LAURENCE B. writes:

One angle that needs to be investigated with the recent Atlanta cheating scandal is the issue of parental awareness. It seems very unlikely to me that even parents of illiterate children wouldn’t notice or question the otherwise inexplicable success of their otherwise underachieving children. While there are several possible explanations (maybe they were just happy and didn’t want to ask questions, or maybe they really didn’t know how dumb their kids were), I think that a certain complicity, if not an open communication between some parents and teachers, is likely. Especially given the racial component of these schools and these perpetrators, I can see teachers bringing some parents into full confidence on how to beat the system and continue their children’s over-funded daycare–It’s a win-win for the teacher’s and parents.

The parents can keep their children in daycare/school, and the teachers can maintain their salaries and funding. Who cares if the kids aren’t actually learning anything? Let’s just kick the can up the road.

When I revisited the idea of complicity between the teachers and parents in this cheating scandal, I was struck by the logical question that follows: If teachers and parents are conspiring to change the student’s test answers and results, who is to say they can’t do that?

I mean, since the public schools are taxpayer (parent) funded and there’s no choice in the matter (the parents have to pay taxes, and don’t get to really say where their tax dollars are spent), why shouldn’t the parents be able to demand whatever arbitrary grade for their children from the teachers? They’re paying for a service (theoretically), and otherwise are not getting what they paid for. Since they can’t get their money back, but have to keep their kids in school, maybe they should be entitled to whatever superficial grade they and the teachers settle on?

Of course, the alternative, non-federal methods for educations, such as charter schools, private schools, and/or home schooling, could preclude such complications with more precise contracts between parents and teachers/school administration. The parents would have more oversight into where their money is going and how their children are being educated, and the private schools wouldn’t have the incentive to cheat that is the continuation of federal funding.

This is all to say, what good is public education at this point? For the person who’s paying taxes anyway, it’s just free daycare, and Government rearing children between the ages of 5 and 18.

Laura writes:

You write:

It seems very unlikely to me that even parents of illiterate children wouldn’t notice or question the otherwise inexplicable success of their otherwise underachieving children.

Actually, it is very likely many parents didn’t notice. In black city schools, there is enormous parental indifference. A math teacher I know works in a black high school in another city. He has more than 100 students in his classes. Maybe three parents will show up for back-to-school night and parent conferences.

If teachers and parents are conspiring to change the student’s test answers and results, who is to say they can’t do that?

I mean, since the public schools are taxpayer (parent) funded and there’s no choice in the matter (the parents have to pay taxes, and don’t get to really say where their tax dollars are spent), why shouldn’t the parents be able to demand whatever arbitrary grade for their children from the teachers?

The Atlanta system is heavily susidized by taxpayers elsewhere. I don’t think there is much consciousness of parents paying for education.

At the heart of this scandal is the failure to recognize that blacks should not be held to impossible standards. It is not right. Black education should be different from white education. It is not compassionate to deny racial differences. The progression of subject matter should proceed at a different pace and black students should graduate to the working world, at perhaps a much younger age, with a command of basics and not the unrealistic, utopian expectation that they will study Algebra II in high school or go on to higher education that isn’t narrowly vocational. Of course, some blacks will do these things and they deserve the opportunity to succeed, but schools should acknowledge the general characteristics of black students and adopt realistic standards.

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