OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS: WORSE THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE

OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS: WORSE THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE

BY JOHN HINDERAKER IN EDUCATION

America’s public education system is so bad that it is an existential threat to the survival of the republic. I have known this for a long time, but I continue to be shocked by the depths to which the teachers’ unions and the Democratic Party have dragged millions of our country’s children.

This story comes from Baltimore, an increasingly godforsaken urban landscape–but one which, to be fair, has enjoyed economic growth during the 21st century that, while poor, is still better than my own Twin Cities metro area.

A shocking discovery out of a Baltimore City high school, where Project Baltimore has found hundreds of students are failing. It’s a school where a student who passed three classes in four years, ranks near the top half of his class with a 0.13 grade point average.

This student–or “student”–must rarely have attended class or submitted a homework assignment. His test scores must be unimaginably bad. Yet his single mother believed that he was progressing satisfactorily toward a high school diploma, since he kept getting promoted.

Tiffany France thought her son would receive his diploma this coming June. But after four years of high school, France just learned, her 17-year-old must start over. He’s been moved back to ninth grade.
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She thought her oldest son was doing well because even though he failed most of his classes, he was being promoted. His transcripts show he failed Spanish I and Algebra I but was promoted to Spanish II and Algebra II. He also failed English II but was passed on to English III.

In Baltimore, and no doubt in most major cities, you will be promoted even if you fail almost every class by essentially refusing to participate in your own education. The remarkable fact is that young Mr. France is average for the environment in which he is “learning.”

In his four years at Augusta Fells, France’s son earned a GPA of 0.13. He only passed three classes, but his transcripts show his class rank is 62 out of 120. This means, nearly half his classmates, 58 of them, have a 0.13 grade point average or lower.

Anyone who thinks we can have a successful, competitive society when our public schools are this bad is deluded.

As for poor Mr. France, what future awaits him? On those rare occasions when he showed up for class and listened to his teachers, he most likely was told that America is a systemically racist society, which means that he has no chance. So why do homework? The Left’s “equity” campaign is perhaps the only thing that could possibly make an incompetent public school system even worse.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/03/our-public-schools-worse-than-you-can-imagine.php