U.S.A.
Everyone Else
Health
Science
Business
Technology
Sports
Video Games
Entertainment
Future
Humour
NEWS > U.S.A. > DETROIT MAY CLOSE HALF THEIR SCHOOLS BUT STUDENTS WEREN’T LEARNING ANYWAY
DETROIT MAY CLOSE HALF THEIR SCHOOLS BUT STUDENTS WEREN’T LEARNING ANYWAY
January 20 2011
Detroit, MI – There are many fundamental differences between modern society and those that have passed. The most obvious differences are the things we have, things like the internet and video game consoles, but society is different in much more 
profound ways than that. The overall level of intelligence of human beings has risen dramatically over the last century and, intelligence being our most unique aspect, has created many of the changes that we now enjoy. That change has occurred across the world with even the least educated areas still far more educated that the most sophisticated a few hundred years ago.
Education though doesn’t come cheap. Running schools is a very expensive proposition and in western nations huge chunks of our tax dollars go towards education. Unfortunately as society grows ever larger, the demand is rapidly outstripping supply not only in nations with desperate poverty, but also in major American cities. One city in particular, the modern model for urban decay, has run into exactly that problem as the city father of Detroit are finding. A massive deficit across the city has put many public schools in the cross hairs with up to half being targeted for closure, a move officials believe will reduce the budget differential and have limited impact on students who didn’t want to be there anyway.
“We are looking at a deficit of $327 million dollars which is something totally unmanageable. Our plan is to close a number of the underperforming schools and merge the students into other locations, cutting the number of locations from 142 to 72 by 2013. We believe these moves will reduce the deficit to zero,” said a city spokesperson. “We understand the concerns many educators have about increasing class size and the potential impact that will have on students and their ability to learn, unfortunately we are left with few options. We have undertaken this action with great care however and we believe that the net impact on education will be limited as many students don’t attend class anyway.”
The bulk of the savings will likely come from high schools.
“Most teachers can barely handle the number of students they have now and this 
additional load will only add to those woes. Increasing class size will only exacerbate an existing problem and the extra numbers will push even more kids through the cracks than were being lost previously. There is no way to manage this effectively,” said a representative for the Teacher’s union. “There simply is no way to house and teach this many students. Besides, the rooms aren’t big enough. Some of these proposals will nearly double class size. I mean where are we going to get all the desks? Where will we put them when we have them? There are practical considerations that the board simply hasn’t thought through. We don’t want standing room only classes.”
It is not believed that the majority of students would stand around to be taught.
“Unfortunately in Detroit there is this growing legacy of decay. Urban and social decay has just become a part of life in the city and this situation is no different. There aren’t 
enough people in the city to pay for schools, but too many to simply shut things down. By closing schools and increasing class sizes you are adding to that problem which will only grow going forward,” said Scrape TV Education analyst Ken Ridley. “The plus side of this is it will give all kinds of kids the opportunity to skip class. It will be very difficult to keep track of all those students and the teachers will care about as much as the students. In the short term everyone will be happy, in the long term it will be a little different but this is Detroit after all, I mean does it really matter.”
The City of Buffalo stumbled upon a similar plan last year when school officials across the city simply forgot to show up to work for three weeks. That happy accident saved the system millions.
Mike Michaels, American Correspondent
NEWS > U.S.A. > DETROIT MAY CLOSE HALF THEIR SCHOOLS BUT STUDENTS WEREN’T LEARNING ANYWAY
LINK IT! http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/usa/pages-6/Detroit-may-close-half-their-schools-but-students-werent-learning-anyway-Scrape-TV-The-World-on-your-side.html |
TWEET IT! http://tinyurl.com/4a5frbo |
BOOKMARK IT!  
|
|---|
Scrape Store
