What’s really wrong with KC schools

Melissa Eddy (1/10, Letters) urges us to appoint school board members instead of having them elected. That is not the answer to the problems of the Kansas City School District. The real problem faced by the district is lack of support from the community.

The reason for the lack of support is because of the lingering racist attitudes manifested by the lack of passage of a single bond issue to improve the schools since the ’60s. When the black children showed up in the Kansas City area, the white people began to scatter north, east, south and west. If you look in the yearbooks of the ’60s and fast forward, you see the vanishing white faces that used to be in those yearbooks.

We as a community did not have to do this. We could have come together and supported the schools, but we did not. It was not necessary to build magnet schools to appease white people and try to entice them to come back to the district. All we really needed were good teachers, good books and good equipment. We just do not have the will power.

Clarence Edmondson Jr.
Kansas City

Comments

[54485448]

I continue to wonder when residents of Kansas City Missouri school district will wake up and grasp reality. The district has received far bellow national ratings since the mid 1950’s. Money has been heaped time and time again into the district at a far higher rate per pupil than surrounding districts with no results to reach minimal rudimental standards.

While we all hate to give up local control of Kansas City Schools they continue to fall to politically laced path pitting one race against another blaming the suburbs for their failure. We now find Kansas City Missouri District falling to third largest district behind Olathe and Lee Summit. I find this as a blessing. I sincerely hope all of the District will divided and merged into surrounding districts. As far as who owns the building or materials this would become a mute point when the Kansas City School District is dissolved.

Maybe the district Kansas City District's new motto could be something like “Millions of children felled for more than sixty years”

[Pub 17]

Cute. The little V.C. sneaks one in and thinks he's being clever. If the little V.C. had been to school and minded his lessons, the little V.C. could spell, and think, and make reasoned arguments. Go back to school, little V.C., and stop embarrassing yourself.

[NoMoreMrNiceGuy]

Actually Pubic 17 has the most cost effective plan to educate everyone. Google.

[Horatio]

Most of you are partially correct (Marctnts and Clarence Edmondson Jr. are probably the most right on the mark). We have a board that awards contracts to corrupt or incompetent vendors/contractors without accountability. Nepotism and cronyism flourishes in the administration. Money will not solve the problem when frivolously spent. Administrators won’t enforce academic and social rules when they appear to come down too much on minority students.
The district does have a few bad apple teachers but they are not terminated because of administrative cronyism (often based on race) or because the administrators are too incompetent to follow proper guidelines (they like to incorrectly blame the teachers union). Within the past two weeks, I observed a certified, experienced white teaching applicant (who was told she had the job), edged out by a non-certified inexperienced black candidate. Go figure. Still, most teachers in the KCMSD have equal or better education credentials than their suburban counterparts. I think it would be amusing to trade off teachers in KCMSD with Blue Valley teachers in same sized and funded buildings for two years and see what would happen to test scores and teacher attrition.
The real problem with KCMSD is a systemic cultural urban mentality by slovenly black, Hispanic, and white parents. The children are lazy and defiant due to a lack of adult moral leadership. Our pop, hedonistic culture is failing them. We should stand up and do better. Charter schools are not the answer, private schools are not the answer,only responsible adult leadership and social responsibility will solve these problems and help the childern and our future society.

[Marctnts]

Here's what I found most scary. During the hey-day of free-flowing desegregation money, KCMSD was spending about $500,000 for EACH suburban student they convinced to attend KCMO schools.

For that kind of money, surely they could have found a few people willing to just sell their kids to the district.

[solomon]

Very interesting analysis Mr Mahoney. The fact that it was written by someone who considers us kind of a hick town made parts of it seem like satire, but it exposes how ridiculous the situation of decades of segregation were put above the real issue.

[Gary]

We're a forgiving community. A major perpetrator of the school desegregation fiasco, Arthur Benson, is on the School Board. Maybe he will do less damage this time around.

[F. Carl Mahoney]

This 10 year old "debriefing" article published by the Cato Institute is essential reading for understanding the complete unraveling of KCMO Schools.

http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-298.html

[mianotkia]

Two things come to mind. Provide vouchers to fund attendance to private schools for those parents who want their kids to succeed. Secondly, local control has failed. The state needs to take over and implement the simple principle of separating the rotten apples from the good ones in the barrel.

Someone please tell me why these "educators" insist upon keeping trouble makers, and failures in with the kids who want to learn. The hope must be the good will influence the bad to become better. The truth is the opposite.

A little management and opportunity would do wonders for the district. Simply getting it out of the hands of those with their own ax to grind would do wonders.

[NoMoreMrNiceGuy]

What's wrong with the schools? The same things that's wrong with much of our society. Hip Hop mentality. Money will not fix the issues we have in many urban school districts and society. Defient children thinking they are adults and a liberal social tone endorsing their behavior.
Schools should be teaching not baby-sitting.
Parents should be invloved and be parenting.

[Marctnts]

"The reason for the lack of support is because of the lingering racist attitudes manifested by the lack of passage of a single bond issue to improve the schools since the ’60s."

Well, that's one opinion. As Engineer correctly points out, KCMO spends more per pupil than most other (and more successful) districts. So, either money isn't the issue or KCMO is not spending the money they get properly. Either way, throwing MORE money is obviously NOT the solution.

"It was not necessary to build magnet schools to appease white people and try to entice them to come back to the district."

I present Exhibit A in the argument that racism knows no racial boundaries. Seriously man, do you not see the attempt that was made to involve ALL children in a more focused curriculum in the hopes of encouraging greater achievement. It may not have worked as expected, but I don't buy that it was some sort of bribe to "white people".

KCMO's biggest issue seems to be a board that for the past few DECADES has been more concerned about what they can extract from the district for themselves and their cronies than what they can contribute. With every new set of metrics that point to the low performance of the district, they provide a handful of excuses to try and explain them away. No solutions, no thoughtful discussion, just excuses.

[solomon]

What Clarence calls "lingering racist attitudes" I would term better as "apathy"

He's right about the white flight, and the fact that instead of improving the schools with the magnet fiasco monies should have been concentrated on other areas. The entire idea of rainbow schools was an experiment that, IMO, failed. A school is only as strong as the community it is in, and bussing kids out of their communities pretty much assures you have no real basis for organizations like PTA.

Engineer is somewhat correct in that the ways schools are conducted needs changing.

[Engineer]

Billons were spent on the KC School district and you have seen the results. Currently about 50% more is spent per pupil in the KC District than in the Shawnee Mission District. The letter writer apparently is calling for greater expenditures. This will not solve the problem. In my opinion the problems of intercity schools will never be solved until a major change is made in the way they are conducted.