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Re: Billionaires Boost Schools In Jersey City
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Home away from home
 
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@Bodhipooh - ongoing payments for grade averages is very different to a graduation fund. Persuading a kid from a low-income family that there's something worth waiting for and working for, is far easier than trying to motivate a kid that has zero opportunities, and zero hope of paying college after graduation. I came from a low-income single-parent family, and I speak from personal experience when I say that having a free college place on the line motivated me hugely. Every kid deserves that opportunity. Plus, I'd bet kids in the UAE are very different to low-income kids in JC.
@Monroe - I wouldn't complicate the process by arguing over who pays. Pay it out of existing sources. Whether state funding gets reduced, abated developments pay more, or other programs like Abbott get cut - I think are separate arguments that will play their course.
Posted on: 2014/5/27 19:47
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Re: Billionaires Boost Schools In Jersey City
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Home away from home
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Again, noble ideas, but based on hopes and not reality. This idea has already been tried, in many places, and it has always failed. Have you seen the documentary Freakonomics? There was a segment there on this very idea. Incentivizing kids with money seems to lose its appeal/effect as they get older. It apparently works well into the tweens, but it then loses its effect, and sometimes with really bad reversals. Here is an article from the NYT on the subject. It is based on a similar program in the UAE. NYT Article Here is a quote from the article: "There is no evidence that paying people helps them learn ? and a lot of evidence that it doesn't," Mr. Deci said. Then why do parents ? and governments like the U.A.E. ? resort to paying students? "Because it's easy," Mr. Deci said. "It's much harder to work with people to get them motivated from the inside."
Posted on: 2014/5/27 19:14
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Re: Billionaires Boost Schools In Jersey City
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Home away from home
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I hope you're proposing that JC taxpayers add 10% to the 16% of the school budget they fund (which is about $107 million/year) rather than 10% of the 76% (or $500 million/year) which other NJ taxpayers pay.
Posted on: 2014/5/27 18:49
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Re: Billionaires Boost Schools In Jersey City
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Home away from home
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-$2k instead of +$2k for a failed grade. Problem solved. Of course anything can be "gamed", but most of those can be fixed by laying some ground-rules. The idea revolves around giving kids some real incentive to succeed. A motivated student will overcome immense obstacles including bad parents, bad schools, bad curriculum, bad teachers and bad environment. And the benefit of this kind of approach is it gives money directly to the kids and their communities, and not to the various education interest groups feeding at the trough. As far as needing a billionaire to sponsor? Heck I'd support an across the board 10% increase in inner City school budgets to pay for it. I pay too much in state and county taxes already, but long-term the pay-back could be huge.
Posted on: 2014/5/27 18:39
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Re: Billionaires Boost Schools In Jersey City
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Home away from home
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Spoken like a true idealist... What do you think would happen if this was instituted?? Guaranteed that MANY kids (probably spurred by deadbeat parents) would game the system and simply fail several grades along the way to graduation to increase their pot.
Posted on: 2014/5/27 18:22
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Re: Billionaires Boost Schools In Jersey City
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Not too shy to talk
 
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I really like this idea DTJCVIEW. Too bad you are not a billionaire so no one will implement it. Don't worry though, billionaires are well known as being down to earth and aware of what typical every day joes need.
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Posted on: 2014/5/27 18:05
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Re: Billionaires Boost Schools In Jersey City
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Home away from home
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Why not put 10% of the school budget, say $2k/year, towards a graduation fund for each kid? They can use the fund for college after that, or any purpose after they're 21. I'd bet graduation rates skyrocket. On the discipline side - court fines, jail costs, etc could be taken out of the individual kids funds. Good kids get $40-50k when they graduate. Bad kids get nothing. And I'd bet parents would start taking a real interest.
Posted on: 2014/5/27 17:55
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Re: Billionaires Boost Schools In Jersey City
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Home away from home
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Welfare, in its many manifestations, is the only job where the recipient of a check doesn't have a job description or another device to measure performance, as far as I know.
Personally, I think we need bolder thinking about solutions to poor school performance and asocial behavior. What would happen, for example, if on a voluntary basis, the parents of poorly performing kids were to spend the school week with volunteer families in the suburbs? What would happen if the concept of adoption were expanded to include a whole family unit - a single parent and his or her kids - adopted by a family that could offer help - tutoring, help with parenting, dealing with the bureaucracy, etc. Maybe what I'm getting at is the need to concentrate on the sanctity of childhood rather than the sanctity of the family. Just two ideas off the top of my head as I take a break.
Posted on: 2014/5/27 15:50
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Re: Billionaires Boost Schools In Jersey City
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Home away from home
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I think you are confusing 'stuff' with 'what they need'.
Posted on: 2014/5/27 15:27
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Re: Billionaires Boost Schools In Jersey City
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Home away from home
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Actually minority and inner city kids get more than they need. There are plenty of programs, grants, free lunches, and give aways like pencils and plastic stuff to amuse them till they end their term in the school system. From there they hit a wall.
Posted on: 2014/5/27 15:16
Edited by heights on 2014/5/27 15:42:02
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Get on your bikes and ride !
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Re: Billionaires Boost Schools In Jersey City
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Home away from home
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It's simple, your gonna have a harder time walking with a leg and crutch, than walking with two legs and no crutch. You're also are more likely to fall down more with a crutch, than without one.
Posted on: 2014/5/27 14:19
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ಠ_ಠ
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Re: Billionaires Boost Schools In Jersey City
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Home away from home
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@teachparentlove-the 'uber rich' own the politicians? I'd say that the union cabal 'own' the politicians just as much, if not more so.
Posted on: 2014/5/27 14:00
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Re: Billionaires Boost Schools In Jersey City
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Home away from home
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I don't disagree, but the effort we put into tweaking and changing the programs, looking overseas for models and demanding results pales in comparison to what we do with our education system.
Posted on: 2014/5/27 13:55
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Re: Billionaires Boost Schools In Jersey City
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Home away from home
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Huh? Those kids aren't the ones having problems. If a single parent is doing a great job their kids likely don't need more help (but would probably welcome some if we could figure out how to do so effectively). Unfortunately there are lots of single parents (and two parent families) that are not doing great jobs.
Posted on: 2014/5/27 13:51
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Re: Billionaires Boost Schools In Jersey City
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Not too shy to talk
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The uber rich already own our politicians so we might as well trust them to educate the kids right? That isn?t tin foil hat stuff that is reality. But of course they should right? They are successful in the perfect meritocracy of high finance. The term of ?pleasing em for the next quarter? so popular on Wall St. shows just how good these types are at long term success and health. So funny, the government might be terrible at a lot of things but it is there for Wall Street when they crash the economy. If you really think about it schools are only as crummy as everything else we have right now in our society, politicians, health care, financial sector, journalism, etc.
The main problem I have with their muddling around in education is they do it in poverty stricken areas. What do they care about these people that they wouldn?t let at their clubs, or even ride a train with? They care about having a docile and obedient work force. Their track record so far in reforming schools is terrible not surprisingly. In Newark the students are in outright rebellion and the citizens have voted a referendum basically against this type of educational reform. Eli Broad is a notorious narcissist and the content of his ?Academy? (where Marcia Lyles ?graduated? from) is secret. If anyone can show me a legit detailed syllabus from ?The Broad Academy? I?ll shut up for good. But you can?t find out what they are about because it is secret. WHY is it secret? These are the people we are trusting our children with. Even the genesis of bringing a ?Broad Academy Supe? into Jersey CIty was shrouded in secrecy with those secret meetings with Fulop.
Posted on: 2014/5/27 13:47
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Re: Billionaires Boost Schools In Jersey City
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Home away from home
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Nonsense. You may choose to put your head in the sand, but it's not noble to bear a child you can't support and parent properly and expect others to support your lifestyle. That's the repellent and inhuman act, not my commenting upon it. Sadly, what we see in the schools (like the 8 year olds beating each other up and injuring school guards in Greenville last week, and calling teachers 'c**ts') is much more common than the 'heroic' single mom and dads out there.
Posted on: 2014/5/27 13:32
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Re: Billionaires Boost Schools In Jersey City
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Home away from home
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I am convinced that if public school funding ended tomorrow, the kids who get an education today would still get one. Their parents / guardians would make sure of that. You can see evidence of the above when you break out the PISA scores by demographics. As for your latter part about more government intervention.. haven't we been doing that for years? Dyfs*, Head Start, WIC, EBT, etc.? Government does some things relatively well: Roads, bridges, sewers (PVSC not withstanding), managing garbage collection, and other public works functions. Where government fails is trying to manage broken people. We spent trillions trying to do just that and it could be argued that things have gotten worse, not better. * 11 years back I had a tenant who was a contractor for Dyfs. Listening to her stories would make one mad, frustrated, and hopeless all at the same time.
Posted on: 2014/5/27 13:28
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Newbie
 
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What a repellent and borderline inhuman comment. You do an enormous disservice and show embarrassing disrespect to the countless single moms (and to a lesser extent, dads) who do the heroic work of being a single parent. Shame on you.
Posted on: 2014/5/27 13:21
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Re: Billionaires Boost Schools In Jersey City
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Home away from home
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Those kids don't come from 'broken' homes, there weren't homes to begin with when 3/4 are born to unwed parents. Bad choices lead to kids being born behind the 8 ball in poverty.
Posted on: 2014/5/27 13:15
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Re: Billionaires Boost Schools In Jersey City
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Home away from home
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The link here is well written and a good summary of what happened in Newark. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/20 ... russakoff?currentPage=all Quote:
Posted on: 2014/5/27 12:42
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Re: Billionaires Boost Schools In Jersey City
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It's amazing how we'll keep tweaking schools every few years to try and solve our education problems when the education problems are mostly due to broken homes and endemic poverty. Still, i'm glad to see them make an effort even if I'd rather this sort of money went toward home nurse visits/childcare training for young, poor mothers and daycare funding so that these kids have some sort of structure very early in life.
Posted on: 2014/5/27 12:21
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Re: Billionaires Boost Schools In Jersey City
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Home away from home
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If you have any insight please share...where did the money actually go then ?
Posted on: 2014/5/27 12:14
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Get on your bikes and ride !
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Re: Billionaires Boost Schools In Jersey City
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Home away from home
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Let's hope there are more controls in place to watch these charitable donations... none of that Zuckerberg money donated to Newark Schools ever made it to the kids.
Posted on: 2014/5/27 10:57
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Re: Billionaires Boost Schools In Jersey City
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Home away from home
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"backed the Jersey City program because its mayor, city council and school board"
This speaks volumes about our community leaders / managers / board members - you couldn't get a higher praise then cold hard cash as support - its definitely a feather in their cap
Posted on: 2014/5/27 8:59
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My humor is for the silent blue collar majority - If my posts offend, slander or you deem inappropriate and seek deletion, contact the webmaster for jurisdiction.
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Billionaires Boost Schools In Jersey City
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Home away from home
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Billionaires Boost Schools In Jersey City
David Tepper, Alan Fournier Set Up Institution to Help Train Principals By Leslie Brody The Wall Street Journal May 26, 2014 10:13 p.m. ET Jersey City officials are starting an institute in the fall to train principals for the district's public schools, with a $3 million gift from two hedge-fund managers who have been active in pushing their vision for educational change. Billionaire hedge-fund manager David Tepper said he backed the Jersey City program because its mayor, city council and school board are "pro-reform" and eager to improve the schools. The district has long been plagued by low achievement, and its instruction and operations are under state control. "Good leadership and good teachers, that's where it all begins," Mr. Tepper said. Education researchers say that for troubled schools to have any hope of turning around, they need talented principals with a sense of mission and urgency. Over the past year, New Jersey cities including Paterson, Camden and Trenton have received federal grants to bolster leadership training. Even in successful suburban schools, principals need more coaching these days to adjust to the higher learning standards known as the Common Core, new online tests and new evaluation systems, said Jay Doolan, who runs professional development for the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association. His group is beefing up training for administrators statewide in the coming months. "All principals need to have a really good understanding of how to navigate schools in today's environment," he said. In Jersey City, schools superintendent Marcia Lyles said the new five-year program, the Jersey City Leadership Institute, will have several parts. Starting in September, it will pay the salaries of five administrators who aspire to be principals as they take courses and shadow veterans on the job for a year, much as medical students study under seasoned doctors. The program will also subsidize coursework for up to 15 teachers learning to become administrators. "We need to have a firm pipeline of leaders who are ready to step in," said Ms. Lyles. Her district of roughly 28,000 students has 39 schools, including 16 whose low test scores triggered intensive interventions from the state education department. She said the professional development for the institute will be coordinated by a group called "The SUPES Academy," through a grant secured by the state education department. Ms. Lyles is looking for additional donors for the institute; the proposal carried a $8.9 million price tag. The donors have financed education projects for years. Mr. Tepper is the founder of Appaloosa Management, a hedge-fund investment firm based in Short Hills, N.J. His partner in supporting the institute is Alan Fournier of Summit, who used to work at Appaloosa and now runs Pennant Capital Management. In 2011 both set up Better Education for Kids Inc., an advocacy group largely in line with Gov. Chris Christie's education agenda, sparking critics to complain about donors' power to shape policy. Better Education for Kids pushed for the 2012 New Jersey TEACHNJ law, which made it harder for teachers to get tenure and keep it. It also tied teacher ratings partly to test scores?an evaluation method criticized by many teachers who call it unfair and unreliable. The organization also backed candidates across the state running for school board, city council and mayoral seats. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/S ... 04579580521345834670.html
Posted on: 2014/5/27 4:54
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