Wednesday, April 2, 2008

'The sinking ship'

During recent floor debate on a bill which would empower some schoolchildren in failing public schools to attend private schools, state Sen. Constance Johnson (D-Okla. City) asked one of the most astonishing questions I've ever heard. "Why is it," she asked, "that we want to take some of the kids out of the public schools and essentially leave the rest on the sinking ship?"

Well, let's see. Not to put too fine a point on it, but maybe it's because the ship is, umm, sinking. And what you do when a ship is sinking is, well, you try to rescue people. I don't know. Maybe I'm old-fashioned.

Give Sen. Johnson credit for recognizing that the ship is sinking. News reports just yesterday reminded us that the graduation rate in the Oklahoma City School District is less than 50 percent. At Sen. Johnson's alma mater, Douglass High School, the average ACT score is 15.1. Only 7 percent of students there score "satisfactory" on the Algebra I end-of-instruction test. And on it goes.

Does Sen. Johnson honestly believe we should force every child to go down with the ship?

1 comment:

Joan Vasquez said...

Wow... so I suppose this means we are supposed to just let bureaucracy sink the ship and let them ALL go down with it huh? You are right.. this comment is astonishing! Astonishing that she does not understand why some choose to not let the kids sink and astonishing that she admitted it.