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Originally posted by Darkblack
Did you go to an inner city school which had low test scores which lowers the amount of cash the school had to hire quality teachers and provide antiquate materials for learning?
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This is a little off topic, but am I the only one to whom this make no sense? "This school is having trouble teaching their students. Lets take away their money. I'm sure they'll be able to do a better job that way..."
I work with inner city kids in Bridgeport (one of the poorest cities in the US) which is inside Fairfield County, CT, one of the richest counties in the US-that's including Bridgeport. The school I went to has more and better equipment than many colleges. The schools in Bridgeport have very little in comparison. Big surprise here...the Fairfield students tend to do much better on their tests than the Bridgeport students. I wonder why.
There are other reasons why many Black people have trouble succeeding in life. When I graduated from high school, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that I would be going to college. I believe that almost everyone in my class of 300 or so went to some sort of secondary education, except for a few who joined the armed forces, and one or two who started working.
Look at the typical city school's graduating class. First off, the class size has probably dropped considerably since freshman year, sometimes by as much as half. Many of the girls can expect to be pregnant sometime between ages 16 and 20. That's not exactly conducive to getting a good education. Also, these students just are not expected to go to college. Some do. Some manage to get a good education. However, many more do not.
I think education is closer to the root of this problem than the music. Glamourizing the "gangsta" life, the "easy money-excessive spending" lifestyle often portrayed in hip-hop doesn't help, but I wouldn't go as far as blaming the music. That seems like blaming Columbine on the game Doom, or any of the other things used as scapegoats. Equalize the education opportunities, not by decreasing those of the better schools, but rather by giving more money to those schools that really could use the help. How about shaving a bit off the military budget, and give it to education. How much does a tank cost? A nuclear sub? Imagine if the money for even one of those things was given to a school, or a district, even. Think of what they could do to improve the education provided. I think that might solve some of our problems, including homelessness, unemployment, and the general ignorance that seems so prevalent in our society at times.