target, but if kids have teachers that actually care, they can rise above their home environment. I am a product of this, and I don’t believe that parents are the #1 problem. My mother was never involved in my education, but I had a handful of teachers who believed in me and pushed me to my potential, despite my mother’s involvement or not. As troubling as some of these comments are, it is a real issue.
atlwolf
January 30th, 2011
1:54 pm
Pop culture needs to change and start emphasizing the importance of education. Too many students think they have futures as athletes/actors/musicians/etc. A lot of them will end up disappointed when they fail to make the cut. Then they will have nothing to fall back on. And race has absolutely nothing to do with it.
For example, let’s look at rap music. While I don’t care for it, it is very popular with today’s kids, black, white, Latino, Asian, etc. A lot of the rap I’ve heard glorifies thug life, criminal behavior, disrespecting authority figures like police and teachers. Notice how I did not say “ALL” rap. But it seems that the gangsta rap is by far the most popular. The kids who listen to it regularly will start buying into those attitudes eventually, and will not do well in school. I’m not saying the music should be outlawed. I AM saying that parents should be responsible enough to instill values and respect in their children, and to monitor the things they listen to and glorify.
Parents should also teach their children that a future as an athlete/actor/musician/etc. does not await everyone who desires one. I’ve heard many, many instances of student athletes using their sport as an excuse not to do well in school, saying, “It doesn’t matter, I’m good at (insert sport here), I’m going to be a star.” Well they are in for a rude awakening later in life. Granted, some of them do go on to have successful careers in sports/music/etc. But parents need to teach their children that education should still be their number one priority, regardless of any after-school activities their children participate in.
These are only a couple of the problems with education. I believe the entire system needs a complete overhaul, and parents need to get their heads out of their @$$e$ and start parenting.
ID10T check
January 30th, 2011
1:55 pm
@Enough. While your observations are anecdotal, at best, let’s look at the situation. If you were told that your pay was going to be tied to the performance of your students, and the group you had to work with was universally known for poor performance, what would you do? And before the hate machines chum the waters, I’m not talking about any particular race. Let’s just keep at a group with a well documented history of poor performance.
The history of the world is economic. People chase better pay and better working condition. ALL PEOPLE. Teachers are not above this. They will go where they think they have to go. You can’t mandate altruism. It’s not a teacher’s job to automatically stay in a lousy position because you think they ought to do so.
are you serious?
January 30th, 2011
1:55 pm
@ ID10T check: I’m with you…when did this become about race? Why is the assumption that when we speak about holding parents responsible we are talking about black parents? @ Lisa and Maureen: THAT is what is racist! ALL parents should be held accountable! Maureen, you always write that you don’t want your blog to break down to racial issues, but you always bring it back there, and I think you do it because it is volatile. Do you get paid by how many posts you get?
Here’s the message: we need to stop asking an institution to do what only the nuclear family unit can do. We have asked schools to teach tolerance, hygiene, kindness, responsibility, and other skills that should be taught from the most influential people- the parents. And then we say, “oh, parents can’t do such and such, they have jobs! They don’t have time!” Well, then, why are they parents in the first place? For real, stop it. Our society is like the wicked witch of the west, we are melting…and it’s not the schools fault. It’s our fault.
confussedd
January 30th, 2011
2:11 pm
Great idea grading parents but it will never happen. Personal responsibility is what this would show. Anyone can have kids, no license, no qualifications, no sense needed. Only one act is required to have kids and a good chunk of America is not very concerned with doing what it takes to raise those kids. The poorest people are often those most incapable of caring for kids and have the most of them. This cannot be changed in a free country all we can do is stop having policies that encourage this behavior. It is a shame that a lot of poor neighborhoods think they are victims and take no personal responsibility what so ever. Better choices are needed but forced grading will not change the problem, just like forced by law school attendance has not.
ID10T check
January 30th, 2011
2:13 pm
Good call. Here’s what I know. Many of my friends are teachers. I went into the business world. My teacher friends are more educated than I am, work twice as much as I do and make half as much as I do. That is absurd! And when I ask them why they continue to work in a field where these conditions are reality, they always give me some derivation of “I love teaching. I love the kids.”
And how do we reward this loyalty that makes absolutely no sense in the realm of logic? We beat the Hell out of them. We make them public enemy #1. We cut their pay. We remove their right to a fair dismissal hearing. We furlough them. We tell them that it is their job to get kids to perform NO MATTER WHAT and if they don’t hay can find another place to work. We give them near-impossible evaluation instruments to judge them then tell them that the best they can do, regardless of skill, is “Meets Standards.” We attempt to deny them pay for advanced degrees. We make them pay for the supplies they need in their own classes to work with OUR kids. the list of abuses goes on and on and on and on…
EnoughAlready
January 30th, 2011
2:14 pm
ID10T check
January 30th, 2011
1:55 pm
My background is computer science and process improvement; therefore I have worked in very low performing situation and the expectation was to improve the process. I take pride in my ability to improve processes; which most of the time includes people and systems.
You don’t always get paid based upon performance or success because you can’t control all of the circumstances. The goal is to try to control and improve as much as possible. I don’t believe in running away from a challenge, because I take extreme pride in my ability to overcome them.
I have several family members in the teaching and administration field who take the same pride in their careers. They all teach in extremely poverty stricken areas of the country, have been there for years and have not moved on do to their love of children.
I believe teachers should be paid more money, but I have no respect for those who run because the situation is challenging.
Lisa
January 30th, 2011
2:18 pm
@ are you serious–you are definitely in the wrong profession if you believe that part of your job is NOT to be more than an “educator”. As a teacher, I work with what I have, meaning that if my students don’t have a support system at home, it is my job to try to counter that at school. If my students are experiencing hunger or hygiene issues, I assist. I believe that ALL students have potential to rise above the fray at home. This is the difference between good teachers and bad teachers.
We can not make these parents do something they either don’t want to do, don’t have the time to do, and simply don’t know how to do it. That’s insanity and it’s like beating your head up against the wall over and over and again. We can sit here and debate good parenting vs bad parenting, but at the end of the day, it changes nothing as far as students academic advancement.
ID10T check
January 30th, 2011
2:22 pm
@ enough. I don’t think teachers run from “challenging”. The run from “near impossible”. It is not possible for our teachers to pull off what we have now told them is their job, or else.
EnoughAlready
January 30th, 2011
2:23 pm
Lisa, I would like to say thank you as a parent. We need more people like you.
I’m out of here!!! I hope the blog topic on Monday is good.
ABC
January 30th, 2011
2:26 pm
They might not do it right now officially, but for sure teachers keep score on their heads about parents. I for one am pretty confident and as a parent would welcome this. I am fine with it.
Happy Teacher
January 30th, 2011
2:38 pm
Yay Lisa!!!
ID10T check
January 30th, 2011
2:44 pm
Lisa, don’t break your arm patting yourself on the back. It’s one thing to TRY to do the right thing. It’s another to be told that others shortcomings are YOUR responsibility, or else.
Jo
January 30th, 2011
2:53 pm
Maybe the excess secretaries in the DeKalb County School System Palace should be reassigned to perform clerical duties for our overworked teachers. Clearly, if there is a problem, the only thing to do is to have teachers fill out yet another form, another piece of busywork that takes them away from their real job — teaching our students. Each secondary school department or combined elementary school grade levels should have a secretary whose entire job is to perform these clerical tasks that make administrators feel good and gleam brilliantly in the reflection of a PR blast, yet do nothing about resolving the problem.
AJinCobb
January 30th, 2011
2:56 pm
@NWGA teacher: Great posts. Honest and realistic!
Even good parents are far from perfect, and as you say, the teacher has no idea what the parent may be juggling. I went to this semester’s Open House at my child’s high school, even though he has all the same classes and teachers as last semester, because I thought it would be courteous to show up and I might learn something new. My spouse was out of town at the time. After the first couple of mini-periods I had a free period corresponding to my child’s “lunch”. I took the opportunity to phone home to check on things, and discovered that the younger kid was feeling unwell and the older was studying for a test next day, and really needing help on a topic that he didn’t understand. Needless to say, I bailed from the Open House and went home to help my kids. I guess the other teachers, whose sessions I missed, would have to have given me an F in parenting.
As others have pointed out, how are we to grade a low-income single parent who isn’t at home to supervise homework because she’s working two jobs to point food on the table?
MamaS
January 30th, 2011
2:56 pm
After working many years in a public school, I am now the parent of a child in a private school.
Let me tell you, we DO get graded. The report card is not issued until we come to the school for a f2f conference with the teacher. Three tardies are called an absence. Even if the child is only two minutes late – three times and it is a day’s absence. If my child comes to school without a belt, I get a note of reprimand. It is MY responsibility to see to it he is appropriately dressed. It is MY responsibility to sign his HW book each night. Miss a night, and I get a written reprimand! The school’s attitude is:
It is the CHILD’s responsibility to do the work; It is the PARENT’S responsibility to see to it that the child does what is required. My child’s classroom has no behavior problems because the PARENTS are responsible for the child’s behavior.
AJinCobb
January 30th, 2011
2:57 pm
Sorry, “point food on the table” was supposed to be “put food on the table”, of course.
No Teacher Left Behind
January 30th, 2011
3:03 pm
@ David Sims and his racist colleagues: I teach in a high school that is located in a predominately White and very affluent community. The majority of the students are not of superior intelligence (though their parents think they are) , don’t like to read or do homework, have poor writing and vocabulary skills, are using/selling drugs, and many try to cheat on tests, quizzes, and projects notoriously. I guess if more Black and Latino students started cheating more, we could lessen the student achievement gap?
ScienceTeacher671
January 30th, 2011
3:04 pm
MamaS, it’s my understanding that KIPP (public charter) schools work in the same manner. However, they are schools of choice, as “regular” public schools can’t demand the same from each and every parent.
CobbParent
January 30th, 2011
3:12 pm
“Interactions with teachers – If you fail to attend conferences, open house ot PTA meetings, you get an F”
I attend all conferences. I work volunteer activities when I am able, but as a single mom with a very demanding career I normally cannot do that more than two or three times per year. Open house? I go, but at my son’s school it is a three hour event going class to class with the bells and there is not enough time with any one teacher to get more than an overview as a group – no individual time – so I don’t blame parents who do not attend, especially those who have nobody at home to watch the kid(s) while they attend. PTA meetings? Not on your life would I willingly regularly associate with those busybody, holier-than-though, unpleasant women….
ScienceTeacher671
January 30th, 2011
3:13 pm
@atlwolf
January 30th, 2011
1:54 pm
Great points about pop culture, music, and sports.
And why does the media expect us to believe that extreme political rhetoric causes adults to become violent (even after there is credible evidence that the perp is completely insane), but the same media refuses to take blame for the effect of pop culture (music, movies, video games, TV, etc.) on impressionable children?
Happy Teacher
January 30th, 2011
3:14 pm
I assure you ST671, that our “contract” with parents is a contract in name only…I have just as hard a time keeping up with parent phone numbers, getting things signed, supporting behavior, etc as I did at a traditional public school.
ncgreybr
January 30th, 2011
3:27 pm
I’m not a teacher and I’m certainly not a student. (LONG time ago!) As I said before on a blog, if I ever came home from school and told my mother I didn’t have homework within 5 minutes she would be on the phone to 6 teachers, calling to verify my statement. If I lied. ALL hell was paid! MY MOTHER CARED!
If you went down a list of parents and contacted them at random, not knowing their race or fiinancial status, and asked them to name their child’s teachers, I doubt if most parents could name 2 of them. PARENTS DON’T CARE! BUT…if little Buffy gets an “F” it’s all because the teacher can’t teach.
Ask a parent if their child has done their homework. Chances are the answer will be “The school gives way too much homework. It interferes with Billy’s soccer practice.”
The only thing a teacher can do is teach. She or he can’t force a child learn AND she or he can’t make a parent care.
Courtney
January 30th, 2011
3:29 pm
Parents do not need a report card. We need school systems that will enforce laws already on the books and prosecute these negligent “breeders”.
Jordan Kohanim
January 30th, 2011
3:33 pm
@ID10T. Thank you for understanding why so many teachers are leaving public education. It heartens me to know that not everyone views public teachers as the rightful scapegoats.
Cere
January 30th, 2011
3:57 pm
Bad parenting exists. It’s gotten worse over the last couple of decades. But insisting that bad parents change and suddenly become good parents – or worse, simply give up on students with bad parents (not their fault), will never correct the problem—and the problem belongs to us all at it’s core. Uneducated citizenry effects everyone else in the state, regardless. If we want to reverse this trend, we must put extreme levels of resources into educating a new generation. It may take converting to very small classrooms in poor schools (6-12 students) and offering after-school and Saturday programs as well as real summer camp experiences for those who would never have access otherwise. There’s no way to effect a change by insisting that those who need to change recognize and make that change themselves. Although it would be hard work and expensive, educating a new generation in order to create a new class of responsible citizens would in the end, prove beneficial to everyone in our state. But, I have lost faith that this state cares enough to work for change – and put in the money to back the plan. I predict we will continue into this vortex of exponential production of illiterate and under-educated citizenry until at last, we will become an apartheid. The Georgia our own grandchildren will inherit will not be the same Georgia we all enjoyed whatsoever, unless we work to ensure an opportunity for a decent life for each and every Georgian and stop this finger-pointing blame game. Sorry, I feel a bit like Eeyore these days.
Gunluvr
January 30th, 2011
4:11 pm
Generally it’s not a racial thing as I like to treat everyone the same until they deserve to get labeled by their behavior. My family has had to to make some very hard sacrifices to send 3 of my children to private Catholic school. My wife and I have not regretted this at any time; I’m just glad that we’ve been fortunate enough to do it as I know several other parents who can afford to do it but continue to send their children to public schools in Decatur wishfully thinking that those schools and their attendant problems will have somehow disappeared when their child arrives at the high school level.
Good luck to them.
Gunluvr
January 30th, 2011
4:15 pm
I forgot to mention that the city schools of Decatur are not the panacea that they’re made out to be; they don’t, as a policy give homework assignments to the kids. There’s something wrong and seriously lacking in such a system.
Brad
January 30th, 2011
4:27 pm
Courtney “Parents do not need a report card. We need school systems that will enforce laws already on the books and prosecute these negligent “breeders”.”
I didn’t realize it was illegal to have children. Please enlighten me.