There’s Always KP Duty
link Obama: $900 million to turn around the dropout crisis – The Oval: Tracking the Obama presidency.
It’s unclear in this story how throwing money at this issue is going to help the dropout “crisis”. There is the vague implication that principals and administrators will be reprimanded through school closures if dropout rates don’t decline. Notice again how the same tonic is used for every “crisis”, that is, throw a pile of dough at it. When people read these headlines, the knee jerk reaction is to get all warm and fuzzy inside, which is the intent. The idea is that if money is being spent on the ‘crisis’, then it’s well on the way to being fixed.
Such a mentality is the Novocaine that has been applied to the masses by governments since the beginning of governments. If they are seen to be doing something, it’s the same thing as actually doing something. Politicians can then point to the ‘fix’ they effected and the monies dedicated to such fix. You’ll seldom hear of efficacy, because that’s not material. Only the intentions are enough to bring on laudatory praise.
While the details of exactly how the $900 million is going to address the dropout problem are not known, I can certainly point to a few things that may be at the root of this ‘crisis’. Firstly, a flawed ingrained cultural mentality has to be addressed and changed, something that will take at least a generation. Society must stop glorifying the stupid. Through popular music and movies, stupidity is showcased and celebrated. Anti-heroes are depicted as the desirable characters while positive characters are portrayed as losers. The winter Olympics, just recently held in Vancouver were able to show almost across the board, people who were positive in their life and life messages, a refreshing change from the thugs and miscreants idolized in much of pro sports.
The environment for kids has to be safe. Kids won’t go to school if they are at risk of being shot, knifed or beat up by other kids. Those that prey on kids should be dealt with and harshly, not spend two weeks in the shrink’s office. Civil libertarians must keep their noses out of teaching methods; in the classroom, the teacher must hold ultimate authority. On the other hand, teachers’ abilities should be assessed without partisan shielding by unions.
Without the benefit of any statistics to back me up, I’d hazard a guess that lack of stable family structure is probably the main cause of the high dropout rates cited in this story. Single parents, which generally means single mothers, are at a disadvantage when it comes to maintaining family stability. Kids don’t drop out of school because they’re dumb, they drop out because it’s easy. If there’s not someone there twisting their ears to attend, hanging with the bros’ seems like a fun thing to do. There has to be more effective social pressure to keep families together. Unfortunately it’s hard to make adults behave responsibly.
Finally, the backstop solution. They can join the army. Kids that are unwilling to complete high school should be compelled to join the army. At younger ages of 15 to 17, they can be given menial jobs such as kitchen help or maintenance while they absorb basic discipline and social routines, things they were probably lacking in their home lives. Their education can be completed under the auspices of army discipline rather than the havoc of inner city schools. If $900 million were spent on such a program, school dropout rates would plunge. Civil libertarians can go suck lemons on their criticism of this idea. Better to have the kid in the safety of the army than in jail or in a morgue.
Finally, not everything is a “crisis”. A crisis is a specific, unexpected, non routine event. A heart attack is a crisis. An earthquake is a crisis. The circumstance of children not finishing school is a systematic social problem which can be resolved. Schooling is available. No available schooling may be a crisis. No food is a crisis. This is not a problems of shortages, these are problems of resource allocation and inadequate policy applications. Money alone isn’t the fix.