We didn't really talk about much on Tuesday's class so I'm going to comment on the Waiting for Superman documentary we watched. I found a lot of the information provided very interesting. One thing I wonder about is the failing neighborhoods and schools. Are schools failing because of the failing neighborhoods or are neighborhoods failing because of the failing schools? Quite frankly, I can see a little bit of both. If the neighborhood is failing, it is likely they aren't providing a lot of tax dollars to make the schools great. At the same time though, if the schools aren't providing good students, those students will grow up and end up the same way their parents did, it will be a never ending loop of failure. In the end I think at some point it is the school's duty to make better students to stop the loop of failure.
I also thought it was very interesting how it cost more to house an inmate then it did to send a child to a private school. An inmate costs $33,000 per year. If they are there for four years it will cost around $132,000! Per year, a private school costs around $8,300. That multiplied for 13 years of schooling through high school is only $107,900. For the cost they pay to house inmates with no education to set up a nice life, they could be sending them to private schools where they can set up a great future. It is something that needs to be considered. Especially because in the end, they are saving money!
The statement about how much it costs to keep an inmate in prison doesn't surprise me because of the fact that they have to feed them three times a day and pay people to watch them around the clock. To respond to the part about the failing schools or neighborhoods, the schools are more to blame than the neighborhoods. The reason i think they are more to blame is they spend 7-8 hours a day at school and the teachers are responsible for keeping their attention. The schools need to be more selective hiring teachers rather than just hiring to fill positions.
ReplyDeleteI too was not surprised about the cost regarding the inmates. That is were a lot of our tax dollars go. I would disagree with the comment regarding the schools failing because of the failing neighborhoods and the neighborhoods failing because of the failing schools. Personally I feel that everyone is at fault. It is the community and the people that live in its fault for the failure in there area. And I don't even think that it is all about money either, like the rich have better schools and the poor have poor schools. I think that it has to do with employment rates in the area, crime rates in the area, cleanliness, community involvement, activities for the children to be involved in, ect. If a vast amount of people in the community enjoy where they live, respect where they live and want the same for their children then they will have community member that do the same and have the same understanding for the kids and will make the school systems stronger and better.
ReplyDeleteI would hate to live in a failing community. I that if the community has a poor school system, they will probably not have a nice-looking community. There will probably have a high drop out rate which means kids will be on the streets being mischievous and vandalizing the area. The community will fail. The kids will stay in the same dead-end place working their dead-end job and raising kids who will turn out the exact same way. It will continue to look worse and worse and fail more and more. Also, I agree that the money needs to be given to schools and teachers instead of inmates. It would be going towards a better cause.
ReplyDeleteThe schools failing and the neighborhoods failing is nothing more than a vicious cycle that is extremely difficult to alter. A failing school causes a failing neighborhood while a failing neighborhood causes a failing school etc. Unfortunately, the only way to counteract this problem is with a lot of work and effort. Its about the community placing a high standard on education and the schools having to step it up and interact with the community more. But, its not just about the neighborhoods having the wrong mindset towards education and hard work (which go hand in hand) but more of the entire countries mindset.
ReplyDeleteWhen I learned that the cost of inmates was higher than the cost for a private education I was appalled. I think the government needs to reevaluate their standards. There are innocent children that deserve a good education; but unfortunately the money it not there to support them. When thinking about so much money goes to “bad people” it makes me sick thinking the children of the society are missing out on starting their life off right. I think each state needs to rethink the budgets put towards education and prison.
ReplyDeleteI was not surprised at all about the inmate statistics, but what I was surprised about was the teachers who were waiting to get fired or the teachers who have done something wrong were sitting in those rooms reading news papers for 7 hours and getting PAID! Why is this happening? This just goes to show how much we don't care about the future of this country. Paying people to sit and do nothing while there are children who would do anything to get an education and have that money that they are being paid to get that education. This documentary honestly made me want to become a teacher. To help children.
ReplyDeleteI found it very intriguing that it costs more to keep an inmate in jail rather than to pay for tuition for a person from kindergarten up through senior year of high school. It makes me think why and I can't seem to come with an answer. I also agree with Brittany in that sometimes it is the failing neighborhoods that cause schools to be crappy, and sometimes it's the students that drop out and live their lives in that town and give it a bad name.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is crazy that it costs more to house an inmate then send a child to private school for 13 years. Why are we spending so much money on people that already had their chance to make something of themselves when we could be spending money on kids who still have their whole lives ahead of them? It just seems so crazy.
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