What I learned this week: There are still way too many people who think that by taking care of themselves only, they will be okay. This seldom happens since we are all interconnected. A perfect example is public education. If we don't fund it and support it, the long term consequences will affects us socially, economically and even spiritually. The question is how do we do that?
What I am grateful for. I received a great formal education and I realize that I have to keep learning more on a daily basis. Life is so much more interesting that way.
The next few weeks I plan to write about public education which is the topic of our next town forum on April 20th at 7pm at HoustonPBS. I would love to hear from people all over the country about this issue. We are failing our kids and pointing fingers does not seem to get us anywhere. In Houston for the past 22 years I have been reporting about the drop out problem and frankly, it does not seem to get much better over time. I would say if has gotten worse. According to HISD statistics, the drop out rate is 18 percent. Children at Risk reports 51.3 percent graduation rate or a 48 percent 6 year drop out rate. I am sure they have different parameters but everyone here can agree. Houston has a problem. We live in one of the richest cities in the world. Most of us who live here don't realize that because we don't travel enough to know. Yet our public urban school system struggles to educate students for higher education or other options. We are now holding teachers accountable through particular tests we feel will tell us if our kids know their math, science or reading and writing. If the teachers' students don't pass the test, that teacher may lose his or her job. Of course they will be given courses to get better teaching skills. My question is. Is this the best way to hold anyone accountable? Isn't this putting the responsability only on the teacher? What role should parents play? Are there particular interests such as testing entities that gain from this new sort of accountability? Isn't this an effective way to get rid of bad teachers? Shouldn't the community be more involved in public education? Most kids in our public school system come from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Most are minorities with a high percentage participating in the free school lunch program. How are we tackling poverty in our city? I want to hear your concerns, solutions and observations Let's begin to work together to look at this problem, because it is not going to go away and our children are our future.
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