Loading ...Time to Give IPS the “Barbaro” Treatment
There’s no worse feeling than having to get rid of something you love. Whether it’s that old sweater that’s worn and beaten, a favorite chair or an old clunker with so many miles you could have driven it half way to the moon. At some point in time, it served a purpose, the old sweater was once on the cutting edge of fashion now belongs on the cutting floor. It’s time for IPS to go the way of my old car and old sweater.
Using the words of Superintendent Eugene White, the school district is failing. Students at the middle and high school level aren’t cutting the grade. The dropout rate is ridiculous. And any effort to bring more competition to the area is met with the staunchest opposition. So with all that, what’s a pundit to advocate? Give IPS the “Barbaro” treatment. Take it out and shoot it.
That may sound harsh, but sometimes you need to dish out tough love. The system is not working, by its own admission. And if something isn’t working you fix it. When you can’t fix it, get rid of it and get a new one. IPS can’t be fixed.
January 30th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
It was always broken and could never be fixed. You cannot obtain performance from socialism and government schools are socialism in action-not an original observation-at least as old as the Fabian Socialists and George Bernard Shaw.
January 30th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
Hey - you forgot to bring out the old fear-factor about Karl Marx in 1848 in The Communist Manifesto calling for free public education! See? It’s all a commie plot!
Hoosiers have fought anti-school naysayers for many years but our free public school system was finally implemented in our new Indiana Constitution back in 1851. Priests and mullahs now want madrassas or some such nowadays. Shelbyville H.S. and Indiana University worked for me - I support public education!
January 31st, 2007 at 8:07 am
Abdul, I disagree with you. African American children are being disadvantaged by design with low expectations for achievement and their ability to learn. Special education, the largest school district in the State has to enroll all students who do not attend other public schools.
Dr. Eugene White inherited a nightmare in IPS behind the former superintendant,Pat Pritchard who did nothing to correct the problems in the system. By design he allowed for low achievement standards and social promotions. The school district is over 51% minority. Who really cares if the parents don’t was his attitude. He has since moved to Florida after retirement.
“Rome was not built in a day, nor did it fall in one.” Dr. White deserves the opportunity to allow his vision and plan for IPS to work.
Mayor Peterson is not an educator, in fact he can’t seem to do a very good job of running the City of Indianapolis. Maybe he needs to spend more time dealing with those issues.
I support public schools and quality education for all children. Politics needs to be taken out of the formula. Dr. White is doing the best job he can to improve the process. He has requested Mayor Peterson not to approve any more charter schools. The Mayor has stated that he will not honor the request. It appears that as long as African American children are being disavantaged, he does not care. Peterson needs to stop the hypocrisy. Again, funding is being taken from IPS and building up other schools just like when one way busing was the law. The tax money followed the students to the out lying townships. Those funds were used to upgrade their classrooms, build swimming pools and athletic fields while IPS suffered. This kept their property taxes low while home owners in IPS District had increases. It is all about the money.
January 31st, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Politics is the basis of government schools-what they sit upon.
January 31st, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Privitize schools and do it now. Give parents vouchers for their kids and let parents choose where they send their kids. Competition among schools will make all of them perform better.
Hopefully our Governor has his eye on privitization of our schools too! Maybe he’ll drag Indiana kicking and screaming toward school privitization too!
February 1st, 2007 at 1:00 am
There is always this ridiculous notion that choice is the solution, but no one ever proposes opening up choice within the existing public schools so that anyone can go to any public school in any system they desire. One way ot allow that would be to shift funding of schools to the State so that someone living in Warren Township can go to school in Carmel if they want without any additional costs. Transportation would be the students responsibility. At the same time, schools should be small and neighborhood based, so that people can walk or bike to their neighborhood school if they so desire, and so that the teachers, administrators and students actually know each other. But they should not be made to go to the neighborhood school if they do not want to do so.
There is no way IPS can reasonably improve when they have to deal with thousands of illegal immigrant non-English speaking children dropped on their doorstep in addition to the many native children who can barely speak the language. And, yes IPS probably has to be administrators, but they also have too many extreme educational needs to address. They don’t have classrooms full of “All-American Boys and Girls. They have students with severe problems and home lives that they have to deal with - not occassionally, but constantly. It is hard to educate or to accomplish anything, when you spend most of your time putting out fires. The fact that they accomplish anything at some of their schools is amazing. It is also amazing how little schools in suburbs accomplish despite their many advantages.
February 1st, 2007 at 8:44 am
I agree with your first paragraph 7:57 PM
Frankly I feel an activist judge ruined IPS, like many large city urban school districts. Rather than leave things be they did forced busing which sent those who could afford it fleeing to surrounding areas. Those would could not afford to sell and move were stuck, and I have no doubt the tax base as a result eroded.
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:44 pm
It takes courage for Dr. White or any administrator to admit somthing they are responsible for is not meeting expectations. Give Dr. W. credit for his revelation, and the authority to fix the problem. Most leaders feel such a comment is a poor reflection on their leadership so they remain silent while failure continues to sink our children into crime and lower social levels of society.
If Indy is ever going to be a world class city, it will be because of our nationally recognized educational system, not our brick and mortar, that will turn out students who demonstrate acedemic excellence. Set the bar higher for teachers and students or close the mediocre school system. We owe it to our city and nations future. The easy way for students is not the best way. challenge them to excel and when they don’t let them know they are not meeting expectations.
February 5th, 2007 at 11:34 pm
Dr. White needs to stop accomodating the Monroe Grays of the world if he wants to get some respect from me.