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April 4, 2010 in City
New levy would fund Spokane dropout prevention
Educators, others say more ‘niche programs’ needed
Joshua Joseph, center, and Shawn Magat, on floor, rehearse a scene in a play produced by On-Track Academy, which caters to high school juniors and seniors who need credits to graduate.
(Full-size photo)
Interactive data
* Explore dropout and graduation data in sortable tables for the 2007-08 and 2008-09 school years.
* View these data in interactive bar charts.
Documentation
Download dropout data in the form of spreadsheets and annual reports from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Helping students succeed
Pony Tales: A drop-in center at NorthTown Mall, this program offers free tutoring and life-skills and college-readiness workshops. A full-service recording studio is available to teens if they attend eight workshops per month.
Tincan: Offers programs for teens focused on film and technology.
Project Hope: Focuses on at-risk youth and gang prevention/intervention by hiring kids ages 12 to 17 to run the small Riverfront Farm in the West Central Neighborhood.
NET Program: A 12-week program offered through ESD101 that offers credit-deficient students the chance to re-enter their home high schools and graduate on time.
On-Track Academy: Aimed at high school juniors and seniors who lack the credits needed to graduate but who have passed the state’s reading or writing state assessment tests. Watch a video featuring students from On-Track.
Community Learning Center: This after-school program at Rogers and North Central high schools helps students with tutoring, mentoring, and mental health, drug and alcohol counseling.
LC Core: Addresses needs of incoming freshmen who have been identified as struggling learners.
There’s no one-word answer for why kids drop out of school.
Health problems, a lack of parental support, homelessness, fear, lack of motivation or self-esteem, parents in jail or on drugs, custody battles, depression or caring for a sick sibling or parent are just a sample of the reasons a student might struggle and not finish school.
“There is an assumption that kids who need help to graduate are bad, ‘less than,’ not worthy, lazy or badly behaved,” said Lisa Mattson-Coleman, site director of the newest Spokane Public Schools dropout prevention program, called On-Track Academy. “Every kid here is bright. Every kid has potential.”
Spokane Public Schools has a dropout rate of nearly 29 percent, which is among the 20 highest in Washington. In Spokane County, nearly one in three students fails to graduate.
Spokane educators, children’s advocates, nonprofits and community leaders hope to lower the city’s dropout rate by studying the problem, figuring out more ways to help kids in schools and boosting funding for proven community programs.
“There are a lot of different services our kids need. Education is just one of them,” said Nancy Stowell, superintendent of Spokane Public Schools.
Spokane’s dropout rate was one of the primary drivers behind an effort to put a levy before voters in August that would create a Children’s Investment Fund.
Signature collection is under way, and organizers say they’re halfway to their goal, “gaining massive amounts of momentum every week,” said Ben Stuckart, a member of the fund’s steering committee and director of Communities in Schools, a business-funded nonprofit. “The community has been very receptive.”
‘Economic freight train’
So far, nearly 40 organizations have joined the effort that would put the Children’s Investment Fund levy before voters in August. Supporters say successful passage of the measure could decrease the dropout rate in Spokane by 20 percent.
To get there, however, organizers need to gather 8,400 valid signatures. So far, about 6,000 people have signed; the goal is 12,000 signatures by the April 19 deadline.
If approved, the six-year levy would raise $5 million annually and would cost Spokane property owners about 35 cents per $1,000 of assessed value.
Advocates say the fund is necessary because the dropout rate is not just a school district’s problem, it’s the community’s problem.
“Taking care of our youth will not only help children who face terrible conditions, but it saves money and produces a healthier community,” said Austin DePaolo, a Children’s Investment Fund steering committee member.
Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich agrees. “The dropout rate is an economic freight train,” he said during a recent presentation.
A recent nationwide study shows the adverse effect that high dropout rates can have on a community. According to the study, “If half the students who dropped out of the class of 2008 had graduated, they would have generated $4.1 billion more in wages and $536 million in state and local taxes nationally in one average year of their working lives.”
Money would go to programs large and small
Spokane’s levy would be modeled after similar initiatives across the nation, including one in Oregon.
The Portland Children’s Levy has been in existence for more than seven years. It provides funding for about 70 programs focused on early childhood education, child abuse prevention, foster care support, and after-school and mentoring programs, said Director Lisa Pellegrino. Programs receive anywhere from $33,000 to $463,000 annually.
“In a broad sense, yes, the programs are all dropout prevention,” Pellegrino said. “They are all aimed at the success of children, educational and otherwise.”
Money in Spokane’s levy would be allocated similarly, Stuckart said. “There are a ton of programs. It’s just that they are small and pocketed.”
Potential recipients could include programs at well-known organizations, such as the Boys & Girls Club, YMCA and YWCA, but also might include smaller programs such as Pony Tales, a free teen drop-in center at NorthTown Mall, or Tincan, which offers after-school programs focused on film and technology.
In recent years, the Spokane area has lost more than $4 million in funding directed at middle- and elementary-school kids, officials say. A majority of the money was used for after-school programs, while some of it was used for drug and alcohol prevention efforts.
The loss of those after-school programs has been acute, Stuckart said. “After-school programs provide a safe place for children; students who participate in extracurricular activities develop social and emotional skills that they may not have a chance to develop otherwise; and national research shows that students who participate in after-school programs have better grades, better attendance and less behavioral problems – all of which are significant risk factors for dropping out.”
On-Track has 95 percent graduation rate
While Spokane Public Schools grapples with its dropout rate, the district is seeing success in new programs and hoping to develop more.
“The key is having the right program for kids, so they don’t drop out, or there’s a way to catch them up,” Stowell said.
The On-Track Academy, which started in spring 2009, is one, school officials say. The program focuses on high school juniors and seniors who lack the credits needed to graduate but who have passed the reading or writing state assessment tests. Many say they were destined to drop out.
Sharlotte Robinson, 18, discovered the On-Track Academy at Spokane Public Schools two semesters ago. She’d moved from Reno, where her father was stealing from her mother to support his methamphetamine habit, she said.
When Robinson enrolled, she had six high school credits. In Spokane Public Schools, students need 22 to graduate. The teen is set to graduate in June.
“On-Track is successful because it’s highly personalized,” said Fred Schrumpf, who oversees the On-Track Academy and is principal of Havermale High School, an alternative school. “Every student’s story is known. They are all motivated to finish school, because they have a future interest. We are graduating about 95 percent of our kids.”
There’s no traditional classroom instruction.
Students can work at the school, which is located at the district’s Skills Center in north Spokane, or from a different location.
“They let you be individuals,” Robinson said of the teachers in the program. “Instead of raising your hand and feeling awkward, you feel comfortable just saying, ‘Hey, can you come help me?’ ”
There are 180 juniors and seniors enrolled in On-Track. Of the 107 seniors, 75 are set to graduate in June and 32 in August.
Enrollment in the program is expected to nearly double in the fall, Schrumpf said.
Creating ‘niche programs’
While On-Track is a districtwide opportunity, individual schools also have programs.
The grant-funded Community Learning Center after-school program at Rogers and North Central high schools is focused on reducing the number of students who drop out of high school. It started in January.
Students have the opportunity to improve their skills in math and literacy, to earn credit in courses they previously failed, and to get one-to-one academic tutoring and mentoring.
Mental health, drug and alcohol counseling are also available.
Lewis and Clark High School has a program called LC Core, formed in 2008 to address the needs of incoming freshmen identified as struggling learners.
“The idea is that if students experience success at the beginning of high school, they will be much more likely to gain traction and continue through high school,” said district spokeswoman Terren Roloff.
About 30 percent of freshmen in Spokane Public Schools were found to be credit-deficient after the first semester, according to recent district research. One of the top reasons for kids dropping out is because they’ve fallen behind, several studies show.
In LC Core, the identified freshmen are paired with teachers who guide them academically and socially.
“We are trying to create other niche programs,” Stowell said. “We need to start more programs in general, but every time we do, it costs money.”
Video: On-Track Academy
Recent stories by Jody Lawrence-Turner
School districts emphasize science, trades May 26, 2012 4- Students to pay, work for prank May 24, 2012
- Sandpoint High students vandalize school in senior prank May 23, 2012 7
- Spokane schools officials’ pay frozen May 15, 2012 18
- Redinger brings fresh direction, expectations to District 81 May 13, 2012 7
greyhound2 on April 04 at 4:47 a.m.
The kids need to understand that the property owners do not owe the kids an education. They only owe the kids an opportunity to get themselves an education. Let’s put the shoe on the right foot.
Liberty_Bell on April 04 at 7:23 a.m.
Do you remember last week or last month?
McCleary v State of Confusion!.
133. Education also plays a critical role in building and maintaining the strong economy necessary to support a stable democracy—one that is free and independent from
outside power and influence. For example, broad public education builds the well educated workforce necessary to attract more stable and higher wage jobs to this State’s economy, and provides the living wage jobs and employment necessary to provide gainful employment to this State’s citizens, and lessening the burdens on this State’s citizens of social services, crime, and incarceration.
134. The importance of and challenges facing our educational system are not limited to Washington. Politically-diverse figures, U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, former U.S.
Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, and civil rights advocate Al Sharpton, have recently
COURT’S FINDINGS OF FACT & CONCLUSIONS OF LAW - 28 JOHN P. ERLICK, JUDGE
401 FOURTH AVENUE NORTH
KENT, WASHINGTON 98032
PHONE (206) 296-9345
joined forces to promote reforms in education. Speaker Gingrich noted: “First of all, education is the number one factor in our future prosperity;… I agree with Al Sharpton, this is the number one civil right of the 21st century….There is no excuse for accepting failure.”
135. Washington’s crisis in education is a microcosm of that of the nation. On a national level, Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, warned that “[w]e’re perpetuating social failure” through our current educational system. Similarly, our own Superintendent of Public Instruction, Randy Dorn, noted that “In our global economy, students who drop out of school
without skills will likely face a life of unemployment and poverty.” (Dorn at 29.)
136. Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O’Connor, in a recent visit to Seattle, lamented the lack of civics education in schools. She noted a study that found “Two thirds of Americans know at least one of the judges on the Fox TV show ‘American Idol,’ but less than one in ten can name the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.”
As the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas Court declared:
Brown v. Board of Education:
[T]he right to receive ideas is a necessary predicate to the
recipient’s meaningful exercise of his own rights of speech, press, and political freedom.
Madison admonished us:
‘A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.’
Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26 v. Pico, 457 U.S. 853, 867,
102 S.Ct. 2799, 73 L.Ed.2d 435 (1982); accord, Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202, 102 S.Ct. 2382, 72
L.Ed.2d 786 (1982) (“We have recognized ‘the public schools as a most vital civic institution for the preservation of a democratic system of government’”) (quoting Ambach v. Norwick, 441
U.S. 68, 76, 99 S.Ct. 1589, 60 L.Ed.2d 49 (1979)). In short, the law recognizes that public education plays an essential role in our democracy….”
The law recognizes, Randy Dorn’s public education system, where 11 grade Drivers Education Class, also teaches your student taht blowing a . 11 B.A.C. into another intoximeter means you can become Super State School Employee of the Year!
Vote (D)runk, from the Olympia Brewing Company, Tumwater Washington…”It’s the water, but not a lot more…”
Or was it Lisa Brown’s Fault, for failing 6th grade civics class, also shown best in “Brown v. Owen” where education in basic fundamental civics class, has always required a PHD, in (D)elusion.
VOTE LISA BROWN, and you too can have PHD in education economics, and flunk 6th grade civics class too!
Ninch on April 04 at 7:28 a.m.
I see no mention of a serious needs assessment to justify which programs should be funded but rather a bunch of stuff thrown at the wall and hoping it sticks. I also see no focus on CTE (career and technical education, formerly known as vocational ed) of which research has shown a reduction in dropouts and higher academic achievement because kids become engaged in their own learning. In fact, the federal Perkins funding and our state require that CTE be enhanced and integrated into the existing curriculum to promote success for all kids. Where is the Spokane SD on this?
Most importantly, how are property owners going to get behind more taxes when the strategy described above is just a list of programs and not presented as part of a comprehensive plan that is based on facts and research? Where is the accountability? Anecdotes can be found to support anything, but that does not mean that it is worthy of funding.
The “right foot” is that teachers and administrators need to offer curriculum that meets the needs and interests of students, rather than expect that more money will fix the mess that the Spokane SD represents. Its “systematic” failure as exemplified by its very high drop out rate cannot be corrected by more funding of unproven disconnected programs.
liarsinnews on April 04 at 7:56 a.m.
Throw more money at the problem with no accountability makes absolutely no sense. Seems to me, a good start might be to weed out some of the do nothing administrators at the district offices downtown where many of the stupid decisions in the past were made to keep the children in school. Those decisions obviously have failed. Dr. Mark Anderson may be the person to be given the boot first. If you have ever watched Anderson being interviewed you know why.
leekinny on April 04 at 8:00 a.m.
Don’t think for a moment that renters don’t pay property tax, because they do. No self-respecting landlord is going to pay something that can be and is tacked on to the rent.
This is one of those pay me now or pay me more later kind of things. They’re kids, many of whom face real or seemingly unsurmountable problems, who are part of our community family, that need our help. I’m not going to vote to turn my back on them.
misjustice on April 04 at 8:12 a.m.
Where do we sign the petition, by the April 19th deadline, to ensure that it gets on the ballot in August?
Do you know, Mr. leekinney?
Ninch on April 04 at 8:17 a.m.
Voting for more funding for Spokane SD is in reality “turning your back on the kids” and not expecting accountability for the highly paid failure of the existing administration, program directors, and some teachers. Voting for this levy is like indiscriminately throwing your money into a black box and hoping a winner comes out. This additional funding might help a handful of kids, but the facts are that the Spokane SD is experiencing systematic failure and these programs are just a diversion from the real problem.
Just look at how no critical thinking was used to come up with this levy idea… which is the standard solution to throw more money at “feel good” programs. Where do you see the administration proposing true school reform, which includes a serious look at the existing curriculum and learning structures? But this would take serious evaluation, hard work, and most importantly new leadership.
ChefGus/ John Olsen on April 04 at 8:18 a.m.
Our property values are directly correlated with the success of our school system. Mead School district is a fairly fine example of this.
If the drop out rate is not improved the whole Spokane Basin will suffer, and anyone who owns property or pays rent is a beneficiary of improved schools.
While i agree that there are multiple problems inside the schools, a fair amount of this investment will go to prevention of the attendant problems with our two class social structure here in the city.
It seems to me that 35 cents per year ( yes per year) on 1000 dollars of assessed value is a pittance and a decrease of 20 percent in your property value with bad schools is not a fair trade off for that small sum “invested”.
Dr john
DJH on April 04 at 8:33 a.m.
Educators/Unions at their best… Let’s raise property taxes and give you more funding where there is no accountability. The school district already receives 34.5% of your property taxes, but amazingly you still need additional funding. I encourage everyone to finally stop passing these bonds and levies until there is actual proven and documented accountability. Education should not be seen as an entitlement, make the kids earn the right to be at school. Until administrators and school districts set a high bar of expectations with the children nothing will change. The change needs to start at the TOP with a new vision. In closing, Oregon’s drop out rate is nothing to right home about and they have been funding this project for 7 years. VOTE NO.
lewis8457 on April 04 at 8:52 a.m.
I am not giving any more money to these open end projects where accountability and the cleaning up of wasted resources is not tried first. Pouring more, more money on the problem is not going to solve anything.
My property taxes are too high now for what services i get. I am voting NO on every increase they want.
Albert on April 04 at 9:03 a.m.
My wife (retired) was an elementary teacher and can well tell you about the “problems” of under-performing children at the first grade level. The problem begins with the parents who simply didn’t care about their kids, or their education. Take a quick drive to Rogers High School, park your car at the noon hour, and watch “who” walks by. It will give you a quick understanding as to why we have “a drop out problem”.
I made it through high school with ADD by the proverbial skin on my teeth. Upon joining SEAL Team One, I found the secret to success in life: Focus & Discipline. These attributes of course are not allowed within our system, thus the drop out problems. Much of our frustration with highly compensated administrators, under-performing teachers, unions, and more…are the result of the inability to (1) focus on the under-performance of students and (2) failure to discipline our staff personnel to remedy the challenges. It’s “business as usual” every Monday morning and promptly forgotten by Friday afternoon.
If a person like myself could make it to a PhD with honors, then virtually anyone - and I mean anyone - can make it. All that is required is “Focus and Discipline”. More money that will be squandered in meaningless, nonproductive programs will not address the drop out issues. History will clearly document that virtually every generation has addressed this issue. Perhaps the current “Federal” requirements of instructor/administrator results may in the long run prove to be effective? Only time will tell.
eagleproducer on April 04 at 9:45 a.m.
First I’ll post two links:
http://www.schoolmatters.com/schools.aspx/q/page=dl/did=2496/midx=SpendingRevenue
That link shows per student expenditures for Mead schools. For some reason the link on that site for District 81 is no longer working. It would show District 81 spends more money than both Mead and the state average per student, yet produces outcomes lagging behind both.
Analysis: More money is not the answer. Nancy Sowell makes in excess of $200,000.00 a year when benefits and per diem are tacked onto the $175,000.00 in annual salary. She has minions of underlings, many making in excess of $100,000.00. All of that high priced talent is supposed to produce improvement. I just don’t think they can and it’s proven by their track record that CONTINUES TO DEGRADE!
This needs to be a battle about accountability within the current system. The organizers admit a best case scenario of reducing dropouts by 20%? Does this mean your target goal is 1 out of 5 students instead of 1 out of 3, or simply that of those who already drop out, 20% can somehow be encouraged to complete high school?
I believe the union I belong to needs to be in the forefront of establishing accountability because it’s clear that isn’t coming from District 81 administrators. Any manager, CEO, leader of a business would get rapidly canned if their performance were that of the leaders in that district. One high school is meeting Adequate Yearly Progress under No Child Left Behind. One.
The curricular goals of high schools need to change. 80% of new employment in the U.S. since 1990 did not require a college degree and that’s not changing anytime soon. Insisting ALL students complete what is essentially a college prep curriculum is a denial of the reality most students encounter upon leaving high school, which is the job market, and one many are not prepared to navigate.
When evaluating the costs to maintain failure it’s important to not ignore the legions of students who graduate and enroll in college needing remedial courses just to become ready to undertake college level instruction. I’ve personally seen students burn an entire year of tuition/credits/their lives just prepping to begin 101 level courses.
The Chancellor of Schools in D.C., Michelle Rhee, has provided a model to rapidly improve student outcomes that is rooted soundly in accountability, rewarding innovation and success and student centered policy. Spokane cannot keep sending the same people back to the school board year in and year out who have failed to produce results of improvement. Mr. Treppiedi was recently re-elected to chair the school board, the same man who works as a city attorney and crafted the brilliant legal defense stating Otto Zehm had it coming to him. Time after time his faulty reasoning has cost the city untold millions of dollars, perhaps over 100 million when RPS is all played out. Yet you re-elected this man who presides over failure after failure. I say you get what you deserve and not another dime!
Not another dime, I say.
eagleproducer on April 04 at 9:46 a.m.
albert: Almost right, but backwards… focus on under-performing teachers and discipline students who disrupt learning environments.
eagleproducer on April 04 at 9:53 a.m.
I’m glad to see this turning into a debate about accountability.
DBAlexander on April 04 at 11:04 a.m.
I enjoyed the thoughtful comments from readers. Throwing more money at the problem is like giving an enema to a dead man: It won’t hurt and might help. The `Marshmallow Test’ is the best predictor of students success in school and life. It is given at four years of age. Lots of articles can be found by doing a Google search. Why should schools be expected to fix parental failure?
localgrad on April 04 at 11:41 a.m.
By looking at the website for the campaign, www.ourchildrenfirstspokane.org all of the above questions are answered and dealt with. Under the section FAQ the studies show why the 4 focus areas have been chosen. Under the section how does the fund work it lists “accountability measures” and the fund talks about an overall goal.
A couple of other misconceptions:
* This would fund community agencies, not the school district. These agencies get kids ready for school, provide mentors and after-school programming. They are outside the official school system but allow the teachers to teach while providing support to all of our children.
* Blaming parents or the schools and then saying that we should do nothing is like the ostrich sticking its’ head in the sand. Studies show that dropouts cost society over $300,000 over the course of their lifetime. This is an enormous unfunded liability that we need to deal with. .35 per $1,000 of assessed value would cost the average homeowner .20 per day. This seems a small price to pay to potentially save us 100’s of million of dollars in future costs.
I urge you to visit the campaign website before posting any more blame or any more attacks on this community effort. Read the studies and read the language of the ordinance that would ensure accountability.
misjustice on April 04 at 11:52 a.m.
Thank you, localgrad, for bringing much needed insight and balance into the debate, and for the campaign website. ; )
I stopped reading after 8 am, could see where posts were going. Now I can go back and read new posts, and then go to the campaign site for insight and balance…again, thanks…
I’d like to sign the petition to help get it on the ballot in Aug..
deacon46 on April 04 at 12:03 p.m.
Feel good programs for the educators with margin results for the people who pay for it. Accountablity for money invested is critical to get my support.
localgrad on April 04 at 1:14 p.m.
For locations to sign petitions email the campaign at ourchildrenfirstspokane@gmail.com
If you read on the campaign website you will see that programs being funded are only goingto be research-based programs able to show outcomes. The studies confirming that these programs will make a difference are on the website. The accountability measures are also on the website.
This is definitively not just throwing money at an issue. There is a goal, research and measures to hold the fund accountable.
misjustice on April 04 at 1:20 p.m.
Thanks, again localgrad…
eagleproducer on April 04 at 1:55 p.m.
localgrad: The people who oppose this potential ballot issue understand the money won’t go to District 81.
After watching the video embedded in this article I was struck by how many of the students held signs or relayed messages depicting harsh criticism and low expectations from what I can only guess were former teachers/schools? I strongly believe in programs like OT and the Skills Center because it’s an acknowledgement that most students won’t attend and complete college after graduation and time in high school can be better spend preparing them for trades and the world of work or entrepreneurism. This is especially true for young men as they are falling further and further behind their female counterparts in acquiring even the most basic skills. Currently the population at most U.S. higher education institutes comprises more than 65% women and that is not a good sign for the long term health of our culture or economy. In whose best interest is it to perpetuate the formation of an undereducated, mostly male underclass?
Dazzeetrader11 on April 04 at 5:25 p.m.
I sat in on the Community Assembly on Friday. For those of you who don’t know…it’s comprised of 1 representative from each of the 27 neighborhoods in Spokane. They questions asked to the proponents yeilded the following:
1. School Districts should already be doing this.
2. Teachers who underperform should be let go and replaced with better motivated teachers. Unions are now NOT held accountable and protect underachieving teachers.
3. Schools get enough money as it is.
4. Although the proponents are enthused, thereis no evidence that plowing more money in achieves the goals. They admit that…even though it sounds like a great idea.
5. Gus…35 cents per $1000 in home values assumes the most own homes and are up for this. In a $150 or $200 K home, it’s not a small amount…do the math…it gets more significant in an era when taxes have already gone through the roof.
6. To evaluate the program, there would have to be a “research” type wing so the information can be analyzed to see if the program works.
Just some thoughts I gathered. We all want the kids to stay in school…but one thing is this: where are the parents in all this?
Untill the program is shown to get some adequate results, not sure if it’s worthy of funding. Many questioned this one.. I’ll have other thoughts on this later..
austindepaolo on April 04 at 11:02 p.m.
Daisy, thanks for your comments and for all you do as a member of the your neighborhood council. There are a few more things you should consider though.
1. Teachers can’t do it all and neither can parents. It really does take a village to raise a child and if our children don’t do well we all suffer socially and economically.
2. Spokane has some very good teachers but we have a higher percentage of kids whose families qualify for free and reduced hot lunch than any other district in the region.
3. Could we provide teachers with better training and support, absolutely, but we don’t pay as much as other states. In fact Washington ranks 33rd in per pupil spending in the nation. Lower than Oregon or Montana. Washington D.C. is the highest.
4. There is evidence that for every $1 invested high quality early learning yields a return of $8 to $16. See the recent editorial written by a Washington business man http://www.theolympian.com/2010/03/29/v-print/1188470/business-leaders-across-state.html#ixzz0jbMKHT0E. The drop out problem is complicated, but we must act, and this is an important piece of the puzzle.
5. If your home or rental property is assessed at $150k you’d pay an extra $53 a year. Wow! Thats less than an extra $5 a month for kids. That’s kids who make up 20% of our population but 100% of our future.
6. Yes, all programs would be evaluated and only proven programs would be funded through a competitive process similar to what City Human Services uses and Foundations like Gates.
7. Where are the Parents? They have to get their kids to these programs and many of them will be asked to volunteer and participate to improve their skills. Education is a national, state and local issue of great importance to all. Parent participation and support is a key component towards making these programs successful.
kidconcerned on April 05 at 10:04 a.m.
Mentoring is one of the research-based best practices that would be funded by the Children’s Investment Fund. Ever been the personal recipient of someone focusing their time and caring just for your benefit?
Approximately 5,000 kids in the Spokane area suffer greater risks because one of their parents is incarcerated in a state of federal prison. This is just one population of children who have real, documented risk factors. They had nothing to do with their parent’s choices. Mentoring counts as one of the strongest protective factors for them. The quality programs that exist today have long waiting lists for mentors to make a difference in a child’s life. Men are especially needed to mentor boys.
Investing $53 a year as a homeowner to add more prevention for child abuse and neglect, after school programs to keep kids safe and extend their learning, early childhood education to prepare children to start school ready to learn, and mentoring looks like a bargain to me. I’d rather be paying these dues and mentor a child, than visiting these children in jails in the future. Explore mentoring AND support the Children’s Investment Fund.
eagleproducer on April 05 at 11:12 a.m.
ncgrad: Great teachers don’t use the socio-economic status of their students as an excuse for not doing their jobs.
You bring up the tired mantra of increased funding, moronically using D.C. as an example that more money means better schools when they have the worst schools in the country! That is until the new chancellor arrived and started kicking some arse!
I am a certified, card carrying union member teacher and it’s time to stop making excuses for the poor performance of schools and students. Look at the graduation rates at other local school districts in the region. Are you telling me the poverty rate in Stevens County is lower than the city of Spokane? Why can Nine Mile Falls have a 6% dropout rate but just to the south District 81 can’t get 2 out of 3 kids through high school in four years? This is a leadership and accountability issue, plain and simple. The teachers who really care about students understand this and welcome accountability and weeding out the “poor performers” that stain our profession, which are mostly comprised of male coaches living in suspended adolescence. The union used to do a better job of policing our ranks, now all they do is protect tenure and poor instructors.
Dazzeetrader11 on April 05 at 7:12 p.m.
Tucky says…”I am a certified, card carrying union member teacher and it’s time to stop making excuses for the poor performance of schools and students” It’s convenient to leave out the teachers… Maybe you include them in the “schools”.
I think kids are doing badly because of poor parenting AND poor teaching.
Fire the bad teachers….things will change. Unions don’t watchdog their performances…and weed out the lazy, ineffective ones.
Kidconcerned…that’s what the teachers are supposed to do. I had it and it changed everthing for me. I suppose that’s why the Community Assembly paid special attention to mentoring….in the schools. It’s their duty to be interested in their kids and do something about it…D
austindepaolo on April 06 at 11:14 p.m.
I agree with you, Spotucky, that great teachers like the recently passed, Jaime Escalante, of Stand and Deliver fame are the perfect example what many of our schools need more of. BTW remember all the after hours tutoring that Mr. Escalante provided his students and the home visits? But, this issue isn’t about teachers really or the classroom.
It’s about creating more Early Learning or a High Quality Preschool slots so that kids arrive at kindergarten better prepared.
It’s about child abuse and neglect prevention programs like Visiting Home Nurses that work directly with pregnant moms and that have helped reduce child abuse by up to 48% according to research.
It’s about mentoring, after school and summer programs that provide enrichment activities that studies show help improve student achievement and help reduce remedial education costs.
It’s also, of course, about the parents. They have to care enough to get their kids into these programs, they have to participate, they have to do their part and the kid has an important role too.
eagleproducer on April 07 at 10:43 a.m.
Dazee: I didn’t “leave out the teachers.” Maybe you didn’t read the entire post because I clearly state in my final sentence that we, teachers, need to police our own ranks better.