More Stupid in America

Bookworm linked to this article by John Stossel where he says, among other things:

America spends more on schooling than the vast majority of countries that outscore us on the international tests. But the bureaucrats still blame school failure on lack of funds, and demand more money. In 1985, some of them got their wish. Kansas City, Mo., judge Russell Clark said the city's predominately black schools were not "halfway decent," and he ordered the government to spend billions more. Did the billions improve test scores? Did they hire better teachers, provide better books? Did the students learn anything?

Well, they learned how to waste lots of money.

The bureaucrats renovated school buildings, adding enormous gyms, an Olympic swimming pool, a robotics lab, TV studios, a zoo, a planetarium, and a wildlife sanctuary. They added intense instruction in foreign languages. They spent so much money that when they decided to bring more white kids to the city's schools, they didn't have to resort to busing. Instead, they paid for 120 taxis. Taxis!

What did spending billions more accomplish? The schools got worse. In 2000, five years and $2 billion later, the Kansas City school district failed 11 performance
standards and lost its academic accreditation for the first time in the district's history.

And they still haven't regained it. Living here in Kansas City, I have heard a thing or two about the way the district functions. Here's what I left in Bookworm's comments:

Let me tell you a tale of bureaucracy from the KC school district. I worked with a woman who had her kids in the French foreign language magnet. This is what she told me. The school was a success story. Happy families and high test scores. Well, around 2000, when the district, lost the desegregation money, the district had to reorganize. The administration would not commit to keeping that school open.

This presented the parents with a dilemma. Their kids had been learning French, not English. They would not be able to slip easily into another school. The parents pressed the district for a commitment, to no avail. Finally, they took the initiative and started a charter school.

Well, some administrators were livid. Of course, they kept the school open. It was one of their best. But, because they ignored the concerns of the parents, they lost
half their students and teachers to the charter school.

It didn't have to happen, but they showed no consideration for the parents, who had to think about their kids. Now Kansas City has two French schools.

But here's a little more. White kids from the suburbs were courted like they were star running backs. Instead of wine, women and song, they were plied with advanced placement classes that most natives of the district wouldn't test into. Meanwhile, black kids couldn't get into the school of their choice because that would upset "the balance." Black parents wanted more African-themed schools, but oops... "the balance" had to come first.